Every day is a battle. Managing a home, a busy work schedule, unannounced meetings, attending book launches and a trillion other things, is challenging, if not a struggle. And despite all the challenges that spring up, I managed to get at the venue (Landmark Store, SGS Mall, Pune) on time to enjoy the book launch last evening. It seemed nothing short of an achievement and in that sense I had won!
Winning is a habit and gives you a high that only people who have won know about. And
Prakash Iyer’s debut book
The Habit Of Winning that was launched at the event spoke about winning and repeating successes. Prakash Iyer, the MD of Kimberley Clark Lever, kick started the event by introducing himself and narrated interesting anecdotes from the book that can help people acquire ‘the winning streak’.
Dressed in a grey blazer and crisp white shirt, Iyer began imparting one victory lesson after the other. He began by asking a question to the audience: for two people to climb a mountain what do you need? Someone from the audience said they need each other, someone said great weather but Iyer quipped: You need a mountain first! He meant –to win and achieve you need to begin by setting goals and aspirations.
And to help people achieve what they want, he came up with his book The Habit Of Winning that he thinks is a “tool kit with hammers and chisels that will show you how to make a difference to your attitude”.
His book begins with a quote by Vince Lombardi that says, “Winning is a habit, unfortunately, so is losing”. A person from the audience asked, “How can one get rid of the habit of losing” to which Iyer joked, “My book would have been much better had I incorporated the answer to this one in the book.” On a more serious note he said that the habit of losing is far more prevalent than the habit of winning. “So in order to win you must go out and make that extra effort,” maintained Iyer.
He narrated a tale of some elite people, sipping the finest quality of wine and partying at a high end lounge, hosted by an investment banker. But just one partygoer seemed to enjoy himself in the crowd without being completely immersed in what was happening around. And when someone asked him how he could do this the man said, “I have something that no one here has and that is the power to say ENOUGH.” Iyer explained, “Greed is nice, ambition is good but it is important to say enough somewhere!”
A student then asked Iyer how to decide when to say enough. Here Prakash stressed that there is no definite answer to that question. “You have to say enough when you do justice to what is inside of you. You have to quit when people say why and not why not.”
With more than 25 years of experience in marketing everything from soaps to diapers, and a weighty Management Degree from IIM, Ahmedabad, this interaction with Prakash Iyer got me thinking and certainly made me wiser. I hope reading the book too will make me a winner too.
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