“But running is
running and the goal for a runner is to run faster than one’s opponents to win
the race, how different it can be for different types of races.” I was
embarrassed witness of this conversation. (Embarrassed; as I accompanied the
person who was saying this.) I, even with no experience in races or any track
and field kind sports knew the baselessness of this plea that my companion was
making. The person we were talking to was the athletics coach in the local kids
club and we were talking about getting some coaching for our kids. I was more
interested in marathons and him looking at a 200 meter sprint for his children. The
coach had been helplessly trying to explain that preparing for a Marathon and
preparing for a 100-200 meter race are two very different things. But the person
I was with was not even ready to understand with a supplication that “a race is
a race.”
Deep inside I
was cursing myself for coming with this guy whom I didn’t even know well.
Seeing some signs of annoyance at the coach’s face I tried to start explaining
by saying, “Yes a race is a race, but for a shorter sprint all you need is
strength and speed which become lot less significant needs for a marathon. A
marathon is essentially a play of endurance and stamina.” I don’t know if he
understood, but he nodded and so did the coach. I was happy at least I had made
the coach aware that I am saner than the other participant.
How could
someone be this naive that a race is a race? I was still thinking even after I
got back home. I would never think like that, never! Not in any thing. But then
my thoughts stood challenged. I have seen this all around me and that is how we
all live every day. Same attitude in every walk of life, “A Race is a Race.”
I thought of
myself and parents like me looking at kid’s test score and getting worried at
scoring low in one test or getting excited at them scoring great in one test.
Great 100 meter run my child. Excellent! no doubt this is a long Marathon but a
race is a race and you have shown good speed in the 100M part of it. A marathon
is just many 100 meter races bundled together. How Naive? Build endurance and
stamina and strength in your legs because one or a few spells of 100meter (good
or bad) will mean nothing in the Marathon that stretches ahead. So train for the longer haul. Gain knowledge and success will follow. How many times do we give them similar coaching?
I remember
meeting with my friend last month for dinner. He is a business development lead
with an IT organization. He was very worried at his team missing the monthly sales
target back to back two months, so he mentioned that he had asked them to drop chasing the
“big-Fish” and fill up the quota with low hanging fruits. Go on big fish chase
only after the monthly targets are met. He told me was his unyielding commandment
to his team. As I don’t want to see any heads rolling, he had added his
justification. Now thinking about it I can see the compulsion he has implanted
in his team to win every single 100meter piece of the marathon. And however
justified his words appeared at the time when we spoke, now I wish I could tell
him that he is setting up his team (or a major part of that) to lose steam much
before the finish line. And may be when the bucket is full with fish gathered
from near the shore the “Big Fish” might have already taken some other bait or
swam too far?
My last week’s
meeting with my personal banker was another thing I thought of. This person is
newly appointed by my bank to provide “special service” to the people who have
their salary direct deposits with the bank for more than 5 years. He mentioned
that there are not too many of such customers and the bank wants to take good
care of them hence appointing a dedicated person for that. I was happy at that
gesture from the bank. However within first 5 minutes of the conversation he
had made clear that his job was to meet with each of those customers and
document the meetings within 3 months of his stepping on the role. He didn’t
offer me any answers or any help or any support. Just seeing me in his office
had fulfilled his job’s need to meet me and he wanted the meeting to end soon.
Once I realized his need, I thanked him
for his time and walked out of his office. This is a typical case of someone
asked to run a marathon but also asked to ensure that each 100meter are a win
(at meeting everyone with in the 1st quarter) so he clearly didn’t
have the marathon (ensuring strengthened relation with the long time customers)
in his mind while he was sprinting hard to win the 100Meter portion (meeting
everyone once). By the time he refocuses on the marathon, half of the runners
might already be on the other side of the line (switched to his competition; as
I might be one of them) or he would have lost steam (reputation with people
that he is supposed to deal with, as he certainly can strike me off his fan
list)
The examples
kept on coming and I saw my life as a medley of people, situations,
institution and systems that imbibes and preach the “A Race is a race” lesson
over and over again.
Now I thank the
person who had earlier annoyed me with his “a Race is a race” mindset. Not that I have started thinking that he was
right, but thanked him for showing how gullible we are in day to day life. And
how ignorant are we of our own preaching.
Many a times
when I see something and write about it, I try to sum up with a suggestion or
my opinion on a solution. However in this situation I do not have any thoughts
or ideas. All I can say is that as the phrase goes; “When there is an elephant
in the room, introduce it.” To me I just saw the elephant in the room, it was
nicely camouflaged in the settings of
the room that it was easy to ignore. But since I saw an elephant (or I think I
saw an elephant) so I have introduced it.
Tell me if you
know what should be done of this elephant? Or tell me if I have been
hallucinating and there isn’t any beast in the room. But I think you will also
agree that “A race is not just a race”
