Five Uncommon Qualities for a Rewarding Future
By Dr. Abraham George, Founder of The Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project
For the last fifty years, I dedicated my career to two distinct professions. First, to a financial technology company, I started and later sold to a public company. Then, to Shanti Bhavan, a world-class residential school in India for economically and socially disadvantaged children. While juggling these two professions, I was married, raised two children, and cared for my parents.
Finding the correct balance between work, personal life, and giving back is never clear-cut. My experience has taught me a few essential elements for finding a happy balance. What worked for me may not be a match for you, but my life experience might provide a perspective you find useful in developing your career and family.
1. Don’t underestimate the soft skills
Carving out your own path as an entrepreneur isn’t for the fainthearted. It calls for seeing the big picture and understanding the technical details. If you want to be a business leader or an entrepreneur, you must develop some essential soft skills in addition to hard work and perseverance. But more importantly, it requires motivating and convincing others to see and believe in your vision.
My academic achievements didn’t get my team to work late into the night or put in the extra effort. Their commitment was due to my leadership skills and my genuine affection for them. Among many management qualities, there is no substitute for honesty and transparency.
2. A strong internal code of ethics and values is essential
Without a strong code of values, achieving anything meaningful is limited. Having a sense of right and wrong is critical. It’s key to being disciplined, earning trust from others, staying focused on the right goals, and being a good partner, parent, and friend.
Learning from philosophers, leaders, spiritual teachers, and activists can be a great way to cultivate your broad set of values and a moral compass. Applying them from the beginning of your career will help you develop the mental muscle to follow an ethical path.
I was inspired by leaders like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Mandela, and Albert Schweitzer. I developed an enduring set of values from them, my parents, my military training, and my professional experiences.
3. Foster compassion for others
Helping others or addressing problems facing our planet requires compassion. You must earnestly seek answers for why things are the way they are. This isn’t easy in today’s society because of constant financial pressure, but being purely self-interested in one’s pursuits will not bring happiness.
Begin with finding someone for whom you can show compassion. Perhaps someone you know or a family member who is struggling will be the starting point for reaching out. A humane cause might call for your attention. Over time, as you regularly practice compassion, it will grow more and more within you.
4. The need to balance business and family life
If you want to balance your personal life and work, you must put the time into both. There is no such thing as “I don’t have the time.” Both your business and your family need you. Ignoring one because of the other can’t be an excuse. If you want to achieve both and have rewards from both, your time, energy, and mental fortitude are important. If you aren’t ready to consistently remain dedicated to both, one or both areas will suffer over time.
That’s not to say that all your time must be perfectly balanced, but if there is a clear imbalance in attention and effort for an extended period, it will soon become painfully apparent. Right from the start I made sure not to neglect my family responsibilities to pursue my business. During the week, I’d often work six days a week, but I’d put in an hour or two of meaningful time every day and one full day a week for the family. While I wasn’t the most involved father in my children’s education, I did make sure to always be there for them in various ways — like being home for dinner each evening, attending important soccer matches, coaching the school soccer team, taking my boys to school, and ensuring that they knew I loved them and was there for them when needed.
5. Just do it
You can either spend all your time thinking about your dreams or go for them. I hear people saying they wish they had created their dream business or how they wanted to start a school like Shanti Bhavan, but they never did because the time wasn’t right.
If you want to do it, start by taking that first step and try. It will never happen if you spend all your time worrying about how you’ll achieve your big dream. Start small. From there, every day is another day to show up and accomplish another item on your “to-do list.” Don’t worry about reaching the destination, focus on doing whatever you can each day and move things forward one step at a time. With enough persistence and time, everything will come together.
There is no perfect formula for having a successful career, family, and positive impact on humanity, but these five ingredients are essential. There will always be people who may not fully understand why you want to be professionally successful, start your own business, or help others in a significant way. While it is wise to seek thoughtful feedback from others, in the long run, you’ll be grateful that you have pursued your passion and calling for a good cause.
