I Bought The Monk's Ferrari (15 page)

Fleming's father once saved a rich Scottish farmer's child from drowning in quicksand. The farmer was extremely thankful to Fleming's father. And as a mark of gratitude, he offered to support Fleming's education. In due course of time the young Fleming grew up, and became a great scientist, and consequently discovered Penicillin. And, when the farmer's son was suffering from pneumonia, Penicillin cured him. The moral is, good deeds done always return to the doer. And, that was what happened, first in the case of Fleming's father and then the farmer.

Narayana Murthy, the chief mentor of Infosys, says:
For Heavens sake, there is nothing wrong in creating wealth
by
legal and ethical means. Do not ever confuse creation of wealth with charity. First,
you
create wealth efficiently and only then can you donate your share of profit to any charity. If you don't earn, what will you give.

There can be no two opinions on what Narayana Murthy says. If you want to give your needy neighbour a ride, you must have the Ferrari first. To share your wealth with others, you need to create wealth first. And, once you have generated wealth, you must use a part of it, in some way or the other, for social well being.

If you step back and take a look at the owners of the Ferrari, the common thing bound to cross your mind is their commitment to the overall upliftment of the society. Most of them share their success with others—be it in the form of educational support to the poor, or providing food for them, or donating to various intermediary NGOs ... they do it all. Sharing a part of the wealth by no means diminishes it. A ride that you give your neighbour does not diminish the worth of a Ferrari. Does it?

Coming back to Infosys, Nandan Nilekani, one of the founder members of Infosys, is very clear on his intent to make a difference to the society outside the Infosys campus. He earns in crores every year but also spends crores on the upliftment of the society. In fact, when he and his wife Rohini, made their first hundred crores from the Infosys ADR (American Depository Receipts) issue, she donated almost the entire amount to an educational foundation she runs. Nandan believes, the more he earns, greater the responsibility on him to pass some of it back to the society that helped him get it. Moreover, he argues that he does not need so much money to fulfil his needs. Therefore, rather than let it rot in a bank, he prefers to plough it back into the society.

However, you do not need to become a Nandan Nilekani to give others a ride in the Ferrari. You can make a difference within your means.

To make the impact felt, all you need to do is to give it a try.

My last supervisor was a British gentleman. He would participate in the Mumbai Marathon every year, with only one aim—raising funds for charity, for a cause that he supported. By promising to run the marathon for charity, he would raise money from various people he knew within and outside the organisation he worked for. He would promise them two things. First, he would match any contribution that they would make. Second, he would run the marathon for the cause and at the end of the race, would hand over the cheque of the entire amount to the NGO he supported. The NGO website confirms him as the single largest individual fundraiser for them.

If you think you are too small to make
a difference, try spending a night in a
dosed room with a solitary mosquito.

A
NONYMOUS

The reason behind doing this is simple—most of the successful people are the ones who have come up the hard way. And now that they are successful, they wish to do their bit for the society they grew up in. Be it Bill Gates and Melinda Gates' Foundation, or Sudha and Narayana Murthy's Foundation, people who are successful make it a point to share their Ferrari with others who have not acquired one.

So, if you earn, you give. On a spiritual note, it is said that if you share what you have with others, if you work on the upliftment of the downtrodden, if you work towards the achievement of a social cause and set aside a part of your earnings towards this, the blessings of those people will not go to waste. All those blessings will have an impact and will come back to make you a very successful human being.... And, as we say—closer to the Ferrari.

COMMANDMENT EIGHT

Share your success with others. If you commit to uplift the downtrodden, you will become the true owner of the Ferrari.

N
ow, I will tell my readers a story. No, neither have I gone crazy, nor we are here for cafe gossip. This fable, I heard in my childhood, helped me learn my lesson and I hope, it will have its bearing on you too.

In a forest, somewhere in southern Rajasthan, lived an arrogant lion. The lion was lazy, but a lion, nevertheless. Every animal was afraid of him and he ruled over the entire jungle. One day, he called all the animals. 'Listen,' he began, 'everyday, I chase and catch you folks to satiate my hunger. Why do you want to go through this trouble?'

Time and health are two precious
assets that we don't recognise and
appreciate until they have been
depleted.

D
ENIS
W
AITLEY

'Great!!! So, you are going to spare us?' asked the monkey sitting on a treetop.

'No, you idiot!!' roared the lion. 'From today onwards, I want you all to decide among yourself and send me one animal every day. If you do that I will not kill any other animal.'

All the animals deliberated for sometime and agreed to the lion's proposal. Every day, they would send him one animal. This continued for few years. The animals were too scared of the lion and did not dare to fight the king. One day, a small dog went to the lion as his meal. When the dog entered the den, he found the lion sitting at the far end.

'Come here. I am hungry,' roared the lion. The dog was too scared to obey his orders. He stood at the entrance of the den. The lion roared and tried to scare the dog, but when the dog did not move towards him, the lion got up slowly and walked towards the dog. Huddled in the corner was the dog, waiting for his death, when suddenly he heard a loud crash. The lion had tripped over a protruding rock and had fallen down. He seemed to be in terrible pain. The dog waited for some time staring at the lion, thinking whether to go and help the lion, or flee from the ailing lion. When the lion did not get up for some time, the dog hit upon an idea. He ran back to all the animals and told them about it. In no time, all the animals got together and rushed to the den. The lion was still writhing in tremendous pain. The animals saw this as an opportunity, pounced on the lion and killed him. His laziness made him weak and unfit, thus, the opportunists struck when he was incapacitated.

Laziness makes even the most powerful creature vulnerable. So, it is at best avoided.

This is so true in life as well. How many of you want to associate yourselves with weak and unfit leaders? Those of us who want the Ferrari would want to link ourselves with people who can get there, who can help us on our way to the Ferrari, and not those who need our support to keep them afloat.

If you will not back leaders who are unfit, what makes you think that anyone else will back you if you are not fit. Leaders who are unfit or need regular props will not be able to get together a cohesive, single-minded team. And, if that does not happen, their chances of succeeding rapidly diminish. Without your team rallying behind you, it is unlikely that you are going to get any closer to the Ferrari.

Therefore, the lesson of this story is profound. All Ferrari owners live a HEALTHY and ACTIVE life. They do not allow their physical fitness to rust away. Be it famous political leaders, professionals, millionaire entrepreneurs, corporate chieftains, sportspersons, successful film stars ... all are fitness freaks.

Have you ever tried to jog for about three or four kilometres in the morning? It is not an easy thing to do. Have you ever followed the Annual Mumbai Marathon and tried to figure out who all participate in it? If you did, then you would know that the who's who of Mumbai come out on the streets to participate in it. And, if you are not one of those fitness freaks, you would also know that, leave alone running the entire distance of the marathon, jogging for a kilometre itself would not be possible. Then, how do these business and corporate chieftains manage it?

It is a kind of Catch. 22 paradox as to why successful individuals keep themselves fit. Since they are required to work long hours you may think that they can hardly manage to spare time for exercise. The point to note is that it is precisely because of this reason that they need to stay fit. They need to be in peak health so that they are able to concentrate on their work and deliver results. In fact, truly successful people never compromise on their fitness. They do not get time but they find time to exercise. Because they know that fitness is the key to productive output. To carry out the responsibilities of large organisations, big businesses and also a large number of employees who work with them and for them, they need to remain healthy. This is a lot of weight to carry. And, if you aspire to carry that weight at some point in time, must you not be fit enough to carry it?