The Mind Itself is the Problem
By L P Bhanu Sharma
What do you do when you have a problem in your right hand? Do you cut your hand off or you start treating your hand? The answer is quite obvious: you will consult a doctor to find the reasons for the problem and then treat the problem. You will not try to get rid of your hand. But, this approach to solving problems cannot be generalized for all cases. Mind is one such case. Most of the people who come to my programme say that they have this or that problem with their mind. They furnish a long list of problems that they are going through and are trying day in and day out to get rid of those problems. One thing is quite common with all these complaints: you solve one problem and some other problem will surface. The same person first comes saying that he gets angry very fast. Tell him how to manage his anger and in another couple of months he will have managed a larger part of it. But he comes back again saying that he has lost interest in life and the day-to-day activities have become quite boring to him. Treat his boredom and he will say that he has started becoming jealous every now and then.
If you try to investigate into the problems of the mind, you will find that they are endless. This way, solving one problem of the mind is like treating the symptom, and not the root cause of the disease itself. More than this, you will find that all the problems are inter-connected and they all share the same energy deep within. This is the basic difference between a human mind and other objects. Take an example. Suppose you are suffering from a lack of self-confidence. Psychologists and motivators will suggest you to give more value to yourself and consider other people to be inferior to you. You apply this solution and in no time you will find that you have become too much egoistic and will have difficulties in working with other people. A new problem will pop up after every solution.
Everything in the world can be corrected, rectified and treated independently; but this rule does not apply to the mind. Mind is one integrated whole. Mind itself is the problem, and all other problems are the off-shoots of this big tree. Cutting the leaves and the branches will not uproot the tree. When we try to correct small problems of the mind, we leave the entire mind untreated. Not knowing this simple fact about our own mind results in endless suffering. The question then arises: is can we really go beyond mind and how can we do that and what happens if we are able to achieve this? Yes, we can go beyond the mind. To believe that we cannot go beyond mind is to say that we human beings are doomed to live in the mirages of the mind, and that we will never be able to experience truth, eternity and bliss that are our real treasures. Being in the mind is being with the problem; going beyond mind is going beyond all the problems that the mind creates. Mind is the most ancient device we have and is also the most complex mechanism in this universe.
Nothing new and fresh comes from the device known as mind. History is witness to the fact that all great inventions and creations have taken place when one escaped the clutches of the mind, may be even for a few moments. Such going beyond mind takes place during moments of instant surprises, silence, beauty, relaxation and meditation. We have also experienced such moments, but only as gaps between two activities of the mind. Poets, painters, scientists, dancers, singers and all artists have their finest moments when they go beyond mind. Madame Curie had her inspirations for radium when she left all experiments and her mind was at rest. Archamedies discovered the principles of buoyancy while enjoying a tub bath. The mind ceases to function when it is not active. Sage Patanjali puts it in the best possible way: ‘Yogaschittavritti nirodha’, meaning ‘Yoga is the cessation of the mind’. Modern psychology has come to a natural conclusion: ‘Active mind is a devil’s workshop’.
How does one go beyond mind then? This is a billion-dollar question, and the central theme of all human efforts till date. So many techniques have been put forward by seers and psychologists alike. All of them are centered around one theme: meditation. Meditation is the science and the art of traveling from the form to the formless, from the mind to the no-mind. Mind is the combination of forms; the formless is the core of our existence, is our very being. The formless is the abode of peace, truth, silence, beauty, bliss and all the blessings of life. It is infinite, eternal and all-knowing. Dr. Wayne W Dyer calls this formless as ‘Intention’ and Eckhardt Tolle calls this ‘Now’. It is also known by different names as ‘Tao’, ‘Rule’, ‘God’, ‘Ahura Mazda’, ‘The Father’, depending on how one experiences and interprets it. Names don’t matter; what’s more important is all of us have this as our soul. This very knowing gives value to our being human, and is the focus of spiritual seekers of all traditions.
We live mechanically and are not alert to any activity, thoughts or feelings. The seers say that even when we are awake we are living almost sleepily. It is almost like dreaming twenty-four hours a day, and this is the main reason for our miseries. Meditation is the science of living life with awareness and sensitivity. Gautam Buddha calls this ‘right mindfulness’, and is the only hope for all of us.
In Search of Success: Management of Ambitions
By Manohar Man Shrestha
I have met only a few entrepreneurs and managers who don’t dream of big time successes. However, for most of them this dream of organizational glory will end up being just a mirage.
In a workshop, an entrepreneur was furious that the world was unable to understand his great idea that would catapult him to fame and fortune. He was too young, too inexperienced and too naïve to be able to handle such big idea. Don’t ask me what idea was. It was too ahead of time. This young entrepreneur was not ambitious: he was delusional.
There is a thin line between ambition and delusion. The sad part is that the person on the line is not able to differentiate one from the other without the help of failures, accidents or betrayals. Some who are lucky realize, with the help of a guide, that their cherished dream is a delusion and not an ambition.
