I think that I am again bothering my dear students with my small write-up. But, as I strongly believe that the youth are going to change this country and going to take-part in making this country a super power soon, I wanted to tell my students to be undeterred in your chosen path though the life is not fair always and though your good work may not be rewarded instantly. There will be a complete change of environment around you when you are a student and the environment when you complete your course and enter into profession in one way or other. When you are a student, all your good work and hard-work may instantly get appreciated, but, it may not be so when you enter the profession. Many may say that experience teach you a lot in life and profession. But, considering the standards today, I believe that my dear students can experience things through imagination without actually being experienced. For example, if you are reading an autobiography written by Dr.Abdul Kalam with sheer interest, then, you will definitely be getting experienced with the things not seen. Many students pursuing course like CA and CS are very young and they will know about the society when they actually complete their course and enter into profession. Time is very valuable today and you need to learn or absorb everything you can within the shortest possible time, and then only, you will be able to withstand the competition and emerge as a successful person ultimately.
You may be sincere, brilliant, committed and loyal, but, still you may be bullied by the management or the colleagues around you when you enter the profession. You must know as to how to handle this, as otherwise, that may cost you a lot really. There can be many problems in your way in profession or the chosen path when you complete the course. Completing the course is itself is not a success in my opinion, though it becomes a substantial part in your success in life. All my dear students should go a very long way in life and need to do many big things setting an example to your next generation. With my personal experience, I will tell you that you will be seeing a different kind of atmosphere around you when you enter the profession or work somewhere after you complete the course. The professionals with stagnated mind and without much concentration on further and further growth may not face any difficulties in profession, but, the professionals who want to grow and grow constantly, will definitely face numerous problems in your path. You must learn as to how to control your temperament. You may have to be patient at times despite the unwarranted trauma. You may have to take quick decisions at times despite all the criticism. The ability to control your temperament and ability to take quick and courageous decisions based on strong introspection will draw a line between your success and failure in life.
You may definitely not be able to understand the logic of the peoples behavior when you enter the profession or when you join the work after completing the course. An inefficient may get rewarded while the efficient is discouraged by the management at times. The management may have a justification for all their actions and there are different strategies in every organization. For example, I have studied that there is a management strategy to keep the people who work for you confused and disturbed always. Strategies may differ and you may even be lucky enough to see all the good people in your chosen path. But, I am sure on thing that a person with no legacy and with so much enthusiasm and goal oriented-mind faces so much problems in any profession or work. I want my dear students to be aware of this and be aware also that the life is not going to be fair always. Many successful people in this world waited so many years while some succeeded in a short time. The ability to be patient at times and the ability to be motivated always despite the problems determines your success in profession or your work. Nobody will teach you these issues and normally these issues are learned by experience only. I too have faced so many problems in my profession or work, and I could not understand as to where the problem lies. But, only after reading the biographies of successful personalities, I came to know as to how to handle the people in this society and also about the society. It is a constant learning process. This helped me to handle the unreasonable people in this society in a better way. Its also true that there are exceptional people in this society who can help you as you deserve and to the extent possible.
While your good work will get appreciated when you are a student, your good work may not be appreciated by the people concerned when you enter the profession or work, or try to travel in an explored path. There will be many people around you who tries to oppress you and create problems, you need to face them and you can not avoid them. You must know as to how handle the bad people or unreasonable people in this society. You can not do anything about the prejudices in the society, but, you must know as to how to handle them. Look any successful persons life in the society, they will tell about many bad people they had to see in their life and also the difficulties. Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam has referred this in his book wings of fire, Sir Sorabji had to face this, Steve Jobs had to face this and many successful people had faced the prejudices in this society. If you wait to actually get experience the things, then, it may consume your valuable time in life and leads to lot of diversion hampering your growth. That is why, in this competitive world, it is imperative to experience the things not seen through imagination.
I would like to
give you a brief about the very successful personality Lee Iacocca, former Chairman
of Chrysler, a motor company in America.
If possible, I would advice
my students to read the biography of Lee Iacocca as you spend your time at times
on reading novels and other things. You will enjoy reading the book and it
is a true story and an interesting life to read. The brief about Lee Iacocca is
as follows:
- Nicola Iacocca, the father of Lee Iacocca had arrived from Italy in United States of America in 1902.
- Lee Iacoccas parents always felt that their children are important and special despite their busy schedules.
- Lee Iacocca was born on October, 15, 1924.
