Famous Sikhs Team Creates Yet Another Digital Buzz with Episode 2 of Candid Talks Show

• Why do you want people to address you as KS or Aloo instead of Sir?

For the Simplest reason –  the sweetest sound that one wants to hear in their life is their name. And, I would say that I love my name. I absolutely adore it and if someone has to call my name internationally Kamaljeet Singh Ahluwalia, then he is going to have a heart attack. So, KS is the best. Secondly, a Sikh and Aloos are omnipresent and Aloo goes with everything. Hence, I am making life simply easier for everyone. 

• Why are teachers very important in society and what role do they play?

Wow, that’s a beautiful question. Let me be very candid about it. Whatever we are today, success, failure, good, bad. The contribution of our parents and teachers is pivotal.

Let the tree be as big as a mammoth, but the roots are the teachers and the parents. So- While growing big and successful, never forget your roots. It’s a teacher who taught me the first alpha, a teacher who taught me the first word, a teacher who told me what A and B and Ka, Kha, Ga means, you don’t forget that. And you dare not forget them. Because your success is because of them. They are the inputs and you never forget your input. So, you have to be grateful and always have a cherished memory of them. They are your soulmates, the actual soul mates. They will never leave you; they will always do good for you. How can you leave such people then? 

Teachers make you. I would say they Polish your individuality. They make you a better being. They make you something extraordinary from just an ordinary mortal. They are the guys whose respect is a very small word. Gratitude is a small word. They are beyond vocabulary. So let’s not limit them in vocabulary. They are a feeling, they are expensive. You need to feel them. You need to immerse yourself in them.

• Would you like to share anybody, any mentor or teacher who changed you and your perspective?

Oh, whatever I am today, I’m talking to you is because of the one person who put me upside down in my life and she was like a ‘Paaras’. Let me tell you, I used to, I could not speak in front of people, I used to wet my pants. If someone used to tell me if some guests used to come to the house I used to go to the washroom. Yes, that was me and I think, I was in grade eight when our principal the other daring Sardarni to the core. When I say to the core, she was, we used to call her the terror. And in one of the days in the assembly, she called me up and she said, you are going to represent the school in a declaration. I said she’s out of her mind. I can’t even speak. And my body reacted, my mind went still when I went back home, I was having a temperature of 102. I was very happy. I thanked the Lord I saved. At night it went to 104, I was happier because now I’m not going to the school, chutti. Morning when I got up, I hear a squeaky voice, in one of the rooms in my home and I popped out to there and found my principal, Mrs. Harbansh Bakshi sitting there. She was an institution, she is still, she’s not on the planet now, but she’s still an institution for me, I looked at her and she just gave me a very see -through, a glance. And she said tomorrow morning, six o’clock you’re coming to my home in this school and I’m going to train you. That’s Gracious.

I looked at my mother and I had all the emotional blackmail with her that I am not good. And you’re going to put me; you want me to blah, blah, blah. The mother is an easy target for boys, but then we have a person who doesn’t believe in all these emotions and that’s the father. And he was from the Defense. So, he looked at me and told me, YOU tomorrow morning we are going and I was quiet, he was a doctor. He said you won’t die. Don’t worry. I’ll ensure that! 

So, this lady trained me from six to eight o’clock in our house, then after the school from two to four and we won the debate. 

• What do you think? Why did she choose you?

Ek cheez zindagi me yaad rakhiye ki paarkhi ko pata hota hai ki kis pe dawa lagaya jaaye. Then, I had hours of confusion made by me and I used to enjoy that. In fact, I used to; I was a prisoner who was actually enjoying the vastness of my prison and I remember her lines loud and clear. She told me this, she said, Ek din tu isi ka khayega. You’ll be known by this and yes, she was right that it was a new KSAhluwalia. 

Essentially, my journey started from there and then it was rolling, and I enjoyed every moment. But I didn’t forget that I was the same guy who used to wet his pants. 

• Tell us about your childhood. What about your family? 

