Susceptible but Willing: Ambush response lessons, from the frontline warriors
Lockdown 2.0: Soul in the Game and remaining Calm under Crisis
Personal Exploration on Making Calmness my Default Setting
Susceptible but Willing
We are into Lockdown 2.0, and week4 of India’s fight against Covid-19. As I noted, in one of my facebook posts yesterday, my heartfelt salute to all medical professionals who are serving on the front lines. World over, about 5000 medical professionals have lost their lives. To know that you’re susceptible but still be willing to risk everything, takes a different kind of being and heart. How do you do that? As a Startup Business Practitioner all my life, I have risked everything in my career, with each startup that I have been a part of. It may not be the same as risking your life, however the emotional turmoil and the heartaches, I feel are nearly the same.
Choking the neck of a Crisis
There are 4 people who come to my mind immediately, who are willing to not only stick their neck out, but to choke the neck of a crisis. These are men made for Crisis. Rajan called me more than a month ago, and personally admitted that he is missing the company of Sharad and Avinash, all 3 of whom are definitely made for Crisis Situations. Shoaib is another person, I have now known, very closely, who is willing to risk everything to endure a crisis. What have I, learnt from all of these men in my life? They epitomize Skin-in-the-Game mindset. As a Practitioner, I have always believed that Skin-in-the-game is how you handle any situation in life, but I see this as a practical life-skill in all 4 of them. As a Scholar, my philosophy in life is to Practice like in a War; and to go to war like in a Practice; As a Practitioner-Scholar together, I believe that to handle any adverse situation, not just any situation, you not only need your Skin-and-Practice in the game, but you also need your Soul-in-the-game. I think this is universally true whether you are a medical professional in Covid-times, a Cricketer trying to win a game from a hopeless match situation or human beings trying to overcome the dire outcomes of adverse situations. Nassim Taleb, also has written about this elaborately in his book about Skin-in-the-game. You need your Soul in the game, especially to become anti-fragile during adverse situations like the Covid-19 pandemic, where the situation is fragile and shape shifts everyday, and there is an unannounced assault on your way-of-life.
Ambush Response and Calmness in Crisis
Even though Covid-19 disease is relatively new, its scale and speed has come as an unannounced assault, hence clearly feels like an Ambush. Our normal way of life is reeling under this ambush attack. Personally, I have felt psychologically ambushed many times in my life, especially in startup life, for many of us, this is a familiar feeling. When CEOs suddenly demand a new release within 2 days to satisfy big customers, when you are roped into defend the company at unannounced customer meetings, when you are laid-off without advance notice, and when a competitor stealthily and suddenly creeps up in your market. During all these times you feel ambushed, you feel susceptible to the attack, yet, you need to be willing to confront the situation in its face. Yes, feeling susceptible and yet willing to risk is something that most entrepreneurs are familiar with. One of my close childhood friends, partner in many neighborhood mischiefs, and a senior alum of my alma-mater, Shashidar Angadi was recently in Bangalore. He spoke to me at length about how during the nascent stages of his company building process, they were hit with a deluge of unannounced, unexpected, falsely implicated litigations from one of their biggest competitors. Being a minority owned company, they had to endure this storm, but had to stay calm under crisis, lest the employees felt threatened. While they were clearly ambushed, the ambush response that Shashi and his team chose was extraordinary. They were not only calm, but they reached out to every client and made sincere efforts, to ward-off, any unwarranted anxiety due to these false allegations. They eventually won all the cases, and today are a thriving business in US, based out of the Seattle-Portland area.
Further Exploration: Making calmness a default setting in Life and Business
We are all flawed and susceptible. We are easily prone to agitation, given the nature of the times that we are in. Personally for me, calmness as a default setting and as a life-skill is turning out to be my hardest. I am most prone to an agitated response, whenever I am ambushed or surprised. As we enter lockdown 2.0, moving from an agitated state, to a calm state is an imperative. While the first 2 weekends, we explored the art of doing nothing, here and here, in lockdown 2.0, we can explore how to make calmness a default setting in our lives. Calmness in Indian Vedic texts over 5000 years ago, has been defined as Shantam. It is again grossly misunderstood as peace or stoic-ness, no its calmness, which is pregnant with all 9 emotions and is open to all possibilities. Just like the ZERO, which is open to the possibilities of moving in both positive and/or negative directions. One of my mentors and Indic expert Raghu Ananthanarayan describes Shantam and its dynamism here.
Making calmness as a default setting begins by co-holding all possibilities as occur-able realities, and not be lopsided, based on our own biases/prejudices or asymmetries. Asymmetries lead to fragilities, which can only be made anti-fragile by having our Soul-in-the-game.
Calmness as a Default Setting with Maker’s Practice.
Anti-fragile means to have our Soul-in-the-game and deliberately choosing to remain calm under crisis. Calmness-in-crisis, is about emotionally acknowledging our own susceptibility, and yet simultaneously co-holding our willingness to overcome the adversity. Calmness is about discovering the magic of the pregnancy of all emotional possibilities. Have you been able to confront the adversities in your business/career? Have you learnt how to make calmness as a default setting in your life or business? Have you heard of such practices? If you have not, you should know about Maker’s Practice.
Maker’s Practice helps you embrace calmness-in-crisis, and find your soul-in-your-game. Maker’s Practice is also a community where fellows help each other. Don’t wait, be a fellow at Maker’s Practice. Leave a comment, write an email (manjunath at catalystor dot com) or call us.
