A Case of Break in History
If a person, by committing a mistake, loses this identity, he will
lose his value in the eyes of others.
Rajat Gupta was born in 1948 in Calcutta. He lost his parents when he was a teenager. He was able to take this as a challenge, it only enhanced his incentive. After some years he moved to the USA, and after long effort rose to the position of managing director of the prestigious global consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
After a successful career in business he committed a serious mistake. In June 2012 a US jury convicted Mr. Gupta of conspiracy and securities fraud related to his passing on confidential information on Goldman Sachs. He received a two-year jail term and was ordered to pay a fine of $5 million from a US judge. Apparently, his career was finished on this date.
In his six-minute statement before being sentenced, Rajat Gupta said: “I have lost my reputation that I have built over a lifetime.” Rajat Gupta was quite right in giving this statement. I would only change the wording. It is better to say that Rajat Gupta’s case was a case of break in history. After committing this mistake, he lost his history, which is greater than anything else.
One can afford loss of money, but no one can afford loss of his or her history. Everyone, whether he works as a domestic help or enjoys a high position in an institution, creates a history for himself through his performance. It is this history that is the greatest asset of anyone. The world is a marketplace and everyone receives from this market just as much as he deserves, neither less nor more. It is one’s history that determines the level of deservation. One’s history is greater than bank balance or property or any other material gain. Others will judge you by your history. One should be very cautious in this regard.
According to a saying: ‘If wealth is lost, nothing is lost. If health is lost, something is lost. But, if character is lost, everything is lost.’ I would like to replace character with history in this saying, and say that everything that man loses has compensation, but if you lose your history then you cannot compensate it with anything.
People know of the loss of ‘break in service’ but they don’t know of the loss of break in history, and perhaps Rajat Gupta was not an exception. One’s history is one’s identity. It includes honesty, integrity and reputation. These things make one’s identity. If a person, by committing a mistake, loses this identity, he will lose his value in the eyes of others. This is break in history, and if due to some reason, one loses this historical identity he will lose his most precious asset. Such kind of a mistake can never be compensated for.
Apparently, there is no rescue for Mr. Gupta, but for others it is a great lesson. Those who are in employment are cautious about what is called ‘break in service’, but people must be cautious regarding break in history more than they are for break in service. Break in service is redeemable, but break in history is not. There is a line in Persian: Man na kardam shuma hazar bekunaid (You take it as a lesson and don’t make the mistakes I made). Perhaps this is the best message that Rajat Gupta can give to others.
Learning from others’ mistakes is the easiest way of not repeating that kind of mistake again. One can learn the formula of successful life before entering it. Although Rajat Gupta failed, he can say, ‘I hope my failure gives others a tested secret of success.’
