No. 7 ·
The Date Palm
बड़ा हुआ तो क्या हुआ, जैसे पेड़ खजूर।
पंथी को छाया नहीं, फल लागे अति दूर।
— Kabir
Height that offers no shade and no fruit isn’t greatness. It’s distance.
Title without leadership.
Position without value.
If no one grows under you, you’re not leading. You’re just tall.
Seniority isn’t measured in years or titles. It’s measured in decisions made, growth provided, and hurdles cleared for others.
No. 6 ·
The Quiet Saw
निंदक नियरे राखिए, आँगन कुटी छवाय।
बिन पानी साबुन बिना, निर्मल करे सुभाय।
— Kabir
Keep your critic close. Without water, without soap, they clean you.
Agreement is comfortable.
Consensus is efficient.
The people who make you uncomfortable are the ones keeping you honest.
Your strongest mirror isn’t the one who agrees with you.
No. 5
The Weaver's Thread
दुख में सुमिरन सब करें, सुख में करे न कोय।
जो सुख में सुमिरन करे, दुख काहे को होय।
— Kabir
When times are hard, everyone pays attention. When times are good, no one does.
If you stayed alert in the good times, why would the hard times come?
Success breeds complacency.
Complacency breeds blind spots.
The crisis wasn’t sudden. The attention was.
Kabir was a 15th-century weaver-poet. No title, no institution, no lineage. He saw clearly and said it plainly. Five hundred years later, the couplets still land.
No. 4
The Gold in the Crack
“Nothing lasts. Nothing is finished. Nothing is perfect.”
— Wabi-sabi, Japanese aesthetic tradition
Complexity is the default.
Simplicity is the discipline.
Leaders add – controls, layers, process.
Rarely subtract.
Wabi-sabi doesn’t hide the flaw. It gilds it.
What you accept as imperfect, you can actually finish.
The most expensive habit in leadership isn’t getting it wrong. It’s refusing to call it done.
No. 3
The Expert's Blind Spot
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
— Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Experience narrows.
Mastery becomes assumption.
The senior room rewards certainty.
Not inquiry.
What you’ve stopped questioning is where the risk sits.
The hardest habit to break is walking into a room already knowing the answer. The more you’ve seen, the less you look.
No. 2 ·
Commitment, Not Attempt
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
— Yoda The Empire Strikes Back
Execution needs:
Clarity of intent.
Commitment to act.
Trying creates motion.
Commitment creates outcomes.
No. 1 ·
Letting Go to Lead
“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”
— Yoda, Revenge of the Sith
Fear drives control.
Control creates friction.
Leaders hold on to decisions, roles, outcomes.
But growth needs space.
What you release, evolves.