Ramalinga Raju, Indira Gandhi and the metaphor of “Riding a tiger”

Mr. Ramalinga Raju, Chairman of Satyam, has written a letter about the sequence of events that led him to create and maintain inflated account books for his company for several years. What I found most surprising was the metaphor he used to describe the state of his mind. He writes:

What started as a marginal gap between actual operating profit and the one reflected in the books of accounts continued to grow over the years… Every attempt made to fill the gap failed. As the promoters hold a small percentage of equity, the concern was that poor performance would result in a take-over, thereby exposing the gap. It was like riding tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.

When I read this I was reminded of the description of a meeting between ex-Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi and a spiritual leader Jiddu Krishnamurti day before Indira Gandhi took off the emergency. The meeting is described in a biography: Indira Gandhi: A biography by Pupul Jaykar where Indira Gandhi describes the state of her mind:

I am riding on the back of a tiger…I do not mind the tiger killing me, but I do not know how to get off its back

Perhaps it starts with what Peter Senge calls a learning disability in Fifth Discipline: Illusion of taking charge in facing difficult problems. As Peter describes, what is typically meant by this is that we feel we should face to the difficult issues, stop waiting for someone else to do something, and solve problems before they grow into crises. All too often, proactiveness is reactiveness in disguise. True proactiveness comes from seeing how we contribute to our own problems.

Thin line between passion and obsession

Most useful lesson from the world camp: Vishwanathan Anand talked about his life in the past few years when the number 1 title was eluding him in an interview with Times of India. Vishy said, “Before Mexico (last September), I came close to the number one spot or the world title in 2005 and 2006 too. It didn’t happen. That is when I got my most useful lesson: If you obsess over something, you won’t get it. I went back to my play-chess-enjoy-it philosophy then. By 2007, I had more or less stopped thinking about goals. But then, almost miraculously, I won Linares after 10 years. I became a 2800 player again and also climbed to number one spot.”

If you obsess over something you won’t get it: As an entrepreneur, having chosen to follow my passion, it has been an enjoyable journey. However, a few months back, I seemed to be overly worried about the impending recession and how much the business will be affected in the coming months. My wife said, “You seem to be tense.” Even a friend made a similar remark looking at my face. And suddenly there was a realization that I had (unnecessarily) become obsessive about the business (and how much it should progress etc.) And that is when Vishy’s lesson came handy.

Identifying your alarm bells: It is only human to cross lines. But then wouldn’t it help if we have our own alarm bells which will go off when the line is crossed between passion and obsession? So I asked myself, “What are the signs that I have become obsessive?” I few things came to mind:

1. Did I jog in the last week?
2. Did I go for a walk with my wife?
3. Did I listen to Hindustani classical music in the past 2 weeks?
4. Did I practice flute in the last 2 weeks?
5. Did I go cycling with my son in the last 2-3 weeks?
6. Did I get out of the city in the last 2-3 months?
7. Did I read any fiction, especially a Marathi book in the past 2-3 months?

It has been only a few months since the last obsession-period. Let’s see when the next round comes. And let me see if this list helps.

What’s wrong in “Becoming successful”?

Thanks to Ramprasad for raising such a fundamental question to an earlier post on “Success vs. flowering”. He has given a very apt example, that of Rahul Dravid, in bringing out the point that “becoming” and “being” are not mutually exclusive as the post suggests. Ramprasad feels that it doesn’t matter as long as you are enjoying. And I agree with him.

Many times we get so busy with “becoming” that “joy” part is forgotten. Or at least put on hold for the time being. The reasoning is “Let me get to this point, and then I will really do what I love doing”. “This point” sometimes is about reaching a position like vice president or CEO, sometimes is about accumulating sufficient net worth to be able to continue current standard of living for the rest of the life, at other times it will be linked to being debt free or kids getting married etc. All these are practical considerations and have their own merit. In short, there is nothing wrong with these approaches. But the unfortunate part is, many times “This point” never comes. Or when it comes, either there is no energy left “to enjoy” or “how to enjoy” is completely forgotten.

Ramprasad has summarized some of the sentences from Geet Sethi’s “Success vs Joy” in his blog. To pick one I liked: I have learnt that when I wanted success and was willing to sacrifice joy for it, eventually got neither.