Keeping It Simple

Only last week I was arguing with myself for days about the complexity of life around me, may be with a generous dose of self-pity. And in the most unexpected of ways, I found myself looking into the face of an answer. A very simple one at that, which left no space for my self-indulgence.

The answer came through my colleague. She had just listened to Venugopal Dhoot addressing school children. This is what she said:

I was listening to Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon addressing 700 school children who were there to impress a big media group and get the chance to become journalists for their school newspaper. Dhoot was introduced as the big man of business with a lot of social and community work attributed to him. But he came and spoke with disarming straightforwardness. He was comfortable not being proficient in English. He described his modest background to the students and told them that they were very bright. He spoke and quoted from the Bhagvad Geeta, his biggest source of inspiration. And he gave absolutely simple answers when they asked him cleverly-framed questions.

What philosophy has guided him to do so well in the field of business? He said that Vinoba Bhave was his greatest inspiration and taught him the principle of ‘karma yoga’.

What’s his success mantra? Hard work. Easy to say, hard to do.

What made him think of electronic goods? You must have a passion for what you do. I was an engineer and loved engineering products. When I worked with Toshiba as an intern the video was the latest gadget. I simply wanted to bring it to India.

How did you decide on products as you went along? Products have to be liked by customers. He described here the failure of a prestigious dog biscuit company in a market. Simply, dogs didn’t like their biscuits!

How different are you as a person and as a professional? You cannot have two sets of values. Personal and business values have to be the same.

So how does he predict the markets? I don’t. I know very little. Nobody can predict the markets. Here he quoted his favourite flautist Bismillah Khan who said when asked about his achievements, “Abhi toh teen taal ka bhi gyaan nahi hua hai.”

For a small- town boy who wanted to study literature and play the flute, Dhoot took off in quite an unexpected direction. But life’s like that. He continues to simply perform his daily tasks and follow the path he set upon. No existentialist doubts. No grand, intellectual arguments. Simple now, isn’t it?