A short talk/transcript by Utkarsh Amitabh (CEO, Network Capital) presenting the mental model “generosity is power.” He argues that generosity—kindness and forgiveness even during conflict—creates long-term strategic advantage, stronger self-respect, and better relationships, and is especially important during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. The talk ends with a brief promo for Network Capital’s masterclasses, newsletters, and fellowships.
Chapters
Hi, everyone. My name is Utkarsh, and I'm the CEO of Network Capital. Today I'm here to talk to you about a really interesting mental model, which I like to call generosity is poor. As we speak, there are many countries that are having existential fights about little bits of property. Lives have been lost around the world, in Asia and the Middle east, in Latin America, around the world, this is a time of complete mayhem. Even in our work lives and personal lives, there always seems to be a conflict that will come up. And once conflict arises, the first thing that we suspend is our rationality, our judgment. Inevitably, it becomes a power struggle. And generosity is power is a really interesting way to understand and deal with who has leverage. When times are tough, it's hard to be generous. You want to win the little war. You want to prove a point. You want to demonstrate that the ball is really in your court. But the more you try, the harder you insist that you have leverage, the more weak you appear. So the best way to maintain composure in a crisis, the best way actually win the war, the war that actually matters, is to focus on being generous. And what does generosity truly mean? Generosity being making kindness and forgiveness the dominant principle, even when and especially when things are hard. It's obviously okay to be nice and generous to people you agree with, but. But how about people who challenge you, who go on and insist that you change your core ideas, core beliefs, to be able to make sense to them? What should you do? What should you do if you're the stronger party? What do you do if you're the stronger company, the stronger country, the stronger person in the relationship, the boss, the manager, what have you? My sense is give and give generously. Power is something very fickle. People have spent from Machiavelli to the 21st century Twitter influencers that you see, they have been trying to accumulate and make sense of this ephemeral thing called power. Nobody can claim to understand it fully, but in my own humble experience, I've noticed that every single thing that I'm proud of at work, in my personal life, and in other streams of ways, inevitably is something where I've let generosity and kindness guide the way forward in the 21st century. We're living in the midst of a gruesome pandemic, and this pandemic has shaken the foundations of the way we work. How. How we hug people. Where we live, many of us have lost opportunities, loved ones. Things are not going particularly well. However, for a small number of people in small sets of industries, things have never been better. People have benefited out of the chaos and more power to them. I applaud their anti fragile nature. But there is certain amount of moral and intellectual responsibility for the victors of pandemics like this to also look outside the window and see the kind of mess and pain and suffering that is there in front of us. What can we do to let generosity be the dominant principle, the operating principle, the operating system of our life? My sense is whether you look at it morally or you get it strategically, you will come to realize that it's in your own interest to be generous all the time. Think of life as an infinite game, a long term game. Don't look at it like a petty person trying to win every fight. Everything that matters. Everything that matters, I explained in my Harvard Business Review, is not something that you can beat another person. You can't win a marriage, you can't win a meeting, you can't win X win that. So if life is an infinite game, being generous is helpful for you strategically as well. Because the more number of allies that you can scale in and around the spaces that you have it, the more advocates that you create. And you know I love to define self respect the way I've learned it as the relationship that you've built with your own self. Now when you turn the finger and look at the moral argument, we always know when we're in the wrong. We intrinsically know when we are in the wrong side of history, the wrong side of argument, the way our narrative is basically a cover up. Being generous is a great way to build a strong relationship with yourself. You will not be able to respect yourself in the long term if you haven't invested time, energy and attention channeling your generosity to everyone, but especially those who disagree with you. I hope this was fun. For more operating principles, mental models, masterclasses, newsletters, cohort based fellowships, head over to NetworkCapital TV every alternate day. You get original newsletter, a masterclass and a podcast and links to the upcoming fellowship In a few days. We are excited to launch the Network Capital Summer School for Kids and also welcome our first cohort of the Side Hustle Fellowship. Take good care of yourself in these tricky times and please know that Network Capital is always there for you. Think about it and let's make generosity more scalable. Thank you.
