Part 1 Case for being a believer

Remember the fascinating tale of a high conviction boy who brought an umbrella when villagers gathered in temple to pray for rains in a draught year. Like all good tales it leaves so much to imagination, like why the boy, let’s call him Batuk only true believer and was there another character let’s call her Abby who was atheist , and what happens when Mr. Batuk & Ms Abby grew up in our world with no draught but of Jobs, Money and different set of belief systems

 

Before we explore of how Mr. Batuk might have been as investor, employee or writer allow me to indulge in exploring different personas we end up taking in response to different situations 

 

 

 

Mostly we are in top left Quadrant, just like the villagers, being optimist and hopeful. Going through the motions hoping we are doing the right thing with a decent payoff. Sometime we are like Ms Abby who is hopeful but pessimist.

She might have been the only one planning to exit the village incase rains don’t turn-up and is hopeful for her survival. Mr. Batuk is firmly in top right Quadrant, high on conviction and optimism.

Hopeful optimist has everything to lose, disappointment if it doesn’t rain, getting wet if it does and no decent plan B like Ms. Abby.

 

Now that my consulting baggage of creating 2x2 is out of system let’s explore

Chapter one: Mr. Batuk as Corporate Employee

Imagine in one appraisal cycle Batuk’s boss gives same feedback to all his directs that “you need to improve your soft skills”.

Mr. Batuk really believes in his boss, throughout the year he researches on what constitutes soft skills, how to develop them, and observes and replicates his managers style as well. As the year progresses, he over communicates to point of irritating his boss.

Ms Abby doesn’t believe in her boss at all, she fights with him that he is absolutely wrong in the feedback meeting itself.

While all others like common villagers, try to be more active in communication for couple of months and hope that manager might have noticed some improvement.

What do you think might have happened in next cycle?

 Boss would be extra careful giving feedback to Mr Batuk( as he might take it too seriously ) he will be afraid to give any feedback to Ms Abby and would have commented to all others that they are on “right path”.

And for sure he would have promoted either Batuk for his spirit or Abby for her independence and confidence.

 

I remember I was moving on from a solution proposal that I had prepared which still required to be presented to various stakeholders. I gave the knowledge transfer to someone with far superior presentation skills and much higher intellect. But he was not seeing same success as mw although he knew the business case and customers much better than me.

Soon I figured, he was hopeful and optimist that proposed solution will work, while I believed in the solution even irrationally and that was the only thing resonating.

 

Imagine Mr Batuk in sales, Product management or even leadership. You will find his belief in product, or company values will distinguish him from crowd and help him progress much further.

 

Chapter two: Mr. Batuk as Investor  

We know Mr Batuk believes in things which most others hope is true. For example, he would really believe in current wisdom that one can generate wealth in stock market.

 

I remember reading a story of an illiterate Farmer who invested half his wealth (Rs 25K) in Wipro when it used to just sell vegetable oil and today earns 102 Crore just as dividend per annum from the stock. He kept the stock in all market crashes, supernormal profits, and a decade of Stock under-performance because, he was told by broker that till Young Azim Premji is with Wipro don’t sell the stock

he kept the belief.

 

Unlike others Mr Batuk’s portfolio would really be concentrated and size of investment really large. Common investor in a good year will generate say 25% return on a meagre investment of 1 lakh (say one month salary) While Mr Batuk will generate 20% return on investment of 36 lakh (3-year salary) because he is investing the money where his belief is. While Ms. Abby will invest in out of flavor investments like gold or properties.

Across economic cycles contrarian Abby, and no sell Batuk will generate far more wealth that common villagers who will either panic and sell, or generate great % returns but poor absolute returns.

 

Chapter three: Mr. Batuk as writer

If he was a writer, unlike me he won’t just be writing a blog for mere double digit likes. He would believe in power of belief and write a book on how to be a Believer. While Ms Abby won’t reach till the end of this

 

 In movie matrix when everyone is perplexed that why has Neo suddenly stopped following protocol of running from Agent, and Morpheus comments that he has stated to believe. Magic truly happens when we become either Batuk or Abby, till that time we are just praying for the miracle