My thoughts on Wings of Fire - Abdul Kalam Autobiography

My thoughts on this book are

Pg 4: “In his own time, in his own place, in what he really is, and in the stage he has reached - good or bad–every human being is a specific within the whole of the mantifest divine Being. So why be afraied of difficulties, sufferings and problems? When troubles come, try to udnerstand the relevance of your sufferings. Adversity always presents opportunites for introspection.

Whenever human beings find themsleves along, as a natural reaction, they start looking for company. Whenever they are in trouble, they look for somone to help them. Whenever they reach an impasse, they look to someonone to show them the way out. Every recurrent anguish, longing, and desires finds its own speicial heper. For the people who come to me in distress, I am but a g o-between in their effort to propitate demonic forces with paryers and offerings. This is not a correct approach at all and should never be followed. One must understand the difference between a fear ridden vision of destiny and the vision that enables us to seek the enemey of fulfilment within oursleves.

He quoted Khalil Gibran to my hesitatnt mother, “Your children are not children. They are the sons and daugters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you. You may give may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their ownn throughts.”

Iyadurai SOlomon used to say, “To succeed in life and achieve results, you must understnad and master three mighty forces- desire, belief, and expectation.” [..] taught me that beore anything I wanted could happen, I had to desire it intensely and be absolutely certain it would happen.

Tamil is my mother tounge and I am proud of its origins, which have been traced back to Sage Agastya in teh pre-Ramayana Period; its literature dates back to teh fight century BC. It is sadi to be a language moulded by lawyers and grammarians and its internationally acclaimed for its clear-cut logic.

I reminded myself that the best way to win was to not need to win. The best performances are accomplished when you are relaxed and free of doubt.

One of the important functions of prayer, I believe, is to act as a stimulus to creative ideas. Within the mind are all the resources required for successful living. Ideas are present in teh conciousness, whihc when released and given scope to grow and take shape, can lead to successful events. Gor, our Creator, has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps us to tap and develop these powers.

My impression of the American people can be summartized by a quorations from Benfajim Franklin, “Those things that hurt instrcut!” I realised that people in this part of the world meet their problems head on. They attempt to get out of them rather than suffer them.

What makes life in Indian organizations difficult is the widespread prevalance of this very contemptuous pride. It sotps us from listening to our juniours, subordinates and epople down the lne. You cannot expect a person to deliver results if you humilate him, nor can you expect him to be creative if you abuse him or despise him. The line between firmness and harshness, between strong leadership adn bullying, between descipline and vindictiveness is very fine, but it has to be drawn. Unfortunately, the only line prominietly drawn in our country today is between the “heroes’ and the ‘zeros’. On one side are a few hundred ‘heroes’ keeping nine hundred and fifty million people down on the other side. This situation has to be changed. As the process of congronting and solving problems often requires hard word and is painful, we have endless procrastination. Actually, problems can be the cutting edge that actually distinguish between success and failure. They draw out innate courage and wisdom.

Without the slightest warning, something new breaks in your life and a secret decision is taken, a decision that you may be completley unconscious of, to start with.

George Bernard Shaw. The gist of the quote that was that all reasonable men adapt themselves to the world. ONlay a few unreasonable ones persist in trying to adapt the world to themselves. All progress in the world depends on these unreasonable men and their innovative and often nonconformist actions.

I started reasind the book frm teh Bernard Shaw passage onwards. The author was describing certian mythis woven around teh concept and the process of innovation in industry and business. I read about the myth of strategic planning. It is generally believed that substantial strategic and technologicsl pallning greatley increases the odds of a “no suprises’ outcome. The authoer was of the opinion that it is essential for a porject manager to learn to live with uncertainty and ambiguity. He flet that it was a myth to hold that the key to econoic success is computabiltiy. A quotation from General George Patton was given as a couterpoint to this myth- that a goold plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week. It is a mythng that to win bing one must strive to optimize, the authoer felt. Optimization wins only on paper, but wold invariably loose later in teh real world, the book said.

I have always considered teh price of perfection prohibitive and allowed mistakes as a part of the learning process. I prefer a dash of daring and persistene to perfection .

The diamerters were quite different and to attain interchangeability, some radical innovations were required. I wondered where I should start. I decided to look around for solutions amoung my own colleagues. I used to carefully observe my colleagues to see if their daily routine reflected their desire to sconstantly experiment. I also started asking and listening to anyone who showed the slightest promies. Some ofmy frines acutioned me about what they termed as my naivete. I made it an unfailling routing to shmake notes on individual suggestions and have gave handwriteen notes to colleagues in engineering and design.

Within my own small group of people I found leaders, and learned that leaders exist as every level. This was anotehr impoortant aspect of managment that I learned.

