At age 70 I decided to go back to college.



In this episode, I talk about my return to formal education – an 8-week immersion Arabic course at Middlebury Language Schools.

I quote from something a dear friend sent me. “In Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel, The Sun Also Rises, a character is asked how he went bankrupt. “In two ways,” he answers. “Gradually and then suddenly.”



A famous sentence, one that aptly describes how businesses go down. We get fixated on the sudden events that occur at the end of the trajectory—banks calling in their loans, creditors going to court, unpaid salaries, and the like. It all feels dramatic and sudden, and we look for answers in the here and now.



But those answers can only be found way back.



Businesses are not the only things that go wrong following this gradually-then-suddenly trajectory. Many other human endeavours follow the same path. There is much anxiety and hand-wringing when we suffer an avoidable medical event, for example, but our lifestyle choices over many years prior often go unremarked.



When human constructs like bridges or dams fail, or cities are flooded, it is not just because of sudden and unusual rain events. There is a gradual negligence afoot—years and years of wear and tear, maintenance failures, or unattended corrosion.



Because we looked away from that work, we are forced to look on in horror when the final collapse happens.” End of quote



In Systems Theory we speak about the Causal and Compensating Loops. When you start an initiative, no matter what and no matter how well intentioned it may be, a process that works to neutralize it also starts. Usually, it goes undetected until it gains sufficient momentum to reverse the initiative that had been started. These are the Causal and Compensating Loops. Therefore, if you want any initiative to succeed you must keep an eye open for the Compensating Loop and act early to deal with it. Acting early means that what you need to do will be easier and less painful and so more likely to succeed. All change is painful. But if you detect the need to change early and act quickly, you can minimize the pain and give the initiative you started, a chance to succeed.







Early in my consulting career in 1983/4, I was part of a consultant group hired to design and conduct an Orientation Workshop for a large engineering manufacturing company in South India which had a strong traditional Tamil Brahmin culture with an all-male population. Thanks to the inception of a powerful lady promoter director into their Board, they decided to hire women engineers to address the gender imbalance. They hired fifty young women engineers from the premier engineering colleges in India, the IITs and RECs. Mercifully someone had the idea that before letting these young, highly energetic, and powerful women into the all-male organization, it may be a good idea to help the women understand the challenges that they were likely to face in working with older male colleagues. We did a 5-day residential program in Whitefield, Bangalore. The program went off very well and all seemed right with the world. Five years later, on a hunch, I decided to check what had happened to these women. To my horror, I discovered that 90% of them had left the company. That is when the theory of Causal and Compensating Loops hit home to me most vividly. The danger of gradual change which remains undetected until it is too late.



That’s also the theory of Seneca’s Cliff… it takes a long time to get to the top of the cliff and then comes the sudden drop to destruction. The problem is that after a certain point is crossed, reversal is almost impossible and going off the top is inevitable. That’s where I fear we have reached, in several countries that I am familiar with and globally.

As you work towards a great goal you will become restless, irritated, and impatient and inclined to take shortcuts and cut corners – all for the excellent reason that you want to see the project up and started as soon as possible. But in this urgency, there will be the tendency to accept compromises. I am writing this to warn you of the biggest danger to success. The C word. Compromise. For to compromise is to die a death without honor.

Accompanying Video: https://youtu.be/rxcdLVicuEw

In 1968, Hyderabad was in a state of pandemonium. The city was the bedrock of the infamous Telangana agitation and witnessed both frenzy and fire as a multitude of students demanded statehood for Telangana. As one would expect, it effected the lives of people living in Hyderabad, regardless of their age, profession and residence. People lost jobs, students lost an year of their education and businesses had to be shut down.



Fast-forward to 2020 and those who remember 1968, remember it as just another year. Listen to Mirza Yawar Baig narrate his story of living through 1968 and how the lessons he learned can be applied to our post pandemic world in 2020.

Listen to Mirza Yawar Baig narrate his story of securing a job at the plantation estate after returning from Guyuna and the lessons he learned along the way.

A lot of people seek out mentor-ship but very few consider actually becoming a mentor. What does it take to be a mentor? How do you convey your knowledge to your protegee? What are some things to do and not to do? Listen to Mirza Yawar Baig answer all your questions about being a successful mentor.

