Your Country Is Like Your Mother-in-law

My wife is a member of a few kitties. For those unfamiliar with the term, a kitty is usually a group of married homemakers who meet for lunch and engage in discourse about the major political issues of the day. These major political issues do not pertain to our national government, but more about their mutual friends who are absent from that day’s meeting!

When things get particularly raucous, they tend to complain about their respective mother-in-law’s personal foibles. Eg. “Can you imagine, mummyji asked me if I’m feeding my kids enough fruit?” Or “After a month, I went to the kitchen and lovingly made daal tadka for my mother-in-law. She didn’t even thank me when I gave it to her!”

When my wife returns from a kitty, she relates to me some of the gossips she heard that day, especially about the various mothers-in-law. She tells me, “Monica’s mother-in-law seems to be such a nice person, I wonder why she complains about her so much? In fact, Monica said that I had the nicest mother-in-law. I wonder why she felt that?” I wisely didn’t reply to that, but it leads to an interesting insight I had after a recent business trip to Dubai.

There has been recent news about a wave of millionaires leaving India to settle in Dubai, mainly because they feel it has a better lifestyle and less government intrusion in their business. Many people I met in India complain that it’s getting tougher to do business in our country and they feel its better to emigrate to a more developed economy.

However, many of the resident Indian business people I met in Dubai complained that the business environment there is bad and people are leaving Dubai to go back to India to take advantage of the fast growing economy. I’ve had similar experiences in USA, UK & Singapore where the local business people complain about how bad their economy is doing and how they envy us Indians.

It then struck me. Every kitty party lady believes that everybody elses’ mother-in-law is much better than their own. Similarly, every business person believes that business is easier done in other countries besides their own.

As entrepreneurs, we are surrounded by media that keeps reporting negative news, like scams and political in-fighting, because that is what boosts viewership. This leads to many of us focussing on the minor problems in this country instead of the overall business trends that we can benefit from. Keeping an eye on positive opportunities in your country is a much better strategy than hoping to get an opportunity to emigrate to another nation.

Appreciate the country and mother-in-law that you live with. You may be surprised as to how improving your attitude can improve your life!