I think I had one of the best journeys. I had valleys and peaks more than peaks in my life. I was from the Defense officer’s family. I studied at various places and did my schooling from Delhi. I was a good student in the sense, when I say good student, I used to pass without any problems. So, I would never even bother about it because for me, the big picture was that I needed to make a mark for myself.  I was very passionately driven. I didn’t have time for anything. I was pretty focused on certain things in my life.

I did my college, I did B.Com honors and while I was in college. I got an interview call from an organization, which was a worldwide MNC in the paint industry. And I was out of three, 200 odd people. I was the youngest, I finished my graduation and I remember that instance very clearly, the guy who was the regional head was from IIM at that time and while interviewing, he asked me, why should I select you? I looked in his eyes and said, why shouldn’t you select me? And he said, what is your purpose? I said to replace you in the next five years.

He went back and he asked, he said, you think you’re going to do it? I said, yes, I am doing it. I don’t think I will do it. So he said, any other things I just said, I’ll come without a salary. I’ll perform for a year. If you like, what I do, if I can contribute, then I will dictate what I want. So let’s have a deal. I don’t want a salary because I believe in a job. The full form of a job for me is just over broke and I didn’t want to be broke. So, I remember my first job was as a Sales trainee. I was told to go house to house with a can of paint and paint the walls. The journey started 4 years ago. Uh, I did achieve what I desired. So, I had a responsibility to become the hierarchical terms manager. So I was very close to replacing him. 

• So what was his reaction? I really want to know what his reaction was when you replaced him.

Well! I miss him even today because while I got promoted, he got a job as the President of an International Organization in Indonesia but he told me before leaving, he said you are crazy. I said, sir, I’mreal. I’m not crazy. And the journey then started. And then I moved across industries.

I went to the luggage trade then, uh, publishing, and then I moved into electronic typewriters then into satellites. Then, I moved into automotive retail. None of them had anything in common except KSAhluwalia and nothing happened. There’s only common, rarely was one. And the second is I; I think I was a little a diviner because I used to do all those things with other people never did. Because if anyone said that there is help needed in this function, I used to jump in because I had nothing else to lose. When you move from sales to marketing, from marketing to logistics, from logistics to pop it communications from pop it communications to HR then to regulations. I did everything because that was the best thing for me to learn without a cost. 

So you need to be, you need to have integrated diversity in your life. The only! The only thing common in it was. I just wanted to do it because if someone, I believed in this maxim. This was very, very close to my heart. And still is if someone has to be successful, why not me? If someone has to do something different, why not me? And if someone has to make money, why not me? My world was me means my team.You tell us what not to do or people can’t do, we do it! 

• So, you always had this go and getter attitude and I think you got success because of that. So did you face any failures as well?

Well, I think I had more failures than successes. I enjoyed my Failures; I celebrated them because every failure told me what not to do. 

• So when you say that I enjoy my failure. How do you embrace your failures?

I’ll tell you a very simple line of how I enjoy my failure, when my team never used to do well. We actually used to have a party that day, because we are weird, because that’s the time the team needs you and you as their guide or as a friend or a philosopher, have to lead by example. You don’t question your people, you support them, you nurture them, and you admire them. You are a leader only when you die as an individual to rise up as a team, you get paid because they perform; you get accolades because they do it for you.

And who cares about success or failure? We used to have fun. We literally had fun during my corporate days; we never used to look at the numbers. We created the numbers. No one can give me targets for my life. I define my life with my team. And if you define your targets with your team, you never question them after that.

So that is known as participative management, empowering. These are not words. They are concepts and you need to have a team of giants because it’s a different way to lead a giant because you got to be better than them. So you have to brush up your competencies, capabilities, and capacities, so you always have to be grounded in life.

• How to bring synergy in the team since everyone comes from a different background and they have a different perspective? 

People aren’t different; we have the same pains and failures. We have the same frustrations. We have the same valleys and peaks. I always used to tell my team, you’re working for your self-growth, both in functions and in your personal levels. The only competition you have in your life is you. And the only stopper in your life is you.

So, get rid of it. The Lord has given us abundance and we need to join our dots; you have to strengthen your strengths and weaken your weaknesses, Change the paradigm, change the gold plate. Life is too easy. We went into the jargons just to eat an ice cream. 