Team building while being critical to any organisation, is all about the individual. Listen to Mirza Yawar Baig explain the three major things you as an individual can do to bolster your team’s overall functioning: Learning from your mistakes, encouraging new ideas and sharing experiences.

Based off the BBC4 “Desert Island Discs” podcast, college student Omar Abdelaal sits down and asks Leadership Consultant Mr. Mirza Yawar Baig to select 8 music titles most connected to his life experiences. Interviewing in the outdoors, a natural habitat for the interviewee, childhood memories and stories are shared with us through laughs and tears. A podcast special you could say features all, (some wind disturbances and Mr. Baig’s music selection). We ask you to live the environment Mr. Yawar Baig loves so much by going on a brisk morning walk and enjoy!



Moving forward, please let us know what you think, ask any questions, and if you would like to see more of podcasts like these. Thank you and be well!

A good plan with graded steps plays the role of bringing the stars within reach. It also indicates that enough thoughtshare has happened in the genesis of the plan. Potential supporters look for this consciously or unconsciously. For example, when venture capitalists are listening to a business plan, more than looking at the numbers, they look to see if there is enough passion behind the idea, if enough due diligence has been done, and if enough alternatives have been generated and answered.

As I have said earlier, it is in the nature of extraordinary goals to inspire extraordinary effort. Nobody rises to low expectations; people rise to high expectations. It is essential that the final result is visualized clearly and is as real as possible to the person who sets out to accomplish it. The more desirable the end result, the more people will be willing to take the inevitable drudgery and the mundane, which is a major and essential part of all endeavors. It is the promise of great reward that drives the soul when the body has passed the boundaries of exhaustion. It is the expectation of that which is dearest to the heart that holds the hand when the night is dark and cold, and you are alone.

The challenge was that there was no formal training course, degree, or program that I could attend to qualify as a leadership trainer. Also, I was sitting on top of the hill in the Anamallais while everything I needed to qualify was miles and days away in the cities. To make matters more interesting, I needed my job (I also enjoyed it very much) and so had to figure out a way of self-learning where I could get the study and experience I needed while still holding down and full-time job.  Less as a conscious decision and more because of doing whatever was necessary, I invested every available paisa (cent) on books. Since my salary was only Rs. 850.00 per month and then was increased to Rs. 1100.00 per month, I didn’t have too many savings. But I made sure that whatever savings I had, were not used in anything other than my learning and train fares (third class – a bare wooden plank for a seat) and every available day of vacation leave, interning with one trainer or another. I did not take a single day off in twelve years. Then in 1994, I started my own company (Yawar Baig & Associates) in Bangalore with all of Rs. 3000 ($ 80) in my pocket and a dream in my heart, of becoming an internationally recognized leadership trainer. That in my view is typical of being an entrepreneur – to dream of things that never were and ask, “Why not?”

Believe it or not, the first time that color television sets became freely available in India was after the Asian Games in 1985. Almost everyone I knew in the plantations immediately bought a color TV and a VCP (no VCRs yet), so that the lonely evenings in the plantations could be spent watching films. There used to be weekend parties to watch some movie or the other or to watch some sport event. When Boris Becker beat Kevin Curren and won Wimbledon in 1985 aged 17, becoming the youngest champion in tournament history, a record which holds to this day, we were invited by Taher bhai (Mr. S. M. Taher) and Bibs in their bungalow in Sheikalmudi. Taher bhai was the Group Manager and we spent a very enjoyable evening with the usual fabulous dinner of ‘Bibs cuisine’. I recall that evening with great pleasure to this day. But for seven years, we did not get a TV because I had no money to spare. All my money was spent either in buying books or in traveling to training courses. I had to take a bit of ribbing from some quarters for being so backward as to not even have a TV in my house..

Covid has brought us face to face with the reality of what is truly important in life. Thanks to the enforced isolation of home quarantine and the shut-down of all public life, we have been forced to face ourselves. Education, like other things has had to change in the way it is experienced – teaching and learning. Technology has helped us in self-learning and access to databases to search add and share our thoughts with the rest of the world. In this context, this lecture attempts to look at what is really important to focus on. Remote education is not merely to put people in front of a Zoom screen. We need to focus on the underlying principles, ethics, morals and values of education and share our thoughts going forward. The lecture is my attempt to share my thoughts, questions and my thinking as on date. It is not THE TRUTH, it is not a solution, it is not and ending. It is to show you the sights from my window as we travel this road together. I hope you enjoy it and will share your thoughts and impressions with us.

