I Bought The Monk's Ferrari (10 page)

It has become an 'in-thing' to talk of 'work-life' balance. In the good old days, when I studied at the same campus, answers to similar sounding questions would have been— exposure, learning, brand value etc. None of these featured in the top of mind response that I got. This 'work-life' balance has become the most discussed issue in the campuses as well.

But, I call it nothing more than just an idle topic for cafe gossip. Else, all the students would have run to join PSU (Public Sector Units). But that seldom happens. And, in that particular year not a single student joined a PSU.

Your Ferrari will not come with a 'work-life' balance. I once read an interesting interview, I think, it was with Rahul Bajaj, who said:
'"Work-life" balance is for wimps. Successful people go out and do what it takes to get there. If they have to work twenty-six hours out of twenty-four, they will.'

Let me introduce a concept here—the
LFL (i.e. Leaders, Followers and Laggards)
rule of employee distribution. Every employee in an organisation falls in one of these three categories:

Leaders are the scarcest of the lot. Barely five to seven percent of the people fall into this category. The organisation depends on this set of people to lay out the vision and direction. These people barely care about 'work-life' balance. They do what they have to do, irrespective of the organisational rules. If they have to give up their family temporarily to meet the demands of work, they will. If they have to slog seventy-five hours a week, they will.

A survey on the 'work-life' balance of CEOs by Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR), published in
The Economic Times
states that Indian CEOs work the longest hours amongst all the CEOs in the world. Does it not automatically set expectations that they will have of their colleagues?

No organisation can motivate its leaders with 'work-life' balance initiatives. They do not need any.

This is the category where the maximum number of people fit in. They are the people who are satisfied with following instructions from the leader. Leaders lead and the followers follow them. The followers are happy with five-day week, limited working hours, family day initiatives, etc. No organisation can afford to ignore this lot because all organisations run on this category. The leaders are the thinkers and the followers are the doers. They implement what the leader asks them to. A few of these also graduate to a leadership status as they go ahead in life. And, it is quite surprising that the so-called leaders and senior managers of various organisations would fit in this category.

Forgive me for this, they are the 'useless junks' in any organisation. Absolutely worthless but they still manage to tag with the company because no one has figured out yet that they are absolutely useless. About ten to thirteen percent of the employees in every organisation would be in this category. Laggards have a great personal life. Their contribution to work is almost negligible. Any 'work-life' balance initiative targeted at them will be a disaster, because they already enjoy enough of it. How early can you send a person home, who watches his clock everyday and leaves at six o'clock sharp?

Before proceeding any further, I would like to assure you readers that not for a minute am I propagating that organisations should not advocate 'work-life' balance. By all means they should. However, the laggards do not need any, and the leaders will not want any, but yes, the followers will. And, therefore, 'work-life' balance initiatives are important from an organisations' perspective, since they cater to the instincts of the followers, who bring up a significant portion of the employee population.

The Ferrari is not meant for everyone. It is neither for the average worker, nor for the followers, definitely not for the laggards. It is only for the leaders. And, as a matter of fact, it is for the best among the leaders. If you are one of those who moan and groan about 'work-life' balance, long hours at work, and not being able to see your family before ten at night, then sit snug on your sofa and relax. The Ferrari is not for you. Do not even try to get there, because I assure you, you will not!

COMMANDMENT THREE

Do not whine and whimper about 'work-life' balance. Be the winner, not the wimp, and the Ferrari will be yours.

A
s a child, I heard the story of a monkey and a crocodile. They lived on opposite banks of a river and were great friends. Every day the monkey would pluck sweet fruits from trees and throw them into the river and the crocodile would gather and take them home to his wife. At night, the crocodile and his wife would savour those fruits. One day his wife asked the crocodile, how he got all the fruits. And the crocodile told his wife about his friend, the monkey.

'If the fruits that the monkey gives you are so sweet, imagine how sweet the heart of the monkey would be. Can you get it for me?' She was beginning to salivate. The crocodile was aghast at the suggestion and rebuked her for harbouring such a thought. A few days later when the crocodile returned home, his wife was lying on the bed, shivering and sick.

Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit, and you reap a character;
Sow a character, and you reap a
destiny.

A
NONYMOUS

She said, 'The doctor was here. He told me that I'll recover only if I eat the heart of a monkey, else I'll die.'

The crocodile was very worried and did not know what to do. He loved his wife and now she was forcing him to choose between his friend and her life.

That evening he invited the monkey for dinner. The poor monkey did not suspect anything and hopped on to the crocodile's back as he waded across to the other bank. Midway through the journey, under pangs of guilt, the crocodile told the monkey the real story. In any case, he was in the middle of the river and the monkey could not swim.

'Oh, is that all, my friend. I'd be glad but I've left my heart back on the tree itself. Had I known, I'd have carried it.'

'Oh God! What should we do now?'

'Let's go back. I'll quickly bring my heart down.'

So, the crocodile and the monkey made their way back to the shore. When they were near the shore, the monkey leaped to the safe confines of the tree, 'Foolish crocodile,' he said, 'I gave you all the fruits as a good friend, and now you want to kill me because your wife wants my heart. I'm not going back with you.'

When the crocodile's wife saw him returning without the monkey, she left him. The poor crocodile lost both his best friend and his wife. All because, he was not honest to himself.

This apparently simple story gives us a very important message. Dishonesty will always come back to haunt you. We have all lied at some point or the other in our personal and professional lives.

Calling in sick at work, lying about the reasons for your kids missing school, false excuses for being late for a meeting, buying a movie ticket in black ... the list is endless. These examples may apparently seem harmless, but they demonstrate an inherent tendency to lie and are, in a way, indications of bigger improprieties.

If we do something which is right, we will always benefit from it. But, dishonesty or any other misdeed for that matter will continue to haunt us throughout our lives.

At this juncture, step back and peek into the lives of winners, i.e. in the lives of people who are successful, who have made a mark for themselves in this world. You will find one common streak in all of them—all of them have the ability to stand up and face the consequences of their action. They will never do anything behind the back. They will not pussyfoot on tough decisions. Most importantly, they will follow deep- rooted moral values. They will never compromise on their values for a few rupees more.

Just, a few days back I read a book,
There is No Such Thing as "Business" Ethics
by John C. Maxwell. Maxwell rightly argues that when it comes to ethics there can be no double standards. You cannot set different standards for your personal and professional lives. What is ethical in one's personal life is ethical in business, too. And, as far as ethics is concerned, two things are important—the necessity of an ethical standard and the will to follow it. He says that Integrity is all about meeting the challenge of doing the right thing even if it costs more than what we want to pay.

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us
are tiny matters compared to what lives within
us.. . a culture, a practice, a religion,
something which all winners imbibe.

R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON

INTEGRITY AND ETHICS is all about a way of life ... which I am afraid is now becoming extinct.

How many times have you walked out of a store because you felt that the shop owner was trying to cheat you? If you ever drove into a petrol station and got an uncomfortable feeling that the oil is adulterated, will you ever go back to the same filling station again? Then, what makes you think that people, if they get a similar impression about you, would want to come back and deal with you?