Let's not turn our back on nuclear energy.

Though it has quietened down now, everyday we were bombarded with inputs on India's nuclear power program and how risky it was to the Indian public.
I listened in on many talk shows where matters are discussed with more heat than light. With about 158 television news channels in the country broadcasters often sacrifice facts at the altar of extreme sensationalism.
I also received a barrage of emails from people asking me to send this or that petition to the Prime Minister of India against adopting nuclear power etc.

Most people live overworked lives. It is easy to be swept by the crowd and follow the seemingly general consensus on matters. I decided to step back and make an unbiased analysis which I share with you.

India is a nation in dynamic growth. It is likely to grow at approximately 8.5% to 9% this year. As a rapidly developing industrial nation India will need to generate huge additional amounts of energy to maintain that growth trajectory.

All is not well in the energy sector. Dominated by state owned enterprises and infrastructure both quantity and quality of electricity is in a sad state.
Electricity shortfall averages about 22% between generation and demand and the gap is widening by the day. India needs to get its power generation and energy requirements satisfactorily met.

Energy can come from a variety of sources, Oil, Coal, Gas, Hydro, Solar, wind, bio gas etc. Each energy source has some advantages and some disadvantages.

The coal based power plants spew out wide range of pollutants and add significantly to green house gasses which leads to global warming. In addition to this coal has small quantities of Mercury in them. By itself the content is small but with the large quantity used in Thermal power plants the contamination to the air, soil and water sources is significant. It is highly carcinogenic and is a highly potent but silent killer.

Oil fired plants have less discharge of suspended particles but generate equal or higher amounts of green house gases. Large amount of oil is imported and works against India's energy security interests. The oil based plants are expensive to operate and compromises India's strategic leverage by making us overly dependent on imported fuel.

These two fossil fuel based thermal power plants generate nearly 71% of India's power output.

Leaving aside the Chernobyl (formerly in the USSR)incident which resulted in 56 direct deaths and a large number of people affected along with flora and fauna there have been no other serious mishaps.

The famous three mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 in Pennsylvania ( USA) caused no loss to humans or animals or to the environment. Nevertheless it led to the nuclear industry being stopped dead in its tracks in the United States.

Paul Slovic an international authority on risk perception wrote in the prestigious journal 'Science' wrote abut how humans frame their assessment of danger. Normally the thought of a nuclear plant blows up creates images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki where nuclear weapons were used in warfare. The image is extremely horrifying and saddening.

Yet experts have determined that nuclear power plants are so much safer than everyday acts like driving, riding a motorcycle, drinking alcohol or smoking.
In terms of risk, Nuclear power is even less dangerous than riding a bicycle or walking in the streets of our towns and cities.

Like a train accident or an airplane crash, where large number of people die at one time compared to a handful of people in automobile crashes, nuclear plant failures are perceived incorrectly as extremely dangerous.

Drinking or driving or living close to towers with mobile phone transmitters are something people feel they can control. The public has little understanding or sense of control over nuclear power plants so they see them with great suspicion.

Politicians, the coal and oil lobbies, NGO's etc. all have their own agendas and they may not always be in favour of appropriate development. They have a vested interest in opposing the use of nuclear energy.

France generates 75% of its power from nuclear energy. using second and third generation technology without a serious mishap in the past 55 years. It has one of the lowest cost of power production in Europe and is a net energy exporter, in spite of having no natural energy sources of its own.

Nowadays the use of fourth generation nuclear power plants based on proven technologies like pebble-bed reactors are highly cost effective and extremely safe. The pebble bed reactor uses only 9% Uranium 235 and 91% Uranium 238 , it is impossible to use the fuel for making atomic bombs. In addition pebble-bed reactors are meltdown proof.

Nuclear plants built as per second generation design are comparatively extremely expensive , but fourth generation plants are quite economical. With India's strong engineering capability coupled with its ability to bring down costs to fraction of what it costs in Japan, Europe or America, it is a good and viable option. (An analogy can be drawn from the fact that designing and developing a new car in India costs about a tenth to an eighth of what it costs company in developed economies.)

Nuclear power does not generate green house gases nor other toxic products in large quantities.

