Different or Indifferent


In the gaze of the tangible and intangible pursuit in the world…one thing that is being taught from day one and it sort of stays with everyone is the fact that we have to be different because if we are not different, the world as taught to us will choose our substitute and we become redundant. Redundancy threatens survival.

Be different, Be different
Chants and echoes our ears,

Be different, be different,
Becomes habit, trait over the years

The quest wipes the shame
The quest fires for the fame
 
Request becomes command
Love, peace no longer an available virtue but a hopeless demand

What so different can we be
When eyes turn wild, tongues turn bitter,
 
What so different can we be
When homes turn asylum, world goes shatter

Different…sure we ought to be
Different…else scary it is for “naught” to be
Different…not in every sense
Different…while maintaining purity, peace, bliss, loving, happiness as common sense
Different…sure we got to be
Different…say that to self…the person we were yesterday
Different…say that to self…I am better than yesterday
Different…say that to self…I will strive to be even better than today
Different…but not indifferent to be
Different…for it answers “To be or not to be”

Incidentally Rajiv Malhotra’s famous book is by the same title…”being different”. It throws a fantastic view of Universalism through the Western Tradition gaze and the limitation it has in comparison to when the gaze is one of Eastern Wisdom. He emphasises that “Being different” should have a position of respect for each other rather than being tolerant because of the difference.

In corporate world, we all need to perform our best everyday. As an organization, we are constantly asked by different stakeholders as to “what is our unique proposition” , what is so different in us that the customers should buy our services?, what is so different or unique that shareholders should invest in us? Sure we need to be different …constantly improving our processes and systems, constantly innovating, etc.

My close inquiry into this question has revealed that the only consistent and sustainable difference needs to necessarily lie in an intangible of the organization. And I am referring to the “Culture” of the Organization. Culture is the most difficult to build and sustain whilst everything else in this world today is copyable. Even very recently there were some interesting studies done by Harvard titled “Culture eats strategy for lunch” underpins the same point.

The ageless timeless wisdom of Christianity, Judaism, Mesopotemia, Greek, Veda, Upanishads, Buddhism were all formed to imbibe a certain culture.  The way we need to respect everybody in the organization irrespective of their grade or designation, fundamentally and sincerely thinking and behaving for the customers, uphold the “dharma” the righteousness while performing the karma, behave like a borrower from mother nature and being responsible about it, not get lost in the material chase which has been the sole reason for where the whole world is right now,

Appreciating the difference of different individual while not being “indifferent” to Virtues.

Let the journey of differing be happy and hence Happy Differing.

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