Armless pilot Jessica Cox is our role model: Mahindra Satyam CEO

Jessica Cox is the world's first licensed armless pilot, as well as the first armless black-belt in the American Taekwondo Association. At the World Economic Forum at Davos this year, NDTV’s Shweta Rajpal Kohli caught up with motivational speaker Jessica Cox along with the top management of Mahindra Satyam, Vineet Nayyar, VC, MD & CEO at Tech Mahindra and C P Gurnani , CEO, Mahindra Satyam to discuss her story.

“Some people are afraid of water or say they can’t swim but it’s not about that. It’s about going out and say how can I accomplish it,” said Cox.

Gurnani said that a message given by Cox that companies are living beings should rise as a culture and should transform people.

Below are the edited excerpts of their discussion.

Kohli: This is an incredible story indeed, something that has moved several top CEOs here. This was a very special breakfast session was held by Mahindra Satyam. Why did you decide to tell everyone Jessica's story?

Nayyar: Last year, we adopted a slogan for ourselves –“Rise, think differently, do the impossible, accept no limits”. And now we were struggling to see if we could symbolize that. When we came across Jessica Cox, we saw someone who encapsulates what we are hoping to achieve, and this is not only inspirational for everyone else but in many ways it leads us to a trajectory, which Jessica has followed and hope we can achieve even a tiny fraction of what she has achieved.

Shweta: Nayyar it is a story that has moved just about everyone, that if you have a will you have the motivation, then you can achieve just about everything and if that’s the message that the Mahindra Satyam is trying to send, then what’s the reaction of all the top CEOs?

Gurnani: The message was very clear that we wanting to be able to communicate with the top executives at Davos about the power of the human spirit, mind, determination and passion. Jessica not only embodies it but she lives it every day. She chose a life where she decided that she is not going use an artificial limb so her own capabilities can be develop. The challenges that we thought that we had at Mahindra Satyam during the transformation from Satyam to Mahindra Satyam, they look so tiny; they really look so small. Jessica communicated a thousand stories that evoked the power of ‘I can’ in so many people. If we can achieve a small portion of it, we will consider our life fully achieved.

Kohli: Jessica you are a motivation for so many people around world and it’s really amazing how you have achieved what you have? And like Mr Gurnani was saying you really can tell us what motivates you what keeps you going?

Jessica: The challenge of doing something new is like having an opportunity and for me a challenge that urged me to become a pilot was my fear. It was my greatest fear and someone once said that identify your greatest fear and walk directly at it and that was the opportunity to become a pilot. I face my fears head on and believe in myself and have a confidence to do so.

Kohli: You were born without arms now and that is a huge challenge but you have never seen it as a challenge. You have decided to overcome it. Tell us how it all started’ take us through your journey.

Jessica: I was born without arms so from day one and my feet immediately became my hands. I learned to do things from writing to eating to do everything from my feet and later when I grew older, I learnt to drive with my feet without special modifications and later decided to become a pilot and scuba dive, surf. I also learnt taekwondo and learning that took a lot of creativity. It took a lot of thinking outside the shoe.

Kohli: There are top executives here around the world; there are policy makers who are grappling with very tough questions. They are trying to find answers to questions that have made us to believe that the world is coming to an end that Europe is going to collapse; we are headed into another recession. When you meet these policy makers, what’s your message to them?

Jessica: In any challenge we have an opportunity to see it, an opportunity to become stronger or weaker and that’s ultimately a choice. For me, I chose a life of empowerment even when I didn’t have any arms. I could have chosen a life of self-pity and feeling sorry for myself and giving up and we all have that choice. Whatever challenge we are facing, and it’s up to us whether we allow the obstacle to empower us or disempower us.

Kohli: Jessica you are now associated to the Mahindra Satyam group, as they are telling us that they have faced many difficult challenges, difficult moments in transforming the company the entire transaction from Satyam to Mahindra Satyam. Why did you decide to get associated with the company?

Jessica: When they told me that they believe in alternative thinking and driving positive change and accepting their limits and that’s what I believe in as well. I knew we had a lot to talk about and they gave me the opportunity to come here first time in Davos in Switzerland, where I have never been before and share that message with so many people. I hope to share with a little bit of hope, inspire them to believe that most challenges come down to them to drive them to think differently, to drive positive change and accepting their limits.

Kohli: Now you tell us that how the session went and what she did at that breakfast session that you had organized and who all were present?

A: Some of the top CEO's of the world were there and it all made us look very inadequate. It made us look at our problems, which we worry about and suddenly see that they were tiny in comparison to the challenges that she has faced and the determination she has shown to solve them. She inspires all of them who have reached the helm with great amount of effort. I am sure she can be an inspiration to everyone who is feeling pessimistic, feeling down and out and who wants to get up and start reaching that level at which Jessica has reached.

Kohli: Jessica is trying to change that mood, trying to tell everyone to be an optimist despite all the challenges we are facing.

A: The direct message from Jessica was that companies are like living beings run by humans and the spirit of achievement. They want to do more, try to stretch goals. Think of a person with no artificial limbs, with no modification to the car, she chooses to drive. She doesn’t even use a straw to drink water. So she demonstrated all of it. These companies are living beings, and rise is a culture rise transforms people and all of us at Mahindra Satyam, now have a role model.

Kohli: And you intend to take this forward with Jessica, you intend to take her at other such global platforms, take forward Jessica’s story because it fixes so well with your rise slogan.

A: I do want to say yes, that is a plan. And in 2012, you will see Jessica and us together at few other locations globally.