Managing disposal of large spent fuel rods in deep underground storage is a nightmare. However fourth generation pebble-bed fuel is encased in thick silicon carbide shells which will be able to prevent leaching or leaking of uranium for more than a million years. Thus making them incomparably much safer than everyday things like driving a car.

It is high time we look at environmental issues, national and strategic issues and take decisions in a rational manner rather than become one in the frenzied crowd.

India should adopt nuclear power to offer a better quality of life.

UP, an amazing word.

Think about it. UP This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP' It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

We have to show UP for a meeting, where a topic comes UP?
We are required to be UP front about what we want. When you can't convince people you give UP.

Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car.

At other times this little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is clogged UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. The more you look UP, the more definitions will be thrown UP.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, the earth soaks it UP. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now ........my time is UP !

Oh....one more thing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night? U- P !

Did that one crack you UP?

Don't screw UP. Send this on to everyone you look UP in your address book..or not...it's UP to you. Don't forget when your angry at someone it's UP Something !!!

If I want to get anything else done today I better shut UP.

Our thanks to Mr. Kumta for this contribution

Akbar the Moghul Emperor was actually poor

Emperor Akbar (1542 to 1605) is acclaimed to be one of India's wealthiest Mogul emperors.  Was he really that rich? An interesting incident and the emperor's own comments will let you decide.

During the reign of Akbar there also lived a Baba ji, a 'Pir'. In the Sufi path, Pir literally meaning 'old man' is a saint, whose role is to guide and provide spiritual guidance to his disciples.

Many Babas  in India are revered by Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims. Notable Babaji's like Farid ji's teachings are enshrined as one of the fifteen 'Bhagats' (Devotees) within Sikhism and his selected works form part of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh sacred scripture

Wise emperors often seek spiritual guidance, and so did Akbar. He sometimes visited a certain Baba at his village to seek spiritual guidance.

One day the villagers where Baba ji stayed , asked a favour of him.
They said " Baba ji, the emperor visits you so often can you do us poor villagers a great favour?". "The village has no school nor any in the near vicinity, can you ask the Shehan Shah to build us a school?"

Baba ji agreed that he would ask the favour of the emperor on Akbar's next visit to him.
Then he thought for a while and said "This is a noble work, let me not delay it. I myself will travel to Akbar's palace and meet him."

When Baba ji, arrived at Akbar's palace the guards recognised him as he walked up to the palace gates.
They informed him that the emperor had gone to offer his prayers at his private mosque.

Baba ji, walked up the mosque and stood behind the emperor. The prayers were almost complete and Akbar made his ‘fariyad’ (cry for help) God, "Allah!, great, and merciful, give me more power, expand my kingdom's borders and give me more wealth"

On hearing his prayer Baba ji, turned around and immediately left the mosque.

Since it was at the end of his prayer Akbar had sensed that someone had been present behind him. He turned around when he had finished his prayers and saw Baba ji heading towards the palace gate. 

Akbar hurried to Baba ji, bowed to him and asked " Welcome Baba. why have you come and why are you leaving?"

Baba looked at Akbar and said " I came here because I thought you to be rich. I came here to ask you for money to build a school in the village."

He continued " I heard your prayers and realised that you are poor for you are still hungry. It is against my beliefs to ask anything from a poor man."

" Do not worry, I will go to the village and collect some money for you", concluded Baba ji and he strode away.

This incident was not known to anyone except Akbar and Baba ji. It came to light when it was narrated by the emperor himself in '_Akbarnama_' the biography of Akbar He wrote, "On that day I realised how empty and useless I was. I had wasted my whole life in pursuing and acquiring useless things."

Akbar was a benevolent ruler who cared for all his subjects. Yet this incident was a further pivotal point in Akbar's life, for he realised for the first time in his life, that though he had great wealth, he was in fact a poor man.

He is rich who is. He who remains unfulfilled, hungry and thirsty, desiring more and more things, wealth and power is poor.

I am not that young to know everything

After emigrating from Burma in 1964 our parents set up home in Bombay.

Even then, there was a severe shortage of good schools. So two of my brothers and I were sent to beautiful Pune to spend most of our schooling years as boarders at The Bishops School.

