An interesting thought from Ramki:
--
There are 3 types of employees:
1. Active Participants:
They are the ones who actively seek opportunities to improve the company. They are a motivated lot. The ideal state to be in a company.
2. Those who do what they are told
3. Those who spread negativity
Definitely not the state to be in.
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A couple of interesting thoughts from Peter Bregman’s original post: How Not Achieving Something Is the Key to Achieving It
Most of our jobs hinge on repetition. That's how we become good at anything. The problem is we give up too soon because anything we do repetitively becomes boring.
Anyone can do anything. As long as three conditions exist:
· You want to achieve it
· You believe you can achieve it
· You enjoy trying to achieve it
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love what you do,
repetition,
success
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Simplify Your Mission
"I would encourage other entrepreneurs to spend a lot of time boiling down what their business is, what it does, and what it represents. If you nail down a 60- to 90-second synopsis, that will pay a lot of dividends throughout the life of your business."
-- Eric Koger, ModCloth
Ditch Your Safety Net
"As a senior at Babson, I lined up a job at Goldman Sachs. I thought I was pretty smart since this would give me a backup if IdeaPaint wasn't working out. Looking back now, I realized that having that in hand was a reason not to push harder and higher. The day before the job started, I told them I wanted to pursue IdeaPaint. They thought I was crazy, but I think it has worked out pretty well."
-- John Goscha, IdeaPaint
Exceed Expectations
"We knew we only had one shot at this, so there was nothing throughout our start-up that we didn't purposely over-deliver on -- from the way we pitched our distributors and investors to the way we rolled out in the market. If you always over-deliver, it is going to draw attention and you will likely be successful."
-- Jeff Avallon, IdeaPaint
Do More With Less
"That is something we've definitely exemplified. When you have limited resources, you constantly have to be really creative about the way you can make things work."
-- Morgan Newman, IdeaPaint
Don't Go It Alone
"Surround yourself with an awesome team because you're going to need them to overcome all the obstacles that come with starting a company. Lots of people have great ideas that they try to tackle by themselves, but I think it's almost impossible to do everything by yourself."
-- Emily Olson, Foodzie
Be Nimble
"The landscape no longer changes every two, three, four years like it did in 2002. If you're not quick on your toes, you will miss opportunities."
-- Tristan Harris, Apture
Have a Plan for Actually Making Money
"We are no longer in an era where potential investors or acquirers go after companies who focus on their user count."
-- Kyle Vogt, Justin.TV
Do Your Homework
"Be really clear about the assumptions you're making about the business you're going into, and check those assumptions as quickly as you can -- whether it's building a prototype and testing it with people, or just talking to other people in the industry.
-- Can Sar, Apture
Be Prepared
"Educate yourself on whatever you're going into. If you don't know what you're doing, people will take advantage of you. Exercise your right to negotiate, especially as a woman; don't be afraid to walk away from an opportunity that you don't think is right for you; and be realistic about your budget. Figure out how much you need to save and then try to keep yourself on a strict budget."
-- Kyle Smitley, Barley & Birch
Stay Genuine
"Do what you know… and love! It will resonate with your customers, employees, and potential investors. And make all the hard work worthwhile."
-- Susan Gregg Koger, ModCloth
Send In The Geeks
"Starting with a highly technical founding team is the key to being a flexible web technology company."
-- Michael Seibel, Justin.TV
Don't Manage Angry
"Be as stern as you need to be, but nothing good comes from you bringing your lack of emotional control into the work."
-- Adam Rich, Thrillist
Don't Be Afraid
"If you have an idea, do it. When you're in your 20s or 30s, that's the time where you can be aggressive and be a risk-taker. That's the beauty of youth."
-- Michael Nardy, Electronic Payments
You Can't Mask Mediocrity
"Steve Martin said it best. Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that."
-- Anthony Volodkin, Hype Machine
Do What You Love
"It's a common saying, but vitally important. The more you enjoy your job, the easier it is to work, and that's important, especially when starting up your own company. You will be amazed at the amount of time and energy it will take to make your company successful."
