This picture speaks volumes and some more on greatness, money and humility. Every time I look at this picture something stirs deep within me. It reminds me, on the path to seek wealth, never forget to be humble.
Narayana Murthy & Ratan Tata
In the picture above, you can see Narayana Murthy touching and seeking the blessings of Ratan Tata during an award ceremony. In the ceremony, Narayana Murthy was to give the Lifetime achievement award to Ratan Tata. While coming up the stage, he bends down to touch the feet and take blessings from the Tata schion.
Later, Ratan Tata mentioned the incident as making him “feel humbled” and he was happy to have been awarded by his friend.
Both these legends are Billionnaires and have achieved greatness in their respective areas of business. They have created great wealth for themselves, their staff and their stockholders. Yet, there is not a bit of arrogance of this wealth showing up anywhere.
Sudha Murthy and her Teacher
Another stellar example is of Mrs.Sudha Murthy, wife of Narayana Murthy and author of Wise and Otherwise, Three Thousand stitches and more. Sudha Murthy used to work in the Tata and Sons group company a long time ago around the time Narayana Murthy was founding Infosys.
On a Kannada TV show, host Ramesh Arvind had invited Sudha’s childhood teacher to the show. The below picture is that of Sudha Murthy, immediately jumping with joy and going to touch the teacher’s feet to get her blessing.
What is even more awe inspiring is the fact that on stage, she removes her foot ware before touching her teacher’s feet. This is the utmost sign of humility and respect!
Amitabh Bachchan and Sudha Murthy
Lastly there is another example of Amitabh Bachchan on his show Kaun Banega Crorepati. Amitabh had invited Sudha Murthy to the show as a VIP participant.
Amitabh respected Mrs.Murthy for the social work she has done and though she was much younger (Amitabh was 77 then while Sudha was 69), he still as a sign of respect bowed down to seek her blessing. This act stunned Sudha who said it was such an honour and won millions of the show followers over.
Humility and Money
In all of these example photos, you don’t see Louis Vuitton shoes or a Versace bag. The only thing common among these great people are the facts that they have worked hard, made it big and they are old. Perhaps, being old teaches you humility.
Also, to be clear, I am not advocating that touching one’s feet is all you need to do to be humble. You need to see beyond that.
Pass this knowledge on
Last, but not least, this is not just for you. You should make an effort to teach this humility to your children as well. This is not something that is thought that well at schools. Schools choose to teach blind obeyance to elders as that is easier for them. But it is terrible for the children as they grow up as they don’t have the desire to question the status quo.
Instead, strive to bring up your children to acknowledge that money and humility can exist together. Teach them to value money and know it for what it is. And more importantly, teach them to value people more.