Mystical Ingredient – Episode 7 – Resource Myopia

What is “Resource Myopia”?

Before I plunge into the next magical ingredient “Resource Myopia” that makes the leaders, let me explain what is it all about which will help my readers to appreciate this episode. Psychology has identified 11 mental blocks that prevent human beings to become a “Possibility Thinkers” and one of them is “Resource Myopia”. 

Let me explain in detail before we could explore how to overcome it: The Oxford dictionary meaning of the word “Resource” is:

• “A supply of an available asset to be used when needed.
• A strategy for dealing with difficulties; the ability to find such strategies.

The word “Myopia” has the following connotation:

“Short sightedness”

 – Right under your nose but not seen!

From the above explanations you may appreciate that “Resource myopia” is a short sightedness of available assets that can be used to achieve whatever you want. The moment if we are asked to accomplish something, we all respond “I don’t know how to do it” – we come from the paradigm that if we don’t know how, we cannot achieve what we want? If I say you can accomplish whatever you want even if you don’t know how to do it, you may give a dirty look at me! Let’s look at the anecdote below:

If you don’t know how to make “Tandoori chicken” and if I ask you to make it, you have two options – one is telling me you don’t know and another is surfing the 2000 plus websites to figure out how to make a good Tandoori chiken and use the best recipe! In the first option you are resource myopic and in the second option you are not.

John F Kennedy in mid 50’s announced his vision for America as “We must land the man in the moon and bring him back alive before the end of the decade” When he proclaimed this he or the NASA did not have any clue how to reach a place which is 3,50,000 miles away crossing the empty space and land & take-off without a run way. No single man on earth can come with a design of a lunar system that will make JFK’s dream a reality. “The land of possibility” made it by overcoming the resource myopia. The obvious response of a common man is to write a thesis how and why it is not possible! Only people without “Resource Myopia” can make this.

NASA developed all systems required to make JFK dream a reality with the available assets in this planet. Where it all came from?

1. Possibility Thinking – my previous episode
2. Overcoming Resource Myopia – short sightedness of available resources.

Accomplishing without knowing is the secret of successful Leadership. In other words not knowing is an asset than a liability. It is paradoxical to know:

“Who don’t know how to do it have a dream and the mass who knows how to do it have no dreams!” Kennedy had a dream but did not know how to do it; the scientist of NASA knew how to do it but had no dream!” In other words the leader is paid for dreaming and inspiring the team to achieve his/her dream.

Vast majority of us feel shy of saying that “we don’t know” – please remember “not knowing is an asset and not a liability as the Leaders don’t know how to do it, but know how to get their things done through the abundant resources available in this universe”. In fact knowing who can do it for you is more valuable than knowing to do it yourself – after all how many things you can know yourself?

The Curiosity for Novelty:

One of the characteristics of this universe or nature is to conceal its secrets and reveal to those who search. The word Research means searching something that already exits - that is why it is re-search! As a child we had a tremendous curiosity to know everything we came across. As we have grown, somewhere down the line we lost our curiosity to know new things. The novelty is lost as we started thinking that “we know all that we need to know”. Alas what a foolishness to conclude that we have unravelled all the secrets of life! Avvaiyar, one of the legendary Tamil poet lived several hundred years ago said “what we have learned is like a speck of a sand in the beach and what we don’t know is the rest of the sand in this universe” .

Swami Vivekananda once was browsing through books in a Library in the US. The Librarian believed to have sarcastically commented to him “you seem to have read all the books in the library today”. Vivekananda answered him “Yes, you may like to test that by asking questions in any books in the Library”. The Librarian was shocked to see Vivekananda answering any questions from any books. He finally touched his feet and asked him how it is possible? Vivekananda replied “some people read word by word, some read sentence by sentence, some read paragraph by paragraph, some read page by page and I read ‘book by book’

It may appear that Swami Vivekananda was arrogant while he answered the librarian. It is not the audacity of this great man to think that he has absorbed all that is there in the library. The same Vivekananda said “If you show me a speck of sand and ask what it is? I may say it is sand! If you ask me further what is sand? I may say silica. If you ask me what is silica and if I happened to be a physicist I may explain the atomic structure, but if you ask me why the atoms are that way, I may not be able answer beyond! Even a speck of sand is un-explainable beyond a point how can we explain the sun, star and nebulae?” This is the question Swami Vivekananda asks to prove the point the secrets of nature is un-fathomable.

It means that don’t try to know everything and it is not a sin not knowing. For example “the cockroach is not designed to know nuclear physics but designed to withstand the nuclear exposure which none of the rest of creations could do” This only means you have your own strengths and weaknesses and your success depends on how you use your weaknesses as strength.

What is the main Point?

If you cannot find an answer for vast majority of things in this universe, does that mean we cannot achieve what we want? Most of the Leaders who have accomplished great results are the ones who have limited knowledge in the area where they have accomplished! The question that comes in your mind now is:

How can I accomplish without knowing much about the subject where I am working now?

