In Search of Excellence

I saw Invictus recently. It is a great movie based on the the life of Nelson Mandela. It covers the tumulus time right after Mandela became the President of South Africa. He was trying to unite the country. The whites loves Rugby and Blacks loved soccer. South Africa was to host Rugby World Cup and South African team was an average team. Most commentators including many South African fans expected the team to reach Quarter Finals at best.

Mandela saw this as an opportunity to unite the country. He started learning the rugby rules, started following the South African team. He memorized the names of all the entire South African team. He also pushed the team to travel all over the country and spend time with kids and promote Rugby. This was against the wishes of his advisers.

He invited Francois, captain of the team for tea and told him, “We need inspiration Francois, because in order to build our nation, we must all exceed our own expectations.”

The South African team won the world cup beating many stronger competitors on the way. They truly did exceed their own expectations.

Mandela also talked about Invictus, a victorian poem that helped him through the trying circumstances when he spent a long tenure in jail.

Here is the Poem by William Ernest Henley:

Invictus

OUT of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

Harsha Bhogle – Lecture on Excellene at IIMA

Harsha Bhogle, an IIMA alumni, is one of my favorite cricket commentator. He is also a student of excellence and has given many lectures on the topic. His thoughts are inspiring.

Recently, I came across a lecture he gave at IIMA on Excellence. You can watch the first part of the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugJhHsUfZFo

The remaining parts follow in the relevant videos on YouTube once you finish watching the first part.

Here are the notes I took down for myself while watching these videos:

Excellence is about having the confidence to share knowledge.

- No insecurity about sharing knowledge

Excellence is about stretching a little bit to find out how good you are or can be.

It is also about knowing what we can and cannot do (or should or should not do)

Excellence lives in the present.

- We must maximize what we are doing now.

- Don’t live in the past (glory of the past) or future (or promise for the future).

- Don’t live o your legend, live on your performance

Excellence is trying to know everything possible about your profession.

Luck is preparing to the best of your opportunity and recognizing when an opportunity presents itself.

Gary Player(a successful golf player) “The harder I practice, the luckier I get.”

Excellence is about humility.

- Be comfortable in being a non-striker [build partnership and make others look good].

Subjugate the self to achieve excellence.

Talent has insignificant role in achieving excellence. It is what you do with your talent matters the most [attitude and work ethic].

Talented people who only rely on the talent, don’t know what to do when they face an hurdle.

- Australian elite military force don’t pick people who have never failed, for they won’t know what to do when they fail or are facing failure.

Tendulkar: Played for 55 days in a row where he practices for 2 hours, played a game, practice for another 2 hours and invariably ended up sleeping on the dining table.

Excellence is about learning from mistakes. Mistake is not a crime and not a matter of shame.

- Because excellence is as much about knowing what to do as it is about what not to do.

- It is the second or third time making the same mistake that it not acceptable.

Give 100%, it is not possible to give more than a 100%.

If you seek excellence, you seek out people who are better than you, or even people in other profession who seek excellence as well.

Beware if you have started hating criticism or when you don’t have people around you who wont criticize you.

Arrogance comes in the way of excellence.

Allan Border: “Take care of the runs and the dollars will take care of themselves.”

Make the process of achievements supreme and make the results irrelevant.

Perfect the process of performance and don’t allow the pressure of result to choke your performance.

If you worry about what others /competitors are doing and what critics or people will say, you are not allowing you to perform to the best of your ability.

Karmanye wadhikaraste

Ma faleshu kadachana

Do your job as well as you can.

Dont put end before the means [ethics also come into picture here].

Excellence is not in result, it is in performance and even more so in preparation.

Set yourself performance goals and not result goals.

Give your best in the present moment. If you keep doing that, there is nothing more you can do.

- If you give 100% everytime and lose, you can still sleep peacefully. May be that time your opponent was better than you. Salute him/her and try to get better.

Excellence never seeks escuses. No “I would have been good but..”

Never grudge anyone his or her success.

Aditya, our 5 year old was preparing for his Karate test today. After practicing his karate moves, he was reciting Student Creed, Life Skills, and Rules of concentration. I thought he just memorizing them without understanding the meaning. But when I probed a little, to my delight I found that his teacher talks to them about the meaning in a language the little kids can understand. Collectively these three sets of rules/things to remember are pretty complete and wholesome for these kids.  They are also a great reference even for us grown ups.

Here they are for your reading and reference.

3 Rules of concentration
1. Focus your eyes
2. Focus your mind
3. Focus your body

Student Creed
1. I will develop myself in a positive manner and avoid anything that would reduce my mental growth or my physical health.
2. I will develop self-doscipline in order to bring out the best in myself and others.
3. I will use what I learn in the class constructively and defensively and never be abusive or offensive.

