Thursday, November 19, 2009

To get or to give?


Think big, Aim big, Think like a winner, Badi Soch Ka Bada Jadoo, You can win, You'll see it if you believe it etc. are very common titles or themes of what we get to read now a days. Today's child grows up while planning to start it big. Names like Dhirubhai Ambani, Sunil Bharti Mittal and Gautam Adani seem so close to him. Everybody is taught, encouraged and trained to look at oneself in the mirror and remind one that the future has just one thing in store and that is golden tremendous unending success. Low aim is crime and nobody is a criminal in the coming generation.

All this is fundamentally right. This helps everybody to overcome the mental barriers. The confidence is boosted up to a great extent. And when such a positive optimistic individual goes for any job, he reminds himself to be a die hard optimist. The idea of thinking big enters his soul and every action coming out is anything but realistic. When the interviewer asks him to state his career objective, prompt comes the reply, 'I want to be the CEO of a big multi national corporation'. This is expected to impress the interviewer and to have a big start.

But there seems to be a fundamental disconnect. What about the unglamorous but solid foundation? Nobody plasters or paints the foundation pillars below the ground level. But it is unquestionably the first step of a beautiful building. What should be the foundation of a successful corporate career?

Let me put this in another words. What should be initial focus of a career seeker? What i am going to get from this job or what i am going to contribute to this job. I am sure every experienced person knows that no corporate house would ever allow a performer to leave. To be very frank, performers with proven track record are so less in proportion in the work force today that they are always in demand. Let me give you some examples. Try to find out about the first job and the first assignment of Jamsetji Nusservanji Tata, Dhirubhai Ambani, G D Birla, L N Mittal, N R Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Satyen (Sam) Gangaram Pitroda, Verghese Kurien, Subhash Chandra or Cawasji Nanabhoy Davar. All of them are shining examples of one and the only one fundamental principle of making a successful corporate career and that is -

"The more you strive to give, the more you get,
The more you strive to get, the less you get."

"If i always strive to give my best to the company i serve, it will do its best to retain me and to do the best it can do for me. In case it fires me in spite of that, my thanks to the great lord that it saved me from a sinking ship!"

And by the way, one should never reply to the career objective question as in the example above. No interviewer likes to listen to that because in crude street language it would mean, "Main tumhara Boss banana chahta hun." A perfect recipe for failure. Isn't it?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Dear Sir,
Thanks you for the wonderful post. I truly agree that until the path is long how are we going to have a long march. I want to become the best consultant in this world. The aim, I am passionate of. Hope I can reach to my destination one day.

Regards,
Mayank

harpal singh said...

Good Morning sir,
Thank you sir for this literal pragmatical post.it is like "THE STARTING POINT OF ALL
ACHIEVEMENT".every great things originate from small source n then takes the shape of giant in future.As law of nature says that if you want to move upward then u have to start from ground (starting point),how a starting could be a final performance ? without crossing staircase how could anybody reach directly at the top.....no, definitely not.this question also teach us about our future forecast sense n knowing of ground reality.

regard
PROTON Harpal singh
09pr001012a058