Convocation Address at FIIB, May 5, 2012
Friends, thanks much for inviting me to talk to you today. It is a real honor and pleasure for me to be with you on this very important day in your lives. Today you stand at a joyous and important milestone. You are at the point of transition from student life to professional life. This is a great opportunity for you to stop and reflect. We live life at such a fast pace that we rarely get a chance to pause. We keep on running mechanically sometimes losing sight of where we are going. The next few weeks before you get into your new jobs in full flow are a great opportunity for you. You would have few pulls and pressures and can peacefully reflect on what is important for you and your plan for getting it.
To help spark your thinking, I would like to share with you my beliefs on success. I am sure all of you want to be very successful. Well, I don’t have any magic formula for you. However, based on my experiences I would like to propose some ideas on “what is success” and seven principles for achieving it.
What is success?
Success is a difficult concept. Sometimes it feels like a mirage. You set goals and work hard towards achieving them. You earn money, fame, position and possessions. However, you might still feel empty inside and not very happy. Now, I am not trying to suggest that money, fame or material possessions are not important. I think they are necessary; however, they are perhaps not sufficient. Success is about meeting some deeper objectives of life. To me, true success has 3 dimensions that I would like to share with you:
- Making a difference. Human life is a precious gift and with it comes a big responsibility. It is to leave the world a better place than what we found it. It is to make a positive impact and create lasting change around you. You could make a difference at many levels. It could be with your family, organization, community, industry, nation or the entire world. It is not important whether the difference you are making is big or small, but that you are progressing on that journey. The positive legacy you leave behind is a big measure of your success.
- Realizing your full potential. All of us have abundant and unique potential. There are very few absolute truths in life, but one that I believe strongly in is that all of us are operating at only a fraction of our potential and could do lot more. This is perhaps one of the biggest opportunities we have as individuals and collectively as society. So, success is about discovering and realizing your full potential. Success is not winning a race against others. Success is progressing on your own personal development journey and winning the battles within.
- Being happy. That is the most obvious one, isn’t it? Happiness is our basic nature and we are continuously seeking it. Success is when you stop searching for happiness in the past or the future and find it in your present moment. You accept your present situation; you live it fully, and find joy and contentment in it. However, it is important to realize the difference between Happiness and Pleasure. Happiness is stable, while Pleasures are momentary. They can vanish, sometimes even leading to negative long term consequences.
7 success mantras
So how do you achieve true success? I am not sure if there is a simple, linear formula to achieve the above life objectives. However, I believe in 7 principles that I have found to be very useful and I would like to share those with you.
- Follow your passions– Passions are a gift. They are a source of energy. They light up your life and bring joy and vitality. They are also the foundation for excellence. If you do what you enjoy doing, you will do it well. So, follow your passions and you would have begun your life journey well. However, we often hesitate to follow our passions because of fears. Please let go of your fears, take more risks and do follow your passions. The downside is less than what you think and upside lot more. Even if you fail, it will not be a catastrophe. For me leaving McKinsey when I was doing well there and setting up my venture ActiveKarma was the biggest risk I have taken in life. The venture failed but I was able to recover and get going again very quickly. Moreover, what I gained from the experience was invaluable. I learnt how to build a business and manage with limited means in an uncertain environment. I am convinced this experience has helped me do better as a manager and leader than what I might have done otherwise.
- Persist in search of excellence– Passions are a good starting point but not enough. Passions alone are like sparks that will flicker but might not sustain. To achieve sustained success, you need to strengthen your passions with excellent skills or competence. Excellence is the fuel that helps convert your sparks of passion into the bright and sustainable fire of success (see related blogpost, Finding your “Sweet Spot”- the powerful purpose of your life!! ). However, achieving excellence requires hard work, patience and discipline. As MBAs we often have this urge to move up in our careers very quickly. Friends, let me tell you that there are no short cuts to excellence. You look at any successful person you will find they have some distinctive competence and that they have worked hard to build it. So, go through the grind, overcome short-terms pains and distractions, and commit yourself to your mission. Fruits of your persistence will be sweet. As you build distinctive competence, your work would become easier, more enjoyable and the rewards will be exponential.
