The Ten Quotients: A Guide to a Complete Personality

By Tajuddin Mhaisale

The foundation to success for any human being in life, in a holistic way, is his personality. Personality is not a unidimensional phenomenon but is multidimensional in character. The author has gained deep insights into the various principles which drive human success, through deep research spanning over hundreds of articles, numerous websites and books, and more importantly through meeting with many leaders and keen observation of many successful personalities. He has penned them methodically, which will be easily accessible and digestible to all those who are desirous of achieving success. In fact, author’s own journey from a small village to a feted General has been the living embodiment of these principles, as are the lives of those eminent and greater personalities that you will meet in these pages, as also in the daily walk of life. One will come to realise that personality is like a diamond, which shines only when polished. This book is a must-read for the people in multiple walks of life to lead a meaningful, peaceful and successful life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: VIJ Books (India) Pty Ltd
• Release date: May 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9789389620870

Tajuddin Mhaisale

Tajuddin Mhaisale, had an outstanding professional career and an exemplary academic record. He served in the Indian Army for close to four decades and has further experience of the corporate sector spanning over close to a decade. A believer in lifelong learning, he has done his M. Tech from IIT Delhi, MBA from IGNOU, and MMS from Osmania University. He is completing his Ph.D. from Pune University. During his lifelong journey, the author has deeply studied the multiple dimensions of a human personality; which are crucial for the success, happiness and meaningfulness for any individual, not only in his own personal life, but also that of the organisation and the family of which he is a building block. He has penned his thoughts and findings, through observation research and interaction with various personalities in diverse fields of life. He has contributed regularly at the Institute of Directors, New Delhi and other academic and business platforms; through his talks, lectures and writings.

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PREFACE

Man is God’s highest creation, one that wants not just to survive but to thrive. Man is the most intelligent amongst the species inhabiting this universe. He does not want to get pigeonholed into a particular stereotyped role or surroundings. He is endowed by the Almighty with an extraordinary brilliance and unbridled ambition. He is also endowed with unique characteristics. This imparts a unique capacity and capability to him to do much more than surviving and thriving.

Manifestation of man and his abilities is through his personality. It can be surmised without any dispute that, the richness of an individual cannot be defined in terms of material wealth or worldly possessions, but by his personality. What is personality? As per the American psychologists Randy Larsen and David Buss, ‘personality is a stable, organised collection of psychological traits and mechanisms in the human being that influences his or her interactions with and modifications to the psychological, social and physical environment surrounding them’. Personality embraces moods, attitudes and opinions and is also most clearly expressed in interactions with other people. We can predict situational response, internal thoughts, feelings and behaviour of a person when these traits of his are known. Similarly, these traits also enable an individual to condition his own behaviour and response to different situations at different times. A man seeks a much greater role for himself in a society. He wants to express his talents and capabilities for a greater role through leveraging of these traits. These traits and mechanisms have been termed as quotients. A debate continuously rages on: ‘is this personality innate or acquired’? This is also known as nature-nurture debate. It is apt to note that these quotients which define an individual’s personality, are inherent as well acquired. Meaningful and contented journey of life for an individual necessitates that he develops a holistic personality through acquisition and development of these quotients, although culture also plays a big role. Naturally he becomes an accomplished person in his own way, apart from contributing to the cause of humanity as such. A classic example is Mahatma Gandhi, consistently voted as the most popular leader in the world. He had acquired an extremely magnetic personality, and had almost all the quotients in extremely good measure, which led to his recognition as one of the most popular leader and human being the human race has seen.

These quotients are inborn and also can be acquired. The world is undergoing a churn at a continuous pace. In this dynamic scenario, these quotients alone will help the mankind in keeping the wheels of his life moving with inner peace, happiness, joy and progress. Although, initial quotients were intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional quotient (EQ), there was a felt need to develop other quotients as well in order to ensure an evolved human being in sync with the changing environment. All these quotients play a defining role in moulding the personality of any individual in order to attain his goals in life.