-- Jamail Larkins, Ascension Aircraft
--
Cheers!
Siddharth 'PV'
http://siddharthpv.blogspot.com/
Excerpts from Ritesh Sidhwani's (he's the guy who produced DCH) interview with Subroto Bagchi. This is a part of the Zen Garden series in Forbes India magazine:
---
SB: “What is the greatest input to your asset creation process, Ritesh?”
RS: “It is relationships. We understand relationships beyond the cliché.”
SB: “Tell me about that. How does one build relationships the way you do?”
RS: “First of all, it is about conviction. Relationships and conviction go together. I cannot sell a film to an actor, a technician or to the audience unless I have personal conviction in it. Farhan and I do not make a film unless the story has really touched us; unless we ourselves have deep affinity for it. All relationships are about conviction. And no relationship can thrive without honesty. You have to be honest in every deal. The second tenet of relationship is about opting to work with like-minded people. You simply cannot work with everyone; you cannot make a film for everyone. All relationship is a selective process. The third tenet is about submerging the ‘I’ in the ‘we’. There is never ever a great film made by any one individual, it is always a group of people who collectively must give their best. Finally, you need to be slow. You need to give every relationship time. That includes your relationship with your customer. You simply cannot rush it.”
SB: “And what about the don’ts in building a relationship?” I ask Ritesh.
RS: “Do not follow the money. Never lie to yourself. Do not shut the critical feedback. Be a good listener when people are telling you things. If you listen well, you build great relationships.”
The man’s got to know, I tell myself. It is not just the best directors, actors, technicians and labs in the industry who swear by him and partner Farhan Akhtar. They have been buddies for 23 years; even as schoolboys they never ever came close to parting, as we all have at least once. And importantly enough, he has known his wife Dolly since he was 18 and she was all of sixteen-and-a-half!
Posted in
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forbes india,
relationships,
ritesh sidhwani,
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Some excerpts from a really thought provoking essay by Paul Graham.
--
Excuse: He did well because he's talented...
But while it certainly helps to be smart, it's not the deciding factor. There are plenty of people as smart as Bill Gates who achieve nothing.
In most domains, talent is overrated compared to determination—partly because it makes a better story, partly because it gives onlookers an excuse for being lazy, and partly because after a while determination starts to look like talent.
--
The Elements of Determination
Wilfulness:
"When you want something, you must have it, no matter what."
* A good deal of willfulness must be inborn. Circumstances can alter it, but at the high end of the scale, nature seems to be more important than nurture.
* Bad circumstances can break the spirit of a strong-willed person, but I don't think there's much you can do to make a weak-willed person stronger-willed.
* Willfulness clearly has two subcomponents, stubbornness and energy. The first alone yields someone who's stubbornly inert. The second alone yields someone flighty. As willful people get older or otherwise lose their energy, they tend to become merely stubborn.
Discipline:
* Determination implies your willfulness is balanced by discipline.
* The more willful you are, the more disciplined you have to be. The stronger your will, the less anyone will be able to argue with you except yourself. And someone has to argue with you, because everyone has base impulses, and if you have more will than discipline you'll just give into them and end up on a local maximum like drug addiction.
* The more willful you are, the more dangerous it is to be undisciplined.
* If you're sufficiently determined to achieve great things, this will probably increase the number of temptations around you. Unless you become proportionally more disciplined, willfulness will then get the upper hand, and your achievement will revert to the mean.
Ambition:
* Willfulness and discipline are what get you to your destination, ambition is how you choose it.
* Most people don't know how ambitious to be, especially when they're young.
* Probably most ambitious people are starved for the sort of encouragement they'd get from ambitious peers, whatever their age.
... (which means, a man is truly defined by the company he keeps)
Summary:
Determination = willfulness balanced with discipline, aimed by ambition
And fortunately at least two of these three qualities can be cultivated. You may be able to increase your strength of will somewhat; you can definitely learn self-discipline; and almost everyone is practically malnourished when it comes to ambition (so you should always be on the lookout for ambitous people).
