Indelible Indomitable Spirit

"I was with God, and I was with the devil. They fought, and God won". These are the words of Mario Sepulveda, one of the 33 Chilean miners who was trapped underground for 69 days at San Jose Copper mine in the Atacama Desert.

As we wind down 2010, many of us reflect on what the year has been about for us personally and for the world in general. I was searching for the world story that would underline the year for me. As I looked back through the newspaper pages, it was beginning to strike me as an ugly year. Some stories made me hang my head in shame. Some made me worry for the future. Most stories showed how conflict ridden this world had become, how mean and petty we had become. And then I regained hope as I remembered this remarkable story of Super Mario and the 32 other miners, of their resilience, of their defiance, of their indelible indomitable spirit. Mario said " We were swallowed into the bowels of hell but we have been reborn....." And then I realized, that this is what 2010 has been about in many ways. It has been about the indelible indomitable human spirit!!

So, I would easily vote for this Chilean story as my world story of 2010 that I want to remember and keep alive. This story of rescue that has many stories within. Stories of love, stories of hope, stories of leadership. The story of love is of Esteban Rojas, the eighteenth miner to see the light of day. He proposed to his sweetheart of many years from the mine below. "When I get out, let's buy the dress and we'll get married". The story of hope is of  Ariel Ticona Yanez, the thirty second miner to come out from darkness. His wife had a baby girl when he was trapped in the mine. A baby girl who he saw after one month of her birth, a girl who he named Esperanza. How fitting that "Esperanza" means "Hope" in Spanish. The story of leadership is of Luis Urza, the last miner to reach safety. Urza was the shift foreman and he had to keep the 33 miners together through first 17 days of darkness with absolutely no contact to the outer world. He had to lead in extraordinary times. And like a true captain, he was the last man out. And not just these, there are many other stories of courage, stories of teamwork. Of Mario Gomez, the oldest miner at 63 who suffered from silicosis. Of Jimmy Sanchez, the youngest miner at 19 who is claustrophobic. Most of all, of "Los 33" who worked together as a team. Quoting Mario again, " Each day a different person took a bad turn. Every time that happened, we worked as a team, to try to keep the morale up. It was important to keep faith".

Most importantly, this is a story of the human spirit, of perseverance, of resilience. Underlining this is Edison Pena, the twelfth man to come to the surface, who ran the New York marathon within a month of his 69 day ordeal. Each coming back to life in their own different way, "Los 33" is my world story of 2010. Keep the faith, be resilient and shine in the glow of the indelible indomitable spirit this coming year. Happy 2011!!

A Speck of Cosmic Dust

I am fortunate to be the alumnus of a prestigious business school in the country. As you might imagine, folks land up in business school so that they can become the CEOs of the future, so that they become the hot shot investment bankers, so that they can become. Most folks who come to business school have big ambition. Most folks are extremely driven towards success. And yes, there are some folks who already feel successful even before they have started. Some folks are already acting like CEOs. Some are already the hotshot investment bankers they intend to become. The place is full of ambition and achievement.

Going back to the time, we were in a frenzy to achieve our potential and to make it big in life. Between classes, library, project work, group assignments and house parties, we didn't have much time for anything else. But thankfully, the house parties gave us time to let our hair down and do the many foolish things that we would remember, laugh over for years to come. It gave us the time for unadulterated friendship, unadulterated by anything significant other than some spirits. It was also in such settings that some of the most heated debates on life and its significance took place. And it is here, in the midst of all this, that friendships were formed that last a very long time. Isn't it funny that you go to college to make a career, but more than anything else, you typically end up making lifelong friends.

