I Bought The Monk's Ferrari (13 page)

What would have possibly happened to a branch manager of the late nineties, who refused to change and upgrade his skill-sets? From a 'star manager', he would have crashed down to the lowest rung of performers in the branch league tables.

The message from this example, as well as from Sam Pitroda's quote, is that the only thing which is constant in this world is change. Either embrace change and prepare yourself for it or perish, the choice is yours. The only way out is to anticipate change and acquire the skill-sets necessary to deal with it.

If you aspire for the Ferrari, you will have to get out of your comfort zones and learn the skill-sets necessary for this day and age. It is a constantly changing world and what is good today, may not be good tomorrow, what is 'perfect' today may be a gross misfit tomorrow. But, learning is not dealing with change alone. It is about equipping yourself with the edge which drives you so much ahead of your competitors that they will take a long time pacing up to you. Learning helps you deal with your aspirations, go after them and make them a reality.

The secret key to the Ferrari lies in accepting that no one is perfect. But you can STRIVE TO BE PERFECT through an elaborate and logical learning process. The moment an individual believes that he or she is perfect, learning stops. And when learning stops, fall from grace is imminent. The secret of the Ferrari lies in accepting the fact that one is not perfect and keep working towards achieving it in this perpetually evolving world.

Aim at perfection in everything, though in
most things it is unattainable. However,
they who aim at it, and persevere, will
come much nearer to it than those whose
laziness and despondency make them give
it up as unattainable.

L
ORD
C
HESTERFIELD

Those who think they are perfect are heading for a disaster, for a fall so great that he will never be able to recover.

Successful people, the Ferrari owners, are those who are able to anticipate the change or more importantly, participate in driving change. This change could be in the environment, in the place of work, at home or even in themselves. This helps them, because if they drive the change then they are better prepared to deal with it. Individuals, who aspire for the Ferrari, do not wait for others to help them learn, they do not wait for others to tell them to learn, to come close to perfection ... they tell others that it is time they moved on.

Many of you definitely would have heard of Laurie Lawrence, the former Australian Rugby Union representative and an Olympic and world champion swimming trainer. He has represented Australia in world championships, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games as a coach. His protégés included many champion swimmers as Duncan Armstrong (1988 Seoul Olympics), Jon Seiben (1984 Los Angeles Olympics), Steve Holland and also Tracy Wickham, who is regarded as one of Australia's greatest women swimmers. Laurie has retired from being an active swimming trainer, but has been retained by the Australian team as a motivational coach for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

I was fortunate enough to interact with Laurie when he had come to deliver a motivational speech to a team of champions from my organisation in Singapore. He told us a very interesting story about the 'Australian Swimming Sensation', Ian Thorpe and his coach Doug Frost. Thorpe was just eight years old when Frost spotted him, steered him to become the youngest male swimmer to represent Australia and win a world title. The year was 1988, when Ian Thorpe captured the 400 metres freestyle. Since then, Thorpe has taken the world of swimming by storm and has won five golds in Olympic Games, eleven world titles and established thirteen different world records ... something which no one had ever done before.

At the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Thorpe won six golds and broke his own 400 metres freestyle world record. Anyone else would have been ecstatic at this performance. Sadly, Thorpe was not. He took a decision. This decision was to shake the world of swimming.

In September 2002, Thorpe dropped a bombshell. He was leaving his coach. Doug Frost, his coach for over thirteen years, had been honoured as Australia's 'Coach of the Year' for the last two consecutive years. And, Thorpe was leaving him. The entire swimming fraternity was up in arms. Even more stunning was what Thorpe followed it up with. He announced that Tracey Menezies, a twenty-nine-year-old art teacher at East Hill Boys High, Thorpe's former school, and his former 'learn to swim' coach would be his new trainer and coach. What made it even worse was that Tracey part-timed as an assistant coach with Doug Frost.

Laurie Lawrence was closely associated with both Frost and Thorpe. He, like everyone else, was also extremely annoyed with Thorpe's decision. Though he tried calling Thorpe a couple of times, he was unable to get through. Laurie was itching to ask him why he did, what he did.

As luck would have it, he met Thorpe on a flight to Melbourne, where he was going for a presentation. They were sitting next to each other. He had to ask him now. 'Thorpe,' he said, 'tell me honestly, why did you leave Doug for that woman?' At that point Frost was the best coach in Australia and there was no one of his stature. Thorpe gave him a bemused look.

'Laurie, I love Doug Frost. I appreciate everything Doug's done for me. I owe almost everything that I've today to him. He taught me to swim, he was the one responsible for my high-elbow style, he fine-tuned my big-foot swimming ... I owe everything to him.'

'The world knows this Thorpe ... then why?'

'Because had I not left my coach, I would definitely have been out of swimming before the next Olympics.'

Laurie did not understand a word. He just shook his head in despair.

'Laurie, as a young swimmer, I had lots of ideas, lots of thoughts on how to change and improve the way I swim. I wanted to try out new things. But as I grew older, Doug didn't let me expand. Everyday at training, Doug would come up and say, "Thorpe ten 400s." I would try and tell him, "Doug can we ...?" Doug used to retort, "I said ten 400s ... do as I say. 1 am the coach," and then I'd jump into the pool and start doing those laps. I'd gotten to such a stage that I was beginning to hate the sport. He didn't allow me to grow. I felt stifled. I was looking for a coach who'd help me in my pursuit of excellence in swimming and not with respect to the current crop of competition. Doug was preparing me for today, I wanted to be ready for tomorrow.'

That was when Laurie told us, 'If a man like Thorpe, who has attained such high levels of success in life in that one sport, was feeling stifled and was even thinking of quitting the sport because he wasn't learning anything new, not getting closer to perfection, think of moderate achievers, think of the whole lot of people who work across levels in various organisations. Shouldn't they be feeling even worse?'

Winners love challenge and they love to take up new and arduous tasks. Routine bores them, they always seek to explore something new. Winners are those who are curious to learn more, even if it means walking off the beaten track. In Thorpe's case, he was no longer challenged by his immediate competitors. He had achieved more than what anyone could imagine. He wanted to face greater challenge ... to compete with himself. Frost had nothing new to offer him. So, he ventured out in his quest for knowledge. He is the true owner of the Ferrari.

The message that Laurie left us and the one I am sharing with you is very clear. If you want to grow in life, it is important to constantly innovate and learn new ways of doing things; in other words, it is extremely important to enrich your skill-sets by constant learning and development. It is critical to expand your capabilities in order to keep winning and be on the top. If you do not do it, you will feel suffocated, stifled, and monotonous and this is the root cause for negative thoughts creeping into your minds. And, I have already spoken about the necessity of your mind to be clouded by positive thoughts, if you want to own the Ferrari.

Only the curious will learn and only the
resolute overcome the obstacles to learning.
The quest quotient has always excited me
more than the intelligence quotient.

E
UGENE
W
ILSON

If you want to survive in this competitive world, you cannot stand still. You will have to pace up with the others and constantly learn while you run. Else, your skill-sets will be overtaken by someone else and the Ferrari will stay as elusive as ever.

COMMANDMENT SIX

No one is perfect. The moment you think you are, it is the countdown to doomsday. Earning the Ferrari is all about constantly upgrading yourself, improving your skill-sets and equipping yourself for the future. And for this, the initiative has to be yours.

I
was discussing success with a few of my friends the other day and interesting definitions came up in the process.

One said, 'Success is another name for career enhancement.'