Moving From Belief To Pride

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Written by Manas Garg

Tuesday, 10 March 2009 15:43

One night, Army General Aureliano asked Colonel Gerineldo Marquez:
"Tell me something, old friend: why are you fighting?"
"What other reason could there be, old friend?" Colonel Gerineldo Marquez answered. "For the great Liberal Party."
"You're lucky you know," he answered. "As far as I'm concerned, I've only just realised that I am fighting out of pride."
-One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Gracia Marquez

One of the pitfalls of leadership is letting your ego overtake your ideas. Persisting purely for pride is a luxury few leaders can afford.
most entrepreneurs start their journey with an idea in which they believe. More often than not, they don't even have the necessary funds and the professional network to succeed in their entrepreneurial journey. But there is one thing that they have in plenty-the belief that their idea is important; that it must be brought to life.
This belief is the primary capital that they have. It mobilises all their physical and mental energy towards implementing the idea and gives them the confidence to talk at all relevant platforms, where they otherwise might have felt shy to even stand up. It also makes people around them lend their support. It is this belief that keeps them going even when the going gets extremely tough.
Unfortunately, sometimes the belief in their idea gives way to a fight for their pride. They may have started with a cause in mind, but over a period of time, the cause fades away and gets a lower priority while they battle on because they don't want to be losers; because they don't want to accept defeat; because they feel that seeing the venture through is a matter of pride.
As leaders, they struggle with several opposing forces. As agents of change, they face resistance, offence and insult. People invariably praise them and sometimes offend them, which either bloats or hurts their egos, respectively. A successful endeavour will make their chest swell with pride, while a debacle may leave them feeling deflated. So, the goal of making the world a better place is sometimes replaced by a person merely battling on behalf of his ego. And this doesn't take an entrepreneur very far.

The importance of teamwork
Any sizeable piece of work requires many people to work in unison. And that can happen only if entrepreneurs share their ideas with their teams and are able to make things work for that single cause. But even in this scenario, entrepreneurs cannot, and should not expect others to stand up and fight for their pride.
If entrepreneurs choose to assert their pride, people around are likely to notice and start withdrawing support.

All leaders, regardless of place and time, have been able to mobilise people around them, only because of their belief in a cause, and not for a battle of personal pride.
People didn't support Mahatma Gandhi, the individual; they supported the movement for independence. Imagine Mahatma Gandhi fasting for several days not because he believed atrocities on the poor must be stopped, but because he was up against the district magistrate and wanted to teach him a lesson. Could he then have won the support of people? No. People wouldn't have even noticed him. Or they would've just laughed at him.

Thus, entrepreneurs should always keep their original idea at the forefront of their plans and use it to motivate their teams. If, at any stage, they lose faith in their idea, they should quit and walk away as there is no point in fighting just for pride. That path leads to failure.