--
Practical application to daily work life:
Most types of work have aspects one doesn't like, because most types of work consist of doing things for other people, and it's very unlikely that the tasks imposed by their needs will happen to align exactly with what you want to do.
Indeed, if you want to create the most wealth, the way to do it is to focus more on their needs than your interests, and make up the difference with determination.
Posted in
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creating wealth,
determination,
discipline,
paul graham,
success,
want something really badly
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I am not sure what's the best and sureshot way to win an argument (am not even sure if there is one).
But corporate life has taught me a technique that can significantly help increase the chances of winning one.
The technique is:
* When faced with an argumentative discussion, let the opposite party speak up first.
Be a good listener. Encourage your adversary to come clean about his thoughts on the issue.
(Chances are this will happen readily as most people believe in the first mover advantage too much..)
* Note each and every reason / pain-point mentioned by him in favor of his argument
When he is done, its payback time.
For each and every reason mentioned by him, give him your counter-logic and argue it out.
The advantage of doing this is:
Once you opponent has finished speaking you might realize that his pain-points are completely different from what you had in mind.
Knowing your opponent's arguments is equivalent to knowing his best cards. Now you can modify your arguments accordingly.
But, another important thing to be able to do this is - one has to learn to be passionate (and not EMOTIONAL) about issues.
Great post by Peter Bregman at HarvardBusiness.org :
Excerpts:
---
A muscle only grows if you work it till it fails. You need to use more challenging weights. You need to fail."
---
Every time I ask a room of executives to list the top five moments their career took a leap forward — not just a step, but a leap — failure is always on the list. For some it was the loss of a job. For others it was a project gone bad. And for others still it was the failure of a larger system, like an economic downturn, that required them to step up.
Yet most of us spend a tremendous effort trying to avoid even the possibility of failure.
---
If you believe that your talents are inborn or fixed, then you will try to avoid failure at all costs because failure is proof of your limitation. People with a fixed mindset like to solve the same problems over and over again. It reinforces their sense of competence.
But if you believe your talent grows with persistence and effort, then you seek failure as an opportunity to improve. People with a growth mindset feel smart when they're learning, not when they're flawless.
---
Michael Jordan, arguably the world's best basketball player, has a growth mindset. Most successful people do. In high school he was cut from the basketball team but that obviously didn't discourage him: "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career, I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game wining shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
---
Want to increase your own performance? Set high goals where you have a 50-70% chance of success. According to Psychologist and Harvard researcher the late David McClelland, that's the sweet spot for high achievers. Then, when you fail half the time, figure out what you should do differently and try again. That's practice. And according to recent studies, 10,000 hours of that kind of practice will make you an expert in anything. No matter where you start.
---
Key takeaways:
Try more stuff all the time. More importantly, try different stuff all the time. Know that you might fail. Its okay – just make sure you learn from it.
The real growth always happens outside our area of comfprt.
This is from a HBR article: The two lists
---
Make two lists:
List 1: Your Focus List (the road ahead)Some people already have the first list. Very few have the second. But given how easily we get distracted and how many distractions we have these days, the second is more important than everWhat are you trying to achieve? What makes you happy? What's important to you? Design your time around those things. Because time is your one limited resource and no matter how hard you try you can't work 25/8.
List 2: Your Ignore List (the distractions)
To succeed in using your time wisely, you have to ask the equally important but often avoided complementary questions: what are you willing not to achieve? What doesn't make you happy? What's not important to you? What gets in the way?
From Mr. Narayan Murthy’s commencement speech at Wharton.
-----
Mr. Murthy went on to offer his audience some personal advice based on his life experience.
"First, I want to emphasize the importance of being trustworthy with all in your dealings. It is on such foundations that great organizations are created.
Second, fear is natural, but do not let your actions totally be governed by it. Just as fear may sometimes be the hidden voice of your intuition alerting you to what your rational mind may not yet have seen, it is also sometimes an invitation to explore a new part of yourself and the world.
