Direction Is Key to Success

(Published in Banking Services Chronicle January 2006)


Happy New Year 2006! Wish you a successful future. Because that is what is uppermost in your mind when you visit the pages of a magazine like this one. You think, “This year I’m going to prove to the world that I can conquer the Mount Everest. Metaphorically speaking, I’d be in the same league as Edmund Hillary or Tenzing Norgay.” May you be a confident climber!

Climbing the peaks is no easy business, however. Who can be in a better position to know this well-established fact than we Indians? We have been in the race to modernize ourselves for the last two decades. Yes, I think Rajiv Gandhi should be given the due credit for his fascination with computers and Sam Pitroda. It was his vision that set us later on the IT fast-track.

Even the textbook version gives 15 years of modernization – that is, if we consider Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh’s new economic policy as the watershed. The point since when liberalization, globalization and privatization became the buzzwords. Over the years we have been made to realize the tremendous potential of the Great Indian Middle Class.

And yet we are no match even for China, leave alone the US, if sheer magnitude of the economy is taken into account. But we can certainly console ourselves that when it comes to growth rate, our performance is not bad though still much less than our potential. We have been hovering in the 6-8 per cent range over the years. Which certainly can be pushed to 10.

The point I am trying to drive home is that you cannot reach the peak in a day. Whether you are a nation or an individual, you cannot do away with the gestation period. Rome was not built in a day. There has to be a sustained effort over a large period of time to bring a project to fruition. There has to be the urge to reach one’s goal come what may. Commitment is the name of the game.

What is important is that the direction should be positive. Because it is a simple graphic truth that an increase in magnitude will have only a worsening effect if the direction is negative. Success depends not so much on modulus, if I may borrow the mathematical term, as on sign scheme. Unfortunately, in today’s age magnitude has so overwhelmed us that direction seems to have lost its meaning. Bill Gates seems to be the most ideal person (I have deliberately flouted grammar and used the superlative because of the emphasis on quantity epitomized so brilliantly by the Yeh dil maange more campaign) simply because he is the richest.

Often, it is much later in life – and in many cases never – that people realize that their endeavour of accumulation cannot bring satisfaction because it was bereft of direction. An ideal navigator is always in control of his rudder. And this is possible only when he is guided by an unbiased compass. What really happens is that we stretch our necks out to take a look at others’ compasses. In the event we end up committing huge parallax errors.

Coming back to the analogy with our country, it is important that a 1991 happens in our lives. By which I imply that the realization should dawn upon us that there is something lacking within us. Or, like the people of Bihar, realize that it is necessary but not sufficient for the downtrodden to have a voice. In the absence of development, such a voice can only give you as much satisfaction as holding a majority stake in a company that goes in the red.

Once we have diagnosed our problem and consulted the right doctor, we should focus on following the medication prescribed. As long as we feel that the pain is alleviating, we should feel happy that the direction is positive. No wonder success is a journey!