One very important characteristic of high achievers is their ATTITUDE towards the field in which they are. Roger Federer immediately said yes to WADA testing. Nadal cribbed but then accepted it. Indian players backed by the Board will initially say no, but may say yes under pressure. A decent chance of getting T-20 into the Olympics will make many Boards change their mind…

One news item in DNA said many Indian filmstars were down with fever but were continuing to shoot. Aishwarya Rai was shooting for Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ravan’ for more than 10 hrs. at a stretch in WET clothes and high fever. Priyanka Tweeted that she was not well but did not take time off from work. Shahid Kapoor could not shoot because his eyes were red. Deepika had Malaria….Look at all these peoples attitude! Aishwarya Rai has nothing to prove – she has it all, but said “She did not want Mani Ratnam to make a loss” – What a girl! That is attitude. All these people have a fantastic approach to their careers – as if their lives depended on it. Congrats, great.

One rainy day I met a friend. Her milkman had not come, but her paper wallah delivered the newspaper – a lil wet. Both had to come from the SAME place, and obviously TO the same place. Her daughter asked her “How come the paper walah came…but the milk man did not?”. She replied the paper walah is the owner, the milkman is the employee! Even in SSY (Sidha Samadhi Yoga) by Rishi Prabhakar of Bangalore he calls the attitude as ‘owner’ attitude or the ‘worker’ attitude. When you have the owner attitude, you accept responsibility; when you have the worker attitude you blame others for not getting things done. That is attitude.

So when you see a problem you define it “I did something to my body so I am running a fever” or you call up your HR department and report sick. As simple as that. Attitude.

  1. Subra, splendid stuff! One word though, ownership does not define attitude. Attitudes determine the sense of responsibility and who can deny ownership to a person who takes responsibility? Cheers!

  2. Ownership is not the de jure ownership that one is talking about. It is about owning the process. Or owning the responsibility. VP of a company who does not own the responsibility of client query/problem solving is taking a ‘worker attitude’. So immaterial of his designation, ESOPs, and a chance of being a future MD, he is a ‘worker’. But a girl who ensures that a client’s emi or insur premium gets paid so the client does not suffer is an owner attitude – she may be designated an officer today…but one day she will be in a far superior post. At least mentally if not physcially

  3. Dr Mohammed Ali Khan

    Hi Subra
    In one small article you clearly showed why “The Worker’s State ” of Soviet Union did not work. Except through terror.

  4. Nice, i like the paperwala-doodhwala story but i dont like the analogy to filmstars…i dont think this works in the glamour world…i am in the glamour world because i want to be famous…i want to be known…and i know everything about me gets reported…so if aishwarya reported to work on mani rathnam’s sets, its not because he would lose money otherwise but because this just adds to her reputation. and who knows if its a plug even. we only know about what shahid and priyanka tweet or blog…we dont know if producers are footing their personal bills, if aishwarya is getting special khaana and not unit food…because producers wont talk about that and surely not the stars!

  5. yes i completely agree abt the ownership bit….that’s it abt taking responsibility …..not abt attributing something to others…..

    btw, when i read (as in pat tense) I felt u were speaking didnt seem as if i was reading ….!!!!

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