Published on: August 4, 2021
We all are aware we need to do the right thing always. But in a recent movie I came across a different paradigm. The Dumbledore most noble hearted character in the legendary tales of Harry Potter asks someone, to do what is right and not what is easiest and thus seems right. A tale from our mythology also speaks about this.
Years ago, there was only a narrow bridge across the river Ganga. A learned sage stepped on it and at the same time the king stepped on it from the opposite side.
“Step Aside!” The king thundered.
“But I stepped first so I have the right to pass first” the sage replied.
“But I am the King, and I can push you back”
“Yes, but I am a respected sage and philosopher. Lots of people love me and seek my blessings.”
“I built the school where you teach” the king retorted with pride.
The argument continued and turned nasty. The King pushed the sage.
Furious, the sage cursed him and said, “You behaved like a demon so you will turn into one!”
The King turned into a demon and gobbled up the sage. The people lost a King and gained a demon instead. All suffered, including both. Nothing was left for either of them anymore.
So, what mattered more? Crossing the bridge or crossing it first? Pride, anger and shallow thoughts & lack of deep principals may drive us on such roads quite often at-times.
Often, we lose sight of the objective and focus on proving the other person wrong and show them their mistake. In our obsession to be right, we lose sight of the goal and lose.Wanting to be right becomes a trap and an ego satisfying path.
One has to make a choice between being right or winning. One could be right and win but if one has to make a choice, it can lean towards letting our ego go and taking a step back. Sometimes, maybe it’s better to compromise instead of being right.
Similarly many times we hold on to customers handed to us and despite taking help from our colleagues we wish to bring in business only out of personal effort and ignoring the fact that one of our colleague was in a better position to close him. In the end company loses the customer and we end up licking our wounds feeling frustrated at the lost effort.
Finally, we are there to make our company win and become big not ourselves. Losing a battle is much more honourable if it helps win a war.
Steve Jobs spelled his success Mantra as “I don’t really care about being right, I just care about success. I don’t mind being wrong, and I’ll admit that I’m wrong a lot. It doesn’t really matter to me too much. What matters to me is that we do the right thing.”
