COO-chuk chuk

When this blog was alive 2 1/2 years ago, my very first post about the people who inspired me to take up some form of exercise as a routine. This post is about one of them - our COO.

The most dreaded man in the organization, Mr.Hitler for others, the lovable Mr.S for me, our COO. He always tells us not to be obsessed with work and take up a passion or a hobby to keep one motivated. For him it was and is , running. In our organization, he started out as a business head of a branch, moved to being a regional head and now is the COO (Chief Operating Officer). It ain't easy being him, handling a tough business like ours. He summa for the passion of it one day started running, joined a group and has been a regular half marathoner at the Mumbai marathon. And this year he ran the full marathon! Two months ago, when he had visited the office to have a chat with the  extremely demotivated team, he kept telling us about the need to take up a passion or a hobby. He mentioned his running group where people who run with him (the corporate biggies) meet atleast thrice a week, run together and don't talk about work ... at all! Our COO added what joy it was to run and not discuss anything related to work. I didn't believe this you know. 

A week later when I met a client of ours and post the presentation discussed the organizational structure etc mentioned the COO's name. The client was surprised 'coz apparently he was part of the same running group as our COO and didn't know he was the COO of such a big media company till date. Ah, have to tell you about this client. One quiet unassuming Tamilian, heading a big MNC brand who runs the full marathon every year. This year he finished 42 kms at some 3 hours 45 minutes. I was mighty impressed!

Back to our man, Mr.S - wondered how he manages to get up early, complete his running and manage to be at work at 9 , complete meetings, concalls, reviews blah blah. C'mon if he could do it without complaining for fun's sake, so can I. Cribbing about not being able to get up early, feeling tired doesn't help I realized. Decided to make fitness fun and hence the swimming, cycling, running routines.

Tomorrow's post will be about the thing that makes swimming fun for me.