Remembrance: the Source of Success

 The Fortnight

I had a very intense two week period planning for an event we held last week, and the week proceeding it was a spent with some of the senior leadership visits from the UK, Asia and the US. Many aspects of my routine suffered as a result from diet, to sleep, to training. My diet was more based on eating out albeit at top end restaurants, my sleep was cut to almost half of what I normally have and need, and my training frequency was limited to the weekends and at best once in the week. The two periods of “busy-ness” were however very different. For the large event we held, it required my complete absorption, at all times, and was quite intense and full of unexpected events happening. The set of senior leadership visits were less intense, more entertaining, and all very much planned. Though the negative impact on my training routine, sleep, and diet were similar in both weeks, my ability and performance during the Muay Thai sessions was markedly better after the second period than the first. Analysing why, led to some quite profound realisations around remembrance that have implications in whatever fields we work in, or even operate in.
 

Different impacts

During the first week, due to the absorption, I certainly couldn’t take care of the “gross” things like diet, sleep, or training, and also on a “subtle” level, mentally I was 100% focused on the event and securing its success, at all costs. During the leadership visit, whilst at a gross level I had to commit, on a subtle level I was thinking of my training, I was visualizing the moves. Anything I’d see at head height I would visualize certain moves at that height. When I would walk, I would remember the forward step motion, and when I would sit down I would remember the lower postures. Whilst physically engaged and active, I would have plenty of opportunity to remember. When I went to the Muay Thai session, I was so eager to perform the moves on the pads, with the gloves, with my trainers; because I had been remembering it. After the first week however, when I returned to the Centre, it was a terrible struggle. It almost felt like starting over; because I was not remembering.
 

A spirit of remembrance

When we have a reporting chain in the workplace, unless we remember what we need to deliver, and the way it needs to be delivered also, there is every chance we will just go with the flow, and forget those things. This will lead to a number of mark downs by our seniors. It is not a leadership quality to forget collective aspirations and let scope and time of our activities to creep up in a way that we’re not conscious of; we must continually remember, and address the things we agree with our seniors in order to be successful. Unless of course there are opportunities to innovate which achieve those same goals and more in a way that is acceptable and bonafide, and done with integrity. If we are entrepreneurs, it can be a struggle to operate in the kinds of economic circumstances we see today all over the world. If we do not continually remind ourselves the reasons we’re doing what we’re doing, the levels of motivation will inevitably drop and negativity may also creep in.
 

The magic of remembrance

Remembrance is most powerful, it is born of thought, which is born of consciousness. The more we train our consciousness to be focused, the more we will find noble, realistic and ambitious thoughts arising. In the Vedic scriptures it says that the single most important thing is to remember the Supreme Person, and never forget Him. Of hundred of thousands of lines of deep scripture, this is the fountainhead of all teachings; Always remember God, and never forget Him. Ones success at school and in the early stages of their education also comes down to remembrance in exams of all those things that have been taught. Muhammad Ali said, the fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. Remembrance is a choice, and choice depends on our desire. So, how much do we want to be successful?

The Ingredients of Success

When the Cat is away…

I had the privilege to go for dinner this week with some of the leaders of our European business, and they had some real gems of experience to share. The Managing Partner said, the first stage is to know your weakness, and yes, we all have them. The second stage is to hire people around you who are strong in your weak areas. Then you have a chance of succeeding. This is not a new principle, it has been followed to success for many millennia. I was also fortunate to once meet a monk called Govinda Prabhu. He explained that in the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata, the virtuous brothers, the Pandavas, also exhibited this dynamic, albeit in a relative sense. They were all virtuous and had an abundance of good qualities, but some were particularly strong in certain areas. Yuddhistira Maharaj, the elder of the brothers was extremely righteous. For him, righteousness was dearer to him than his life. On numerous occasions, his brothers would complain and say that they had more than sufficient grounds and reasons to wage war, and he would always decline and speak of the benefits of the way of peace, and need for tolerance. Now, in explaining some of these principles, Govinda Prabhu explains how both these elements are critical to success. He said that without the cause of righteousness, it is pointless to act, because you are simply setting yourself up to fail. At the same time, righteousness, cannot be upheld if there is weakness. The strength and to some extent aggression that the younger brothers, particularly Arjuna and Bhima bought, were necessary to uphold the righteousness and direction that Yuddhistira Maharaj bought. Sometimes we see this in corporations. At the top, the leadership is often very nice, with excellent principles, and sometimes at the middle management levels we see a style that may seem at conflict with these values. However, sometimes, in order to ‘get things done,’ a more aggressive mood may be necessary. Certainly in an environment where when the cat is away, the mice are at play so to speak.

