04/10/2020
MINDSET OF DIFFERENT CLASSES IN OUR SOCIETY
Democracy is a myth. Most of the people in the world are not meant to be successful. And this is true since the dawn of civilization. World has almost always acted in a hierarchical structure. Today let me decode this Hierarchy of the Society. As shown in the figure below, Society consists of 5 classes.
1. Genius Class
2. Super Specialists/ Super Experts/ Super Jugaadu Class
3. Specialists/ Experts/ Jugaadu Class
4. Ants/ Skilled Class
5. Rolling Stones Class
Let’s understand these classes one by one. We will begin from the bottom of the pyramid.
Rolling Stones
About 45% population of India are Rolling stones. Rolling stones are good for nothing. They roll from one place to another. They roll from one crisis to another. They roll from one job to another. According to Hindi idioms rolling stones are “kaam ke na kaaj ke dushman aanaj ke”. They remain at the bottom of the pyramid.
They don’t have any skills. They are just born, grow up and die. Even when they die, they are counted as numbers only. You hear in News, - “Today in flood 324 people have been reported dead.”
They are very poor in their decision-making ability. They only think in short-term and mot long term.
For example, they would keep giving births to children in the hope that a few children would survive but they won’t use family planning measures. They are not even capable of having independent thinking.
They are highly dependent upon others for their survival. All the welfare schemes in India are launched for rolling stones. But most of the schemes are siphoned off by others as rolling stones are never able to know how to use these schemes for their own benefits.
Rolling stones never take charge of their lives. Their destiny is decided by others. Rolling stones just follow instructions or social norms blindly. Or, they copy what others are doing, without using their heads. So, it becomes easy to lead them.
Net result is that they are used by people above in the hierarchy. Politicians, Religious leaders, and industrialists, all of them use Rolling stones to serve their own purpose. Rolling stones follow their leaders either willingly or just out of fear or for their need to survive or mindlessly. In the process they make people at the top of the hierarchy more powerful and rich. But they themselves remain at the bottom of the pyramid.
Their characteristic:
1. They lack survival skills
2. They roll from one job, & place to another.
3. They are not capable of take sound decisions in life.
4. They do not take charge of their destiny
5. They are dependent upon others for their survival
6. Their thinking ability is pretty poor.
7. They are USED by others
Ants/ Skilled
The next group of people above rolling stones are Ants. 30% population of India are Ants. Ants are skilled in at least one skill or have some capability which helps them to survive. Plumbers, Electricians, Cook, Welders, Tailors, Kiryana store owner, Foot Soldier, Primary school teacher, Nurse, Air hostess, Beautician, Stage actors, Call center executive and many other skilled people will fall in this category.
Because they have one skill, they are able to garner a better standard of living. They are able to buy a small flat and a small car. Some of them became very successful but most of them never enjoy luxurious life. They are able to just make-do in life. They always count their coins before spending. In social circles also they don’t have high standing. They have to adjust, and compromise a lot in life.
They are capable of doing the same task, again and again and again. In due course of time some of them become very skilled and hence rich and popular. But most of them are just proverbial hard workers of the world, hence the name Ants. Either they are forced to work hard to survive or they like to work hard. They think- Hard work is the only way to succeed in life.
All the factories of the world are manned by Ants. Armies win wars because of Ants. All the religious places are thronged by Ants. All types of social organizations are manned by Ants. Ants are proverbial ‘Aam-Adami’.
Their skills are paid for by people above in the hierarchy of the society who become super successful but Ants remain where they are.
They are big time dreamers. They dream of making it big. They follow their heroes on social media. Religious organizations gather popularity, political parties win elections, movie hit 200 crore mark only when a large chunk of Ants support them. They make politicians, cricketers and movie celebrities super successful but they themselves remain much lower in the hierarchy of the society.
In social circles they don’t have a high standing. In their thinking, Ants are similar to Rolling stones. They suffer from herd mentality. They do what is socially acceptable. They never take risk and miss many opportunities in life.
Normally they go through the cycle of Birth- Study- Get a degree or Skill- get a job or start a small business- Trudge along – Die. What they lack is ambition and higher skills or tactfulness to go up the ladder of the society. They never learn the real success formula of becoming successful in life.
Economically they are categorized as Indian Lower Middle Class.
Specialist/ Experts/ Jugaadu
Specialist, Experts and Jugaadu class is an amalgamation of three sub classes. But in the society, they have similar standings. Financially also they are much better off. 20% population of India falls in this category. Let’s decode each of them.
Specialist – Professionally qualified persons like CA, MBA, Pilot, Biologist, Anthropologist, Seismologist, Physician, Engineer of top engineering college etc. who by virtue of their professional skill starts their career at a respectable place and salary. After a few years of experience, they get enough income to lead a reasonably luxurious life.
Expert – Expert is not a professionally qualified person. Expert is actually an Ant, but as his skill is in high demand or his product or service in high demand, he is able to amass enough wealth to move up one class and lead a relatively well-off life. For example, Mithaliwala in your city who started 20 years ago and now has three branches in the city with more than 40 employees. Or, your friend who was very good in cricket and is now playing Ranjhi trophy and drives BMW. Or a singer who is now a regular on stage shows or sings on TV and leads a reasonably well-off life.
