Arthashastra: Embracing Lifelong Lessons for Growth and Success

Kautilya’s Arthashastra, an ancient Indian treatise, offers profound principles for life, be it personal or professional. Going forward, we explore a couple of such lessons that teach us to inspire others and the importance of being an avid reader and learner. By incorporating these learnings in our lives, we can strive to be better leaders and foster growth and success for ourselves and for those around us.

Utsah Vardhak: Inspiring Others

The next lesson is Utsah Vardhak, meaning inspiring others. Leaders must take responsibility for what they're putting out into the world because what they do is going to be emulated by people who follow them, people who are their co-workers and look up to them for inspiration. If you want to succeed, don’t just look out for yourself; rather, inspire others. When you strive for the greater good of the company, people idealize you and aspire to be like you.

If you have the formula for success, share it with others. Success breeds more success. It is just one of those things that if you have more of, it will only keep improving, and that can only happen with the openness of wanting to share what you have discovered and how somebody else might also engage in the same rules that you have laid down, and with it your own success improves as well. When you share, you grow; when you inspire others, you also end up inspiring yourself. What is an adage when it comes to learning? If you read for yourself, you learn about 20%, but if you show others what you did, if you teach others how you learned it, your comprehension of a particular aspect is 90%. So, it's a bedrock of learning, and that applies to success as well.

Svadhyaya: Self Study

And finally, Chanakya speaks about Svadhyaya, which is self-study. Chanakya was a teacher, but he was a brilliant student as well. Students and teachers should never forget to study. It is a quality that one should keep forever. If one wants to be a leader, better be a reader, because readers succeed in life. Arthashastra mentions that one should study every day. Sva, meaning the self, and Adhyaya- meaning to study.

One who studies and reads every day develops a habit of good thinking. Bill Gates, for instance, has his own annual list of books that he comes up with and is a huge proponent of reading, as is Warren Buffett. The two of them have a book club almost going on. The fact of the matter is, It's on the letters that one is consuming. It is just that the more you read, the more expansive your worldview becomes and the more innovative ideas that one will get to not only run business but also to manage relationships with people. Chanakya said, to be a good leader, better be a great reader, and that is something that we must incorporate. Upskilling is part of this. Being a comprehensive, holistic leader who not only understands the technical problems within the company but also emotional problems within a company is what makes for a great leader.

One must be a sharp leader with an interest not only in how the company is run but in the people that work with you, what makes them tick, what makes them want to stay together, and how one can be that emotional glue that binds everyone together and binds them all in the purpose of serving the company. is what makes a great leader; all of this can come with reading.

These lessons from the Arthashastra by Kautilya continue to be relevant even today. Some of them might seem like common sense nuggets, but it is important to reinforce the memory of those important lessons because many a times our ego gets in the way of us achieving the true potential that we have. Should I talk to this person? Should I not collaborate with that person? What will he think of my ideas? All these obstacles that we place in our way reduce the chances of us achieving our true potential. These timeless lessons, incorporated personally and professionally, can help us become the version of success that we've always envisaged for ourselves.