This is a short vlog-style talk by Robin Sharma from Mumbai during an international tour. He reflects on travel experiences and develops a central argument that leadership is rooted in passion, innovation, and the willingness to raise standards — arguing that criticism (being disliked) can indicate one is doing courageous, world-class work and that adults often abandon the creativity of childhood unless they consciously recommit to excellence.
Well, hello, greetings from Mumbai. I'm out here on this tour and this is sort of a real time vlog I have for you. I just want to show you a spectacular view out of my hotel room. There's the gateway to India.
And I mean I thought this was interesting this morning as I had my coffee. There's the old boats and you can see off in the horizon, super yacht. And I think in many ways that really speaks to the new India, the mass, the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power, the IT success, etc. Etc. Etc. But here's really what I want to talk about in this V log and the tour has been great. We started off in Dusseldorf. I did an event for meeting professionals international, then off to Bergen, Norway. I want to thank everyone who turned up at that Bergen event. It was so special. Then we went to Kuwait also. Wonderful. Then I just finished Qatar. The Qatari audience was again unforgettable. And I'm sharing this message which I'm so passionate about. And you know it. It's leadership is not about your position. Leadership is about your passion and your innovation and your willingness to make a contribution. So let's get right to it. This vlog is about a tweet I did that generated a lot of response and it was, unless people dislike you, you are not doing your best work. And here's all I'm saying when I tweet that I think ultimately there are a lot of people, what they've done is there's an old expression, we were born into genius and then the world de geniuses us. And bottom line, I think when we're kids, we're full of passion, we're connected with our talent, we're innovative, we're authentic. Adults really are deteriorated children and we get to 40, 45, 50, mid career and we're coasting along. And at some level, whether it's either conscious or not, we've resigned ourselves to mediocrity. We just think, you know, Picassos and Edison's and Sergey Brins and Phil Knights and the best business people, the best inventors, sports stars.
Scientists, we think they're somehow cut from a different cloth. And that's just not true. But I think once you make a decision to raise your standards and to start to go to work and express your absolute best and to tackle your discomfort and to make the work you do today better than it was yesterday, even if it's just a micro achievement, what happens when you start to work like that and live like that? You you actually become one of the 1 percenters. You actually become different.
You actually threaten people because you're no longer part of the herd. You are challenging the status quo where most people just want to coast along. They don't want to change very much. They just want to get through the day. And so what happens is people have a choice. They can either celebrate you and they can say, you know what? He's modeling what I could possibly do, or she's modeling what I could possibly do. Or they could criticize you. That's why I sent that tweet, which is, when you do get to world class, you know, you're playing it world class because people criticize you or they dislike you. Why? That's a fear response against the opportunity that they themselves have to grow. It's much easier to criticize you than to rise to your level and play alongside with you. So, from Mumbai, some ideas on criticism. What it's all about. The imperative on my life and your life and all of our lives to lead without a title by doing our absolute best work. Thanks so much. Bye. Bye.