Hence there is a necessity to identify these quotients which will help any individual to attain the cherished mission of his life. This has been the primary inspiration behind writing this book. Although there are a number of books written on individual quotients, there is no single book which will give a concise overview of all the quotients in a single copy. A deep research has been carried out after going through a number of books on the relevant topics, discussions with a wide circle of experienced personalities and going through a number of articles in magazines, websites, videos and blogs. This has led to the distillation of the essence of what takes a man to succeed and achieve his goal, through building on his strengths and being cognisant of his weaknesses. May more artists, leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, sportsmen, scientists, technologists, social workers, engineers and doctors, et al; emerge from the society by acquiring and developing these quotients described in this book! That is my primary aim in writing this book.

TAKE A QUIZ!

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment

—Lao Tzu, Chinese Philosopher.

Introduction

1. On 15 August 1985, I saw the movie ‘Gandhi’, in Delhi. Seeing it in the movie hall on a large screen with good acoustics was a unique experience by itself, as compared to seeing the same on the TV at home. The movie was directed by Richard Attenborough, where Ben Kingsley played the role of Mahatma Gandhi, and both the producer-director as well as the main actor won the Oscar Awards in the year 1982(In fact, it won 8 Oscar awards). The audience in the movie hall rose after the movie was over and gave Mahatma Gandhi a standing ovation through a thunderous clapping. I was completely mesmerised, as I had never seen anything like this before. We all have read about the Father of the Nation (India) so much. We pay homage to him with total self-introspection on every 02 October. Every important foreign dignitary is led to Rajghat (where he was laid to rest), to pay homage to our Mahatma Gandhi, also known popularly and with fondness as Bapu. It has been covered in history, civic sciences, and various forums. I always used to be wondering, ‘what a messiah’ the Almighty sent to us, to our country to liberate our nation from the British rule. He was present at any place of discord and disturbance with the same attire, and the solution never evaded that place. His personal power and charisma, brightness in the face and sparkle in the eyes showing through his spectacles, and the confident strides, would cast a magic spell on everyone. A feeling of appreciative bewilderment and a sense of relief and joy was palpable on everyone’s face, wherever he went. ‘Mahatma Gandhi, Zindabad! (Long Live, Mahatma Gandhi)’, the unanimous chanting went up in air. At the end of the movie, I could not suppress my eyes from shedding a few tears, looking at his austerity in life, total selflessness, and 24x7 service to humanity, leading and teaching us Indians a path of self-reliance, spirituality, rightneousness and progress. That is why he was given the title of ‘Mahatma’, having two words combined; MahaAtma, meaning supreme or super soul. No doubt such a supreme soul is born once in a few centuries. Truly, there was and is no parallel to Mahatma Gandhi, and there may never be.

2. That got me thinking as to what was it that made this personality so towering and endearing to the masses? What was it that made good leaders and human beings, whether from business, politics or social service, sportsmen entrepreneurs, innovators, artists and writers so special and successful? A human being is an outlier in the universe inhabited by a phenomenally large number of living species. An individual is a complex phenomenon and entity. No two individuals are alike or identical. There are many characteristics or attributes which define an individual and differentiate him from the rest. Some became great leaders such as Winston Churchill, John F Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela; and closer home Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and others. Some became great military leaders such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar; and closer home Sam Manekshaw, Shivaji the Great, and many others. Some became great innovators benefitting the mankind like James Watt, Wright Brothers, Marconi, Thomas Edison, Louis Pasteur, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and many others. Some became great entrepreneurs such as Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Andrew Carnegie, Jeff Bezos, Estée Lauder; and closer home JRD Tata, Dhirubhai Ambani, and many others. Some social leaders like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln; and closer home, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, and many others; excelled themselves through service to the mankind through sheer selfless dedication and selflessness. Some spiritual leaders such as Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Thich Nhat Hanh; and closer home Swami Vivekananda, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and many others; have dedicated their entire life holding a torch to humanity in order to live a pure, simple and stress-free life, stressing on their inner self, purity of thought and life, and an amalgam of this with nature. We have a lot of them amongst ourselves excelling as sportsmen such as Mohammad Ali, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Pele, Roger Federer, Michael Schumacher, Tiger Woods; and closer home Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, and others. Writers and poets like William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jeffrey Archer, Ayn Rand, William Wordsworth, EM Forster, Ernest Hemingway; and closer home Rabindranath Tagore and others; have illuminated the march of the mankind with their writings in a variety of fields, imparting that invaluable knowledge to the entire humanity. We have had great thinkers like Peter Drucker, Philip Kotler, Yuval Noah Harari, Clayton Christensen, Daniel Kahneman; and closer home Gurcharan Das and many others; who have imparted new thinking of doing business and other things to the mankind. Then we have various religious gurus who moulded the thinking of the mankind itself, such as Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed, Guru Nanak, and many others; and spent their entire life in self-enlightenment followed by the enlightenment of others, and impressing on them a way of life. Many artists and writers have spent their lifetime, regaling one and all with their songs, arts, drama and movie productions, and writings.

