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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Sometimes in our obsession to be right, we lose sight of the goal and lose the game.
Therefore they are demons. Please note that in Hindu mythology, unlike in Biblical mythology, demons are not evil creatures—Hindus have no Satan. They are children of Brahma just like devas. The divide between them is not moral or ethical. They are complementary forces of nature.
Leaders often forget that success is drawn not to them but to their action. The crown follows the position, not the person. To keep Lakshmi walking towards them all the time, it is important that a leader always stays a Vishnu—always balanced, always focused, always impartial, and always detached.
This connection between the leader and the organization is critical. He has to believe in the organization, its goals, and its values, or he cannot be a leader. In the absence of vivah, a man is not a
Before a man is promoted to a senior position, it is critical that he be accepted by his peer group—the other kings. To justify this rise, he needs some tangible achievement, a proof of concept, without which he remains a wannabe, a dreamer.
Before promotion
After the crown has been publicly placed, a manager often faces hostility from his team. He is a stranger, a new boss. Relationships have to be established. Hierarchies and processes have to be put in place. The worst thing to do is to add value or impose authority without connecting with the team.
After promotion
To lead, one must be clear what one wants and what each member of the team is supposed to do to make that happen.
If a person has outgrown his job, it is time to give him a new job. If a person has outgrown his responsibility, it is time to give him a higher responsibility.
Often leaders let their team do the talking. This creates an impression that the king is a puppet or has no mind of his own. A true leader needs to perform Digvijaya yatra to assert his authority and to tell the world where he plans to lead them and how.
A leader must see his people. He must recognize them for who they are, rather than what he wants them to be. More often than not, leaders don’t have eyes—or rather they see only themselves. Their eyes are only for their vision of the world.
This is what happens to talented people who are rejected by the mainstream—they end up in the wrong hands. And in rage and frustration, they end up doing the undesirable.
We want the gods to see us and pay attention to us. Do we see people around us and pay attention to them? Do we see what they see? Do
If Vikramaditya believes that his judgement is objective, then he is only deluding himself. All decisions are moulded by frameworks and contexts—all frameworks are constructed and all contexts are interpreted through the subjective lens.
The attitude of charity cannot be created by an organizational directive. It needs to be kindled internally in each employee. Employees participate only because they are obliged to
To be truly charitable, one has to find a way where charity enables business growth, not the other way around.
Narada had behaved like a reactive subordinate. Very obedient, doing what the master told him to, leaving all the thinking to the master. Garuda behaved like a proactive subordinate, anticipating all his master’s moves and preparing for it. That ‘ability to anticipate’ made Garuda more efficient and effective and hence more valuable in the eyes of Vishnu.
