Responsibility is the price for freedom

Freedom exists only within a framework of rules. Freedom is simply an opportunity to find a definition for yourself, a true, authentic individuality, and a joy in making the world around you a little better, a little more beautiful. Excise and enjoy your freedom in true sense. 

• Like so many things in life, freedom is not free. We cannot justifiably have one without the other. The more comprehensive and diversified the social order, the greater the responsibility and the freedom of the individual. 
• Freedom is inseparable from responsibility. If I have the freedom to think, it is my responsibility to think positively. If I have the freedom to speak, it is my responsibility to speak properly and meaningfully. If I have the freedom to act, it is my responsibility to act correctly. I have no right to excise my freedom to breach other’s privacy. 
• If you don't want to take responsibility, you can't have freedom either. If you shun responsibility, you have to accept slavery in some way or other.
• Freedom of choice which means freedom to choose, to act in this way or that way, to do good and evil. Every individual’s freedom is limited by the others. 
• Nothing can satisfy a human need and greed (be it for freedom as well). Extreme freedom results in catastrophe and responsibilities prevent it.
• Those who do not have enough freedom will inevitably crave more of it. 
• Freedom is just not limited to speech, thought, follow a particular religion etc but freedom from fear, anxiety, worry etc are also equally important. Freedom is an amazing thing, but as with most amazing things, too much of it can be more than you bargained for. Especially if you’re not prepared to handle it.
• There is an important dimension to freedom that is often forgotten: freedom of will. 
• Our freedom may be constrained and our choices limited, in the moment when we choose, we experience freedom. 
• True freedom is closely linked to self-control. Only a self-disciplined person can decide to do something and accomplish it. True freedom is the freedom to follow one’s conscience and maintain one’s personal integrity. This is freedom of will. It leads to more of a sense of liberation and fulfillment. 
• The joy of freedom is not only to be able to choose, but to be able to choose well—to choose the right and the good, and be responsible for the outcome rather than blaming.

People like freedom because it gives them a sense of mastery over things and people. They dislike responsibility because it constrains them from satisfying their desires. Every thought, word and deed in our lives shapes our character. We create our own character through the decisions we make.

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Avoid being judgmental

• We are all judgmental. It’s human nature. 
• While it is in our nature to be judgmental, it’s not always useful to us. We look down on others, as if we are so much better and that creates division between people. 
• You are not the only one with betchy opinions. We see someone, and based on their looks or actions, we pass judgment on them. Not good judgment, either. Usually without even knowing the person. In most cases, we don’t really have any idea what’s behind other people’s actions. We don’t make an effort to get to know the person, or understand them, or see whether our judgment was right or not. 
• We judge, without understanding. We don’t try to find out more, and through communication begin to understand, and through understanding begin to build a bridge between two human beings.
• It might be hard to avoid gossip completely, but make an effort to change the conversation when your friends start sounding judgmental. Try bringing up another perspective, or sneak some of that person’s good qualities into the discussion. If you can’t help but get caught up in the negativity of your usual social group, find a more positive friend who you can spend time with too.
• Everyone makes mistakes, so make a point of framing it as a bad action, not a sign of bad character. 
• As you feel a negative thought enter your brain, accept it as a thought only and then redirect your mind to think about something else. Detaching yourself from your thoughts will keep you from getting caught up in criticizing others.
• An onslaught of scary events (political upheaval, apocalyptic weather) has made us all feel unstable, amplifying our instinctual urge to call out those who threaten the norm. Because things seem less predictable we're assessing more, looking to shut down threats everywhere. 
• It is easy to dismiss these savage instincts as harmless. But constantly judging others can create an addictive cycle. We judge, then judge ourselves for judging, then feel bad, then judge others again, ultimately losing way too much mental energy to process that makes us feel foolish. 
• The solution is noticing the critical thoughts and then replacing them with kindness. 
• When you begin your day with self-judgment, you end up projecting those insecurities onto others. Instead try to notice your judgment without judgment. When you realize that you are critiquing yourself, congratulate yourself for noticing. Positive reinforcement neutralizes negative feelings, squashing the urge to transfer them onto someone else.
• After recognizing what triggers your judginess and using positive mantras, try cultivating compassion. Looking for people's good qualities helps you feel more love for them. So close your eyes for a second, breathe deep, and reflect on how hardworking this guy is.
• Evening is great time to take inventory of your and forgive yourself for all the times you have judged. This is the last step in your detox. No matter how many negative thoughts slipped through, tell yourself that you did the best you could. And be proud of all the critical thoughts you did catch. 
• In order to let other people off the hook, you first have to let yourself off the hook.

