Indian iconic industrialist Ratan Tata retired at the age of 75 years from chairmanship of Tata group and appointed 46 years old Cyprus Mistry as his successor. This was indeed phenomenal rise of young Mistry. But recently, 4 years later, Cyprus Mistry has been sacked from chairmanship of the group for several reasons, one of the main being allegedly not following ethos of the group.
Is the fall of Cyprus Mistry attributable to his young age, inexperience or being a non-conformist?
John F. Kennedy rode to climax of his popularity and became US president at young age of about 44 years. But, less than 3 years later he was assassinated. Dark patches in his private life and assassination still remain a mystery. Bill Clinton became US president at the age of 46 years and rose to the crest of his popular appeal in about 4 years’ time and got reelected; but within 2 years thereafter, he was impeached by house of US representatives for a sex scandal. Barack Obama came to power as President at the age of 47 years and he seems to have sailed thru choppy waters during his 2 terms totaling 8 years but did not do anything phenomenal. Now, Donald Trump, despite a trail of scandals, has risen to peak of his popularity and been elected as US president at the age of 70 years. It remains to be seen how long he is able to sustain this peak.
Phenomenal boom of dot-com companies occurred in 1995 and lasted 4 years. Dot-com bubble started to bust from 1999 and it collapsed completely by 2001. US housing bubble peaked in 2004 and it busted in year 2007/2008, shattering financial markets worldwide. Iconic PC manufacturer Dell Inc. saw peak of its performance during period 1999 to 2003. From year 2004, Dell Inc. started its downward journey.
Do the above examples suggest that a rise, if phenomenal, has a limited period – perhaps a maximum of 4 years and then pathetic fall invariably follows?Non-conformist,
4 stages of phenomenal rise
Be it an individual, industry or institution, generally there are 4 stages of evolution of an exponential rise:
Phenomenal rise would always prove to be premature!
Very idea of phenomenal rise is fraught with possibilities of pathetic fall.
At no stage of such speedy rise, there is enough time to broaden the base and strengthen qualities or support structure.
When you drive for height, you lose breadth in proportion. If you are young, you have energy but lack experience; you may be tough in your targets but slip on tenacity; you have to manage conflicts but with missing maturity.
During upwards journey, you are oblivious of fact that velocity and virtues, quantity and quality are mutually exclusive.
Sharp rise is only a short cut to growth and works for a short time – may be a max. of 4 years.
So, put your faith in something steady and solid in forward direction.
Widening the base is necessary for getting wider acceptance. Someone coming directly on top may not get necessary support even for most logical actions.
Very aptly stated by you! Thanks a lot for your valuable views.
Very interesting and informative observations. 🙂
True, everything needs time to nurture, be it a personality or organization. I can think of many such examples of premature phenomenal rises. That said, those who only have limited amount of time (e.g. the PMs / Presidents / Govt.), may need to gear-up though! 🙂
Good information!!
Many thanks for your commendable comments and complementary views!
To my knowledge, everyone has enough time to strengthen their structure. While having phenomenal rise, people get overwhelmed and simply don’t pay attention to what they should be doing. If some one genuinely falls short of time, it is better that he/she slows down and pat attention to what would sustain his/her rise.
I remember words from Sir Tata that always follow Failure Story for an Improvement & Not the Success Story.
Very rightly said! Thanks for supplementing it.
But, one thing that the post brings out is – sudden rise or growth without strengthening the base and structure is just a recipe for equally sudden fall.