Every person has a distinct strength. I’m right now, a good leader is one or a leader is one forget good, bad who identifies it and makes  him that strength his philosophy of life. That’s what a manager or a leader is. He doesn’t need to sermonize, “Paarkhi hona chahiye heere ki jaach krni aani chahiye”

One just has to be simple, just work with people. Not against people, help them to be better than you. And I, I can tell you my, I always had abundance in my life. You know, why my team always performed. They made money, I also. They grew in their status, I also. So, if the team is fantastic. You think I’m going to ask them, I shared an example with you just for references. Yeah, because this is people. People think that to deal with people or you don’t deal with people, you actually embraced people. So I’ll give you an example in one of the organizations, uh, I had, uh, uh, one of the young girls who was on a family trip and she developed some complications and there was an incentive to work overseas.

And one day I was walking through the corridor and we had big, big tears. I asked her what happened. She said, uh, I was known as Aloo, she said aloo I can’t go. I looked at her. I said, why, what happened? She said, because I did, I can’t do my targets.So there was a young management trainee I had, he was passing by and I called him by his name and asked him. He mentioned she’s mad. She doesn’t understand anything. Her targets have been done. We never told her we are going as a team. To this team, What questions do you ask? To this team, you will take daily reporting’s. To this team, You will do those stupid Monday meetings. No you don’t!!

If the team works as a unit, a good or an effective manager is one who sits at their side. And enjoys them performing and hitting the ball. You don’t need to hit the ball. The guys who can hit it better than you allow them, give them freedom, give them the capacity and the tenacity to challenge what others can’t even dream. That’s a team. Teams are nurtured. They’re created. Every person has a winner in them, identifies that street and that’s life is, nothing more common sense. 

• Did you get a chance to go to a business school or how important it is to go to a smart school?

I was blessed to be a good sales guy. I don’t know why, but I used to sell, I could sell anything in the sense. I never used to sell a product. I used to create a value proposition. I still say people who talk about numbers. They don’t understand selling. Selling is divine; selling is something which is nurtured. And I can share this anecdote with you. I love non veg though I don’t eat now because my wife doesn’t allow me. Okay! So I remember this, I had dealers of paints in the paint industry and they used to wait for me to have lunch, “Aloo aayega hum ikhhate khana khaayenge”.  It means that some non-veg dishes will come. I believe people worked for people. They never worked for a company and most of us leave the organizations because we don’t have good people or affected people to handle us. It’s simple, it’s a simple line. Just love your guys.

•  How important is humility or gratitude in your life?

Is humility an attitude? No, that’s the easiest thing to do.Three things I was taught in my school. And, and maybe in your school or in all schools, when you, when you have to get some work done, say, please, when someone does your work say thank you. And when you are wrong, say, I’m sorry. That’s all. That’s nothing but gratitude. Who has given us this right to judge people, who is giving us this right to run down people?

Who has given me this right to pin you down? I am going to win a game with you, or we need to work together. What is more important? What’s my focus? To score brownie points, use language as a confusing tool. Use monument, jargons to blow you down. That’s pedestrian. That’s pedestrian. Simplicity is a virtue!

• What are the key learnings from the Guru Granth Sahib?

Okay, let me, let me clarify this. You don’t understand Gurbani. Yeah; you don’t have the capacity and tenacity. You celebrate it, you immerse in it, and you dissolve in it. ‘Fanna ho jaao’ and the master will then play the game for you. Stop doing the role, what the master wants to, and when he hits the ball, it goes out of the stadium.

And when I hit the ball, it doesn’t even roll; let the expert do it, man. Just surrender. You got to be humble. Master gives you problems not to tumble me, but to humble me, my master will never, like me to be defeated. He can’t. Defeat is not in his DNA. then how can I have a defeat in my DNA? If you really love someone, you don’t question 

•  How important is self love?

That’s the only thing you and I need to do and you know, and you know. I’m amused by people. If you tell someone now, I’m so amused if you tell someone you’re looking very good.