"Third, a supportive family is the bedrock upon which satisfying lives and careers are built. Create a support system for yourself with people who will rejoice in your success and be there for you …
Fourth, learn how to manage yourself, especially your feelings in a way that respects the dignity of others and yourself. I have found it helpful to separate the merits and demerits of a decision from the accompanying feelings. We call this ‘being transaction oriented’ at Infosys.
Finally, live your life and lead your career in a way that makes a difference to your society."
Murthy closed with a memory from the series of interviews that Bill Moyers did several years ago on PBS with Joseph Campbell, the American mythologist and folklorist. Deep into a profound discussion about life, Murthy said, Bill Moyers leaned over and asked Joseph Campbell, "Joe, I am sure you have thought about this question. Why are we here on this earth? What is the path for one to follow?" Joseph Campbell smiled gently and said, "Yes, I have thought about it and the only answer I have found is this. Follow your bliss. All else will follow."
Accordingly, Murthy urged his audience to "choose a worthy dream for yourself. Go after it confidently. But always, without fail, ensure that you are following your bliss."
Posted in
commencement,
follow your bliss,
infosys,
narayan murthy,
wharton
| 1 comments
Marketing is communicating to the world some form of value you offer. It faces outward.
We don't usually think of marketing as facing inward toward ourselves. I'm suggesting that marketing can be thought of as an internal conversation with yourself. It flows both ways.
When you tell yourself that you have a long arc, that's internal marketing. When you indulge in the private luxury of a random free day from the office, you are marketing to yourself. When you sign your name with a flourish on a personal will, hoping it won't come into play for many decades, you're telling yourself a story.
Just as effective marketing stands out clearly from mediocre marketing in the world, internal marketing can be measured by quality and results. You don't get a pass for crafting weak stories just because no one else is paying attention. What kind of stories are you telling to yourself? Are you persuading you to do something worthwhile?
The stories you tell yourself become consistent scripts. Before you know it, the world sees what you've been marketing to the guy in the mirror.
Mr. Murthy believes that for any company, there are five “context-invariant and time-invariant attributes” that lay the foundation for success:
· The first is openness—openness to new ideas in an environment of pluralism, and subordinating individual egos to accept better ideas from others.
· The second is meritocracy—making sure that the best idea is selected in everything that we do; making sure that all discussions are based on data, facts, and logic, and not on emotions or past precedent. As I like to say, “In God we trust; everyone else must come with data.”
· Third is speed. We have to do things faster today than yesterday, last month, last quarter, and last year.
· Fourth is imagination. Are we bringing better ideas and more ideas to the table than yesterday?
· Fifth is excellence in execution. Ideas have no value unless they can actually be executed and implemented well and then improved so that we are constantly delivering at higher levels of customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.
Giving a presentation to people is a privilege.
If people agree to attend a presentation given by you, they are gifting you their time. They are investing their time with the hope that you / your thoughts will add some value to them.
So, when you are presenting to a group, be very mindful of not wasting people's time. Make sure that every person who walks out of the room at the end of the presentation has gained something. Leave them richer.
If you genuinely think that you have no value to add by giving the presentation - accept that. Cancel your presentation. Do not waste people's time.
They will appreciate you for that.
Posted in
be happy,
tips to be young and happy
| 1 comments
More time doesn't lead to better decisions. It only leads to anxiety.
What enables better choices is better information.
So it makes no sense to postpone a decision - unless you are going to
get BETTER INFORMATION in the meantime.
Rather, just go ahead and make the choice.
The first step to solving any problem is - identify your problem correctly.
The moment you get that right, your problem - solving efforts will automatically get aligned in the right way.
Thanks to Ravi for bringing up this thought.
Trivial relationships - either personal or professional, never work.
If you are not adding any value to the opposite party in the
relationship, it is bound to fail.
When, is just a matter of time.
- Srinivasan Alagu
Posted in
adding value,
relationships,
srini
| 2
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Some of the best dialogues from the 'The Bucket List' -
Carter Chambers: You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you
- - - - -
Edward Cole: I envy people who have faith, I just can't get my head around it.
