The Fulcrum Principle

The Fulcrum Principle It is said that the bath tub inspired the discovery of the Archimedes principle. But in my case, it was not the bath tub but a shower head that has inspired the fulcrum principle : my shower head fell a couple of times when I placed it in its cradle facing outwards but when I turned it to the wall, it remained strong and secure. The point on the wall on which it rested acted as an additional fulcrum to carry the weight. Likewise, leaders and people everywhere need to be a fulcrum while finding a fulcrum for themselves in God or spouse or family or friends or colleagues, all, many or any, to bear the heavy weights placed on their heads and ours. At different times of our lives and in different spheres of life, each of us are a fulcrum for someone else and we too find our fulcrum. A fulcrum is a fixed point on which we can leverage either to stabilise ourselves or to function more effectively. Often, the fulcrum person remains anonymous or at best a footnote of history in a much bigger story. For example, Tenzing Norgay was the fulcrum person who enabled Edmund Hillary to accomplish the conquest of Mount Everest for the first time by any human being. His knowledge of terrain and techniques of climbing played a crucial role in Edmund Hillary who was himself an experienced mountaineer back home in New Zealand. Hellen Keller suffered from both blindness and deafness after an illness. Anne Sullivan became her fulcrum person and taught her how to read, write and communicate. She went on to be her lifelong companion and together they served as a fulcrum for disabled people world-wide by working to improve their conditions. Fulcrum persons like Anne Sullivan melt into the backdrop of the principal character , namely in this case, Helen Keller but they are the ones who with great patience, understanding and wisdom, lend strength and support to the principal. Closer home, Mr Arvind Kejriwal and Dr. Kiran Bedi used the Gandhian activist Anna Hazari as a fulcrum and leveraged to project their own image and achieve their political ambition of launching the AAM ADMI party and eventually capturing power in Delhi even though Dr Kiran Bedi jettisoned herself before it happened. A concept or a principle can also be a fulcrum. The idea of Aam Admi was in fact borrowed from my speech made while Dr. Kiran Bedi released my book on “The Friends of Police Movement” in Delhi. I had spoken of VOP or Very Ordinary People and how FOP or Friends of Police empowers and secures the VOP. Dr. Kiran Bedi translated the idea of VOP and it became the fulcrum of the new anti-corruption party birthed in Delhi led by Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. When knowledge of any domain is applied to real life, it becomes wisdom. Indeed, wisdom is one of the most stable and enduring of fulcrums for any human. Unlike physical levers, the human fulcrum needs to be internalised and ingrained so that we consistently make the right choices and even if we make a mistake, we could always take a U turn on the highway of life to return to the right path. Fulcrums are useful in relation to levers. Life truly depends on the lever- the moving dynamic part as against the fixed, strong stable fulcrum. A combination of ethical consistency- the unchanging constant that lends stability and strength to our ever changing lives and intellectual dynamism of ever changing creative ideas powers human progress at the individual plane. At the end of the day, it is not only our ability that matters in today’s environment but our stability. Leaders and indeed, all people are expected to be both able and stable.