Finding One's Calling: Gurcharan Das & Pavan Choudary discuss at The Blue Circle's Event

The Blue Circle organized its latest event on 25th May 2018 at The Leela, Gurgaon where Gurcharan Das spoke on "Making a Life vs. Making a Living". The talk was moderated by Pavan Choudary and was attended by a distinguished audience of more than seventy CEOs and Industrialists.

The Blue Circle is an exclusive community of like-minded & Thinking Industry Leaders. A community that learns, entertains and bonds together in an atmosphere of trust and true friendship.

The discussion began with Gurcharan Das citing Freud, "One is happy if the people he works with and the people he lives with at home are happy." And added that earlier a job had only to provide an income whereas today people seek purpose, creativity, contribution and status through a job. How can one find such a job? How can one find one's calling?

 

Pavan said, "The romantic world view is that every talented person will somehow experience a pull from his calling almost spontaneously. One's professional destiny would be just revealed to him. This we know is a myth. Finding one's calling requires wide exposure, wise assistance and often many years of searching."

Gurcharan Das proposed that the greatest works which have been written in fiction and non-fiction should be studied by the parent, teacher and the student. He strongly recommended reading the 100 greatest books.

Pavan underscored the importance of this by saying that different eras have been repositories of different kinds of wisdom. Many of these streams of thought have got lost, muddled or submerged. These 100 books help you rescue these lost nuggets and make your understanding about life more well-rounded.

Siddharth Anand, the founder of Blue Circle said, "Currently Ashoka University, is the only institution in India which runs the 100 Greatest books program. Through its Future Leaders Program, The Blue Circle selected two fellowship students from Ashoka University who got a chance to attend this event and interact with distinguished guests."

Both Gurcharan & Pavan happened to be fans of Marcel Proust, the early 20th century French Writer who after years of social climbing, on reaching the "high society" found that wealthy or famous people were neither the most virtuous nor the most interesting nor wise. He came to the conclusion that virtues, vices and even intellect are scattered irrespective of wealth or renown throughout the society. We must similarly expect wisdom to be sparsely scattered across society and be looking out for it and ready to receive it from any quarter.

Siddharth said, "Aware of these learnings, Blue Circle members are chosen through a careful screening process, through a Credibility Scoring Test that it has developed. Our objective is to assist Leaders in collaborating with people of their kind to learn and grow together." Prospective members could either be invited by the advisory board or referred by an existing member.

Siddharth is convinced that the last word on Leadership Care is yet to be written but with The Blue Circle he writes the latest.

The session ended with questions from the audience which deepened the theme.