Dont Sprint The Marathon Summarised

Some Impressionistic takes from the book
Dr. V. Raghunathan’s
“ Don’t Sprint the Marathon”
by Ramki
Ramaddster @ gmail.com

V.Raghunathan’s first career was an academic- as Professor of
Finance at IIM- Ahmadabad for nearly two decades, until early 2001. His
second – a corporate one- started in 2001, first as President , ING
Vysya Bank for four years and then with GMR Group- an infrastructure
major. He is currently CEO, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation . Also since
1990 he has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Bocconi,
Milan, lecturing on behavioral finance
 Has published over 400 academic papers & popular articles & six
books
 Author of the best-seller ‘ Games Indian Play’ – why we are the way
we are ( Penguin 2006)
 Stock exchanges, Investments & Derivatives ( Tata McGraw Hill 2007
)
 Writes in guest column in ET , Mint and is a busy public speaker
 Has probably the largest private collection of old locks in the country ,
a cartoonist with a national daily, has played chess at all India-level
About the Author

As proud & ambitious parents, we often push our children to
excel in ways that may help them achieve some early
successes- but may sap their stamina to endure the more
difficult challenges which life may throw at them. What is more,
our obsessive rush to get our children off to a good start
overlooks at the fact that in life, as in a marathon, an early lead
hardly matters, but being too intent on coming first may leave
our children lacking in many of the life skills that a normal
childhood would teach them.
Success depends on attitude to life which is develops over the
years, which is more than a good start, more than being from an
ivy school, more than an early launch pad
Happy Reading
Prelude

“I was running the city marathon. As soon as the race began, I found myself the last of
the runners. It was almost embarrassing. The fellow just ahead of me wisecracked, “ Hi
there! What is it like to be the bottom of the heap?” I replied “ you really want to know ?”
and dropped out … by Anonymous
2
If Life is a race

If Life is a Race…. You push yourself
If you are like most people, you probably expect a lot from yourself
You push your self
 Hard to stay ahead- Professionally, Socially & perhaps every
which way
 First one to get promoted, best rating the company year after year
 Wanted coveted posting
 Cannot take the delay of promotion
 You do not recall when you spent a whole day with your family
 You don’t remember when you helped a less fortunate man on the
street

If Life is a Race…. You happen to be a parent
You expect no less & probably more from your child
Want to be prouder parent if your child were among the top
performers in the class & outside it
Tacit expectation of your child that he will top at everything & crack
that mathematic Olympiad & captain the school cricket & football
team
Over & above this, he would also win
the spelling bee, and maybe also walk
on WATER
You drive your kid from school to tuitions to
swimming classes to tennis lessons.
Organize the kid’s summer vacation
meticulously
Compare the kid favorably or unfavorably
to other kids

If Life is a Race…. An assumption
 It needn’t be, it shouldn’t not be and it isn’t
 If so why most educated parents make their kids
 Hop tuitions before & after school
 Want to solve the question paper all over again at home
 Expect them to top their class year after year
 Acing any competition they enter
 Make them run for swimming classes to tennis to cricket
 Peg their all hopes on 3 letter national entrance tests as a good
start of life
 Oprah Winfrey – famous talk-show host &
also a Marathon finisher, maintains
“ Running is the greatest metaphor for life “
Oprah was referring to the metaphor of running
marathon & not the sprint

If Life is a Race at all , it is a Marathon , not a Sprint
 If life is a race at all – is this way to run ?
 Most of us are in great rush
 Often unclear about where we are headed
 We do this frequently & also with our children
 We rush, we rush them – not exactly knowing where we
headed & why
Near universal agreement that life, taken as a whole, mimics
a Marathon a lot more than sprint
Then What are the chacteristics that
distinguish a Sprinter from a Marathon runner

“We are different , in essence, from other
men. If you want to win something, run
100 meters. If you want to experience
something, run a marathon” – by Emil
Zatopek
3
Sprint
Vs.
Marathon

Sprint
Marathon
Sprint vs. Marathon

Short run- Sprint vs. Long run- Marathon
 Sprint short run typically under 400
meters
 Marathon long run – 26 miles and
385 yards

