How To Make Money & Be Successful | Business Leaders Ask Gurudev Anything
What is the best way to contribute to society? make billions, spend billions or give away billions? You cannot give away, if you have not made it And spending without making it is a disaster how can be competitive and successful at the same time be friendly with others around In one meal, you do have raitha and you also have payasam, Nothing prevents you from having both Gurudev what is your management style? My style is I don’t manage As the leader of the Art of Living Organisation for decades and running it very successfully, have you felt any peer competition? Infact I don’t run at all I just give what I have what I know Where is the competition? Competition is when you want to get something You want to achieve something It is only a matter of giving Even in giving there is no effort When there is no effort there is no competition No challenge Gurudev, What is the best way to contribute to society? make billions, spend billions or give away billions? You cannot give away, if you have not made it And spending without making it is a disaster So, obviously your question says you have to make But while making, make sure that you don’t cross the line You don’t make in such a way, that you break yourself So we need to bring the balance Life-work balance in us What's the magic ingredient of success and how can we develop a successful mindset? Well, in the running race you only look at your track and you do your best You don’t look left and right If you keep looking left and right who is going where you lose your race I would say you know you must be focused You must be intuitive And for all these meditation will be the biggest aid for you Meditate regularly twice a day Your intuitive ability will become better And your innovative spirit becomes better Then you realize your success depends on you and you only pulling down others is not going to make you run faster we need to look at our track and put your 100% For this you need enough energy You need to have a stress free mind and a clear vision of where you want to go and what you want to do And intuitive ability Without intuition, business cannot run You ask all the successful people whoever had any success in anything They said at some time this idea came to me and it clicked That is where meditation can be of immense benefit for businessman Your communication skills improve Business, most of it is all about communication Even a good deal can fall through if communication is not efficient And on top of all these there is a sense of confidence that meditation can build in which can help you to grow and overcome all the obstacles that you might come across in business You know, most of the disasters we create, is due to our impulsiveness In an impulsive way most of you take a decision and then you keep regretting about it later Right? So meditation helps there there also All in all it just brings so much happiness in you which is the goal of all wealth Suppose you have all the wealth and you are miserable what could that wealth is for? Our wealth is to create physical comfort and happiness in life This goal is not achieved and then there is a serious lapse there Isn’t it? It is almost like saying, operation is successful but the patient died Most people do not even pay attention to this fact And so they are unhappy not knowing why they are unhappy They are running around and they don’t know where they are going, why they are running Gurudev, In today’s corporate world, success is measured by income, your position, stake holders, social networks The question is, is that all that success is? No doubt Success is measured by the wealth they have created And the reach out of any company or entrepreneur But don’t forget one aspect If the person doesn’t have confidence, he looks shaken, or if the whole set up is ridden with fear, I don’t consider this as a successful venture To me sign of success is an undying smile and the confidence that doesn’t wither away Guruji, I often land in a conflict between what I think is the right thing to do Verses what my boss wants me to do How should I navigate this? Just imagine you are the boss and everyone under you think they know better than you They will be giving a very hard time to you You won’t be able to execute any work So we must give that benefit of doubt and there is a way, there is a skill to impress your boss Give your ideas But don’t tell him your idea is wrong my idea is good You tell him sir I think this way What do you think Why don’t you look into this Why not we look into this Don’t even say, you look into this Why not we look into this This is better for the company Isn’t it What do you think You know it better The last word “you know it better” doses down the ego and it brings more listening in the people You know These are communication skills No business can work without teamwork Even a boss cannot be a dictator in any business There need to be consenses There need to be consultations They need to listen A business leader will have to have all ears and eyes For any business to be successful a business leader will have to have multiple feedback He doesn’t have to take all the feedback At least he should listen to all of them Gurudev what is your management style? My style is I don’t manage I let things happen Guruji, as leaders how can we encourage our people to be good team players and what are the qualities of an effective team player? One of the main ingredients of team spirit is tolerance Tolerance to diversity In your team there are people who are very different and not everybody is same but you need to tolerate, number one Second, not question the wisdom of the leader doubt the leader If you are doubting the leader how can there be a team work Third thing is, when a goal is set, bring back your focus on the goal again and again Not on the personalities, not on your colleague's if your goal is your paramount it will take along all others with you Gurudev, in the corporate world how can you be competitive and successful, and at the same time be friendly with others around Yeah, these are two different aspects of you In one meal, you do have raitha and you also have payasam, pudding Nothing prevents you from having both Right? One is salty and the other is sweet but you can enjoy both In the same way, where you need to be friendly, compassionate, you need to be, and where you need to be compete you put your 100% Competition is not necessarily out of jealousy, or any negative feeling Competition simply means you are doing your best Actually, you are competing with your self However you did before, you want to do it better this time Even better So you don’t need to compare your performance with others If at you all you compare, it is only to motivate yourself to do better And so also you acknowledge others if they have over taken you or they have surpassed you or they are doing much better than you, you should be friendly with them That helps you to learn more in life Good relationship is not a deterrent to competitive spirit You don’t have to be cunning, rude in order to be competent We think if we have