A couple of decades ago, I was on cloud nine. I was in a corporate assignment which I was enjoying and where I was doing well. In fact, I had even joked to a colleague that I would like to retire from that company. Not only was I doing well, I was even expecting the next promotion which would take me to a new plane. Did this happen ? No - you guessed right.
The villain's thugs were waiting around the corner in the form of management consultants and sandbagged my corporate dreams in the guise of a magic word - restructuring. The small company , part of a large group, where I had been working became virtually overnight a division of a larger unrelated company in the group and my dreams got grounded quite soon. Nothing unusual about this story, you would say, except that for me, it set in motion a chain of events which gave my career second wind as a teacher in a B-school. That is another story, however.
My thrust here is on the arrogance and hubris which sets in when one starts doing well. A young cricketer has a stupendous performance in a couple of matches and starts thinking like Chris Gayle that he is 'Universe Boss!' while a film star has a super-hit and starts strutting around like a peacock, a politician wins a few elections for his party and thinks the electorate will tolerate any of his shenanigans or the CEO of a successful company feels he or she is totally indispensable before reality sets in. How often have we seen all of this happen? But people think they are immune and then get surprised when events overtake them. Sometimes it is almost hurtful to see the impact of these events.
There was this Managing Director of a company I worked in for instance who was a supremely confident, almost brash person, always immaculately suited and booted and who needed a minimum of two lackeys around him - one to carry his papers and one to hold his jacket when he got down to his shirtsleeves to gee up the troops. He had to leave the organisation under a cloud and when I saw him next, after a couple of years I almost didn't notice him. I had been to the temple and saw this middle aged man outside give me a wan smile. It took me a moment to recognise this grizzled, slightly unkempt , diffident person with a three days' stubble and wearing old Hawaii chappals as that super smart MD. Surprise surprise - after the pleasantries, he suddenly announced he had something important to do and shuffled off!
I have seen this so often that when I see this arrogance growing in people I know, I almost get scared because I know I'll soon hear a big thud when that person falls . The arrogance manifests itself in many ways - a feeling that nobody else knows as much or is as capable, a patronising attitude towards others, impatience and irritation, and loud bombastic harangues. Invariably, it sets in motion the reaction of people at the receiving end trying to bring this person down or sharpening the process of looking for and developing alternatives.
The lines between confidence and over-confidence, over-confidence and arrogance, arrogance and paranoia are very finely drawn and it doesn't take too much time to rev up from the first stage to the last. The other odd aspect about this behaviour is that it is present in people at all levels - not necessarily only in those who are atop the totem-pole.While behaving thus, people forget the force old man Isaac Newton discovered - that of gravity. What goes up doesn't stay up always. It does fall down some time!
The villain's thugs were waiting around the corner in the form of management consultants and sandbagged my corporate dreams in the guise of a magic word - restructuring. The small company , part of a large group, where I had been working became virtually overnight a division of a larger unrelated company in the group and my dreams got grounded quite soon. Nothing unusual about this story, you would say, except that for me, it set in motion a chain of events which gave my career second wind as a teacher in a B-school. That is another story, however.
My thrust here is on the arrogance and hubris which sets in when one starts doing well. A young cricketer has a stupendous performance in a couple of matches and starts thinking like Chris Gayle that he is 'Universe Boss!' while a film star has a super-hit and starts strutting around like a peacock, a politician wins a few elections for his party and thinks the electorate will tolerate any of his shenanigans or the CEO of a successful company feels he or she is totally indispensable before reality sets in. How often have we seen all of this happen? But people think they are immune and then get surprised when events overtake them. Sometimes it is almost hurtful to see the impact of these events.
There was this Managing Director of a company I worked in for instance who was a supremely confident, almost brash person, always immaculately suited and booted and who needed a minimum of two lackeys around him - one to carry his papers and one to hold his jacket when he got down to his shirtsleeves to gee up the troops. He had to leave the organisation under a cloud and when I saw him next, after a couple of years I almost didn't notice him. I had been to the temple and saw this middle aged man outside give me a wan smile. It took me a moment to recognise this grizzled, slightly unkempt , diffident person with a three days' stubble and wearing old Hawaii chappals as that super smart MD. Surprise surprise - after the pleasantries, he suddenly announced he had something important to do and shuffled off!
I have seen this so often that when I see this arrogance growing in people I know, I almost get scared because I know I'll soon hear a big thud when that person falls . The arrogance manifests itself in many ways - a feeling that nobody else knows as much or is as capable, a patronising attitude towards others, impatience and irritation, and loud bombastic harangues. Invariably, it sets in motion the reaction of people at the receiving end trying to bring this person down or sharpening the process of looking for and developing alternatives.
The lines between confidence and over-confidence, over-confidence and arrogance, arrogance and paranoia are very finely drawn and it doesn't take too much time to rev up from the first stage to the last. The other odd aspect about this behaviour is that it is present in people at all levels - not necessarily only in those who are atop the totem-pole.While behaving thus, people forget the force old man Isaac Newton discovered - that of gravity. What goes up doesn't stay up always. It does fall down some time!
Human behaviour well analysed.
ReplyDeletePlease ignore my grammar sir I am not as good with words as you are. But would like to add a recent example. Which is of the famous comedian turned actor turned alcoholic turned depressed person. Who in his arrogance neither respected his colleagues nor the people who were beside him when he was climbing the ladders of success..
ReplyDeletesuch a commonplace occurrence unfortunately
Deletethanks yaar !
ReplyDelete