Melodrama

Yesterday I discovered a whole new concept the YouTube could offer – listening to speeches. When all other stuffs like cricket, songs and movies got boring, I made a search for ‘Harvard’ out of curiosity. After all it’s selling its case studies for a price, so I just explored to find out if they have done something of that sort in video space. Of course I could not spot any lectures. But what I did find out was some of the gems of speeches I have ever heard. Truth be told, I have read few books ever since I went school. In fact a lot of them! Those books always gave me new insight, new thoughts that gave me a fresh feeling. The books were the one that took me out of the agony of scoring less when leaving school and took me away from the feeling of being let down by myself. The books give you the impersonal embrace that you shape according to your own context and manoeuvre it for your emotions. But the speeches hit you straight in the face. It’s so tangible that you perceive things far beyond what the words had to offer. The excitement; the agony; the inspiration; the fear all comes and surrounds you all over without uttering a word. It gives you the insight of the personality and the spontaneity of the character. It gives you the excitement to do, not just the thought provoking intellectual dual that you undergo while reading a book.

I came to realise how lucky those Harvard dudes are. It often comes as a privilege of being associated with a brand. Their guest lecture list includes Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Ali g(??) etc. And as the search thread continued I came across speeches from Steve jobs for Stanford and Jack Welch for some trade union. Everyone was undoubtedly unique. The free flowing, no-nonsense style of Bill Gates; the dramatic Clinton; all nonsense Ali G; emotional jobs and the opinionated Welch - everyone had different styles and different opinions. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were more sedate in reading out the prepared speeches. (I later came across the i-Phone presentation of Jobs which was spontaneous and equally ecstatic. But that’s technology). Whereas Clinton and jack Welch were spontaneous. Clinton was more melodramatic. He builds up the steam for where he leads his speech. But Welch pulls you down to earth. He seems to have answers even before the questions arise. For him everything is black and white, has an opinion for everything and never bothers to be diplomatic. Could be the secret of success for this street-smart manager!

What unites them all was the undoubted belief in the potential of the youth and all of them have valid reasons in believing so and not merely going through their motions or emotions. Gates said things like, ‘the most privileged like you and I should be solving the problems of the least privileged’. ‘Pick out one global issue, make use of the technology available to understand it and then focus your career in solving the issue. Don’t let complexity to get into your way’. See, as I mentioned before, reading this takes the whole tangible aspect out of this. But when I heard it I almost got chilled in my nerves. Because I was just thinking on how the global issues have become a global fashion statement. Somehow the rich were the only ones seem to be speaking about it and I also wondered if anything could possibly be done on it. The solutions for those problems look overwhelmingly complex, totally unpractical and can take a life time of effort out of you. Sometimes you wonder if it is worth pursuing it. But Gates said something like this, ‘It is not possible to provide a holistic solution, but by thinking about the issue and working towards it we can make a difference that people can feel and touch. And that is all is required. Again don’t let the complexity to stop you from working. Few years ago malaria or rabies are incurable. They took life in millions. But now there is no malaria or rabies in America. But still millions of children are dying of diseases that we can cure’. Surely the more you gain in the society the more is expected and the powerful you become to implement it.

Clinton was more melodramatic. He seems to be short of words in the beginning. He was even dismissive of him being invited for such a glorious occasion. But as time passed by he made a stunning build up of passion, drama that made a narration look like a movie script. What helped was that he was spontaneous, didn’t read any prepared speech and more down to earth and related himself with the students. He spoke about how a tsunami took him to make a visit to people whom he would have otherwise never met and about the brave family who took the loss of their entire family members in stride and was looking for a new beginning. The intent was clear. People are suffering elsewhere. See what you can do for it.

Steve Jobs spoke none of this sort. No fuzz, no frills. He just said he wanted to tell three stories. Filled with emotions that he refuses to reveal, he narrated stories from his own life on how he was thrown away from his own company and how he clawed his way back into the top. ‘Love your job and don’t bother to think of the defeats or success or events. Because ultimately the love you have on your job will sail you through any passage of life’. It’s amazing how the life of the most successful people isn’t necessarily a fairy tale. They had rocked their boat, lost their names and got abused. Definitely not a fairy tale!

Jack Welch is in a league of his own. There are no grey areas for him in his life. For him management style is dramatically simple. He has a simple philosophy and work the hell out of it in his own words. I have read some of his books before and unlike most other books I cannot find a difference in reading him and listening to him. He kicks ass. Make your whole management effort to nurture people and the people will nurture your business. How I wish he should be my manager! He conducts appraisals 4 times a year in his own admission. No sophisticated tools, manipulative methods or frills. Just a piece of paper is all it’s enough to convey your message. He looks too aggressive for his age and I wondered how he would have acted when he was young.

By the time I finished listening to all this it was already 3 AM. I was so excited that I can go out at that time and can hit a hell out of a cricket ball or run all my way through to the office. With some help from no traffic of course! But when the excitement fused away and when I started retiring to bed I realised, it’s not just the half hour of speech or rhetoric, but a whole new paradigm of thinking beyond accumulating wealth and a thought process beyond your needs. Obviously some wealth in your kitty will help.