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No Need to Re-invent the wheel

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No Need to Re-invent the wheel
Pramod Batra

Akbar was a good boss. On the one hand he had Birbal as his advisor and on the other he had Phannay Khan, his wife's brother. Each boss has a range of advisors. He has to match his talents with the talents of his advisors. He has to keep an attitude of suspended conclusion till he has heard a variety of opinions, and very often he has to ask stupid questions to get intelligent answers. He is patient while analyzing. He reads between the lines. He uses simple tools. He asks simple probing questions. His vocabulary is simple. After listening to everyone, he uses his own commonsense. A comparative study of Akbar the Great and pragmatist Aurangzeb will show that while Akbar was ahead of his time by nearly three centuries, Aurangzeb trailed behind his age by at least half as many hundred years. Every discipline has two parts -the essential, and the inessential. Akbar, a lover of books, mostly through his Navratnas, focused on the essentials of his job and was stress-free throughout his rule. Aurangzeb was always stressful, and in his will the opening was, "I was helpless in life and I am departing helpless" Read a book on Akbar the Great to be stress-free. It's simple. Attitudes are important -even for emperors.

Between you and me, we are luckier than Akbar the Great! Akbar did not have the advantage of many books. Today we have books on everything and everything in books. Somebody has already invented the wheel, so to speak, and we have to merely apply our common sense and improvise to custom -build the vast store of recorded information and wisdom for our own use. We managers read fewer books than we should. How many books have you read this week, this month, this year? How many books does a doctor or lawyer read per day, per month or per year? The answer is -quite a few. Reading newspapers and magazines may be good, but it cannot replace reading books. Make books your weapons to win the Kurukshetra of everyday life.

Compare Akbar's days with today: Management requirements have remained the same: nearly 86% of the problems at home and at the office can be solved by good management. Management books (on attitudes, goals, getting along with people…) will open new vistas of thinking. What you may experience in six days of reading a good book may take six years, or sixty, to learn on the shop floor. Believe me. In my opinion, spending time and money on books can be the best investment that managers and organizations can ever make. Of course, bookish knowledge without work experience and exposure is useless. But for every one of us facing 'ground realities' everyday books can surely help give a headstart. Widening your perspectives and stimulating your mind are better ways to become an Akbar -like boss and to retain the assistance of Birbal -type subordinates.

LOOK AT YOUR LIFE
Now, the time has come to sum it up. I look at life like this: Everyday we are making ourselves worth-less or worth-more! These are the findings of my research, though my son, Vijay, gave me the clue. Look at your life. If you want to be miserable or less happy, compare yourself with others. Or compare your near and dear ones -your husband, wife, son, daughter -with others. Or compare your circumstances -your house, drawing room -with others. The exercise is guaranteed to drag you down into a morass, if it doesn't give you utterly hollow feelings of superiority. Every night, every Monday, every 1st or whenever you like -do a self -audit. Are you becoming worth -less or worth -more? Not in money terms alone! What about your self-respect, knowledge, your name and fame, your being helpful to others, your anger, revengefulness, selfishness and maybe 36 more… buddy, you are answerable to yourself. Do these exercises in your mind. This is your Kurukshetra. This is where you can be your own Ford or Iacocca, Rama or Ravana.

By the way, Ravana only committed one error, and that too he could have corrected -but his Rajputani moustache came in the way! History is not bunkum, like Ford said mistakenly, but is loaded with pearls of wisdom. Moreover, in your own mind you can make your own custom -built pearls. How? Let something which bothers you, which just does not feel right, simmer on your rear mental burners in your subconscious mind (it is six times bigger than your front metal burners) Give it a chance to produce an idea. Don't be in a hurry. Ideas will come and ideas will go but then, at a certain moment, you will become Archimedes and feel the 'Eureka'… you will have found it. That is the life of agony and ecstasy, buddy, and that is when you will be on the way to making yourself worth-more and worth-more and worth-more. Yes, very tough. But when you are tough on yourself, life will be easy on you. Again, it's a matter of attitude. How do you look at life?

Life is full of problems. You can magnify the problems. Or you can reduce them to brain -teasers and solve them one by one. You can become the conqueror of life. One never conquers the mountain, but rather oneself. Again, it depends upon your attitudes. You must believe in the fact that when you were born, you were born to win. Your parents had dreams of and for you. All you have to do is never give up and prepare to win every hour, every day, every week. Not by waiting to do great things greatly, but by doing small, small things greatly.

You always have choices to make the other person happy or unhappy -the difference is only to do a little bit extra. Doing a bit extra, every time and any time, becomes a habit, an attitude. Repetition is the mother of learning. This determines your performance, which in turn determines your future. Your past has brought you to what you are today your future lies in your attitude today.

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