Membership

Developing your Inner Leader for Life Success

11^th May 2013 Event of SIPA

A conversation with yogi, mystic and visionary humanitarian Sadhguru Founder Isha Foundation with serial entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist B V Jagadeesh.

~ Summary by Malavika Lakireddy

SIPA, TiE and Isha foundation jointly hosted a discussion with the esteemed Sadhguru on the topic “Developing your Inner Leader for Life Success” in Palo Alto, CA. To a packed auditorium, B V Jagadeesh, the well -known Silicon Valley entrepreneur, led the discussion with Sadhguru to bring out the secrets for being a leader in all facets of life. Sadhguru answered breadth of questions from Mr. Jagadeesh and the audience with real life examples and a healthy dose of humor.

On taking an organization from ordinary to extra-ordinary

ISHA foundation is a completely volunteer run organization with over 2 million members. Though at times not equipped with the right skills, the volunteers have taken on tough projects with gusto and completed them on time. Sadhguru shared his secret to building a dedicated organization – first fall in love with the people and then make them fall in love with you. Every human being wants to do their best. To make them give their best, each individual should become first happy with themselves, whether they are doing something big or small. Once the fire is ignited in each individual, then all it needs is to be channeled in the right direction.

On being successful in life and tackling obstacles

Sadhguru shared that the dissatisfaction and anxiety in today’s world is because we have become a goal- oriented society. An analogy Sadhguru gave is that if we want to grow an apple, we have begun to think only of the apple and not of the soil, the roots, water and the manure which are critical in growing that apple. Our expectations are out of touch with the efforts we are putting in. The key is to first gain the necessary skills, put in the effort and enjoy doing the work. Then everything else will follow.

Sadhguru also honed in the philosophy that it was important to do what we love and do it well. We need not be the experts in everything, or take on tasks such as volunteering to be politically correct. We have to do the work with a focus on ensuring we are giving back more than we are taking and keeping the human factor in the center. Then, whatever we do will end up benefiting the society.

On developing leadership skills

Sadhguru firmly believed that leadership should not be an aspiration, but a consequence. He summarized three principles in developing individual leadership.

• Developing insights which others don’t have. Once an individual develops an expertise and the ability to see what others miss, then people will automatically push him/her to the forefront. This also implies being able to see things without being clouded by past experiences and information. We should observe things as they are; only then we will see things which others miss.
• Have the necessary inspiration to pursue the insight. Pursuing a path will extract a price from the individual - effort and time and sometimes discomfort. Hence it is important for the individual to make it worthwhile what he/she is pursuing.
• Integrity of character. As we grow in our careers, it will become more and more important to have integrity of character. The higher we go, the more eyes will be watching every action of ours. The more people we impact, the more important it is for us to be at peace with ourselves as our pleasantness with ourselves will seep into interactions with others.

The event ended with Sadhguru answering questions from the audience on topics of women leadership, developing leadership in children, on creating distributed leadership and mobilizing people in a country like India with little to no governance. On every topic, Sadhguru blended spiritual vision with practical insights leaving the audience plenty to think about.

Event Videos

Part1

Part2

Part3

Part4

Part5