Be curious, not judgmental ... Walt Whitman

The ordinary heroes of Taj Hotel

On 26/11, rampaging terrorists killed some 150 people at 10 locations in South Mumbai, including 11 employees of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. The chief of the Tata group, Ratan Tata, which owns the Taj via group company Indian Hotels, during his visits to some bereaved families, met a woman who pointed to the garlanded figure of her late husband and said: "My children never realised their father was a hero." It took Tata by surprise, as he expected to encounter anger and sorrow. Designing an organization for extreme customer centricity requires several dimensions. The unusual hiring, training, and incentive systems of the Taj Group have combined to create an organizational culture in which employees are willing to do almost anything for guests. This extraordinary customer centricity helped, in a moment of crisis, to turn its employees into a band of ordinary heroes. There is no single factor that can explain the employees’ valor. 

• The tales of employee heroism included a banquet manager helping guests escape; telephone operators staying at their posts and alerting guests to stay indoors; and staff forming a human shield to protect guests at the time of evacuation.
• In a banquet hall, the 24-year-old banquet manager, Mallika Jagad, was managing an event quickly realized something was wrong and had the doors locked and the lights turned off. She asked everyone to lie down quietly under tables and refrain from using cell phones. She insisted that husbands and wives separate to reduce the risk to families. The Taj staff kept calm and constantly went around offering water and asking people if they needed anything else. Next morning, a fire started in the hallway outside, forcing the group to try to climb out the windows. A fire crew spotted them and, with its ladders, helped the trapped people escape quickly. The staff evacuated the guests first, and no casualties resulted. It was my responsibility and I was still doing my job - Jagad says.
• Forty-eight-year-old Thomas Varghese, the senior waiter at Wasabi, instructed his 50-odd guests to crouch under tables, and directed employees to form a human cordon around them. Four hours later, security men asked Varghese if he could get the guests out of the hotel. He decided to use a spiral staircase near the restaurant to evacuate the customers first and then the hotel staff. The Taj veteran insisted that he would be the last man to leave, but he never did get out. The terrorists gunned him down as he reached the bottom of the staircase. 
• When Karambir Singh Kang, the Taj Mumbai’s general manager, heard about the attacks, he immediately left the conference he was attending at another Taj property. He took charge at the Taj Mumbai the moment he arrived, supervising the evacuation of guests and coordinating the efforts of firefighters amid the chaos. His wife and two young children were in a sixth-floor suite, where the general manager traditionally lives. He tried to get to his family. It was impossible. By midnight the sixth floor was in flames, and there was no hope of anyone’s surviving. Kang led the rescue efforts until noon the next day. Only then did he call his parents to tell them that the terrorists had killed his wife and children. His father, a retired major general, told him, “Son, do your duty. Do not desert your post.” Kang replied, “If it [the hotel] goes down, I will be the last man out.”
• One executive chef at the hotel told the researchers that other groups have tried to hire him, but he refused to go for reason of - there is a connection with the guests. Generations have come to the Sea Lounge for matchmaking and weddings are celebrated in the Crystal Room; and waiters have been serving people for generations, the researchers were told.
• Harvard Business School (HBS), while making a case study on crisis management at the Taj during 26/11 were transfixed by the topic and were incredulous why employees were willing to give up their lives when they had the option to flee. 
• The uncommon valour of those who worked at the Taj convinced to research the human resource (HR) practices of the organisation. This was an extremely rare case of employees placing the safety of guests over their own well-being; and in the process some of them sacrificed their lives. 
• There was nothing in the manuals or any training given to these employees for an incident like this one. 
• A research into the HR practices of the company found three pillars of unique practices that explained the courage and actions of employees: A recruitment system that hires for character and not for grades; training programmes that not just mentor employees but also empower them to take decisions; and a reward programme that recognises employees on a real-time basis.
• The aspect that recruiting from small towns and recruiting for attitude rather than grades was unheard of.
• At a time when we are hearing so many stories of human frailty, mismanagement, moral turpitude, the Taj research is about ordinary people who became heroes. It's about leadership from everywhere, especially leadership from below. 
• The culture of employee-empowerment has been ingrained in the Taj workforce for some time now. The researchers found similar displays of gallantry at the at the Taj properties in Maldives at the time of tsunami in December 2004.
• Just like the character of a human being is the sum of choices made over the years, the culture of an organisation is the sum of values, policies and practices consciously fostered over the years.

