I Bought The Monk's Ferrari

by Ravi Subramanian

  HENRY DAVID THOREAU

  But what is the meaning of 'Aspire'?

  ASPIRE to me is, A Strategic Plan for Individuals which Revisits and Restates Expectations.

  A

  Strategic

  Plan for

  Individuals which

  Revisits and Restates

  Expectations

  All of us, at various points of time, at various levels, make strategic plans for businesses, departments, teams, etc. Once done with the initial planning the chain of action begins. Taking up necessary tasks to meet those goals come after that. If this can be done within an organisation, it can be done in life, too.

  Your aspirations must be audacious and your efforts to achieve them must be commensurate with the audacity. Naina's story proves this point. She had the audacity and wanted to make the best out of it. She worked hard and concentrated all her efforts towards winning her laurel.

  The harder you work, the mor

  e lucky you get.

  THOMAS JEFFERSON

  Today, Naina stands taller than most, rubbing shoulders with the polity and the regulators, businessmen and the media. She has carved a niche for herself in the banking world.

  If you wish to get any closer to Naina's achievements, you will have to work hard at reaching your aspirations, blowing away all the obstacles that come your way. My recommendation is try out the CBA method, as Naina did, to acquire your Ferrari.

  C - Constantly take stock of your aspiration

  B - Balance between Success and Failure

  A - Adopt an attitude to deal with situations.

  Constantly Take Stock of Aspirations

  Aspirations are dynamic. They keep changing every few years. Constantly taking stock of your aspirations means reinventing yourself. Ask yourself 'Where do I want to be? What do I want to achieve?' The answers to these questions must be constantly sought and revisited periodically to ensure that you are not pitching yourselves below your capabilities.

  There are very few people who can conjure long-term visions and set themselves long-term goals. Most people cannot see more than three or four years ahead of them. A typical example is that of an executive in the branch of a small bank who aspires to be a branch manager. Once he becomes a branch manager, his aspirations change. He now aspires to become the head of a cluster of branches ... so on and so forth.

  I can think of a similar paradigm in my early career. I joined ANZ Grindlays Bank in the year 1995 as a relationship manager, at a level which in those days was called Grade Three. All new management graduates joined at that level. The compensation structure in that level was a normal cash-based compensation with no perks attached to it.

  However, things changed dramatically at the next level— referred to internally as a Grade Four position. As per the Human Resource rules, the bank offered a fully furnished accommodation, to anyone at Grade Four. Even the loan entitlement at that level was significantly higher. One could even get car loans at discounted rates of interest. My ultimate aspiration in life at that time was to get to Grade Four. I hoped that my life would change once I got there. I worked towards it and eventually did get there, but once I got there, everything changed—but not the way I had expected. Grade Four no longer sounded as alluring as it used to. Now, I wanted greater things in life. I wanted to ascend to Grade Five, Grade Six and Grade Seven. I wanted to progress. Had I become complacent, after reaching Grade Four, I would have remained there even now. Therefore, it is very important that you keep revisiting your aspirations and redefine them. Remember the definition of ASPIRE—A Strategic Plan for Individuals which Revisits and Restates Expectations— it sounds more sensible now, than ever.

  Balance between Success and Failure

  This is a very interesting point which Naina makes. Imagine you are setting sales targets for your teams. One of the teams busts its targets by the 25th of every month. This does not happen once or twice, but for months. Such a case has only one of two implications—either it is a brilliant sales team with tremendous drive, energy and passion that they are able to deliver a month's target in twenty-five days consistently, or that given their vintage, experience and calibre, the targets set for the team are just not good enough, so they are able to meet it easily. More often, the problem is the latter and not the former. Therefore, a word of caution for all those who have been successfully getting to hundred percent of their goals and aspirations ... maybe, you are not stretching yourself enough. You are setting far too low targets and are easily achieving them. If you can push your subordinates to stretch targets at the beginning of the year, you might as well do it for yourself while re-evaluating your goals.

  Your quest for higher activations should not be tempered by your failures. To all those self-doubters, I would say that failure is not the end of the road. It is a learning opportunity. If you dissect every failure of yours, there are enough lessons to learn. You need not fear failure or public condemnation, after all. I can give you many instances of people who have failed and resurrected themselves from the ignominy of failure. They have gone along to become extremely successful in their pursuits of the Ferrari.

  Let me tell you about a young cricketer. He was initially selected to the Indian cricket team that toured South Africa in 1991-1992. After a disastrous series, he was dropped from the team. He never made it back till he was picked up again for the series against England in 1996, wherein he made back to back centuries in his first two matches and even momentarily threatened Azharuddin's record of three consecutive centuries on debut. This was Saurav Ganguly who went on to become one of the most successful captains in the history of Indian cricket. Then, there was this young man, who was initially thrown out of the All India Radio auditions for his unusually heavy voice, thoroughly unfit for the job of a news-reader. Who would imagine that he was destined to become the most coveted voice in Indian film history—Amitabh Bachchan. You would not have heard these names if they had been deterred by failures.

