I am sure that everyone reading this blog has seen at least one match of the football world cup that took place recently in South Africa.
As much as I loved going to a bar, drinking some nice chilled beer and hanging out with my close friends, there was this constant question at the back of my mind-India is the second largest population with 1.2 Billion people and counting, don’t we have 11 players who can work together as a team and qualify to play the world cup??
This is when I realized that it wasn’t about having 11 people, it was about having 11 right mind sets to qualify for the world cup. I am pretty sure that if we continue to function the way we are, we will never win the world cup in my lifetime and I am just 22 years old.
This reminds me of a quote, "If we do what we have always done, we will always get what we have already gotten".
This was the inception of my idea that we need to transform (not change) mindsets to harness hidden potentials.
I am going to share below what I think is the crucial link to make the transition from being the fastest developing nation to being a developed superpower in the shortest span of time.
I have great respect for the leaders of my country and I completely appreciate the struggle and sacrifices they have made for our country to get to its current state. Its been 63 years since our independence and still, many people struggle for 2 square meals a day, our transportation system is pathetic, there isn’t constant supply of electricity, these being the basic necessities of the 21stcentury.
Most of us have cribbed about the above problems day in and day out and have also conveniently blamed our politicians and the government systems. But think of it, how many of us have actually taken strong action with conviction?? "It’s easier said than done" people say.
However the fact is that most of us operate on the basis of "An Eye for an Eye" and this according to Gandhi makes the whole world blind, which is very true.
So how do we confront this problem and make this transition??
The answer is simple we need to transform our mindsets . . .
Let me explain how we are currently functioning and then how we can transform our mindsets (in Part 2 of this series).. .
As I see my 5-year-old niece (Saakshi) growing up, I also get to see how she learns and reacts to the outside world. Her actions and reactions are very similar to that of her parents thought processes and thought patterns. As she grows up I also see her picking up the traits and attributes similar to that of her first family and friends. This is by no means wrong or hampering her growth.
However the point I am trying to make here is that, even as a little five year old, she is viewing her life through certain filters them being experiences,mind blocks, judgments and everything that we have learnt so far in our life.
These filters will allow her to view and understand life only in that particular dimension or perspective. As she grows up, she will perceive these filters as reality and this will directly impact her decision making process (judging good or bad, right or wrong etc). These filters in my opinion are exactly what makes us human and why we are completely unique from each other.
Let me explain the above with an example:
Take for instance any color, say "Yellow". Show the color to 10 thousand people and ask them to name the color, I am sure all of them from a 5 year old to a 78 year old will tell you its yellow. But according to Physics, if a object appears to be yellow, it means that the object should reflect yellow and absorb the rest of the colors. Hence that object is really not yellow. Agree?
This is what I mean by filters. We are made to believe that "not yellow" is yellow and this becomes our reality.
These filters are the reason why India could not qualify the reason for the world cup. We are just continuing to do the things that we have always done.
So how is this related to Entrepreneurship??
I have been watching Indian soaps, reality shows, and movies on TV with my family for as long as I can remember. The story line of most of the movies I have come across have these common elements:
1) The hero falls in love with the actress and the actress’s family doesn’t approve of him.
2) The hero who will save the girl (actress) from the villains.
3) The police get to the crime scene after the villain is killed.
4) They (Hero and the actress) will live happily ever after.
I am sure all the people who have watched even 1 hindi movie gets what I am saying.
On the other had I can also name at least 10 game shows that have been completely copied (just from my memory) from our American / Western brothers. We even copy the jingles and the color theme of the show!
Examples: Who wants to be a billionaire?, The weakest Link, Big brother, The biggest looser, The moment of truth etc.
Considering this, do you think it is right to make fun of the Chinese (Stereotypical Indian thinks the Chinese just manufacture replicated products and has a very low quality) This is true, but they also manufacture very high
quality of products as well.
So the big question is, are we not creative???
Of course we are, we are just not aware that we are creative.
In the mid 70's and the early 80's when India started opening out to the outside world, we started going place and buying products that weren't available in India then.
The affluent class could afford to import products from western countries, to meet their demands and needs. This eventually came to be known as "imported" products.
The Indian mindset to "Imported Goods" are :
1) Expensive and hence high quality
2) Durable
Ask my grandmother; to this day she would prefer "imported" products to any other (even though you get the same product and same brand here in India and probably its even manufactured here). We have entire Bazaars (markets) even to this day that just import (more like smuggle) products into India like "Burma Bazaar", "National Market" (both in Bangalore)
The reason why I illustrated the above example is that as we grow old and blow more candles off the cake, our ability to accept, adapt and change to new thoughts and ideas drastically reduces.We just cannot afford to have the mindsets of the 70's and 80's and live in the present "modern" day 21st century.
Off late, I have been noticing the number of Mom n Pop stores springing up, this I am Sure is a good sign that our economy is on the rise and the average disposable income is increasing. But we have to look beyond...
Everywhere I see (weather a huge shopping mall or retail chains), I see just normal shops or stores with just normal products nothing new and mind blowing.
I have personally spoken to so many shop owners and asked them why they don't look beyond of their tiny stores tucked away in allies? They say "Ive heard of some one who tried of something new and radical, he failed miserably" So why should I try it?"
Every one wants to play safe, think on the same Lines and create just one or two USP's and start businesses and finally in a couple of years drive a BMW!
"Prevention is better than cure", you know. By the way the Entire Indian medical system is built on that statement, no wonder there are so many diseases that don’t have a cure yet!
This makes me feel like we are "Pickles in a Jam bottle", old, stinky and salty.
What exactly is a "pickle in a jam Bottle"?
An average Indian household, after consuming the Jam from the glass bottle packaging will use the bottle to store pickle. We are extremely bad at waste management and disposing our waste efficiently just like our thoughts, ideas and philosophies.
Now, I want to leave you thinking with this quote:
"We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them" - Albert Einstein
So I urge you all to think like you have never thought before, Look at things like you have never seen them before.. This is the only way to complete the transition in the shortest time...
So what’s next? How do we dispose off the Jam bottles and harness our hidden potentials??
In the next part of this series, The rule of the three and Magical thinking (removing these filters).
A Big shout out to Miss.Sindhu Nadig for helping me post this blogpost . . .
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