Hungry Kya?

If you heard Pranab Mukherjee, the 70-plus Finance Minister of India say “My appetite is infinite and my greed is even higher,” at the Annual Conference of Chief Commissioners and Directors General of Income Tax, he was sharing his expectations of the tax department to stretch beyond the targeted Rs.4.3 lakh crore. It was in response to the interim report-card presented by the tax department which was confident of reaching the stiff target set by the FM.

Again, let’s hark back to the India-South Africa one-day cricket match in Feb-2010 where Sachin Tendulkar becomes the first cricketer in history to score a double century. The presentation ceremony had Ravi Shastri asking Sachin, “You greedy young boy! How do you feel reaching this milestone?” Sachin’s response: “Of late, it is getting stiffer for me as an opener to continue batting till the 50th over; I need to work harder on fitness.”

And then, who can forget the memorable golden words of Michael Douglas playing Gordon Gekko in The Wall Street: “Greed is good.” Now, one may wonder why the Indian FM still wants to chase his infinite appetite and insatiable greed when others his age conveniently find comfort in armchair reading or playing with their grandchildren. This, after the FM is being revered for achieving the unthinkable i.e. mobilizing more than Rs.1 lakh crore from spectrum sale, thrice the budget and winning accolades across the globe for managing the Indian economy more efficiently than the developed world.

The best international compliment I heard live was in an address to the Indian industry by the Canadian FM, “It sounds so much like a James Bond movie that India and Canada are out there saving the world [growth].” Take Tendulkar’s case too, when the legendary cricketer stresses upon the need to focus and improve fitness to last the full 50-overs stretch. He downplays the compliment on his historic feat, instead choosing to respond to the reference of him being a greedy young boy. It also reflects the comfort and willingness of the ‘boy’ in accepting the twin tags of being greedy (despite scoring the double hundred and knocking off every record in the books) and being a young boy (despite playing cricket for 20 years).

If one delves deeper into the rationale behind behavioral patterns in these examples, a common link emerges. That is, the definiteness about infinite and insatiable hunger for achieving excellence and surpassing every milestone reached, irrespective of whether the last milestone reached is your own or someone else’s. That is, not to rest on past laurels but continue striving towards higher goalposts and tougher terrains, at times challenging oneself. If one considers Gordon Gekko, the question is not the money. As he says, he had made and lost a lot. It is the question of whether you make winning a habit as against allowing one loss to sow the seeds of a losing habit.

As a startup, the same question must be confronted by the entrepreneur i.e. how monstrous is her/his appetite and what heights she/he is willing to jump from to satisfy that appetite. It lays the foundation of the enterprise, its destiny and future course. Having found a self-response to this, the next question is how she/he can inspire other team members. That determines the search for like-minded teammates to start the journey of enterprise amongst the teammates.

The views expressed here are personal.

BHARAT BANKA is the MD & CEO of Aditya Birla Private Equity.

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Bharat Banka