Why Do CEOs (Still) Love Ayn Rand?

How did a Russian-born novelist become such an influential “thought leader” for American CEOs, entrepreneurs, and MBAs — and even Alan Greenspan? Consider the message behind Ayn Rand best sellers The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which speaks to anyone with ambition and a big ego: The gifted should do what’s in their self-interest. If you have a sharp mind, it is your moral responsibility to make yourself happy. The weak are not your problem. “I am for an absolute laissez-faire, free, unregulated economy,” Rand told CBS interviewer Mike Wallace in 1959. “If you separate the government from economics, if you do not regulate production and trade, you will have peaceful cooperation, harmony, and justice among men.”

Rand’s critics claim that the current financial crisis proves her theories unrealistic and selfish. “Her economic ideas were never really relevant or workable,” says Rick Wilson, a sociology instructor at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., which offers a class on Rand’s writings. “The time we’re living through is just another example of that.” And yet 51 years after Atlas Shrugged was published, Rand’s writing still wields considerable influence in business.

Rand’s Objectivist philosophy — which calls for facts over feelings, reason over mysticism, individual over state, and selfishness before altruism — wouldn’t have reached the masses if not for her books. Her first best seller, The Fountainhead, weaved those Objectivist beliefs into the speeches of the book’s hero, architect Howard Roark. Roark, who faces trial for dynamiting a building that he designed after his architectural plans were changed behind his back, tells the jury that he lives on his own terms, with no obligation to men except “to respect their freedom and to take no part in a slave society.”

Drafts of Atlas Shrugged were read by the young Alan Greenspan, who belonged to Rand’s exclusive “Collective,” a group that evangelized Rand’s writings and, in Greenspan’s case, politicized them. Greenspan managed the economic boom of the 1990s on the strength of these ideas, fighting regulatory controls that threatened the free market. But with the Internet bust and corporate scandals that followed, even Greenspan relented as economists scratched their heads over what went wrong. “An infectious greed seemed to grip much of our business community,” Greenspan told The New York Times in 2002. But didn’t Objectivists believe greed is good?

Rand wasn’t the first to argue that government control destroys the entrepreneurial spirit. But it was Rand who went a step further to claim that men are morally obligated to fight for these freedoms.

How She Built a Following

Critics initially slammed Rand’s novels. “Remarkably silly,” “bumptious,” and “preposterous,” the National Review wrote of Atlas Shrugged. But they became best sellers anyway. Readers loved the tart-tongued Rand, with her severe bob and her dollar-sign broaches, not only for her subversive message but for her rebel persona. Business students found Rand through word of mouth, passing around dog-eared copies of Atlas, with its 1,075 pages of plot twists and turns that portray CEOs as heroes instead of villains.

Hugh Hefner and Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas found Rand fascinating. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey both cite Rand’s books as influential, though Mackey has said he doesn’t believe businesses exist solely to make a profit and selfishness is a virtue. In Silicon Valley, Rand’s ideas appeal to generations of entrepreneurs who built the computer industry and the Internet. T.J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, is a notorious Rand fan; Patrick W. Grady named his company Rearden Commerce after the steel magnate Hank Rearden from Atlas.

John Allison, the former CEO of banking giant BB&T, has called Atlas “the best defense of capitalism ever written.” Ironically, the bank has taken $3 billion in the recent government bailout. Still, BB&T’s charitable arm donated several million dollars to start classes devoted to Rand’s philosophy on university campuses. At Marshall University’s Lewis College of Business, which received a $1 million BB&T grant, Cal Kent teaches a course that studies Atlas alongside Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. Kent says the class uses Rand to compare and contrast economic theories from around the world.

Why She Still Has Fans

In the past year, Rand’s brand of unbridled capitalism has taken a beating. Greenspan, likely Rand’s most famous follower, admitted in October 2008 to a “flaw” in free-market ideology, and Objectivists have since distanced themselves from him. “The bulk of the blame for this crisis should be on the Federal Reserve,” says Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute.

Still, sales of Atlas are stronger than ever. Following media coverage last year of the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication, sales rocketed to 185,000 copies, an all-time high.

