Wings of Fire – Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s Autobiography - Reading notes

This is an Autobiography  by one of the India`s most celebrated scientists and leaders, who has a tremendous following across all different age groups especially India`s youngsters. It may lack the literary flamboyance of an eminent author; it may not meet the standards that a literary critic would weigh in on, but it leaves you glued to the life of a boat owner’s son, his passion towards rocketry, science , his career struggle through the red-tape clad ladders of the Indian Bureaucracy which aligns itself with the journey of India's technology advancement and self-reliance in the field of Rocketry and nuclear defence capabilities. It draws you into an aura of amazement and wonder when you read through the indescribable sense of accomplishment at the peak period of Mr. Kalam’s life and sometime make you feel that they are your(reader’s) accomplishments and that`s the indisputable success fact of this book.

Some   "Life lessons" need gazillion examples with which they reiterate themselves. Do you know the most important take away or a lesson from this book, accordingly to me? A lesson that isn’t new but has always been there, exemplified through the lives of many legends. This one glorifies that lesson – “whichever may your mission be, however unreachable it may appear to your skeptical mind, give your heart and soul and your best effort to it, irrespective of the results, you will live your life to the fullest”. Anything that’s done or pursued without real passion and interest will only produce half-baked results and seldom bring inner satisfaction. He quotes Khalil Gibran on this “Bread baked without love is a bitter bread that feeds but half a man’s hunger”

Though I had a general impression that Mr. Kalam is one of the most successful Indian of our times, this detailed account of some of his accomplishments made me re-proclaim it in my mind. Being an obsessive follower of Mr Gladwell, I instantly wore my Gladwellion hat on and looked at Mr Kalam’s early life. The question was on how do we attribute Kalam's success with respect to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10000 hour rule. Well, he surpasses the 10000 hours of working on space related projects and obviously meets the "best in his field" stature. But most of us pursuing a career until retirement would over-do this 10000 hours of practice, woundn`t  we? But hold on, are we doing the same stream of work throughout our career? No..we move on and climb up the corporate ladder. but in Mr Kalam's case, he went up to claim the leadership positions as we typically do, however still was deeply engaged in the design and execution of his projects, which is why he is the best and surpasses the Gladwell's criteria, I think. I am not sure how well my explanation is taken by the readers, but I believe no one who knows Kalam will have an iota of doubt  about the fact that he is one of the best in his field.

When I read Prof. Srinivasan (former MIT Director)’s test on Mr Kalam to design a low level attack aircraft in with an unrealistic 3 days target duration, I had two questions in mind. A critical view was that wouldn’t it go against Daniel Pink’s recent findings that mounting pressure doesn’t produce quality output. Could that be because this view point was a recent one, conventional wisdom doesn’t buy into it? The positive perspective was the famed, Steve Job’s Reality Distortion Field. Was Prof. Srinivasan trying  to make the impossible, possible by creating a Reality Distortion Field? Neither was true, the test given to Kalam was not to produce a quality outcome, but to check his commitment and attitude. J

There are many qualities that makes Dr Kalam stand out from the league of his predecessors and contemporaries both domestic and international. Do you know which one tops them all, according to me? His unquenchable enthusiasm towards bridging the gap between science and Tamil language (his mother-tongue). One of the most ancient and richest Indian languages, Tamil, remains his pride and passion. The video of his address in European parliament where he quotes a Tamil verse, remains in my motivational videos list. It again reiterates my belief that one who doesn’t appreciate his origin (culture, people and the language), cannot truly appreciate anything else in this world.

His visionary views about being rejected to become an Airforce Pilot, resonates with many other legends takes on this. That reminded me of Steve Job’s view that ``Life becomes a line connecting many dots from the various phases of your life. You cannot connect the dots forward; you can trace them only backwards. So Live your life in the belief that the dots will somehow connect.``

The way he picked up on the wall painting at Wallops Flight facility in Virginia that depicted Tippu Sultan’s battalion, exhibits his Powers of Observation. One could wonder how can someone miss a painting in the reception lobby, but he didn’t just spot the painting, but instantly connected the dots and figured out it’s Tippu Sultan’s army. I remember my Grandpa reiterating the need to cultivate “Powers of observation” and my Grandpa always provokes my by saying my younger brother had better “Powers of observation” than me. It’s just so true, I still make conscious effort to observe things around me even if they don’t interest me.
There were so many leadership tips/lessons scattered throughout the book. There is one about listening to our juniors and subordinates. He explains the difference between firmness and harshness and the difference between Leadership and bullying. It’s very true and in fact before learning about the Servant Leadership and flat, collaborative organizational structures, in the early days of my career I used to be bossy and less polite with my colleagues. I have changed a lot and I patted myself on the back when I read Dr Kalam’s views on this.