Carter Chambers: Maybe because your head's in the way.
- - - - -
Edward Cole: Somewhere, some lucky guy's having a heart attack.
- - - - -
Carter Chambers: Edward Perryman Cole died in May. It was a Sunday in the afternoon and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. He was 81 years old. Even now, I can't claim to understand the measure of a life, but I can tell you this: I know that when he died, his eyes were closed and his heart was open, and I'm pretty sure he was happy with his final resting place because he was buried on the mountain, and that was against the law.
- - - - -
Edward Cole: Kiss the most beautiful girl in the world.
Carter Chambers: How are you going to do that?
Edward Cole: Volume!
- - - - -
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that! "
-Rocky Balboa
When you are experienced - you have seen a lot more.
You have been in similar situations before.
You have seen the possible problems that you could face.
You know that A,B,C things work... And X, Y, Z approaches dont work. ( The list may not be exhaustive, but you still more than others.)
You have the initial 'comfort factor' of having 'been there and done that'
This can be a BIG morale booster. It helps you begin well.
And well begun is half done, well done.
Period.
So, how does a newbie on the job try and match his manager? (who, on most occasions would be his grand-daddy as far as the domain is concerned)
1. Be exceptionally brilliant (unfortunately cant proactively do too much about this)
2. Out-Listen, Out-Read & Out-Think
Out-Listen:
Keep your eyes and ears open - Take in ALL the gyan that you can.
You never know what might come in handy.
Out-Read:
What makes your managers so good is the rich exposure of the years that they have spent - handling problems REAL TIME.
If you read enough RELEVANT material (there are enough books, blogs, manuals out there) - You will read about the mistakes that you could make - that your manager would have already made, lived through AND LEARNT.
That way, you are cutting through your learning curve, putting yourself in a better position.
Out-think:
Most difficult of all. But spend more time analysing the problem at hand. Spend more thought on it. If you are reading and listening enough, this will be easier.
............
Of course - at the end of the day - living throuhg something can never be replaced by Listening, Reading or Thinking about it.
But atleast - you would know more. Your mind would have been exposed to a newer dimension. And as Einstein says -
Once your mind has been stretched to a new dimension, it WILL NOT go back to the old dimension.
You would have grown.
Posted in
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thinking
| 1 comments
This doha is normally associated with doing good work.
Something in the vein of- dont delay a good task for tomorrow. Do it
today, in fact right now!
But i realise now that this is true even for dealing with issues that
you may be facing.
No point avoiding painful issues till they cross your threshold.
Instead spot the issue's root cause right away and start cracking!
Especially true for work u avoid cos you dont like it / are not good at it.
--
Cheers!
Siddharth 'PV'
This gem came out of a discussion with Mr. Neeti ------ of Core Objects at the OCC meeting on Jan 18, 2009.
For any marketer - communication is hygiene factor.
No marketing guy can survive without great inter-personal skills.
But COMMUNICATION is / may still be a commodity (to an extent at least). But it is not everything. It is definitely not all that marketing is about.
A marketer's main forte is its ability to influence people's thinking.
A good marketer is the one who has the charisma to influence the way you think and coax you into action.
So - MOVE beyond mere communication skills.
They cannot be your USP. Your USP has to be the ability to influence decisions.
For that you need to understand your client really well.
Now figure ways to do it.
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communication skills,
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Saw Luck By Chance today.
The movie is quite good. Worth watching once.
The best part however was - it reminded me of some of my older fundas...
For instance -
1. There is a smart WAY TO GET THINGS THAT YOU WANT -
Just try asking for them.
When you really want something - go ahead and say 'I want this'
Most people are reasonable. If they can give it to you without too much pain - they will give it to you.
Else - they will tell you WHAT STOPS YOU FROM HAVING THAT THING.
(They could be rude in replying. But finally you will know what it takes to have 'IT')
In short - asking for it will TAKE YOU ONE STEP CLOSER to getting it.
