Though western world wants to believe and wants the world to believe that it was Columbus and Vasco da Gama who set out to see the world, there were Indian scripts dating 2000 years back found in Oman, Egypt and a few
other countries!!!
What is even more surprising is, a country that did so much of trade and traveling so early did not progress after a period!! Obvious reason is, they stopped making continuous improvements and started believing that come what may, they have to follow the standards - which were originally best practices documented / passed on by the previous generations!!!
One can see interesting similarities between this attitude of medieval Indians and today's corporates. These corporates hold their processes close to their hearts, claim that they are the best ever processes and those processes need to be followed come what may!! Of course there are certain things you HAVE to follow like - do not kill someone, do not steal etc.. Please note those are values... not processes...
Following processes has gone so much into some people that they fear any new things for there is a flip-side to it. I was casually talking about my blog to someone yesterday; another person jumped in to say I may be sued if I blog as someone was sued last week for writing something about the Finance minister. This is exactly the attitude that killed innovation and progress in medieval India.
Yes, ships will be safe in the harbors; but they are not designed for that purpose!!! If the ancient Indian sailor and trader had thought about being killed in a foreign land, we could not have discovered those Indian scripts 2000 years later in Egypt or Middle East!!
It is up to us whether we want to risk and be great or be in comforts and die mediocre!
What is even more surprising is, a country that did so much of trade and traveling so early did not progress after a period!! Obvious reason is, they stopped making continuous improvements and started believing that come what may, they have to follow the standards - which were originally best practices documented / passed on by the previous generations!!!
One can see interesting similarities between this attitude of medieval Indians and today's corporates. These corporates hold their processes close to their hearts, claim that they are the best ever processes and those processes need to be followed come what may!! Of course there are certain things you HAVE to follow like - do not kill someone, do not steal etc.. Please note those are values... not processes...
Following processes has gone so much into some people that they fear any new things for there is a flip-side to it. I was casually talking about my blog to someone yesterday; another person jumped in to say I may be sued if I blog as someone was sued last week for writing something about the Finance minister. This is exactly the attitude that killed innovation and progress in medieval India.
Yes, ships will be safe in the harbors; but they are not designed for that purpose!!! If the ancient Indian sailor and trader had thought about being killed in a foreign land, we could not have discovered those Indian scripts 2000 years later in Egypt or Middle East!!
It is up to us whether we want to risk and be great or be in comforts and die mediocre!
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