Jugaadu – He is neither an expert nor a Specialist. He is a tactful, and street-smart guy who somehow slips through the ranks to become reasonably successful in life. He is a Risk taker, Persistent, Mentally tough, Flexible, Socially intelligent, Action taker and a Jugaadu. He gets things done and reaches his goal.
For example, your good for nothing relative who started out as a small-time contractor and today he drives Toyota car and takes contracts of road construction worth crores. Or, small time leader who joined a political party and is now a two-time MLA.
Specialist, Experts and Jugaadu are capable of forgoing immediate gratification in the hope of getting better reward later. It is the first category which uses its head to think and take decisions. This category has a mind of its own. They are not easily swayed by popularity, slogans, and advertisements. Most of them are focused, ambitious, disciplined and socially suave. These attributes help them in gaining reasonable success in life.
They start out early in life. They don’t decide at the age of 24, which profession to choose or which business to start. Their mind was made up when they were 10 or 11 years old. And with single minded dedication they improved their skills in that area.
Specialists, Experts and Jugaadu class have more than enough bank balance. They don’t have to think twice to buy what their family fancies. They have one or more than one flats in a nice locality. They can afford to go out of the country on holidays. They can buy fancy gadgets and higher end cars.
They have respect in the society. People outside their close social circle might have herd about them. Some of them gain a lot of popularity, influence and power in the society.
They enjoy life or are capable of enjoying life. They are capable of resisting the efforts of people above them to coerce them. If they create one group and move in unison, they can remove governments, bring social changes, & even force new laws to be enacted.
This class is responsible for bringing new social norms. They are influencers of the society as all the classes below them follow them in clothes, behaviour and to know what is acceptable. Interestingly the class above them also follows this class in deciding the social norms.
Economically they are categorized as Middle Class. They consume most of the white goods, higher end cars, entertainment, private education, top line medical facilities, holidays, insurance etc. This class is responsible for the growth, India is witnessing since early 1990s.
Marketers try hard to influence them. TV Channels try to vow them. But politicians try to steer clear of them as it is not easily influenceable category. Moreover, it is not a homogeneous category.
Super Specialist/ Super Expert/ Super Jugaadu – This class is exactly similar to the class mentioned above but much more successful. Most of the people in this category rise from Specialists, Experts and Jugaadu class. They are hardly 4.5% of the Indian population. They are well known and respected people of society.
For example, Sachin Tendulkar, an Ant who because of his super skill and immense popularity has reached the class of Super Expert.
Dr Trehan who because of his super skills around heart transplant is a known name and has a chain of hospitals like Vedanta. Or, Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Chairman of DRDO. Both of them are Super Specialists.
PM Modi who using tact and popularity to became Chief Minister of Gujarat and later became Prime Minister of India. He is a Super Jugaadu. He knows how to tackle opposition, media, foreign affairs and IAS officers. He is a super influencer who has swayed the Indian middle class as well as Specialist, Experts and Jugaadu class in two general elections.
They live very luxurious life. They have name, fame and money. Most of the classes below them aspire to reach this class.
Super Specialist/ Super Expert/ Super Jugaadu class are the movers and shakers of the society. Whatever they do, whatever they wear, whatever they buy, and whatever they talk about, becomes the talk of the town.
Most of the people in this category are extraordinarily smart, intelligent and socially aware. Most of them are skilled in more than 3 skills. They are risk takers and opportunists.
They know how to influence people below their class. They know the secret sauce of using mass hysteria to meet their end objective. They are able to unravel your psychological make up better than you could.
Remember the last super successful movie you watched and loved. The director, writer and producer of the movie knew how to steer your emotions, create laughter or anger, or anxiety & fear. They made a cool 200 crores by giving 100 thousand Ants a joy for 3 hours.
Remember the luxury soap worth Rs 60/- you bought last time. The creative agency head & marketing head knew exactly which scent, wrapper and heroine you will love to see and created a cool Rs 3,000 crore brand of soap on an ad spent of Rs 450 crore.
Their secret sauce-
1. Ability to analyze the situation correctly & identify the opportunity,
2. Take very high-quality decisions in vague environment
3. Flawless ex*****on
Genius Super Class – Genius class does not mean Genius. But they are super smart people who create new products, new services or new ways of being which solve the existing problem of millions of people and in the process create immense wealth for themselves, & their followers in a very short span of time. They create wealth out of thin air, literally. Not even 0.5% population of India might belong to this Super Class.
Some examples of this category are Mukesh Ambani and his company Jio Fiber; Vijay Shankar Sharma of PayTM, Baba Ramdev and his Patanjali brand, Sundar Pichai of Google Inc. and his Google Chrome linked to Android.
All of them have created wealth out of thin air literally.
Some of the persons of International repute belonging to genius category are Elon Musk (SpaceX rocket, Tesla car, PayPal payment system and many others products which he created have revolutionized the industry).
Warren Buffet (Legendry Investor for the last 50 years and one of the richest persons on Earth.
Late Steve Jobs whose company Apple created products which made and kept people crazy for over two decades.
YOU WANT TO KNOW THE SECRET SAUCE of GOING TO THE CLASS ABOVE YOURSELF?
Stay tuned. The answer would be revealed soon.
- Jolly Karmic Business Coach.