competitive spirit, then we need to be nasty, we need to be rude, we need to be ruthless you don’t need to be Gurudev, ambitions makes one restless for achieving the goal Can peace of mind and ambition go hand in hand? Yes Peace of mind gives confidence to pursue the ambition Having just ambition alone can cause you nervous breakdown also You have ambition But you don’t believe that it is possible to fulfill your ambition Or you don’t have inner strength to pursue the path What is the result? Nervous breakdown Sleepless nights Passion for anything is in no way detrimental to invoking the inner strength or peace or compassion They are all part of life Gurudev, Corporate life offers lot of money, fame, power Can one still achieve highest spiritual wisdom after aspiring for all these and how? Following a good hygiene is in no way detrimental for your work In fact it compliments Similarly, spiritual practices give you your inner strength Anyway you spent 6-8 hours sleeping When you sleep you are no longer doing business Right? You are not a businessman 24 hours I tell you Like that a few minutes of your time you take Conscious relaxation or meditation Spending time in wisdom This will complement your other activity So one can be enlightened and a businessman Yeah, yeah Kabir was a worker, he was a weaver And you will see Machaiyya who was a cobbler There are people- Kumbara There was one who makes the pots He was an enlightened saint And similarly there are many poets, many professionals From almost every profession there has been people who have been in wisdom Who have got enlightened So don’t think any activity, any profession to be counter-productive to spirituality if it is done ethically Anything done unethical definitely will hamper your spiritual growth Gurudev, how should organisations drive entrepreneurial spirit with their employees? First of all they should understand that this is the tree that is giving them shade and they need to nurture it And a sense of belongingness to the business that they are working for Ok, I do some work and I take what I need and I go There need to be sense of connectivity or sense of belongingness with the business itself Then there is reverence, respect for their sustenance When you know this is the cow that is giving nourishment You will definitely feed the cow And you feel a sense of belongingness In the same way a business is sustaining your life, your home and if you allow the business to go down, ultimately you are at the receiving end Many saints in the country have said work is worship If you can consider work as the source of your sustenance and attach the sacredness to it then it makes a whole lot of difference Gurudev, how does one ensure that they get well recognized for their effort, they are putting in their organization? More confident a person is, more talented a person is, always feel he has not been recognized That indicates you are confident about your ability Better keep that When it comes to receiving gifts you should feel that you are not worthy of it Because you have got more than what you need This is what makes you humble And as far as rewards are concerned there is a difference of opinion a grace and gift that you get from the divine There you always feel, you don’t deserve what you are getting And this is the sign of blissful happy state But when it comes to your action and when you feel that you are not rewarded enough that shows you have lot of talents You can do even more and you can do even better And remember one thing one day your efforts will always be recognized If not today, tomorrow or some day later Gurudev, as a leader when I am humble people take me for granted And if I am firm, then you know they feel I am unempathetic So how do I deal with the situation? Listen to your own conscience If you have not been compassionate, your conscience will prick you Forget about what others say You don’t need to pay too much attention to what others say People’s opinions change Their minds change, their comments change in no time, you know And if we base our whole action on someone else opinion and their feelings, their emotions will be nowhere So we must listen to ourselves, our own consciousness Go by your own consciousness these times when you have to lay off people and you take tough decisions, how do you… like you use your human values at times or how do you manage that? When you have to save a business and for saving a business if you have to lay off some people you must do it Don’t have to get too emotional about it Otherwise you know, if your whole business starts sinking, you won’t be able to help few others that you would have otherwise been able to Yes, You can give them a better packet You can see them off with compassion in the sense whatever best you can do to the people whom you are laying off Such tough decisions impact people’s lives and careers badly So do business leaders attract bad karma for such decisions? when you have to take such decisions it won’t bring a bad karma or anything You need to see your capability and your need Obviously you cannot feed the entire population You must remember There is a higher power which takes care of everybody’s life Whatever best you can do you do it If you think I won’t have my food unless I feed every hungry people in the world, you won’t be there even to feed others Right? We need to be practical on all these issues Emotions have their place, no doubt But wisdom should be placed above the emotions Gurudev, in the recent past people have experienced personal and professional set backs Could you please share with us ways to restore hope When tough times comes to an individual it is too heavy It appears to be insurmountable But when same thing is happening to people all around somewhere it brings a sub-conscious comfort in people It is not me alone but others are also suffering they somehow manage to rise above the water So it is better to keep the eyes and ears open and find out there are people who are in much worse situation than ourselves We are better off That gives a lot of hope Though it is not the most healthy state according to me But at least it does something It just gives them a little more confidence and hope Again here I would say meditation, spiritual knowledge, wisdom is immensely beneficial Reading Bhagawad Gita Gita was taught to Arjun, who was a warrior who had huge responsibility It is not taught to a monk People think Gita and all are only for reclusers and monks and not for we householders It is taught for someone who had huge responsibility Reading Gita can be a big boon in gloomy times Wisdom and meditation and social service This is another aspect in life that can keep your spirits high Reach out to those who are in need Share with them When you start sharing you will find an unseen strength or power that rises from within you Gurudev, things are opening up now and people are going back to work Some of them are also little scared So what is that leaders can do now to support their organisations? Drop those memories of stifling time Move on Bright future is there And you have lot to do Those tides have subsided We must move on
2021-10-18 18:29
