Hitendra Wadhwa - Inner Mastery, Outer Impact

You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.

Leonardo da Vinci

THE EXPERIENCE I WILL NEVER FORGET

O ne day, in the pre-internet age, I drove from my home in Palo Alto to Yosemite National Park upon the invitation of two friends who were camping there. This was going to be my first time at Yosemite. I had not seen any photos of the park, so I had no idea what to expect. It was dark by the time I reached its gates. I was greeted by park rangers and given a map. A long and winding road took me to the valley within. As I drove the final stretch, a blanket of peace fell over me. My spirit began to soar, and my thoughts became clearer. Naturewith its gurgling brooks, rustling leaves, and starlit skywas casting a spell. I arrived at my friends campground in the pitch of darkness and was soon happily asleep, imagining we were in a lush meadow surrounded by hills. When I awoke and walked out of my tent at dawn the next morning, I was instantly awestruck. Towering, steep, barren rock formations shooting up toward the skies from everywhere, a waterfall roaring down from one of the mountains, the color green taking on a thousand hues, and vistas upon vistasit was nature at its rapturous best. I had no idea this was the paradise I had entered the night before and so casually slept in. The sheer splendor of Yosemite Valley was breathtaking, and the feelings of grandeur and beauty it evoked have never left me. I recall feeling like I was in the presence of something divine.

Now you have opened this book to go on a drive of your own, with me as your guide. Our path may be a bit rugged and sometimes winding, and we may not see much of anything for a while. But what if I told you that there is a wealth of peace, wisdom, love, and joy that awaits you at our destination, your Inner Core? That whatever glimpses you get along the way, the little insights and inspirations, are but a drop in the grand ocean that lies in wait at the very center of your being? That this Core already exists within you, ready to offer its treasures whenever you awaken to its presence? That discovering it will be even more awe inspiring than arriving in Yosemite Valley? I have struggled to find a way to put this promise in words, so instead I thought of sharing the feeling of transcendence I experienced that magical morning at Yosemite. Let our journey begin.

MY BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT

On one fateful day in the classroom, I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. It wasnt a professor who helped me get there; it was a student. You see, I was the professor.

My search for a lifelong passion had already taken me down three pathsmathematics, management consulting, and entrepreneurshipby the time I joined the Columbia Business School faculty in 2004. It was now December 2005, and I was wrapping up my fall semester course on marketing strategy. I had developed a strong bond with my students, and recognizing that I might not see them again after the course ended, I felt a keen desire to impart to them the most valuable guidance I could. So before concluding my final lecture, I shared three personal stories and the lessons Id learned from them. After class, a student, Min-Jun, came up to me and said, Professor, thank you for your time with us this semester. But most of all, thank you for your personal stories today. Those were for me the most valuable learnings from the course.

I was happy, and dumbstruck. Through this parting comment, Min-Jun had confirmed what Id long felt as a nagging suspicionthat there was a big hole in what we were teaching at business school. We were teaching how to grow a startup, a product, an investment, or a new business idea to its full potential. But we were not teaching how to grow your own self to your full potential. We were teaching how to direct others, change others, motivate others, influence others, and inspire others. But we were not teaching how to direct yourself, change yourself, motivate yourself, influence yourself, and inspire yourself. We were teaching how to lead everyone else, but not how to lead yourself.

Hitendra, I told myself that day, this is what you want to research and teach in the years ahead.

Eighteen months later, after I had conducted extensive research, delivered a series of seminars, and built a whole new curriculum, Columbia allowed me to take a professional leap by formally offering a new course called Personal Leadership and Success. For both me and Columbia this was a radical experiment. As I prepared to deliver my first class in the course in the summer of 2007, my mind retraced the steps that had brought me to this point.

OUTER ME, INNER ME

I was ten years old when I came across the story of the Indian emperor Ashoka. He ascended to the throne after killing his brothers. As king, he waged war upon bloody war to bring other kingdoms under his subjugation, building a vast empire that swept across the Indian subcontinent. But that is not why he is revered by the people of India.

One day, Ashoka stepped on the battlefield to witness the ravages of war. As he saw the wounded and the dead, the wailing widows and the orphans, his heart melted. He realized the folly of his ways and committed to never waging another war. He still planned to pursue success, but not the kind of success he had chased until that moment. He spent the rest of his life using his wealth to serve his people and propagate spiritual understanding throughout his kingdom. It is this reformed Ashokanot the rapacious Ashokawho reigns supreme in the hearts of Indians more than two thousand years after his death. He is commonly known as Ashoka the Great.