7 - Low Centre of Gravity - Lloyd Reeb on Half-Time: Transitioning from a life of Success to Significance

Bob speaks about the notion of a Chief Life Officer, and how each one of us can play that role for ourselves as we go through life. He also makes the distinction between what is valuable and what is priceless and urges us to think about the distinction as we think about choices as we often move from being a warrior to a king to a sage in our respective journeys.

Lloyd speaks about hitting the pause button in 1993 when he got to a position of success and influence. He also speaks about how he manages to build some deep reflection time in the middle of his busy life. He goes on to reflect on the words from the song by Michael Card – it’s hard to imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind.

Lloyd speaks about how we all can take stock of our resources (Time, Talent and Treasures) to discover the greatest impact one can make as we go through our journey.

In one of the stories, Harish takes us back to 1930 when the competition was to see who could complete the fastest solo flight between India and England that year. JRD Tata (flying from India to England) and Aspy Engineer (flying from England to India) are two of the competitors and it turns out to be a close rase to the finish line with these two. The story is about something that transpires between them when they meet in Egypt, something that illustrates the approach to competition in the Tata Group.

Lloyd speaks about how we get interested in a certain topic or an area and how it slowly grows to becoming a part of our identity. He speaks about how we can look for some of the cues from the past to see how we can reflect on some of our experiences that move us and see if there is an opportunity to lean in towards any of those as we architect our lives.

Lloyd throws some light on a question that a lot of leaders grapple with – What should be my role in the Social Sector? He speaks about how we should think about our contribution towards Social Impact as we move from Success to Significance.

Lloyd refers to the metaphor of Speedcar racing and suggests that the cars are able to be agile and nimble because of their low centre of gravity. He suggests that we take a leaf from that to reduce our wants and declutter our life so that we are able to reduce our centre of gravity that might give us the ability to navigate the twists and turns life throws at us.

Lloyd speaks about how we need to think about maintaining a margin across four domains: physical, emotional, financial and spiritual. He links it to the thinking of Jim Collins in the context of his book – Great by Choice. He says that businesses need to have some buffer and margin to deal with good luck and bad luck that come their way.

Lloyd speaks about how he has slowly moved from emphasizing success to significance to satisfaction. He lays out the distinction between these terms and speaks about what it takes to move towards satisfaction.