Most times as professionals we focus all our energies in trying to make the right decision and go about with data collection and checking out various scenarios before coming to what we believe is a right way ahead.
But more important than this many a time is to develop the ability to make a decision work. MAKING THE DECISION RIGHT.
The average person is tentative and seeks acknowledgement and approbation externally for things that they chose or acted upon. Let’s say if they chose a vacation to Masai Mara, Kenya over a Europe tour then it’s important that friends and relatives stamp their approval on their specialized choice of holiday.
Some years ago I saw a movie called “The Joneses” on one of the longer flights and this movie precisely talks about this need for affiliation and how a company markets its luxury brands in rich neighbourhoods in the US. So you have a seemingly perfect family of a husband, wife and two kids (all of them BTW are employed by the company to perform a role and actually carry sales targets!!) that move into a swanky home in the neighbourhood and who use the best clothes, cosmetics, perfumes, food items, electronic gadgets etc etc. And by capitalizing on the weakness of their neighbours they induce them to also conform and buy the same brands and upscale. The company benefits in the end.
This is not to say that everyone is unsure and tentative. Many of the older generation who were more grounded, have always demonstrated this tendency of making the decision right.
My parents migrated back to India from Burma in the year 1968 because Burma was nationalized and there was to be no English medium education from that point on. They had a wonderful life there. Money, car with driver, power….everything! And my dad had to start all over again in Mumbai at the age of 40; traveling by BEST bus and getting used to life without many of the luxuries. But I think we were very happy despite the perceived lack. When I speak to my wife and her parents the story is similar. I am sure there are similar circumstances in all your parents', grand parents’ lives as well. Having made a decision, folks of that generation worked to make the decision right.
This also meant talking up the market!
Let me give you an example. My father in law retired from MTNL in the early 90s and since he was an upright officer who had by then married off two daughters, he had just enough capital to buy a small 1 BHK apartment at a suburb called Badlapur in Mumbai. Now if you are moving from your company quarters at prime Wadala to a distant Badlapur the effect can be quite dramatic and traumatic as well. But my FIL handled the move extremely well. He would not miss a single chance to say how wonderful the air at Badlapur was, or talk about the abundance of water and the availability of fresh vegetables. And what about the train ride? Well it’s a mere 45 minutes on a fast train from Ghatkopar you see. And the crush of people on the platform and in the trains? Oh, where do I need to go during peak times nowadays? Badlapur is a paradise for me.
Things got to such a stage with his talking up the market on Badlapur that at one point I actively considered buying a flat at Badlapur. :-)
As the head of a unit, whether it’s a family, a project team, a division or a company, the ability to make the decision right is a very key ability. And one of the tools to this end is the ability to consistently talk up the market.
The contrary skill that you don’t want to indulge in is talking down others’ market.
Have you noticed your friends and relatives that have migrated to the US, Canada, Australia etc visit India and whine about the pollution, traffic, potholes and corruption here? I am sure you know the types don’t you?
Again migrating to a new country and making it work takes a lot of doing and it takes an exceptional quality as a head of the family to make it successful. So you will have to grant it to your relatives when they talk about the wonderful schooling system, the unbeatable social security system, the spectacular houses they live in and the great weekend breaks they take and so on. They are entitled to talking up the market and the key beneficiaries are their own family members. In fact I actually join in the eulogy along with them and make everyone around feel even better.
They deserve my support for all the Diwalis, Holis, Ganpatis, Navratris etc that they miss in India year on year; and the numerous weddings and functions and the impromptu pilgrimage visits. I always add saying that these functions are done even better and with more fervour in their respective countries than in India and they agree with me whole heartedly and feel a lot better. It’s my gift to them and I do this genuinely because I realize it takes a lot to make the adjustment and more importantly make the decision right.
Which brings me to my pet theory –
If you plot “Happiness Quotient” (if there is such a thing) on the X axis against Time on the Y axis then I believe that each one of us is born with a unique graph that we can perhaps alter only with spiritual effort. Ordinary mortals like us live and die against that graph. So at any point in Time ‘t’ your ‘Happiness Quotient’ is a given ‘H’. So if H is like an earthquake 7 on a Richter scale it does not matter if it hits America or India isn’t it?
It’s kind of simplistic and certainly not meant to dissuade effort for progress. But it’s useful to have the perspective.
Do write in with your thoughts and views!!
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