Dear Friends and Students,
On Monday, July 2, 2024, for the first time, the
former chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp. became wealthier than the
company’s co-founder. Steve Ballmer surpassed Bill Gates to become the
sixth-richest person in the world. Ballmer's net worth reached $157.2
billion. He is now richer than many well-known tech entrepreneurs, including
Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and Dell
Technologies CEO Michael Dell. Steve Ballmer didn’t get a single company share
when he joined Microsoft.
I was fortunate to meet Steve Ballmer in 2009 at a
Microsoft meeting. I thank Wipro for
nominating me for this prestigious event. More than that, I am extremely
fortunate and thank Microsoft for giving me the chance to ask a question to
Steve Ballmer, which was aired on YouTube. Please watch this before reading
this story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUoGKtZwxsI).
My question to Ballmer was, “Being a successful
leader and also running a successful company, in your view, do organizations
with socially meaningful missions build leaders or do leaders build successful
missions?” Ballmer gave an excellent response and quoted
examples of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Please watch this video to understand
the true meaning. He says both but with caution. Even a great leader can take
up a bad mission and still succeed in business. However, that is not the kind
of business we need. Great leaders should have great ideas and build successful
missions. Every leader and every business should check their overall missions
and apply Pareto principles to reinstate them in case they are off track.
Often, while people apply the 80/20 principle
(Pareto Principle) to their businesses, productivity, or health, the best
application of the 80/20 rule is in happiness. For those who do not know the Pareto Principle,
roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. This means that a small
fraction of our efforts often yields the majority of our results.
Many students put in 14/15 hours to get a rank,
sacrificing health, relationships with God, parents, and genuine friends and
relatives, and understanding the true meaning of life. Once achieving the results, they again spend hours
to earn a six-figure package, sacrificing many important learnings as
bachelors. Upon reaching this, the routine continues. On the other hand, if we
fail in the process, it leads to depression and devastation. Both extremes are
not good in life.
One of my friends says, “20% of new habits will change your life the most,
20% of friends/relatives result in 80% of the toxicity in life, 20% of the food
you eat causes the most damage to your health, 20% of your tasks will make 80%
of your day productive—do them first, and 20% of new things that you do will
create 80% of happiness!”
Having said that, if you ask me whether I practiced
this in my life, the answer is “Yes and No.” While easy
to preach, I am still struggling to practice it. However, I met and saw a few
who implemented and succeeded in their lives. This is more of an art than a
science!
Aligning leadership with meaningful missions and
harnessing the Pareto Principle can transform success and happiness.
Best Wishes and Good Luck!
Ravi Saripalle
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