In 1969 my uncle Sardar Manohar Singh ji moved to Pune to start a factory to manufacture automotive and engineering components. In 1972, upon Uncle's insistence, my brother Parvinder and I left the hostel to stay with him and our two aunts Prem Kaur ji and Rajbans Kaur ji.

Being a day scholar was great in many ways, meeting girls, the freedom from the boarding school regimen and of course the food. I however missed my boarding school friends for the mischief and the games etc.

Everything always turns out for the better for I had the opportunity to have two sets of parents.

My uncle was my dad's business partner and also head of the family. He was, and remains my idol. Uncle Manohar ji seemed to have answers to nearly every question that my chattering mind could think of. Having no children of their own, our uncle and aunts pampered us while maintaining a strict sense of discipline and protocol.

He took us swimming, golfing, yachting , gliding, aero modelling, tennis. Even at that tender age he taught both of us brothers all sorts of technical stuff, and many holidays and weekends were spent doing various assignments at the factory. My uncle was a tough father figure, yet he was a great teacher and also my best friend.

From him I learnt how to rely on myself by continuously discovering and improving myself. I learnt about commitment, integrity, love, friendship, play, survival, and to be the best I could be.

Uncle Manohar ji and my father had formal schooling only till the fourth grade. They had no choice, outbreak of hostilities of the second world war Burma disrupted many lives.. Yet the two brothers educated themselves by reading voraciously, they learnt to speak impeccable English, developed into successful businessmen and industrialists. They travelled the world, and contributed both their time and their money to society in numerous ways.

I was amazed at how my dad and uncle could hold interesting conversations with people of all walks of life. When I asked him how that was possible Uncle said; "A well educated person should know something about everything and everything about something", this was a belief that shaped my outlook on life.

I was and still remain in awe of my uncle. Numerous days and evenings were spent with him, observing him and hearing stories, legends, facts, beliefs, that gradually shaped my mind and values. He often told me no matter how successful or big your parents become, you must make your own mark. Do not rest until you have achieved something.


Uncle Manohar ji was a good teacher and lit a flame in me.
For a long time I would lap up whatever uncle Manohar told me.
Then as I grew into a young man I naturally thirsted for independence. Independence to try my ideas, to live my life as I often dreamed of. so I began to probe further. In time this led to more discussions and then finally to debates. Though always obedient and respectful I started presenting my viewpoints to my uncle with more conviction and force.

Herein lies the contradiction; parents want their children to rise and shine but always want to keep them sheltered under their wings. We frequently forget as Khalil Gibran the great Lebanese Poet said; " Your children may come from you, but they belong not to you".

When the discussions turn into debates it is a frustrating time for both children and parents. The parents find it difficult to accept the new and assertive child. Gurvinder now has ideas of his own and articulates them with greater conviction. On the other hand young people can't understand why their parents are so rigid, inflexible, and overprotective.

This sparring went on for a few months until one evening in the midst of a debate my uncle with resignation said; "You are right, you are absolutely right."
I was stunned. My very wise uncle, intensely competitive was anything but a pushover and here he merely conceded that I was right. I heard him repeat himself and then he smiled.
"When I was your age even I knew everything. Now I am 52 years old and I now realise how little I know." He continued "This is not your fault , it is the nature of youth, for it so fills you with optimism, vigour and supreme confidence".

My sons have recently joined the family business and we all work together. We have numerous debates sometimes silly and quite fruitless. The conflicts are mainly on the wisdom and caution of aging parents versus the dynamism and eternal optimism of youth.

Though we always come to an agreement this consumes much energy , but I like to believe it's a useful investment of energy. Youth should constantly test themselves and challenge the status quo. We elders and parents may not always feel comfortable with it but this is the way it has been and this is how it will always be.

It is not easy and pretty challenging but I always try to remember Uncle Manohar ji's wise words. It is difficult to appreciate the impetus that youthful members bring to the team. After all who wants to be jolted? Revolutionary thinking, techniques, technology, and materials coupled with enormous drive, and confidence can be a boon to families and organisation if harnessed well. I often move from doing to letting them do but to a plan which they submit and review and support them continuously.

