I have always been fascinated by Buddha. How could someone arrive at such powerful insights about the human mind at such a young age? What is even more fascinating is that he did it predominantly by reflection, and not by reading or listening to a great many thinkers. But was it easier for him to practice his principles as an ascetic? Would he have been able to return to run the kingdom, and raise his family - handle the pressures that come with these responsibilities, while practicing his own teachings? Maybe. Maybe not.

As I work through the challenges in my own life, my respect and admiration for a certain kind of people, like John Wooden, Fred Rogers, Sridhar Vembhu, or Ricardo Semler, keeps going up. People who fall in this category are less-than-perfect-Buddhas, but buddhas who stay in the game. They manage not to be consumed by stress, seem to have a good and calm personal life, inspire others to take a different perspective towards life and work, don't isolate themselves from the world, masterfully navigate or rise above politics at work, take success and failure with equal composure - all while building world-class products, and teams in business, sports or arts.

They also have one other trait that makes them special. Most philosophies preach us to focus on the efforts, and not the results. This sounds difficult, but it is actually not. Sure, we fail more often than we succeed, and failures are unforgiving. They bruise us and at least attempt to steal some of our courage to try again. Nevertheless, it is easy to take refuge in the other extreme - ignore results altogether, resign from desires, romanticize efforts, apply them in random directions without rhyme or reason, and look down on people who chase money and power. The difficult part is to focus our efforts on something, figure out how to gracefully live with the success or failure that comes about, and use it to improve our efforts. The Buddha-like people master this. Their efforts are carefully directed, and not squandered in random directions. They are detached from the effects of the results, but not from the result itself.

Am I in awe of Buddha? Definitely. Am I even more in awe of Buddha-like people among us? You bet!