Mistakes can delay of prevent the proper achievement of the objectives of indivdiauls and organizations, but a visionary like Prof. Sarabhai can use errors as oppeortunities to proote innovations and the devellopment of new ideas.

My job was going to be to avoid those who were interested ineigher in the work no in teh workers. I was determined to prevent people from taking either extreme, adn to promote conditions where work and workers went together. I visulaized my team as a group in which each member worked to enrich the others in teh team and experience the enjoyment of working together.

A project implemetnatkino strategy had become essential to achieve substained viability of this cimplex programme of seven to ten years’ duration.

To get teh best from my team members, I spoke to them frequently on teh goals and objectives of the organization, emphasizing the imnportance of each emember’s spefic contribution towards the realisation ofthese goals. At teh same t ime, I tried to be recpetive to every consturctive ideas emanating from my subordinates and to realy it in an appropriate form for ctiical expamination the implementation. I had written somwhere in my diary of that period.

” If you want to leave your footprints on the sands of time Do not drag your feed.

Most of the time, communication gets confused iwht conversation. In fact, the two are disticnlty differnt I was (and am ) a terrible conversationlist but consider myself a good communicator. A coversation full of pleasantiries is most often devoid of any useful information, whearas communication is meant only of the exchange of information.

Anyone who has taken up the responsiblit to lead a team can be succesful only if he is succiciently independint, powerful and influential in his own right to become a person to reckon with.

First, by building your own education and skills. Knowledge is a tangible asset, quite often teh most important tool in your work. The more up-to-date the knowledge you possess, the freeer you are. Knowledge cannot be taken away from anyone excpet by obsolescense. A leader can only be free to lead his team if he keeps abreast of all that is happening around him-in real time. To lead, in a way, is to engage in continuing education. In many countries, it is normal for porfessionals to go to college server nightts every week. To be a succesful team leader, one has to stayback after teh din and clutter of a working day to emerge better equiopped and ready to face a new day.

The second way is to develop a passion for pesonal responsiblity. The soverign way to personal freedom is to help determine the forces that determine you. Be active! Take on resonsiblity! Work for the thigns you believe in. If you do no, you are surrendering your fate to thers. The historian Edith Hailton wrote of ancient Greece, “When the freedom they wishe dfor most was freedom from responsbility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again. THe truth is that there is a great deal that most of us can invidually do to increase our freedom. We can combat the forces that threaten to oppress us. We can fortify ourselves with the qualites and conditions that promote indivudal freedom. IN doing so, we help to create a stronger organization, capable of achieving unprecedented goals.

America is a country of great possiblites, but they look up everyting un-American with suspiciion and contempt. They suffer from a deep-rooted NIH-Not Invented Here-complex and look down alien technologies. […] always remember that we don’t just build on success, we also build on failures.

[..]”But there are other men who while placing one rock on top of anotehr have a vision in their minds, a goal. It may be a terrace with roses climbing over the rock walls adn chairs set orchard or make a boundary. When they finish, they have more than a wall. If is teh goal that makes the difference. Do no make rocketry your preofession, your livelihoodl-make it your reltion, your mission.

Man needs his difficulties because they are ncessary to enjoy success. Allof us carry some soft of a super-intelligence within us. Let it be stimulated to enable us to examine our deepest thorughts, desires, and beliefs.

Once you have done this–charged yourself, as it were, with your commitment to your work-you also need good health and boundless energy. Climbing to the top demands strength, whether on teh top of the Mount Everest or top of your career. People are born with differnt energy reserves adn the one who tires first and burns out easily will do well to reorganize his or her life at teh earliest.

FLow is a sensation we experience when we act with total involvement.

He alwasy cautioned me against haste. “Big scientif projects are like mountains, which shoould be climbed with as little effort as possible and without urengcy. THe reality of your own nature should determine yourspeed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become tense and hihg-strung, slow down. You should climb the moutain in a state of equilibrium. When each task ofyour project is not just a means to and but a unique event in itself, then you are doing it well. “

To live only fro some unkown fturue is superficial .It is like climbing a mountain to reach the peak without experiencing its sides. The sides of mountain sustain life, not the peak. This is where things frow, experience is gained, and techonlogies are masgtered. The importance of the peak lies only in the fact it defines the sides. So I ent on towards teh top, but always experiencing the sides. I had a long way to go but I was in no hurry. I went in little steps–just one step after antoerh —but each step towards the stop.

[…] While there were some who shared my happiness, there were others who felt I was being unduly singled out for recognition. Some of my close associates turend envious. Why do some people fail to see the great values of life because of saly twisted thought process? Happiness, satisfaction, and the success in life depend on making the right choices, the winning choices. THere are force in life working for you and against you. One must distingush the beneficial forces from teh malevolent ones and choose correctly between them.