Exclusive: The Perfect Success Mantra from Sourav Ganguly

Rahul Dravid calls him the God of the off-side, ‘Dada’ to his former team-mates, and one of the greatest one-day batsmen of all time and one of India’s most successful captains to the world. That’s Sourav Ganguly for you.

Entrusted with the burden of captaining India at a tender age of 28 when the match-fixing scandal struck hard, Ganguly led a bunch of young and talented Indian lads to dominate world cricket.

It was under his captaincy that India shed the flab of being called ‘soft overseas travelers’. The precursor to Virat Kohli, he brought raw aggression onto the pitch and changed the course of Indian cricket forever.

The Maharaj of Indian cricket met Business Insider India, and got chatty about his success mantra:

India’s seeing a lot of emerging startups over the last few years. Your advice to young leaders of our generation.
It’s simple, really. Be honest, be trustable, and look after your people.

Do you think people complicate leadership?
The pressure to succeed makes you do that. We always strive for the perfect world, but it never seems enough.

What’s the most common mistake people make on the way to success?
One tries to do more things to be completely sure they’re doing it absolutely right. While it’s not a bad thing, you’ve to learn to deal with it.

Any instance from your career to cite an example?
I’ve been through times in my career where I’ve trained hard to try and be successful. Later on, I’ve trained a little lesser and scored big runs. I feel sometimes I overdid, and that made me tired. It’s a balance which you have to keep, and it’s very hard to decide on the balance.

How can a leader ensure he/she is always taking the right decision?
It’s just about waking up in the morning and looking at the mirror and saying, “Whatever I’m doing it’s for the best interest of the job I’m entrusted with”. As long as your intentions are right, you sleep well.

What is the one thing one needs to accept to be successful?
Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody in the world is perfect.

How does one make sure they keep persisting?
Tell yourself you would never know what’s at the end of the tunnel if you don’t get there. You have to make the effort to go to the other end and then hope to succeed.

What are the things you look for in anything before endorsing it?
I’m a huge supporter of credibility. Even now, for a consumer-related brand, my biggest look out is how the consumer is treated and how quickly the service is delivered.

Does the idea of multiple leadership work well in a team setting?
It depends. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. But whether it does or not, you’ll find out very soon. If you win, it works, if you don’t, it doesn’t.