3. Life was never a bed of roses for anyone of them, and they reached their destiny with certain intrinsic qualities and some acquired traits. We have many amongst us now and before, who have lived their life, with happiness and fulfilment, achieved good success, influenced the life of others around them, and even humanity itself. Many of them are remembered even after their departure from the mother earth, because of their contributions to humanity. We do celebrate their birthdays as well as remember them on the date of their death, in order to remind ourselves of their stellar qualities and contribution to the mankind, and draw an inspiration from them, apart from expressing our gratitude to them. Any human being would like to lead a way in his own style and as per his own liking. Some may find solace in business; some other may find the same in excelling as a leader guiding the destiny of the followers, whereas some may dedicate their life in the service to humanity. Some may spend their lifetime towards inventing things, and innovation. These innovations, over the history of mankind, have progressively brought it from the Stone Age to the present era dominated by automation and machines. Some may spend their lifetime in music, whereas some may devote their entire life in pursuit of sports. We have seen many amongst us who have taken recourse to a spiritual path in order to get that happiness and peace; we have also seen many amongst us devoting their life to spiritual freedom. If we take a snapshot of the different kind of personalities, we could come to the conclusion that there are certain basic innate qualities that differentiates us from each other. How do we then analyse these differences? This can be done by taking a holistic view of the human being itself. These latent qualities in a human being can be thought to be in the form of various quotients. The term quotient as per the dictionary means, a degree or amount of a specified quality or characteristic. These are leadership quotient, spiritual quotient, innovation quotient, passion quotient and many others. That is the aim of this book, whereby we intend analysing these quotients which describe a human being. Development of a well-rounded personality would entail the development of these quotients through the various methods described therein.

4. I ventured to analyse these qualities crystallised in the form of various quotients and then pen down my thoughts and recommendations about them. I am sure it is a natural right for all of us to aim higher and excel in the field of our choice; a political, social or a spiritual leader; an entrepreneur; a successful sportsman; an artist; a musician or singer; innovator; and so on. Every ambition needs a combination of certain qualities or quotients. There are certain quotients in which we are strong. Excelling in our life will necessitate strengthening these quotients further. Some of them are primary quotients such as:

⮚ Emotional Quotient

⮚ Intelligence Quotient

⮚ Passion Quotient

⮚ Spirituality Quotient

All of us must possess them. So, any weakness in these quotients will manifest themselves in causing a dent in the effectiveness of other quotients. Then there are secondary quotients such as the following:-

⮚ Communication quotient

⮚ Digital quotient

⮚ Entrepreneurial quotient

⮚ Leadership quotient

⮚ Innovation quotient

⮚ Social quotient

Our ambition will require either one of these, or a combination of these. A spiritual leader will need an exclusive spiritual quotient; a writer will need a communication quotient as well as emotional quotient, both from reader’s point of view. An entrepreneur will need an entrepreneurial quotient, communication quotient and innovation quotient to be successful. A sportsman or a sportswoman will need innovation and entrepreneurial quotient, both in part. A political leader will need communication quotient, leadership quotient and social quotient. How to develop these quotients? This is the book which has been written with the primary aim of building all those primary quotients, and a combination of one or more secondary quotients. Digital quotient is now required for the very survival of the mankind, and the COVID-19 phenomenon has led to the digital transformation of the entire universe at a very furious pace. Every activity and aspect of life is getting digitised. Hence a material progress and survival will need a certain level of digital quotient. This book is intended to help realise the ambitions of the people by mastering the primary quotients and the selected secondary quotients required in life for a successful, happy and complete life.

