Business to the Buddha

Tag: emotional decision

  • Seeking recognition

    Disclaimer – Death of Sushant Singh Rajpoot (SSR) has moved me deeply. This blog post is dedicated to him. Neither this post nor I mean to insinuate anything related to the causes of death or anything related to the big personality in SSR. I request you to please look at the message at a larger perspective.

    Humans are social animals which eventually results in seeking recognition. We end up seeking recognition from our family, friends, peers, and society. This happened with me a few years back and recently. I realized that one must grow beyond this exercise itself. This social acceptance can take a toll on our physical and mental well-being. This can result in we taking an emotional decision rather than a logical one. Life is a miracle we must simply live it why bother to seek recognition?

    My story – Morality, logic and larger balanced perspective

    A few years back one of my friends was posting some international matter concerns particularly relating to a country East of India. So I replied or spoke with him – I forgot now if I replied or called – I said, this is a matter of concern however it is at Central Govt level to take any decision be it settling the affected in India. He was furious, he said something in rage and shared some disturbing photos on my Facebook messenger. I replied to that saying –

    1. we do not know the authenticity of these pictures and
    2. if we have concerns for the Eastern part of India we must have a balanced approach – western part of India and even the Mediterranean and southwestern Asia. We should have the same scale of measurement on any religious atrocities.
    3. if we concern ourselves with one kind of the oppressed people we must have our ears open for the other oppressed and consider all of them equal. Or the oppressed should consider living in a more socially acceptable country isn’t it?

    This was a question of morality for him for me it was a question of logic and balanced perspective. He was upset, unfriended me on Facebook. I came to know about that later. I felt I was more logical and balanced. When I came to know he unfriended me I wrote to him – “not being a friend on FB does not mean we are not friends, isn’t it?” We had been friends for decades and it was an abrupt end to communication. At times one must leave aside being correct and logical, however this is an afterthought :).

    Seeking recognition

    I had been considering a discussion, in our common friend group too. Unfortunately, there was no reciprocation. So, I tried analyzing. I was trying to seek recognition. Unknowingly, I was seeking recognition for my point of view and logical thought over the emotional opinion of my friend. Why am I ruminating about all these things?

    sushant-singh-rajput

    When I felt is it useless, suddenly, we heard the death of Sushant Singh Rajpoot. There are many theories whether it was murder or suicide. Though, the truth seems elusive until now. Some reports say he was undergoing depression, though it is tough to believe. It is said that he did not receive recognition from the film industry that he deserved. This incident has opened a pandora’s box on not only Bollywood but also in other fields where nepotism is at its peak – publishing brought forward by Author Ameesh and Sanjeev Sanyal. Being an insider, Sushant might have known the awards were for sale – India Today report of Rishi Kapoor.

    Sushant’s death let me ask a question – why would someone seek recognition? In fact I was doing the same off late.

    I felt two things. Assuming it was depression forcing him to take the extreme step, he was seeking recognition at the wrong place and two he could look at brighter side too. He had more than 2 million followers on twitter, 13.9 million followers on Instagram. Numerous (read millions), like me, have watched him on TV or cinema hall and praised his performance. he had a good success rate in movies. I still find it difficult to accept he committed suicide.

    Net-net, point I was ruminating was – at times in our emotional or local circle we try to seek recognition whereas it may be unnecessary to do that. At times, people are emotionally blinded or at times you need to look beyond the small local circle, you have many more who understand your logical reasoning and admire you.

    You do not need to prove anything to anyone. Do not seek recognition from others, especially from those who look down upon you.

  • Options, analysis and decisions







    I have been analyzing buying a house vs living on rent and buying a four wheeler vs riding a cab. This is not a new comparison and analysis for me. Most of the time, answers to these two were – buy a house and rent a car or use a cab service.

    How did I arrive at these conclusions? Of course after some calculations and considering options. The question is – what was the measure on which I measured these things to come up with some conclusion? The measure was “utility”. In economics utility means resultant benefit achieved from something (usage or consumption of product or service). When you eat Idly on road side @20 INR and when the same idly plate is served to you in a better place it could by @60 INR. We may argue about taste, hygiene etc of idly from 20INR to 60INR. When one moves from basic utility to additional utilities we measure that in terms of marginal utility. Marginal utility, is the incremental benefit one gets from consumption or usage of an offering.

    We can continue from our situation of buying a four wheeler. The first question one may have is – which car – SUV, Sedan, Hatchback. Once that is decided which company which brand and what amenities such as AC, power window and music system etc. There are obviously many more questions in making a decision. The other option is hiring a local taxi or app based service. After all this analysis – what one gets is drop from point A to point B. At times pain of parking – if it is owned car or self driving. The drop from A to B is utility in this case. Marginal utility is – can you play music of your choice while driving or is the vehicle air conditioned during the trip. In the bargain of ability to play music and air conditioning you need to pay extra. This extra amount vs the additional benefit you get defined marginal utility.

    Many of our life decisions are made emotionally and justified rationally. I analyzed a lot with a decision of buying a house and renting a car. Currently, I live in a rented house and drive a car. How often do we take decision by listening to our heart and mind? Is there a rational justification to our decision? Why do we take such decision? When we have to really take a plunge with faith, we falter. When we have to take a decision with full analysis we do the opposite!

    Give it a thought – Mahavir and Buddha – both were from warrior families and were to be the kings. Why did they renounce everything, how on earth they both might have taken such step? Had they both done enough analysis possibly both had stayed back. I know more about the Buddha so can think of an incident, when he was following extreme austerity such that he could had died of hunger, he decided to eat. In short term his five best friends went away saying he has left the path. But the Buddha was right, austerity and self affliction may not necessarily help. He said to himself, if I die of hunger I wont be able to achieve what I strive for.

    In my analytics practice one of my senior’s Eron Kar used to say – “If you torture data enough it will confess to the story you want it to narrate.” Always it is not right to over analyze, at times leaders need to take a leap of faith and decide.

    Prof Mankad told me once – “Pravin, when you become a leader, sitting in the 76th floor of your corporate office when you have to make a tough choice do one thing. Leave aside all the papers and analysis. Walk toward the window. Take out a coin from your pocket, toss it and you will have the decision.” Dr Mankad continued “Pravin, sometimes you should stop over analyzing.” I need to learn a lot to do that one I have to become that big a decision maker of a company and two stopping the urge to analyze everything, I still analyze a lot!

    Image source – http://novalo.com/flat-fee-self-employed/