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The Goodwill League!




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.
‘So, you should understand that’, he continued, ‘not everyone can be a CEO. You are trainees. Aspiring to become CXOs is not wise, if you ask me. Be happy with what you have and do your job properly. Do you understand?’

We nodded and left his cabin. The other two trainees too felt drained of energy after spending a few minutes with the person. I knew I had to work on myself to handle such negativity better.


When I was 14, I broke my arm. ‘Monteggia fracture dislocation’, the scan report said.
‘You can hope to recover in 3 months’, the doctor said after the surgery, ‘if you eat healthful food and take rest’

Many who saw me with the plaster and sling invariably told me, ‘Don’t do any monkey business. Keep your arm safe’
Some added, ‘Once a joint is dislocated, it will keep happening again and again. So you have to be very careful’. I remember I felt drained of energy whenever I heard such comments.

About twenty days after the surgery, I met a gentleman. He asked me how I broke my arm. I explained to him how I made a judgement error while swinging from one bar (parallel bars) to another and fell.
He smiled at me and said, ‘So you like gymnastics’

‘Yes’, I said.
‘Very good! Don’t worry about this injury. It will heal.’ he said, ‘Very soon you will recover and get back to swinging from one bar to another but this time’, he paused, ‘with stronger arms.’ 
I recovered in less than two months. The person was an army man.

A few days back, I attended a behavioural training session conducted by a seventy one year old gentleman.
His closing words on the first day of training had a profound effect on me.

‘I was informed about this session about 4 months back. From then on, I have been preparing myself to be of value to you. Though we met only today, you have been in my thoughts every day, for 4 months. So, you are part of my life. Thank you’
This person seemed to emit some sort of energy that made me feel good about myself. I made a note to tell him about it.
‘You will feel positive around me’, he said as if he heard my thoughts, ‘because I bring with me immense goodwill’.


I never understood what goodwill meant, until this incident took place. Now I have the answer to the question the person I described first had asked, ‘If you become CXOs in 10 years, where will I be?’

My answer: ‘I don’t know if I’ll be CXO in ten years. But I sincerely wish you realise that positive intentions and a few positive words can make another person’s life much better and eventually, yours. This realisation may take your higher than CXO tags can take you. I wish this upon you with immense goodwill’

I wish to meet more people like the other two gentlemen I have described. I also wish more people meet these two gentlemen. Theirs is the league I aspire to be in.
Maybe awesome CXOs crop out of this league.
Sam Houston, former American politician says, 'A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under'



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Comments

  1. sudhar25 August 2015 at 06:35

    Super da...expecting a lot more like this!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. geoshanallen25 August 2015 at 06:41

    Awesome work !!

    ReplyDelete
  3. geoshanallen25 August 2015 at 06:41

    Awesome work !!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown25 August 2015 at 08:26

    Good one Ananth..U have brought in immense goodwill with this article..Thanks for that :)
    Keep writing ..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown25 August 2015 at 08:26

    Good one Ananth..U have brought in immense goodwill with this article..Thanks for that :)
    Keep writing ..

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown25 August 2015 at 08:26

    Good one Ananth..U have brought in immense goodwill with this article..Thanks for that :)
    Keep writing ..

    ReplyDelete

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