Some Impressionistic takes from the book

Dr. V. Raghunathan’s
“ Don’t
Don’t Sp
print the Marathon”
by Ramki
ramakrishnan@gmrgroup.in
About the Author
V.Raghunathan’s first career was an academic- as Professor
of Finance at IIM- Ahmadabad for nearly two decades, until
earlyy 2001. His second – a corporate
p one- started in 2001,, first
as President , ING Vysya Bank for four years and then with
GMR Group- an infrastructure major. He is currently CEO,
GMR Varalakshmi Foundation . Also since 1990 he has been
an Adjunct
j Professor at the Universityy of Bocconi,, Milan,,
lecturing on behavioral finance
 Has published over 400 academic papers & popular articles
& seven books
 Author of the best-seller
best seller ‘ Games Indian Play
Play’ – why we are
the way we are ( Penguin 2006)
 Stock exchanges, Investments & Derivatives ( Tata McGraw
Hill 2007 )
 Writes a guest column in ET, Mint and Times of India Blog
and is a busy public speaker
 Has probably the largest private collection of old and ancient
locks in the countryy , has been a cartoonist with a national
daily, and has played chess at all India-level
Prelude
As proud and ambitious parents, we often push our children to
their limits and to excel in ways that may help them achieve
some early l successes- but
b t may sap their
th i stamina
t i t endure
to d
the more difficult challenges of life. Our obsessive rush to get
our children off to a good start overlooks the fact that in life, as
in a marathon, an early lead hardly matters, but being too
intent on the blind dash, we deprive our children a normal
childhood and hence of many lifelife-skills
skills.
This book reinforces the above line of thinking and quotes
several examples of average people who achieved
extraordinary success because they were not sprinting the
marathon!
Happy Reading
If you are like most professionals in a hurry…
You probably want:

 to be the first one to get promoted,

 to get that best rating at work year after year
 that coveted posting
p g
 that next promotion

And

you do probably do not recall when you spent a whole day with
your family last, or
 when you last helped a less fortunate man on the street
 And if yyou are like most parents…
p
You expect no less & probably more from your child
You are a prouder parent if your child were among the top
performers in the class & outside it
You tacitly expect your child to top at everything, crack that
mathematic Olympiad, captain the school cricket and football team…

May be you also drive your kid from school to

tuitions to swimming classes to tennis lessons.
Organize the kid’s
kid s summer vacation
meticulously, and
Compare the kid favorably or unfavorably to
other kids

And hope the kid would also win the

spelling bee, crack all the 3-letter national
entrance tests and maybe also walk on
water!
I Life
Is Lif a R
Race?
?
 It needn’t be, it shouldn’t be and it isn’t
 but if so,
so why do most educated parents make their kids do what
we listed in the last slide? Why do they Push them so hard, hoping
to give them a good start? So maybe it is regarded by most as a
race after all…
all
But if life is a race at all, it is a Marathon , not a Sprint…

 Oprah Winfrey – famous talk-show host & also a

Marathon finisher, maintains
“ Running is the greatest metaphor for life “
Oprah was referring to the metaphor of running
marathon & not the sprint!
Sprint vs. Marathon
Sprint
Involves a short run
It is a flat and a straight Stretch
All about strength and energy
End is always in sight
A good start is very important
It’s largely about competing with others
Highly competitive
O l winning
Only i i matters
tt
Marathon
Marathon is a long haul
Involves twisting and turning tracks with ups and
downs
It’s more about Stamina and mental strength
End is hardly in sight for most part
A good start hardly matters
It’s more about competing with self
Greater sense of camaraderie
C
Completing
l ti ththe race successfully
f ll ititselflf iis satisfying
ti f i
Which of the following child would you prefer?
 A Child that has
 A good grasp on subject
 Has the ability to internalize knowledge and apply to life
 But unable to reproduce or regurgitate the learning during examination, which may
compromise the grade
OR
 A Child
 That can pick up a subject superficially
 Have an excellent short term memory & reproduce the lines
in exams
 Score the highest grade
 Often
 As parents,
parents ideally we may like the first option
 But end up promoting the latter option in our kids
 Are we hung up on examination performance ?
 Do we regiment our lives & also those of children?
 Do we expect from Children, what we failed to achieve ourselves?
 On Bringing up Children…
 Shaping a Child’s personality
 Parents have to be a marathon coach & not a sprint coach
 We need to understand certain basic differences between long-term & short-term
orientation in life
 This will help us to shape our own life & Children’s attitude to life
 Well begun may be half done – But that’s more so in a dash
 True,
True a longlong-distance
distance runner cannot start the run with a
fractured or sprained ankle
 However to run a marathon, an average start is good enough,
unlike in a sprint
 It’s
It’ the
th same with ith Children
Child – tot do
d wellll in
i life,
lif an average
start in life that gives a child ample scope for an all-round
growth is enough. Fancy schooling, far out performance,
excellence in every field may feel good, but have little bearing
on long
l t
term performance,
f success and d happiness
h i off an
individual
 Desire to excel
 This is not right to say that a desire to excel is not a desirable trait to impart
 Excellence should come more from the desire excel one’s own performance rather than
from a do-or-perish kind of attitude
On a Successful life
life…
 What does success mean ?
 Making as much money as possible?
 About being as famous as possible?
 About being as powerful as possible?

