Climbing Mount Everest

She looked nervous and uncertain as she walked out of the interview room.  I turned around to talk to the Head of Human Resources (HR) when she suddenly re-entered the room and said, "Sir, I really need this job."  This was a lady who was trying to get a hold on her life. She had been abandoned by her husband a month after their wedding. She had waited for his return for 3 years, had been asked by her family not to come back to their home as she had chosen to marry against their wishes and was now going through divorce. The 3 years had shattered her confidence beyond belief.  She got up one day and decided that she needed to get back to "living". And for this, she needed a job.  She started searching for a job and that was when she came in for an interview.  This was someone trying to conquer a huge mountain in her mind. It was equivalent of climbing the tallest peak in the world - Mount Everest - probably, even higher.  The HR Head and I decided to give her a helping hand.

All of us have heard of or seen people who have faced significant odds in their lives to come through stronger.  We all may have even gone through such odds ourselves.  Every time we are faced with a difficult situation that seems impossible at that time, we need to remember that the impossibility or the huge mountain that we see in front of us is only in our mind's eye.  If we decide to remain positive and confident, the size of the mountain reduces gradually and we realize that there is flat land in front of us.

One of the biggest mountains that all of us faced as a child was deciding to walk. Each of us fell down so many times - we cried, we laughed...but, every time, we got up, dusted ourselves and tried walking again.  The same thing happened when we tried to learn talking. These were huge mountains for each of us, but we managed to climb them.  If we could do these when we were less than 3 years, why do we suddenly lose hope and confidence when we are much older and probably better equipped?

 

As we progress as a society and create more opportunities for ourselves, we need to focus on building mental resilience.  Mental resilience, as I see it, is nothing but the character that we build for ourselves. Character is again nothing but our personal values, our strengths, the skills that we have developed and the resources that we can pull out of our armoury apart from personal courage.  I bring up character because someone who nurtures this will have a strong sense of purpose, integrity, confidence and belief.  Taking accountability comes naturally to them. This also means that they will live down their mistakes and move on in lives - getting up quickly, dusting yourself and running after every fall.  This character building is essential for leaders.

 

Many studies have been done on societies that live under stress and what has helped them in coping with this stress.  A study done in Israel on how the society has coped with stress over the so many years of war and terrorism shows certain patterns - a feeling of personal security, social support and optimism reinforces resilience against symptoms of traumatic stress. Other research found that religious faith, ideology and strong social bonds also helped in building resilience.  So, while we focus and build on character, it is essential to live with strong social bonds.

 

As we have heard many say - It does not matter how many times you fall...what matters is how many times you stand up, shake it off and move forward. Also, what matters is how quickly are you willing to get up and run. When we do this, we realize that many a time we are faced with climbing Mount Everest, but always, it is our mind that decides whether we will conquer it or not.

Investing

Savings is one of the best habits. I have noticed that societies that save are more resilient to changes in the economic environment than societies that don't save or have lower savings rates. So, what do you do when you end up saving. We try and put it away as investments. These investments yield a return and that adds to wealth.

So, investments are essentially resources that we use today that will increase our future income.  It has been said time and again by economists that human potential is probably not something that we have invested in.  We invest extra money that we have in to deposits that yield us interest or in to gold or land that yield future returns. However, we think twice before investing in to human potential. So, what is investing in human potential? Can we increase the effectiveness of people around us by investing in them or can we get each one of us to invest in ourselves to improve our potential?

We need to start investing in ourselves first.  Our individual careers is a huge investment that we can make. Our career generates our future income flows. It satisfies our needs - be those mental, physical, spiritual, etc. Why then do we shy away from investing in to this career? We see this as an expenditure when it comes to ourselves but are willing to do that for our children.

I was reading the interview of an actor who talked of what he had done to set up a gym, a swimming pool, a dancing room, a studio where he could practice acting and managed his diet extremely well. He said that few years ago he would put down food and drinks without too much of thought. But, now, he realizes that unless he stays extremely fit and good looking, no one is going to hire him to do films. So, he has started investing in his career.  This is a powerful way of looking at life.  In India, the career span of an actor could range from 2 years to 30 years depending on various factors. Apart from capability to act, there are other factors like how does he/she emote, dance, etc. The physical aspect in terms of looks is absolutely important. So, this actor is really investing in his career by doing what he has done.

So, what should we do to invest in our careers?  Many of us look towards studying in our jobs. Many attend training programs. We also look towards other on-the job learning tools. One of the best ways to manage our careers, especially if we are working in corporates, is to rotate jobs. Job rotation is absolutely essential if we need to get a broader aspect of our job. People rotate across companies, across various jobs in the same company, across geographies, etc. Every rotation is a huge learning experience.  In my career, I have rotated across few companies and have done various roles ranging from audit, accounting, business finance support, sales and marketing, product development, account management, operations, business start up, business divestitures, consulting, training, risk management, etc.  I have done various roles across different geographies, managed multicultural teams, managed teams across geographies and also worked for managers from India, UK, Ireland, Australia, US, Germany, China, Bahrain and Oman. I was counting the number of managers that I have worked for - it came up to 31.  The industries that I have had exposure to include Manufacturing, Audit, Banking, NGOs, Trading, Brokerage, Pharmaceutical, Oil Refining, Granite Mining, Technology, Telecom, Agriculture, Food & Beverages, Shared Services....and there are few more I am sure.  If I look back, it has been a long and arduous path and the exposure to all these is what has got me to where I am today.

One of the most important aspects of any career is being physically fit.  As they say, "A healthy body carries a healthy mind".  It is absolutely essential to be physically fit to be able to do a job well.  Many of us ignore this aspect till it hits back at us and we realize that health is wealth.  If we are not physically fit, it becomes difficult to do a job properly even if that job is sedentary in nature i.e. a desk bound job.  We are not sharp, we find it difficult to concentrate and we are unable to focus on the job or a problem at hand for an extended period of time.  So, while we invest in our careers, it is also important to invest in our health and physical well-being.  To a large extent, our careers will be tied in to physical fitness.

 

Let us begin 2013 by focussing and investing in our career and physical fitness. I wish all readers a wonderful 2013 that is filled with hope, faith, happiness, good health and prosperity.