Flat & straight stretch vs. A twisting & turning track with ups &
downs

Sprint -Strength vs. Marathon -Stamina
A sprint may last a few seconds . A
Marathon may take a few hours
Respiratory, Cardiovascular and
musculoskeletal make-up of sprinters
& marathon runners are entirely
different
A Sprinter is rather muscular and built
strongly for power
A Marathon runner is typically skinny
or lean and built for stamina &
endurance
The former is built for rapid burning of
calories and latter for slow burning of
calories

Sprint – Energy vs. Marathon- Mental toughness
Sprinter needs energy & it is all about
action. There is little time for a sprinter to
use his head. Think with his legs & not
mind – Maximum possible burst of energy
in a minimum time
Marathon runner is all about mental
strength. Many runners “ hit the wall” when
bodies ‘ run out of gas’ . This is when he
switches from legs to mind . Spreads his
energies evenly.
Does not mean sprinters do not have
strong minds, Strong willpower,
endurance, the never –say- die attitude,
patience, timing, mind over body plays a
strong & a more sustained role for
marthoners

Paavo Nurmi -Finland
National hero of Finland who set in
his time 40 World records
 Won nine gold medals & 3 silver
medals in the Olympics from 1920
to 1928 in 12 events
 He said
“ Mind is everything: Muscle –
Pieces of rubber “
All what I am, I am because of my
MIND

Jacqueline Gareau
 1980 Boston Marathon Champion
 “ The body does not want you to do this .
As you run, it tells you to stop but the
mind must be strong”
 You must handle the pain with Strategy
 It is not age; it is not diet, It is the will to
succeed
 General S.Patton of US army – 1912
Pentathlon Olympian
“ You have to make the mind run the body.
Never let the body tell the mind what to do.
The body will always give up. It is always
tired in the morning, noon and night. But
the Body is never tired if the mind is not
tired”

Sprint – A rush of speed vs. Marathon- Strategic persistence

Sprint – Visible progress vs. Marathon- Not-so-visible progress
Sprinter’s progress through the race is
visible to the most casual observer.
Within seconds of the start, it is easy
to tell the likely winning
 Marathon runner, it will not be clear who
the winner will be.
Being ahead of another runner for most
of the race hardly implies that the one
ahead will necessarily also finishes
ahead
In fact, there may be little correlation
between being ahead very early in the
race & being the final winner

Sprint – End vs. Marathon- The path
Sprinter is unwaveringly focused on the
finishing point every second of his dash
Finishing post is his sight every moment &
straight ahead all the time
There is no particular fun in the process of
running per se, there is nothing to enjoy en
route , except a rush of wind on his face
Marathon runner, for most of the race, needs to focus
only on his trail and not the finishing post
The trail is beautiful, by itself could be a source of
enjoyment as well
He can take that breather en route, or slow down for a
drink of water
Finishing line it is never in sight , until he is almost
there , though he knows broadly where he is headed

Sprint – Winning vs. Marathon- running the course
 For Sprinter finishing first is all that
matters
 There is little consolation in merely
completing the race
 The joy comes out of winning & not
merely running
For a Marathoner his great source of satisfaction
comes from having endured the distance & bettered
his own time
The experience of running & finishing the marathon
successfully can be its own reward

Sister Marion Irvine
At the age of 54 qualified
for the 1984 US Olympic
Marathon trials at 2 hours
and 51 secs.
 Calls the marathon a more
or less spiritual experience
“It is elevating & humbling at the same time. Running along a beach at
sunrise with no other footprints in the sand, you realize the vastness of
creation, your own insignificant space in the plan, how tiny you really
are…..”