If Boeing has put 2 million components and systems together in an aircraft to stay in the sky, does that mean the CEO Mc Nerney is a superman who knew everything about the aircraft design and manufacture? Is it humanly possible to know everything needs to be known by a single human being? The answer is no as the nature has not planned this universe that way. The sum total of the universal knowledge is available as a reservoir for you to access and you will only if you have no “resource myopia”

Entrepreneurship:

98% of the Indian industries are MSME’s (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises), founded by entrepreneurs who knew how to do thing? For example, if I know how to make sheet metal components, I start a sheet metal making industry. These industries still remain MSME’s for decades with a stunted growth for the simple reason they were founded by someone who knew “How to do things”. If you look at the balance 2% of the corporate are founded by people who had no clues about what they were making. For example, T.V.Sundaram Iyengar who created a great institution TVS Group in the south was from a pious Brahmin family – TVS is a symbol of quality today silently making this country proud as the first company to get the coveted Japanese Deming award.

                                                                                     Dhirubhai Ambani

The founders of great institutions are the ones who had no knowledge in the subject matter on which they founded their organizations. Dhirubhai Ambani did not know how to make synthetic fibre or crack petroleum but created the largest wealth for himself, the common man of this country and made his off-springs as one of the top 5 wealthiest people in this planet within his own generation. Dhirubhai had the dream and knew who can make it a reality for him. He did not have the “Resource Myopia” which we have all plagued with.

                                                                                     Benjamin Franklin

What is the main lesson?

1. The universe by design is to conceal all its secrets and reveal for those who are willing to   
     “Search” – Electric bulb for Edison, electricity to Benjamin and so on.


2. “Curiosity is the mother of invention” and not as the famous adage says “Necessity is the  
     mother of invention”. Never ever lose the child like “curiosity” in life and retain your Novelty till  
     the last breath.


3. One cannot know everything in this universe as that is not the plan of the nature.  Not knowing 
     something is not a sin. Don’t feel inadequate or shy when you don’t know something.


4. What you don’t know; it is known to someone and they can fix it for you. You will find the right 
    resource if you don’t have “resource myopia”. For example whom do you approach when you 
    are not well? Obviously the doctor – why? You are sure he can fix it for you.


5. The whole universe is flooded with resources and will be visible only when you are free from 
     resource myopia.


6. All that you need is the “Dream” and free from “Resource myopia” – the rest of it will be a 
     history how you made it as JFK landed the man in the lunar surface.


7.  A Leader has a dream, finds the right resource, inspires them to share his/her vision and 
      achieves something great for humanity.


8.   Next time if you feel you don’t know how? – Recognize it is an asset and not a liability as the 
       rest of the universe is waiting to convert your dream to a reality.        

Jai Gurudev

NC   

Stature – Mystical Ingredient – Episode 6- Possibility Thinking

What is possibility thinking?

Possibility thinking believes that you are the integral part of this universe which continuously creates variety of species, flora & fauna, stars, nebulae and so on. One philosophy is “you are created and brought here without your consent and as a helpless creature governed by karma”; the other school of thought is “you are the creator itself as you came from the same intelligence that brought this universe to its existence”. If you believe the former philosophy, you are swayed by the wind like a boat without sails. If you believe in the latter, you take charge of your life like a captain of your soul. The possibility thinkers are the ones who believe that they are the creator of their destiny and feel there is no boundary for future as there is no boundary for this universe which even science is yet to find.

Why we are what we are?

Psychology says that our personality is a function of what happened in our formative years in childhood from 10 months to 3 years. The legend in modern psychology Sigmund Freud says that our “Script” of life is written during these crucial formative years. The following anecdote will clarify the point.

I happened to facilitate a Personality Development session long time back in which Suresh (name disguised for confidentiality) shared his life’s ambition as “To Show to the World that he is somebody and he will achieve this by owning a Mercedes someday”. Upon digging deep into his childhood, he narrated an incident as follows:

“My dad suddenly died when I was 2 years old leaving me and my mother without any means for livelihood. My mother without any means to survive, carried me in her hip and knocked the doors of her brother’s home at midnight – the only asylum she was left with. My uncle was shocked to see us standing helplessly and drove us away mercilessly saying that he had no means of supporting us! That was the day I decided to prove my worth to this World”

This incident in Suresh's life created an operating system in his sub-conscious mind which was running all his life “to prove himself” thereafter – which Sigmund Freud calls it as script. It is also a fact that vast majority of us are living life like Suresh as we have no means of knowing our scripts. If “Script” is the programme or operating system that runs our life like computer helplessly responding the way in which the program was written, all human beings would be robots and would not have produced great leaders.

What is the main point?

