Learn from Dhirubhai Ambani: Change your Orbit!

I wonder why such an amazing perspective had not been captured in any book/blog/article yet.

It is Dhirubhai Ambani’s Theory of Orbits. Here is my shot at explaining this unique theory to those interested in professional and personal growth.

Matrix is a useless concept. Orbit is what we are in. All of us.

A middle-class professional is in an moderate-happiness orbit. He has a 9–5 job. He has a few assets, a few loans, and a small family. He is in a stable equilibrium — which he cannot break free from easily. His home loan prohibits him from taking too many professional risks. And, this lack of risk-taking leads to only moderate professional success. And his moderate success makes him remain stuck with his debts. Thus, he keeps on revolving in a moderate-happiness orbit.

A rickshaw-puller is in a low-happiness orbit. He works 8am-8pm. He pulls rickshaw and gets frustrated and tired throughout the day. He needs to unwind, and so ends up drinking a lot. This makes him spend most of his money. Lack of money forces him to go for immediate revenue the next day. Next day he again continues his drudgery. Thus, he keeps on revolving in a low-happiness orbit.

Dhirubhai was an amazing person to have grasped this phenomenon before he became great! He refused to get into orbits that were not up to his caliber. For example, he refused a very lucrative job offer of a Supervisor at Port of Aden. He eventually got into a high-happiness orbit.

The most serious issue with an orbit is that you cannot get out of it (easily). The start-phase of an orbit generates so much unhappiness that it can only be compensated by the happiness at the end-phase. The end-phase happiness makes you addicted so that you are ‘motivated’ to go through the unhappiness the next day’s start-phase. So, you keep revolving. Forever.

Happiness lies in getting into the right orbit.

But how to break free from an existing sub-optimal orbit? Well, right now I have 3 suggestions to offer:
1) Diagnose if you are in an inappropriate orbit or not
2) Don’t get into anything that increases your stickiness into your current orbit (e.g. don’t go for debt-financing that bigger car which will only increase your liabilities)
3) Take some orbit-changing decisions! (e.g. go start-up a venture, even if as as hobby)

P.S. A lot of housewives are also in a sub-optimal Orbit — which they can easily break-free from by hiring a full-time maid (at least in India)!