The Utterances of a Peculiar Mindset

What makes a leader? I’d say, really good acting skills. The most effective way to lead is not to show that you are doing it. People hate being told what to do, and what not to do. No one likes to be led by the nose. You must not make them feel you are the boss, guide, whatever. You just have to carry people along with compassion, love, and not least of all, a sense of humour. In fact, not only should others not feel the burden of your leadership, the leader himself should lead without realising it, without donning the grand mantle of setting some maha example. Achievement is the destination, leadership is showing the way to it.

Secondly, I’ve seen that every true leader treats people well. That’s crucial. You can get away by treating some people badly some of the time, but you cannot make a practice of it. I’d say the best leadership is like parenting. You don’t have to instil awe; you should create loving respect.

Thirdly, you have to have focus. But it is important that the leader’s focus does not become heavy, aggressive, pressuring, troubling, aggravating for others. You should do the planning and what you have to do, and then leave everyone to get on with his or her part of it. It’s most important to believe in everyone else as much as you do in yourself. It’s your team. You’ve chosen it. The people on it should be good, right?

I know that the film industry gets a great deal of flak for not putting itself in a leadership role. On the contrary, it is accused of sending the wrong signals, as happened in recent cases. We are constantly told ‘you guys should be doing so much more considering the extraordinary, even


absurd, influence you wield’. But, when people say ‘industry’, it should encompass all media: not just films, but newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, the works.

Everyone in this multifaceted industry must work together on providing the right leadership. But everyone functions as an independent segment, does whatever it wants to. Besides, at the end of the day, we are just doing a job. We are an industry like any other. We are all in a commercial state of mind. We don’t take all this importance upon ourselves.

I understand that, yes, I should be taking up real-time roles, but I’m an actor. I know what to do when I’m acting. However, I need to be told how to play the roles which set an example, or use my position for the larger good. I am truly glad and proud that the Times group asked me to do this film to kick off their Leadership campaign. If you think I am a youth icon, use me by all means.

In the Times campaign, my role is to lead people into action. It’s about getting up and doing whatever it takes. I did not think of this as lines in a script. It is 100% my personal belief. I am not a thinker. I’ll read about something, and do it.

Even if I know the outcome will not be what it should, I have to physically work it out myself. It’s fantastic if you get it right. But it’s equally all right if you get it wrong. Just do it. That’s what I tell my son and my daughter. There’s always a second time to get it right. I simply don’t believe in not doing anything because you are afraid it won’t work out as planned. For leaders as for followers, there should be no don’ts; just do it..

--> A nation’s Economic development is powered by competitiveness.
--> Competitiveness is powered by knowledge power.
--> Knowledge power is powered by Technology and innovation.
--> Technology and innovation is powered by resource investment.
--> Resource investment is powered by revenue and return on Investment.
--> Revenue is powered by Volume and repeat sales through customer loyalty.
--> customer loyalty is powered by Quality and value of products.
--> Quality and value of products is powered by Employee Productivity and innovation.
--> Employee Productivity is powered by Employee Loyalty, employee satisfaction and working environment.
--> Working Environment is powered by management stewardship and sound project management.
--> Management stewardship is powered by Creative leadership.

Conclusion:- A Nation's Economic Development is powered by Creative Leadership. If we want India to become super power, we need to develop creative leadership in ourselves. Are you ready?

Provided by President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam during "ADDRESS TO THE NATION FROM THE RAMPARTS OF THE RED FORT, NEW DELHI" on 11-05-2007


UPADTE

English version of the Pledge:

Seven Point Oath

1. I realize, I have to set a goal in my life. To achieve the goal, I will acquire the knowledge, I will work hard, and when the problem occurs, I have to defeat the problem and succeed.

2. As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the success of others.

3. I shall always keep myself, my home, my surroundings, neighbourhood and environment clean and tidy.

4. I realize righteousness in the heart leads to beauty in the character, beauty in the character brings harmony in the home, harmony in the home leads to order in the nation and order in the nation leads to peace in the world.

5. I will lead an honest life free from all corruption and will set an example for others to adopt a righteous way of life.

6. I will light the lamp of knowledge in the nation and ensure that it remains lit for ever.

7. I realize, whatever work I do if I do the best, I am contributing towards realizing the vision of developed India before 2020.

Hello friends
India is celebrating the 150th year of first freedom struggle. Here is an extract from the speech by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on the occasion. Read it, think about it and discuss it. Can we really create an India of his dreams some day? What things we, as an individual, have to do so as to make this dream come true?

PS: Those with time scarcity due to exams and work can just scroll down to the 10 rules of the "Dream India".

our movement to true freedom and independence is still incomplete; our story is still unfolding. The global environment however is still dangerous and India’s freedom won by suffering and sacrifice has to be alertly guarded, strengthened and expanded. Freedom and independence must be our continuing quest, and in such a manner as to accelerate our evolution as a free nation through a bold and swift development. Can we keep this perspective while we celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the freedom movement? The time has now arrived for Parliament and Legislative Assemblies to emerge with a new vision and leadership to make our nation not only enlightened, united, harmonious, rich and prosperous, but above all, a safe nation, invulnerable forever to invasion and infiltration across its borders. I visualize the following distinctive profile for India by the year 2020, if the Parliament today resolves to implement the Mission India 2020 for a strong, prosperous and happy nation.

1. A Nation where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line.

2. A Nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water.

3. A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together in symphony.

4. A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic discrimination.

5. A Nation which is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists, and investors.

6. A Nation where the best of health care is available to all.

7. A Nation where the governance is responsive, transparent and corruption free.

8. A Nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed and crimes against women and children are absent and none in the society feels alienated.

9. A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, peaceful and happy and continues with a sustainable growth path.

10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of its leadership.

National leadership for realizing and sustaining the distinctive profile of a strong and prosperous India can emerge only when there is coherent, orderly and effective leadership from our Parliament and Legislative Assemblies.

The President of India DR. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's Speech in Hyderabad. Its very long but worth spending 15 minutes for.

"I have three visions for India. In 3000 Years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. "From Alexander onwards, the Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese,the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, tookover what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We havenot conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, and their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self- reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

I have a third vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that, unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only STRENGTH respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept of space,Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.

I see four milestones in my career: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3.The one that launched Rohini.These years played a very important role in my life of Scientist. After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994.
The Dept of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A very light material called carbon-carbon. One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gram calipers and took them to the orthopedic center. The children didn't believe their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around. Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.
I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T. Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.
Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.

Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.
YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.

YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are.
You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity... In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.'YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why ?
don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston??? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar, had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels?
In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job.
Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?'
He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.

We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home.

Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system?
What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians.....

'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA
AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA
WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY'

Lets do what India needs from us.

Thank you,

Dr. Abdul Kalaam
(PRESIDENT OF INDIA)

Go through the text embedded in above image. It will make you think what our country expects from us and what we are doing for the country..."

फलक पकड के उठो और हवा पकड के चलो
तुम चलो तो हिंदुस्तान चले
लगाओ हाथ कि सूरज सुबह निकाला करें
हथेलियों मे भरे धूप और उछाला करें
उफक के पांव रखो और चलो अकड के चलो
फलक पकड के उठो और हवा पकड के चलो
तुम चलो तो हिंदुस्तान चले

Really inspiring lines. Aren't they?
In case you interested in listening to these lines in the voice of Shankar Mahadevan, try this link.

I'm on India Poised. Are you?