Looking Inward

It was a warm Saturday afternoon as I recollected my good old days when I was a travelling salesman, filling in orders from my channel partners spread over six Indian states. Getting the channels to place their requirements was such a different method then. There were no online tracks, no website, no emails, no CRM. Life was purely on the streets.

Today; it is different. Your bosses know the product consumption data online. Emails are automatically sent upon reaching threshhold stock and partners just have to agree. Logistics is automated. Money transaction is at the speed of the ‘enter’ key. Everything is ‘instant’.

There have been revolutionary changes around us in the business world which have fundamentally shifted the way our society operates. Fear has always driven us, but today it is waning. We are getting tuned to terror attacks and bomb blasts as being part of life. These changes have a profound effect on the business scene as we know it. Today we do not fear the prospects of not having a regular income. Several generations have been born to parents afraid of losing their jobs and raised in the illusion of ‘job security’. I have already touched upon the topic (elsewhere in my blog) of how we create ‘illusions’. These illusions have become fundamental to our way of thinking. Yet, there never was such a thing as job security. Similarly, the idea that ‘trade secrets’ can protect your business has had its day. Businesses are making their internal workings public, so that other businesses may copy them and increase the overall demand thereby increasing the market size.

The growth and development of technology is driving this revolutionary change. However, the change in human attitude is happening at a much slower pace. Mankind is changing its world faster than it can change itself. The internet is expanding by leaps and bounds, but it is a relative few who are taking advantage of the possibilities. We see today how native Bangaloreans feel disconnected with the growth and the changing culture of Bangalore around them. Pune is no exception. So is the case in many cities. The phenomenal growth has widened the gap  in society between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.

‘Trustworthiness’ as a virtue has been redefined. In fact, ‘trust’ has been the very foundation of business since the beginning, but it has been maligned as a business tool. We have tried to protect ourselves with lengthy contracts and due diligence investigations, and we squander away a lot of time, effort and profit in ensuring these processes.

‘Fear – our most common emotion – prevents a lot of logical action which otherwise we should take during business. The strange thing is, most of our fears have no real basis. The things we are most afraid of are usually simply imagination. “What will happen if I transfer funds to my family in another country and they do not receive it in time?” Well, why would they not? If you have hired a good service, they certainly will deliver. They will want to engage them again and again and not lose you to their competitor!

We conjure up in our minds all sorts of disasters that might happen and we stall decisions. We complicate our processes and remain paralysed and petrified. This is not new to us. We all experience fear at one time or another and we know that the only true way to overcome fear is to confront it. This is crucial to success.

The reason to take up this thought process on my blog is to highlight the fact that one cannot overcome his fears if he does not have the tools to gain confidence. These tools are never accumulated overnight, but are acquired gradually through hard work and persistence. A business manager would use all his skills in operations management and MIS to remain in his driver’s seat in the organization. A sales person in a tough market will bank on his networking skills to tide over the tough times. A real estate investor will use his market research skills to hunt for the right estate to invest in. The tools are endless and yet new ones are discovered every now and then.

The bottomline is “Keep your selves upgrading continually in all potential areas. A person who rests today will only ensure that he leads a restless life later”.

In my career, I was fortunate to work with many dynamic CEOs. One of them had asked me once, “How much do you spend every month on upgrading yourselves?” This question has had a terrific impact on me in my life.

Today, I ask the same question to my colleagues and I feel saddened by their responses. TV, music, fastfood, movies and other distractions have taken over the top positions on their priority lists. I have often landed in long conversations with my colleagues on this topic. If they happen to read this blog post, I would still remind them – “You cannot escape fear and insecurity in your life. If you want to deal with it, expand your learning and gain the confidence of doing things independently. Your expenditure on collecting these tools would be the best investment you would have ever done in your life. No merchant banker or stock market broker will ever tell you this!.”

I have made it a point to repeat this to my children regularly. I can now tell them to read this post…

Will continue soon…

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