How APJ Abdul Kalam finished mission impossible

Are leaders born?No. Leadership is all about creativity and learning to grapple with failure and success, as former president APJ Abdul Kalam learnt in the course of becoming a leader of the nation’s scientific community and later of the nation itself.

Kalam headed the Satellite Launch Vehicle mission when it was first attempted in 1979. The mission failed. Kalam did not have any explaining to do as his boss fielded all the questions at the press conference that ensued. But the next mission in 1980 was bang on, and this time Kalam was allowed to announce it to the world.

“A creative leader gives credit to his team when there is success, and when there is failure he absorbs it,” Kalam said, recalling his days in the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro)while delivering a talk on leadership on the campus of SAP Labs in Whitefield on Friday. The global software applications developer had invited Kalam to speak to its employees and motivate them.
Pointing out the difference between how leadership was perceived a decade back and how it changed later, Kalam said that competitiveness was the key to success and it was important for one to work and succeed with integrity. He said “vision, power of travelling to the unexplored depths, management skills, courage, nobility, transparency in action and to work and succeed with integrity” were a few concrete qualities that make a leader.

Kalam recalled the “best advice” he had received when in Isro.

“One should not let problem be the captain of one’s ship. One should be the captain of the problem and defeat and overcome it.”
Asserting that pressure could sometimes create wonders, he recalled how, as an aeronautical engineering student, he had to design a low-level aircraft under a nine-month project. The design he had developed after labouring for seven months was rejected and he was told that if he failed to come up with a successful design in three days his scholarship would be in soup. Kalam and his five batchmates lost their sleep and food for the next three days and came up with another design that was appreciated and accepted. He said the experience taught him how valuable time was, as he could accomplish in three days something for which nine months had been reserved.