Leave The Crown In The Garage
July 4, 2014 1 Comment
“This is about 14 years ago. I was working in the office. And I got a call about 9:30 in the night from the existing chairman and CEO at that time.
He said, ‘Indra, we’re going to announce you as president and put you on the board of directors … ‘I was overwhelmed, because look at my background and where I came from -to be president of an iconic American company and to be on the board of directors, I thought something special had happened to me.
So rather than stay and work until midnight which I normally would’ve done because I had so much work to do, I decided to go home and share the good news with my family .
I got home about 10, got into the garage, and my mother was waiting at the top of the stairs. And I said, “Mom, I’ve got great news for you.
She said, “let the news wait.Can you go out and get some milk?”
I looked in the garage and it looked like my husband was home.
I said, “what time did he get home?”
She said “8 o’clock.”
I said, “Why didn’t you ask him to buy the milk?”
“He’s tired.”
“Okay . We have a couple of help at home, why didn’t you ask them to get the milk?” Read more of this post
“I don’t think women can have it all. I just don’t think so. We pretend we have it all. We pretend we can have it all. My husband and I have been married for 34 years. And we have two daughters. And every day you have to make a decision about whether you are going to be a wife or a mother, in fact many times during the day you have to make those decisions. And you have to co-opt a lot of people to help you. But if you ask our daughters, I’m not sure they will say that I’ve been a good mom. I’m not sure. And I try all kinds of coping mechanisms.
My wife and I have built a new home with a lovely garden which houses lovely bamboo trees. I got reading on the Chinese bamboo and learned that the tree takes 5 years, 3 months to grow to its whole height of 80 feet. Yet, for the first 5 years, you only see a tiny green shoot, but in the next 90 days, it grows into a full-fledged tree. But in those first 60 months, it is growing its strong network of roots underground, to support the tree. In an era of instant gratification, we settle for shorter trees, but remember patience has its reward. These are your years of growing that strong network of roots but be sure when you finally achieve your success, people will call it “overnight success”. If only they knew of the Chinese bamboo!-Rahul Dravid
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