On the other hand, youth if unguided can run amok. If over controlled will either rebel or lose all initiative and that would be a tragic loss of youthful zeal.

If left to their own devices they can easily destroy years of achievements and hard earned reputation very rapidly.

I know that knowledge is getting obsolete rapidly and therefore 'learning to learn' has been a guiding philosophy. At least two hours a day are spent on learning and keeping abreast of all kinds of developments.

It helps that I sharpen my mind constantly, but what to do with this middle aged heart which does not beat so strongly as before?

Foot in Mouth Disease?

My friend Seema calls me an expert. My chest always puffed up with pride, until one day she shared with me her definition of an 'expert'.
An expert is someone who is never in doubt but frequently in error!!

I realised a little late in the day that she was merely being polite for an ailment which can be labelled as 'foot in mouth' disease.

Upon this great realisation, I was curious to determine if I belonged to a small group or a larger community that had been afflicted with this malady. I am glad to inform you that this problem is quite common but lays dormant until triggered by any of the following phenomena;

A powerful trigger for turning into an expert is to get elected to office. Does not matter which office, any office will do. Even getting elected to the management committee of a housing society or your local club will bestow upon you the crown of all knowledge.

Some acquire money, some are born with it, and some have it thrust upon them. Wealth thrusts people into the world of experts. It does not matter whether it was plundered , earned, or acquired in the old fashioned way, that is to inherit it, the person is instantly transformed into an expert.

The third way to become an expert is to become the boss of some poor creatures at work. The boss knows everything.

The fastest and most certain way to gain expertise is of course to get married. You will immediately acquire an expert. Whether this makes your life better is questionable, but it will certainly make it interesting, at least for a while.

Last but no less powerful and all pervasive mother of all expert sources is to become a parent. No one knows better than a parent. As the quote goes "You may fool some people all the time, you may fool all the people some of the time but you can never fool Mom." Parents apparently wear the crown of all knowledge.

Before you begin to feel sorry for all these different types of experts and the great burden they have to bear in the upliftment of mere mortals you may want to review the mumblings or should I say bumblings of some other great experts;

• We don't need you. You haven't got through college yet. -
  Hewlett Packard excuse to Steve Jobs, who founded Apple Computers instead.


• I think there's a world market for about maybe five computers. -
  Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM


• Everything that can be invented has been invented.
  Charles H. Duell, Office of Patents, 1899


• 640K memory for a computer ought to be enough for anybody -
  Bill Gates, Microsoft, 1981


• There will never be a bigger plane built. - A Boeing Engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that carried ten people.


• Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value. -
  Marechal Ferdinand, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.


• We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out. -
  Decca Executive, 1962, after turning down the Beatles


• There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. -
  Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977


• This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. - Western Union, memo, 1876


• No imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?
  David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urging investment in the radio in the 1920's


• Who wants to hear actors talk? -
  H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927


• While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility. -
  Lee DeForest, inventor


• Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax.
  Lord Kelvin English scientist, 1899 ( William Thomson)

I thought they were poor.

6th December 1993. It was my noble Father in law Major Mohinder Singh ji's 7th death anniversary. 

Mohini, my gentle hearted wife wanted to do something thoughtful as a tribute to her father. We agreed that it would be nice to provide warm shawls to the poor. So we bought a 100 woolen shawls and distributed some to the cook, maid chauffeur and the watchmen and some underprivileged people in the immediate neighbourhood. 

The problem with the Sikh people is they are a hardworking and therefore a prosperous community.  We therefore had no clue where we would find poor people in Pune so we decided to drive around at night and find homeless people and gift them the remaining 85 shawls. Better still we would take our young sons Mohit (10) and Pavit (8) to accompany us to learn about charity.

We were amazed that we could not find any homeless person. Damn! You can't find beggars when you want them. After about 20 min of cruising around in the cold we eventually saw a man sitting cross legged under a tree wearing only a loin cloth.

Mohini asked the boys to gift the shawls with their own hands. So the boys eagerly grabbed one shawl and ran up to him and said "Namaste! it is very cold, we would like you to have this shawl to keep you warm." The boys were shocked when the man snatched the shawl and flung it in the other direction. He scowled at the boys and they fled back to the car.

