Over-emphasis on Intent

So many people place way too much emphasis on intent. It sometimes even reaches a stage where they ignore the success or failure of what was intended! Vinod Khosla, the billionaire venture capitalist and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, pointed out the problem with that misplaced emphasis when he made this comment about NGO’s:

“I am relatively negative on most N.G.O.’s and their effectiveness. I am not negative on their intentions.”

I sometimes wonder whether that overdone focus on intentions is partly a cultural thing. Doesn’t the Bhagwad Gita tell us to focus on the act and not on the reward?

Sure, going to the other end of the spectrum and focusing only on the success/reward isn’t good either. The ongoing (or just ended, depending on who you ask) Recession is an example of what results from the other extreme.

That said, if we want the lives of the poorest to improve, it is important to focus on the methods that work. Rather than terming every sincere attempt as praiseworthy. Khosla himself has funded both types of organizations to give loans to the poor: the for-profit SKS Microfinance which came up with its IPO recently and the non-profit CashPor. SKS now has 68 lakh borrowers and a loan portfolio of Rs 4,300 crores. While CashPor has 4.2 lakh borrowers and a loan portfolio of Rs 270 crores. And that’s even though CashPor started several years before SKS.

Results matter. Even when you are trying to do some good. By all means, let the heart decide what you want for others, but then let the head decide the course to get there.

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