Many executives are taking refuge in Rand’s heroes today — just as some did in the wake of the Enron scandal, when suddenly all CEOs were painted as villains by an angry public. Her books offer reassurance that self-interest makes the most sense both economically and morally. Entrepreneur Joshua Zader named his two companies after Rand’s work: Atlas Web Development and Atlasphere, an online meeting and dating site for Objectivists, which is currently connecting nearly 10,000 admirers of her philosophy. Anne Omrod, CEO of Chicago-based John Galt Solutions, read Atlas in 1997 and named her company for the novel’s hero. Omrod says C-level execs, now more than ever, approach her at conferences to chat about the company name and Rand. She estimates that a third of her staff of software implementers have read the book and swears she can tell when they have: They perform better. “We don’t make it a requirement to read it,” she says. “You can definitely tell the folks who are reading it. They change their mentality to do good work.”

Another reason Rand is as popular as ever: She was right, argue her followers. They say that much of what she railed against — incompetent CEOs, federal bailouts, bloated government— has become our economic reality today. But was Rand right about the solution? If so, it would take nothing short of a John Galt-inspired strike of the entrepreneurs and the dog-eat-dog capitalists to save this economy.

Music is God

Music
Is the essence of life
Music
Elevates a Human being to a supreme being
Music
Makes one forget grief and smile in glee.
Music
Breaks barriers and differences and unites against evil forces

I believe its true, because I have seen, felt and experienced the kind of effect Music can have on a lifeless soul.

Yes that’s what I was, a lifeless soul, struggling and wriggling with my life, confused, and having a difficult time trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it. My father got tired of telling me to take my life seriously, I always brushed it aside, and so I did even when so many others told me the same, I felt I was happy, and that was what, was important, but soon I realized that, that which I thought was an interesting way of leading life, was actually ruining me, and I realized this at a time when all my plans suddenly shattered right in front of my eyes, and in times such as these what I missed was expressing my feelings to someone, somehow, it was difficult for me to put how I felt in words, and if I did, people always had one common thing to say ‘I told you so’, the only thing that was there to console me was a tape recorder which at least gave me some company, and that’s when I realized what I lacked, The knowledge of Music, I felt, that was a wonderful way of expressing feelings and emotions without saying a word.

Love for music was something that came to me by birth, what with mom being a classical singer and veena player, dad’s astounding sense of rhythm, and my brothers mastery on the Tabla, I was expected to be some kind of a child prodigy, and so dad made me join a music class to learn carnatic classical on the violin, I myself enjoyed it, the sound of the violin was just magical, but my arrogance took over me, and I neglected it to the extent that, eventually I quit learning the violin.

I didn’t feel the absence of music in my life for a long time after that, there were other things that my mind was preoccupied with, but I felt inferior, angry and jealous whenever I saw a friend of mine playing a beautiful tune on some instrument or other, flawlessly, I used to wonder how they could manage to play something having heard it only once or twice before, It kind of became an unsolved mystery for me, and I had to unravel it somehow or the other.

As always, the opportunity couldn’t wait for me to take the initiative and presented itself for me, I just had to notice it, which I did, and then grab it with both my hands, and I would have been an idiot had I not done that. The Brass Band was the best thing that could have ever happened to me, I would have regretted if I wouldn’t have joined it, I had not even seen a real saxophone, but for the movies, so when I first got the chance to lay my hands on a tenor saxophone, I was on seventh heaven.

And then, started the musical part of my life, the most beautiful and exhilarating part of my life. It being a b-flat instrument, I got an opportunity to play the lead tunes along with the trumpets, unlike the alto’s which played a supporting role, with each and every piece my love for music just multiplied exponentially, and soon the inquisitive side of me started nudging me to try and experiment, practice sessions were something that I really looked forward to, for the first time in my life, there was something which was as close to me and dear to me as my own life. I was literally in love with it. For two beautiful years of my life I was proud to be a part of a musically talented and highly professional group, “The Sathya Sai Brass Band”.

Every good thing that starts has to end one day, I finished college and was all set to join the corporate world, but unfortunately, I had to let go off the band and the instrument which was highly responsible in introducing me to myself. Though I was very excited about what life had in store for me on the other side, there was something pricking and jabbing at me reminding me of all that I was going to miss.

