The Purpose of Life - A Speech

Speech Transcript:

A doctor was asked the question – “Who are you? Are you aware of the purpose of your life?” he answered – “ yes, I am a doctor and the purpose of my life is to save lives”. The same question was asked to another doctor and he replied – “ I am a guardian of human soul and the purpose of my life is to ensure that every human soul gets the best out of the body they are in – who do you think is going to do a better job?- the first doctor or the second one. Yes, the second doctor because it is profound from the purpose of his life that medicine is not just a profession for him – it is a passion.

I believe every human is born with a purpose in life – and it is our responsibility to find out the purpose. I will share the responses I got when I asked my friends what is their purpose of life.

Vinay, a businessman said….Hey, Sandeep you know how much I used to love Neha, the purpose of my life was to marry her. I married her, and I am happy.

I replied – So, the purpose of your life is to keep Neha happy, right?

Vinay answered back agitatedly “of course, she is happy, I mean….I give her 10000 rupees every month for shopping”

Another friend of mine, Jyoti, a fashion designer said….that her purpose of life is to settle down in Canada.

Neeraj, an IT professional said that his purpose of life is to buy a swanky pent house in New York City and have the best wines.

Wow, what purposes….you might find it amusing but most us think the same way.

Now let me turn the question around and ask – what is that one work you can do for 16 hours a day constantly without getting tired? Or What is that one thing you BELIEVE in the most? I am sure the answers would be quite different.

There is a relation between the purpose of life and what you believe.

What you believe is what you do, and what you do is the purpose of your life.

Let me tell you a short story…..

In a remote village, a young man of 28 years was recovering from a major illness due to which he lost his memory. A sudden flood swept the village leaving hundreds of people marooned on trees and roof tops. A wise old man came up to the young man and said “son, you are an army officer and you are the only person who can save the villagers stuck in the flood, please help them.” The young man jumped into the menacing waves and saved hundreds of lives. Later he came to know that he was not an army officer but was a very good swimmer. The wise old man instilled belief in the young man and he played the role of an army officer. That’s what belief can do to you.

Now I will share my belief and my purpose of life - I believe that practicing creativity can improve the quality of human life. What are we doing here – we are all practicing creativity and it has a positive influence on everyone’s life over here. I believe that only by practicing creativity we can overcome all our negative thoughts. So, my purpose of life is to influence human development through creativity.

Do you have a purpose in life? If not, write down your belief first and then find out what all should you do to practice your belief. Then that becomes the purpose of your life.

Don’t worry if no one cares about your belief. No one cared about what Mary Kom believed in. No one cared about what the Noble Laureate Kailash Satyarthi believed in. But they practiced their belief, every day and that became the purpose of their life.

I am sure you will also identify your belief and define the purpose of your life.

What makes a Great Team

“What makes a great team?” - The question kept me thinking for several days. People never forget to talk about leadership, motivation and empowerment while defining a great team. Although these are essential ingredients which go into building a successful team but a different perspective goes into building a “great team”.

Henry ford said “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success”....... I just want to add one more perspective to it – “Thinking together is greatness”.

What I feel is that “A great leader may build a great team but a great team will always give a great leader”. Now some people might debate, which comes first – the leader or the team. Let’s look at an example:

The famous Orpheus Chamber Orchestra of New York City has won the heart and minds of millions by staging the greatest performances ever, but “without a leader”. The leadership roles are taken up by members in turns while the rest of the members “thinks together” and contributes to create the magic in their performances.

Photo credit - Scott Maxwell

“Leadership” is a “top heavy” word and clearly discriminates the leader from the rest of the team. Although the role of a leader in a team is non-negotiable, the spectrum of leadership which nourishes collective thinking only has the right to achieve sustainable greatness. Some leaders feel tempted to act intelligent to establish their supremacy but an effective leader creates a collective opinion by allowing everyone to contribute their ideas.

A successful organisation is the one which has more market share but sustainable greatness is achieved by organisations which invest more in training, development and R&D creating intellectual and proprietary capital.

A great team is actually a group of great leaders who exercise “thinking leadership” to leverage team’s thinking ability and create magical synergy.