Author: S Ramesh Shankar

Born in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, I have been brought up in different parts of India. Graduate in chemistry and post graduate in personnel management and industrial relations. Have been a HR practitioner for 38 years in the industry and have experience in working in steel , automobiles, FMCG and engineering industry. Was head of HR for Siemens in South Asia based out of Mumbai till March 2019. Currently founded hrishti - joy forever, a social enterprise to give back to society and work as Chief Joy Officer.

Failure does not determine life’s trajectory

The other day I was watching a TV sitcom, where the guest, who was being interviewed ,was a successful police officer. However, he attempted to clear the civil services exams, multiple times and failed. Even though, he failed multiple times, he never gave up ,in his mind and continued to strive for his dream ,to come true.

Many of us have laudable dreams and we work towards that goal. We strive hard and toil our way through , to achieve our dream. However, when there are multiple obstacles on our way or we fail a few times, we tend to give up and never realise our goal.

However, one can learn a good lesson from the sports persons. Recently,I was inspired by a tennis great, who retired after being a world champion for many years. He narrated of how he failed more than he succeeded in all the games, he played in life. Every failure taught him valuable lessons and enabled him to become a world champion.

When we see a star in sports or even films, we do not know how much they may have struggled to reach that stardom. We see their star status and feel that is easy for them. Their struggles, trials and tribulations get hidden behind their success today. There are innumerable stories of sports persons, movie stars and other celebrities, who have struggled their way through and lived through their failures, to succeed in life.

I am reminded of even an ex President of India. He was from a humble poor family and did not have enough resources ,to have two meals a day and even educate himself. However, he had a dream and vision for India. He overcame all these obstacles and rose to head the highest defence research body in India and later became the President of India and has also been conferred the highest civilian award in India.

All these people teach us a simple lessons in life. They tell us, through their life journeys, that “Failure does not determine life’s trajectory”. They have failed more than they have succeeded ,in their respective field but yet they have reached the peak of their respective domains.

I have learnt a few simple lessons from these wonderful people, which I would like to share for all of us to learn and adopt in our lives :

A. We need to have a dream and vision of what we want to achieve in life

B. We need to work zealously to achieve that goal, come what may, on our way.

C. Every failure teaches us valuable lessons in life, if we are willing to accept them ,as our steps to success.

D. We should never give up during our journey, despite of all failures, as they teach us relevant lessons and pave the way for our success in life.

E. The most successful people in life ,fail more than than they succeed but never give up until they achieve their mission in life.

Let our journey continue till we reach our goal.

S Ramesh Shankar

5th January 2025

Plan vis a vis actual, is life

I was recently reading somewhere that “Plan versus Actual is life” and I tend to agree. We all dream big and aspire to fulfil our dreams to the best of our ability.

However, when reality bites us, we realise that what we planned is different from our current realities and that is life. This does not mean we should not plan, nor it means that the current reality may not drive us towards our goals.

This means that either our plan was inadequate or the execution beyond the plan, was not good enough. It is almost like the new year resolutions ,most of us make. We are high on enthusiasm when we make those resolutions but within weeks, if not days, we realise that reality is far from the promises, we made to ourselves.

It is almost like the gym ,in most offices today. While all employees desire to have the best of gym in their workplace; after a few months, if not weeks of its inauguration, we see that most gyms are either closed down or highly underutilised.

This is not because a gym at work ,is not a desirable thing. It also does not mean that employees do not want to be healthy. What is means is, there is a huge gap between plan vis a vis actuals and that is life.

If we move to the business situation, we understand it much better. All of us plan grandiosely. However, even before the end of the first quarter ,of a new financial year, we talk of revising the plans for the subsequent quarters since the actuals of the first quarter makes us realise the ground realities.

So, we need to realise that our life and work are not very different. At both places, we need to plan and then execute it meticulously. The gap between plan and actuals, is life. We need to realise that our life will be as good as our planning and execution.

If we either do not plan well or we do not execute well, we face failure in life and that disappoints us. It may be simple to assume that we need to go back to the drawing board and look at our plans or the gap between our plans and execution strategies.

Both at life and work, our planning has to be continual and evolving. Our execution also has to adapt to the changing needs of the environment. If we have planned well and implement our plans meticulously, the chances of disappointments are less. However, the environment around us may not always be under our control.

So our plans and implementation strategies have to be adaptive and evolving. We need to fine tune them ,keeping in mind the changing circumstances and our own moving milestones.

If we positively accept life, then our ability to execute what we have planned more realistically ,becomes a reality. On the other hand, if we surrender to current reality and refuse to change ourselves, then our plans will continue to be ,building castles in the air.

Let’s start living life positively from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

2nd Jan 2025

Your actions speak for you

One of the quotes, which guided me to develop as a leader was- “ People follow what you do and not what you say”. This I learnt ,way back in 1989, while attending a training session in a class room; but I believe it is valid even today.

I read another quote today morning, which said – “Most people know the walk, but do not walk that way”. We may be aware that people will follow what we do ,rather than what we say but still we continue to do things ,contrary to what we say.

Even as children, we always followed what our parents did more than what they said. As parents today, our children also follow what we do rather than what we say. Today’s children are smarter and if there is a gap between what we say and what we do, they observe and let us know easily.

The work place is no different. Leaders who walk the talk are more admired and followed. A leader, who always starts and end meetings on time, can see her team members on time, every time, for their meetings. It is conversely true too.

We sometimes imagine that the positions we hold in life like a father or mother in the family or a boss at the work place, can give us the leeway to behave differently ,from what we preach. This is not true and we get exposed ,before we even realise our mistakes in life.

Even on the sports field, a captain is followed as long as the captain behaves the way ,he wants his team to perform—Whether it is behaviour on or off the field or a particular skill or even the basics of maintaining a good physique.

Society also respects leaders who lead by example. Gandhiji has been revered across the world, over the last century ,primarily because, he practised before he preached. Even in areas, where he felt, he did not have the moral right to advise someone, he refrained from advising, till he could practise what he was about to preach.

There is a good example from Mahatma Gandhi’s life. Once, he was to advise a child to take less sugar but he refrained from giving this advise till the day he could himself control his urge to consume sugar in excess. Then, after getting over this weakness, he went ahead and advised the child.

So, in life, whether we are seniors in the family or at the work place or in the community, we need to learn to lead by example always. We need to practise before we preach. People will observe and follow ,what we do more than what we say always.

Our actions will always speak louder than our words. The best of leaders I have worked with ,never advised us ,in most situations. They showed through their actions and behaviour ,what is expected of us and we could observe and follow them.

Even parents at home do not advise us ,most of the times. They teach us through their actions ,what is good behaviour in every day life.

Let us learn to practise before we preach

S Ramesh Shankar

24th Dec 2024