Sprint – Competing with others vs. Marathon- Competing with Self
 Sprinter is constantly focused on others , lest
they outrun him
 If he finds someone gaining on him, he strains
that much extra to remain ahead
 It is comparison with others that guides his run
 He is externally driven
 Because of distance is as much a race
against oneself as against competitors
 Focusing on self to better his earlier
timing
 He wills himself to continue when his
entire body rebels against continuing
 His relative position against the
competitors is largely irrelevant to him

Sprint – Start vs. Marathon- Finish
For a Sprinter a good start is more crucial
His take posture & timing has to be just right
The micro-second advantage take-off timing off
the block is very crucial to success
 A bad start almost invariably spells the disaster
in the race
 Well begun is half-done
 Good start is practically irrelevant
 Keeping a steady pace, he hardly
needs to worry about anything else,
until he is very close to finish
 All’s well that end’s well

Sprint – Competition vs. Marathon- Camaraderie
 Normally run for causes & attract amateurs in large numbers – fun & revelry
 It is not unusual to see tens of thousands of people running a marathon for a
cause
 Often the atmosphere is of camaraderie & amity
 In short running a marathon calls for optimizing across several characteristics ,
while sprint is essentially calls for maximizing the speed
How do we prepare ourselves or our child to
run the marathon of life ?

A person who has put India’s Pharma industry on the Global map
Son of fairly well-to-do turmeric farmer from a village Tadepalli – A.P
He studied in a local school before moving on to a Junior collage in
Guntur & an average village boy
He scored 59.16 % in the State board & then went to Andhra
Christian college in the same town for B.Sc. In Chemistry.
Unsure of his performance dropped out to appear again in
supplementary.
The only anxiety Dr.Reddy’s parents even showed was to move Anji
to his Grand Ma’s place for his primary schooling – due to the
reason his father did not want the 8 year old child crossing the
Krishna river every day .
Anji was fairly mischievous with whole lot of friends , often cutting
school prayer to indulge in some prank with his friends
Dr.Kallam Anji Reddy- Dr. Reddy’s Labs

Remarkable about him – Sharp memory and general reading
He had a wide circle of friends whom he was genuinely fond of &
spent most of his time with them
He is not a sprinter by far shot
His love of languages came handy – combined his language skills &
some “ smart working” helped him getting through the exams
With his PhD – Joined IDPL in 1969 – 6 years learning bulk drug
manufacturing led him to explore drug making by himself
1976- Dr.Reddy founded his first company –Uniloids Ltd
1980 set up the Standard Organics and the flagship of Dr. Reddy’s
lab in 1984
Became the first Asian company every outside Japan – list on the
NY stock exchange
Dr.Kallam Anji Reddy- Dr. Reddy’s Labs

Dr. Reddy did not have a grand start in life
Did not start the life from city
He wasn’t a conventionally brilliant student
Did not study in a fancy school , college or university
First job was not with an MNC
He did not job hop
Concentrated on learning the ropes
Enjoyed every act of reading
Jogged along at a steady pace, took time to reflect & timed it
well
Dr.Kallam Anji Reddy
Well then, don’t you need to know yourself better so that you can get
yourself, or if you are a parent, your child, in better readiness to take
on life ?

5
Developing the
right attitude to
life
“If you are running a marathon : “
Set your own pace. If you black
out fater five minutes, you are
probably running too fast. If a
workman from the city comes by
and paints you green, you may be
running too slow.” – A Jogging tip

 A Child
Good grasp on subject
Ability to internalize it and application to life
Unable to reproduce or vomit the book during examination, which may
compromise the grade
OR
 A Child
That can pick up subject superficially
Have an excellent short term memory & reproduce the subject
Score the highest grade
Often
As parents , we want the first option
But end up promoting the latter option in our kids
Are we hung up on examination performance ?
Do we regiment our lives & also those of children
We expect from Children, what we failed to achieve ourselves
Bringing up Children

 Well begun may be half done-more so in a dash
 Need for the long-distance runner not to start with a fracture or
sprained ankle
 Average start is good enough
 Same thing with Children – reasonably a good performance in
school , well adjusted, takes a healthy interest in everything ,
enjoys the school, fond of teachers
 High social confidence & trust
 Shaping a Child’s personality
 Parents to be a marathon coach & not a sprint coach
 Need for us to understand certain basic differences between long-term & short-term
orientation in life
 This will help us to shape own life & Children’s attitude to life
 Desire to excel
 This is not right to say that a desire to excel is not a desirable trait to impart
 The excellence should come more from the desire excel one’s own performance rather
than competing against others
 Prepare children for success & excellence in life
Bringing up Children

