A few weeks ago, a member of the middle level management in our company called us, three new recruits, to his cabin. We expected to hear some encouraging words. ‘You are Management Trainees’, he said, ‘So which are you, Managers or Trainees?’ I found the question a little stupid. ‘So you guys aspire to be in the CXO league someday?’ he asked. We answered in the affirmative. ‘How many years do you think you will take to reach there?’, he asked. The answers were 10, 20 and 25 years. He began laughing aloud. ‘If you become CXOs in 10 years, where will I be?’, he asked, ‘I still have over 12 years of service left.’ I felt my positivity draining. He then said, ‘I have worked for 22 years in this industry. Yet I am 5 levels below the CEO. When I entered the industry 22 years back, all 37 in my batch aspired to reach the CXO league. None of them have managed to do that till now’ The three of us remained silent. I thought he was trying to motivate us in some way. ‘S...
A collection of inspiring moments from my life. ~ Ananth Gunasekaran