#Letting Go

I'm sure that you have been following the events of Infosys as they have unraveled over these last 4-5 days with the resignation of Vishal Sikka as CEO and MD, and Narayana Murthy's intervention, and all that has been going on. In fact, a lot of influential people that Narayana Murthy was over reaching.  Omkar Goswami wrote: "When you gotta go, you gotta go, Mr. Murthy!" Another article by G.R. Gopinath, founder of Air Deccan, one of the earliest private airlines poses this question, "Why can't we let go?" Both these articles were on the editorial page of The Economic Times. It seems that Narayana Murthy's shadow has cast a bit of tension and has resulted in so much of upheaval in Infosys and with their clients all around the world.

I Owe It To You

I am actually in the southern part of India this morning, at an Institute of learning, here for a graduation service and excited that this evening is the graduation for the students who have spent 3 years honing their craft and getting ready to go out into the world and see how equipped they are to face and embrace the things that God has called them into this world to do. But, as you can imagine, every time you revisit a place, you end up reminiscing. I came in last evening and I have been reminiscing – walking around chapels, halls – thinking about my own days at graduate school. I remembered professors and how we picked the classes that we wanted to attend. We would enquire of seniors who had taken those particular subjects before, and ask them how they found a particular professor. If they wanted to be kind, they would hedge a little bit with their answer; if they wanted to be blunt, they would tell us to avoid the class if possible. But, invariably, some of them would say, "That professor is really a good person!" Inherent in that statement was a clear indication was that you needed to avoid this class because what they were saying was that this person was a good person but not a great teacher.

I remember when my son was in the 12^th grade in a boarding school. This school got a couple of professors who came in just to teach for 3 years. They, a husband and wife, had been very successful in the corporate world, working with a multi-national company, but had decided to leave and invest in students for 3 years. They taught economics and my son took that class. Till that point, he had absolutely no interest in economics. But being taught by these 2 changed him. He was so challenged that he went on to have a deep love for it, took it as his major in undergrad school, did very well, topped his class, wrote a paper that was published in a college magazine – all because for 1 year, he had the opportunity of being taught by really gifted people who had decided to invest in students.

Bouncing Back

This morning I almost got carried away by an article that I was reading in the New Yorker about a man called Rick Rescorla. I was fascinated by his life story and if you get the chance, do read about him. He was the Vice President in charge of security at Morgan Stanley at their offices at the World Trade Center that came down in 9/11. Morgan Stanley had 40 floors at the World Trade Center with about 2,700 employees. When the planes hit, he was responsible for getting them out. He managed to get 2,700 of them out; only 7 people from Morgan Stanley died and Rick Rescorla was one of them. He died trying to go back to see if there were any more stragglers who hadn't yet made it; and he never made it out.

Just reading, not only about what happened on that day, but his life – he was a British soldier, fought in a couple of wars there, then left and came to the United States and got his citizenship. He joined the army, went to Vietnam and was very highly decorated. Most people, especially his colleagues in the units, remember him as a wonderful force of energy that wouldn't ever give up. He would take everything that came his way and still bounced back.

Towards the end, he had prostate cancer. He had to take painful injections in his stomach, yet would still go to work and get drills going because he believed that was what he needed to do. And that's what worked in getting all of the employees out. He would have these drills that would evacuate all these people. In one minute, everybody had to leave their desks and be on their way out. I was so captured by the resilience that was the hallmark of his life. He took everything that life threw at him and bounced back.

WHAT A LEGACY!

by Dr. Cecil Clements (11th September 2012)

I read this eulogy that was delivered, thought that it was a quote from W.H. Auden, but I’ve not been able to verify it, so give me that little bit of freedom. It says this, “There are many streams, but only here and there, a great Mississippi. There are many trees, but only here and there a great sequoia giant. There are many echoes but only now and then an original voice. There are many musicians but only now and then a Mendelsohn or a Mozart. There are many politicians but only now and then a commanding statesman. There are many people but only now and then an outstanding individual.”