2. Make your OWN CHANCES.
The more you try your luck - the luckier you get.
3. Bank on yourself. Give yourself a CHANCE.
4. Always know WHAT you WANT for Yourself.
5. Just chose to be happy.
On competition-
You lost in the competition today cos you were not serious enough about it.
Why weren't you serious enuf? U did not think it was WORTH COMPETING IN.
Going forward-
there might be multiple occasions where you will be forced to BE PART
OF A COMPETITION THAT YOU THINK IS NOT WORTH IT.
What should you do then?
1. If you really think it is not worth it- QUIT being party to it
2. If you cant quit- make sure you give it your all
A couple of interesting thoughts from Peter Bregman’s original post: How Not Achieving Something Is the Key to Achieving It
Most of our jobs hinge on repetition. That's how we become good at anything. The problem is we give up too soon because anything we do repetitively becomes boring.
Anyone can do anything. As long as three conditions exist:
· You want to achieve it
· You believe you can achieve it
· You enjoy trying to achieve it
Simplify Your Mission
"I would encourage other entrepreneurs to spend a lot of time boiling down what their business is, what it does, and what it represents. If you nail down a 60- to 90-second synopsis, that will pay a lot of dividends throughout the life of your business."
-- Eric Koger, ModCloth
Ditch Your Safety Net
"As a senior at Babson, I lined up a job at Goldman Sachs. I thought I was pretty smart since this would give me a backup if IdeaPaint wasn't working out. Looking back now, I realized that having that in hand was a reason not to push harder and higher. The day before the job started, I told them I wanted to pursue IdeaPaint. They thought I was crazy, but I think it has worked out pretty well."
-- John Goscha, IdeaPaint
Exceed Expectations
"We knew we only had one shot at this, so there was nothing throughout our start-up that we didn't purposely over-deliver on -- from the way we pitched our distributors and investors to the way we rolled out in the market. If you always over-deliver, it is going to draw attention and you will likely be successful."
-- Jeff Avallon, IdeaPaint
Do More With Less
"That is something we've definitely exemplified. When you have limited resources, you constantly have to be really creative about the way you can make things work."
-- Morgan Newman, IdeaPaint
Don't Go It Alone
"Surround yourself with an awesome team because you're going to need them to overcome all the obstacles that come with starting a company. Lots of people have great ideas that they try to tackle by themselves, but I think it's almost impossible to do everything by yourself."
-- Emily Olson, Foodzie
Be Nimble
"The landscape no longer changes every two, three, four years like it did in 2002. If you're not quick on your toes, you will miss opportunities."
-- Tristan Harris, Apture
Have a Plan for Actually Making Money
"We are no longer in an era where potential investors or acquirers go after companies who focus on their user count."
-- Kyle Vogt, Justin.TV
Do Your Homework
"Be really clear about the assumptions you're making about the business you're going into, and check those assumptions as quickly as you can -- whether it's building a prototype and testing it with people, or just talking to other people in the industry.
-- Can Sar, Apture
Be Prepared
"Educate yourself on whatever you're going into. If you don't know what you're doing, people will take advantage of you. Exercise your right to negotiate, especially as a woman; don't be afraid to walk away from an opportunity that you don't think is right for you; and be realistic about your budget. Figure out how much you need to save and then try to keep yourself on a strict budget."
-- Kyle Smitley, Barley & Birch
Stay Genuine
"Do what you know… and love! It will resonate with your customers, employees, and potential investors. And make all the hard work worthwhile."
-- Susan Gregg Koger, ModCloth
Send In The Geeks
"Starting with a highly technical founding team is the key to being a flexible web technology company."
-- Michael Seibel, Justin.TV
Don't Manage Angry
"Be as stern as you need to be, but nothing good comes from you bringing your lack of emotional control into the work."
-- Adam Rich, Thrillist
Don't Be Afraid
"If you have an idea, do it. When you're in your 20s or 30s, that's the time where you can be aggressive and be a risk-taker. That's the beauty of youth."
