Robin Sharma is a passionate and committed
speaker who shares several of his thoughts pro bono. Amongst various teachers
of management and coaches of leadership, there is probably no one else who
renders his advice freely in both transactional and monetary senses of the
term. He also rather walks the talk. It is not uncommon for him to make and
release videos of his teachings even when he is on tours. In a recent
multi-country tour, for example, he has released a video (The Princess + The
Bentley) on how to achieve success and remain successful through certain
precepts. While one may say that all of these constitute a carefully crafted
global brand building exercise, one cannot deny that there could be nuggets of
wisdom that could appeal to, and influence, persons with an open mind.
Interestingly, Robin seems to believe that
activities which do not add value in terms of personal and professional success
need not, and should not, be performed. For him, intellectualizing one’s mind
is more value adding than entertaining it. He, therefore, comments in the
recent video that rich people have large televisions while successful people
have large libraries. It is, of course, a moot point if success and richness
are not correlated with each other! He even goes to the extent of rebuking
Angry Birds game watching although viewed from another angle Angry Birds is a
stupendous example of how creativity can result in great success in today’s
Internet driven world. Be that as may, the author of this blog post felt that
three of his teachings in his recent video resonate well with his own views.
Using time
Robin says, not merely in the latest video
but in many of his others, that every moment of time is precious. According to
him, the value of time is realized by a person when he or she has a purpose in
life. Without purpose, one may seem to be doing many things but more often than
not they could all constitute nothing but a meandering way of life. Very
recently, history has been made by Telugu (an Indian regional language)
director, S S Rajamouli when he completed the most magnificent and expensive
movie epic “Baahubali” and released in over 4000 screens globally to rave
reviews. Anyone who tracks his directorial life can see the purpose in his life
of being differentiated and distinctive in terms of each of his directorial
ventures to date. Importantly, each has been more unique than the previous one.
Again very recently, another Indian made
history when Sania Mirza won the Wimbledon’s Women’s Doubles title. Her life
too was one of purpose, from the time she displayed her tennis prowess in
regional tournaments. Time is a great enabler and calibrator of continuous
improvement. A purpose as great as scaling the Mount Everest cannot be accomplished
in a day; rather it requires continuous efforts and improvements, day after
day. Each morning and each evening, we need to appreciate what we set out to achieve
and what we have achieved, respectively. A mighty production like Baahubali may
take two years to make but the whole process has an embedded higher purpose and
ceaseless mastery. Time is a silent enabler and relentless critique of our
purposefulness in life. There can be no better mirrors for transformation than
a calendar and clock!
Lasting learning
Robin says, very rightly so, that one can
never finish with learning in one’s life. This is what Indian scriptures teach
us too. Continuous learning and unceasing practice lead to mastery but mastery
has no limits. The last year’s neurosynaptic chip or the latest 7 nm chip of IBM
chip demonstrates how new and nano technologies have provided tremendous
computing push to chips. Apparently, and in reality, there exist no limits or
boundaries to knowledge. While certain fundamental laws could be immutable and
timeless, experimentation and development would result in continuous new
learning streams. Continuous learning leads to all-round benefits, even as it
ushers in new ways of doing things and makes a few redundant, if not obsolete.
As Japanese society demonstrates, taking personal and round the clock care of impaired
elderly is a must but the task can now well be performed by humanoid robots,
programmed for the purpose.
Learnings may not always be new. In fact,
several lifetime lessons may simply be embedded in oneself without immediate
deployment. One must be thoughtful and mindful as well as introspective and
reflective to rediscover, revisit and redeploy them as new occasions demand. Learnings
become virtuous when they are reinforced by neural triggering processes. For example,
this blog post itself is triggered by Robin’s video, triggering a combination
of Robin’s teachings with author’s own beliefs. The ability to keep mind free,
as Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore held, is an important facet of continuous
learning that lasts a lifetime. It is left to the individuals to as to how open
one would keep one’s mind free to be able to absorb continuously learnings even
as one is required to being decisive.
Humble mastery
Mastery brings a rare capability and
recognition to masters as they are recognized to be distinctly superior in
their field or craft. Yet, masters who are humble have consistently won better
acceptance than masters who are egoistic or arrogant. Robin holds that
arrogance spells failure to masters. The concept of humble mastery is important
as mastery brings name and fame which could lead to certain egoistic states in
masters. Here, the awareness that as with learning there is really no end to
mastery could make masters feel humble. Also, masters being in the company of
other masters or coaching bright disciples who could be shining new angles on
existing knowledge could help masters stay humble.
Mastery over the domain has to be accompanied
by mastery over one’s self for ultimate humility. As ancient Indian scriptures
say, the capability of Sthita Prajna, as defined by Lord Krishna in the epic
Bhagavatgita, connotes a stable wisdom that is primed by an ability to control
oneself by inner thoughts and be unmoved by either attraction or repulsion as
well as by happiness or remorse is the ultimate state of self-control. While
mastery in a domain could be a purpose, mastery over one’s own self is also an
essential purpose of life. Humility as a trait is a good shadow to have for one’s
personality even as it evolves over several learnings of life.
More sharing
Like Robin Sharma does, this author shares
several of his perspectives on his weekly blog post cadence. Not all would be felt
relevant by all and for all situations. Nevertheless, the author believes that the
more one shares intellectually the more the society benefits collaboratively. There
would be anecdotal hyperboles occasionally like the sales manager of Bentley
cars flying to Volkswagen factory to get a paint that is an exact replica of
the world’s only one unique nail polish possessed by the princess. As with all
anecdotes, the underlying moral is more important than the visible message! So
is it with all passionate and positive initiatives of perspective sharing in the
author’s Strategy Musings!
Posted by Dr CB Rao on July 12, 2015
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