Author’s Background
Author Yatin Samant is an Engineer & a Business Management postgraduate, with more than 34 years of corporate working experience across a diverse set of industries in India and Asia Pacific. He had headed organizations & businesses as CEO/ Managing Director for about 20 years. He has served on the Board of a renowned organization in Education Sector. Author Yatin Samant is also a credentialised, Personal Coach since 2012 and he has been a visiting faculty at a renowned Management Institutes in Bangalore.
An Interview with Author Yatin Samant
Neel Preet: Firstly, Congratulations on your book, “Invoke Inner Wisdom – Empower Self!” Well, can you please share your experience about making your work come into the form of book!
Yatin Samant: Bringing out a new book – in fact any new creation , is conceptually equivalent to giving birth to a child
After germinating ‘seed’ of a thought in his / her mind- an author undergoes ‘development’ of that thought mush like a baby’s growth in a mother’s womb. He/she then bears the baby inside for some time till it is ready to come out — undergoes Delivery pangs & anxiety ; and also feels ‘relieved’ & fulfilled after ‘giving birth’ . Like a mother, each author wants the child to do well & succeed & has a lot of attachment to it
Bringing out a book has a lot of challenges , each time it happens – right from selection of a publisher to the editing / formatting / corrections / design , eventually publishing & then promoting . It takes a lot of commitment , dedication & uncontaminated involvement .
Excellence happens only when one is fully involved in a concept of non-duality ( अद्वैत – one with the cause ) like in a case of a Mother with her child !
Neel Preet: What inspired you to write this book? What was the impetus behind this work of yours?
Yatin Samant: I realised that there is much to learn from Life. Observing human behaviour – issues & oddities & reflecting on it – reveals its patterns & peculiarities. More you think , more you realise that everything that appears as diverse knowledge on the surface , converges at the bottom into an universal wisdom
My realisations started with observing “Mother & Child” — which is an outstanding model of service, non duality with a cause – more & more I thought it looked like an universal model –which led to Maid to Mother -organisational transformation
Reflecting on the substandard service levels , despite investments in resources & infrastructure made me distil 4 golden principles of Service Excellence . It also led me to the concepts of (i) Body & Soul for wholesome working & (ii) Win-within-Win as the next level of Win-Win. Further deep delving made me discover a direct link of between service levels & Trigun of Sattva, Raja , Tama , which further led me to the root cause of substandard service – lack of Sattvikata from serviceI
I also realised that as Adults , there is a limit to which we can learn from external modes alone, besides facing diminishing returns on investment . I am convinced that there is much to learn from Self — each of our completed year or each of our major experience is like a Juicy fruit — only when we take juice from them that we get nourishment , but what do most do with it ? just accumulate & let it rot. I hence focused on Inside-Out learning pathway , instead of the conventional Outside-In pathway. I strongly recommend adults to learn on Inside-Out pathway with mechanisms of Reflection , Introspection, Meditation , Self Dialogue
Initially I shared my learnings , my realisations with individuals, groups , through workshops – wrote articles & blogs – including on LinkedIn.
After a substantial body of work was thus created and acknowledged by audiences , I sensed , these are too precious to be confined to appreciation of small groups and felt a need to take these realisations to a larger – Worldwide audience , in the form of a series of books
Neel Preet: You’ve given a very interesting title to your book, which is very inspiring too so, what made you go for this title for your book?
Yatin Samant: There are two learning Pathways : (i) Outside -In pathway & (ii) Inside -Out pathway . Outside In pathway is the conventional pathway, which starts from childhood where learn from external inputs . It is a “feeding “ Channel , with little value in adulthood
Inside-Out pathway is an adult pathway , is about learning from self with mechanisms like Reflection , Introspection , Self dialogue , Meditation etc . It is a “ Digesting “ Channel . Difference between the 2 pathways is that while the former is like a Diet treatment , latter ( Inside-Out ) is working on Metabolism
Essence is that , what we do is a function of how we think . Hence for better / enhanced results , we need to examine & reorient our thinking. Power is in our mind, not in the circumstances –we need to Invoke it !
All my work is based on this premise . It is about making people think – differently , to develop different Perspectives , create new Realisations, thereby helping people take charge of their destiny . That is the source for the Title
Neel Preet: What was your mind-set, while working on this book? Is it based on any particular experience of yours?
Yatin Samant: Mindset or Mind orientation is the Power that drives “ What you do with what you have” , those who use it-succeed; those who lack it- only complain . There are many examples which have shaped my thinking.