Every crisis or war makes many ordinary men heroes

Ratan Tata Generosity

Wealth accumulation reflects one’s character

• Tax havens are shadowy and sleazy little countries and principalities such as the Cayman Islands, Lichtenstein and Monaco.
• Low taxation countries like Switzerland, Singapore and Dubai assure secretive rich people of their privacy. 
• A tax haven exists to cheat sovereign states of their lawful incomes. 
• It is estimated that corporate tax avoidance costs governments $500bn a year while personal tax avoidance costs $200bn a year. This means that between $20-30 trillion of business transactions in various jurisdictions are sheltered from taxations. 
• Moody’s estimated that in 2016, giant American technology companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple were hoarding about $1.84 trillion cash in offshore havens. Clearly, they are avoiding taxes by bending the rules of the tax system. This is tax avoidance, which is not illegal for they are operating within the letter, but perhaps not the spirit of the law. 
• Tax evasion is just plain concealment of income and is a crime in all countries. 
• In 1980's, shaken up by many of its MBA graduates found wanting in ethical and moral values, the Harvard Business School made a course on “Leadership and Corporate Accountability” a core requirement. 
• Doing the ethics course is one thing but it is something else to be able to resolve the moral dilemmas of  “HBS’s ethical view of capitalism that derives its transformational view of money, in which the ability to accumulate wealth is a reflection of one’s character.”
• Market forces can be a potent driver for positive social change.
• The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
• Tax avoidance is as reprehensible as tax evasion. 
• Mauritius and Singapore are our two biggest sources of FDI.

Honesty is incompatible with amassing a large fortune - Mahatma Gandhi

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Education: What is its purpose?

What is the purpose of education? If you were to ask a small group of teachers, administrators, students, parents, etc to address this question, how difficult it would be to reach a consensus?

• No matter what ever global problem you are dreading, the solutions always include education, never is it without an education component and sometimes cannot be done without education.
• Education is to teach creative and analytical thinking. To spark curiosity, imagination, and love of lifetime learning. Education is a lifetime journey, not a destination or a transaction.
• The purpose of education is prepare our children for higher education, teach them to navigate social interactions with peers from different backgrounds, and to help them become tax paying members of society. 
• Should young people become educated to get prepared to enter the workforce, or should the purpose of education be focused more on social, academic, cultural and intellectual development so that students can grow up to be engaged citizens? Education should prepare young people for life, work and citizenship.
• No matter what progress is made to shift the practices and content of daily classroom instruction, inequity will continue to be a substantial limiting factor. Real sustainable improvement depends on addressing inequity in areas such as well-paid employment, health care, food, and housing security. You can’t have one without the others.
• In the US, historically, the purpose of education has evolved according to the needs of society. Education's primary purpose has ranged from instructing youth in religious doctrine, to preparing them to live in a democracy, to assimilating immigrants into mainstream society, to preparing workers for the workplace.
• And now, as educators prepare young people for their futures in a world that is rapidly changing, to create adults who can compete in a global economy? To create lifelong learners? To create emotionally healthy adults who can engage in meaningful relationships?
• Most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education. Most of them think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. 
• Some others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.
• Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.
• School education should prepare students for life - for college, for work, for living within a family and within a community, and for participating effectively in the democratic process.
• Schools have always been about developing students for life and work. And life is much more than earning a living; it is also living a life.
• A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.
• The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
• Intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education. 
• If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts.

