Dr Subramanian Swamy shares his secrets of 'perseverance'

PodUniversal Edition 131

Presently, many people want to achieve their goal.  When they face difficulties or failure, they get disheartened and lose their enthusiasm to pursue their mission.  We commonly see this phenomenon among the younger generation. Dr Subramanian Swamy, President of Janata Party is known for his perseverance.  

Dr Subramanian Swamy

During early 1970s, when Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in India, Dr Swamy was issued with the arrest warrant.  Braving all challenges, he entered into Parliament and presented his views and escaped to other countries.  Now, when, all the media have been writing about  2G scam for the past two years, only because of the sustained efforts of Dr Swamy through judicial route, many arrests were made possible. 

On behalf of PodUniversal, we requested him for an exclusive interview for the Diamond Jubilee edition of ezine (Feb 2011 issue) to get the tips for 'perseverance'.  During our interview, he shared his views in a simple manner. Excerpts from his interview:

"Out put of your efforts is not directly proportional to the efforts.  Some time, you you put in lot of efforts and get nothing; Some time, with least efforts, you get lot.  The same is described in Bhawad Gita as 'karma theory'.  Every one should pursue the goal without tension, putting the best efforts. If you understand and develop this attitude, 'perseverance' comes. If you get disheartened, perseverance evaporates.   

Generally, people are averse to taking risks.  You can not achieve anything without taking risks. When you take the risk, there is a probability of failure also.  Risk taking attitude should be developed.

Perseverance is the amalgam of multiple intelligences like emotional intelligence, social intelligence, moral intelligence and spiritual intelligence.  India is known for the spiritual intelligence, which connects to cosmos."

 Please watch and listen to his inspiring interview by clicking the 'play' button.  (10 minutes).

You can also watch this interview in the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_JoQZeRmsw 

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Institutional leadership is more important than individual leadership

PodUniversal Edition 130

Many people, when they assume power and position, they become 'changed' persons in their attitude and humility.  They do not realise that their position and power are not permanent and only temporary.  When they allow the 'position and power' enter into their mind, they would suffer mentally after retirement or when they lose the power.

I have witnessed several such persons, who were not able to balance their mind, when they get into higher position.  At the same time, I have also personally witnessed many  persons  like Dr Abdul Kalam (Former President of India), Mr S Narendra (Former Information Advisor to Prime Minister). Mr T S Krishna Murthy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India), Mr N Gopalaswamy (Former Chief Election Commissioner of India) and few others remaining mentally balanced when they were holding the highest offices in their career. Such people decorated the 'position', instead of getting 'decorated'. They continue to be respected even after their leaving the high offices.

M Narendra

Mr M Narendra, who recently took over as  Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank is one such professional, who is not affected by the position and power.   I personally know him for nearly three decades.  Still, he remains as the same person, whom I have seen 30 years back.  When I sought his appointment for a podcast interview, his office gave me the time at 10 am on the next day.

I went to his office at 9.45 am along with another senior communication professional.  I was sitting in the lobby reading some magazines.  A smartly dressed person who entered the lobby  said 'Hi, Srinivasan.  How are you?  I will call you in two minutes' and shook my hands and went away.  My friend thought, that the person who came to me was a senior officer of the Chairman's Secretariat.  He just asked me, "Who is he?".  I said, "He is Mr Narendra, Chairman of IOB".  My friend had a shock of his life.  He has seen many Corporates and met with top people of both private and public sector.   For a moment, he could not realise that a  Chairman of a big public sector bank could be very simple.  

Sharp at 10 am, he invited me to his chamber and after mutual pleasantries, I recorded his 6 minutes interview.  When I asked him what was the secret behind his success, he immediately responded by saying (1) his passion to excel, (2) not getting satisfied with his own achievement and bench marking with other visionaries who have achieved more and (3) enabling his team also to succeed.  He was giving more focus on 'Institutional leadership, than individual leadership'.

Please listen to his inspiring interview.( 6 minutes)

The interview also may be watched/listed from the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaszGg5vngI

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Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi speaks on 'electoral and political reforms'

PodUniversal Edition 129

National Election Watch conducted their 7th National Conference on Electoral and Political Reforms at Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai on 12th and 13th Feb 2011.  The current Chief Election Commissioner of India and Former Chief Election Commissioners, political leaders, NGOs participated to discuss the theme.

Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Shri  Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Former Governor of West Bengal and the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and Rajaji inaugurated the Conference. In his speech, he traced the history and quoted how in the past, great national leaders were giving importance to electoral and political integrity.

His inspiring speech may be downloaded in the pdf format (80k) from the following link:

http://www.prpoint.com/gopalkrishnagandhi-speech-120211.pdf

Please watch and listen to excerpts from the speech of Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi (10 minutes).

The video may also be watched from the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRfdZiwQjYs

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