4 April, 2013
My dear young friends,
Rich people have earned wealth out of their intense passion. Mr. Azim Premji may be the third richest man in the country today, but if you combine “Passion with Compassion” on your scale, he would be the richest man in India. Premji has donated Rs. 12,300 Cr. to provide quality education in rural areas. We had a chance to spend some time with him last month on 16-Feb-13 when we received the WIPRO Earthian Sustainability award in his hands out of 1300 entries. His role models, he shared with us, were Mahatma Gandhi and his mother who is doing social service as a doctor having founded and run a charitable hospital for children stricken with polio and cerebral palsy in Mumbai. We understood how this passionate business man is so compassionate.
Who was a bigger businessman in India than Dhirubhai Ambani? He is remembered as a family man taking care of his larger business family also including shareholders. I wish to draw your attention to yet compassionate aspect of his life. While setting the objectives of his telecommunications business, he once mentioned “I wish to make a STD call cheaper than the postcard one day” which has been more than accomplished. Look at his compassion for the clients at large without sacrificing his passion for the business. I remember my college days when I use to bring tears in my eyes not being able to talk to my parents frequently because of expensive calls from my limited pocket.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the richest men on earth, have donated most of their life earnings for the deprived and needy. You might have heard about “Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge”. They have donated US$ 28 billion and 30 billion to charity respectively. Hats off to Bill Gates who developed Microsoft with his ingenuity and hard work with a focus on personal computers which has made our lives so different today-a unique contribution to mankind, and then this man donates almost entire life’s earnings to the needy with passionate concern for global health and education.
Once Warren Buffett said “If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GDP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zero, and I would be keeping away those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing”. Looking back it becomes evident that their wheels of passion were turning around “bearings” of compassion. Today auction for lunch with this leader of philanthrocapitalism can yield as much as US$ 3,456,789 for charity.
In our glorious past, Karna and Dadhichi had no limits to their benevolence and compassion. Their compassion used to be passionate. Dadhichi gave up his life in order to allow the Devas to use his bones to make weapons to defeat the Asuras. His bones are symbolized on India’s highest award for gallantry “Param Vir Chakra“.
Wealth beyond the limit of its consumability for progress & comforts, is only figures to count in your bank accounts that can at best boost your ego and hold the deprived from help to that extant. We can be passionate about earning wealth, fame and position but not losing the bearing of compassion.
Satyamev Jayate !!!
Best wishes and Regards,
M.Tech., Ph.D., CBI Scholar, D.Engg., FNAE, Hon.D.WRE
Chairman Emeritus, Great Lakes IEMR, Gurgaon, NCR, Delhi
Co-Chairman, Advisory Council, Great Lakes-Bauer Global Energy Executive MBA program, University of Houston
Former Director General (NPTI & CPRI / REL)
No job is small or big, the way in which you do, makes it small or big (c)
Great Lakes Institute of Management 