  However, the bottom line is, aim for the stars and reach them. That is what I call an aspiration fulfilled. You can stand on a stool and reach the ceiling quite effortlessly, but reaching the stars is not quite as easy. Owning a Ferrari never was.

  Attitude to Deal with Every Situation

  The path to the Ferrari will not be bereft of obstacles. There will be a number of cynics to condemn you. Eccentric, dreamer, impractical ... you will often find such words being thrown at you. A successful man is one who builds a strong foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.

  When Bill Gates said, A PC on every table' in the early eighties when servers were of the size of half a room, people laughed. He was dismissed as a maverick. But look at where we stand today. A computer is an indispensable tool both in office and at home. Can you imagine a life without computers now? Therefore, reaching the pinnacle of your aspirations requires a special skill. An ability to deal with detractors and doubting Thomas's with confidence. The best way to deal with the detractors trying to dent your confidence is not to have them in your team at all. Build a team of people who will help you fulfil your dreams. Having a team full of aligned, strong-w'lled, and challenging individuals gives you the confidence to deal with almost any situation.

  One of the big stories which held everyone's interest early in 2006, and which to my mind, marked the beginning of an era of India's economic dominance in the world, was the takeover of Arcelor Steel by Lakshmi Mittal. To date, I remember a television interview of L.N. Mittal, which was being telecast on CNBC TV 18, soon after Arcelor had rejected the takeover bid of Mittal Steel; calling it hostile. It was in no way an easy interview, but Mittal kept his calm. The interviewer tried to push him hard to provoke a response. But Mittal would not say anything derogatory or controversial.

  'Mr Mittal, what would you do if this deal does not go through,' finally the anchor asked him.

  'Well ...' he paused 'for me, that option does not exist.' The confidence in himself, his team and his ability to fulfil hi
s aspiration was very evident.

  What makes this special was that, when he made this comment, the deal valued at $33.1bn, was far from being in his pocket. The entire European Union was against this deal. There were murmurs of racism which were gathering steam. It was a mammoth task Mittal was staring at. No one gave him a chance. Arcelor too, had found a suitor in Severstal (a steel company based in Russia) and the CEO of Arcelor and Severstal had gone on record and announced the proposed merger of Arcelor with Severstal.

  Getting to the point of closure of the merger involved a bruising fight for Mittal. In January 2006, Mitel's offer of Euro 18.6bn offer for Arcelor was harshly and swiftly rebuked by Arcelor's management and a chorus of European politicians who criticised everything from his looks, to his language, to his mannerisms, to his Indian origin and the quality of his company's steel. Arcelor seniors refused to even meet with Mittal until a string of demands were met, and simultaneously orchestrated a Euro 13bn deal with Severstal of Russia. Despite all this, Mittal prevailed and managed to create a conglomerate which is the largest steel manufacturing unit in the world. He had the attitude and the confidence to deal with every situation and the faith in himself. Had he surrounded himself with a set of doubters, he would never have made this deal.

  I dream my painting and then paint

  my dream.

  VINCENT VAN GOGH

  The Ferrari is a dream ... a desire ... a passion. You need extraordinary skills to acquire it. It is not for the ordinary lot. To get there you need to set your goals high and go after them with a singleminded arid a fearless dedication: the way in which Naina pursued her aspirations.

  COMMANDMENT ONE

  To acquire the Ferrari you need to ASPIRE.

  And when you aspire, do not compromise

  for anything but the best.

  Seven

  * * *

  Stay Positive

  It was a Saturday afternoon, Dharini and I decided to go out for a movie. With Anusha in tow, we settled on Ta Ra Rum Pum, the latest Hindi blockbuster, from the Yashraj Films banner. With Anusha around, we normally avoid the late night shows, and hence, matinee show it was. The movie was very emotional and for the first time I saw my little one cry in a theatre. She was extremely touched by all that the children in the movie went through and did for the sake of their parents.

  The movie got over at six in the evening, and after stepping out of IMAX Multiplex at Wadala, we walked into the Crossword Bookstore within the same complex. As we were going through the books someone called out my name.

  One ship drives east and another drives west

  With the selfsame winds that blow

  'Tis the set of sails and not the gales

  Which tells us the way to go.

  ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

  'Hey, Ravi! What a pleasant surprise!'

  I turned around, and found a middle-aged man, standing right next to me, grinning from ear to ear. Seeing a blank look on my face he hastened to add, 'I'm Paresh! Don't you recognise me?'

  'Oh yes, of course. How could I forget you, Paresh?'

  Paresh, my batch-mate at IIM-Bangalore, was extremely studious who always ranked among the toppers. If my memory serves me right, he ranked third in the batch of 180 students. Very intelligent. He had come there with his daughter, who was a little older than Anusha.

  We started talking. Except for some extra pounds around his midrif, he looked just the same. He resided somewhere in Bandra, very close to my home so I offered to drive them back, which he accepted. On the way back, he invited me to his house for a quick drink before heading back home. I turned to look at Dharini and Anusha to check if it was fine with them. Anusha was insistent on playing with Paresh's daughter, so I dropped Dharini, Anusha and Paresh's daughter at our house and went back with him for a drink.