•  Tell me one thing, which people, the guy, the people who love themselves, don’t have time to ask questions. Successful people don’t have time to look at what others are doing. They are busy doing themselves; you need to constantly reinvent yourself. Are we doing that? And for that education is important and you can only get educated when you’re humble.

I write for a couple of magazines. I write on philosophy. I talk upon things and I, I was, I was, I would think inspired by your code by Albert Einstein. He said, what I know is so little and to the immense I am ignorant. So I read, I don’t even remember the number of courses in management because after doing the course I realized, I didn’t even know this.Goodness, what’s ignorant guy I am.

Life is a series of unlearning to learn. You need to share your knowledge. Gurbani talks about giving, not taking,Gurbani talks about thankfulness, not bargaining,Gurbani talks about immersion not exclusivity. It talks about inclusivity. And as Sikh I’m actually amazed when I read so-called messages on the net.

I am proud to be a Sikh. Said a Sikh, can never be proud. None of my masters were proud. I am blessed to be a Sikh. I’m blessed to be that chosen one who wears a ‘Pagdi’, which is a seat of responsibility, a distinctiveness I’m a right. And a brag. How can I be proud? How can I be haughty? How can I be judgmental?

MK: Yes. The star I can say that the star comes with responsibility,

KS: The star is not a fashion statement it’s a responsibility

MK: Responsibility

KS: Are we responsible? I have no idea about it.

MK: I am going to say going forward, that I’m blessed to be a Sikh and not proud to a Sikh I have learned this. So I try with every session that I’m going to take something and I have noted it down that ‘I’m blessed to be a Sikh and not proud to be a Sikh.’

KS: Thank you

MK: So like we are talking about, yes. So, how important, sorry, coming back to management, how important is to identify and work on one blind spot? 

KS: Wow. It’s as important as breathing. Okay. You need to, first of all, what’s a blind spot, a blind spot is what you don’t know, or you choose not to know. I’m right.

MK: Yes

KS: So I’ll give you a different perspective. Now, since we’re talking about something in general and there’s two words, which we all use very, very at the drop of the hat that I decide, or I choose successful people to choose,they don’t decide. You decide when you have alternatives, when you choose you’re responsible and accountable for your actions.

So I don’t decide. I choose. And then you choose, you have integrity in it. I’m right. And when you’ve got integrity, 

‘Agar imaan ho to khuda bhi dol jaata hai’ Imaan rakkho.

MK: Beautiful Poetry, So do you have inclination towards poetry, sher o’ shayari ..I can sense that it’s there somewhere. Right?

KS: Aisahai Manpreet jo kuchnikrtevo Sher o’ Shayari karte hai. Aur ham us category me hai jise kuch ni aata vo sher o’ shayari karta hai.

MK:  I am. I’m happy. I’m going to say this happily. I’m glad.

KS: I will tell you something to do the shero Shayari. You need to be light at heart. Okay. You need to be independent of your own self.

‘Shayari koi dewaana hi hai shayari ek bawaalhai jo andar se aata hai aur kab aata hai kambhakt pata bhi nahi lagta’.

I tell because I worked with the CEOs and all, I always tell them

‘jab mera waqt tha tab mere pass waqt nahi tha, aaj mere pass waqt hai lekin yaaro aaj mera waqt nahi hai’.

So enjoy your moment. enjoy that moment.

‘ye pal me hi zindagi hai, raat ko jab sote ho naa to subha utho ya naa utho ye khuda ke upar hai, lekin agar uthgaye ho to kuch aisa karo ki khuda bhi yaad rakkhe’. 

Every day when I get up in the morning, I only pray for one thing.

‘Rehmat teri karam tera, tu apna kaam kr mujhe apna kaam krne de’

MK: Oh, wow. So how do you relate teachings of Sikhism in management studies? Is there any responsibility for getting it together?

KS: Sikhism is pure management. Sikhism, is they are the guiding principles today of Sikhism is the modern management. I’ll give you; I can give you a thousand examples for that. Let’s talk about one example. There are three principles of Sikhism I’m right now I’m right? 