 

Borrowing from the Future

Youthfulness, dynamism, freshness, ambitiousness. These are the qualities people like to see in leaders. But are they a physical attribute? Not necessarily. The greatest leaders often become great because they imbibe these. Nothing can stop the hands of time, but at the same time, those with these qualities, who are conscious of their benefits, continually learn and deepen their experience with them, and therefore constantly being conscious of them, they don’t forget them. They stay youthful and fresh at heart, although of course, externally they may be getting older. When I was a graduate, the global CTO of a company sponsored one of my projects. He used to always be so excited to hear of my developments and ideas. The more experiences I have, and the more people I meet, I realise more and more how great he was. He had these qualities, which had stayed with him over time. He clearly had experience with these concepts and applied them very enthusiastically. The CEO of our company addressed our Partners at a conference where they were being congratulated on achieving Partnership, saying that he would recommend a particular mindset on their achieving Partnership. He said they should not think of themselves as having “done it” and now  being the King’s of the Castle so to speak. Rather that they should think of the experience as borrowing time from the leaders of the future. In this way, one can be very forward looking, always leave lasting legacies, and find life actually quite light, and free flowing as they free themselves of the heavy weights of viewing themselves as part of a constitution if you like. This lightness is what paves way for achieving big.

 

The Ingredients of Success

The concepts cited above, you don’t see everyone around you think this way. It’s not quite normal. Why isn’t everyone thinking like this? Because only very few people become successful. It is not normal to be very successful. That’s why not everyone embodies such principles. But not all successful people think like this, I hear you say. We do not have the lense to analyse what bought someone success as there may be some things we cannot see with the naked eye. There may be a host of things a person may have done that bought them success, which we were not there to witness or see. Some of this may be planning, and training the mindset, which normally takes place not in the workplace. We don’t see this. There are numerous other reasons one may be successful, but we should look for the universal causes of success, and try to follow those. What the ancient Indian scriptures have to say about success, or opulence, or power as it would be called in corporate terms, is that it is born of austerity, or sacrifice. They also say it is based on virtuous behaviour. So we can understand that success must involve hard work, and virtue. One without the other, will not be successful in the corporate environment.

Riding the Wave: Using Momentum

The rebound

As I walked down the harbour one sunny morning this week, as usual I looked at the glistening water, which is always very uniform looking as there is very little harbour traffic at that time and therefore less movement in the water. I stopped to absorb the sight for some time. I saw about midway between where I was standing and Hong Kong Island, there was a relatively large wave in the middle; perhaps a foot or two high. As I was facing the Sun, I first thought it is unlikely to be a wave, especially when the waters were so still. So I looked harder. It was definitely a wave, and was moving at a very steady pace, and not reducing in size at all. I watched it continue to come towards where I was standing. Underneath me was a very heavy duty barrier, like a wall. I was anticipating what would happen when it came to the barrier. The barrier was at a 90 degree angle to the wave, it was not like rocks, where the waves would smash onto the rocks and that would be it. This would be a head on collision if you like. As the wave approached the wall, it was as though it completely rebounded off the barrier, which was like a wall. It hit the barrier at a diagonal angle, and rebounded in the opposite diagonal direction. The barrier had not broken the wave, merely redirected it in the opposite direction, towards Hong Kong Island. The wave then continued to the Island, and was then dissipated by the wooden posts that were at the ferry pier.

 

Red tape

Working in Hong Kong has been a fascinating experience. There are certainly some aspects that are behind due to the lack of scale here, and it is sometimes painful starting things up as there aren’t mature processes in place to help. However, sometimes this lack of maturity works in your favour. With maturity often times comes complacence. The longer a process is in place, the more people become ‘sticky’, less efficient, more prone to politics, and guarding their territory often comes into play. This is often referred to as the organisational ‘Red tape’ which can hinder progress, and can be quite simply irrational. At times here, I’ve found it many times easier to get things done, and at these times I’ve often been in shock thinking, Really? Can it be that easy? Indeed it can be, and it is believable when you’re in the right place, at the right time, with the right people. When you relieve yourself and those around you of politics and red-tape, and have an environment that is progressive, you can build some real momentum. This is the whole principle of ‘growth markets,’ their momentum is not checked by the conventional barriers that hinder growth in a mature market. If handled in the right way, the momentum can be kept up. And how do we handle it in the right way, so that it is sustainable? Through strong values, through enforcing integrity, that the team is greater than any individual, and that we work for a collective good. Through these values, the momentum can be sustained. The values are like the strong barrier, that simply handles the force of the wave, and retains all its momentum to move forward again. If we lack values, we cripple the wave of momentum. All our effort will be smashed into tiny pieces, like the wave smashing into the rocks, leaving nothing to go back, but just to disperse tamely.

 

The result of discipline

So we have a choice; how do we respond to situations where we have favourable circumstances around us? Do we continue to work hard, to build on the momentum, or do we become lazy and complacent, and take it for granted. The more we work hard, the better placed we will be for when times get tough. They may not get tough, but chances are they will at some stage. At that stage, all of the discipline we have been cultivating, will come into use, and we will be able to use this to build our next base in the continual cycles that ensue in our journeys to success.