One example is of Mothership model , which is the biggest source of my learning
Difference in how a maid tends to a child v/s how a mother cares for it – stems from the difference in their mindsets. Because for a Maid , it is a Job , for Mother , it is Cause- one that she has surrendered herself to
This is seen in serving food to a child coming back hungry from school. Maid who is an expert cook, makes great Baigan Bharata, little realising that the child hates Brinjal & will not eat it. A mother, on the other hand, may not be the best cook, but is alive to likes/dislikes of the child & will make only those things which the child would love eating
Another common example I can take is of people who ‘explain’ what they could not do. They are no less capable than those who make things happen. It is the mindset of the former which restricts them. How they think, affects what they do/achieve
Third example is captured in my concept of Busyness to Business . Busyness is a state of mind – not physical , certainly not circumstantial . Busy are the people who are hapless slave of time – they are riding a horse whose reins are not in their handContrast that with people like Dhirubhai Ambani – who do not work any less , but are not busy ,they are meaningfully engaged – they drive time horse with reins firmly in their hand . They have enough time to go for new opportunities – in contrast busy people are too preoccupied with Today to think of Tomorrow.
This happens due to the different ways in which Minds of these two types of people are organised. Mind of a meaningfully engaged person is like an organised library, v/s messed up mix of things for those Busy
All of above & many more were realisations from my observations & experiences, which forms basis of my writing.
Neel Preet: What are some of the learnings that you gained from writing this book of yours?
Yatin Samant: Key learnings I would like to list which got reinforced while writing are :
Excellence happens only when we work with the mind frame of Non-Duality ( अद्वैत ) – when we become ‘ one’ with the cause, like a mother is with her child
If we need better Fruits – we need to work at the Roots ! Since it is our Mind , which drives how we think & what we do- if we need transformed results , we need to first transform our mind – the way we think.
Focus of our pursuits needs to be to ‘Understand’ person we are dealing with & not to ‘Transform’ him/her – which is our natural urge. In fact if we understand a person well , transformation happens ( on both sides ) as a by product
It is more important to be Authentic than Perfect – more Genuine than ‘Correct’
In fact Perfection , Excellence are ( never ending) Journeys than Destinations.
Neel Preet: Next, I would want you to tell us about some of those writers, who had inspired you and whom you follow!
Yatin Samant: Honestly , while I admire many for their contribution in different fields – I do not have any role model in life . Also my destination is Value Creation – not necessarily being an Author
I reading preference is non fiction – History , Heritage , Auto biography , Self development and anything that interests me .
I admire those authors who are true to their convictions, who write in the flow – upfront in their views, without any agenda
Some of the authors I have read are P.L. Dewshpande , Jaywant Dalvi , S . N Navre , C,V, Joshi etc in Marathi & Steven Covey , Ram Charan , Vikram Sampat , Devdutt Pattanaik , J Sai Deepak , Ram Swarup , Sitaram Goel , Rajiv Malhotra, Koenard Elst , Francois Gautier , David Frawley etc in English
Neel Preet: Is there any message that you would like to convey to your readers? Or any piece of advice, which you would like to give to the readers out there!
Yatin Samant: Most precious thing to protect in life is ( your ) Sanity – the thing which is under constant attack in today’s world full of noise & narratives with agenda
Always be your true self . What holds you in good stead is not how Right/Wrong you are ; but how true your thoughts & actions are to your convictions
Hence always develop & nurture your own independent thinking – refuse to be carrier/ postman of someone else’s thoughts
Your personal Development is your obligation – always be live to it. At regular interval when you turn back , you must be able to see the distance covered on self development track . In fact like Abraham Lincoln said , everyday , you need to be a better person than you were yesterday
Neel Preet: Are there any other books being worked by you? Please let us know about your future projects.
Yatin Samant: I have been writing since my school days – first in Marathi ( my mother tongue ) & then in English. I started with Poetry, moved on to prose
So far I have my 3 ( Marathi ) books published – 2 Poetry books & one prose – light humour
My entire work – whether Coaching , Strategic Consulting , Workshops or Writing …are on the same platform … invoking mind power – power of perspective , making people think & think differently , to help them on their own sense making – thereby equipping them to find their own path to professional success & personal fulfilment
Bringing out all my thoughts in a series of 3 books. This book – “ Invoke Inner Wisdom : Empower Self “ is first of the series of 3, which has 54 structured articles . Next two books are respectively based on (i) Collection of thought provoking Blogs – each woven around a single thought & (ii) A pocket book of 1 liner wisdom
Post these , I will complete & publish my next book of poetry in Marathi ( pocketbook )
Neel Preet: Thank you so much for answering all my questions. All the very best to you for future and your book too!
Yatin Samant: Thank You
Order Book: https://www.amazon.in/Invoke-Inner-Wisdom-Empower-Yatin-Samant/dp/9358387556/
