celebrate CLAY - 4

On 25 January 2020 morning, my son woke up little late. When he came, I took him straight to the picture of Clay and told him 'Clay uncle passed away'. He was sad and he prayed to the photo. After a couple of hours, he asked 'Appa, Are you not sad? You seem to be happy'. I replied, 'I am sad that he passed away. At the same time, I am happy that I worked in his company, met him at Harvard Business School, got his guidance on parenting and even, 'worked' with him in a tiny way.

My father came from a village that got into google maps recently and even now, it is just a dot. Many of my classmates, from my school, still make 300 - 400 USD per month. A classmate, Thangamani, whom I met last year in Madurai was raving to me in a drunken state on how he achieved his goal of 25,000 INR (340 USD) per month after working in the same company for 18 years. He said he was so happy and fulfilled. Am I better than him? Do I deserve all this? I have only gratitude that I was a tiny dust particle in this noble man's life.

My father wrote his first Facebook post on 01 August 2013 and it sums up Clay's life so beautifully.

(** H.M implies Head Master, School Principal)

Clay is a great teacher. Clay must have been a great Professor. Clay is a fruit tree and also, a banyan tree. To me, Clay is a GURU.

To be concise, I am going to use pictures and share what lessons Clay has left for this world.

A: Seek truth. If you seek truth, you can be humble. If you are humble, the universe will reveal its intelligence through you. Clay was a seeker of truth.

B. Seek Truth. If you seek truth, you will be humble. Your humility will make you empathetic. Even, your questions will become empathetic. Clay was empathetic.

C. Seek Truth. If you seek truth, you will be insightful. Your insights will help you to understand the paradox inherent in everything. clay is formless but it gives form.

D. Everyone is replaceable, even Clayton Christensen. This is the powerful message that he delivered to his son when his team at Oxford won without him playing on a Sunday.

Clay's insights matter.

Clay's inner light matters.

Clay's humility matters.

Clay's blessings matter.

Clay can become 'matter'. Clay's IDEAS matter.

Guruji - Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

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Appendix

To read the whole journey, please read in the order below

1. celebrate Clay - 3
2. celebrate Clay Christensen - 2
3. celebrate Clayton Christensen - 1
4. What I learnt from my MBA?

Credits: The 2x2 matrix in A was shared by my MBA classmate Alvaro from Chile in 2006. It was the first lecture that I attended and it turned out to the best one.

AR Rahman's Nahin Samne: I started Tribute 1 with the song below. Please close your eyes and listen to this Hindi song. Your nostalgia will be restored in high quality.

Liberal use of capital and small letters: Somebody said we need to use capital letters at the start of every sentence. Why are we blindly following what somebody else says? Whatif it starts with a small letter? Let's define or redefine everything.

What I learnt from my MBA?: I got many emotional comments for this post and there was one critical comment that questioned the usage of 'learnt' as against 'learned'. I usually write and go back to edit my post later. On this particular one, I chose to keep my 'mistake' as it is. You may think it is bullheadedness. I consider it as humility and leadership to stay with my mistakes and own my darkness.