- Lee Iacocca describes about his familys economic conditions when he was a child as follows:
Economically, our family had its ups and downs. Like many Americans, we did well during the 1920s. My father started making lots of money in real estate, in addition to his other businesses. For a few years, we were actually wealthy. But, then, came the Depression.
No one whos lived through it can ever forget. My father lost all his money and we almost lost our house. I remember asking my sister who was a couple of years older, whether wed have to move out and how wed find somewhere else to live. I was only six or seven at the time, but the anxiety I felt about the future is still vivid in my mind. Bad times are indelible. They stay with you forever.
(page 7 of Lee Iacoccas biography)
- Lee Iacocca has explained about the spirituality professed by him and his family when he was a child as follows:
Like many families in those days, our strong belief in God sustained us. We seemed to pray an awful lot. I had to go to Mass every Sunday and take holy Communion every week or two. It took me a number years to fully understand why I had to make a good confession to a priest before I went to Holy Communion, but in my teens I began to appreciate the importance of this most misunderstood rite of the Catholic Church. I not only had to think out my transgressions against my friends; I had to speak them aloud. In later years, I found myself completely refreshed after confession. I even began to attend weekend retreats, where the Jesus, in face-to-face examinations of conscience, made me come to grips with how I was conducting my life.
The necessity of weighing right from wrong on a regular basis turned out to be the best therapy I ever had. (8 of Lee Iacoccas biography)
- The difficulties in his family during depression and his fathers lesson about maintaining good credit rating is explained in the book as follows:
More than once during the Depression, my fathers checks were returned to him with that deathless line: Insufficient Funds. This would always throw him for a loop, because he felt a good credit rating was vital to the integrity of an individual or a business. He constantly preached his gospel of fiscal responsibility to Delma and me, urging us never spend more money than we took in. He believed credit was insidious. Nobody in our family was allowed to have a credit card or to charge anything-ever!
If you borrow
anything, he used to tell me, even twenty cents from a kind at school, be sure
to write it down so you wont forget to pay it back. I often wonder how he would
have reacted if hed lived long enough to see me go into hock in 1981 to keep the
Chrysler Corporation in business. This one was for a lot more than twenty cents:
the total came to $1.2 billion. Although I recalled my fathers advice, I had a
funny feeling that this was one loan Id remember even without writing it down.
(Page 9 and 10 of the Book)
- Lee Iacocca tells about his fathers words that if he is bigger than you are, dont fight back. Use your head instead of your fists. (page 13 of the Book)
- Lee Iacocca has explained about his school experience in his book as follows:
In every other respect, however, school was a very happy place for me. I was a diligent student. I was also a favorite of many of my teachers, who were always singling me out to clap the erasers or wash the blackboards or ring the school bells. If you ask me the names of my professors in college or graduate school, Id have trouble coming up with more than three or four. But, I still remember the teachers who molded me in elementary and high school.
The most important thing I learned in school was how to communicate. Miss Raber, our ninth-grade teacher, had us turn in a theme paper of five hundred words every Monday morning. Week in and week out, we had to write that damn paper. By the end of the year, we had learned how to express ourselves in writing. (page 16 of the Book)
- Lee Iacocca emphasizes the importance of learning fundamentals in school as follows:
By the time I was ready for college, I had a solid back-ground in the fundamentals: reading, writing, and-public speaking. With good teachers and the ability to concentrate, you can go pretty far with these skills.
Years later, when my kinds asked me what courses to take, my advice as always to get a good liberal arts education. Although Im a great believer in the importance of learning from history, I really didnt care if they mastered all the dates and places of the Civil War. The key is to get a solid grounding in reading and writing. (page 18 of the Book)
- Lee Iacocca has studied engineering and business courses, and also four years of psychology and abnormal psychology at Ligh.
- In August, 1946, Lee began working at Ford as a student engineer.
- Lee Iococca wanted to work in Ford, but, not in engineering. His thoughts, as explained, are as follows:
I wanted to stay at Ford, but not in engineering. I was eager to be where the real action was marketing or sales. I liked working with people more than machines. Naturally, my supervisors in the program were not amused. After all, the company had hired me out of engineering school and had invested all this time and money in my training. And, now I wanted to be in sales. (at page 33 of the Book)
- Lee Iacocca tells us about committing mistakes in life, in his book, as follows:
Mistakes are a part of life; you cant avoid them. All you can hope is that they wont be too expensive and that you dont make the same mistake twice. (page 34 of the Book)
- Lee Iacocca has finally works at the lowest level in Ford as sales men and in 1949, he became a zonal manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
- Lee Iacocca shares his experience of demotion at Ford initially while working as Zonal Manager as follows:
After a few good years in Chester, I suffered an unexpected setback. There was a mild recession in the early 1950s, and Ford decided to cut back drastically. One third of the sales force was fired including some of my best buddies. I guess I was lucky to escape with only a demotion, but I certainly didnt feel lucky. For a while I was pretty miserable. That was when I started thinking about the food business.