I remember, today, one such friend. A friend who with one simple statement provided the antithesis to the whole ambition and achievement frenzy. It was in one of these house parties where the world was a haze. A complete haze of unclear and anxious ambition, at least for me. Everyone seemed to know what they wanted to become...everyone but me. I had to make up my mind because I need to be counted,  and you need ambition to be counted. There were probably a few others like me hiding behind their "I know what I want" facade. So, in the midst of all the budding CEOs and investment bankers, the mist of uncertainty began to rise. And that was around the time, that my dear friend imparted his Sufi wisdom and I was his ardent disciple.  He said to me, " We spend our time worrying about what we will become, about our future, our dreams. But really, while we might love to believe otherwise, in reality none of that is in your hands completely. Do your best and go with the flow. The world is not only about you. You are but just another speck of cosmic dust!!". While we treated that as comic relief to the stress of living a forced ambition, it was a statement that stayed through with me for a lifetime.

Every time I got a promotion, a newer bigger job or a simple pat on the back, it reminded me to not let it go to my head. Every time I got the blues, a problem at work or a talk-down from the boss, it reminded me again to not let the situation affect me. It provided and continues to provide perspective to most things. It shows your place in the grand scheme of things. It lets you take your ambition and your achievement a little less seriously. It reminds you that you are significantly insignificant or insignificantly significant, and either way that is not much of a difference. It helps you remain grounded. Thanks to my friend and philosopher for his all enduring perspective on life - a perspective that lightens the burden that ambition places on you. Yes truly, what are we but specks of cosmic dust?

Austerity for Posterity

Austerity!! I read in the papers is the most searched word on online dictionaries in 2010. This also shows that most folks until 2010 did not know what austerity means? It took the severe financial crisis of the last year to bring the word into prominence. In that sense, until recently, austerity was the most forgotten word in society. And I have more reasons than just online search statistics to believe that.

What does austerity mean? In today's financial mess, it means prudent fiscal discipline, be it countries or corporations. What does it mean to individuals like you and me? Again, in a financial sense, it is living within your means, not over leveraging and being prudent in your financial decisions. But, austerity is beyond financials. The dictionary explains austerity as plainness; freedom from adornment; severe simplicity. And that is all pervasive...it is about a way of life. You don't have to look far to see that way of life...remember the wonderful 70's? Remember the 70's when there was very little to go around .....when television was a luxury and the only way to get a decent perfume was from duty free shops. Remember the 70's when that same little was enough, when the same little resulted in lots of joy and happiness. Remember the 70's when you got all that you needed, not necessarily all that you wanted. Remember the 70's when your needs took precedence over your wants. Remember the 70's when desire was dangerous.

The world has now changed. Today, many more folks get what they want. The focus is so much more on the wants. Austerity is about changing that focus back to the needs. Every time you want something, it is about asking if you really need it. It is about travelling light through life. It is about shedding what we don't need rather than acquiring what we want. Don't take more than you need and there will be enough for everyone else. It is about a way of life not just for us, but to preserve for our future generations. It is about rediscovering joy through simplicity.....Austerity for Posterity!!!

Lies, little lies and the simple truth

Telling a lie is an art ? A straight faced innocent lie is art because not everyone can do it. That is probably how the folks who can carry it off end up feeling that they can get away with anything. When you look at all that has happened in the world lately..... The big scams, the collapse of the big firms, the shaming of the big celebrities, whatever it be. When you look deeper, it all probably started off with one little lie. Something that looked quite harmless at that time. And then it grew bigger and bigger and finally reached unmanageable proportions. It grew bigger because no one questioned it, corrected it.

I remember my childhood days when the little lies crept in. I was probably six or seven then. Were they really small lies or was it a child's imaginative mind? The line is unclear. But like most children who day-dream about becoming a big sportsman or the like, I had my little dreams too. I would dream about being that famous footballer. In those dreams of mine, I would be scoring the most glorious of goals, winning the closest of matches and lifting trophies of gold. Reality was of-course different. I was not the most gifted or natural footballer. I would not score the most glorious of goals or win the closest of matches...forget lifting that trophy of gold. After a while, I started loving the world of my imagination more than reality. So, I started talking about it. On my way back from school, I would tell my mom stories of my football heroics. It obviously looked too good to be true for my mom. She listened in a couple of times, but finally had to tell me that the stories were not tying up. She broke the news to me very subtly that it was not a good thing to lie. She told me in as many words that she would not tolerate lies. I felt ashamed. So, imagination stopped flirting with reality, the little dreams stayed in the mind and I stopped the little lie.