5. This book is divided into two sections: Section I: Primary Quotients and Section II: Secondary quotients. How will it benefit the readers? There is quiz for all 10 quotients. If you take the quiz initially, and see the score, it will help you identify areas of your strength and affinity. That will help you in identifying and spotting areas of opportunities of your growth potential. It is relevant to reiterate here that the four primary quotients are a sine qua non for anyone to achieve anything in life. For example, you want to be a spiritual leader, and then all four primary quotients are a must including the spiritual quotient. However, our ambitions will rarely be realised with only one secondary quotient. Often it is a combination of two or more secondary quotients, besides all of the primary quotients. For example, if one wants to be a successful entrepreneur, besides the four primary quotients, he or she will have to have a good entrepreneurial quotient, innovation quotient, digital quotient, and communication quotient; which are a must. Similarly, some of you may like to be writers. The two secondary quotients apart from the four primary quotients that you must have are: communication quotient and passion quotient, so merely good communication quotient will never be adequate. Hence this book will help you hone your primary quotients, and then hone up the secondary Quotients required for an entrepreneur to succeed such as digital quotient or communication quotient, which may be his weak areas. The era of information capital has spawned surveillance capitalism. Your data is being collected for use by somebody else. So you have to be on guard. The only way is to develop and enhance your DQ.

Chapter 1

1. QUIZ FOR SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT

2. QUIZ fOR EMOTIONAL QUOTIENT

3. QUIZ FOR PASSION QUOTIENT

4. QUIZ FOR INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT

5. QUIZ FOR COMMUNICATION QUOTIENT

6. QUIZ fOR ENTREPRENEURIAL QUOTIENT

7. QUIZ FOR INNOVATION QUOTIENT

8. QUIZ FOR LEADERSHIP QUOTIENT

9. QUIZ FOR SOCIAL QUOTIENT

10. QUIZ FOR DIGITAL QUOTIENT

PRIMARY QUOTIENTS

Chapter 2

SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT

Difficulties do come in life, but to overcome difficulties, one needs to be strong & strength comes only through spiritual knowledge

—Sri Sri Ravi Shanker, Indian Spiritual Guru.

1. What is spirituality? Spirituality is knowing who really you are and connecting to something larger than yourself. It is a harmonious amalgam of body, mind, heart and human spirit. As per Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the well-known Indian spiritual Guru, it is the uplifting of one’s spirits through meditation, service, knowledge and wisdom. The beauty of spirituality is that it is the ultimate abode or resort in times of distress for a human being. The person can rediscover his own self and his mojo through spirituality. A recent survey in Europe has found that 30 percent of its population is suffering from depression. This can be overcome only through spirituality. Never before was the need of a spiritually well-being felt as during this period. In an unprecedented crisis such as what we are seeing in the outbreak of COVID-19, spirituality will lead the humanity to come out much stronger, by facing this environment of vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), with a stoic patience, courage and resolve. The words spiritually quotient (SQ) and spirituality intelligence (SI) are interchangeably used. SI is the ability to behave with wisdom and compassion, while maintaining inner and outer peace, regardless of the situation (Wigglesworth C. (2012)). SQ is the realm of self-awareness and self-mastery, meaning and purpose, transcendence and expansion of consciousness. SQ enables the evolution of self consciousness. It enables you to maintain composure, balance and ability to face any adversity in the world with stoic patience, calmness, perseverance and self-confidence. The classic examples are the religious teachers and sages in the ancient world. They were always the masters of the situation, and were not affected by any situation or changes in climatic conditions. SQ helps one control anger, disappointment, hatred, fear, irritation, sadness, guilt, shame, surprise and sorrow. It helps us to deal with enjoyment, love, happiness, relief, infatuation, delight and gratification with equanimity. Spirituality touches every aspect of life, and you may not even know about it. An important aspect of spirituality today is its intersection with education and science, which has a direct impact on each of us individually, and on all of us collectively, because our lives are interwoven as part of humanity (Wolman R. (2001)). The contrast between religion and spirituality is that while religion places a lot of rules and regulations (may be even in a written form) on its followers, whereas spirituality touches and appeals your inner self. There are no rules or regulations in spirituality. It is your own conscience or spirit and self control, dictating to you. Every religion advocates control over body and mind, and that is an overlapping aspect with spirituality. Bible says, ‘a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls’. It is written in Gita, ‘Self-control will keep you in good and perfect health’. It is required in all walks of life; whether business, professional or domestic. It must be appreciated that both lead a human being to a better life, if followed with sincerity. SQ brings you in harmony with the environment and nature, bringing happiness and contentment to your own self. You are detached from anger, greed, hatred, sadness and other negativities. The same is replaced with positive feelings filled with love, kindness, care and forbearance. That is what Buddha symbolised. From a perspective of SQ, duty demands action with supreme focus, with heart and soul into it. We remember the spiritual gurus and leaders: Pope Pius XII, Saint Augustine, Pope Francis, Paulo Coelho, Thich Nhat Hanh; and closer home, Dalai Lama, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Paramhansa Yogananda, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; and many others, for their humble service to humanity. They are revered for the same in society.