Education is really aimed at helping students get to the point 

where they can learn on their own ... Noam Chomsky.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know ... Albert Einstein

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people ... Newton

My View:
Education does not have a single purpose; it serves multiple objectives, and the relative importance of each of these objectives can be very personal. Education is to support children in developing the skills, the knowledge, and the dispositions that will allow them to be responsible, contributing members of their community. To be a good friend, to be a good mate, to be able to work, and to contribute to the well-being of the community. Children should learn civic knowledge and master civic skills, respecting others, working collaboratively, acting in a way that is fair and just, and being an active participant in the life of the community. Greed of money and power, if not desisted, destroys an educated person to a great extent. Today, the world is suffering due to the greed of educated and superiority complex of unworthy.

Prosperity Is more than having money

The record levels of financial aid, over the last 30 years, to reduce poverty in the poorest nations of Africa has failed. The message is simple: Money as the lone transformative power for lasting national prosperity is not enough. A country needs more than just wealth to be prosperous. It needs to endow its citizens with basic human freedoms, that come from a safe water supply, a roof over their heads and the ability to hold politicians to account for these and other essentials of life. It needs to educate its children and take care of its elderly. It needs to develop a society in which people trust one another. It needs to foster a climate of entrepreneurship and innovation. None of these are achievable without the rule of law and strong, democratic governments. 

• If you ask the average person what she believes is the definition of prosperity, the typical response would be monetary wealth. True prosperity encompasses abundance of wealth, happiness, health, career, relationships, home & family and wisdom. Money has little utility after certain level.
• Wealth alone does not make for a happy and successful society. 
• Happy citizens are produced as much by democracy, freedom, and entrepreneurial opportunity as they are by a growing economy.
• Looking at one's bank balance, we may discover whether the man is rich or poor but we learn nothing about his character, his enjoyment of life, the state of his health, the quality of his education or his attitude toward the people around him.
• GDP is a measure from an age dominated by heavy industry, designed to calculate a nation’s economic production. It has evolved to become the key device used to weigh a country’s economic success, tweak taxes and tackle inflation. The measure works less well with the growing importance of services.
• Finland’s GDP per capita have decreased sharply, but its real wealth, in terms of its citizens living in a free, safe and successful nation, has improved.
• The findings of the 2010 Prosperity Index are: smaller northern European countries rank highest while the bottom two places are occupied by Zimbabwe and Pakistan. The U.K. ranks 13th (same as last year) while the U.S. ranks 10th. 
• Progress and prosperity is as much about well being and contentment as economic success. 
• The critical factors fueling prosperity are open markets, high personal freedom and strong civil society. But given the fragility of such ideas, fury against globalization and rising mood of ugly intolerance, it is always good to restate these important points.
• Nations at the bottom are improving faster than those at the top - but there are important exceptions.
• Plenty of countries, from China to Chile, have shown convergence towards the United States, the world’s biggest economy.
• Britons come third for generating prosperity, despite sluggish growth due to structural reforms but the ratings down to tenth due to their failure to share wealth. This is seen helping open divisions in societies to alarming degree. 
• Oil is exposed as a curse for developing countries, corroding democracy while fueling corruption and rent-seeking activities.
• New Zealand is picked as the planet’s most prosperous place, edging out Norway and Finland. This isolated nation is reliant on agriculture for its economy and its exports – a sector that thrived after government started to ditch subsidies in 1984. Farmers screamed this would be driving them in droves from the land. Instead they were forced to cut costs, innovate and respond to demands from consumers rather than bureaucrats. Now, they are some of the world’s most efficient and inventive producers.

