Successful? You stand a good chance being ‘Pellattised ’
Not making much headway despite your best efforts? Are you being Pellattised?
“Pellattised? There is no such English word. Did you mean, palletized?”
“No. I said, Pellattised.”
It is not yet in the English dictionary. I coined the word. There is a true story behind it. It happened in Ontario, Canada many years ago.
But, let me first tell you what led me to the word.
My wife, her brother Issac, and I had gone on a vacation to Toronto. We stayed with Colonel Reji and his gracious wife for a few days. Reji, a fellow veteran and friend with a huge heart, was more than kind. Reji was incharge and he drew up our itinerary. The Welland Canal, an interesting feat of engineering, was our first destination. Through a well choreographed and remotely controlled process, the authorities let water flow in or out of portions of the canal called locks, to lift or lower ships. At lock number three, we witnessed a ship being lifted ten meters in a matter of ten minutes. It was an exhilarating experience. From the Welland Canal we went to Niagara falls. After spending time enjoying the beauty of the falls we went to see the Niagara electricity generation station before returning home. Colonel Reji is well informed. At every place we stopped, he had some interesting details to share. The facts, figures, dates and anecdotes he shared made the visit interesting and meaningful. That is how I heard of Major General Sir Henry Pellatt.
Niagara is a great source of hydro-electric power to both the USA and Canada. Though transmission of power from Niagara started first in 1896 with sending electricity to the City of Buffalo in New York, Sir Henry Pellatt came to the scene in 1903 as president of the Company that won rights to distribute power to Ontario. Time was on his side and business was good. Sir Henry Pellatt made a fortune supplying electricity to Ontario. It was also the time when the debate on private versus public holding of the natural resource was at its peak. The movement led by Legislator Adam Beck calling to make hydro-electric power produced by Niagara ‘as free as air’ became loud and politically compelling. Henry Pellatt's company was soon expropriated. There is no clarity about how much compensation he received. If at all he received something it was far below what he had invested.
Such takeovers are said to be dictated by socio- political compulsions and done allegedly for the good of the people in general, while the real reasons and players behind the scene are seldom known. Once Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario, a Government entity, wrested control from Toronto Electric Light Company owned by Henry Pellatt, the tariffs came down because it was subsidised. Records however, do not show that citizens ever received free power from Niagara Falls, as promised. Political promises are like that. The good is promised and the promise never made good. It was so then and it is so now; the public at large, always the cannon fodder, gullible and lured by freebies they were led to bleed themselves.
The next day Colonel Reji took us to visit Casa Loma, a mansion and a prominent tourist attraction of Toronto. Incidentally, it was once owned by Sir Henry Pellatt. With Toronto Electric Light Company, his cash cow, expropriated, Sir Pellatt could not complete the construction of the grand mansion he had ambitiously envisioned. A series of reverses followed. The world war made things worse. His real estate and other investments tanked. Cascading losses turned the rich man into a pauper. The government of the day was not kind either. The astronomical increase in annual property taxes from $600 to $12000, they imposed, broke the man. Pellatt, once a man with the Midas touch, was forced to move into his chauffeur's home to spend his last days and breathe his last. The grand burial ceremony with full military honours meant nothing to the man in shrouds, locked in the coffin, and with no chance of ever staging a comeback.
As we walked through the passages in the mansion, the halloween theme playing out had a different feel. For the better part of the day, I felt sad for the man. I felt that the system had been more than unfair to him. It looked as if he was broken by intent. “Was it a conspiracy?”
A few days later a second thought occurred. “Was he fair to himself?” How could a man capable of investing and reaping dividends in a vast range of economic activities be so oblivious to adversaries and adversities? That is when I coined the term ‘Pellattised.’
When an individual becomes exceedingly successful, people around tend to go out of the way to make things easy for him or her. The political system often becomes subservient if not subordinate to such people. With everything on their side they tend to roughshod people and subvert procedures. The “winner taking it all,” both the individual and society turn blind eye to illegalities. By no means, I am suggesting that Sir Pellatt ever did something irregular or illegal.
However, lost in the din of success and assumed sense of infallibility, the successful tend to become unaware of the undercurrents and storm building up over the horizon. Amidst the many, singing praises and bending backwards to make things happen, are people, bitten, bitter, bruised, and looking for ways to get even. Drunk with success, the person normally becomes arrogant and blind to loud and visible symptoms of erosion and signs of corrosion. They consider adversaries insignificant and fail to recognise signs of them forming coalitions. I do not know what afflicted Sir Pellatt. But, he certainly did not see or realize the potential of the current against him. Whatever countermeasures he might have taken were too little and too late.