2. What are the attributes or components of SQ? These are:-

⮚ Self-awareness and Mindfulness

⮚ Trust in the Almighty and people

⮚ Meditation

⮚ Inner wealth

⮚ Compassion for others and generosity

⮚ Reverence for life

⮚ Gratitude

⮚ Positive thinking

⮚ Humour

⮚ Wisdom

⮚ Ability to transcend self

⮚ Capacity for unconditional love

⮚ Concern for planet

⮚ Self-discipline

⮚ Self-Respect and Self-Esteem

⮚ Patience

3. Self-awareness and Mindfulness. Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself Paramhansa Yogananda, Indian Spiritual Guru. Self-awareness is the ability of an individual to reflect on his own self. This has two aspects; internal and external. First is internal. It is the ability of an individual to introspect one’s own thoughts, impulses, feelings, beliefs, habits, prejudice and biases, fears, internal conflicts, physical sensations and behavioural patterns. The second is external. That is the ability to reflect or know the responses, reactions and emotional feeling of others, about one’s own thoughts, impulses, feelings, beliefs, habits, prejudices and biases on others. It is one’s basic ability to pay attention to who one is and what makes one click. Self-awareness has an internal focus. Self-awareness helps one grow emotionally, psychologically, and more important spiritually. It expands your own consciousness and experiences such as self-compassion, deeper self-understanding and love for others (Sol Mateo(2019)). It helps you in recognizing your own inner self. One becomes more confident, composed, detached from the negativities, and handle the social and other situations in life very well. Lack of self-awareness forces people to commit same errors repeatedly, lack of self-control, indulge into outbursts, indulge into violent behaviour, hurt others emotionally and otherwise, and worst of all leading a meaningless, stagnant and boring life. Examples abound around us. A thief may get reformed through a process of self-awareness after he realises that he is not following a correct path. A student going on the wrong path of drugs, may reform himself through self-awareness of its harmful impacts on him. A student not performing well in his or her studies due to sheer neglect may one day realize this and reform himself or herself through self-awareness. Self-awareness, therefore, allows you to identify your self-destructive patterns of thought and behaviour, which helps you correct them, and find more peace and balance in everyday existence (Luna A. and Sol M. (2019)). Mindfulness enables one to pay attention to one’s own inner self, by focusing on the present. How does one develop self-awareness and mindfulness?

(a) Self-Introspection: Tune into Your Body. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom — Aristotle, Greek Philosopher and Polymath. Through self-introspection, you must search for the areas of tension, discomfort or unease within your own self. For this look within your inner self. It may be a persistent cough, watering eyes, your clenching of fists while angry, your seething with anger whenever someone has cracked a joke at you, or any such symptoms. That is where you must be at ease with yourself. While the first two are physical issues and can be gotten over with due medicare and precautions; the latter ones need your attitudinal change which will help you take things in your stride and control of your mind and actions. Once you control these, your anger, stress, sadness, despair, depression, ego; will all are be taken care of.

(b) Get Opinion and feedback. Treat feedback as a gift rather than as a slap in the face — Frank Sonnenberg, American Author and Thought Leader. It is