-- Michael Nardy, Electronic Payments
You Can't Mask Mediocrity
"Steve Martin said it best. Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that."
-- Anthony Volodkin, Hype Machine
Do What You Love
"It's a common saying, but vitally important. The more you enjoy your job, the easier it is to work, and that's important, especially when starting up your own company. You will be amazed at the amount of time and energy it will take to make your company successful."
-- Jamail Larkins, Ascension Aircraft
--
Cheers!
Siddharth 'PV'
http://siddharthpv.blogspot.com/
Excerpts from Ritesh Sidhwani's (he's the guy who produced DCH) interview with Subroto Bagchi. This is a part of the Zen Garden series in Forbes India magazine:
---
SB: “What is the greatest input to your asset creation process, Ritesh?”
RS: “It is relationships. We understand relationships beyond the cliché.”
SB: “Tell me about that. How does one build relationships the way you do?”
RS: “First of all, it is about conviction. Relationships and conviction go together. I cannot sell a film to an actor, a technician or to the audience unless I have personal conviction in it. Farhan and I do not make a film unless the story has really touched us; unless we ourselves have deep affinity for it. All relationships are about conviction. And no relationship can thrive without honesty. You have to be honest in every deal. The second tenet of relationship is about opting to work with like-minded people. You simply cannot work with everyone; you cannot make a film for everyone. All relationship is a selective process. The third tenet is about submerging the ‘I’ in the ‘we’. There is never ever a great film made by any one individual, it is always a group of people who collectively must give their best. Finally, you need to be slow. You need to give every relationship time. That includes your relationship with your customer. You simply cannot rush it.”
SB: “And what about the don’ts in building a relationship?” I ask Ritesh.
RS: “Do not follow the money. Never lie to yourself. Do not shut the critical feedback. Be a good listener when people are telling you things. If you listen well, you build great relationships.”
The man’s got to know, I tell myself. It is not just the best directors, actors, technicians and labs in the industry who swear by him and partner Farhan Akhtar. They have been buddies for 23 years; even as schoolboys they never ever came close to parting, as we all have at least once. And importantly enough, he has known his wife Dolly since he was 18 and she was all of sixteen-and-a-half!
Great post by Peter Bregman at HarvardBusiness.org :
Excerpts:
---
A muscle only grows if you work it till it fails. You need to use more challenging weights. You need to fail."
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Every time I ask a room of executives to list the top five moments their career took a leap forward — not just a step, but a leap — failure is always on the list. For some it was the loss of a job. For others it was a project gone bad. And for others still it was the failure of a larger system, like an economic downturn, that required them to step up.
Yet most of us spend a tremendous effort trying to avoid even the possibility of failure.
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If you believe that your talents are inborn or fixed, then you will try to avoid failure at all costs because failure is proof of your limitation. People with a fixed mindset like to solve the same problems over and over again. It reinforces their sense of competence.
But if you believe your talent grows with persistence and effort, then you seek failure as an opportunity to improve. People with a growth mindset feel smart when they're learning, not when they're flawless.
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Michael Jordan, arguably the world's best basketball player, has a growth mindset. Most successful people do. In high school he was cut from the basketball team but that obviously didn't discourage him: "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career, I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game wining shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
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Want to increase your own performance? Set high goals where you have a 50-70% chance of success. According to Psychologist and Harvard researcher the late David McClelland, that's the sweet spot for high achievers. Then, when you fail half the time, figure out what you should do differently and try again. That's practice. And according to recent studies, 10,000 hours of that kind of practice will make you an expert in anything. No matter where you start.
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Key takeaways:
Try more stuff all the time. More importantly, try different stuff all the time. Know that you might fail. Its okay – just make sure you learn from it.
The real growth always happens outside our area of comfprt.
This is from a HBR article: The two lists
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Make two lists:
List 1: Your Focus List (the road ahead)Some people already have the first list. Very few have the second. But given how easily we get distracted and how many distractions we have these days, the second is more important than everWhat are you trying to achieve? What makes you happy? What's important to you? Design your time around those things. Because time is your one limited resource and no matter how hard you try you can't work 25/8.