I felt bad for Sir Henry Pellatt. The government could have been more considerate. It is possible that it had caused or accelerated his call. His success might have been an eyesore for his adversaries. They would have colluded with those in power to chart his fall and stamp out any chance of revival. We do not know. Though we claim to be evolved beings, we cannot forget that we still live in a dog eat dog world. When competition is to garner money and power anything is possible, any means is good means and there is no end going to any end.
“Pellattisation” denotes one's failure through a series of commissions and omissions to read the ominous. Compassion history cedes while judging may not help because you may be history yourself.
So, if you feel you are successful, secure your success by preventing pellattisation. If you are finding things hard, check for signs of pellattisation.
Very well analysed Sir. In our context there is little possibility of Ambanisation or Adanisation as they are treading water very carefully and will avoid Rahulisation
ReplyDeleteSir, so very well articulated. You picked up the threads from a pleasure trip and carved a nugget. Really very interesting and insightful.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the article. Thank you Sir. Looking forward to more such articles.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Tharakan.. Awesome picturization together with the coining of a new word that can be contributed to the dictionary, highly appreciated dear Jacob, I empathize with Sir Pellatt, a good lesson to people in the same boat.
ReplyDeleteWonderful article as always. If success gets to your head, and the head then gets away from the ground, and heads further and further into the sky, it forgets and loses that feeling from the feet that holds it, and the pulse from the ground, that cannot be felt from the sky either. Eventually, that poor feet gives way, in most cases, the heads falls with a thud, and there ends a once-glorified-story.
ReplyDeleteSir, very well coined word. An interesting interpretation. A good lesson to watch for by the successful individuals for continued success to stay ahead of the curve. Interesting insights into real world life, through historical events. History repeats itself whether it’s election “jumlas” or such other political promises, which are conveniently forgotten after sometime. Thank you for the interesting insights and interpretation.
ReplyDeleteDon't put all your eggs in one basket is an old adage which is the basic rule for all business.There are quite a few examples of firms that were household names until they failed to innovate and were forced to declare bankruptcy. Eastman Kodak is one name that comes to mind, along with Polaroid Corp., Blockbuster, Inc., and Borders Group.
ReplyDeleteThe distinction for the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history belongs to Lehman Brother Holdings, which kicked off the 2008-2009 financial crisis by collapsing despite nearly $800 billion in assets. Most of the trouble was caused by Lehman's investments in subprime mortgage debt, which was very popular on Wall Street until it wasn't.
It's hard to believe that Apple one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization, was on the verge of going bust in 1997. At the last minute, arch-rival Microsoft swooped in with a $150 million investment and saved the company. The Edtech giant Byju's,once valued at a staggering $22 billion, now has a net worth of "zero.A classic example of the proverb ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth.
‘ Murphy's Law is a humorous adage that states, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Pallettaisation will continue to take place as sometimes bad luck hits you like an ancient Greek tragedy and it is not your own making. When you have a plane crash, it is not your fault.
A thought provoking write up by the general on the sidelines of his exploration in North America.
Jagajeeve, Pala
https://rejinces.net/2016/06/14/joes-canadian-sojourn-casa-loma/
ReplyDeleteIn 1910, Pellatt took the entire 600-men regiment (including its horses) to England for military training at his expense, to mark the Regiment’s fiftieth anniversary from 13 August to 03 October 1910. General Pellatt later served as the regiment’s Honorary Colonel and was promoted to the rank of Major-General upon retirement. When Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, General Pellatt went to England with some men and officers of the Queen’s Own Rifles to be part of the honour guard.
ReplyDeleteGeneral Pellatt left his studies when he was seventeen to pursue a career in commerce in the family business. By the age of 23, he became a full partner in his father’s stock brokerage firm Pellatt and Pellatt. He married Mary Dodgeson whom he met when he was twenty.
He achieved fame in 1879 for beating the US amateur champion in one mile. As a partner in Pellatt and Pellatt, he founded the Toronto Electric Light Company in 1883. By the time he was 30, the Toronto Electric Light Company enjoyed a monopoly on street lighting of the city of Toronto.
In 1892 his father retired, enabling General Pellatt to invest with more risk. By 1901, he was chairman of 21 companies with interests in mining, insurance, land and electricity. In 1902, he won the rights to build the first Canadian hydro-electric plant at Niagara Falls. All these he achieved while serving with the Queen’s Own Rifles. After retirement, in 1911, he began building his dream castle – Casa Loma.
Unfortunately, General Pellatt’s fortunes nosedived and he went into debt. The one sure source of income from the monopoly of electrical power vanished when the government took over the company without any compensation. He then invested into the airline business, to be taken over again by the government towards the war efforts for World War I.
Post World War I economy of Canada slumped. So did General Pellatt’s fortunes. He owed the Home Bank of Canada $1.7 million and City of Toronto a heavy tax bill. He had no choice but to auction off his prized possessions for a fraction of their worth and to abandon his dream home – Casa Loma. After moving into many smaller homes, he last lived with his trusted chauffeur.