‘Naam japo, Kirat karo and Vand Chako narak ho’

The economic principles of today are based on these.

And in Mahabharata there are two people. One is the man of wisdom and the man of action, the man of wisdom was Krishna or the man of action was Arjuna right now, the Sikh masters were very smart. They created one, the collapsed both in one where you do ‘naam japte how’ you become centered when you become centered, your energies are focused.When your energies are focused and you work, your productivity is at the maximum. Am I right when you produce, when you work at the maximum, your productivity is also good. Your output is the best. So,you consume what you want, and rest give it to the have-nots. So, you’re creating economic abundance with people, am I right?

Guru sahib was very clear, they were management gurus. We didn’t understand what they were trying to say, because we wanted to understand them. I celebrate with them. It comes from their and what they said is given to the have not and what is the world saying today? The countries which are poor, please help them.

500 years back. One guy thought about it. We created the economic principles of the world. Now I’ll give you one more example, gold Palm skills. There are people who have that. They can talk about comm skills, right? They call them from the course good for them. The greatest comm skills document in the word is where Guru Nanak talks to engages with informed knowledge people and the way he gets them with them all with him

What a skill? What, what negotiations they did? What turnaround goals he did? It’s a complete conversational concept who did that 500 years back. Okay. I’ll give you one more and then I can give you thousands. I can go on forever for this. Today, we talk about a concept in the modern management, servant leadership, right.

350 years back someone did that for us. Who was that?

That someone did that for us. Who was it?

‘aape gur chela’

am I right? It’s a new concept in HR today. So About leadership? 350 years back someone did it for me.

The greatest diplomatic document in the world is “Zafar Nama” Management terms I am giving corporate communications, Visioning, Missioning, Process Production, Process Control, Quality Management, Grinding one brand 237 years. Then masters created. The brand hasn’t changed. The distinctiveness of the brand is still fresh and alive.

Name one brand, which has sufficed over 300, 400 years. Coke couldn’t do that. They changed the bottles, nothing changed in this brand. And this brand is eternity.

And from a million, you can have this distinction there. Yes or no. Yes. Marketing. Isn’t that marketing? Isn’t that brand management, right? Isn’t that brand equity isn’t that product placement is that, that market segmentation who did that, they were not MBAs. They were not from Harvard’s. They could create thousands of Harvard’s.

I talk about this for the last 10 years. I can go on and on Sikhism is nothing but pure management of its intellect. It is using emotions and intelligence constructively. What Daniel Coleman today talks about emotional intelligence. 500 years back. People did that already.

MK: So you read a lot. I can feel that

KS: In light of a vein because I don’t know anything. I need to read.

MK: Bandhan read the thing of being modest. Any, any 

KS: Bandhan is being very charitable today. I don’t know why. 

MK: Sohe is saying so much to learn from you but now you’re being modest?

You said that you read a lot, so before I end I want to know that name the 3 books that you want to suggest that we should bring to learn management

KS: Yeah. I give you one example. Read those skills up, in vibe those skills and read about them. Which can help you to be a better human being, not a bitter human being and just stay away from the guys who are energy.

A man is not known by the company he keeps, but he’s better known by the company he avoids. So stop getting sucked with wrong people in life. You’ve got to be discreet. You’ve got to be sensible because our gurus. He said, use your intelligence and your intellect, man. Don’t follow the best because masses are like asses.

You are born to win. You’re never conditioned to lose, read anything, but read with passion, integrity, and tandem, and then the book becomes a blessing. The book teaches you. That day, you must have seen that in your life when the dance takes over the dancer, that day it’s different. Right?

When the anchor, when does, when, when the movement takes all the anchor behind anchor doesn’t know what, huh? This is divine. Here’s a no, no, no. So let that feeling, let that feeling be there. And I learned this because I used to end this with my, with my team every time. This is what my tech master taught me every day.

It teaches me every day and the two lines, which I wanted to share with your permission. 

MK: Yes. 

KS:If not you then who? And if not now, then when thank you. 