Life after college became routine and mechanical, and this time I didn’t take too long to realize what was missing, and so when I got an opportunity to join the Alumni Band, I just didn’t waste any time, the New Year program was phenomenal, and was the kind of thing would just pump your spirits high. That year it was decided, that we will be taking up programs in the middle of the years also, and soon after the new year preparations started for these midyear programs, the venues were identified, pieces were selected and practice sessions organized, man it was all happening, I couldn’t make it to the first program at Karunashraya, but the second program at a orphanage in Chennai was a great hit, more than anything else, everybody was so excited that, it was as if we were back to our childhood, and the children were just unstoppable, every song, every piece was cheered, it was such a hit that they just wouldn’t let us go. This surely was life.

This new year, again I had to miss, but then when it was decided that we should be giving one more program at Karunashraya, I didn’t want to miss it, the practice sessions started in full swing, as each of us had offices to attend, we would meet up at 10:00 in the night and wake up the neighbors. The long drives, sleepless nights and a hard days work all this didn’t bother us at all, there were guys who were even going to office at midnight after the practice, there were others who left their visiting relatives back home and attended practice, all this because we wanted to play good music, the ultimate objective, we wanted to bring a smile on those faces, just for a moment we wanted them to forget their pain and enjoy, experience and live life. The night prior to the program, it was decided that we would all meet up near the mortuary of the hospital and wake up the dead, as they we thought were a much better audience as compared to the sleeping and snoring neighbours and so we did, what with our ‘Brass explosions’, ‘Ganga jatadhara’ and the ‘Socha Hai’s’, even the dead would surely have enjoyed the splendor of music. On the day of the program, though we were performing there for the second time, for me it was a first hand experience of the one thing that is common among the human race irrespective of their color, race, nationality or religion – Pain and Suffering. With each and every note that we played, with each and every song that we sang, we could see their lips opening up to a wide smile, One inmate even went to the extent of saying that our music made him forget his pain for a short span of time, and that really moved all of us to tears. And that was enough for me to realize that “Music is God”.

The second half of 2008

Its been a long time since I have updated my blog, and if I would state the reasons, there will be a never-ending list, but since the last time I had put a post on my blog, a lot many things have happened in this world, which have in a sense kept everyone on their toes.

On a personal front, nothing drastic or radical has happened though, but for the normal routine life. As I think of it, and try to refresh my memory just to pen down at least one significant event for each month since august, I really find it difficult, Hmmmmmmmmm,

Oh yes, myself and Uday had organized a wonderful event at office, which came out very well and was well appreciated by one and all, that was way back in august, My goodness, time sure does runs faster than god knows what. Our boss was so much impressed with our work that he nominated us for a training program on leadership, we were very much excited about it, especially me, because the brochure that was handed over to us was very attractive to begin with, and according to it, we were supposed to spend three nights and two days, somewhere in the wilderness of the nilgiri hills, we were supposed to stay in tents, and it involved trekking, rock climbing and other adventure events too, The only thing about the program that didn’t meet our expectation was the age group of the others who had attended that program, We were the youngest of the lot there, and that was kind of boring initially, but once we got to know each other, it kind of became interesting. The program was aptly named “Born Again”, and likely so, as it was for all those Managers who had reached the zenith of their professional careers and were looking for a fresh dose of leadership gyaan. Anyways, we did have our share of enjoyment, and it surely was a change from the mightily boring life that I was slowly getting used to.

Coming to September, One thing that prominently comes to my mind is the Job fair that I had got an opportunity to attend at Vellore, It was organized by the government of Tamil Nadu, and was a lot different from any previous job fairs that I had attended, usually the ones organized in Bangalore or Hyderabad or any other city for that matter by private players, and the difference was frightening, if I can say so, this truly was contrast to the India Shining that our leaders like to talk so much about, yes they are right when they say that we have the highest pool of young workforce, but then this job fair was an eye opener wrt their employability, We had interviewed around 300 people in the whole day, and were not able to recruit even 10 of them, though these people had certificates which were a proof of their graduation and post graduation degrees, but their inability to even speak a single coherent, meaningful sentence in the English language came as a great surprise, these people were not employable, the same evening we drove down to the Golden temple in Siripuram, the temple which is fully plated with Pure gold, this surely was a very bright example of “India Shining”. On one hand we had thousands of people who had no clue as to how they will be feeding themselves and their families though they had degrees and certificates to boast of, and on the other hand we had this huge temple, plated with pure gold, and the silicon valley of India, The garden city of Bangalore is just a few hours drive from this place, where we see kids who are more comfortable talking to their parents in English rather than in their very own mother tongue.

