Note From President Vineet Bhatnagar

Life is beautiful because of the people we meet, and not because of the things we own, see or do. Human beings are at their finest when they help each other. It’s the way to build trust and with that trust you can create communities and businesses and help the human race progress.

Trust is a feeling that you experience and it is not a checklist. Many of us have friends who could be total screw-ups but we trust them with our lives. We need trust and not just reliability. When we are surrounded by people who believe what we believe, trust starts to emerge. And when there is trust, we are willing to do more. We are willing to experiment, explore and take risks. Because we know that if we fail and trip over, there are others in our family or friends or communities who will pick us up. And this lets humanity progress.

We are not good by ourselves but as a group we can do remarkable things. We don’t need to address our individual weaknesses; we need to amplify our collective strengths. And it is not even based on your skills, application and experience but more importantly on what you believe and whether others in your group relate to the same belief. It is not about having complementary strengths within a set of people that is the recipe for extraordinary outcomes. But it is about whether people in your group share your beliefs, your values and common view of the world. This also does not mean that there are no arguments or differences. That is all OK as this is diversity and helps in problem solving (as there could be different ways to approach a challenge and come up with possible solutions) but a shared value system gives us the reason to trust each other.

So the central question is what creates that sense of values and beliefs? What creates that feeling of trust? It is our basic human instinct.

WE ARE GIFTED TO FIND PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN WHAT WE BELIEVE. WE STRIKE UP CONVERSATIONS AND HAVE A WAY TO JUDGE WHETHER WE HAVE A GOOD OR NOT-SO-GOOD FEELING ABOUT PEOPLE.

We can feel a certain type of chemistry (whatever that means) with some people and nothing with others. Sometimes it is quick and at times it is slow. But we know how to do it. It is called making friends, dating, networking etc. We have an innate ability to do it. As a social animal our survival depends on it. The problem is that this is not scalable. And that is why we need communities of like-minded people with similar vision of things or issues so as to make a meaningful difference.

Every decision that we make as individuals or as an organisation is a way of communicating who we are and what we believe in. This is why authenticity matters. We must all say or do things that we believe in. We send out signals when we say or act and that is what is captured by others. If we say or do things that we do not believe in then we will attract people who are reading these (false) symbols. And soon you will find yourself in a wrong group and clearly you will not be able to form trust with such a group.

WHEN YOU FIND PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN THE SAME THINGS THAT YOU BELIEVE IN THEN THERE IS A STRONG BOND THAT GETS FORMED. OUR VERY SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON FINDING SUCH PEOPLE AND GROUP(S).

The more you can give of yourself and the more you can clearly spell out (without faking) what you like and what you believe in, strange things start to happen. You find people who have similar beliefs and then trust gets established. And this trust is the foundation to forge great human relationships. The best part is that when push comes to shove these are the people who will put themselves out to watch for you. And you will do the same for them, right? Such bonds get formed not necessarily with blood relations but sometimes with complete strangers. Because we see a bit of ourselves in them. This is the bond which takes us from being happy about our own achievements to feeling good about ourselves when we do things for someone else. Happiness versus fulfillment.

— President Vineet Bhatnagar