dsbatten on Nostr: This personal story is about the surprising impact on results of dropping your ...
This personal story is about the surprising impact on results of dropping your attachment to results!
India played a vital role in my entrepreneurial journey. Only I didn't go to India, "India came to me".
One of the key reasons most Western approaches to sales, influence and pitching are incomplete and ineffective is that they are only just starting to grapple with something that has been understood in the East for millennia: Do not attach to the fruit of your actions.
Steve Jobs, the CEO of what became the largest company in the world by market capitalization, Apple, attributed much of his success to what he learned about influencing others, and himself, on an extended trip to India. When a young Mark Zuckerburg turned to Steve for advice when his company was going through tough times, Steve encouraged Mark to travel to India to spend time in an ashram. That trip proved pivotal to Mark’s success.
In early 2004, after months of trying, I’d finally turned a presentation to investors into a decision to enter due diligence.
I’d never even heard of due diligence before. It sounded serious and rigorous. It was. In terms of skillset, I was wholly unprepared for the specificity, directness and sharpness of the questions that a team of four investors would ask me during that meeting two weeks after our pitch. Fortunately, at the level of mindset, I’d undergone the perfect preparation.
As luck would have it, during that two-week gap between our successful pitch and the follow-up due diligence meeting, I was booked to spend two weeks organizing a tour and flying around the country with none other than Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Sri Sri as he’s affectionately known). Sri Sri is a multiple nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and according to Forbes magazine, is one of the most powerful influencers in India. He’s what’s known in the East as a fully realized master. I was excited at the opportunity. I’d never been up close to a living master before, let alone had the chance to travel with one, talk to one and observe one offstage.
What I learned during that time was the power of presence and the power of non-attachment to the fruits of your labors, and about how to set strong intentions that were likely to come to pass. But more than that, I simply learned more about how to be.
On one occasion, I was in the kitchen preparing breakfast at the homestead where Sri Sri and his travelling entourage, including me, were staying. I suddenly became aware that someone was cooking next to me. I turned to my left, and it was Sri Sri himself
35 completely focused on frying up some zucchinis with spices. Another time he walked into the living area where a grand piano was stationed. He seated himself at the piano and began playing. And I mean playing, being playful with the piano – dancing his fingers like a mischievous cat – in a way that had us all laughing and wanting more.
What on earth does this experience have to do with pitching? Everything. By the time due diligence came, I felt happy for no reason. I wanted investment, but I trusted that whatever happened was for the best, and I simply wanted to do my best. I still remember vividly to this day being asked some of the bluntest questions I’d ever been asked about why I believed our company could succeed.
I remember knowing that as a rookie entrepreneur, I had no experience and no logical basis on which to give the investors an assurance that we would succeed. And yet, in that state of complete non-attachment, I seemed intuitively to know exactly what to say to every single investor present.
At the end – which only took 45 minutes – there was silence. I recall the look of surprise on the face of one of the investors as though he’d expected a knock-out in minutes. But the underdog was not only still standing, but ready to go another 12 rounds.
The lead investor paused, and said, “Well, it looks like you’ve given us no reason not to invest. Let’s have a final meeting in another two weeks where we’ll make our decision.”
That meeting went well. We got investment, created www.geneious.com and the company sold a few years back.
~~
Questions for you:
Do you notice it when someone who is trying to influence you is attached to a particular outcome?
Have you ever failed to influence someone because you were too attached to the outcome?
India played a vital role in my entrepreneurial journey. Only I didn't go to India, "India came to me".
One of the key reasons most Western approaches to sales, influence and pitching are incomplete and ineffective is that they are only just starting to grapple with something that has been understood in the East for millennia: Do not attach to the fruit of your actions.
Steve Jobs, the CEO of what became the largest company in the world by market capitalization, Apple, attributed much of his success to what he learned about influencing others, and himself, on an extended trip to India. When a young Mark Zuckerburg turned to Steve for advice when his company was going through tough times, Steve encouraged Mark to travel to India to spend time in an ashram. That trip proved pivotal to Mark’s success.
In early 2004, after months of trying, I’d finally turned a presentation to investors into a decision to enter due diligence.
I’d never even heard of due diligence before. It sounded serious and rigorous. It was. In terms of skillset, I was wholly unprepared for the specificity, directness and sharpness of the questions that a team of four investors would ask me during that meeting two weeks after our pitch. Fortunately, at the level of mindset, I’d undergone the perfect preparation.
As luck would have it, during that two-week gap between our successful pitch and the follow-up due diligence meeting, I was booked to spend two weeks organizing a tour and flying around the country with none other than Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Sri Sri as he’s affectionately known). Sri Sri is a multiple nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and according to Forbes magazine, is one of the most powerful influencers in India. He’s what’s known in the East as a fully realized master. I was excited at the opportunity. I’d never been up close to a living master before, let alone had the chance to travel with one, talk to one and observe one offstage.
What I learned during that time was the power of presence and the power of non-attachment to the fruits of your labors, and about how to set strong intentions that were likely to come to pass. But more than that, I simply learned more about how to be.
On one occasion, I was in the kitchen preparing breakfast at the homestead where Sri Sri and his travelling entourage, including me, were staying. I suddenly became aware that someone was cooking next to me. I turned to my left, and it was Sri Sri himself
35 completely focused on frying up some zucchinis with spices. Another time he walked into the living area where a grand piano was stationed. He seated himself at the piano and began playing. And I mean playing, being playful with the piano – dancing his fingers like a mischievous cat – in a way that had us all laughing and wanting more.
What on earth does this experience have to do with pitching? Everything. By the time due diligence came, I felt happy for no reason. I wanted investment, but I trusted that whatever happened was for the best, and I simply wanted to do my best. I still remember vividly to this day being asked some of the bluntest questions I’d ever been asked about why I believed our company could succeed.
I remember knowing that as a rookie entrepreneur, I had no experience and no logical basis on which to give the investors an assurance that we would succeed. And yet, in that state of complete non-attachment, I seemed intuitively to know exactly what to say to every single investor present.
At the end – which only took 45 minutes – there was silence. I recall the look of surprise on the face of one of the investors as though he’d expected a knock-out in minutes. But the underdog was not only still standing, but ready to go another 12 rounds.
The lead investor paused, and said, “Well, it looks like you’ve given us no reason not to invest. Let’s have a final meeting in another two weeks where we’ll make our decision.”
That meeting went well. We got investment, created www.geneious.com and the company sold a few years back.
~~
Questions for you:
Do you notice it when someone who is trying to influence you is attached to a particular outcome?
Have you ever failed to influence someone because you were too attached to the outcome?