What might have happened if I had got away with those little lies? Who knows. But, I learnt early on that telling the lie risks getting caught out. I learnt early on the embarrassment of being caught telling a lie. I learnt early on that it was not done. However, there was another incident that reinforced this in my mind. I was a little older, maybe grade five and in those days it was a real privilege to carry a fountain pen to school. I had my own fountain pen and it was something I really treasured. One day I misplaced the pen and when my folks asked me where it was, I was scared that I had lost it. So, I spun some story about having given it to some friend who did not return it.... actually, another little lie. Again as fate would have it, soon after, my mom found the pen and realized that I had lied. This time it was clear to me that every-time I say a lie, I will get caught and that it was not worth it. My mom told me that whatever the circumstance, including in a situation of fear, it still makes sense to speak the truth. The truth might make you look bad, but the lie will make you look worse. The simple truth wins always over that little lie. That is a lesson I never forget all my life, something I share with my children. Really thank my mom for those early lessons on integrity...I can now sleep easy every night. In today's world, that is a blessing!!

Green vs Grey

"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." - I came across this quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery in Paulo Coelho's blog. It is true that children most times just cut through the layers of complication to show something simple, while grown-ups make things more complex than it needs to be. The latest example is climate change with the Kyoto protocol, the failed Copenhagen meeting and now with the Cancun summit. What is it actually about?


What is climate change actually about? Emission cuts? Deforestation? Redistribution of wealth and resources? From purely a newspaper and internet based ringside view, my sense is that it is about more than just climate change. It is economics. It is politics. It is about poverty. It is about wealth. It is about growth. It is about large corporations. It is about hungry farmers. It is about 195 countries with different compulsions and different opinions. It is negotiation. And is that what it should be? Should it not be simpler than that? Slow action on climate change would mean no economics, no politics, no wealth.... forget redistribution of that wealth. Slow action on climate change would mean slow death for a majority of the world's resources and countries. So, should we not cut through to the simple uncomplicated version. Look at climate change as just that. Look at climate change as preserving our green beautiful earth. Preserving it for our children.


I contrast the confusing signals from the Cancun summit to the relatively single-minded approach of a few girls who live in our neighborhood. These girls, my daughter included, have one simple agenda - to spread awareness about water conservation and a green environment. Their approach is pretty straightforward and they call themselves "green vs grey". If the world does not stay green, we have a grey future. So goes the logic. It can't get simpler than that. These little girls get it. But our grown-up climate change negotiators at Cancun? 


P.S: I saw this really powerful talk on Ted.com by Bill Ury. It talks about the third side in negotiations. Today's discussions on climate change are about contributions from developed, fast developing and poor countries. It is about who does how much and the focus shifts away from the actual peril at hand. At a time when it is a conflict between two sides, we should remind ourselves of the third side - our children and the future of this planet. Is that future green or does it remain grey? It is the big fight - Green vs Grey.


William Ury: The walk from "no" to "yes" | Video on TED.com

Bardo

I was at a workshop on managing change in organizations. Every organization goes through change of some sort or the other. In today's recessionary world or post recessionary world (I will let your optimism decide), there are many changing business models and large scale impact to folks. So, is change good or bad? Well, the cliche is that the only constant is change, that change is neutral. That is true for organizations and that is true for our lives as well.

In fact, this workshop talked about four stages that repeat in every organization's life-cycle. The initial stages or the start-up mode, the ongoing operation and growth mode, the white water mode or the troubled "in between" phase followed by the new resurgent phase. In a way, when you look at various companies, it is true that over a long period of time, it goes through this cycle. The big example for everything these days is Apple. So, let's look at the Apple example and you will see these phases including the resurgent phase with the launch of the iPod. Apple was reborn and resurrected itself in a new avatar....not a computer company any more. They removed the word "Computer" from Apple Computer in 2007.