A senior manager in Dubai who I am coaching asked me this question.



Question: I want to be able to improve my self-belief the way you did this while in the plantation industry and later on in America when you stuck to your guns to become a highly paid consultant. Increasing my Imaan would be one aspect. Additionally I would like to focus on the behavioral part as well.



Listen to this episode to learn more!

We are living in defining times. Never in living memory has the world seen something like the Covid-19 virus and the disruption that it has caused all over the world. Not in living memory or history. There are those who claim that it is a hoax. But dead bodies don’t lie. The world has come to a halt. Literally speaking. Never again will the word ‘disruption or disruptive’ have the same meaning. Never again will ‘Vision 2020’, be something to trumpet about. Never in my life would I have thought that every country in the world would have the same tale to tell, lockdown. True, the implementation of that lockdown differs from place to place, but the policy and intention is the same i.e. that you stay inside your house. Across national boundaries and geographies, it is the same story, lockdown. There have been many pandemics in the world, but they didn’t get the same uniform global reaction as Covid-19. That is why I titled my essay, BC to AC. I am sure you can guess what that means.



Many people are talking about, ‘Getting back to normal’. But someone said very wisely, “Decide what part of that normal you don’t want to get back to.” Wise, because to put it politely, it was our ‘normal’, that got us here. So, we must think very carefully about what the new ‘normal’ will be. Or I should say, ‘What we want the new normal to be.’ This is my Thoughtshare about the major challenges that I believe we will face in the coming days.

The objective of life is to achieve that which you did not know you could. To scale heights that leave you breathless with fear until you realize that it is excitement and not fear at all. Excitement is fear that anticipates a happy ending. Short breath, dry mouth, alive senses, and joy. The objective is to see how much more you can achieve. And you never can tell that unless you try to do that which you have never done before. Safety is only one of the considerations in the strategy to achieve that. Never the objective. As they say, ‘Ships are safest in the harbor. But ships are not made to remain in the harbor.’ To live is not simply to draw breath.

Today we live in a world where dignity has quite wrongfully been linked to material wealth. No matter how learned a man or woman may be, or how kind or truthful or trustworthy, if they are not wealthy, they are treated with disdain. Net worth has only one meaning. And I can’t think of a more dishonorable meaning; to equate a person to the amount of money in his pocket. HNI; what if it meant Person with the best character? Instead of Person with the most money, no matter how he earned it and no matter what his character is like. Not to say that all rich people are evil. They aren’t. I am talking about what we measure which shows what we truly value. If we measured character, truthfulness, kindness, compassion, courage, dignity, concern for the underprivileged, the weak, elderly, poor, sick; then that is how we would define ourselves. High Networth Individual would mean the kindest, most truthful, most compassionate, most courageous person in that society. We wouldn’t glorify ostentation, waste, self-centered consumption, cruelty, oppression. We would call Aristotle, ‘The Great’, instead of Alexander, whose only claim to fame was that he left Macedonia to rape, plunder and loot his way across a million square miles of others’ homes and societies. Who we glorify and celebrate, tells a much bigger story about who we are than about who they were.

Jack Welch passed away at the age of 84, on March 1, 2020. I decided to title my podcast ‘Built to Last’, after Collins & Porras’s book by that title which I consider to be one of the best corporate (or other) leadership books that I have ever read. Jack Welch was ‘built to last’. https://yawarbaig.com/wherearetheleaders/jack-welch-my-memories/

Have you ever seen an eagle take a duck in flight? Or a leopard bring down a wildebeest running with his herd? Or Rafael Nadal return a serve? They all have one thing in common and that is FOCUS. You may be impressed by the fact that these three are focusing on their target. But stop for a minute to ask how they can do it. They do it by ignoring everyone and everything else. So I say to you, “Focus is the art of ignoring fluff.” Everything other than your target is fluff.