About 28 years ago, my wife and I took a decision that led to major disruptions in our lives. We decided that we were going to end the business part of our lives and spend the next 7 years in the United States, studying and doing something completely different. I went to the US by myself and was alone for almost 9 months. It involved us selling our house, putting that money away so that Sheila, and our 2 children at that time, could stay here in India and live off that money. It caused major disruption in our lives, but it was something that we felt that we needed to do.
Well, one year back, the Indian Government took a decision that also caused major upheavals in our lives when they demonetized the 1000 and 500 rupee notes. Those of us living in India struggled a lot during that time to try and get notes exchanged. It caused a lot of upheaval because 86% of the value of cash in circulation was demonetized at that time. At the same time, 90% of India's workers were in this informal sector where the predominant form of payment was in cash.
Looking back now, over the year and trying to make sense of it, I came across this article by Bhaskar Chakravorti who is the senior Associate Dean of International Business and Finance at Tufts University, written in Harvard Business Review. He looked at the entire process and says in this article headlined 'One Year After India Killed Off Cash, Here's What Other Countries Should Learn from It'. He outlines 4 lessons that can be learned from what India did. I'm going to give you 3 of them and also pull from it principles that I think might be ways that we can use in our own lives for disruptive changes that we need to make or have to make in our own lives.
Lesson One: Choose Who You Listen To.
Raghuram Rajan, the former governor of Reserve Bank of India, was against demonetization. Yet, the government didn't listen to him. They chose to listen to other voices that said that it would be something good. It's so important to find the right experts and listen to them. They need not necessarily be friends of yours, or people who think like you. But you need to find people who are dispassionate, who think clearly in a time like this. Even in our Scriptures, Jesus was talking about going towards Jerusalem and how the people would not receive him well and he would be killed. Peter, his disciple, called him aside and said, "Don't talk like this. This will never happen to you." Jesus responded by using some of the harshest words used in Scripture, "Get behind me, Satan," calling Peter 'Satan'. Peter was one of the closest in his circle of friends. It brought home to me that sometimes our friends may not necessarily think clearly when it comes to us, that they may want what is best for us only in terms of what they think might be good in terms of a relationship that they have with us. But they may not think dispassionately about what is good for us. So, we need to be careful about whom we listen to.
Lesson Two: Don't Ignore Basic Data
The cash component of India's undisclosed wealth was only estimated at 6%. Yet, there was so much struggle that everybody suffered when the 1000 and 500 rupee notes were demonetized. He says, "Do the math. Do due diligence. Find out whether the steps you are taking is really going to make a powerful impact on the segment of society or the workplace that you are targeting. I thought to myself: that's a good point for us as well, as we make changes in our own lives. We need to be able to see whether the data supports the decisions that we are making.
Lesson Three: Consider Human Behavior
He looked at what happened and said that people don't like to lose money. They found ways to deposit the invalidated cash in banks through various money-laundering schemes. In fact, Reserve Bank of India said that 99% of the 15.28 trillion rupees taken out of circulation by demonetization, was returned back into the banking system. People adapted, they rolled with the punches; they managed to get their money back. That's an interesting aspect. While disruption may happen, people know how to adapt to situations. It might be a good word for us too, that sometimes we look at disruptions in our own lives and say, "We're going to make changes. How will our family take it? How will our children adapt?" Know that families and children can adapt. We have that innate sense within us, to be able to roll with the punches.
I remember when we were planning to come back to India after living for 7 years in the US, many people told us, "Don't do it! Your children won't adapt." We felt very sure that we needed to come back as we felt that our work was here in India. We came back and our prayer was always that our children would adapt and would be able to see what we were doing. And they did. Not once did they tell us, "Why did you bring us back to India?" They adapted well.
As I was thinking of each one of you on this call, each one of you who may read this post, it could be that you're at a point in your life where you are thinking of a major decision. It could be something that is quite disruptive in your life – it could be a job change, moving from one place to another geographically, it could be a relationship. it could be something that might prove to be quite disruptive and involve major change. You're wondering whether or not to do it! I thought that it might be good for us to take lessons out of demonetization which is now part of history. Yet, we can look at principles that we can glean from it and apply them to our own lives as we look at the future. It's always good to look at history and then look at what's going on in our present and allow the lessons learnt from history to shape our future.
So, to you I would say: Look at the people whom you are listening to. Look for good people who understand the time that you are in. Don't ignore basic data. Consider human behavior – that we can change and adapt. Above all, just a quote from our Scriptures that says, "God says to us: Don't panic. I'm with you. There's no need to fear for I am your God. I'll give you strength, I'll help you. I'll hold you steady, I'll keep a firm grip on you." Aren't those beautiful words for us as we go through challenging times? That's my prayer for you, that you will land securely on that foundation, that God is with you and if you're making a radical, or major, decision in your life, that you will know that God is with you.
Allow me to pray with you. Almighty God, we know that we go through our life having to make decisions, some major, some minor, but all of them have consequences. I pray for each one reading this post that as they go through making these decisions that they will know that You are telling each one not to panic. You are with each one of them. There's no need to fear because You are with us and You will keep a firm grip on us. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.
· Bhaskar Chakravorti, "One Year After India Killed Off Cash, Here's What Other Countries Should Learn From It." https://hbr.org/2017/11/one-year-after-india-killed-off-cash-heres-what-other-countries-should-learn-from-it
· Bible Reference: Isaiah 41:10 MSG
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