The subject matter for me in this episode is to explore “Are we the product of our circumstances or do we have a choice? – What do Leaders do to challenge their “Scripts”? Leaders are possibility thinkers and hence their past has no influence on them. Let us examine what is possibility thinking? In simple terms Possibility thinkers are “Future focused” and followers are “Past focused”. Suresh chasing a Mercedes to prove himself is a typical example of “Past focused” – there is no one in this planet to prove as “everyone of us are trying to prove to a non-existent entity and no one is interested or having time to notice who achieved what?” I wish to refer to a Zen story to illustrate this point:

“There was a Zen master living in a monastery where many people used to visit. After worshiping him they used to stand outside the monastery and exchange their pleasantries & problems with each other. There was a blind beggar sitting outside who used to listen to their conversation. The beggar being blind, his listening was quite strong to capture the inner dialogues of the people while they were sharing or listening. The Zen master one day died and there was a condolence meeting in which the beggar was invited to speak along with many of the devotees. The beggar spoke as follows:

“I was listening intently while people were sharing the events of their life with each other. Whenever one shared happy news I found the other person congratulating in words but fuming and fretting in his heart due to jealously. Similarly whenever one shares his problems the other was responding with sympathizing words; but feeling happy internally that it had not happened to him. I could get the inner feelings from their tones. But I found whenever the Zen Master responded he was happy when he heard happy news and really sad when he heard sad news. In other words he was “authentic” and the common men are “hypocrites” – and that is the difference between the ones who have “arrived” and the vast majority who are in the maze of mundane ephemeral life.

The above story proves the point that there is no one in this universe who is waiting to acknowledge our achievements and trying to “prove ourselves” to this non-existent entity is like chasing the mirage and leave nothing behind to the legacy. The Leaders never try to prove themselves but keen to make a difference in this planet.

Human beings can be classified into two major categories – the one who always wants to challenge what life has to offer and the other believes in fate and karma who generally succumb to them eventually. Some of us are on the side of the “problems” and some of us are on the side of the “solutions”. The leaders are generally the “possibility thinkers” which is my main topic of discussion today.

The Possibility Approach:

Possibility thinking believes that everything is coming from “Sunya-nothingness” (sunya is a Sanskrit word for nothingness). Looks complicated? Let me explain with an example. Where was the cell phone before its invention? The answer will be “Nowhere” Is it not? Where was this universe before big bang? Nowhere again! Vedanta says everything is in its “Un-manifest” form and comes into “manifest” form. The mango seed is the “un-manifest” form of the mango tree! We are in the planet now; where we were before birth? The answer is the same - everything from "Nothingness"

Another characteristic of possibility thinking is “Everything is cyclic”. Before Galileo’s time people believed that earth is flat and if we continue to travel in one direction we may fall out of it!! Galileo was poked in his eyes for challenging this belief and unfortunately for him there were no satellite image of earth to show what he was saying! Now we know that we can fly to US from India via east or west. In the universe we notice all phenomena are “Cyclic” – the day & night, seasons, planetary motion, flora and fauna, and so on. Science also confirmed this through “Law of conservation of mass or energy” which says energy or mass can neither be created nor destroyed and they can only be changed from one form to another. This is what I mean by "Cyclic" - No beginning and end! One cannot show where the beginning and end in a Globe.

In essence, a Leader always believes that he can create anything from nothing and moves forward keeping his /herattention always in the side of the solution and not on the side of the problem as a common man do. Creating something out of nothing offers lots of “ambiguity” as future is unknown. It is always easier to run life through “Script” as nothing is “ambiguous”.

Allergic to Ambiguity:

One of the Blocks psychology identified is “Allergic to ambiguity” which means that we get intimidated by the lack of clarity of an un-born future which has full of possibilities. Vast majority of us are capable only in “conforming” situations which are quite familiar to us. I dealt this in detail in my earlier topic “Rocking the boat”. Overcoming the intimidating feeling due to lack of clarity is the ability the leader develops over a period of time. Let us look at a simple scenario the leader faces – How big the business can grow? How to enrol the people for the common vision of the company? Is it not an ambiguous situation to answer these questions? Like these the Leader faces lots of questions on a daily basis; in other words “Ambiguity” is the order of life for a leader. In essence the future is unclear and creating it has infinite possibilities. The possibility thinking with tremendous optimism is the only way the leaders create the unborn future.

In Summary:

• Script is the operating system of your Life which is the result of your childhood conditioning

• Script makes you to live your life “Past Focused” to prove yourself as Suresh did – it has no possibility

• Possibility Thinking is “Future focused” – creating anything you wish.

• You are the integral part of this universe which has perennial creativity
• You can create your future with the support of this universe as you have the same capacity as the universe
• Future is ambiguous as it is coming from “Nothingness”
• Allergic to ambiguity will intimidate you from moving forward to create your future.
• Leaders will overcome the Allergic to ambiguity and live life in possibility thinking to leave something for legacy

Cultivate Possibility Thinking and create a Great Future for you and the Humanity.

Jai Gurudev

NC