Shirdi Sai Baba – Lessons for Professionals in Corporate world – Think Local, Be Local, Act Global

Sairam friends,

I have been planning to write this article for the past couple of days. When Saibaba want’s me to write about something, he makes me think about it often.

Firstly let’s define Corporate because many of us use words with out knowing what it actually means…( I do)

Definition of corporate in English

Adjective:

Relating to a large company or group

Law (of a large company or group) authorized to act as a single entity and recognized as such in law.

Of or shared by all the members of a group

Origin of the word Corporate:

Late 15th century: from Latin corporatus, past participle of corporare ‘form into a body’, from corpus, corpor- ‘body’

Now lets see few issues in Corporate World

1.  Its Good as long as you don’t bother about your results:

I am not writing for the Highly paid, Top Professionals in any Corporations. I always write for people who are struggling for a better career or managing with what they have. Look, You are supposed to do your work and do it without being attached to the results. Results may mean any thing – For some its their Salary – what you call as Package, for some its Position and for few like me its simply being in peace.

I am in a company because I feel peace and I will continue there as long as I get this peace. In between there were few month when my peace was destroyed during which time I read the book of Karma Marga by Swami Vivekananda. The book clearly tells one must simply do their work without expecting any results. We must be very dedicated and sincere but never get attached to it that we are doing it and has to be get positive results etc.

So in Corporate world, As long as you don’t worry about Results, You are satisfied. The moment, you think hard about what you earn, this and that because of your family situation etc, you feel the pain and can’t be happy. Many Sai devotees working in big and small companies write me that they are not satisfied with their job. I never reply but if I do, I say stay in the Job until you get a better job or do a course that can enhance your skills and get you a better job.

2. No Matter how much you contributed in past, if the water dries from your river, you are Questioned:

This is something I experienced. People expect you to continuously contribute. They feel you must do this and you are supposed to do this particular job. If you deny, You are called unreliable professional and a resource which doesn’t contribute anything.

You must have done  a lot in the past few weeks, months or years. In Corporate world, they ask what you did “Now”

I don’t say its wrong because Business keeps demanding but one must be respected for what he/she did as a whole and not every now and then.

3.  You don’t seem to be “Be Corporate”

Since I was into Freelancing for many years before I moved to a Full time job, I said something for which the reply was ” You don’t have experience. That’s why you speak like this”

Earlier, I believed that I really miss something. Then I started observing people, how they behave, what they do at a time of crisis and realized, They are only living in a imaginary world of “Being Corporate”. They really are too indecent, cheap and stupid at times. They can say Lie, They can play games, Politics, Blame others for their mistake, Do anything they can for their own welfare. Well, where does decency or “Standard of Corporate world” come here. Its simply our own imagination that we are leading a high profile Corporate life.

What you see any where else in a ordinary labor job happens here in Corporate world too and we have to accept we are not always “Human” . We must learn to be Human, True and Kind no matter how “Corporate” we have become.

Few days back One of my friend told me “You are the most Disgusting fellow in the entire Corporate World”

I agreed to him but wondered why people stick to some rules that exits in Corporate world.

Learn the basics – Learn whom you are serving and about the lives you touch:

Here comes the most important point. “Being Corporate” is not all about working in a cubicle and looking into analytic to find how to develop your business or create better products. I have seen hundreds of IT Professionals who only know what they do, Their specific work and won’t try to see what their product is like in Other companies or in a Global Scale. I am not speaking about students who come from Top Institutes. The vast majority who get some job, simply focus on it.

We are not here to create Software for a Multi National and earn a living. We are here to provide solution for Human race at some part of the world. So we need to get to the ground and see what really is happening else where. The basics are always forgotten and I agree, we don’t have time to learn.

Respect People and Be Kind:

One of the reason I feel satisfied for my failures in Career for many years is because I learnt about life, My disappointments made me a Better human being. I learnt to be more Kind. This is more important than learning a skill or to be highly educated. You think, going out with your friends at work to restaurants, movies and having fun is great and makes you so culturally evolved.

You are most welcome to have all fun but you are still as ordinary as others you come across in day to day life.

