Me, Myself & I... Are you dispensable?
“What is, Was not.
What is not, Will be.”
- Me
________________________________________________________________________________
Just as a man
giving up old worn out garments accepts other new apparel, in the same way the
embodied soul giving up old and worn out bodies verily accepts new bodies.
·
Bhagwat Gita, Chapter 2, Verse
22
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It was in 1931
when Jainulabdeen’s wife Ashiamma gave birth to their fifth child in Dhanushkodi village at the southern tip of the Rameswaram Island ,
at the eastern coast of the Tamil Nadu state of India Mosque
Street
It was in 1931
when Jainulabdeen’s wife Ashiamma gave birth to their fifth child in Dhanushkodi village at the southern tip of the
He would have believed
he was indispensable.
He wasn’t.
Following are the
achievements of his youngest son:
1954-58
: After graduating in science from St.
Joseph
1958 : He joined the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and
served as a senior scientific assistant
1962 : He joined Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
1982 : He returns to DRDO as its Director. Takes charge ofIndia
1997 : He was honoured with "Bharat Ratna",India
2002 : He took over as the 11th President of India.
1982 : He returns to DRDO as its Director. Takes charge of
1997 : He was honoured with "Bharat Ratna",
2002 : He took over as the 11th President of India.
His
Name – APJ Abdul Kalam
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A graduate of Yale University
with a B.S. degree, John Akers joined IBM in 1960 as a sales trainee in San Francisco
In the 1980’s IBM
was THE model US Company, consistently being one of the leading global
companies in profits and revenues. In 1980 IBM earned more than $3.5 billion on
sales of $26 billion, when the rest of the corporate world was reeling under
severe foreign competition. Any business problem had an answer in one of the
IBM products. It was often heard in the office corridors that “Nobody ever got
fired for buying IBM.” The company was known as THE best place to work. In the
technology industry, IBM had attained the status of a revered icon.
In 1981, John
Akers became group executive, Information Systems and Communications Group. He
was elected a senior vice president in 1982 and IBM president and director in
1983. In 1984 he was elected chief executive officer effective February 1985. 25 years of
unfaltering rise in a company that had only ever seen the North direction. A
spectacular climb from a Sales trainee to a CEO.
He would have
believed he was indispensable.
He wasn’t.
The following
happened between 1985 through 1993 whilst John Akers was the CEO at IBM Corp. Replacement
Technologies like decentralized computing, Internet and Java were leading
customers to concentrate on personal productivity rather than on traditional
back-office solutions but IBM could not bring itself to cannibalize its
bread-and-butter mainframe sales. Even though IBM was better positioned to be a
part of the client/server and Internet revolutions, it watched as companies
like Intel, Microsoft, Cisco & Dell grew to dominate. Several of IBM’s new
products flopped (eg PC Jr, PC RT) compounded by weakening customer relations. The company lost
money in 1991 for the first time in its 80 years history. The “no-layoffs”
policy ended in the same year. 40000 jobs were eliminated in 1991-92. Breakup
of IBM Corp began in 1992.
CNBC named Akers
as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time", stating that,
"While the rest of the world was moving toward personal computing, Akers
remained stuck in the mainframe age, never quite figuring out what to do. Many
outsiders viewed Akers as being in over his head. IBM was paralyzed by his lack
of decisiveness." Akers
stepped down shortly after the company announced a $4.97 billion net loss for
1992.
In April 1993,
Louis V. Gerstner joined IBM as its new CEO who created a historical turnaround
of the elephant by making radical decisions and posting a $3 billion profit on revenues of $64
billion in 1994.
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Jainulabdeen and
John Akers are not part of any rare human specie. Almost everyone in this world
at one point or the other would have felt the grand delusion of “I am
indispensable”. A father for his children, a CEO for his company, a gardener
for his plants, a minister for her constituency, a mother for her infant, all
believe that if he or she were not there the sky would fall on his children,
his company, his plants, her constituency or her infant... but in doesn't.
It is human nature
to feel important. The extreme example of this is that of a celebrity; say an
actor or a politician. They just love to be surrounded by fans and sycophants.
In fact, an absence of these disturbs them. The day an actor is not recognized
at a public place or is not harassed by fans for photographs or autographs or
the day a politician’s security cover is downgraded, they believe it is all
over for them. In most cases, they go into their shells away from public eye or
in some cases go into depression.
Let us now look at
the fans. They are all common people, just like you and me, desperately trying
to have a glimpse of their favorite star and if it is their lucky day, might
even get an opportunity to touch them or best, get an autograph. Ever wondered
why we all do this? Why we put up their posters on our walls or in our lockers?
