Trainer's Notes for SUCCESS from Siva (6): Made from Dr Verghese Kurien's "I Too Had a Dream"

Hi,
Good morning! I am very excited to bring to you this week a book, “I Too Had a Dream” by one of the most illustrious sons of India, Dr Verghese Kurien. He has been instrumental in improving the quality of life of millions of farm families. His contribution to the empowerment of farmers and farm women through his creation of highly successful milk cooperatives in India was acclaimed and very well recognized. He received more than 150 awards including that of Padma Vibhushan, the nation’s 2^nd highest civilian award, and also The World Food Prize. In his foreword written for this book, Ratan Tata wonders what India would be today if we had a thousand Kuriens with the type of vision, commitment, dedication, and national spirit he had.
Dr Kurien shares through this book “I Too Had a Dream” his experiences in early years of his life, education, the dreams he had, the challenges he faced, how he overcame them to establish the world’s largest milk cooperative, and the way he accomplished his mission of ‘Operation Flood’. I would like to share with you some of the attributes and principles of Dr Kurien that made him so successful.
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	VK’s Principles/Attributes	As reflected thru what VK did	Results/Remarks
1	Choosing to lead one kind of life means putting aside the desire to pursue other options	VK agreed to work for a small cooperative of dairy farmers, and having agreed that, put aside his initial plans of a career in metallurgy and nuclear physics soon after.	If not, VK would have pursued a career in metallurgy and perhaps become the Chief executive Officer of some large company.
2	If you are honest to yourself, it does not take much effort in always being honest with others.	All through his career, VK was upright and honest both in speech and deed. At times, it was not what his bosses wanted or liked. But, it was appreciated by most of the people he worked with including many ministers and prime ministers.	Millions of farmers wanted him to be their representative acting on their behalf and voicing their needs and desires.
3	Failure is not about not succeeding. Rather it is about not putting in your best effort and not contributing, however modestly, to the common good.	VK never seemed to be bothered about the idea of a failure of whatever he undertook. He had put in his best efforts. He believed in a step-by-step approach. Nothing seemed daunting to him as his desire to do something good for the Indian farmer was unshakeable.	VK achieved to the surprise of many several difficult tasks including that of the completion of the milk powder plant in Anand, the first of its kind in the world that makes powder from buffalo milk. No wonder, Jawaharlal Nehru said, after inaugurating the plant, “Kurien, I am so glad our country has people like you – people who will go ahead and achieve even that which seems unachievable.
4	That it is only when you get less than what you are worth, you can look for respect; if you are paid more than what you are worth, you will get no respect	VK once told an acquaintance of him who drew much more salary than him but had his complaints that he was not respected in his office, “Look at me – I get hardly any money but I get a lot of respect. Now, my friend, which is a better situation?”	VK created value to his organization and to the millions of farmers. He found early that money is not the only satisfaction that one can seek, that there are several other forms of satisfaction.
5	You must accept responsibility for yourself, always use your talents to the best of your ability and contribute somehow to the common good.	VK always used contacts to the best possible extent to get what he wanted. Left no stone unturned towards meeting the objectives of his organization.	VK doesn’t have much to blame others for what he has today. Only some sense of satisfaction that he lived his life to the best of his abilities.
6	In every crisis, if you look carefully, you will spot an opportunity.	VK never side-stepped a crisis. The bigger the crisis, the more he was tempted to rush at it, grasp it by the horns, manoeuvre it until it gave him what he wanted. E.g., He converted the possible crisis that could have come in due to the glut in the milk products in developed world in 1960s into an advantage through his determined efforts that ultimately created the fund he wanted for launching the ‘Billion Litre Idea of Operation Flood.	Created a Cooperative structure in India which by 2005 grew to eleven million dairy farmers in 24 states of the nation. These farmers today own their own dairy plants; they are members of cooperatives, cooperative unions and federations; and market some of India’s best known dairy products
7	If you are brave enough to love, strong enough o rejoice in another’s happiness, and wise enough to know that there is enough to go around for all, then we would have lived our lives to the fullest.	VK loved his family, his organization, his farmers, his co-workers; rejoiced the success of GCMMF, NDDB, IRMA, and the people associated with it, especially the farmers; contented with what he was offered	A highly contented Dr Kurien today with his dream accomplished and his purpose of life served for the common good of people

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Dr Kurien achieved success and shared his true feelings in this book “I Too Had a Dream”. It is a ‘must read’ for every person working in every organization. There is so much to learn from it. I could list only a few and there are many more success secrets that he shares in his own style in this book.
To Your SUCCESS,
With love and regards,
Siva
value4value@gmail.com