“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win,” said Mahatma Gandhi, after suggesting non-violence as a way to make India free. It was a revolutionary thought: we usually meet violence with violence. The exact opposite worked because “an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
On his birthday on October 2, let us use a thinking tool called “Turn it Upside Down” (TUD). My major encounter with this creative tool faced with the challenge of marketing a hospital. There were no models to market illness. The first hurdle was the ‘immortality complex’. All humans believe that they are immortal and will never fall ill. The way TUD worked here — it is a normal belief that a hospital is a place for sick people. Now TUD — a hospital is a place for people who are healthy.
When we looked at a hospital as a place for healthy people, our customer base increased with people wanting positive health programmes. These included check-ups like child health check-up, heart check-up, diabetic check-up, well woman programmes etc. Preventive health care became a positive activity and a hospital’s relationship with customers, which traditionally started on a note of pain, anxiety and death, now began on a happy note.
Seeing this as an example, look at your life and turn it upside down:
Think mostly about giving and loving rather than wanting and taking.
Stop complaining. Thank God for what you have.
Don’t sell your ideas. Let your ideas be a magnet that will draw others to them.
Focus on maintaining positive physical, mental and spiritual health.
Finally, remember the Mahatma said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Dr Rekha Shetty is the author of Innovate Happily and
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