Balls of steel was a common
expression that everyone used once in a while but rarely during a public
discourse – till the time Donald Trump emerged.
His candidacy - wherever it has reached
so far (1001 delegates on 1st May 2016 and at a kissing distance
from republican nomination and by the time I post this piece he would be a
definite GOP candidate) leaves some serious lessons for each and everyone in
the corporate world.
I will come to the lessons later but
first lest talk about Arvind and DonaldArvind Kejriwal : is a relentless persuader who won the Magsasay award for getting The RTI act implemented. Today RTI has empowered the nation to be well informed and a commoner can seek information on any subject on anyone from any government department. The sheer possibility of exposure has put the fear of God (to some extent) in an inherently corrupt nation.
He rose to power on the simplest of
poll promises and a genuine visible commitment towards the duty of his future
chair / position. He created drama, he challenged the corrupt openly, his
rhetoric was simple, his promises came from the heart and he was inherently and
intrinsically an honest fellow. And Boy! His party’s victory of 67/70 MLA’s in
Delhi was a slap on opposition that no party wants to experience in its
political career.
The poll pundits were having a field
day declaring his future win as a black swan event and almost everyone had written his
obituary even before he became relevant. The rest as they say was all history.
Donald Trump : Most of the American people I hear are threatening to move to Canada or relinquish their US
citizenship – should Donald become the Pres of the US of A. Well my advice is -
You might want to start getting your passports made because Donald’s presidency
might just be a reality that no one was ready for.
Donald just like Arvind, spoke his
mind and didn’t hide his naivety behind the garb of “Yes We Can”. He has raised
issues that linger in the minds of every global citizen who understands even an
iota of economics and has some common sense and connected instantly with a
dangerously large number of Americans. He must be the only candidate who is
funding his own campaign and therefore has no obligation towards the need of
wars and chaos elsewhere. He has no obligation towards the pharmaceutical
companies that sell a monthly cancer prescription for thousands of dollars when
the same costs a minute fraction to produce.
Trump’s eventual win will also be
called a black swan event but it is seemingly clear that perhaps more swans are
black than white.
And this leaves us with a few
significant lessons:
- Irrational exuberance is the biggest catalyst why executives take chances and stretch the imagination of their excel sheets to stratospheric levels. They become unreal because of performance bias. More than often tremendous amounts of wealth is destroyed due to the inability to discount black swan events.
- Black swan events are no longer symbolically correct – they are more frequent and more real than ever. Could anyone ever bet on Leicester at 5000:1 and by-jove Leicester won.
- Never ever underestimate the power of a person who speaks from his heart and has an infinite passion. Right or wrong - passion and honesty is all that’s required for success.
- Intent (genuine or crooked) is really the most powerful tool. Irrespective of one’s articulation or oratory, intent cannot be hidden and human beings have an immensely powerful cognitive ability to differentiate between a right and a wrong intent.
- People (read employees / citizens / and even family members) remain quiet or they compromise because they don’t have a choice but never ever construe someone’s silence as weakness. Else you’d be taken aback with an unpleasant surprise at some point. The majority of the US middle class has connected with Trump because he has allowed them to think and connect with himself.