The other day, one of my friend in near by Company in my Campus was shouting a lot as some one scratched his Car’s door and left. I went there to see what happened. I felt sorry for him as he has painted just before a week. He was upset too. Two securities who are from other states came there and simply tried to manage his anger.

A elderly person came who seem to be the chief of these securities. He was speaking to me about how these people behave and use words which really hurt him at times. He has tears in eyes when he said that and I understood his feelings. He said, I have traveled all over India as I was in Indian Army and came for this work but these guys and girls are like my children and they use words they are not supposed to.

I have come across many who are Kind but these days, people are more into their position and treat people below them very harshly. Trust me. No body is below you. Its all your own imagination and justification.

 Think Local, Be Local, Act Global

There is no loss in being Local. Many say me that am not Pro and I agree “I am not’ I like to be simple and what I am. You try to be too Corporate, you speak too corporate, Your mails are great but did you always win?

Many Companies fail because they focus more on formalities and not the real Game. The Game is to create products and solutions for the ever changing world.

I am thankful for the recent entrepreneurs and start ups in India because they work casually and still remain competitive.

I don’t know many things technical and when I came here, I used to think, May be they do a lot and then I realized with a surprise “These people don’t even know what a ordinary people like me who earned a living sitting in home with a computer does”

Why many Corporate Professionals are ignorant? This is because they don’t read much. They are too busy with their own work and they don’t actually keep track of the recent trends.

So my humble suggestion is, Keep Reading, learning and also never think Being corporate is all about your Dress, your behavior and some manners and some Meetings.

Being Local really helps at times.

You know one of the Country Manager of s of biggest MNC’s in India took off from his Job and went on Bike across the country especially to learn the country and its Culture. There are many CEO’s who tried to be LOCAL to act Global and capture the Market. We Indians work in companies forgetting to know our own people and culture.

If you don’t know the people, how will you create products and solutions for them and do business with them?

Now I shall tell you a beautiful story from Sai Satcharitra

Shirdi Sai Baba – Lessons for Professionals in Corporate world – Think Local, Be Local, Act Global

Sai Satchritra – Chapter XV

Naradiya Kirtan – Paddhati

The readers may remember that mention was made in the 6th Chapter regarding the Rama-Navami Festival in Shirdi; how the festival originated and how in the early years there was a great difficulty in getting a good Hardidas for performing Kirtan on that occasion, and how Baba permanently entrusted this function (Kirtan) to Dasganu permanently. Now in this Chapter we shall describe the manner in which Dasganu was performing the Kirtan.

Learning to be Simple

Generally our Haridasas, while performing the Kirtan, wear a gala and full dress. They put on a head-dress, either a pheta or a turban, a long flowing coat with a shirt inside, an uparane (short dhotar) on the shoulders and the usual long dhotar from the waist below. Dressed in this fashion for some Kirtan in the Shirdi village, Dasganu once went to bow to Baba.

Baba asked him – “Well, bridegroom! where are you going dressed so beautifully like this?” ‘For performing a Kirtan’ was the reply.

Then Baba said – “Why do you want all this paraphemalia-coat, uparani and pheta etc, doff all that before Me, why wear them on the body?”Dasganu immediately took them off and placed them at the Baba’s Feet.

From that time Dasganu never wore these things while performing the Kirtan. He was always bare from waist upwards, a pair of `chiplis’ was in his hand and a garland round his neck. This is not in consonance with the practice generally followed by all the Hardidasa, but this is the best and the purest method.

The sage Narada, from whom the Kirtan-Paddhati originated, wore nothing on his trunk and head. He carried a ‘veena’ in his hand, and wandered from place to place everywhere singing the glory of the Lord.

From this Leela, Sai tries to make a person completely away from external show off. people in Corporate world must learn that its not in the way they dress, their Manners and Art of influencing but its all internal, their human touch with each other which can make then successful.

By this leela, I don’t mean one must not wear good dress to match the corporate world. I just mean, Focus on your work and be more human.

After all, We are not Big.

We are all serving the God who gave us different roles to play.

As long as we only do good karma, we are blessed

My parents kept asking what am i doing…Getting late for work

Sairam

Love

Venkat

Always in the holy feet of Shirdi Saibaba