Living to be someone else…?

Andy Warhol painted this classic Marilyn Monroe Art.

And he did the same with Campbell soups and Mao and created history in the Art Scene.

I use this backdrop to ask a Question – WHY do people need to be like someone else?

Case in point:

Rajat Gupta who is now in Police custody due to his involvement in the Rajaratnam case.

A lot of ‘pandits’ like me tried to analyse what would make a man of Rajat Gupta stoop to what I call the level of a chain snatcher (in my eyes, a thief is a thief) – when he had EVERYTHING going for him.

Funnily, the answer came from Rajaratnam and a couple of Gupta’s good friends. Apparently he was not happy being a man of stature, ex head of McKinsey (which also means you are one of the cleverest men in the world), having 4 homes in the USA (therefore also a really rich man in the USA) etc – all he WANTED TO BE was in the BILLION DOLLAR club.

And WHY?

Because – his batch mates of IIT who are Venture Capitalists in Silicon Valley are Billionaires and he was constantly benchmarking himself to them.

HE WANTED TO BE THEM!!

I have seen this ‘comparison’ start very early in India.

– Parents tell their kids to be like ‘this cousin’ or that ‘somebody’ or ‘Sachin Tendulkar’ or their ‘father’ etc etc. I rarely come across kids whose parents tell them to ‘be themselves’.

This is my opinion instills a ‘comparison’ mode in children at a very young age. That kills them.

– People benchmark you, even if you don’t need it!!!

I floated a hypothesis of this blog piece by posting a simple wall post on my Facebook profile saying ‘I dunno who I should be like’..

Lots of comments came – only my good friend Nayana gave me the cue that would to become this post.

The problem is that constant comparisons badger people. They get used to living upto’s the public perception of what ‘they should be’ and ‘who they should be like’ rather than who they WANT TO BE!

– What does anyone want anyways? 

I mean before Steve Jobs got Cancer, I am sure millions of people ‘wanted’ to be like him? Did those people ever wanted to die like him??

The same with Rajat Gupta – I can swear millions of suave, smart, successful bankers and professionals and consultants would say ‘wow – what an amazing life – wish we could be like Rajat’!!

Until he went to Jail.

Fortunately – we are each as unique as our finget prints. Lets recognize that early on and enjoy ourselves !!

BE PROUD TO BE YOURSELF

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