Though I missed the program at Karunashraya last August, I sure was determined to attend the program at Chennai in October, and so I did, though I barely could manage to attend one or two practice sessions, The program in Chennai was for kids staying at an orphanage, the whole band (chennai and Bangalore) had put in their heart and soul to come up with a masterful performance, the children were elated and overjoyed, we played a couple of tamil songs, hindi songs, and even some of our very own band pieces, and they enjoyed and danced for each and every note of music that was played, they even participated and chipped in with useful contributions, they were an immensely talented lot and had a keen sense for music. It was a really great opportunity to interact with them and bring about a smile on their faces, they were so overjoyed tht at the end of the program they wanted to take photographs with us, we truly felt like “Rock Stars”.

Coming to November, well this was the most happening month I would say, first of all Ravi and Priya got married this month, it was really nice, to see them both so happy in love, I would say they were the only couple who were truly in love. We traveled to srikakulam attended the marriage there and returned back, it was nice, all four of us met up together after a long long time, only chinni and mamu were missing. While I was attending their marriage at Srikakulam, and Uday was visiting his parents at Parthi, somebody who had kept a close watch on our movements, broke into our house from the back and ransacked it from top to bottom, he took off everything that he could lay his hands on, and left, I lost my beautiful laptop and my hometheatre system, there are very few things that I am very possessive about and those two were one of those few, and weirdly they left the whole of my dvd collection and took my personal collection of CD’s which had all my collection of photographs and videos and music, damn that fellow, just when I was all set to ask the all important question to the almighty “Why Me”, we had the Mumbai attacks, God, those four days, were a nightmare, though we were miles and miles away, the brutality of the attacks could be felt sitting at home. God bless those brave soldiers and civilians who laid down their lives. For the first time in my life, I visited a police station, had to sit through a police inquiry, and even have my fingerprints verified.
December was quite cold as usual, we managed to find a house in Bangalore and shift, the present house is lovely, it’s the kind of house where you would love to come back to after a stressful day at work, it’s a big house, with spacious rooms, a sit out, and a big lake right opposite giving you the perfect view. I just love it very much, the only disappointment though was I wasn’t able to make it to the New Year program at Parthi, and Swami as usual was benevolent enough to bless all the ex band boys, our hide and seek goes on.

Happy Birthday Dad.

People say I have a lot in common with my dad
And every time someone says that I feel out of the world
Sometimes I wonder what is my identity, but for my dad
Today if people recognize me and identify me for what I am
If people like my work, its all because of him.

Would I have been the same person if not for him?
I guess not.
He has made sure that I have the right upbringing
The right attitude and the right mix of assertiveness and courteousness.

People tell me that I have a lot in common with my dad
But I wonder, if I am any where close to the kind of ideals he has set
The principles he follows, and the aspirations he sets for himself and for me as his son.

Whatever people say
The truth is, for me he has been my Friend, Philosopher and Guide.
All my life, whenever I found myself at crossroads, whenever I found myself struggling to take a decision
I would just close my eyes and wonder what he would have done, if he would have been in my place. And then the going gets easier for me.

I love you Nanna,

And wish you the very best that life has got to offer on this day and the days to come.

Many Happy Returns of The Day.

Interpersonal Relations

The most complicated relation in this world to understand is how I would like to term it.

I don’t know how the other species maintain such relationships among themselves and I don’t even have any intentions to try and understand that, but I wonder if they have such complex relationships.

Truth they say is greater than God, sadly I haven’t seen a single person in this world who would be ready to accept the most simplest of truths, may be my understanding of it is debatable.

For instance calling a spade a spade can be real unpleasant and would put even the most powerful person whoever he might be in trouble. Dressing it up has always been the best way out.

I had read in one of the innumerable books on how to make friends and be liked by people around, in other words to be social.