Why do we make them our idols? Why do we want to be like them even though we
hardly know them? The answer is straight and simple – We all want to be like
them – Famous. And why does anyone want to be famous? Simply because fame makes
a person “feel important”.
Right from our
childhood we try to do things that would get us approval, admiration and
appreciation. In school, some would always complete their homework on time, some
would always be the first to volunteer to help the teacher, some would work
hard to excel in studies whilst some would try to excel at sports. We would all
do something or the other hoping that one day, the teacher would call upon us,
make us stand in front of the class, read our eulogies as everyone else
applauded. I am sure as you read this, your own such experience has come
bouncing back and you are feeling very good or shall I say, elated. The sound
of clapping is ringing the same way in your ears and the entire scene is
enacted right in front of your eyes maybe even after twenty or even forty years
since it all happened.
As an adult,
remember the crowd around you in a party when you demonstrated your bar skills
of juggling the bottles or when you told funny anecdotes. Do we not, at any age, await e-cards, telephone calls and text messages on
our birthdays? We feel so good when someone comes up to us and asks about the
latest cell-phone we just bought. The need of
feeling important is well ingrained in each individual’s core. This has been
discussed, debated and proven over the last century or so.
The point is made.
The problem starts
when this need is satisfied to such a great extent than we forget that it was
actually our own need of “feeling important” that got us all the attention. We
start believing that people are around us or calling us or want to meet us
because they can’t do without us.
We start believing
we are indispensable.
Call it nature or God, but each time someone is replaced by someone else,
it is arguably for the better. Had that not been the case then there would not
have been so much development around. The world is like a relay race. Each
individual, whatever he is worth, should make his contribution and then pass on
the baton. In a relay race, even the fastest runner, thinking that others would
not be able to continue his good work, cannot hold on to the baton for the
entire race.
This feeling, this
belief is what feeds the EGO.
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A really egoless
person is not humble at all.
He is neither arrogant nor humble; he is simply himself.
-
Osho
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Our Ego makes us believe that we are indispensable. It makes us attach to
an “image”, a WRONG image. An image that makes us start believing that
something cannot happen without me or someone will not be able to manage
without me or even to the extent that someone will not be able to live without
me. And this attachment is so strong that it makes one forget the reason of
one’s real existence. This also starts reflecting in our behaviour. Any
contradiction or opposition to this belief, this attachment, this image, leads
to visible behavior response. Externally – arguing, persistence, dominance,
anger & criticism. Internally – feeling hurt, crying, withdrawing, feeling
pain. All this behavior is an outcome of our attachment with an image of
ourselves that we believe is the true image which it is not.
There is a thin line that divides Ego & Self Respect, Confidence
& Arrogance. Our behaviour communicates to us which side of the line we are
treading. If we feel hurt & pain, it is Ego & Arrogance. If we feel
open & stable, it is Self Respect & Confidence. The underlying “fear” of losing the attachment makes us “believe” that we
are indispensable. An extreme comparison can be made to the human’s deepest
fear – Death. We get so attached to the body that we start believing that to be
an end in itself. The fear of losing the body to death is so unbearable that we fret to even think about it.
Remember, as a child, there was hardly anything that made you feel bad.
You would fight with your friends and the next instant you had forgotten
everything and playing together again as if nothing ever happened. Now think
of all the people and events that hurt you as an adult. Enough & More. As a child we don’t have any attachments but as we grow our
attachments increase exponentially. We get attached to people, incidents,
houses, cars, shoes, brands and relationships. Over a period of time, this
attachment becomes so intense that we start feeling indispensability,
especially towards people and relationships.
So what happens when one dies? Does the world crumble? Did the world
collapse when a Winston Churchill died or when Mahatma Gandhi was killed? Do
the people one care for or one believe cannot do without, disintegrate?
So, ARE YOU dispensable?
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Saxon White Kessinger, an award winning writer, wrote this beautiful poem
“Indispensable Man” in 1959 summarizing all in the following few lines:
Sometime
when you’re feeling important;
Sometime when your ego’s in bloom
Sometime when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room,
Sometime when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room,
Sometime when you feel that your
going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul;
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul;
Take a bucket and fill it with
water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is a measure of how you’ll be missed.
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is a measure of how you’ll be missed.
You can splash all you wish when
you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you’ll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you’ll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.
The moral of this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.
Superb... enjoyed! u have a g8 writing skills sir... to keep the reader engaged & curious.
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