His daily routine has all the essential best practices advocated by many life style coaches. Retrospectively, where do these Life style coaches draw inspiration from, for  their advocated best practices, lifestyle tips and tactics? They are obviously from these Legends who attained envious success. Dr Kalam plans his day during his morning walk (preached by Robin Sharma), he cleans his office table(de-clutter, get rid of mess, clarity is power – again coached by Robin Sharma) and then he prioritises the tasks that he needs to accomplish for the day. I would recommend this to be included in MBA curriculum and all the major universities should endorse this.

Another aspect that I have adopted since my early stages of management and leadership is communication with the team. I believed in regular team meetings and clear and focussed communication with the team which Dr Kalam emphasizes and mentions this is to be the essence of his working style. I see that some of the modern and the so-called Agile managers considering team meetings as waste of time and of very little value. I strongly believe and advocate the notion of regular team meetings. These are the apt forums to reemphasize the objectives to the team and facilitate two-way communication and broader collaboration. Dr Kalam also beautifully explains the difference between conversation and communication. In my opinion, communication should be followed by collaborative conversation to gather and co-create ideas and the ways and means to implement the objectives or the mission.

He introduces another legend von Braun to us, the scientist who was the brain behind the lethal V2 Missiles( there is an interesting account of this inWikipedia). What amazes me is Mr Braun`s vision about hard work vs effort with commitment. He lauds the effort with the larger purpose in mind. This is precisely what Simon Sinek preaches through his international best seller "Start with Why"

Another interesting concept that Dr Kalam brings in, called `flow`, which is a by-product of work with full and hearty involvement. I was introduced to this concept of `flow``  by Daniel H Pink, in his great book `Drive`. Dan Pink drew inspiration from the Italian expert in Psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who has written a book called Flow. ``Flow is the mental state when the challenge before us is so exquisitely matched to our abilities that we lose our sense of time and forget ourselves in a function``. I am not sure whether Dr Kalam has any notion about the ideas of Prof. Csikszentmihalyi, but from his narration in the book I believe it comes genuinely from his experience. One other testimony of Dr Kalam`s quench for the `flow`is his staying away from family relationships, he wanted to escape the demands of bonding and relationships in the quest for the `flow` and his work.

His experience of meeting Mrs Indira Gandhi without a formal attire and Prof. Dhawan`s consolation that Dr Kalam was then clad in his success and his deeds beautifully. Yes, the apparel doesn`t matter if you have met with enormous success. I always think about how people like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerburg have challenged the famous Shakesperian wisdom on the attire “apparel oft proclaims the man”. It`s all about your stature in life and there is nothing much to proclaim if you are a legend already, the world knows you.

Look at Dr Kalam`s golden words about a good leader, I shall strive hard to be a good one and follow this religiously - ``The leader must be capable of instilling enthusiasm in his team, he should give appropriate credit where it`s due, praise publicly but criticise privately``. On another interesting mention, he questions the Indian Education system on it’s emphasis on developing listening skills. Seriously listening is a skill and one should strive to be a great listener and at times listening is more powerful that oratory.

Finally there is a very powerful lesson that he conveys on how he built the team at ISRO. If you think about this, he is talking about building a team to accomplish some of the most innovative and technically advanced missions that directly make a mark on a country`s capabilities. You need to consider the culture and the system of Indian bureaucracy, government staff`s attitude and motivational levels in mind to put this in perspective. When you do that, you will realize how daunting this task could be. His idea of blending young and fresh minds with the experience stalwarts in the industry is the most suitable one in this context.

Here`s the event that brought tears to my eyes. After the unsuccessful 1<sup>st</sup> attempt of India`s indigenously developed Agni missile test launch, in May 1989, Agni 2^nd  re-launch was scheduled. The day before the launch then India`s Defense Minister K C Pant asked Dr Kalam, `what do you like me to do to celebrate Agni`s success ?` Dr Kalam asks for 100, 000 saplings to make the DRDL`s `Research Centre Imarat` campus greener. True leaders are self-less, their purpose often relates to global well-being. I saw this as a  nuclear scientists conscious endeavor to patch up the Ozone layer and to save humanity. How noble a man he is!

Some books entertain you; Some of them enlighten you; Some encourage you; Some inspire you - this one does it all. Thank you Dr Kalam.