I realized this very simple understanding
of how to direct our thinking
can go such a long way in our life
for all of us.
I’m driving on the road;
I have some plans.
And there is a roadblock there.
And there’s a forced take diversion there.
I can get upset about it.
I can get emotional about it.
I can get worried about it.
I can get tensed about it,
I can get angry about it.
I can play 1000 different emotions.
It still doesn’t take me anywhere.
I still have a roadblock in front of me.
I still have a take diversion.
After all my emotional drama is over…
Finally, I have to drive…
I have many things.
I can drive back and go back from where I’ve started
or I have to drive around.
But staying there upset about a roadblock or a take diversion
is not going to lead me anywhere.
So eventually, after all the emotional drama
all of us will…
Nobody stays there.
I haven’t seen yet,
anybody in front of a traffic diversion
two hours later three hours later
unless you’re the traffic police
who’s controlling the traffic diversion;
nobody stays.
Eventually we’ll go.
The question is
the matured deal with it one moment later
the immature probably deal with it…
In fact, last year for the calendar I gave a message:
‘Fools and wise people
do the same thing with only one difference…
Fools finally do it;
wise people right in the beginning do it.’
Eventually everybody does the same thing.
In fact, each one of you have to introspect
and look into your own life
and ask yourself this question
your fundamental
thought patterns
the fundamental direction of your thinking
‘Are you problem-oriented or solution-oriented?’
for you to understand yourself.
Problems are there…
by whatever name you want to call it…
problem, challenge, torture, situation, issue,
different names we can give depending on
what suits you.
Somehow when we call it as torture… problem…
it’s very ego fulfilling
it feels nice!
Mahatria, I have so many problems…
You look like a special creation of God.
You have been given more issues.
It sounds… its very ego fulfilling!
Whatever word you want to use,
and will always be there of different natures
self-created, others-created, dumped upon by choice, by consequence,
there will always be issues.
But take a moment to introspect,
to understand yourself,
is the direction of your entire thinking time and again,
is about showing
here is a problem, there is a problem, this is the problem, this is not okay with the world, this is not okay with others, this is not okay with me, why did this happen to me?
What is your predominant thought patterns?
Can’t be quantified or
just for understanding sake,
you invest about 10% of your intelligence to understand
what is the problem
and the remaining 90% of your thinking is right now about
‘Okay, now that I know this is my problem. How do I solve it?’
Maybe you’ve a solution
maybe you don’t have a solution?
At least the direction of thinking is right;
‘What is the direction of your thinking?’
We cannot escape that we become emotional.
When things don’t go the way we want
When things don’t happen at the pace at which it should happen.
Or when we see anything with ourselves, others or the world at large,
that things are not the way it should be.
Things are not the way it should be.
It’s never been!
It never will be…
Thinking about the problem till I understand the problem.
Thinking about the problem till I understand
what is causing the problem makes sense.
Having understood what is the problem
and having understood what is causing the problem,
continuing to stay with the problem,
you’re just simply an emotional wreck.
Nothing more than that emotional indulgence is happening.
You can stay upset, stay upset and stay upset
and continuously stay upset about it
or somewhere whack your intelligence…
Say, ‘Enough!’
Now let’s start thinking about the solution.
Or let’s go to people who have a solution
or let’s come together with people who can collectively solve it
or let me find out who can guide me
or nobody has a solution yet,
at least let me put my intelligence at work.
A lot of things in the world
which did not have a solution
eventually got solved through human intelligence.
So maybe when I raise my human intelligence,
when I give a direction
or some invention, some discovery, some breakthrough, some insight will come
through which I’ll be able to find a solution to it.
But after that, I will only think about a problem
till I understand the problem or
till I understand what has caused the problem.
I will not waste another single thought on the problem
once I have understood what is causing it.
Now how do we solve it?
But what should be the way forward?
What should be the next move?
What should be the next choice?
What should be the next decision?
And what should be the new direction?
Move forward…

And from there the intelligence has to take over.

