The case for invoking your Inner Shiva

Three seismic events happened in the Indian advertising world almost simultaneously in this last one fortnight or so.

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Firstly, Ogilvy celebrated 75 years in existence globally. Next, Omnicom decided to bring all its creative agencies, BBDO, DDB and TBWA under one holding entity in India called Omnicon Advertising Services. And finally, as of last evening (India time), J Walter Thompson, Wunderman, Y&R and VML folded into an entity called VML. Many insiders say that JWT, Wunderman and Y&R just expired.

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One thrived, another synergised to stay together, while the third just folded. In many ways, these felt like close parallels to Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer). The intelligent among us can decipher which one is what of these three.

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In many ways, these three different narratives are of one story. A story of growth, decay, and ultimately, death. How can one continuously grow and thrive in the face of uncertainty?? If increasing entropy is inevitable, how does one maximise opportunity within it? How does one not die?

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By now, what is certain is that stagnation is death. Expertise is over-rated. Especially if you are in a field that is repetitive and could be automated. In such contexts, only sports, performing arts and creative careers seem to be inherently un-stagnant. Even the last one seems to be taking a few knocks, as of late.?

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Caution the stagnant expert. If you are unwilling to bent and adapt, you will be broken. An uncertain future needs one to try more things, rather than hold close what one has always done in the past.

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In this context, I love the analogy of the garden and the jungle.

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On the face of it, the garden looks beautiful. Every potted plant manicured. Every tree full of green leaves. Everything in its place. Nary a doubt on its lushness. But it also hides a dirty secret. It has been artificially manicured to ensure that there is nothing conventionally ‘undesirable’. In business terms, it has been carefully optimised to be one and only one thing. It runs the risk of sudden death in the face of a black swan event. When great swathes of fields die due to sudden blight, it demonstrates the inherent weakness of a monoculture.

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Consider the opposite of it. The jungle. It is dirty, unkempt, unruly, rebellious, untamed, and dangerous. One enters a jungle at one’s own risk. It seems like no one person can make full sense of it. It has a million living creatures of all shapes, forms, and sizes. Some of them still, some of them full of life. Some of them on the ground, others on the trees, still others taking to the sky from time to time. You can cut a shrub here or there. You can pull some weeds. Maybe, you could also capture a few small mammals. But there are thousands ready to take the place of the few you have suppressed.

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There is an intuitive beauty of a wild tropical jungle as opposed to the stultified elegance of an English manicured garden. Every weed, every shrub, and every tree, indeed every living organism in the jungle plays a role in the overall growth of the jungle. To the outsider, it may look unkempt. But those who reside in the jungle know the value of every organism within it. The jungle WILL survive. In fact, it will thrive. The temples of Angkor Wat over-ridden by the roots of a banyan tree are instructional to this point.

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Forget the garden. Practise to be a jungle.

That is the only way to prosper in the 21st century.

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Of course, this begs the next question. How?

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Every one of us has to create our own system of an infinite loop of learning and unlearning. And to create this bespoke system for oneself, there are only two fundamental tenets. Those of curiosity and experimentation.

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To be constantly curious is to feed your mental faculties with enough brain-carbohydrate every day.

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One of my erstwhile bosses used to ask me every time I would cross him in the corridor, “What have you learned today?” At that time, I would feel mildly irritated and try and avoid catching his eye. But, in hindsight, it was invaluable. It provoked me to learn something constantly. Initially, just to be prepared to cross his path. But, over years, it became a muscle that just demanded attention.

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And to continuously experiment, one needs to have the courage to leave the shore.

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You need to be in the market to try new things. Ask ‘what if?’. A friend and me were discussing an interesting profile question in a backpackers community forum. It asks for a list of the amazing things you have ‘done’ in your life. Mind you, what you have done, not seen, or heard, or touched. Can you answer for yourself, honestly, what amazing thing did you DO yesterday? And how it was not what you did the day before? If you can look in the mirror on this question, you are on to something real good.

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Be curious. Be experimental.

When something works, refine it further.

Make it better. Grow it bigger.

But never so big that it becomes rigid.

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Do not walk the paths of the park.

When it stops working,

do not force it to work some more.

Try something different.

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Girdle up. And jump into the jungle.

Because you were meant

to be nimble and wild.

Not corpulent and tamed.

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Be curious.

And experiment every day.

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As a Hindu priest may say, “Invoke your inner Shiva every day. Because only when something dies, can something new be born from its ashes”