 Thomas Wolfe – American novelist

 “You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become
uninterested in money, compliments or publicity! “
 Money , fame or power are consequences of Success and not goals
of success

 Paris Hilton is famous

 Do we want our daughters to adopt her as a role model ?
 Can she be really called successful , even if she is well known ?
 Can her lifestyle
y be a route to anyone’s
y happiness?
pp
 Is happiness key to success or success the key to happiness?
On Reading
Reading…

Reading provides for continuing education whether rich or

poor , employed or unemployed , royalty or pauper
Parents are the role model for children – if they do not see
parents spending any time ever in a bookshop or library,
reading books, it is less likely the kids will learn to make
reading a habit.
This also applies to professionals – smile and shoeshine
may be useful , but without reading there is no learning
What can Parents do as marathon coaches?
 Encourage children to read, and awaken in them a sense of curiosity, a
d i to
desire t know,
k t learn
to l & to
t find
fi d outt
 Instill in them a love of learning, by encouraging them to learn
 What they want to learn
 When they want to learn
 How they want to learn
 At a pace that suits them best
 Allow sufficient autonomy to the child for reading, as long as what the
child reads is not unhealthy
 Learning is something children do, do NOT something done to children
 Provide an environment which is conducive for learning
 Move the focus from teaching to learning
What Children like & What works on them
them…
Children
• As
A a rule, l prefer
f games, Play
Pl
and hands-on tasks over
studies
• They mostly live in the present
• They are curious about a wide
range off things
thi
Indirect influences are more
likely to work on children
Children aren’t afraid of
working hard
Dislikes of Children to bear in mind while shaping
p g them…
 Children
 Dislike excessive words
 Are deeply p y fearful of examinations - because examinations evaluate them
 Have an inbuilt fear of failure
 Pushing them hard for a better future goes against the grain of childhood, as
children live in the present
 Dislike concentrating on a narrow range of activities
 Forcing them into regimented extra curricular activities goes against the grain
of child hood and their sense of adventure

 Excessive discipline stunts their

imagination
g & mental ggrowth
 Putting children down severely for their
failures rarely works in the desired
direction
 Some
Great
Marathoners
Dr.Kallam Anji Reddy-
Reddy Dr. Reddy’s
Reddy s Labs
 A person who has put India’s Pharma industry on the Global
map
 Son of fairly well-to-do turmeric farmer from a village
Tadepalli – A.P
 He studied in a local school before moving on to a Junior
collage in Guntur & an average village boy
 He scored 59.16 % in the State board & then went to Andhra
Christian college in the same town for B.Sc. In Chemistry.
 Unsure of his performance dropped out to appear again in
supplementary.
 The only anxiety Dr.Reddy’s parents even showed was to
move Anjij to his Grand Ma’s p place for his p
primary
y schoolingg
– due to the reason his father did not want the 8 year old
child crossing the Krishna river every day .
 Anji was fairly mischievous with whole lot of friends , often
cutting
tti school
h l prayer to t indulge
i d l i some prankk with
in ith his
hi
friends
Dr.Kallam Anji Reddy-
Reddy Dr. Reddy’s
Reddy s Labs
 Remarkable about him – Sharp memory and general
reading
 He had a wide circle of friends whom he was genuinely fond
of & spent most of his time with them
 He is not a sprinter by far shot
 His
Hi love
l off languages
l came handy
h d – combined
bi d his
hi language
l
skills & some “ smart working” helped him getting through
the exams
 With his PhD – Joined IDPL in 1969 – 6 years learning bulk
drug manufacturing led him to explore drug making by
himself
 1976- Dr.Reddyy founded his first company
p y –Uniloids Ltd
 1980 set up the Standard Organics and the flagship of Dr.
Reddy’s lab in 1984
 Became the first Asian company every outside Japan – list
on the NY stock exchange
Dr.Kallam Anji Reddy
Dr. Reddy did not have a grand start in life
Did nott start
t t the
th life
lif from
f city
it
He wasn’t a conventionally brilliant student
Did not study in a fancy school , college or university
First job was not with an MNC
He did not jjob hopp
Concentrated on learning the ropes
Enjoyed every act of reading
Jogged along at a steady pace, took time to reflect & timed
it well
G.M.Rao- He who learnt from his failures
G.M.Rao
 A person who all his life competed only with himself
 Probably learnt much more from life than from school
 Born in 1950 in Rajam – Srikakulum district of AP , third
among the seven children
 An average middle class family – Parents having small gold
& trading
di business
b i
 Clearly the boy had far from a grand starting point
 Early schooling was in government school – a local Telugu
medium institution
 Fairly a bright & active boy, albeit somewhat naughty
 Neither excelled in Telugu nor English
 The
Th boyb f il d his
failed hi SSLC exams & father f th maded his
hi
peremptory declaration – “ No further studies”
 At this crucial juncture in his life came a remarkable teacher
– Damiri Venkata Rao – who motivated him to complete the
SSLC
 Worked hard and passed SSLC 422/500 – 84.4 %
G.M.Rao- He who learnt from his failures
G.M.Rao
 Rejected by Loyola college – Vijayawada, he went to a college in Bobbli for PUC
 Worked hard & topped the college PUC with distinction
 Obtained 12th rank in provisional selection for BE – Andhra University
 Did well in academics & would help his friends in whatever way possible.
 This popularity drove him to contest college elections to become Secretary

