To sustain your achievement, you can use Beliefs too

 

Source: Dreamstime.com

Devidas is a High school educated businessman. Unable to start a crockery-manufacturing unit, he started a wholesale business in crockery business in a small town in Ahmednagar District. He succeeded beyond his imagination. In three years, he was looking for manufacturing some items. With an Engineering friend, he started an Electrical panel unit. But in two years, he had to close it, because of the differences with the business partner. He kept on finding other options to diversify. He used to attend various seminars to find business ideas.

Devidas is struggling to find his future work-goals, because he does not explore his beliefs to find the vision of his future.

In his book, Professor Yuval Harrari, a historian and author of Sapiens, has explained how mankind has progressed by using ‘belief’. He calls beliefs as ‘fictions’ or ‘stories’. This power of beliefs is used by political rulers to bring us together. For instance, millions of people come together to cooperate in a crusade or a jihad or build a temple because human beings believe in a fictional story about God and heaven. If you think that some rulers take undue advantage of beliefs, then Pause a bit and you will appreciate that every political ruler uses beliefs. Some political rulers use beliefs of fundamental human rights. Some political rulers use beliefs about equality due to which we favour socialism. Some political rules use beliefs of market-rights due to which we favour capitalism. By understanding how man has used religious beliefs, nationalist beliefs and the economic beliefs to create huge possibilities, Yuval Harrari’s books can help you use these beliefs in creating vision of a future. How can Devidas use his beliefs to find his future work-goals?

It happened by chance. In one of my visits to his town, when we were sitting in his office, one women, named Shivani, with disheveled dress and torn slippers came to meet him. He called her inside the office. Despite her reluctance to sit on the chair, Devidas made her sit in the chair. He inquired about Shivani’s daughter who had passed her board exams. Devidas asked her to shift her daughter to the town for her further education. He offered Shivani a cup of tea and bid her good bye. The whole interaction was of 30 minutes, but the satisfaction on Shivani’s face was palpable.

When I inquired Devidas about Shivani, he told me the story. Shivani was from a nearby village, Dahiya. A year back, Devidas had met her in the town struggling to meet her ends with her daughter. She was from the village where Devidas's father was born. He had offered her a set of crockery items from his stock - cups and saucers - without taking advance money. Shivani visited nearby towns with her hand cart to sell crockery items. After a year, Shivani had added some more items to her hand cart. She had become self-sufficient in one year. 

It was apparent that Devidas had gone beyond the normal help that one provides to strangers. He has pursued social 'goals'. Our social goals are inherent in us because we want our society - our community - to be 1% better than what we inherited from our fathers. It is not a goal that comes out of 'giving back' to the society, but comes from our acknowledgement that we are part of human population that has survived better than animals because it knows how to 'cooperate'. 

Now after two years, Devidas has developed 24 more Shivani’s in the nearby towns. They sell his crockery items. His turnover has doubled in two years. Devidas, due to his social beliefs has gone beyond selling crockery items. He helps them sell, teach them accounting, open their bank accounts, help them in medical insurance. Devidas has used his personal values to extend his business empire. He has used his invisible beliefs to find a different vision of future. As he says, 'he found meaning in his work' which had become boring and dreary for him. 

If you see achievement as shaping of physical-reality alone, you will never find this option of Devidas. But, if you appreciate that achievement is about shaping people-reality, then you will be able to use your beliefs to extend your work-achievement too. Social-goals need not involve social work. Narayan Murthy, the founder of Infosys, used his personal values to build his software company into one of the top five companies in India. In his speech to New York University, he said "I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist!"

Devidas used beliefs by chance. You can use beliefs by design. Pausetive model of achievement will help you create the vision of your future by using your beliefs. With beliefs, you can find the 'meaningfulness' in your work.