We drove towards the railway station, there would certainly be some poor people there. After about half an hour, we finally spotted a man sitting on the pavement with two medium sized plastic shopping bags. He appeared lost in thought. Our sons cautiously walked up to him and handed him a shawl.

He was taken aback. He returned the shawl saying, "I don't need this shawl." The boys pressed him to keep it saying that "Don't worry you don't have to pay for it. It's a gift and it will keep you warm during these cold winter nights."

He replied in a strange tone, "I am already struggling to cope with so many possessions" and he pointed to the two plastic bags. "Please take your shawl back as I have no place to keep it. Thank you for your kindness but I am quite comfortable."

Confused and dejected the boys returned back to the car. They refused to proceed with the charity effort that night.

Mohit said "Really strange, we thought these guys were poor, but they behave like they are very wealthy,  mom do you think they are crazy? He is content with his meagre possessions and no roof over his head." He asked "Dad, mom, how can that be possible?"

We had no answer as we drove back home silently, each of us lost in our thoughts, mulling over what had just transpired. It has been 22 years since that incident but none of us speaks about charity in the same arrogant patronising manner anymore. Much, much later we finally came to realise the meaning of that evening.

• The rich are not those who have much but those that have stopped desiring more.
• By accepting the donation the recipient defines the donor.                                                        

The next day we handed the remaining shawls to the Gurudwara* for distribution to the needy.

 __________________________________

A Gurudwara - is a place of congregation for Sikhs to hold religious discourses. They also feed the needy.

Win the argument but pay the price

Human behaviour is often strange and inexplicable.

We are always running away from the truth and often damaging what is precious to us. We wait for people to die before we say something nice about them. Conversely we would be prepared to die before we could bear to hear something bad about ourselves.

I ask myself, why can't we appreciate the good in others, and also recognise and accept that which is not so nice within ourselves?

I do not know what changes occur in the minds and hearts of other people, but over time I have been transformed, after coming to understand myself somewhat better. This understanding gave me an insight into many of my own deficiencies. One particularly painful realisation was my own conduct and how it caused unhappiness. Maybe it even set the stage for my separation from my brothers, who were also my colleagues and partners in our family business.

In the course of my work I see this tragedy unfold repeatedly and surprisingly quite often in organisations and families. I share this with you because I hope my experience can still stop some of you from you poisoning your relationships with people you care about or should care about.

Most people study academic stuff like history, geography, languages, science, etc; no doubt all this learning is important. However it is crucial to learn how to manage yourself and your relationships. If we can learn to manage this aspect we shall always be respected, loved, cherished and even forgiven our follies.

We are hostages of our character. We react instinctively and often unconsciously. Ingrained nature is easier to manage than changing it. Awareness of our personality traits facilitates the management of our own personalities in a manner of our choosing. With luck, feedback from true friends and guidance from teachers it is even possible to transform ourselves so that we can not only preserve but enrich our relationships.

I should know for I am now 53 years of age and whenever I let my awareness levels drop, I lapse into silly behavioural mistakes. Changing hopefully for the better each passing day I am less offensive, make less of these mistakes and the damage I cause is smaller.

For a long time, my best friends were my brothers, sadly we have now become strangers to one another. We have drifted apart and fallen into black holes from which no feelings can ever emerge.

The love we had has turned not into hate, but something more ugly, indifference. How did this come to pass? This is a confession on my contribution to this sad state of affairs.

Being honest is important, but if your straight forwardness causes unnecessary anguish, by being dismissive, demeaning or disrespectful then it is never positive and always counter productive.

It is often prudent to keep quiet and always important to choose your words carefully. Regrettably I have often paid a high price for how I have communicated in the past. Being sensitive about other people's feelings and opinions is a key to success.

I was very good at my work and what I did. This made me arrogant. I had come to completely dominate the area of the organisation's operations for which I was responsible. Therefore in my areas of responsibility I was often dismissive of the opinion of the most important of my colleagues, my brothers.

