For the rest of the year, I would like to take a moment and thank the people who have had a significant impact on me as an individual.

The way they have lived their lives and their body of work has had an outsized impact on how I think about life in general and and work, in particular.

Some of these are contemporary thinkers and some of them are just a memory. Some of them are famous in their own rights and some of them are yet to be found by others. Some of them are young and some of them are old. Some of them are business leaders, some thought leaders, some sportsmen and some coaches. Some of them are artists and some spiritual leaders.

However, if we look deeply, all of them are like you and me, ordinary people who’ve had an extra-ordinary impact on me and potentially a lot of others. And once you get to know them, may be they will have a similar impact on you as well or maybe not, only time will tell.

The reason I am putting together this list and share what I have learnt from them, to thank them publicly for being a teacher and teaching me important lessons in life and in the hope that some of you might be inspired by their company and they can impact you and your life as they have impacted mine.

So, let’s get started.

3. Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekanand was an Indian spiritual teacher, most known for his opening address at Chicago’s Parliament of Religions in 1893. He instantly won over his listeners by addressing them brothers and sisters (which was never done before). You can listen to his address here.

I was introduced to him and his teaching at a very early age. Ramakrishna mission, which he founded in the memory of his spiritual master, regularly held competition for schools children in the town that I grew up in (Salem, Tamil Nadu India). They would conduct essay writing, public speaking contests with topics coming from the works of Swami Vivekananda.

To prepare for these competitions, I would read about his work and thinking. Though I didn’t understand what a lot of what I read, I became interested in his work and as a consequence in spirituality. The winners of these competition would in turn get books written by Swami Vivekananda or by one of his disciples as the prize. I did end up winning quite a few of them and had multiple copies of these books, which I still have in my library.

I am not a very religious man but I think I am working my way through spirituality and all thanks to Swamiji.

My first interaction with the Hindu epic Bhagavad Gita was through the lens of Swamiji’s interpretations and since then I have been constantly been influenced by this epic Hindu philosophical text. This also resulted in my interest in not just Hindu philosophy but in spirituality in general. In his writing, Swamiji would always compare Hindu philosophy with Buddhist philosophy, which in turn created interest in the Buddhist teachings for me.

I strongly believe that every leader needs to have a spiritual practice or at least should be a student of philosophy. This helps us as leaders to not get carried away with the successes and failures that we and our teams come to face during our career. As leaders, it is important for us to manage our emotions well, as our emotions not only impact us but it impacts everyone we lead. So, in order to become better leaders, I highly recommend that we develop our own spiritual or philosophical practice.

Swami Vivekananda lived a very short life but it had such a profound impact on so many different people around the world. Most of the Vedanta societies started in the west in the early 1900’s could easily trace their origins to Swami Vivekananda or to his listeners and disciples during his trip to the Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

He was a great leader, he was an even better communicator and a great human being. He was compassionate, loving, humble, highly intelligent and most importantly he saw the inherent potential in everyone, irrespective of the caste, creed, race or religion of the person standing in front of him.

I have read his complete works – every single speech he made, every article he wrote, every dialogue he had, through the collection of 10 books which is the complete works for Swami Vivekananda. You can order one here.

In Kanyakumari, there is a rock in the ocean, where he supposedly meditated a long while is a famous tourist spot. I visited that rock during a school trip to Kanyakumari and imagining Swami Vivekananda swimming out to the rock, sitting in the middle of the sea, on a piece of rock, meditating stayed with me for a long time.

Conclusion:

I know that he might not be a tradional thought leaders who teaches us about how to be a better leader. However, I think he is one of those people who teaches us to be better humans and that is a pre-requisite for being better leaders.

So, I highly recommend that if you are a leader and don’t have a spiritual or a philosophical practice, it is not too late to start now. And if you need a nudge, pick up any book by Swami Vivekananda and you will be on your way. In fact, if you think reading is not your cup of tea, I have started recording my re-reading of Swami Vivekananda’s works and publishing them online (not as public links but as private, hidden videos, that you can access if you want here.