I don’t know why, but Rahul Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni rank right up there as someone whom I always look up to. Currently, I am reading — Timeless Steel — an anthology on Rahul Dravid. It is an awesome read and takes us into the mind of one of the greatest cricketer of all time. I read Dhoni’s interview today and I found a stark similarity between Dravid and Dhoni ‘s thought process. They are two different men yet legends in their own right.
It takes great courage and wisdom to say —
“Cricket is not everything, not by any means, but it is a large part of who I am”.
It may seem simple, but hear me out. We start our career in a profession(be it cricket or starting a business) by trusting our talent, following our passion and operating within and beyond the parameters of our abilities. Somewhere down the road, many falter. They rise high and fall like a deck of cards. Need I say, Vinod Kambli here.
We start considering that our work is everything and disregard anything else in between such as our family, passion et.al. It is tad true as we spend most of our waking moments at our work. We drive our body to extreme by indulging in ‘not-so-good’ activities. Yet, we take utmost care of our smartphones.
Often times, many people can’t draw a line between their work, love(family,friends etc) and play(your passion, hobbies etc).In the early 2000s, Dravid started to rise to greatness when he understood the difference between possibility and reality of possessing a certain talent, that cricket is not everything. You should do your work with dedication and concentrate on the process. Rest will take care of itself.
Back at Infosys, during my toddler years of my professional life, I was a man who was possessed by an idea of finding my true calling. I went ahead and started up my own business. It failed. Before starting up, I was single minded,marching towards the goal with sheer ignorance to family, health and anything that screams ‘personal’. After all the years in wilderness, I know I have mellowed down and may be, emerged understanding that Work is not everything that there is. It is a part in the lengthy journey, that is life.
I have digressed here and now back to the focal point. Sachin, Lara were bestowed with genius and they claimed greatness but they are ‘once in a generation’ players. Dravid and Dhoni are not geniuses yet they achieved greatness through dedication, moral values, concentrating more on present rather than past or future, concentrating on process rather than reward.
As once Graham Gooch asked Ian Botham, “Who writes your bloody script then?”.
Once our time is up, if someone respects us and proclaim “Who writes your bloody script?”, then we know that we have done everything we can.
PS: I am Vijayaragavan, a Superhero nerd.INFJ.Entrepreneur. Ex Founder and CEO of @thecrawlfish. Ex@Infosys. Ex @TSC. You can reach me at @vijayragavanv