Patient listener: Some people never get tired of speaking nonsense, and if you want to or in other words if you need to maintain a good relationship with them you better sit quietly and listen to whatever he has to say, it doesn’t matter how irrational it might be.
Never Argue: During some of these stupid conversations if you do realize that the other person is totally wrong, you better don’t point it out; rather if he calls a dog a donkey agree to that.
Appreciation: On top of that you better find something appreciable in him and tell it to him, one word of appreciation is enough to put him on seventh heaven
Dance to his tune: The last and final blow to win him over completely, speak what he wants to listen not what you feel is right.

The rest of the tricks that he has mentioned in that book revolve more or less around these same lines, and as I am not trying to write a review on his book I wont elaborate on those topics, what I fail to understand though is why do we have to follow these things at the first place, this is a dreadful disease which we knowingly succumb to.

What’s the point of following these rules when at the end of the conversation neither the person who made a point and received accolades for it, nor the person who pretended to have understood the point and appreciated it believe there’s any truth in it.

Take the instance of any relationship for that matter. They say the foundation of any relationship rests on the pillars of Trust, Love and Faith. But does anybody understand the meaning of these words, Do we try to observe these qualities of unwavering faith, selfless love or for that matter uncompromising trust.

We can’t or may be we won’t, because these qualities require not only a strong conviction from our side but also an open minded listener.

A superior at work might say that he is open to a frank opinion or a feedback from his juniors, but can he really have a good sound sleep if one of them points out a flaw in his work.
A wife might say that the best thing that a husband can do to express his love for her is if he would give her a frank opinion about the new recipe she had tried for him, but can she take it if he says that it tastes awful.
My girlfriend might even decide to breakup with me if I would tell her how fat she looks in her new dress.

In most cases the person asking for a feedback knows pretty well that someone might point out a glitch, and at the same time feels disheartened if that is pointed out.

Most of us feel that there is nothing that can be done in this regard because its next to impossible to change how the other person reacts, yes very true, so the best thing to do would be to dress it up nicely and present it in an acceptable way – blunder.

Once we do that, there is one more human tendency that comes into the picture, Expectation. We expect the favor to be returned maybe not from the same person in question but from a different person, maybe from my juniors when I become a Manager, from my next girl friend if not from the present one.

So what is the solution to this problem, in my opinion the best thing to do is to clean ones own backyard first before bothering about the filth in the neighborhood. That might be too much of an asking, because this might give rise to one more serious issue, the ‘what’s there in it for me’ syndrome or may be ‘what do I get in return’ syndrome, well, maybe in the short term nothing, as for the long term, well that only time will say.

The Last Week

Have just reached home after a weeks vacation, this last week was very eventful, so thought would pen down my experiences and share them. Will continue my posts on The Trip after this.

Every year we have a week off for Plant maintenance, and this last week was the scheduled maintenance off, as I didn’t get time to meet some of my friends after I took up this job, I had planned to make full use of this weeks time, and though I had a lot of things planned was able to do justice to a fraction of them.

I started for Hyderabad last Saturday evening, Chins was coming from US after a period of one and a half years, and the last time we met him was when we got together to see him off as he left for his MS, so as planned Vicks and Mams had already started for Hyderabad and had reached on Saturday itself, I reached on Sunday and we all were put up at Chits place, the stage was set for a special welcome for Chins.

I don’t know about the others but I was expecting to meet a US returned Chins in a GAP t-shirt and a changed accent, but to my surprise he had not changed a bit, it was as if we had met only a few days back, Just like old days we sat and enjoyed the F1 race together and chatted along about how he spent his time there, his studies, new friends and other things. That was followed with a dinner we even planned to celebrate the occasion but Mams and Vicks had to return back to Bangalore to attend office the next day and Chins had plans to visit the Visa balaji temple, so had to change plans.

The next day I had plans to visit another close friend of mine, infact that was the reason I stayed back in Hyderabad though I had nothing much to do that day, but then due to some other commitments that meeting had to be cancelled at the last minute, so I was left with nothing to do on a hot and humid Monday in Hyderabad, I was really pissed off with myself for not having planned anything else, But then, my father always says that whatever happens, happens for the good, and my sincere thanks to that friend of mine for having cancelled tht meeting that day, because that gave me an opportunity to meet two very old and close friends, We had done our Intermediate together and didn’t get an opportunity to meet or get together for a long long time, infact that day we were meeting after a period of eight years, we had lunch together and chatted away for a long time, reminding ourselves about all the stupid things we did when we were at college. In the evening I met another good friend who was my junior at college, never really spoke to her when we were at college, well I got to know from her much later that, I had a very bad image at college among girls, that I was very arrogant and was not at all approachable, well I don’t know what gave them that impression but anyways after I passed out she had once scrapped me on orkut and then slowly we got to know eachother and finally we met that day, finally in the evening I boarded the bus to Chennai.