 Thomas Wolfe – American novelist
 “You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become
uninterested in money, compliments or publicity ! “
 Money , fame or power are consequences of Success and not goals
of success
 What does the success mean ?
 Making as much money as possible
 About being as famous as possible
 About being as powerful as possible
 Paris Hilton is famous
 Do we want our daughters to adopt her as a role model ?
 Can she be really called successful , even if she is well known ?
 Can her lifestyle be a route to anyone’s happiness
 Is happiness key to success or success the key to happiness
Successful life

6
Can ordinary
walkers Jog ?
I don’t make deals for the money, I’ve got enough, much more than I’ll ever need. I
do it to do it – Donald Trump

 T.Raja popularly known as Auto Raja
 Founder & Secretary of New Ark Mission of India
 This is dedicated to rescuing & rebuilding the lives of
destitute & dying people on the streets
 His father was a telephone linesman & did not get the right
parental love
 Took Stealing , drinking & gambling at very young age
 Ran away from home & lived on streets for two years
 Raja decided to work for his basic needs & used drive auto &
taxis
Auto Raja- Founder of New Ark Mission
 He also served as body guard & as a hit man in the auto union
 He wanted to dedicate his life to help the dying& destitute people on the streets
 He set up New Ark Mission for helping these people
 Today he is joined by his wife & three children on the mission
 In the last 13 years their mission has rescued over 3000 people from the streets of
Bangalore – 1300 died a peaceful death , loved & cared for
 700 were reunited with their families
Is this person not successful in his life ? – Surely – it is the will that makes it

 Subash –Anubhav
 Left formal schooling at the age of 11
 He worked on the Delhi platforms on odd jobs & domestic help
 He went through Kaleidoscopic experiences- from distress to excitement
 Experienced hungry days & nights
 His core was touched by Philanthropist couple-Jacob & they taught his to read at home
 Then he worked with various NGO’s helping street children in Delhi
 Today Anubhav reaches out to about 800 runaway & street children in Delhi & Haryana
 V. Mani – Retd AGM of RBI
 Set up SOCARE ( Society’s care for the Indigent in 1999)
 Helping the life convicts children through this- providing food , shelter & education
 Mani & his wife play a parental role for these children
 Kishore & Karunashrya
 Mahantesh & Samarthan – Trust for disabled
 Ashish Goyal
Some Ordinary people
So how do we instill such values in our children?

7
Let Children
grow in their
own time

An Olympian, Asian & National top athlete
Excelled in 100, 200 & 400 meter sprints
One of the fastest Indian runners & came from an average
middle class family
Early schooling in Kolkatta in bengali medium
She , her mother and elder sister moved to Bangalore in
1975 at the age of 8
House was near Kanteerva stadium & her mother ensured
that the girls spent their evenings in the stadium
Mr.Gill India’s leading triple jumper spotted her talent and
helped her train & she became an easy winner at school
level events
In her high points in her career- representing India in
Olympics & also beating the legendary P.T.Usha & winning
Arujn Award
Today she is a mult-faceted individual – A former top
athelete, a former actress, committed social worked and
now an educationist
Ashwini Nachappa

8
Schooling,
work life &
Competition

A talk with Mr.Narayana Murthy on “ Success”

 What attributes do you think portend
“Success” in life ?
One who is enthusiastic, Optimistic,
Committed , disciplined, aspirational
Given to excellence in whatever he or
she does
 These applies to all vocation chosen
Cannot be one –dimensional &
reasonably expect to be successful
A talk with Mr.Narayana Murthy

What is your idea of success for a youngster ?
At broader level- any one who can bring smile on people’s face when he or
she walks into a room
This may be because of the quality of the work your do, your value system or
commitment to the society
 It does not matter what you do for a living –Plumber, a Soldier, Policeman,
Politician , Civil servant , businessman or whatever
 Teaching wonderfully leaving the work area clean after an expert job

How do you compare the
importance of academic
performance of growing children
vis-à-vis other skills necessary in
life to be successful ?
One dimensional skills will not help in
shaping a complete individual
A youngster who is purely academically
bright , but lacks in social & people skills,
confidence, enthusiasm and discipline
may get that first premium job , but keep
that , and do well in a career , the person
will need all other attributes
Academic performance is one attribute of
success
Overall development is the way for
success