How do you know whether you are deluded regarding your dreams? Tick one of the three options that best matches you for each indicator as you go along.
1. Personal feelings: positive, neutral or negative
2. Other people’s response: encouraging, unimpressed or discouraging
3. Your reaction to others: joyful, tolerant or loathsome
4. Circumstances: matching conditions for materialization of idea arising gradually, no change, elimination of required conditions for success one after the other
5. Clarity of idea: increasing, blurring or decreasing
6. Lucky breaks: many unexpected ones, one or none
7. Flexibility of idea: highly adaptable, rigid or shattering to pieces
8. Passion: sustained, fickle, burning out
This is the se of indicators concerning the self. There is another set of indicators concerning the others:
1. Staff support: high, medium or low
2. Accountability of your staff: ownership attitude, ‘9 to 5’ attitude or ‘one-night-stand’ attitude
3. Conflict in your management team: constructive, purposeless or destructive
4. Buy-in by key players: strong, average or weak
5. Silent admiration by the mass in general: people making you their idols, people treating you like a commoner or people citing you as an anti-idol
6. Time spent without worrying about work: plenty, little or not at all
7. Number of calls for partnership received: many, few or none
8. Number of crisis situations: rarely, frequently or always
The above set is about your organization. The next set is optional in a sense that even if you fail the litmus test of ambition/delusion in this third set, you can still succeed in realizing your dreams. The only setback is that in such case you wreck the ship of your family life.
1. Spouse understands your idea: very well, little, not at all
2. Time spent with children and family members: eat together, separately or avoid interaction
3. Communication with spouse: open and frank, formal or terrible disputatious
4. Comfort level with other families during bhoja’s and parties: easy, cold or hurting
5. Bridging between various family members: no intermediary required, reference required or negotiation required
6. Images of home: safe haven, guest house or hell
7. Patience shown by family members: unimaginable, bare enough or none
8. Questions asked by family members: hits you up, drags you down or frustrates you
As you must have guessed, if you are able to tick the first of the three choices in each set of indicators, it means your dream is an ambition. If you happen to tick the second choice, then your dream is tending towards delusion unless you change something about the dream and your thinking style. If you have ticked many of the third choices, then you are strongly deluded about the reality of your dream: give it up or like the entrepreneur above who triggered this avalanche of thought, realize that you have to postpone the timeframe and take it easy.
Dreams coming true in Nepal
Thanks to a media hunger, an increasing number of publication and broadcasting companies for their quest for hidden news. As we go through the media headlines, we find that it is not only gloom and doom. In a recent article by Karna Sakya in Nepali Times, there was a list of unsung heroes. Impressive. I find it so. Firstly, because, one, such heroic people do exist and secondly, there are people interested in writing about them. Sakya puts them in the ‘hero’ category on the merit that they had a dream to make an impact in society, and they realized it.
There is another more luring dream unfolding amidst us. It is the high-flying lifestyles of CEO’s. Lavish dresses, rubbing shoulders with other big timers, mind boggling salaries, unprecedented glamour, traveling around the world, wining and dining at the finest places and the list goes on. To top it is their life story that typically has started from the bottom. Their stories are thus instances of super performances and correct career decisions. Something that most people want to and think they can emulate.
Cinnovation of Chaudhary inc. that claims to be the first Nepali MNC and people like Dr. Upendra Mahato who needs no introduction (he is rumored as international Nepali billionaire) have helped us shift our perception of what Nepalis can and can’t do. At one point we thought that Nepalis could do well only in studies in the international forum. Now we realise that we can do well in business also.
Breaking bottlenecks-1
I was with a top CEO for dinner. A client of his sitting nearby asked him about the status of a project they were working on. The CEO replied, “I don’t know.” Hearning this everybody was taken aback. Seeing the expression on people’s face, he continued, “Even if I knew I would not discuss the matter with you.” We still were dumb-founded by this answer of a top CEO. So he carried on, “See if I tell you the status of the project, I would be bypassing authority that has been delegated to my DGM. You have dealt with him. Why do you ask me? Well, if I answered, the DGM would think that I have taken matters back in my hands. Then he would not take as much ownership as he should. Next problem will be that you too will think, ‘why deal with someone with less power when you are in contact with the higher authority?’ In this way, I will be burdened by more work that will press me for time. Since I will have to do other people’s job, who will do mine? Soon in no time, I will lose focus on the strategic level of the business. So, that is why I cannot answer your question about the status of the project.” The client gave a startled look. The CEO ended his rebuke, “Never mind. Come on let us talk about your business. How is it going? My business is doing well but we are facing some challenges…”
Breaking bottlenecks-2
A staff came to the manager asking for a leave next day. The manager took a good look at the staff as if he did not recognize him. It was true if you looked at the hierarchy. The staff was supposed to directly report to a supervisor who in turn reported to the manager. So the staff bypassed the supervisor. Was it an honour, a petty matter or a grave matter?