I reached Chennai pretty late the next morning, reason – a flat tyre in the midnight in the middle of nowhere, anyways I managed to reach home by 11:30 my caring bhabi had prepared dosas for breakfast, and I hogged them as if I had not eaten for a couple of days. In the evening Mom and Dad arrived from Kolkatta, and all of us Anna, Mom, Dad and Bhaabi spent the rest of the evening chatting. We had a family dinner all five of us together nearly after a year and that was really nice all of us getting together.
The next day was a very special day, well it was my birthday so it was special, I always feel why people make such a fuss about a birthday, but then the truth of the matter is this is the day when everyone no matter who he is feels very important, that day one realizes how much he is loved by all his loved ones, and that is really something that everyone should look out for, and if even one person doesn’t call or send a loving birthday wish it really hurts. And I feel, no matter how busy one is, one should not forget to wish someone on his birthday, especially when he/she is expecting that. But there are so many things that people are busy with these days, so many responsibilities and so many other commitments that they might just forget, and we should have a big heart to forget and forgive such slip-ups.

The rest of the week was more or less a family get together, just the five of us, going out for lunch, dinner, temples the beach, some family photographs and stuff. That’s how I spent the last week, was an eventful week for me and brought back very old and nice memories.

Finally, I would like to thank everybody, my family, my friends and The Almighty himself for blessing me with such nice moments to look back and feel happy about, and look forward to more and more such moments.

The Trip – The First Plan and its planners.

As if Dil Chahta Hai wasn’t enough, one more movie had to add fuel to the fire, any guesses, well this time it was ‘The Wild Hogs’. Now this really had me wondering why we weren’t going out on that trip that we had planned long ago, thanks to G Talk and Yahoo Messenger, we were able to plan a trip even though we were sitting miles apart in our Air Conditioned corporate cubicles under the watchful eyes of our bosses, What would we have done without Google, well frankly Google was our friend, philosopher and guide right from the beginning.
Talking of friends, without them this trip wouldn’t have been possible.
There was Vicks who had too many reasons to just sit at home, the programming job had taken its toll on him and the only thing he enjoyed to do was sit and watch TV in that hideout he called his room. For every reason I gave him to make him move out, he had two different ones to sit back and continue with his life. If this was Vicks then Mams was another personality. He had just returned from US, and was ever ready to do something different, I just had to tell him that we were planning to be the next team on the Columbia space shuttle and he would jump at it. So I knew he would never say no to any proposition of mine, Finally there was Chits, well convincing him is neither too difficult nor too easy, it all depends on his mood no not his mood, he is not at all moody, it all depends on him oh whatever, frankly, I have never been able to understand him, the only thing I am sure of is that he is a true friend and a great person to be with, and such a trip without him would be an utter waste. Then there were Ravs and Chins but they were in UK and US respectively and their joining was not possible but still then they chipped in with their thoughts.
When I put this idea of mine of all of us getting together and going off to some nice place for a day or two not worrying about our responsibilities our jobs our bosses no one, just for once before our families start worrying about getting us married, Initially everyone was interested.
Then I put forth the idea of all of us going for a ride instead of going for a trip in a train or a bus, that’s it that was the end of it, suddenly Vicks wasn’t interested and Chits put forward a potential and practical problem, Vicks and Chits had never tried riding a bike in the past and that posed a problem, only me and Mams had to ride for the whole journey, it wasn’t that we weren’t up for it, but then there were a lot of what if’s involved. For instance, First of all Goa was out of question as it was too far from Bangalore, and riding that far according to the others was dangerous and risky. Vicks wanted that we should inform our respective families about this trip, and so did Chits, but me and Mams were pretty sure that our folks would never approve of something like this, and this argument went on and on till it all got heated up and finally we dropped the idea.