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Dear Wiproite,
My own successes and
setbacks along the way have taught me some lessons.
I wish to share them with
you and hope you will find them useful.
Lesson No. 1: Be careful to ask what you want. You may get it
What this means is
that do not ask too little either of yourself or the others around you. What you
ask is what you get. When I look back at the time when I joined Wipro, I was 21.
If you ask me whether I thought that Wipro would grow so by someday, the honest
answer is that I did not. But neither did I think it would not. We constantly
stretched ourselves to higher and higher targets. Sometimes, it seemed possible,
sometimes fanciful and sometimes plain insane. But we never stopped raising
limits.
And we got a lot more
than what we bargained for.
Lesson No. 2: Respond, don’t react
Always be aware of your
emotions and learn to manage them. There is a huge difference between people who
react impulsively and those who can disengage themselves and then respond at
will. By choosing to respond differently, we can prevent another person from
controlling our behaviour.
I remember a small story
that illustrates this well. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude
Customer. Every morning, the Customer would walk by, refuse to return the
greeting, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The
vendor would pick up the money, smile politely and say, “Thank you, Sir.” One
day, the vendor’s assistant asked him, “Why are you always so polite with him
when he is so rude to you? Why don’t you throw the newspaper at him when he
comes back tomorrow?” The vendor smiled and replied, “He can’t help being rude
and I can’t help being polite. Why should I let his rude behaviour dictate mine?
Lesson No. 3: Intuitions are important for making decisions
It is important to
realize that our intuition is a very important part of decision making. Many
things are recorded by our subconscious. Use both sides of the brain. Even that
is not enough. Some decisions need the use of the heart as well. When you use
your mind and heart together, you may get a completely new and creative answer.
Lesson No. 4: Learn to work in teams
The challenges ahead are
so complex that no individual will be able to face them alone. While most of our
education is focused in individual strength, teaming with others is equally
important. You cannot fire a missile from a canoe. Unless you build a strong
network of people with complimentary skills, you will be restricted by your own
limitations.
Globalisation has brought people of different origins, different upbringing and
different cultures together. Ability to become an integral part of a
cross-cultural team will be a must for your success.
Lesson No. 5: Never lose your zest and curiosity
All the available
knowledge in the world is accelerating at a phenomenal rate. The whole world’s
codified knowledge base (all documented information in library books and
electronic files) doubled every 30 years in the early 20th century. By the
1970s, the world’s knowledge base doubled every seven years. Information
researchers predict that by the year 2010, the world’s codified knowledge will
double every 11 hours.
Remaining on top of what you need to know will become one of the greatest
challenges for you.
The natural zest and curiosity for learning is one of the greatest drivers for
keeping updated on knowledge. A child’s curiosity is insatiable because every
new object is a thing of wonder and mystery. The same zest is needed to keep
learning new things. I personally spend at least 10 hours every week on reading.
If I do not do that, I will find myself quickly outdated.
Lesson No. 6: Put yourself first
This does not mean being
selfish. Nor does it mean that you must become so full of yourself that that you
become vain or arrogant. It means developing your self confidence. It means,
developing an inner faith in yourself that is not shaken by external events. It
requires perseverance.
It shows up in the
ability to rebound from a setback with double enthusiasm and energy. I came
across a recent Harvard Business review which describes this very effectively :
“No one can truly define
success and failure for us – only we can define that for ourselves. No one can
take away our dignity unless we surrender it. No one can take away our hope and
pride unless we relinquish them. No one can steal our creativity, imagination
and skills unless we stop thinking. No one can stop us from rebounding unless we
give up.”
And there is no way we
can take care of others, unless we take care of ourselves.
Lesson No. 7: Have a broader social vision
While there is every
reason to be excited about the future, we must not forget that we will face many
challenges as well. By 2015, we will have 829 million strong workforce. That
will make India home to 18% of global working-age population. The key challenge
is to transform that into a globally competitive work-force.
This will not be an easy
task. Despite all the rapid economic expansion seen in recent years, job growth
in India still trails the rise in working-age population. It is important that
gains are spread across this spectrum, so that the divide between the employed
and the under-employed, is minimised. Education is a crucial enabler that can
make this growth as equitable as possible.
Lesson No. 8: Play to win
Playing to win is not the
same as playing dirty. It is not about winning all the time or winning at any
cost. Playing to win is having the intensity to stretch to the maximum and
bringing our best foot forward.
Winning means focusing on
the game. The score board tells you where you are going, but don’t concentrate
too much on it. If you can focus on the ball, the scores will move by
themselves. I recently came across this story that I thought I would share with
you
A group of alumni, highly
established in their careers, got together to visit their old university
professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and
life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen. He
returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain,
plastic, glass, crystal – some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite –
and asked them to help themselves to coffee.
When all the students had
a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:
“If you noticed, all the
nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap
ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, you were
more concerned about comparing your cups but what you really wanted was coffee.
Yet you spent all your time eyeing each other’s cups.
Now if life is coffee,
then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools
to contain Life, but cannot really change the quality of Life. Sometimes, by
over concentrating on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.”
I wish you all every
success in your career and your life.
[Source : www.wipro.com]
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