It was a simple matter. Say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. But this manager asked the staff, “Why are you coming to me? Why aren’t you asking the permission from your supervisor? Do you realize that you are bypassing authority? I am not honoured by your action. If I grant you a leave today, you will always come to me and you will tell your friends who will also come to me. In this way, I might as well scrap the supervisory position. But there is a good reason why that post is there. It is to manage the workload, and human interactions for maximum efficiency. So go back to your department and ask your own supervisor. If there are queries about the impact of the leave to other departments then you can come and ask me.”
The manager thought it was the end but the staff chipped in, “But sir, don’t get me wrong. I did not intent to bypass authority. I asked my supervisor but he told me to ask you. What could I do?”
Puzzled, the manager dismissed the staff who got an undeserving but not fruitless lashing and called in the supervisor.
Manager asked, “Why did you not give the decision on the leave to that staff and instead passed the bucket to me?”
Supervisor replied, “Actually there is a lack of manpower in our department and also there is lot of work needing to be completed. I could not afford to work with one staff short. Also I could not say, ‘no’ to him. So I sent him to you.”
Manager said, “You cannot escape hard decisions as one day you may be in my position. This is not such a difficult problem. Find a solution. Go. I know you can do it.”
As the supervisor was about to leave, the manager said, “In order not to have this problem recur, I advise you to make your staff feel accountable to their work and to their departments. In this way they will not put you in such a dilemma and they will instead find a solution by themselves.”
Sound idea and sound management style
The above top CEO and manager demonstrated professionalism. They are not doing it for the sake of it. Instead it is a means to an end; that ‘end’ being plenty of time to think and act at the strategic level.
I have been asked in interviews by MBA students, “What do you think is the major problem in Nepali organization in terms of management practice?”
My reply is that most managers and entrepreneurs spend too much time solving day-to-day problems and not enough on engineering the future of their organization. In a sailing analogy, it is a captain should be busy in the engine room, in the kitchen and in the cabin instead of only standing on the deck and setting his sight on the horizon.
They complain, “Our employees just don’t take ownership. So I have to do everything myself. I am fed up.”
As much as we praise the prowess of Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Napoleon Bonaparte for conquering the world, we forget that it would have been impossible if they had to rely on themselves only. The credit must go to their generals or managers, translated in management lingo. Then it must also go to their lieutenants or supervisors and to their soldiers or staffs. If the generals had not taken ownership, such empires would not have been possible.
According to a study, the story of the Roman Empire is as much a story of military excellence as one of managerial brilliance.
The idea to conquer the world could not have belonged to only these few people. Many more could have harbored it. However, the limiting factor was definitely the management and leadership acumen that prevented more such people from rising and making it in our history books. So how did the above empire-builders do it? They found the answer to deep questions such as:
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How can I duplicate my passion in my staff?
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How can I make them feel that it is their own war (business)?
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How to stop them from backing off from giving their best?
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How to train them?
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How to keep loyalty of staffs towards the empire (organization)?
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How can I make them feel rewarded?
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How can I make them excel in their own crafts (jobs)?
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What conditions are required for them to work in unity and not as fragments?
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Is it possible to have independence and accountability in staffs at the same time? (For example, when sending off a general to a far off land with abundant wealth to finance the wars there, he is required to be able to think and act independently and not enjoy the loot by himself (accountability).
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Isn’t it like managers of today?)
Climbing Everest and Management
I am in a frenzy to materialize my dreams. So are you. However don’t rush and don’t be misled and make faux-pas. You would not climb Mount Everest without protective gear, oxygen and other equipments. How do you think you can reach the summit of your dreams without knowledge, indomitable confidence and management tools? You would not climb mount Everest without thorough testing, training and team planning. How do you think you can reach of the summit of your dreams without doing your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis, capacity development and business modelling? Half hearted you will surely die on your way to the summit: passion must be there that is not dependent on external motivation (payment and recognition) alone.
Management in Sync
I too one day have a dream to change the world. But I am not in a rush. My activities may seem disconnected from my dream but only to eyes un-initiated in the art of ‘ambition/delusion discrimination’. It is all about moving away from illusion-based dreams to reality-based ambitions. It is about asking profound questions related to the process of getting there and finding answers.
Zest
By now you have learnt:
1. The difference between ambition and delusion.
2. The factors that can be altered to stay on the right track of healthy ambition.
3. There is a Nepali dream in the making just like the famous American dream.
4. Dreaming is fine but one must be prepared to overcome managerial constraints as did by the great conquerors of past.
5. Your management style must answer questions about how to harness the will and effort of people working for you directly or indirectly
6. The cost of failure is rising in every respect: financial, social and personal. Don’t start without commitment to sound management.
7. Every action of your life must be so in sync with cosmic laws of success that even the heaven will conspire to give you success.
All self-made billionaires know what I am talking about. WAS (Wink and smile).
