This post comes after a near 100 days break on the blog, or facebook or twitter. This break made me introspect as to what was it that I had set out to do and what was I really doing, was it in keeping with the direction that I was seeking or was I getting lost in the wilderness of not being able to communicate anything. So I basically decided to revisit the title and perhaps dissect it by the meaningful words. (THIS PARA IS NOT A PART OF THE BOOK)
Chronicles is a word that one tends to associate to perhaps movies or publications (newspapers) that try to present to you the evolution of an individual or a subject, event or just developments and analysis of the same. The objective of Chronicles in our title is also the same, where we are trying to arrive at a proposition that we develop a fear psychosis of being a loser and try to pose winners all our lives.
Loser is basically a perennial state in which we all exist, where we are trying to come out of a maze that we get ourselves into naturally, or by design, and are trying to fight our way out of it. Some succeed, some don’t, and hence the classification of winners and losers. Those who succeed start living in Ivory Tower, and start condescendingly looking down upon people who are down (losers), while those (losers) who are aspiring to reach the Ivory Tower, have an aspiration and are working hard towards achieving something. They are not plagued by complacency and adapt faster, rather than adopt a status.
This process of classification continues, and those who reach the Ivory Tower are select few, but there are many amongst those in the ground who start prophesying the demerits of the Ivory Tower, and how they are happy to be where they are.
As Children, we are protected, incubated, given happiness, made to feel winners all the time, so that we develop an illusion of life – Losers! As a Teenager, you want to break free of everything, but it is now that most of the shackles come in terms of disciplining, controlling – all in the name of shaping and guiding, but turning that person into a bigger rebel – Loser. The rebel matures to be an adult, and has many aspirations – but some get caught in the parental pressure of following the tradition, while a select few break free. Some succeed and get complacent and fall again, while those who did not succeed blame life – Losers.
Many aver that Marital Life is a gamble, and how that shapes up is itself a challenge, and again some succeed, while some feel they committed the gravest mistake of their life. Yet one can just pause and crib, as life goes on. Parenthood is another challenge, and some cope up with it, while some just journey through it like a responsibility. As one ages and decides to hang up one’s shoes, there are experiences to share, but no one willing to listen. Towards the old age, others are counting your days faster, while you are still recounting your time.
What an Irony for this one person who came through this roller coaster ride of life, seeing the zenith and nadir, went through the peaks and troughs, maneuvered the ups and downs of life – balancing it like a balance sheet, but be considered a liability towards the end. A true LOSER!
So, while we want to go and read books, join programmes on Self Development, Transformation, Change Management so that we can become winners, it is important to realize that there is nothing to be a Loser, because life challenges us to come out as winners, but not consider yourself as Invincible one!
If you do a self effacing introspection of your life, Classification, Calibrations, Comparisons, Clarifications -- that's what we all end up doing.
Showing posts with label Ability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ability. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Corporate World, Business Humour and Losers
‘An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen’.—The Peter Principle
Work, drudgery, routine, appraisals, promotions, jealousy, mistrust, suspicion, scheming, manipulation, trials and tribulations, See I told you before, I don’t care, you will do as I say because I am your boss, POLITICS! These are typical phrase. We think we have WON, because we have come out of a so called stifling atmosphere and walk into another place that initially seems to have an open atmosphere, that quickly emerges to be stifling. Some stick around and get rewarded for loyalty (sic) and not ability, and those who get awarded for ability have the luxury of not being loyal, for they will be in demand.
We love to blame our bosses or authorities or organizations for the culture, work atmosphere, paper work, systems, process, procedures and so on. Yet there is something called a hierarchy in organizations, despite the fact that most of them want to claim that they have a flat structure. All of us aspire to be at the top, and why not, because we have all been trained to think line leaders, like winners.
Three Books on Business Humour may make you think otherwise
Laurence Peter gave the management world a great phrase – Peter’s Principle! He authored a book too, in which he propounded that all employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence within an organisation, at which point it is too late to move them down or sideways.
Managers reach their level of incompetence by being promoted until they fail to do well in their current job. The message for employees unsuccessfully seeking promotion, then, is that they may be at their level of incompetence already. The final promotion, the one that takes each individual from a level of competence to a level of incompetence, should not, however, be taken as inevitable.
He has classified failure into two kinds: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. Fortune knocks once, but misfortune will try again and again. There are two sorts of losers—the good loser, and the other one who can’t act. Our focus is obviously on the good loser, and not the other kind, and hence another justification for the title of the book itself.
Another one is about Parkinsons Law, that says Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. As a result, companies grow without thinking of how much they are producing. Even if growth in numbers doesn’t make them more money, companies grow and people become busier and busier. This comically exposes bureaucracy (bosses) for tortuous administration (systems) and the pointless shuffling of paper (documentation). Look at it closely and you will find that it is not difficult to detect incompetence in organisations; many people have cause to complain about it not only in their working lives but in their daily lives as well.
Scott Adams and his Dilbert cartoon focus on themes of failure, incompetence and fear of being caught failing or being incompetent. How positive?
Is success directly proportional to winning?, then everyone who is promoted is successful, and if so, he follows the peters principle, and rises to his own levels of incompetence (loser).
Work, drudgery, routine, appraisals, promotions, jealousy, mistrust, suspicion, scheming, manipulation, trials and tribulations, See I told you before, I don’t care, you will do as I say because I am your boss, POLITICS! These are typical phrase. We think we have WON, because we have come out of a so called stifling atmosphere and walk into another place that initially seems to have an open atmosphere, that quickly emerges to be stifling. Some stick around and get rewarded for loyalty (sic) and not ability, and those who get awarded for ability have the luxury of not being loyal, for they will be in demand.
We love to blame our bosses or authorities or organizations for the culture, work atmosphere, paper work, systems, process, procedures and so on. Yet there is something called a hierarchy in organizations, despite the fact that most of them want to claim that they have a flat structure. All of us aspire to be at the top, and why not, because we have all been trained to think line leaders, like winners.
Three Books on Business Humour may make you think otherwise
Laurence Peter gave the management world a great phrase – Peter’s Principle! He authored a book too, in which he propounded that all employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence within an organisation, at which point it is too late to move them down or sideways.
Managers reach their level of incompetence by being promoted until they fail to do well in their current job. The message for employees unsuccessfully seeking promotion, then, is that they may be at their level of incompetence already. The final promotion, the one that takes each individual from a level of competence to a level of incompetence, should not, however, be taken as inevitable.
He has classified failure into two kinds: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. Fortune knocks once, but misfortune will try again and again. There are two sorts of losers—the good loser, and the other one who can’t act. Our focus is obviously on the good loser, and not the other kind, and hence another justification for the title of the book itself.
Another one is about Parkinsons Law, that says Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. As a result, companies grow without thinking of how much they are producing. Even if growth in numbers doesn’t make them more money, companies grow and people become busier and busier. This comically exposes bureaucracy (bosses) for tortuous administration (systems) and the pointless shuffling of paper (documentation). Look at it closely and you will find that it is not difficult to detect incompetence in organisations; many people have cause to complain about it not only in their working lives but in their daily lives as well.
Scott Adams and his Dilbert cartoon focus on themes of failure, incompetence and fear of being caught failing or being incompetent. How positive?
Is success directly proportional to winning?, then everyone who is promoted is successful, and if so, he follows the peters principle, and rises to his own levels of incompetence (loser).
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