I thought about this example and discussed with other participants in the workshop. I began to see parallels between this organizational theory and what I had read a few years earlier in a book, "The Tibetan book of living and dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche. This book talks about impermanence. It talks about preparing for the biggest change in our lives. The biggest change called Death. It talks about four stages or bardos. It talks about life and living, about death and dying, about the in-between times after death and finally, the becoming or the new life. One finds immense similarity in modern day organizational theories and age old spiritual theories. It reinforces both theories in my mind. Yes, both organizations and individuals go through the four bardos. In fact, mountains change shape, rivers dry up, icy continents start melting, stars burn out, everything undergoes change. Everything goes through the four bardos.

Preparing for each change is what life is about, be it in an organization or otherwise. Don't cling on to the old models, because you built them. Don't hang on to that old system because it served you well in the past. Don't hold on...change. I met a senior person who had, in the sixties or seventies, been part of a team that implemented the huge bank cheque sorter and reader machines. Now, he ran that whole department and this at a time when imaging and image based cheques were taking over from the sorter and reader machines. He mentioned to me that it was difficult to see what he had implemented as cutting edge solution back then was now being replaced. He found it difficult to digest and he loved the old system, yet, he had to move on to newer ways of doing things. Don't underestimate the pain of change, don't underestimate the feeling of loss, prepare for it. Understand the opportunities for transformation, for liberation that each bardo shows us and be ready for it.

Some things change, Most things don't

Last weekend, I was at our fifteen year alumni reunion. While I do stay in touch with some of my friends, there were many I had absolutely no contact with or at best, just on and off conversations. So, I enthusiastically signed up for the event as it was a great opportunity to reconnect. As the reunion date got closer, I began to have second thoughts about the whole event. Everyone was going to be much older, more mature and maybe too tame....that was a possibility. There was this lingering thought in my mind that it might turn into a boring gathering of middle aged folks, that it would become a forced meeting of folks who had become strangers to one other. People change, circumstances change, life changes. Things change...period.

And then, with that little iota of doubt, we all landed up at the reunion. Everyone did the formal hellos. Must admit that some hellos were not the result of instant recognition. People change and memories fade. We saw grey hair, receding hairlines, protruding bellies, widening girth.... Yes, people change and the external signs showed that most of us had. But then, it took just those few initial seconds, before things began to warm up again. We started recounting the old days and things were fast going into Action Replay mode.

The two days that followed after was an absolute blast from the past. Everyone slipped back into their "old form". The armchair philosophers still had their philosophy to show. The Sufi saints still had their cosmic theories to share. The Jim Morrisons had their music and mojo to flaunt. The conversation took a turn towards absolutely nothing of any significant relevance. The laughter grew louder. The magic reappeared. People change but not that much. Deep down, at the core of it all, the real person still resides. The real person does not disappear. At best it is latent, but in the company of old friends, it resurfaces. And resurface it did with a vengeance and all the taming that life had managed in the last fifteen odd years were lost. As the party went on, it grew wilder. Everyone was fifteen years younger now and probably, the only reminder of age for some folks were the creaking bones. It was just like we started right where we had left off fifteen years ago !!!

Well, really, not much changes. There were a few enthusiastic folks who made the reunion happen. Actually, when I think about it, it is the same enthusiastic bunch that made things happen back then too. And, one person in particular, Mr T pulled the logistics and all of it together. Our entire group can't thank him enough for that...he believed in the fact that this reunion was a great idea...had no doubts and made it happen. From skeptics like me, thank you for making it happen. I came back thinking.......Some things change, Most things don't. And, hey, that is a great feeling that will keep us going till our next reunion.

Enjoy the new high. Hapak, Hapak