Today’s papers announced Nandan Nilekani’s decision to quit Infosys - and that he is moving on to lead the National ID card project.
He has become my hero.
It requires exceptional courage for anybody at the top of his game (like Nandan) to quit what he has been very very successful at, and venture into doing something totally new - where the expertise required is totally different, and the chances of failure are high.
But that is what makes such people really great – moving on to new things when they are right at the top – and making people wonder why the decision was taken so soon. Most people would prefer to continue at it until they either gently fade away or where they end up eroding all the halo they had previously built up.
I believe people should quit and move on when they get the “feel” that they have reached the top i.e
- You keep doing the same stuff you were doing a year back – but probably on a bigger scale. In other words qualitatively you have not acquired any new skills although you may be managing greater volumes (And forget cosmetic designation changes)
- you have a bunch of very good talented individuals lined up who are even half-ready to take on your role. You should be proud when people you have mentored step into your role, and you help that process by voluntarily and happily moving on
Most people hang-on in their positions for years. Like some of our cricketers, they believe their best is yet to come – but alas this is usually a self-perpetuated myth. The longer they clutch on to their existing roles, the more insecure and stale they become, and the more incapable they become of moving out of their comfort zone into a different role - either within or outside their current organisation.
I know some friends who justify their decision to keep doing what they have been doing for years by explaining that that is the only thing that they are good at – and that there seem to be no other alternatives (especially in the depressed times of today). Again I believe this is just an excuse to stay in one’s comfort zone.
Enough of preaching – do you think I or you would have the guts to take the plunge into uncharted territory? Would I have the guts to seize unconventional opportunities and risk it all?
He has become my hero.
It requires exceptional courage for anybody at the top of his game (like Nandan) to quit what he has been very very successful at, and venture into doing something totally new - where the expertise required is totally different, and the chances of failure are high.
But that is what makes such people really great – moving on to new things when they are right at the top – and making people wonder why the decision was taken so soon. Most people would prefer to continue at it until they either gently fade away or where they end up eroding all the halo they had previously built up.
I believe people should quit and move on when they get the “feel” that they have reached the top i.e
- You keep doing the same stuff you were doing a year back – but probably on a bigger scale. In other words qualitatively you have not acquired any new skills although you may be managing greater volumes (And forget cosmetic designation changes)
- you have a bunch of very good talented individuals lined up who are even half-ready to take on your role. You should be proud when people you have mentored step into your role, and you help that process by voluntarily and happily moving on
Most people hang-on in their positions for years. Like some of our cricketers, they believe their best is yet to come – but alas this is usually a self-perpetuated myth. The longer they clutch on to their existing roles, the more insecure and stale they become, and the more incapable they become of moving out of their comfort zone into a different role - either within or outside their current organisation.
I know some friends who justify their decision to keep doing what they have been doing for years by explaining that that is the only thing that they are good at – and that there seem to be no other alternatives (especially in the depressed times of today). Again I believe this is just an excuse to stay in one’s comfort zone.
Enough of preaching – do you think I or you would have the guts to take the plunge into uncharted territory? Would I have the guts to seize unconventional opportunities and risk it all?
3 comments:
As soon as I got this to read this, I in a way started sulking, away from commenting on this as I felt that it so clearly applied to my position too and I am sure that it would apply to a large number of people running small establishments like me and also the employed too. Most of the people in their daily struggle to meet their and their families expenses would want a secure life and income for which they would dare not move away from their comfort zones. But perhaps the recipe for a daring move as of stopping what you were doing that too when the going is easy and smooth may be the total lack of fear as it is with some people who let us say bungy jump and also a good deal of information on the new venture or if in the case of the jump as to how strong the rubbery rope tied to ones feet is. I was starting to think that this could more easily be done by the employed from one job to the next, than by an entrepreneur winding up his good--going enterprise and to go into a totally different field carrying with him the financial burden of his family or employees. But this may not be true rather it could be again the attitude that could help to make this decision. What is required attitude and how does one develop this is the question. Sometimes one gets lost in the continuous process of data collection and info collection on let us say bungy jumping but this isn’t put to any use unless he gets up from his chair to actually do the jump.
Perhaps another item on the list of recipe could be financial backing . Let me use an example ,let us take the case of say a cobbler who has been struggling to make his ends meet . One day this cobbler sells a part of his property for a good profit and suddenly has huge cash reserve for his family to lean on. Now if you compare his present position (of huge cash reserve) with that of his earlier (no cash reserve and daily compulsory struggle to meet his expenses) almost surely the present position would be easier for him to change his business.
Another item on the recipe could be “what would the society think of this, what if I fail, what will my family think of me, etc”
Also here is Mr Nilekani actually looking at bringing in the benefits of this huge(Rs 1,50,000 crore project) task of collecting data of all the 102 crores of people above the age of 18 to Infosys.
Good one...
Phew! Anna more than what I understood from your comment, its your amazing art of putting across your thoughts about the subject.
Good one!
Post a Comment