In November 2018, I participated in Sadhguru’s program again: Isha Insight – The DNA of Success in Coimbatore / India.
The program was attended mainly by Indians. I was one of the few westeners. The 4-day intense curriculum was accompanied largely by Sadhguru.
The Isha Yoga Center lies in the outskirts of Coimbatore, about a 1.5 hour ride from the airport. On our way to the Isha Yoga Center, we made a few stops to buy me a SIM card and to enjoy a road side masala chai.
The Isha Yoga Center is located in King Cobra land. The immense bust of Adiyogi was visible from far away. The Center is protected by security fences and personell.
Schedule for Insight participants Day 1 + 2 morning
I finally arrived after a long travel at the Isha Yoga Center and the friendly welcome desk was helping me with my formalities. I got a map of the place, badge and instructions about my accomodation and the program. I quickly settled down in my little combo and started to explore the place. The Isha Meditation Center is massive in size.
I also signed up for Isha Yoga classes, but I dropped out after 15 minutes. I felt that I dont have much to learn in that aspect since the Yoga teacher was introducing Upa Yoga. Upa Yoga is a very basic form of Yoga for everybody compiled by Sadhguru.
Mr. B. S. Nagesh, former CEO Shoppers Stop and President of the National Retail Association India opened the Isha Insight Program and introduced himself as the moderator. Now time has come to see the vastness and depth of elite Indian business people. And everybody came with an as open mind as possible to the best of their abilities, including me. So, everybody was really excited, because India has a deep culture and tradition of spirituality which goes back to Gautama the Buddha and possibly way further. All participants were in awe of Sadhguru. Since the program has now officially started, everybody was anxious to see Sadhguru.
The DNA of Success
Not a shark in a suit
Not a corporate wolf.
In business, all you need to be
is a human being with insight.
And with that, he introduced Sadhguru and welcomed him on stage. Sadhguru began the program with a chant and a subsequent meditation. He then summarized the essential message of this years program as following: It’s about insight, integrity and inspiration. He further summed up what leadership truly means.
Leadership in essence is about moving from personal ambition to a larger vision.
After Sadhguru, Mr. Nagesh introduced one of the next speakers, Mr. Amitabh Kant, former Tourism Director of Kerala and currently the CEO of NITI Aayog, a policy think tank of the Indian government.
His main message is: Think big, think large! To him, it was important that India follows its own path, its own original path. A sort of antidote to the Western way of unsustainability. Mr. Kant was very energetic and fearless, a truly self-driven man with the constant hunger of learning and developing. It was very interesting to see the diversity and strength of Indian charisma.
One of the next speakers was Mr. Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO of Ola cabs, the Indian equivalent of Uber. He was outlining how they created the company with an evolving vision of being more caring for taxi drivers compared to competitors such as Uber. With incentives and insurance packages, Ola cabs were able to capture large parts of the large Indian market before Uber could establish themselves.
Another speaker was Mr. Kishore Biyani, Founder and CEO of the Future Group. He was a humble man and gave insights into life and business experiences.
Mr. Deepak Garg, Founder and CEO of Rivigo, shared his company story how he started off in the consulting business and felt, that he had to do something larger than his personal ambition. He came up with the idea of a truck sharing logistics company. He went around and pitched the idea to friends and colleagues. Everybody discouraged him of pursuing a risky startup rather than staying in his steady and safe consulting job. He finally pushed through and started the company which became very successful. He solved the problem of the truck industry in such a way, that before, there was a lack of truck driver due to the fact that Indian men do want to be able to build a family. But as a truck driver, being away for so long from family, was very disincentivizing for many. His solution; he created a system where drivers would drive only a shorter distance, hand over the truck to another driver and pick up another truck to drive back home. Thus, the truck drivers would be always home for the night. This approach proved to be a huge success.
Another speaker was P. C. Musthafa, CEO and and Co-Founder of iD Fresh Food. He is a young man, entrepreneur and a celebrity in India, a sort of slumdog millionaire. His story was authentic and driven by an ideology to help people and provide them with healthy and fresh food.
On the last day, we were all sitting outside on the ground of the Spanda Hall Pavillon, and Sadhguru was presenting his closing session. At the end, I had the opportunity to stand up and ask him a question. My question to Sadhguru was: As you are saying, your greatest gift is to create a space and energize it. In order to bring maximum change and benefit to the world, why are you not running to become the next Prime Minister of India… Everybody clapped and Sadhguru interrupted my question.
He quickly called for order. He asked me a question back: Where are you from? I normally would have pulled the Socrates quote; I am neither Athenian nor Greek, I am a citizen of the world. But humbly I bowed down and said, I am from Switzerland (technically, I have 100% turkish blood kinda Asien, but was born in Switzerland and lived most of my life here). Back to the story, he rhetorically said maybe I can become President in your country, Switzerland (lol). He further outlined, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing a very good job and very good initiatives have been onboarded with the central government and they are looking into that.
After the 4-day intensive DNA of Success program, I was left with a profound sensation of humbleness.
