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The Law

Revisiting - XI

I had said in my last post that to create a laser sharp focus and determination to realise your wish, remove other options from your table.

I will elaborate on this by taking an example from the steel industry. I was a young engineer then in a steel company, trying to find my foothold. In those days the concept was to install a standby equipment for every critical equipment in operation. The definition of critical was also wide open. The net result was lot of capital was invested in equipments which remained idle for at least fifty percent of the time. And more the number of equipments installed, larger was the recurring upkeep cost. The operating equipments did breakdown quite often. No one was worried as there was the optional equipment which could ensure that production continued without much hassles. Sometimes trgedy struck and the optional or standby equipment also broke down bringing production to a halt. I had the opportunity to see other plants abroad and get to know of their standards. I found that in plants abroad, the definition of "critical" was very tightly bound and therefore the standby equipments were very few in numbers. The surprising part was the operating equipments did not break down. the operation and maintenance teams were trained in the concept of predictive maintenance and standard practices. If the surprise did happen once in a blue moon, it led to a learning session. The operating and maintenance practices were reviewed and corrected. This learning caused a paradigm shift in my way of thinking.

When I came to a position where I became responsible for deciding on plant designs, I implemented this concept of "No standbyes" except for the rares of rare equipments. I was warned by my colleagues that such a concept may not work in my country because of inadquacies and operating and maintenance disciplines. This proved to be false alarm. The concept worked equally well in my country. Today all steel plants, big or small, work on this concept. It is all about mindset. When there is no option, all energy is intensely focused on the only available goal. You will be doing things, which are required to be done, whatever be the condition.

I had mentioned earlier that I do not recommend giving alms. By no means I am saying that I do nor recommend serving others. I prefer to serve others in making them independent. I have two objections to giving alms. Firstly, and most importantly, I do not want to contribute to fostering a mechanism which encourages receiving without recompensing and which encourages people to live on charity. Secondly, with special emphasis to my country, the alms go not to the suffering persons but to the kingpins of the "beggar mafia". Unfortunately, begging has become a business in my country. 

When I projected my desire for attracting abundance, one of my desire was to get resources for education of under privileged children. I made a mistake here. I broadcast my intention to some of my friends and relatives. I was advised to refrain from throwing away my money on such an endeavor. Some said that the problem was too big for me to handle. Some opined that I will be investing my time and effort on something where no will be obliged to me. For me both were non issues and I went ahead with fulfilling my desire keeping things close to my heart. I consulted various NGOs, charitable organisations etc to determine my course of action. My initial experience with the first two children were not good as the children I selected did not show any enthusiasm. I took a different approach. I visited schools in rural area to identify children who were interested in education and growing. It was a tough process but this energised me. I stuck to my goal. Today I feel contented that, not only have I succeeded in my desire, but have exceeded my target. The most beneficial fallout has been that these children, after they grew up and started earning, took charge of at least one child each as per their commitment to me. During this period, two opportunities opened up to change my job. each of these opportunities generated much bigger revenues for me enabling me to sustain my effort. Things fell into place. The Universe conspired to provide me the resources that I needed. 

I also learnt a valuable lesson from this episode of my life. I will discuss the lesson in the next post.

Namaste

जल्द ही फिर मिलेंगे

Prabir