"Jaati na poocho sadhu ki; pooch lijiye gyan..."

An approach in life that I have most resonated with is the Go Givers philosophy, so beautifully articulated by Bob Burg and John David Mann in their Go Givers series of books.

And just last week, we were talking about and practicing this very approach in the leadership outbound session I had the opportunity to facilitate for a Delhi based surrogate client.

And today, I met a living embodiment of that philosophy who can as well be the poster boy for Bob Burg and John David Mann's book: Go Givers Sell More.

He would also become one of the examples I will henceforth quote in my leadership workshops on responsibility, ownership, the Inside Out Model of Leadership and Bain & Co.'s 2015 study on what leads to 225% productivity at workplace.

I sat in Ajay's rickshaw from the Aacharya Niketan market today afternoon after my grocery shopping and made a simple request - drive slowly as I cannot afford the bumps on the road.

He assured me and got talking when we had a Royal Enfield biker pass us by at his deliberately noisy-est best. That young chap would have been the best example of what comedian Rajneesh Kapoor talks about in one of his shows - 'Daddyji ki kamai, Sunny ne udai."

Ajay started telling me about an accident that he had witnessed in the morning today as he left home near the CRPF camp near Dadri to come and ply his rickshaw in Mayur Vihar Phase 1.

By the end of the ride I shook his hand twice, clicked his picture and saved his number.

Here are the reasons why - He:

• Came to Delhi from Gorakhpur in 1998 when he was 12 years old to earn and take care of his two sisters after his mother passed away. (He shared that his ancestral house was just 500 meters away from the Gorakhnath temple.)
• Spends 100 Rupees in travelling to and fro Mayur Vihar Phase 1 daily to ply his rickshaw here. He prefers to ply it here as he knows this place more and there isn't much scope to earn where he lives
• Leaves for his home the moment he earns 300 - 350 Rupees a day. He doesn't wait to earn more
• Got both his sisters married from his earnings as a cycle rickshaw puller. Once they were married, he hasn't spoiled them with unnecessary doles of money and has instead wanted them to be responsible for themselves
• Prefers to spend most of his time in the company of people older and wiser than him lest he be forced to drink, led astray and squabble by people of his age
• Takes out two elderly gentlemen in Pocket 4 for their hour long morning walk every day just for 20 Rupees
• Was given a 200 square yard plot at a discounted rate of Rs.1 Lakhs by a teacher for who he had become as a person whereas the going rate there is 6,000/- Rupees per square foot
• His sons study in standards 8 and 6 in the Munshi Premchand Memorial school near our house

It was when he mentioned about the dead bodies he helped cremate irrespective of their caste (and irrespective of his own caste which I am not going to reveal here anyway) and when he followed it up by mentioning with whom he spent most of his time; was when my admiration for him got triggered and I remembered Sant Kabir's Doha -

"Jaati na poocho sadhu ki; pooch lijiye gyan
Mol karo talwar ki, padi rahan do myan."

(Don't ask for the caste of a pious wise man. Instead ask for his wisdom.
Appreciate the value of the sword instead of the scabbard it is sheathed by.)

As we parted, I took his number and have since then thought of inviting his sons also for the free mind mapping class that I am offering this Sunday afternoon at my house for a young boy in our neighbourhood and our maid's son.

I want to know his children and want them to appreciate what their father has stood for and done being a true Go Giver.

We can never imagine, predict or control how our actions ripple out only to come back to us or our family in mostly non-linear ways; be they otherwise or acts of love and generosity.

_/\_

Sohum