I expected people who loved and respected each other would have blind faith and overlook my faults and stupidities as I did theirs. I believed I would not only be forgiven but be respected for being brutally frank. Unfortunately in my experience this is not the case. Not everyone loves to debate, or approach matters in a clinically logical manner.

I have learnt, never ever take anyone for granted. No one likes being taken for granted. Sure you may be family, friends or colleagues, you still can't permit your tongue to speak independent of your mind. Your heart may be pure but your behaviour and your words speak their own language because. The interpretation and meaning of our words and actions lie with the listener and observer and not the initiator.

Take for example my eldest brother Varinder who was responsible for commercial matters; he would often made suggestions on technical matters which was my area of responsibility. I must have hurt him too many times by simply reactively rejecting his ideas almost immediately. Sure, I was right on the merits of the case most of the time but my delivery of this communication was rude, and insensitive.

He would not give up and I would not change. After several years and over discussions with my human resources mentor Mr. Nana Shaney, I came to understand some of my bad traits. I tried to change and soon saw dramatic improvement in my interpersonal relationships with my brothers and father.

Initially I would react without hesitation, that was a dangerous and terrible manner.

As a student of the Western school of management thought, I did not believe in pussy footing around, I go straight for the jugular of the problem. However this approach is rarely good for Eastern and Indian culture, where we are expected to be more tactful. Here disagreements are often misunderstood as disrespect.

Where ever I have consulted working with two different generations of owners or management I have observed this problem and the chasm it creates. Younger Indians are increasingly influenced by Western thought and conduct at the workplace, but retain Indian mores and values learnt at home and in society. Couple family and business involve two or three generations into the workplace in a fast changing world and it is like walking in a minefield.


After many unpleasant incidents and almost tearing our team apart I learnt to be more sensitive. I would listen and not react. I would try and think about what was suggested and in some cases the ideas were pretty good. In many cases the ideas were either irrelevant or impractical. In such cases I would probe further for details on the idea and on further discussion we would conclude that the idea was not worth pursuing. By engaging my team members rather than opposing or dismissing them I became more effective. I learnt to respond rather than react. I did not have to debate or argue or scream and yet we were a more solid team.

I too suffer from what seems to be a national trait, we Indians are very bad listeners. I missed important cues and feedback and continued like the bull in the china shop.

I frustrated many team members because of my intense focus on planning, detailing and reviewing. I believe it is essential that all arguments, debates & brain storming be exhausted before we commit ourselves and resources to any endeavour. Good management is reflected in near flawless execution of plans and rarely having to rework targets, decisions or actions. This makes sure that a minimum of resources and time is actually used for any project or assignment.

At our top level meetings I would insist on a debate to cover all possible angles and options in our strategy formulation and planning processes. I thought my contribution was essential and positive, but by others I was sometimes perceived as argumentative, obstructionist and a general pain in the butt. Yet what I misunderstood as lack of belief in planning and detailing was really a resistance to my communication manner rather than to plans and actions. However since I was the guy who had to actually deliver the results I was often tolerated.

Perfectionists are an irritating lot. We may respect them but it is not easy to like them. I was one of them people who wanted to dot all i's and cross all t's.

I embraced ideas from my staff and subordinates more readily than I did those of my brothers and board members. I was a very good leader but a lousy team player.

In a team your proving that you are right is secondary to keeping the team united both in purpose and strategy. Ego gives birth to loneliness.

My brothers appreciated my viewpoint and approach, they simply could not tolerate the personal behaviour of mine. They liked the message but resisted the messenger. In spite of the negative dynamics we achieved great success but could have been still greater had we learnt better the art of carrying other brothers with them.

I sometimes wonder, maybe we would have overcome the storm that engulfed and eventually destroyed our organisation had each of us been wiser as individuals, as a team and as brothers.

Every argument or debate I won made me more difficult a person. I grew more powerful but the team grew weaker.

I make no apologies for the professional success we achieved but I do feel sad for the personal failures that I paid for in achieving that success. I realised a little late in the day that the same results could have been achieved, and so much anguish and pain could have been avoided had I not been, so combative, arrogant and chosen my words well.

I share these experiences because it is I pray that others do not make the same mistake professionally, or with their family and friends.