— Colonel Sanders
In the highly readable book ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’, a true
story by Mitch Albom, ailing Morrie in his final days of life says, “Everyone
knows they are going to die but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do
things differently. To know you are going to die, and to be prepared for it at
any time, that’s better. That way you can actually be more involved in your life
while you are living.”
What has life and death to do with CAs ? We are a party to
the creation, preservation and liquidation of companies. We are very much
present in all the cycles a company passes through. When it comes to our own
life, where do we stand ? Targets, goals, due dates and deadlines till one is
dead.
Take a typical day of a CFO of a company. The day begins in
the car replying to emails and reading business dailies. More emails and,
therefore, more replies after one reaches the office. Review of the work with
the colleagues in the department, attending interdepartmental meetings,
strategy/budget/budget review sessions. Unexpected work comes regularly — Income
Tax assessment order where the assessing officer shows his immense knowledge of
the Income-tax Act, legal issues arising out of termination of an employee and
so on. Added to this is the need to comply with the requirements of SEBI, stock
exchanges and the board of directors. The day is not over yet. On his way back
home he has to catch up on the latest judgment on transfer pricing, IFRS and
that highly recommended article that appeared in the latest Harvard Business
Review.
Being from the industry, I have narrated a typical day of the
CA in the industry. It is no different for the practising CA who has to endure
more at home too — phone calls from clients, chairman of the co-operative
society about the problems they are facing, et cetera.
Where is the time to do what one wanted to do when one was
young ? Where is the time to pursue one’s passion ? Where is the time for near
and dear ones ? My mother’s recent passing away triggered these thoughts. I
could not help the feeling that I had taken for granted the constant help
received from my parents. Did I express gratitude ? Would have, but not as
profusely as one would do with one’s bankers or customers. After all, we are
looking for repeat orders from the customers. Memories started flowing of the
many times my mother would wake me up in the night druing preparation for my CA
exams, or check to see whether I was sleeping and, if so, prepare a cup of tea,
kept everything ready as one came back from exams.
Numerous promises one made, some fulfilled and some just
remained as promises. Three of them still remain in my mind and guilt is
unlikely to go away during my lifetime. The promises to take her to the temple
of our family deity in the southern part of Tamil Nadu, darshan of
Shankaracharya of Sringeri Mutt, visit to Varanasi and dip in the Ganga. The
time required for all these trips would not have been more than a week. But one
kept postponing. Parents do not demand, nor do they remind you of the promises
made. I had the excuse of paucity of time. One does not postpone visit to a
multiplex or a restaurant or a sports stadium.
We are not saints to ignore worldly duties. We cannot be
selfless to nip our self interest. We are paid to do our work. We have to take
care of our clients. The professional firms and organisations we run have to go
on. It is not just our livelihood but the livelihood of many who depend on our
organisations. At the same time can’t we look at life not as a sprint but as a
marathon, as Prof. Raghunathan wrote in his book, “Don’t sprint the marathon”.
The belated lesson I learnt and which I wish to share with
the fellow members of our profession is not to postpone what one wanted to do in
one’s personal life. As Morrie said, “We are too involved in materialistic
things and they do not satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the
universe around us, we take these things for granted”.
When Clayton Christensen (Innovation guru and author of
management bestsellers like “The Innovator’s Dilemma” and “The Innovator’s
Solution”) was asked last year to address the students of MBA in Harvard, he
ended his speech with the following :
“This past year I was diagnosed with cancer and faced the
possibility that my life would end sooner than I had planned. Thankfully, it
now looks as if I will be spared. But the experience has given me important
insight into my life. I have a pretty clear idea of how my ideas have
generated enormous revenue for the companies that have used my research; I
know I have had a substantial impact. But as I have confronted this disease,
it has been interesting to see how unimportant that impact is to me now. I
have concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life, isn’t dollars
but the individual people whose lives I have touched”.
Wise words indeed.
