Look before you leap

A common saying from our childhood days ,will always remind us that we need to “Look before you leap”. This may look simpler than we can imagine. In the competitive world of today, where we want to ,out beat one another ,in minutes, rather than months or years, the need to jump into action ,may be irresistible.

The risk-return analysis ,may need time and we may imagine ,we do not have it. So, we tend to jump ,at every possible opportunity before we realise ,where we have landed ourselves in. In my book, there is space for every individual, in this world.

But some of us ,may not agree to this. We may believe that we are not running a marathon but a short distance race and hence we need to leap ,before we can even look. The risk of jumping before we look ,may be deeper ,than we could imagine.

Let me illustrate this point ,with some real life examples ,I have come across ,in my life. The first time I experienced this, was when the Y2K phenomenon hit the corporate world. Everyone believed that the world will come to a halt with the advent of Y2K ,since our computers were not designed for this transition and hence they need to do something about it.

Many dotcom companies spurned up in the late nineties and the best of talent from the corporate world, jumped into this bandwagon. They were enticed with swanky cars and huge salary packages. The Y2K ,did not shake the world as anticipated and thereby ,many of these dotcoms disappeared as fast ,as they came up. Thereby ,many of these talented employees lost their jobs ,along with their benefits. They had come to back to the real world and their real pay packages.

The next phenomenon ,was in the early part ,of this century. The IT and services industry ,boomed in India and the world. Many youngsters got posting in the developed world ,with great salary packages and ended up ,investing in multiple flats and other assets at home. This resulted in monthly EMIs to bank and lending institutions .when some of these people lost their jobs during the next recession, they had to sell their flats ,at below market prices and came crashing down to mother reality.

So ,the lessons of life are real. We need to look before we leap ,always. Today is the age of start ups, they appear even before the sun dawns in the east. Many of us at various stages of our career ,are jumping into this scenario. Some of them wind up ,even before the sun sets in the horizon.

The start ups provide a great environment to take risks and also experiment and try out new things. So, there may be nothing wrong to try out this way of working. But, we need to realise ,that the start up world is different from the rest of the corporate world, before we join them. They may start, grow and flourish and we may become millionaires. On the other hand, they may wind up ,even before they launch their product or service and hence we need to have the financial capability ,to survive this storm .

Life is the art of balancing risk and reward. We need to learn to look before we leap. We can leap if we have ,all the grounds covered and are ready to take the risks ,associated with them.

Let us learn to look before we leap from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

4th May 2025

Your reputation travels before you

I have always believed that our reputation travels ,before we arrive at any place. Once, while I was changing jobs, I had to move from one city to another. As I arrived at the new city, I was invited by our Union for an introduction meeting. The Union President informed me that we are aware of your personality before you have physically joined us.

I was surprised. They told me that my reputation of being an employee champion and stickler for fairness, in all my decisions, had reached their organisation ,before I had joined them. I promised them that I will try my best ,to live up to that reputation.

It is a fact that our reputation travels by air ,while we may most likely travel by train or by road. The fact is that our actions speak louder than our words. This directly implies ,that our actions have carried our reputation before we have physically arrived ,in any situation.

In today’s world of social media, our reputation travels at supersonic speed. Just as organisations may track our social media profile to check on our credentials, our team members may track us too, to understand how good a leader we are.

Today the world is fully connected. We are connected by social media and all our business needs also happen through the net. This makes our credentials more transparent than ever before. Even a bank looks at our CIBIL ( Credit Information Bureau Limited) score ,before approving any of our banking requirements ,since all our financial transactions are online and are measured in the form of a CIBIL score, which is transparent.

Life is no different. Even in the past, our reputation always travelled before we arrived. A simple experience would be, in social circles, children would flock with adults, who were fun to spend time with. If they found you to be grumpy or short tempered and have heard stories about you that way, they would avoid you ,rather than spend their valuable time with you.

I am passionate about driving ,since my early adulthood. So my friends’ children always preferred to sit in my car, whenever we went for a picnic together. The reason was simple. My reputation of being a fast and safe driver had reached them before they entered my car or even decided that they wanted to travel with me.

It is equally applicable in organisations. If team members were given a choice to choose their leader, they would all have some people in their mind ,as their reputation of being inspirational ,would have reached even before they joined that organisation. On the other hand, if we are known to be demotivating leaders, most team members may be reluctant to join us ,unless they have no alternatives.

The realisation that our reputation always travels faster than us ,has to be sooner than later in life. If we are conscious of this basic tenet in life, our actions will build our reputation and we have nothing to worry. On the contrary, if we think our position can help build our reputation, we may be mistaken. People respect great people and not the positions they hold.

Let us build our reputation through our actions from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

1st April 2025

Liberalism of Hinduism

I am a born Hindu and am proud to be one ,always. In my personal view, Hinduism is one of the few religions in the world, which is very liberal and open ,in its thinking and preachings.

Since my birth, I have never been forced to follow any rituals. We have never been ordained to visit a temple nor offer our prayers in a particular way. Of course, like all other religions, Hinduism also has a rich history of written and unwritten scriptures like Vedas and Upanishads but nothing is imposed on us ,as individuals ,by our parents or elders.

We have full freedom to follow any prescriptions or define our own way to God . this is the best part I love about our religion. We have never been restricted to visit other religious places or even follow the good things of other religions, as Hinduism believes, in letter and spirit, that all religions are different pathways ,to the same destination – God.

A prayer, which I offer in the morning ,after I get up and at night ,before I sleep, simply translated states, –

“ May all sentient beings be at peace,
may no one suffer from illness,
May all see what is auspicious, may no one suffer.
Om peace, peace, peace”

It transcends religions, nations and all boundaries, which human beings have defined for themselves.

This month I undertook a long spiritual yatra ( journey), which we commonly call “Gaya shradham” in Hinduism. In this journey, we start at Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu, India where we do a ceremony for our forefathers on the sea shore and collect sand and take it Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, and immerse it at Triveni Sangam, the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers.

We then perform rituals at Prayagraj and collect water from Triveni sangam. After completing our rituals at Prayagraj, we go to Varnasi and do ceremonies at five banks of the Ganges river, considered the holiest river ,according to Hinduism in India.

Then, we proceed to Gaya and do “Pinda dana” or donating rice balls as offerings to our forefathers. The interesting aspect of these offerings is that we offer to our parents, if dead, forefathers, relatives, friends and even enemies, teachers, Gurus, known and unknown people and even animals and other living beings who have died and been known to us.

Finally, we return to Rameshwaram with the sacred water from Triveni Sangam and do abhishekam ( holy bath ) of Lord Shiva at Rameshwaram, followed by some rituals ,to end this journey.

It is believed that all departed souls may get “Moksha” or salvation, if we pray for them this way. What I loved about these rituals is that it does not discriminate between humans and other living beings and goes beyond religion, colour, caste or faith.

In spirit, Hinduism embraces all religions as different pathways to God. The routes may be different but the core belief is that the destination is the same for all of us. The basic values of respecting parents, teachers, Gurus, friends, elders etc. is enshrined in the Hindu faith.

Dr Radhakrishnan, former President of India and one of India’s greatest philosophers wrote a book called – The Hindu way of life “. It beautifully explains how Hinduism is a way of life and not a religion, per se. Of course, there could be fanatics in each religion, who tend to interpret religion in a narrow way and mislead millions of followers. But a true Hindu will always respect all religions and enable co-existence with these basic human values.

Long live the liberal Hinduism.

S Ramesh Shankar

25th March 2025.