Daily Lesson from Life 14 March 2009

"A doctor with heart and head for business - tabla!14 March 2009

You may have seen him on TV, looking dapper in a dress shirt and suspenders. In reality, he spends more time in a surgical gown.


Cardiac surgeon Devi Prasad Shetty (above) and his team perform nearly 28 heart operations a day at his hospital in Bangalore. No wonder back in the UK, where he started his career, he was known as the “Operating Machine”.

“My only job was operating from morning till evening and I really enjoyed it,” Dr Shetty told tabla! in an e-mail interview.


The man known as India’s Dr Heart has a fan following that goes beyond the Indian subcontinent. The rich and the poor look up to him. More so the poor. Those who cannot afford to pay are treated free. But the doctor with heart is also known to have a head for business.

He is constantly on the lookout for ways to cut treatment costs. Harvard Business School has a case study on Dr Shetty that discusses his methods of providing high quality heart treatment by reducing costs.


He is in the process of tying up with various state governments to set up health cities. In five years’ time, Dr Shetty hopes to create 30,000 beds “which will give us enough size to reduce the cost so that the working class and poor can afford high technology healthcare”. His Narayana Hrudayalaya’s 1,000-bed hospital in Bangalore has a paediatric section. Parents and children with heart ailments are quite fond of the doctor because they get special attention from him.

Dr Shetty, 55, who hails from Mangalore, did his higher studies in England. He left England in 1989 to start work in Kolkata. It was there that he came into contact with Mother Teresa. And she left her mark on him.


"What I learnt from Mother Teresa is that you carry on doing work that makes you happy without really looking at recognition and accolades."Dr Shetty

“I first met Mother Teresa as a doctor. She had a cardiac ailment for which she was admitted to our hospital for treatment. Everyone had heard of Mother Teresa and everyone knew what she looked like and I approached her as a doctor to help her. However, in the end, she was the one who helped me to find this new world in which I am working now,” he said.


“What I learnt from Mother is that you carry on doing work that makes you happy without really looking at recognition and accolades or, for that matter, support from the society.

He has words of advice for NRIs in Singapore, who he says are lucky to have the best of both worlds.


“My biggest concern is that people tend to become indifferent towards other people’s problems. If my neighbour has a problem, I should never think that it is his problem. Emotionally, sentimentally, it can be my problem and if I do not help him, maybe at some point in time it will become my problem.

“It is very important that the world should become a compassionate place to live in. The day the world loses the compassion and caring attitude, we are doomed to disaster. The world will not be ruined by the activity of the bad people, it will be ruined by the inactivity of the good people,” he says."

I salute Dr. Shetty. He is obviously doing a great job. Combining charity and business in a very balanced way. I hope that he will keep the motto of what Mother Teresa taught him: "don't look a the recognition or accolades" showered on him. Many good people who started with the best intention went astrayed after obtaining initial successes and receiving strong admiration and rave reviews by powerful presses and people! They lost their sight of their initial vision. They began to think they are really that great! They develop entitlement mentality. They craved more accolades and inflate their ego and self-importance!

I also like his view on the need to be a compassionate society. I think Singapore has a long way to go in developing this part of nation building!

Lessons for me are:
1. when you do great, stay humble by reminding yourself you are good but there are more good work to do;

2. learned from the wise and, more importantly, others who managed to keep on the right path despite attaining tremendous successes. Develop a process to remind yourself you can still do better. Instill a mind-set of 'don't believed every good things said about you!'. Surround yourself with people are admired you but don't adored you to the point of unquestioning and blind loyalty!;

3. build on a solid foundation of: I am doing this because I enjoy it and I am helping people to create a better life for them. NOT for fame and fortune only! Fame and fortune if they come are just a natural consequence of doing the Right Things Right!!

I wish Dr. Shetty continue his great work and establish himself to be truly a shinning of example of the good do last! ;-))