Life Skills
1. Focus: Pay attention
2. Discipline/Self-Discipline: To always do your best
3. Respect: Treat people the way you want to be treated
4. Family: A group of people who form a household, that are the most important part of our life
5. Academic: To Learn
6. Attitude: To act in a positive manner
7. Confidence: To believe in yourself
8. Choices: To make the right decisions
9. Goals: To achieve something

Reference: Shido-kan Karate Dojo
www.shidokankaratedojo.com

Here is a link to their Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Okinawan-Shido-Kan-Karate-Dojo-Fair-Lawn-NJ/125283847541929?v=wall&sk=wall

Mizu no Kokoro [mind like water] is a Japanese phrase which means “A state of mind similar to water: flowing, reflective and adaptive.”

I like this phrase.

When a mind is like water, you are ‘here and now’. You are still, calm and at peace with yourself. You are completely engrossed in what you are doing without thinking about the past or future or what is happening around you. You are working in your ‘Zone’. When there is a disturbance from outside, you react to it with the appropriate response. You neither over-react nor under-react. After your response ends, you go back to your calm state of mind. Since you have not over-reacted, you haven’t wasted your time and effort. Since you have not under-reacted, your response is complete; meaning the same disturbance won’t affect you again.

David Allen, author: Getting things done says:
“In karate there is an image that’s used to define the position of perfect readiness: “mind like water.” Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriately to the force and mass of the input; then it returns to calm. It doesn’t overreact or underreact…Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.”

I saw a documentary on NBC a few days ago on the role; Gander, a Canadian town of about 10,000 residents played in the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

Here is more information about Gander.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gander_International_Airport

During 1950-70, before the age of Jumbo Jets, Gander used to be a Transatlantic refueling stop. After the advent ofJumbo jets, Gander slowly lost its importance. 

Just after the plane crashed into the World Trade Center, all air traffic over the USA was shut down. There were many planes enroute to various destinations in the US. They had no option but to land at the nearest airport. Gander airport was flooded with more than 50 flights and almost 10000 passengers. They had to be deplaned and cared for until the routes to US were opened again.

 Just imagine a town getting as many visitors as the number of residents at a short notice (a few hours). People had to be fed, people with medical conditions had to be cared for; and that too for over 3 days. The town had just 550 hotel rooms.

 The way the town and its residents responded was just incredible. The mayor (or town manager) did an emergency radio broadcast asking for help. And the residents responded and how. Not only they managed the basic necessities and comfort for all passengers, they did it with such humanity that must be appreciated and the story must be shared with everyone on the planet.

 Here is a NY Times article on this story from November 18, 2001:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/18/international/18NEWF.html

In a recent interview to thewisdenCricketer, Sachin talks about his state of mind when he plays at his best.  He says that he bats at his best when he is still in mind and body, when he clears his mind and doesn’t think about past or future and lets his natural instincts take over. I believe these are powerful lessons from the little master to all of us, regardless of our profession.

Here is the part in the interview that caught my attention:

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After two decades playing international cricket, how has he so ruthlessly accumulated these runs? “The secret to batting is to stay still and just react to what the bowler has done,” he says, making it all sound simple. “You have to be still both in your mind and physically. It is so important that your mind is not full of a lot of thoughts because your reaction time is not going to be good. You have to keep your mind blank.

 ”The toughest thing is to clear your mind. The mind always wants to be in the past or the future; it rarely wants to be in the present. My best batting comes when my mind is in the present, but it doesn’t happen naturally. You have to take yourself there. I am not able to get in that zone as often as I would like, but when you are there you don’t see anything except the bowler and the ball. You have to allow your instincts to take over. Trust me, your instincts are 99% right, but you know, the older I get the more I realise how important your breathing is to good batting. By that I mean, if you focus on breathing and relaxing, you can force yourself into a comfortable place to bat.”

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Read this beutiful Doha (couplet) from Kabir

Bada Hua to Kya Hua, Jaise Ped Khajoor
Panthi Ko Chhaya Nahin, Phal Lage Atidoor

Here is my attempt at translation for those who don’t understand Hindi:

“Being big (great) like a Khajoor (dates) tree is useless as Khajoor tree is tall but gives no shade to a traveller and it’s fruits are not accessible.”

My blog has a new URL: www.livexcel.com

We have to market ourselves so many times and at so many places, we run the risk of advertising to ourselves. There is a very fine line between being confident in our abilities and conning ourselves.

Success comes from dedicated, focused efforts and the dedication comes from not conning ourselves. Here is an interesting example:

One question from the interview of Nadal after he had won Australian open defeating Federer in the final:
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Q. You proved yourself as a true king.
RAFAEL NADAL: Oh, no, no. Well, the true, no. I don’t know. I just win for sure an important title for my careera. But I no better five hours before than now, no? That’s the true, no?
When you win an important match, but you have to know before the match who you are and after the match you have to know who you are, too. You are the same, no?
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You can read the entire interview at:
http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/interviews/2009-02-01/200902011233415660437.html

Ted talk presentation on an emerging technology. Simply brilliant.