In the overcrowded world of self-help gurus, it’s easy to develop a case of cynicism. Yet, Vijay Eswaran’s Two Minutes From the Abyss: 11 Pillars of Life Management — an insightful 2017 tome that was just released as an audiobook — throws open the door with a refreshing honesty that disarms skepticism and compels introspection. The opening chapter isn’t a collection of platitudes or a sugar-coated promise of instant success. It’s a wake-up call, a call to recognize the precipice on which we all teeter, and a call to build a bridge over it.
Eswaran started the book by looking at what he considers the “one percent” of the world’s population, which in much of American parlance simply means the super wealthy. But for Eswaran — and these two factors are frequently intertwined — money is often associated with power and influence. To Eswaran, the one percent are those who “lead the world we live in and shape and influence the way we experience it.”
There are many factors that contribute to someone being in a position to lead and shape public opinion, economics, or political policy. These can range from the economics of the family to the social standing of their friends to the ambitions of the individual. The last element is what Eswaran chooses to focus on.
To Eswaran, the disparity between those who lead and those who don’t can be boiled down to one element: a sense of urgency.
In his book, Vijay Eswaran said that those who help shape the world are the ones who create the “music we listen to, the books we read” and the articles that influence us, among other elements. Clearly, the reality we inhabit is shaped by these forces, which in turn makes them powerful.
Eswaran wrote that these are the people who are motivated and willing to do what it takes to accomplish their goals, whatever field they may be in. He used the example of Rembrandt driving himself into poverty in order to create masterpieces in his attic. He cites the descent into madness that befell Beethoven as he wrote “some of the greatest music known to man.”
This isn’t to say that one needs to give up everything, be it mind or money, to succeed. But to Eswaran, the will to do so is what separates what he calls the lions and lambs.
To that point, Vijay Eswaran argued that not everyone should be a leader. It isn’t for everyone and, in his mind, not necessarily best for human progress, either.
In a quote attributed to Alexander the Great, Eswaran noted, “An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.”
Eswaran said that the demarcation point between the lions and sheep can be either nature or nurture (or both) and that the path one is set on is not necessarily the one one finishes.
He used himself as an example of this dynamism.
“Taking my own life as an example, for a long time I coasted on automatic mode,” he wrote. “I was sadly satisfied with the minor successes I had obtained. It took me a while to recognize that the laurels were starting to turn to wreaths almost from the instant they were earned. They became, in a sense, suffocating. Today, I have come to realize that in order to continue on the path to success, you have to ignore both the garlands that are bestowed upon you and the gravel that is thrown upon you. Both are of little or no significance.”
Vijay Eswaran: Personal Experiences Dictate Policy
As with many (some would say most), one’s personal experiences dictate policy over those learned from others or shared in the media. Eswaran’s experience of realizing the importance of separating what’s truly important from what truly doesn’t matter came from one such incident.
Eswaran recounted the story of himself and an old friend, whom he identified as “H” to protect their privacy. A “fitness nut,” H was the agitator to get Eswaran to take his health a bit more seriously. Part of that was coercing Eswaran to go on runs with him.
Eswaran wrote that on one such day, when H tried to get him to go on a run in inclement weather, Eswaran playfully chucked a running shoe at H when he arrived at his house. H, taking the hint, went on the run solo.
That’s the last time that Eswaran saw his friend. The man who made fitness a priority died of complications resulting from a heart attack while on that very run.
To Vijay Eswaran, the message was clear.
“As I emerged from my own grief and sorrow, a realization hit me: Time is not something that we have,” he shared. “At that moment, a sense of urgency began to rise within me.”
While the rest isn’t quite history, Eswaran’s success in the business world is objective in its results. His sense of urgency was no doubt a driver.
Eswaran spends the balance of the chapter discussing the idea of the limited time we all have, the knowledge that it’s limited, and the decisions people make because of the knowledge.
“People forget how transient life is,” he penned. “Just as my friend left his house that morning for his usual run, expecting fully well to return, and did not. We may not always have the next 12 hours.”
Recognizing the evanescence of life doesn’t mean that a fatalistic approach should be taken, stated Vijay Eswaran. In fact, quite the opposite.
If you live with a sense of urgency, “in an instant, life and every breath you draw gets supercharged,” he wrote. “You change from ambling along the path of life to racing along the same path. If the rest of the world remains the same, then with a sense of urgency you would rather not be them. Walking the line of lunacy would then become appealing. It would be far better to be crazy than compliant. To see the world in a different light, to experience, to experience the sheer joy of living, to be a flash of flight across the sky, than merely a wisp of a cloud. It would then be a life well lived.”
Indeed it would.
