For this one act, we don’t need to sell a Ferrari!
We have all seen the rows of shampoo sachets being sold at the Kirana stores and at the local tapris at the end of our streets. The man, who came up with the concept of sachets, did so, driven purely by the vision that what the rich can afford should be accessible to all.
And this man, as many of you know, is none other than the Late Chinni Krishnan, the man responsible for the sachet revolution, which has created over 1.5 crore jobs. His son C K Ranganathan, who founded CavinKare, later followed in his father’s footsteps and built the shampoo business into a multi-crore one with the company’s flagship product, Chik, which was named after his father.
And yet, earlier this week, when YourStory honoured the Late Chinni Krishnan posthumously with the Legend of Disruption award for his invention, the defining and humbling moment was when his four sons – C.K. Ranganathan, C.K. Kumaravel, C.K. Ashok Kumar, and C.K. Rajkumar – all came on stage to collect the award on his behalf.
They revealed that this was the first ever award to have been conferred on their late father, and that too posthumously. His sons were emotional and grateful as they told us about their late father and his determination to live by a simple philosophy: “whatever a rich man enjoys, the common man has to be able to afford it (too).”
Still, despite the long-lasting impact of the late Chinni Krishnan’s invention, we had, as a country, never publicly recognised his contribution. And this made me question:
Why is it that we don’t celebrate our own heroes? Why is it that we are quick to celebrate heroes from outside India and fail to recognise, celebrate and appreciate the heroes amidst us?
I’ll give you a simple example. These days, the walls of many incubators in colleges are awash with framed photos of world-renowned icons such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg. And there’s really no problem with doing that, but why is it that we don’t don our walls with pictures of a few of our own icons and heroes?
Show your appreciation; it doesn’t cost a thing
After all, a word of appreciation, a bit of celebration and the willingness to recognise someone for their contributions do not cost anything. For this, we simply have to be generous.
Not generous by way of having to sell our Ferrari or some other extravagant possession. But generous in spirit, action and words – something we all have within us, but which we tend to lose on the way in our chase for unending benchmarks.
I know for a fact that we (rightly) ask ourselves: what is there to celebrate when our goals have still not been realised – whether that goal is either that of being a unicorn, or raising the next round of funds, or winning that big contract, or hitting that targeted number of app downloads, or so many other goals within those big goals.
But just pause and think for a moment. What about those many tiny wins we accomplish every day? Do we even celebrate those wins? Are we appreciative of ourselves and those around us who make it possible for us to achieve those everyday wins?
Truth is: generosity of spirit, words and actions will have to begin with our very own selves. So, pat yourself on the back for that tiny win yesterday. Show your appreciation to those around you who are the heroes in our own lives.
I know it’s not always easy to celebrate ourselves and those among us, but please do. The more we love and appreciate our own small wins, the more we will have the ability to love and appreciate the wins of the people around us.
Because to quote Mother Teresa,
“There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world
than for bread.”
For authentic, meaningful conversations that go beyond the world of business, do subscribe to my weekly newsletter