 What do you think hampers parents
& youngsters alike, taking the wider
view of success and careers ?
Partly it is our colonial
background & partly our caste-
ridden biases that makes us look
at some vocations as being lower
than others
An average middle-class parent
cannot think of their child
becoming a successful plumber
or a carpenter.
Any successful individual will tell
you , all skills at the highest level
become equally worthy

 Do you think with increasing choices
available today, a shift in the mindset of
the parents & the younger generation
may be happening after all ?
Today younger generation has many
more options than a generation ago
The mindset of parents us yet to
catch up with the reality unfolding
before us
 Today excellence in any field is
waiting to be rewarded
In free market , there are no castes
There are only two castes
Smart, Sincere, Committed &
Hardworking
Idle fellows

Reading provides for continuing education whether
rich or poor , employed or unemployed , royalty or
pauper
Parents are the role model for children – if they do
not see parents spending any time ever in a
bookshop or library, reading books, it is less likely
the kids will learn to make reading a habit.
This also applies to professionals – smile and
shoeshine may be useful , but without reading there
is no learning
Reading

10
Schooling, for
Mediocrity
The founding fathers in their wisdom decided that children
were on unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails
called schools, equipped with tortures called education.
School is where you go between when your parents can’t
take you and industry can’t take you -by John Updike

By encouraging children to read , desire to know , to learn &
to find out
Instilling them a love of learning
 What they want to learn
 When they want to learn
 How they want to learn
 Pace that suits them best
Allow sufficient autonomy to the child for reading , unless
something which truly unhealthy
Learning is something children do, NOT something done to
children
Provide an environment which is conducive for learning
From teaching to learning
What can Parents do

 A person who all his life competed only with himself
 Probably learnt much more from life than from school
Born in 1950 in Rajam – Srikakulum district of AP , third among the seven
children
 An average middle class family – Parents having small gold & trading
business
 Clearly the boy had far from a grand starting point
 Early schooling was in government school – a local Telugu medium
institution
 Fairly a bright & active boy, albeit somewhat naughty
 Neither excelled in Telugu nor English
 The boy failed his SSLC exams & father made his peremptory declaration –
“ No further studies”
 At this crucial juncture in his life came a remarkable teacher – Damiri
Venkata Rao – who motivated him to complete the SSLC
 Worked hard and passed SSLC 422/500 – 84.4 %
G.M.Rao- He who learnt from his failures

 Rejected by Loyola college – Vijayawada, he went to a college in Bobbli for PUC
 Worked hard & topped the college PUC with distinction
 Obtained 12th rank in provisional selection for BE – Andhra University
 Did well in academics & would help his friends in whatever way possible.
 This popularity drove him to contest college elections to become Secretary
G.M.Rao- He who learnt from his failures
 Through all this, one characteristics remained, a
large circle of friends & he was a people’s
person
 Mastering the art of “ Making friends &
influencing people
 First failure as an adult – unable to bag the A.P
scooters agency for vizag
 Second failure – buying out an oil mill – sales
tax problems – leased out the mill & trucks
 Interviewed by a ferro-alloy company for a job –
he was rejected

 To consolidate our findings
 Not a spectacular start in life
 The boy came from a rural background – educationally backward district
 Family indifferent to academics
 Went to an unknown school & experienced little discipline or control at home
 No clarity on what he wants to do
 Flip side
 Fundamentally nice and responsible youngster
 One who is very bright & strong sense of adventure
 One who is not easily fazed by failure & one who is made by his failures
 Sustained hard work ( is an act of faith) & people’s man
 One who is never wanting in efforts
 One who is not infallible , but is quick to get up & move on
 GMR is still a learner & a man of detail
 Never competed against others
G.M. Rao

11
If you could mail-
order your child
You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child
on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around- and
why his parent will always wave back -by William D.Tammeus

 A thinking & questioning child – not
examination oriented
 Or one who would read up without
questioning & reproduce the correct
answers & top the class
 In the long run – the thinking & questioning
kid is bound to be the winner
What do you want your child to be ?
 The best – Thinking & Questioning with
exam orientation
 The problem is, the two traits do not always
coincide

