Companies by Men alone will be miserable…

Dear Men at Chalo:

Osho said, Man has been inhuman to the woman for centuries. He has been cruel to her and dominated her because of his inferiority complex. That inferiority complex began because she was capable of being a mother and man is not. Nature chose her to be the superior sex to give birth to life. Man is incapable of that. She lives longer than him naturally. She has more patience. She has more capacity to love. She has more capacity to endure pain. She has more capacity to be tolerant. She has more intuition.?Overall, she is just a superior sex to him. He is inferior by design.

When you have an inferiority complex, you pretend to be stronger and more powerful. So men decided the game and the rules to play it by. In this game, men denied women opportunities to play along or excel at it.

The recent lockdown can give us a glimpse of how women would have lived for centuries. They had a perpetual lockdown at home.?Just imagine how our grandmothers gave birth to 10 kids over 12 years and then brought them up. A mere headache or jet-lag keep us away from our best work.

But if you make someone suffer, you will have to suffer too. He made her suffer, and he is suffering too.?With men being in-charge, we have had thousands of wars, just until the last century. We live in a largely violent, political, unkind world.?The only place where we feel blessed and experience soul-lifting joy seems to be with family.?We know that woman created the family, despite the man.

Most businesses that men created are miserable too. Most companies have become a means to short term success. Our companies rarely last centuries. Our companies are rarely collaborative. Our companies are not kind. Our companies are supposed to be at war with cut-throat competition. They are not full of joy helping everyone reach their potential.

We spend more time at work than anywhere else. So, this better be worth it - and not a regret when we are on our death bed.

Our companies have to change.?Our companies need to be built for the long term. They need to be built for centuries. They need to be a source of real joy. They need to be kind. Human. Loving. Vulnerable. Trustworthy.

And what do we change first?

The answer lies in our genesis. It took a man and a woman to create each one of us. We are both. We need both to create anything worthwhile. For a real synthesis, for a real transformation, we need at least half the people in our workplaces to be women.

Men and women are not equal, but they are not unequal either. They are different. Maybe like Yin and Yang. Maybe like head and heart. We need both in synthesis to create something meaningful.

It makes business sense too. A TED Talk by Rocio Lorenzo reveals that companies with more women are more innovative. Simon Sinek told us how loving your employees is at the core of their productivity. There is enough research as how workplaces thrive with empathy, meaningful relationships, and trust. Women are much more capable of this. It will be so much easier?to create meaningful companies with them.

How do we get started?

Every change begins at home - the place where we are standing right now. At the company we work for. For us, it begins at Chalo.

We need women in every aspect of what we are building at Chalo. From strategy to issuing a ticket in the bus, they can do everything. Anyone who has any notion that?there is some function that can be done better by a man needs to grow up.

Given how far behind we are, we need to go beyond offering equal opportunities to women. We need to prefer them whenever we have a choice. For our own good. For building a better, long lasting, innovative company.

We men need to be more aware of our thoughts and our behavior. We need to see how we demean women around us in our sarcasm, our jokes, our actions, our glances, and our judgement. We aren't really grown up if we can't get out of our conditioning. We will do more harm to ourselves if we miss being an active agent of this transformation the world so badly needs. A real man respects a woman for what she is. He will neither be inferior to her, nor pretend to be more powerful than her, nor be scared to be led by her. So let's be the one.

Dear Women at Chalo:

Let me say a few things to the women at Chalo, and to many whom we invite to be part of Chalo.

One, we have been conditioned for millions of years and while it's not an excuse, men may still fail at what they themselves know must be done. When that happens and when you are not treated equally, when you are sidelined by the sheer animal power of men or their rules of the game, please don't give up. Please don't lose hope. Let it deepen your resolve to find your true potential. Let every set back make you more determined.

Two, please don't become like what we men are. We have had enough of ourselves and we all can see the outcome. To change, we must bring more 'woman-ness' into the world and at Chalo. You aren't in a conflict or war with any man. The conflict mindset leads to bitterness, waste of energy, and loss of opportunities. Our world need women to be more like women, and men to be more like men. The opposite coming together will make it?complete. So please bring your intuition to this data-driven world. Bring your empathy to this do-it-at-all-costs execution. Not that you will not bring science, intelligence, or flawless execution. All I mean is don't miss to bring what you are already gifted with. So let your intuition take us beyond intelligence. Let your capacity to love take us beyond relationships. Let your vulnerability make all of us more trustworthy.

Three, I am full of gratitude to the women in my life. It's my mother who made me what I am.?It's my best friend and spouse that gave me the love and space to do whatever I could do. It's my daughter now who showers unconditional love on me every day. Life is beautiful and a blessing because of women who are mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, lovers, and soul-mates. So a big heartfelt thank you from every man here to every woman out there!

Together, we make a better Chalo. That's a step towards better cities, and a better world.

With lots of love,

Mohit