How Can I Give Back? Am I Qualified To?

Debasis has over 29 years of experience, mostly in construction of infrastructure projects in India, the Middle East & Africa. He is also a faculty of Supply Chain Management in a B-School, and a consultant faculty in an eLearning Organization.

  Career Development  

The theme of this month made me think: Have I given back enough, or given back at all? I spent all my life in the field of project management. This profession has fulfilled my needs. What did I give in return?

I read the recent news about Mark Zuckerberg pledging 99% of his fortune for philanthropy. I of course had read about Bill Gates Foundation. Now, these gentlemen first made their wealth, I am yet to. Can’t I comfortably wait till I become a billionaire? (That could be a very long wait though!)

Then I remembered two luminaries with zero personal wealth. Both were based in my hometown. One was Mother Teresa, founder of The Missionaries of Charity. The other was Swami Vivekananda, founder of The Ramakrishna Mission. The humanitarian works done by these two institutions are part of folklore. Therefore becoming a billionaire first cannot be an excuse. Even for someone who, in anyone’s wildest imagination, cannot be compared with the Swami or the Mother (or for that matter with Bill and Mark).

At this point, my brain--conditioned by decades of PM training and experience--took over.

The Analytical Project Manager
It had all started with the project charter: The sponsors of my life as a project were my parents. They had defined their high-level expectations: “Be a good human being, follow rules, be …

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