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When Rishi Sunak stepped down as the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the internet was flooded with memes from trolls suggesting that maybe, he did not work 70 hours a week. This obviously was a dig at his father-in-law and founder of Infosys, Narayana Murthy.
It is public knowledge that Narayana Murthy had in an interview some time ago, exhorted young Indians to work 70 hours a week to compete with the developed world.
Citing the examples of Germany and Japan that had risen to great heights after being devastated in the Second World War, Murthy said that the citizens of those countries worked hard to rebuild their nations.
Stating that the productivity of the average Indian worker was among the lowest in the world, he said only hard work can improve the per capita income of the nation enabling it to compete with the best on the planet.
Understandably, Murthy’s comments sparked a huge debate with people from all walks of life both endorsing them and rejecting them outright citing various reasons like work-life balance, quality of life, doing smart work over hard work etc. Therefore, its about time Murthy’s comments were put in their right perspective.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi frequently keeps talking about making India a developed nation by 2050. That means displacing one of the countries already on the list or earning as much as the countries on the list. If you want to compete with the best, you cannot do it unless you put in the necessary efforts.
Simply going through the motions of a 9-5 existence will only make you survive, not a leader. And when you want to take on the best, it goes without saying that you have to match or better their efforts.
Narayana Murthy is an icon who put India on the world map and when such a person says something, only idiots will refute it. If you want to become No 1 at something, you need to put in the hours for it and sacrifices are inevitable.
That is the essence of what Murthy said and it’s a solid work ethic that applies to one and all.
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