What’s the problem?
What are the causes to the problem?
What are the possible solutions?
What’s the best solution?
And most importantly,
who is going to now execute the solution that your mind has conceptualized?
You? Are you going to delegate it to somebody else?
Because sitting in the drawing room of a house,
all of us can suggest what’s the solution to it.
The problem is not that we are not able to come up with solutions.
The problem is we don’t have enough people to execute these solutions.
What’s the problem?
What are the causes to the problem?
What are the possible solutions?
What or what combination are the best possible solutions?
And now importantly, who is going to execute this solution?

Anything about life
from you’re not able to read properly
to global warming,
to the rapes that happen in the world,
to the way we collectively rape the environment
to the corruption that happens in the world,
to the corrupt individual thinking that’s happening in individuals,
everything…
Individually, socially, globally, spiritually…
what’s the problem?
What are the causes of the problem?
Ithuthan (This is) structured thinking.
You can do MBA, you can do CA,
you can do Ph.D,
you can do research,
you can become a politician,
you can be a social worker,
you can be an entrepreneur, and you can be a selfish individual.
But this is the structure to thinking,
What’s the problem?
Define it first, what are the causes for the problem?
Go to the root of it.
If there is an effect, there must be a cause.
So, if there is a problem, something is causing it,
What are the causes to the problem?
Effect is nothing but cause itself in a different form.
So if effect has to be corrected, cause has to be corrected
So these are the things that is causing the problem,
What are the possible solutions?
And these solutions cannot be at the level of effect,
it has to be at the level of cause.
If repeatedly a business is going into cashflow crisis, what is causing it?
What are the possible solutions?
What or what combinations are the best possible solution, in this scenario.
Mahatria, I have a premium product, I really think I want to build a premium brand and the world.
People appreciate the product. But when I ask for money, they don’t want to pay the money.
That’s not their problem.
To make the world mad,
wanting to spend that sort of money to buy a Rolex
is not a market problem, it’s a the Rolex problem.
Rolex has to find out,
how am I going to teach the market that
any amount you pay for me is worth it.
That is a Rolex problem.
It’s not a market problem.
How am I going to teach the world
that even though finally only four people can sit in the car,
and it has only four wheels,
buying a Bentley…
You want to build a premium brand…
Then you’ll have to find out
how are you going to teach the market
to feel crazy that they want to invest everything that they have on you
because they feel your product, your solution, your brand value is worth it!
You will have to find out how are you going to do this?
What’s the possible solutions?
What’s the best solution? What’s the combination?

But most importantly, finally,
everything is still there between the two ears or on paper.
Who or how are you going to execute this solution out there in the world?
Human life is a phenomenal blessing.
Everything is there.
enough problems are there.
And enough intelligence to solve this problem is there it’s called opportunity.

Where solutions meet the problem, it’s called opportunity!
All the industries in the world, all the leadership in the world exists because
there are problems in the world.
And if I can go and solve it, that’s an opportunity.

I do that as a social cause, then I’m a social reformer,
I do that as a business, then I’m an entrepreneur.
I just keep talking about it, then it doesn’t help.
This is the world that you have got.
This is the ‘You’ that you have been created.
Now it’s about resource management.
How do I use myself?
Time is a resource.
This life of yours is a resource.
That you have emotions which lets you know that
something bothers you
a notification from life is a resource
that you have been given the intelligence with which you can solve this is a resource.
That there are challenges out there in the world is a resource.
There are support systems available in world…
That there are people who don’t have the money
but have the intelligence and you need them is a resource.
That there are people who have the money but don’t have the intelligence is a resource
This infinite energy that you can factor into everything that you do is a resource.
And those few of us who are going to live the most holistic life are going to be those who are the best resource managers in the world.
Life is nothing more than resource management.
How efficiently, how peacefully?
How methodically,
are you going to do resource management,
and that’s what life is all about.
Just take a minute.
And ask yourself,
individually, or as a family,
or in an industry or in your society, or as a world at large…
What is something that’s emotionally bothering you right now?
And for a moment, pause.
Instead of just staying bothered,
give a direction to your thinking and ask yourself,

‘What’s actually the problem? Whatever that’s bothering, what’s actually the problem?
What’s causing it? Or what all is causing it?
What are the possible solutions?
What or what combination, do I see as the best solution?
Who and how am I going to execute the solution?’

Just be with yourself.