Here are some thoughts 💭

A moment at aNANTESHWARA temple in Udupi.

Yesterday I was at ananteshwara temple here in Udupi. I saw an elderly man with completely gray hair — not dyed, just naturally grayed out. He was average height, about 5’5”, nothing particularly striking about him. But something about seeing that gray hair made me stop.

Generally, you find the young beautiful. But in that moment, I thought — wow, I need such an elder in my life.

It made me go back and reexamine my life. There have been many instances where I’ve overruled elders and taken all my decisions by myself. I haven’t listened to them. The thing about me is I’m very impatient. Very fast. Maybe some kind of ADHD — that’s probably why I keep changing my profession all the time.

But standing there, looking at that man, I realized I’ve been missing something important.

The brashness of youth.

At 26, I was running my dad’s factory. Managing 150 to 200 workers, handling the day-to-day operations while dad stepped back from active involvement. The business was his — his investment, his effort, his baby — but I was running the operations successfully.

I was bringing in most of the household income. The factory was doing well under my management. And somewhere along the way, I started believing I was the reason for that success.

A client meeting I remember.

There was a client meeting where my dad was present. He tried to speak, but I kept answering the questions. I was doing most of the talking, handling everything. At some point, my dad had to almost request me to let him speak.

I didn’t notice what was happening.

My brother-in-law once made a comment — “Now your son is running the house, isn’t he?” Probably just teasing. But he wasn’t entirely wrong. I was a young person taking power from an elder, thinking I knew better.

What happened after.

My dad passed away. I ran the business for another ten years.

Then I collapsed it.

It took me a decade, but I couldn’t sustain what he had built. The truth was simple: I had been good at operations under his guidance. When that guidance was gone, I didn’t know how to run the business properly. I became more irresponsible, made poor decisions.

What I thought was his slowness was actually restraint. What seemed like caution was experience. He could see a bigger picture that I couldn’t.

What I understand now.

People matter more than power. The relationships you maintain, the respect you show — these things are more important than feeling in control.

Elders appear slow sometimes. They seem stuck in their ways. But they often see things we don’t. They’ve lived through cycles, made mistakes, learned from consequences. That takes time to understand.

Young people — I was one — often can’t see the whole picture. We see what’s in front of us, what needs to be done now. But running something sustainable requires seeing further than that.

It’s usually better to give power to older people. Not because youth is bad, but because experience brings restraint. The young move fast, but fast isn’t always right.

Still figuring this out.

I’m still learning how to navigate this. How do you deal with elders when you think they’re wrong? How do you gain the wisdom to see what they see? How do you find the balance between listening and making your own decisions?

If you have insights or experiences on this, I’d love to hear from you.

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That’s all for now! Look forward to some feedback and comments from you kind readers.