 India’s education system rewards
regurgitation more than it rewards
reasoning
 It rewards memory more than
analysis
 Conformity more than innovation
 Mediocrity more than acumen
Our Education system

low
low
high
high
Responsivenss
Demandingness
AuthoritativeIndulgent
Uninvolved Authoritarian
Parenting style- Four types

 Should this be indulgent, authoritarian, permissive, authoritative
or uninvolved ?
 Should this be of a marathon coach or sprint coach ?
 Dimensions of parenting
 Disciplinary strategies
 Warmth and nurturance
 Communication styles
 Expectations of maturity & Control
Parenting style
For your to think
How to identify the threshold or cutoff between a healthy and unhealthy level of
parenting involvement?
Which parenting style is the best? Can this be situational ?
What role culture plays in the relationship between parenting style and children’s well-
being?

12
School them
Young?
You send your child to the schoolmaster, but it is the schoolboys who
educate them -By Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Youngest
Mozart- Started playing the
keyboard at age of 3 &
composing music at the age 5
Pascal- Written a treatise on
vibrating bodies at age of 9
Shirley Temple-Won a special
academy award at 7

 Often we hear , get impressed & proud of
 The youngest graduate
 The youngest Grandmaster
 The youngest Cricketer
 The youngest President
 We believe being youngest is also as means getting a head
start in life & highly desirable
 It is true the genius of child prodigies may often manifest very
early in life
 The reverse is not necessarily true. Somehow doing things
early , one does not become child prodigy
The Youngest

13
Reaching out to
children
To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has
already achieved, but at what he aspires to. By Kahlil Gibran

Likes of Children & What works on them
Children
As a rule, prefer games, Plan
and hands on task over
studies
They mostly live in present
They are curious about a wide
range of things
Indirect influences are more likely
to work on children
Children aren’t afraid of working
hard

Dislikes of Children & What will not work on them
 Children
 Dislike excessive words
Deep fear -Dislike examinations , since this will evaluate them
 Has an inbuilt fear of failure
Pushing them hard for a better future goes against the grain of childhood
Dislike concentrating on a narrow range of activities
Forcing them into regimented extra curricular activities – against the grain of
child hood
Excessive discipline stunts their
imagination & mental growth
Putting down children severely for their
failures rarely works in the desired
direction

 From an enlightened middle- class family in Surat.
 Father –successful lawyer & Mother was active in women’s
issue
 Ela never topped her school or college
 Might have been in the top of 10 percentile
 Never unduly pushed in driving herself very hard
 Overall value system was shaped by her highly principled
father
 As child she developed sense of fairness & highly sensitive
to any form of exploitation of the underprivileged
 After a brief career in Government, she took it upon herself
to found SEWA
Ela R.Bhatt

 Ela is the founder of SEWA ( Self employed
women’s Association) has a membership of
6,87,000 women
 The members are
 Vegetable & garment vendors
 In-home seamstresses
 Head loaders & Construction workers
 Bidi roller, Paper pickers, Incense stick makers
 SEWA is the largest organization of its kind
for poor working women in the sub-continent
 Ela became a founder member of “ The
Elders” – along with the likes of Nelson
Mandela & Bishop Desmond Tutu to tackle
some of the most challenging problems in
the globe
Ela R.Bhatt- SEWA

 Her life’s work would earn her a
 Ramon Magsayaay award
 Honorary doctorates from Harward &
Yale
 Padma Bhushan
 Membership of the Planning
commission
 Rajya Sabha membership
 These milestones are just happened as
she ran the Marathon in pursuit of her
mission
 None of these marked the destination of
Sprint
Ela R.Bhatt- The Power of Value

The Last word
 Take a long-term view of life whether one is a child, a
parent or a professional
 Sprint may teach you how to buy; Marathon will teach
you how to build
 Sprint may motivate you to take ; Marathon will teach
you how to give
 Sprint may be about how to win; Marathon will probably
also about how to lose
 Sprint may be driven by desire to be ahead of others;
Marathon is about being ahead of oneself
 Sprint may make you rich; Marathon will make you a
person of substance
 Achievement means different things to Sprinters vis-à-
vis Marathoners
 Achievement in sprint is about winning , where as in
Marathon it may be more about completing the course
itself

Dont Sprint The Marathon Summarised

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Dont Sprint The Marathon Summarised