MK: So, I wanted to end this, but I would like to add one more question. How to strike a perfect balance between gratitude and confidence? Because of cos you have been saying that we have to have that confident attitude but therein we have to be humble of cos and that’s the one thing which has to be there in us. So how to strike a balance between that. So, you are humble yet, You are confident you don’t look

KS: Isn’t that easy?

Mk: Yeah, maybe this, we have to answer to people.

KS: You don’t, you know, you don’t need to answer. I’ll give you a very simple analogy. The guys who are successful, they are always humble. You know why? Because they want to share things. And I quote a very simple example to you and maybe you will get it.

A lot of people you’ll get a lot of answers. I moved into an organization that was into satellite trade and I came from an organization, which I didn’t know what a bit and a byte are, that’s basic. And I had guys with me or folks with me who were from IIS and IITs, hardcore professionals. And I was like meat for them.

I didn’t know anything, great. I remember, I went to my chairman and I, I told my boss and I said, I don’t understand this. He looked at me, he said, learn it. I said, learn it. Meaning how can I learn software yaar? Yeah. I thought maybe he didn’t understand. That’s why I raise my voice a little bit.

So I ask him. You didn’t understand. He looked at me without any expression. He said to learn it. I said, this guy is gone. He wants me to fail. Frustrated, came out. He calls me back to his room and says, tomorrow morning, we’re flying to Ahmedabad and meeting the ISRO chairman, Dr. UR Rao.

Dr. UR Rao the satellite man, I am meeting him. He’s a scientist. I can’t even joke with him. Do you understand what scientists are?

He said tomorrow morning he has no choice. I went after the nicest cities, he said, what can I do for you now? What the hell can I, you do for me? I don’t know anything. Then my brain works, sometimes it works now at the right time. I said, doc, I want you to be my mentor. I don’t know anything. I don’t know what sprayed. That guy was an accomplished man.

Yeah. Six hours. Me and Dr. Rao sitting in a room. He gave me the time he personally trained me. And when Dr. Rao talks about his thousand books, and about that, he gave me a personal autographed book office, which has a price position for me. And then this man, this institution, not a man arranged a meeting with the principal scientific officer of the government of India, Dr. Kalam

Wow. Dr. Rao, you are now and the doctor, and Mr. Kalam or Dr. Kalamis an institution and I was there for one hour, but a magnet. And he only talked about things which were not professional. And I still remember one of his words. He said, just be nobody. And one day you will become somebody that’s a, that’s an institution, right?

You don’t say, you say, sir Kalam, right? Yes. You don’t say he’s a politician that institutions. So, I always say that answering your question directly when the disciple is ready, the master appears. So, you’ll be very first work on yourself. Nature takes care of you. Abundance is a part of you. Not apart from you, humility and gratitude is your core DNA. You can’t leave your DNA.

Be an individual, have individuality, not personality. Personalities for people.

‘Haath me shafa ho to kaam ghar par aata hai, haath me safal aai ye pehle’

MK: It was an insightful session and then I would like to end it here by taking this learning so nobody can become somebody.   

I request you to say it once again, loud and clear. So this, teacher’s day we can take this with us and it was a beautiful session, beautiful so much to learn. I can go on and on, but it has to end as it’s 51 min already.

KS: Let me, let me answer that, the session wasn’t beautiful. You were beautiful. I just happened to correlate with you.

That was one second, “be nobody, and one day you will become somebody.”

And this was given by Dr. Kalamto me. And that is that I follow that as the ultimate truth, because. I always used to tell my team and I still maintain that. I used to tell them, take the last presentation. I take only five to 10 minutes. We will set the stage on fire.

“baccho se to khelliye ab do-do haath hamare saath khel lo tumhare khelne ke andaaz badaldenge ham”

MK: WOW

KS: Thank you.

MK: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I didn’t try to say Aloo because it is too cute. Thank you so much for your time. It was, I can’t tell you how insightful the session was. I learned a lot. Seriously my gratitude to you.

KS: Thank you. Thank you to your team. Do well, as always because you are born to win, never conditioned to lose. Okay. 

Bye-bye. 

MK: Thank you.