I Bought The Monk's Ferrari by Ravi Subramanian Page A

You would have definitely attended meetings with the senior management of your organisation? Have you ever been late for these meetings? Never, of course. Primarily, because you did not want your career and reputation to be at stake. Have you ever thought why this happens? Is this because senior management is extremely busy and does not have time to wait? The answer is a big NO. The correct answer to this question, however, is that people who are more successful and have risen up the career-graph and have achieved something in life, value their own time and even yours. They do not appreciate their schedules going haywire because of a delay by someone else. Have you seen successful people live their lives through their calendars? They manage their time and meetings and tasks efficiently. If it is important, they jot it down on their calendar. If it does not find a mention there, it implies it is not important enough.
    I am sure many of you have been to renowned doctors. They see fewer patients than their counterparts in government hospitals. However, the former category is very stringent about their clients keeping their appointments and coming in on time, whereas the latter does not care. Not only do they manage their time well, they also ensure that they meet you at the given time—remember the concept of valuing other's time as well. That is the reason why you begin to value and respect them, apart from competence, of course. That is how they become important, grow in their respective professions and become the rightful claimants of the Ferrari.
     
    COMMANDMENT FIVE
     
    Value your own time and that of the others, and be rest assured that the Ferrari will come to you.
     

Eleven
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Strive for Perfection
     
     
     
    A nusha, my daughter of seven, as any other girl of her age, loves to splash about in water and play in the pool with friends for hours. However, since she is yet to perfect her swimming skills, she remains within the baby pool. Whenever she feels like swimming in the larger pool, I pad up her arms with inflated floaters and she moves from one end of the pool to the other and back, beating furiously in the water, the floaters ensuring that she does not drown.
    A few months back, she was to go on an excursion to a farmhouse in Lonavala. When my wife went to drop her off to the school bus, she got to know from the other parents that the farmhouse had a large pool and the school was organising a game of water polo, too. Worried, Dharini turned towards Anusha, 'Promise me, you'll not jump into the water.'
     

     
    The fool doth think he is wise, but the
wise man knows himself to be a fool.
    W ILLIAM S HAKESPEARE
     

     
    'Why amma?' Anusha returned an innocent question.
    'What do you mean ... why? What if the pool is deep?'
    'Don't worry, amma. I know how to swim, I'll manage,' and she ran away to play with her other friends leaving Dharini in a state of shock.
    What Dharini did after that was not at all surprising to me. She dragged Anusha away from there, put her in the car and returned home. Some of the teachers' phone numbers were retrieved and calls were made requesting Anusha to be excused from the trip. Anusha, as expected, was devastated. She cried the whole day. It took her four days to recover completely. Her friends at school kept telling her about all the fun they had and all that Anusha had missed, and this made her even more depressed.
    However, if you ask me, Dharini did the right thing by bundling her in the car and bringing her back home. This prompts me to ask the question—why did Dharini do what she did? The answer is pretty simple. Anusha was extremely confident that she could manage herself in the pool because she knew swimming. The truth was, however, completely different. Anusha did not know how to swim. She had never entered the deeper end of a pool without wearing floaters to keep her afloat. She was in a position worse than someone who did not know how to swim and was aware that he