Intent and Implementation

Intent and Implementation:

Intent:

Once when I was being savaged by the Owners of a Building my company had built and it was getting to be crazy with a group of, what was later termed, Keyboard Warriors, harassing me 24 x 7, I sought the advise of a senior, Shankar Sastri. He told me this - Koshy, if your intent is right, it will be okay. It may take time but you will succeed in the end.

It got me thinking. Was my intent right? After baring the facts on a written page, I became sure that my intent was right. It calmed me a lot. It gave me the strength to fight back and not panic , hide and cringe. What had I done to be bullied? Anyway, to cut a long story short, that advise was my return to my confident self. It needed someone to shine the torch and Shankar did. Thanks Shankar.

I have, after that, passed on this advise to many and also conducted my business and life with the belief that, if my intent is right, in the end I will succeed. When faced with numerous legal challenges, pressure from genuine people, people who were bad and authorities, I stood up and said one thing. I am here, not going anywhere. That is because my intent is right. I have made mistakes but everyone does that. I am trying to correct them. That, in itself ,is intent. Many asked me why I did not let some things, including my flagship company, go, as it would have solved my problems. My response was - I did not form the Company to let go of it at the first sign of trouble. Fight for what you believe in and stare your adversary in the eye.

How to convey your intent?

It is often only action ( even silence is an action) that can convey your intent. Conveying that feeling and belief is not easy. Many have said that Humans can look down an animal by staring at it - others say that staring down an animal makes it feel threatened and can be dangerous. Whatever it is staring straight at an issue causes a reaction and you have to be prepared to face it.

I will be lying if I don't tell you that many times, yes many many times, I have privately grieved at the pressure that manifests itself when I have tried to stand up and face things head on. I almost gave in completely more than three years ago. Thankfully, I got over that. Do not worry when you are frightened - we all fear things. It is how we stand up and face our fears that makes us who we are. Sunil Gavaskar once famously said - There is no batsman who has played cricket who is not scared of fast bowling. The good ones overcome the fear; others fall under the pressure. There again it is intent - even with talent, a lack of intent is not going to work.

Implementation

India has almost every written rule of law available to ensure that it is run well. However, it often lacks in ability to Implement the Law. We have always believed that we need better laws. No, we do not - we just need implementation. I will give you a few day to day examples of small, but important things, that have happened over the last couple of decades, because authorities implemented them:

Smoking in public places:

I believe Kerala was the first state to strictly implement it. When I used to smoke and was travelling by train between Kerala and Bangalore, I realised that the Railway police were strictly fining passengers who smoked in trains. I had to wait till I reached Coimbatore to light up. Kerala implements the No Smoking in Public Places the best in the South of India, in my view.

Drinking and Driving, Seat Belts, Helmets:

Initially Kerala, mainly Kochi, implemented the rule of fining and coming down heavily on people who drank and drove. There was no distinction between Rich and Middle Class or Poor. Everyone got pulled up. People stopped it very quickly. Simple. Bangalore was a bit late off the mark but they eventually got it right.

In Kerala use of Seat Belts was implemented strictly just like Drinking & Driving. It is only in Kochi that I have seen even the Police in Jeeps, wear seat belts. Bangalore is fairly strict but if you find a cop wearing a seat belt, you may have a stroke. See what I mean. In Kochi, one could not wear any kind of apology of a helmet. It had to have an ISI Mark. Worked well as long as it was implemented.

Standing behind the yellow line in Airports:

Do you remember people crowding when you stood for the security check in Airports? You may have forgotten it because the CISF implemented the rule strictly over the last ten odd years. Will you even think of fudging the Queue or walking past the yellow line till you are called? No way. Implementation. It does the trick always.

Disfiguring currency notes:

Remember how we had currency notes with all kinds of numbers, stories, reminders written on them? Do you miss them ? :-) Governor Rajan of the RBI put an end to it by telling people that soiled notes would not be accepted in future. Things stopped when people realised that banks, shops and even your auto guy stopped accepting soiled currency notes. Just implementation.

BTW, isn't it amazing that we do not have those massive stapler pins pinning our notes but just simple bands doing the trick. A stapled currency note does not sell. Implementation.

That's it for now folks. I hope you get what I meant in what I write. Keep the intent and insist on implementation. Things will work out. I am sure. Do put your comments here in the Comments Column. It will help me improve.