But if you really believe in what youare doing, youve got to preserve even when you run into obstacles. When I finished sulking, I doubled my efforts and worked even harder. In a few months, I had my old job back. Setbacks are a natural part of life, and youve got to be careful how you respond to them. If I had sulked too long., I probably would have got myself fired. (at page 40 of the Book).
- By 1953, Lee Iacocca worked his way to become an assistant sales manager of the Philadelphia district.
- Gradually, Lee Iacocca had become a district manager of Washington, D.C and he shares his experience as follows:
And so, after ten years of preparation, I became an overnight success. Suddenly I was known and even talked about in national headquarters. I had toiled in the pits for a good decade, but now I had a big break. My future suddenly looked a lot brighter. As a reward, I was promoted to district manager of Washington, D.C. (at page 42 of the Book)
- On September, 29, 1956, Lee Iacocca got married in Chester at St.Roberts Catholic Church.
- Lee Iacocca emphasizes on the need of acting quick and taking risk and the statement is as follows:
There will always be those who will want to take an extra month or two to do further research on the shape of the roof on a new car. While that research may be helpful, it can wreak havoc on your production plans. After a certain point, when most of the relevant facts are in, you find yourself at the merely of the law of diminishing returns.
Thats why a certain amount of risk-taking is essential. I realize its not for everybody. There are some people who wont leave home in the morning without an umbrella even if the sun is shining. Unfortunately, the world doesnt always wait for you while you try to anticipate your losses. Some times you just have to take a chance and correct your mistakes as you go along.
- In 1965, step-by-step, Lee Iacocca had become the vice-president of corporate car and truck group at Ford. He explains the happiest moments as follows:
The success of the Mustang was apparent so quickly that even before its first birth day, I was given a major promotion. In January 1965, I became vice-president of the corporate car and truck group. I was now in charge of the planning, production, and marketing of all cars and trucks in both the Ford and Lincoln-Mercury Divisions.
My new office was in Glass House, which is how everybody at Ford referred to World Headquarters. I was finally one of the big boys, part of that select group of officers who ate lunch every day with Henry Ford. Until now, as far as I was concerned, Henry had simply been the top boss. Suddenly, I was seeing him almost everyday. Not only was I part of the rare fled atmosphere of top management, but I was also the new kind on the block, the young comer who was responsible for Mustang.
- By 1968, Lee Iacocca was the odds on favorite to become the next president of the Ford Motor Company. He becomes president and had to face all the obstacles from then.
- From here, Lee Iacocca had to face many obstacles from the top management and finally, without assigning any tangible reason, Lee Iacocca was fired from his post. The experience of being fired, in his own words, as follows:
Leaving the office that afternoon, I felt a great sense of relief. Thank God the bullshit is over, I said to myself in the car. If I had to get fired, at least my timing was good. We had just finished the best six months in our history.
When I got home, I received a call from Lia, my younger daughter, who was at tennis camp-her first time away from home. She had heard about the firing on the radio, and she was in tears.
When I took back on that awful week, what I remember most clearly is Lia crying on the telephone. I hate Henry for what he did to me. But I hate him even more for the way he did it. There had been no opportunity to sit down and talk to my kinds before the whole world knew. Ill never forgive him for that.
- After getting fired from Ford, in dramatic turn of events, Lee Iacocca joins Chrysler, another automaker company which was literally in bankrupt. Lee joins Chrysler and slowly makes it as the second largest motor company during his tenure.
Its wonderful to read the biography of Lee Iacocca and it teaches everyone as to the realities in life and as to how to move head despite all the obstacles. The life story of Lee Iacocca or the prejudices he faced at Ford can not be easily explained in this brief. I would request the students to read the Biography of Lee Iacocca, and you will definitely get benefited. Reading Lee Iacoccas biography will definitely be interesting and you will certainly enjoy.
I thought that
I am providing useful information to my dear students and young professions while
I write his small brief. Many professionals are writing on subject issues and its
always technical and you will be reading those while you pursue your course and
thats why I am not writing these days on technical issues, but, I will write soon.
Thank you. All the best for everybody.
CAclubindia
