Mediocrity to Excellence

India, is often referred to as an ocean of mediocrity with a dearth of excellence. Why is it that in spite of our immense manpower and brainpower, we have not produced enough leaders at international stage? Why is it that even today, we can only be proud of our immense potential and not of a realized dream? What do we lack that is essential to break out of the chains of mediocrity and stand tall amidst the giants?

I see 3 key areas in which we have a long way to go, if we have to assume the roles of world leaders:

• Courage to fail
• Networking abilities
• Recognition system to grow leaders

Courage to fail: It is often said that in order to succeed you need to have a strong desire to succeed. But I feel everyone has the desire to succeed; everyone dreams about it. But what we lack is the courage to risk failure. It is this innate fear that holds us back against taking bigger leaps and ties us down to the soft-throne of mediocrity. It is partly because of our economic insecurity, strong social and family bindings and lack of examples of people who have done that and succeeded.

o The need for economic sustainability forces most youth to choose a path that assures them of a decent living, a tested way to establish your social and economic credentials. But often, this means choosing a lifestyle acceptable and adoptable by a wide range of people and thereby demanding mediocre levels of ability.

o The family ties are pretty strong in our country for the youth to dare following larger dreams before fulfilling the expectations of their family. This again pushes them into a life constrained by numerous expectations, thereby reducing their freedom to innovate and risk failure.

o Lack of role models around us who have grown themselves into leaders of caliber hampers the removal of the fear in us against risking new paths. This is mainly because of the lack of a recognition system to project path-breakers and successful leaders as modern day heroes of our society.

Networking abilities: I’ve learnt from my interaction with several people who have established themselves abroad after their education in India, that the biggest learning experience that an Indian student misses is the power of networking. Our ideas remain on paper most of the times, at the most getting appreciations and recognition among our close circle of family and friends. But most of the actual help in realizing our ideas and dreams come from leaders in our focus field, people who have enough economic, political and social contacts and are on the look for a synergetic relationship. It is our inability to connect with such people that makes it difficult for us to realize our ideas though we strategize our concepts with commendable level of quality.

Recognition System to grow leaders: Since we do not live in a society where risk-taking does not come naturally, it becomes essential to promote the culture of thinking big and walking the path dreamt of. In order for any culture to be instilled, you need a reward mechanism, an incentive to attract and retain people. Unfortunately, the current policy focuses more on developing resources for those who are already in top ranks in various fields than at creating the next leaders.

It is always easy to think of a society with well defined set of rules and lifestyles and analyze its positives and negatives. But the real challenge is to figure out a way to transform the current system which we have, with no single rule universally followed, into a better and more efficient one which promotes a culture to strive for excellence and stand tall.

Amruth