Before national leaders can create effective policy to increase economic growth and social well-being in their country, they must first answer two fundamental questions: What is prosperity, and how is it achieved? 

Gross Domestic Product is an incomplete way of measuring 

a country’s progress, GDP captured  everything except that 

which makes life worthwhile ... Robert F. Kennedy.

Trust

Trust is defined as assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. And one in which confidence is placed. 

Trust is fundamental to life. If you cannot trust in anything, life becomes intolerable, a constant battle against paranoia and looming disaster. You can’t have relationships without trust. Intimacy depends on it. People claim to be overworked and under constant pressure don’t delegate, because they don’t trust people to do what they’ve been asked to do; so they have to take on every significant task themselves. It’s not the pressure of actual work that’s driving them towards some stress-related illness, it’s their lack of trust in anyone and anything. Trust has to start somewhere. Why not with you? Why not today? Why not right now? 

• Trust is a rare commodity these days.
• Trust affects a leader’s impact and the company’s bottom line more than any other single thing.
• It's a mistake for a leader to assume that others trust him simply by virtue of his title.
• Trust must be earned, and it takes time. 
• You will be trusted as leader, only to the degree that people believe in your ability, consistency, integrity, and commitment to deliver. 
• You can earn trust over time, by building and maintaining eight key strengths:
  (1) Clarity: People trust the clear and mistrust or distrust the ambiguous.
  (2) Compassion: People put faith in those who care beyond themselves.
  (3) Character: Do what is right ahead of what is easy.
  (4) Contribution: Few things build trust quicker than actual results.
  (5) Competency: Stay fresh, relevant, and capable.
  (6) Connection: People want to follow, buy from, and be around friends.
  (7) Commitment: People believe in those who stand through adversity.
  (8) Consistency: Little things done consistently makes big difference. 
• Commitment builds trust.
• You can have compassion and character, but without the results you promised, people won’t trust you. 
• The key competency is the ability to learn amid chaos. 
• Arrogance attitude prevent you from growing, and compromises others’ confidence in you. 
• Trust is all about relationships, and relationships are best built by establishing genuine connection. Ask questions, listen, and above all, show gratitude. Grateful people are not entitled to complaining and gossiping.
• Do the little things, consistently. The great leaders consistently do the small but most important things first. The little things done consistently make for a higher level of trust and better results.

Trust can’t be built overnight. It requires time, effort, diligence, and character. Inspiring trust is not slick or easy to fake. Focus on these eight components with every action, you will foster trusted relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, or fellow leaders that will drive results.

Intimate sharing among strangers is a fact. Trust can exist among strangers. Trust and discretion exist among strangers online when sufficient information exists to act as social cues for trustworthiness or connections to other individuals for whom the trustworthiness decision has already been made.

Trust is a funny thing like love and life; 
you never really know you can trust some one until you know you can't; 
you won't know if you don't try.

My View:
Most people are trust worthy to certain extent. Some people fail miserably. But it is worth while to get along life with majority trustworthy people, until one proves untrustworthy. Otherwise, one ends up doing everything without discretion and delegation and can't grow or collapse under own weight. Trust is sometimes confused with naivete or hallowed by optimism, but trust and its corollary discretion, are what makes social interaction possible. Everyone is out for themselves subconsciously. They will sell you out the moment they are tempted with riches or power. However, checks and balances mitigates risks involved. No one is trustworthy one hundred percent except spouse.

Leadership and War: Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf

Norman Schwarzkopf, a four-star General in US Army commanded Operation Desert Storm, successfully driving out Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991. While he was known to many as "Stormin Normin", the men under his command simply called Schwarzkopf "The Bear".

Below are 10 quotes from Gen. Schwarzkopf that encapsulate his views on leadership and war.

1. Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy.
2. Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar; and still there are things worth fighting for.
3. The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in battle.
4. When placed in command, take charge.
5. It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.
6. True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that's what courage is.
7. The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.
8. War is a profane thing.
9. You learn far more from negative leadership than positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it.
10. Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.