 Through all this, one characteristics remained, a

large circle of friends & he was a people’s
person
 Mastering the art of “ Making friends &
influencing people
 First failure as an adult – unable to bag
g the A.P
scooters agency for vizag
 Second failure – buying out an oil mill – sales
tax problems – leased out the mill & trucks
 Interviewed by a ferro-alloy company for a job –
he was rejected
G.M. Rao
 To consolidate our findings
 Not a spectacular start in life
 The boy came from a rural background – educationally backward district
 Family indifferent to academics
 Went to an unknown school & experienced little discipline or control at home
 No clarity on what he wants to do
 Flip side
 Fundamentally nice and responsible youngster
 One who is very bright & strong sense of adventure
 One who is not easily fazed by failure & one who is made by his failures
 Sustained hard work ( is an act of faith)) & p
people’s
p man
 One who is never wanting in efforts
 One who is not infallible , but is quick to get up & move on
 GMR is still a learner & a man of detail
 Never competed against others
Ela R.Bhatt-
R.Bhatt  F
From an enlightened
li ht d middle-
iddl class
l f il in
family i
Surat.
 Father –successful lawyer & Mother was
active in women’s issue
 Ela never topped her school or college
 Might have been in the top of 10 percentile
 Never unduly pushed in driving herself very
hard
 Overall value system was shaped by her
highly principled father
 As child she developed sense of fairness &
highly sensitive to any form of exploitation of
the underprivileged
 After a brief career in Government,
Government she took
it upon herself to found SEWA
Ela R.Bhatt-
R.Bhatt SEWA
 Ela is the founder of SEWA ( Self employed
women’s Association) has a membership of
6 87 000 women
6,87,000
 The members are
 Vegetable & garment vendors
 In-home seamstresses
 Head loaders & Construction workers
 Bidi roller, Paper pickers, Incense stick makers
 SEWA is the largest organization of its kind
for poor working women in the sub-continent
 Ela became a founder member of “ The
Elders” – along with the likes of Nelson
Mandela & Bishop Desmond Tutu to tackle
some of the most challenging problems in
the globe
Ela R.Bhatt-
R.Bhatt The Power of Value
 Her life’s work would earn her a
 Ramon Magsayaay award
 Honorary doctorates from Harward &
Yale
 Padma Bhushan
 Membership of the Planning
commission
 Rajya Sabha membership
 These milestones are just happened as
she ran the Marathon in pursuit of her
mission
 None of these marked the destination of
Sprint
The Last word
 Take a long-term view of life whether one is a child, a
parent or a professional
 Sprint
S i t may teach
t h you how
h t buy;
to b M th
Marathon will
ill teach
t h
you how to build
 Sprint may motivate you to take ; Marathon will teach
you how to give
 Sprint may be about how to win; Marathon will probably
also about how to lose
 Sprint
p mayy be driven byy desire to be ahead of others;;
Marathon is about being ahead of oneself
 Sprint may make you rich; Marathon will make you a
person of substance
 Achievement means different things to Sprinters vis-à-
vis Marathoners
 Achievement in sprint is about winning , where as in
Marathon it may be more about completing the course
itself
Hope you enjoyed this
Thank You