The Eighth Commandment: Relax & Refresh (Don’t reflect)

Summary: Give yourself time to relax, recover, and refresh. And when you are relaxing do NOT let your mind brood over past mistakes and try not to dwell on the challenges tomorrow will bring.

[To find out what the Ten Commandments of Indian Entrepreneurship are, please click here: https://marcellus.in/blogs/the-ten-commandments-of-entrepreneurship-in-india/]

“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do.” – Deuteronomy 5:13–14

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Deuteronomy, the Jewish god, is insistent that once a week men & women shall rest and do no work whatsoever. Since man has historically been a hunter-gatherer, evolutionists have for over a century now been perplexed about god’s insistence that man take one day a week off. After all, how can rest help a hunter-gatherer or an Indian entrepreneur for that matter? Doesn’t the hunter-gathered need to head into the jungle everyday to provide for his family (and thus improve his family’s chances of flourishing and procreating)?

It turns out that life isn’t as simple. As Daniel Liberman explains in his eye-opening book “Exercised: The Science of Physical, Activity, Rest and Health”, given that we as homo sapiens are focused on spreading our genes as widely as possible, that requires us not only to work but also to do other social things which increase the chances of our genes spreading e.g. socializing, dancing, dating and other things which follow dating. Man’s chances of his genes spreading are as dependent on being good at these non-work activities as they are on his working his backside flat in the office. Ashish Hemrajani, the Founder of BookMyShow, explains this nicely.

 “‘I have a funda in life. See, if your Monday mornings are as exciting and energetic as your Friday evenings, then you are doing something right in life. Balance is very important. You are running a marathon, not a sprint. You can’t burden and burn yourself seven days a week as an entrepreneur. I am very passionate about what I do, and I love coming to work every day, and finding new solutions for users and understanding new user insights. But I also like my Friday evenings. I like my drinks, and I like going out. I sail on the weekends. I love spending time with family, with friends. On Sunday evenings, I don’t get depressed like many others who feel that the coming Monday morning would depress them. I am raring to go on Sunday evenings because I have got new ideas for Monday mornings.’” – Ashish Hemrajani, Founder of BookMyShow quoted in Pankaj Mishra’s book ‘Against the Grain: Lessons from the Outliers’ (pp. 128-129). Penguin Random House India Private Limited. Kindle Edition.

In 2015 & 2016 when I was writing “The Unusual Billionaires”, I was a committed workaholic with all sorts of issues around anger management, work-life balance, and physical ailments related to excessive stress and non-stop travel. I had neither heard of Daniel Lieberman nor of Ashish Hemrajani at that stage of my career.

It was in this physical & mental state that I turned up to meet Mr. Kuldip Singh Dhingra, the promoter of Berger Paints, one evening at his residence in Delhi in order to interview him for ‘The Unusual Billionaires’. My back was hurting like hell in spite of the four painkillers that I had taken over the preceding 24 hours and I knew that after meeting Mr. Dhingra I had an Economy class flight back to Mumbai to look forward to.

By that stage Mr. Dhingra had known me for a few years, and he quickly figured out what was happening. Whilst making small talk he made sure that I had a bite to eat followed by a Patiala peg of outstanding Japanese whisky. As the alcohol coursed through my body, my muscles relaxed, and my back pain disappeared.

Once the grimace had disappeared from my face, Mr. Dhingra discussed Berger Paints’ evolution with my colleagues and soon the interview that we needed for the book was done. As we walked outside and towards the taxi, which was to drop me at the airport, Mr. Dhingra told me “Saurabh, in leadership roles it is really important to learn to relax. After a day of thinking, discussions, and decision making, it is important that you rest & recover because otherwise it is difficult to be as creative and as decisive the next day. In leadership roles, you are responsible for important decisions regarding capital allocation, corporate strategy, and people’s careers. To be able to make those decisions well, you have to be as fresh & as fit as possible for the rigours of the job.”

Mr. Dhingra’s advice and then Ana’s coaching through 2017-2022 helped me understand that relaxation is essential for recovery and both are necessary for a successful entrepreneur. In 2019, whilst being coached by Ana, I read a superb book on the habits of successful people. American journalist Mason Currey summarized the working habits of nearly 200 great minds in an interesting and entertaining book called ‘Daily Rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work’. Currey’s book (which itself draws from more than 400 sources) gave me a pretty good idea of the life one would have to lead to have a high probability of doing original, path-breaking work.

Amongst the key pillars of success described by Currey is rewarding oneself after working hard. Since one cannot work without a break and since even the legends need an incentive to push themselves through three to four hours of hard work, many of them not only take a break at around lunchtime, but they also ensure that the break contains something that they can look forward to. For example, as Currey writes in his book, Gustav Mahler, one of the leading composers of the twentieth century, ‘. . . worked until midday, then . . . walked down to the lake for a swim. Once he was in the water, he would whistle for his wife to join him on the beach. Mahler liked to lie in the sun until he was dry, then jump into the water again, often repeating this four or five times, which left him feeling invigorated and ready for lunch at home. The meal was, to Mahler’s preference, light, simple, thoroughly cooked and minimally seasoned.’

For me R&R now means vacations with the family, dinner with friends, drinks with my better half whilst we listen to music, and reading books on politics and economics. Your definition of R&R could be very different from mine but whatever it is, life has taught me to take R&R almost as seriously as work because this is when you recharge your batteries. This is when the entrepreneur in you is powered up. And, most importantly, this is when the foundations are laid for you to spread your genes.

Saurabh Mukherjea is the Chief Investment Officer at Marcellus Investment Managers (www.marcellus.in). This material is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial, investment, or other professional advice. The inclusion of any book does not imply endorsement or recommendation by the writer or the publisher of this material