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Business News/ Opinion / Online-views/  ‘Hoperbole’ and old wisdom
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‘Hoperbole’ and old wisdom

Hope is seen as a more digestible, although fleeting, alternative to ancient knowledge

Many companies in India suffer from disconnected hope and optimism and fail to see their own unrealistic expectations.Premium
Many companies in India suffer from disconnected hope and optimism and fail to see their own unrealistic expectations.

Few countries have given the world more in terms of wisdom than India. It is perhaps an old story. But it remains remarkable that one continent gave rise to at least four major world religions and life philosophies.

Many young Indians seem to be unaware or indifferent to it. Some of the core lessons as described in the Bhagavad Gita and in Buddhist texts revolve around the importance of detachment. Even to Westerners, the idea of focusing more on the task than desiring the fruits of your activities, for example, has been seen as deep and vital—even though it is difficult to practise. During the last Olympics, the Dutch skaters—who dominated the medals podium in a way never seen before—repeatedly talked about focusing on the job rather than on the end result. The way such insights are discarded today in the country that first articulated them may tell us something about where we are heading.

Hope is seen as a more digestible, although fleeting, alternative to ancient knowledge. Hope has always filled the ad campaigns of products from cosmetics, to food, to real estate. Hope is a vital force. Its opposite, despair, often leads to nothing. Hope can flow from the gap between today’s realities and the imagination of possible tomorrows. It often implies a linear concept of time, from A to B, that can propel us to great heights. It can help us to overcome obstacles if combined with perseverance.

Hope also implies a discontent with what we have. The more driven by hope we are, the more we are bitten by dissatisfaction as well. After all, once content or enlightened in the now, who needs hope?

Given India’s social and governance problems, many people have reason for unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Hence, hope may be a useful and even a necessary thing to have. Politicians from Barack Obama to Narendra Modi have invoked it in their election campaigns. Fortunately, growth and hope have sparked shimmers of awakening self-belief in millions of people, even among renowned fatalists.

But hope is a tricky fellow. In Vikas Swarup’s last novel The Accidental Apprentice, the follow-up to what became the movie Slumdog Millionaire, the main character Sapna Sinha utters a telling line: “Hope is a recreational drug, giving you an artificial high based on a dosage of unrealistic expectations."

The sadness caused by unfulfilled hope is evident from her words. Hope can indeed be a drug. We can decide the dosage ourselves, and it is free of charge. We create our own unrealistic expectations and optimistic commitments. In personal relationships, it can breed divergence and disillusion. In business, it leads to overpromise and underdelivery. Many companies in India suffer from disconnected hope and optimism and fail to see their own unrealistic expectations. Many businessmen love to exaggerate and use hyperbole, bathing in the excitement of possible revenues and the associated potential personal rewards. More hope than wisdom, as it often turns out.

Yet, even in today’s instant gratification society, the source of real success often looks different. I recently met with a young rock star of an entrepreneur, who built an impressive imperium in six years and started with nothing. He lives the high life, but seems relatively unaffected by it. I asked him how he managed the mental transition of going from nothing to having headline success and more money than he could ever spend in his life. “That is the right question to ask," he said somewhat to my surprise. “But it comes naturally to me. I am motivated and focused by the task in front of me, not the wealth. And that is all."

India’s old lessons of focusing on the job rather than the fruits seem to be at work even today, in a young generation that does not want to daydream, but that wants to really win. If only the entire nation could apply the lessons taught by its own history. No roaring election campaigns steeped in ‘hoperbole’ would be needed. Instead, a country sure of itself and clear about its purpose, would offer a shining example to the world—no spin doctors required.

Tjaco Walvis is the managing director of brand consulting and advertising agency THEY India, and a speaker at the Outstanding Speakers’ Bureau. He writes a fortnightly column on the softer cultural aspects of marketing that often tend to be ignored by marketers.

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Published: 05 Mar 2014, 12:33 AM IST
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