Wise words, Eternal wisdom

The current issue of Reader's Digest has featured parts of an article from Business India titled 'The best advice I ever got'. A very intersting comment preceding the various gems of advice is about the sources of such advice "Culling the sources of advice, a startling fact: Behind every successful man is his father! "

Selecting two of these gems (out of dozens in BT or exactly a dozen in RD) could be due to mood of the moment or of the season. Here we go -

Anu Aga, 66, Director, Thermax
Invest in yourself
“From my mother, I learnt to be authentic and not to pretend, which came in handy when I took over as Chairperson after my husband’s (Thermax founder Rohinton Aga’s) demise. I didn’t know anything about the business and admitted as much to the senior management when I sought their help in running the company. My father advised me to invest in myself and to live within my means, which is a philosophy we follow at Thermax where we’d rather be understated than ostentatious. From my husband, I learnt not to be afraid and have meaningful relationships. I owe my involvement in Thermax’s CSR initiatives to my son Kurush’s (who died in an accident) advice. My daughter (Meher Pudumjee, Chairperson, Thermax) taught me to accept people for what they are, rather than try and mould them into what you want them to be.” (As told to Tejeesh N.S. Behl)

Nimesh Kampani, 61, Chairman & Managing Director, JM Financial

Never borrow for personal needs

“For me, it’s my self-consciousness and intuition that have been the guiding force. But I have inherited the value systems and principles from my parents. My father followed the golden principles—never borrow money for personal needs and don’t ever give guarantees. He would always say: ‘The repayment liabilities are yours. You can’t disown them. On the other side, the asset that you believe belongs to you, may or may not remain of that value always. So, the value of assets goes down but the liabilities stay with you. Live within your means.’ So, he would also explain to us by saying: ‘Liabilities are like taxi meters, which keep running 24 hours, even when you go off to sleep. The interest meter runs all the time. If you do business with your own money, you can withstand any bad time.’” (As told to Rachna Monga)