Are you a part of this Number game?

Swapnil was driving home. He looked at his watch. “No... I can’t be late…Sixty. Sixty is a large number... I have sixty minutes to reach…” He was counseling himself. He had just finished his meeting with the GM of the company who was heading the marketing unit. He recalled how the GM was putting his energy to drive home the point to all his colleagues… “Numbers. Numbers... I don’t want anything else except numbers... We need to get it... My job, your job and everyone else’ depends on these numbers... How you get these numbers is your problem... Eat, sleep, run… no compromise... just come and tell me that you have the numbers.”

Mark was facing his boss...  “Mark” tell me what went wrong? You don’t have the numbers...”

“Sir... I have put in my best... but do you see the competition... do you see the range of competitive products...”

“Don’t educate me. Mark. All that exists. But you are there only to get these numbers.”

Shreya was a part of the communication team in that call center. She had to connect with at least 150 clients a day and ensure at least there are 25 donors for the NGO she works with. She has a great tension. “What will I do Preethi? Today is a dreadful day. I am not getting the numbers.”

Mithila was standing before her class teacher. “Mithila, your performance has come down. This time you don’t have the numbers “Mithila looked around. Everybody in the classroom was looking at her. She was so depressed and she forcefully controlled her rage.

Numbers play a magic with the brain. When ‘set’ as targets they bring with them capsules of energy and drive the performance profile of an individual. With every number going up, the individual feels a sense of ‘achievement’.

Numbers also play black magic. When one doesn’t get the numbers desired, he is depressed, he sets unhealthy competition, explores unethical means of achieving the numbers, becomes manipulative. 

Non-achievement of numbers inks a black spot in the performance profile as if the individual is just not capable of anything.

Between the fractions of numbers, lies a beautiful life as an undercurrent – with a spectrum of colours, joy, satisfaction, relationship, health, entertainment, luxury, travel and exploration… With an extraordinary focus on numbers many lose sight of what lies between these fractions of numbers and by the time one realizes, it is too late to regret.

Numbers often try to ‘burn’ the nerves and muscles; they sap the ‘life force’ with the mind moving towards a single point nursing of a performance sickness!

In Mathematics, numbers have a positional value… in organizations the achievement of numbers brings a value for one’s positions.

In schools, numbers are believed to reflect an intellectual value. In relationships, numbers are believed to show the social value.

In bank balances, numbers indicate one’s standard of life... In charity, the numbers indicate one’s quality of life...

In life, numbers have only a transient value... They appear as a white cloud, offer a timely meaning and just pass on…

The question remains: Do we let these numbers steal away the rhythm of life?

Das was worried on his birthday... “Well, today I am forty... the number is going up... moving towards the evening of life...”

Anil was celebrating his seventieth birthday... “Goodness, how seventy has passed. Yet there is so much to do...”

“Well, what is the point in going to a spa when you are forty five...” lamented Yamini...

“I haven’t gone to a spa so far. But now I must.. I am reaching forty five” Atulya opined.

Numbers have contradicting impact on people... They can make or break people!

I recall a HR conference I attended nearly twenty years before (as an invitee only). During the last session of the conference, I was asked to be a rapporteur for a group discussion. When the organizers came to my table and passed on a slip containing the topic for discussion, I stood dumb. It gave no meaning to me... The topic was: “After Forty... What?”

Understanding my predicament, the gentleman explained “Sir, In the corporate world, we engage people many times through campus selection when they are in their early twenties... They get locked into their air-conditioned rooms and work for long hours continuously for days, weeks and months. Marriage, parenting and several other functions become incidental in their life. The single focus remains to move ahead in positions, increase the number of digits in their packages and life moves on. One day they question themselves: “Have I lost something in life?” – and their sixth sense then tells them “hey, you have lost everything in life.” They look around and find their age is forty. They have a question: After forty- what?”

A VRS, a golden handshake, a change of job, a personal enterprise – What next? Numbers could create a sense of fear, assault your belief systems, impoverish your capacity to surge ahead, empower your “learned helplessness”  Beware!

Numbers carry a value – sometimes small and sometimes big. But between the fractions of these numbers lies “A beautiful life” with its colour, joy, mirth, relationships, lively moments...

Don’t let these numbers pass without giving you what they have hidden in the space between their fractions!