  I could make out from his body language that he had been through a fair bit of stress in life. He was living alone with his daughter, which was rather unexpected. Though he did not say much initially, he opened up after a few drinks. Apparently, his wife had left him and gone back to her parents about two years back. It was in no way a happy marriage to start with, and then to add woe to his worries he lost his job.

  Paresh was working in the retail business of BNP Paribas. One day at work, he was called along with a few of his colleagues into the conference room. Initially, it appeared to be a normal meeting. But once inside the conference room, they were all given an envelope with a cheque of three months' salary as notice pay and their services were terminated. BNP was retreating from the retail business that they had got into only a few years back and they retrenched almost all their staff in the retail business. Paresh was one of the unfortunate lot. He was a victim of circumstances, of the faulty and hasty strategy of an organisation.

  This proved to be the proverbial last straw which broke the camel's back. When he returned home and announced that he had lost his job, his wife went hysterical. Paresh was not wrong in seeking support on this traumatic day. But his wife was only adding to his misery. His thoughts were disrupted when he felt someone tugging at his kurta. It was his daughter Avantika. She stood next to him with a worried look on her face. He picked her up and nestled her on his lap.

  'What happened, daddy?'

  'Nothing, beta.'

  'Why is mummy upset?'

  'Nothing Avani, daddy's office has closed down. So, daddy has no job now. He'll not have to go to office anymore. So Mummy's worried.'

  'Yeeeeeaaa! What fun!' Paresh glared at her but Avantika did not stop. She was running around with joy screaming 'Yeeeeaaaooow!!'

  'Avantika, Stop it!' screamed Paresh.

  'Dad, so you will not go to office?'

  He nodded.

  'Yippeee! You will be with me throughout the day.' Little did Avantika realise that this innocuous statement of hers would change her father's life forever. Her words struck Paresh like lightning. He was worried about the direction his life was taking and his daughter had already given him a reason to fight back. She had found a positive streak in what he thought was the end of the world. She found a reason to be happy amidst the gloom. The reason for her joy was that Paresh would now be with her throughout the day ... something she had been yearning for long.

  This simple incident changed Paresh's entire perspective of looking at life. He understood that life always has a positive streak in it. It is just a matter of finding it out. It may seem to be a search among the ruins at the beginning, but once it is found it lasts forever. It becomes a habit, an imbibed culture. That was what happened to Paresh. After the incident, he started looking at life positively, and resolved to be happy, always.

  Often, when you set out to acquire the Ferrari, you will encounter nerve-wrecking obstacles. It is important, that you remain optimistic even on the face of such crisis.

  There is a legend of a saint who met three workers building a temple at the foothills of Himalayas. The terrain was rough and the weather was harsh. The workers were sweaty and tired but laboured away. It was not an easy task. The saint was thirsty, so he stopped for some water. While he was filling water in his sack, the first worker came along.

  Overcome by curiosity, the saint asked him, 'What are you doing, my friend?'

  'I am laying the bricks.' He drank water from the tap and went away.

  The saint then walked up to the second worker and asked him the same question.

  He answered, 'I am trying to earn money to meet my ends.'

  The saint went to the third worker to ask him as well.

  'I am building the largest temple anyone has ever seen,' he replied.

  All the three workers were working on the same temple, but with different perspectives. The third worker was probably the happiest and at total peace with himself. The difference between him and the other two was that he had a long-term vision, a wider perspective in envisaging the end result of his creation; therefore, he enjoyed his work. The others saw it as something which had to be done and resigned themselv
es to their fate. The third worker had positive thought and high aspiration, which the other two lacked.

  Let me tell you about P S. Jayakumar, the head of sales and distribution for Citibank in India. He joined the bank in 1986 and had been with the organisation for over fifteen years. He was responsible for four business-lines of Citibank (personal loans, mortgages, auto loans and liability sales) and was one of the senior most employees of the bank. A very influential person indeed, within the Citibank circle.

  A rock pile ceases to be a rock

  pile the moment a single man

  contemplates it, bearing within

  him the image of a cathedral.

  ANTOINE DE SAINT

  A man of superior capabilities, Jayakumar was way ahead of his colleagues. At meetings, he would come up with revolutionary ideas beyond anyone's bandwidth. In the year 2001, Jayakumar was talked about as the next head of retail bank for Citibank in India. An invincible contender for the post, he was, surely. But luck would not have it. Jayakumar's long-term adversary, based in London, moved in as the head of retail bank, dashing all his hopes to the ground. Jayakumar was left stranded. Adding insult to injury was the fact that he had to report to the new head.

  In the year 2001, Citigroup carried out a worldwide acquisition of a company called The Associates. This company operated in the sub-prime lending space, which was at the opposite end of the spectrum as far as Citigroup was concerned. Citibank targeted the elite, and The Associates targeted the lower-end of the income pyramid. Hence, this acquisition made Citigroup's business appear complete. They now had products targeted at every individual across the economic spectrum.