Do you celebrate Peers Success ?

There is a fun dialogue in 3 Idiots movie "We learned something about human behavior that day. If your friend fails, you feel bad. But if your friend comes in first, you feel worse."?

How often have we felt happy when our colleagues/peers receive appreciations or elevated up via promotions??

Instead, do you feel restless or even sometimes depressed about their success??I was like this in the early days of my career. Then, one day?I learned a valuable lesson from a person who sells mangoes on a beach.

Fifteen years back, I visited a beach in Chennai with my family. On the beachside, there were many stalls selling groundnuts , corn and mangoes. We picked a shop that isn't crowded but at a short distance.?By the time we walked near, the stall owner had walked away somewhere, and none was there in that stall.

We could see another stall a few meters away that was crowded and had the same corn and mangoes but we were hesitant to go there because of too much crowd. On seeing us standing there, the next stall owner waved hands at us, and we thought he was asking us to come to his stall. But instead, he said he was coming in 2 minutes and was here in 2 minutes - we ordered raw mangoes and pineapple salad.

I asked him, " Is this your stall? "?Murugan replied, "No, Sir."

I asked him, " Is he your relative? "?Murugan replied, "No, Sir."

I asked him, "Is he your best friend?" Murugan smiled at me and replied, "No sir, not best friend but known him for the last five years. He does business here; I do same business 50 meters away."

He prepared and gave us our order, and we gave Rs.110 for them. Then, he took the money - kept it under the box that had mangoes - started walking to his stall.

I was baffled by his actions and walked up to him to strike up a conversation.

I asked him, " Don't you feel like the next stall is your competitor selling the same stuff and taking up your customers."

He smiled and answered, " No, Sir. Even though our ingredients are the same, each one of our recipes is unique. All of us make a life here, and Kadal Madha(Sea God) takes care of providing good business for every one of us. "

I was astonished with his response and asked him "Even when you were busy, how could you leave your stall and come to serve a customer in next stall"?

Again with the same smile he answered - "We leave home after we sell all these items, and I don't want to go home happier alone, sir"

"I see this stall owner who is next to me, serving people daily with dedication and lots of hard work. So my way of giving respect or showing love to him is by running his stall with the same level of commitment when he is not around.

That day I learnt a valuable lesson - " Each of us are unique - It's not me vs him/her, and no peers could take your success away - and above all, if we are winning - don't stay alone there and make your peers too succeed."

Celebrate your colleagues' or other entrepreneurs' success, and those positive vibes will bring your celebration day sooner.