- Be proactive and take responsibility– Whether it is the organization you work for or the society at large, you would see many chronic problems that can create a sense of helplessness about the “system”. If you aspire to develop as a leader, then be proactive and take ownership of the problems around you. Don’t let the problems weigh you down. Just be positive and focus on your Karma. You will be surprised how much power your individual actions can have. As you take action, your zone of influence and the leader within you grows. Slowly, the change you start with your actions can come to a tipping point when the ‘system’ also starts changing. A good case in point is the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement. While the movement might have lost its shine over recent months, one man’s crusade did bring a critical problem like corruption to national attention. It did force the parliament to discuss a bill that was being ignored for decades. Yes, there are limits to human action and you have to accept some situations. However, the power of individual action and influence is lot more than what we realize. So, do step up and take responsibility for situations around you (see related blogpost, Take personal responsibility and change the world!!).
- Focus on giving not getting– Early stages of one’s career we are often obsessed about value addition to self, “what is in it for me”. This is a narrow perspective and might lead to disappointment. Let go of your self interest and seek to give and to add value to people and situations around you. Focus on “We” not “I”. That will grow you as a leader and as a human being, and eventually more success will come to you. I learnt this at the McKinsey Knowledge Centre (McKC). While I was consulting in McKinsey, the value addition for me was very tangible. However, early years of being a manager at McKC I started getting frustrated at the seeming lack of value addition for myself. At that time I fortunately asked myself the question, what value was I adding to others. I then started focusing on developing those around me. As I did that something magical happened – my team members flowered, McKC grew tremendously from being a research back-office to becoming an innovation hub, and as a result I gained success as a leader. Truly, letting go of obsession with what you are getting and focusing on what you are giving can work wonders.
- Build lasting relationships– When I joined McKinsey in 1996, one of the senior partners speaking at our induction training said that to succeed you either need to know something or to know someone. At that time, I felt that I would be the “know something” types and that success by knowing someone was a bit superficial. As I have gained more experience, I have realized better the tremendous value of relationships. People respond more to trust and emotions than to knowledge and logic. Whether it is achieving difficult targets as a team, resolving conflicts, or finding your next job, relationships are the key to success. They are a force multiplier helping you achieve outcomes, which you can never do on your own. Moreover, relationships are not just about a means to an end. They are an end in themselves. Man is a social animal. We crave for trust and togetherness. Deep relationships bring joy and warmth to life making it more meaningful. So, build trust-based relationships and nurture them with care. They will be your most important asset in life.
- Stay humble and true to your values– One of the negative consequences of success is arrogance. Sometimes successful people become too full of themselves, stop listening and eventually lose touch with reality. That is the beginning of their end. So, do not let success or position go to your head. Always stay humble, grounded, natural and spontaneous. It will help you connect with people and earn you their love & respect. It will also help you avoid making big mistakes. For us MBAs, it is especially important to be conscious of this as we are often characterized as being arrogant. In addition to being humble, always uphold high ethical standards and strive to do the right thing. Have a clear conscience and ensure you can always hold your head high. This is critical. Integrity is the glass mirror that once broken can never be repaired. All your great work can be undone in a single moment of indiscretion.
- Keep balance and pursue interests beyond work– Business school is a phase of life when one tends to be obsessed about career. I would encourage you to find a balance in your life. Life is not a sprint; it is more like a marathon. You need to learn how to sustain yourselves for the long run. For that, cultivate interests and passions outside of work. They will give you a fresh and deeper perspective on life. They will also recharge and rejuvenate you and ensure that you have the energy to play a long innings. For me, my big anchor in life is my family. I am married, have 3 beautiful children and a large joint family. They are an enormous source of strength in my life and keep me centered. In addition, I have multiple passions and pursue them actively. I am passionate about sports and play squash twice a week. I follow Art of Living, have been doing it for more than 10 years and religiously go for Yoga & meditation sessions every Sunday morning. Finally, I love travelling and take at least 2 vacations every year. All of these passions help rejuvenate me and keep my system going at high energy levels!!
This brings me to an end of my talk. In conclusion, I would say that you all are in a very privileged position. You are graduating at a time when there are wonderful growth opportunities in our country. That and the education you have got from this good institute ensure that you will have great professional success and earn lots of money. So, do use this opportunity to ask some bigger questions of your life. In particular, ask yourself how you can contribute to positive transformation of India. While we have made great progress as a nation over the past 10 years, many grave challenges remain for us. The next decade is crucial for our country. We are at crossroads. Either we will step up as a great nation or we might miss the bus once again. However, we have a tremendous asset, all of you, the youth of our country. Your generation is the big hope for our country. I wish that all of you flower as great leaders and help our country realize its rightful destiny.
Thank You and God Bless!!