List 2: Your Ignore List (the distractions)
To succeed in using your time wisely, you have to ask the equally important but often avoided complementary questions: what are you willing not to achieve? What doesn't make you happy? What's not important to you? What gets in the way?
From Mr. Narayan Murthy’s commencement speech at Wharton.
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Mr. Murthy went on to offer his audience some personal advice based on his life experience.
"First, I want to emphasize the importance of being trustworthy with all in your dealings. It is on such foundations that great organizations are created.
Second, fear is natural, but do not let your actions totally be governed by it. Just as fear may sometimes be the hidden voice of your intuition alerting you to what your rational mind may not yet have seen, it is also sometimes an invitation to explore a new part of yourself and the world.
"Third, a supportive family is the bedrock upon which satisfying lives and careers are built. Create a support system for yourself with people who will rejoice in your success and be there for you …
Fourth, learn how to manage yourself, especially your feelings in a way that respects the dignity of others and yourself. I have found it helpful to separate the merits and demerits of a decision from the accompanying feelings. We call this ‘being transaction oriented’ at Infosys.
Finally, live your life and lead your career in a way that makes a difference to your society."
Murthy closed with a memory from the series of interviews that Bill Moyers did several years ago on PBS with Joseph Campbell, the American mythologist and folklorist. Deep into a profound discussion about life, Murthy said, Bill Moyers leaned over and asked Joseph Campbell, "Joe, I am sure you have thought about this question. Why are we here on this earth? What is the path for one to follow?" Joseph Campbell smiled gently and said, "Yes, I have thought about it and the only answer I have found is this. Follow your bliss. All else will follow."
Accordingly, Murthy urged his audience to "choose a worthy dream for yourself. Go after it confidently. But always, without fail, ensure that you are following your bliss."
Marketing is communicating to the world some form of value you offer. It faces outward.
We don't usually think of marketing as facing inward toward ourselves. I'm suggesting that marketing can be thought of as an internal conversation with yourself. It flows both ways.
When you tell yourself that you have a long arc, that's internal marketing. When you indulge in the private luxury of a random free day from the office, you are marketing to yourself. When you sign your name with a flourish on a personal will, hoping it won't come into play for many decades, you're telling yourself a story.
Just as effective marketing stands out clearly from mediocre marketing in the world, internal marketing can be measured by quality and results. You don't get a pass for crafting weak stories just because no one else is paying attention. What kind of stories are you telling to yourself? Are you persuading you to do something worthwhile?
The stories you tell yourself become consistent scripts. Before you know it, the world sees what you've been marketing to the guy in the mirror.
Mr. Murthy believes that for any company, there are five “context-invariant and time-invariant attributes” that lay the foundation for success:
· The first is openness—openness to new ideas in an environment of pluralism, and subordinating individual egos to accept better ideas from others.
· The second is meritocracy—making sure that the best idea is selected in everything that we do; making sure that all discussions are based on data, facts, and logic, and not on emotions or past precedent. As I like to say, “In God we trust; everyone else must come with data.”
· Third is speed. We have to do things faster today than yesterday, last month, last quarter, and last year.
· Fourth is imagination. Are we bringing better ideas and more ideas to the table than yesterday?
· Fifth is excellence in execution. Ideas have no value unless they can actually be executed and implemented well and then improved so that we are constantly delivering at higher levels of customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.
Giving a presentation to people is a privilege.
If people agree to attend a presentation given by you, they are gifting you their time. They are investing their time with the hope that you / your thoughts will add some value to them.
So, when you are presenting to a group, be very mindful of not wasting people's time. Make sure that every person who walks out of the room at the end of the presentation has gained something. Leave them richer.
If you genuinely think that you have no value to add by giving the presentation - accept that. Cancel your presentation. Do not waste people's time.
They will appreciate you for that.
What enables better choices is better information.
So it makes no sense to postpone a decision - unless you are going to
get BETTER INFORMATION in the meantime.
Rather, just go ahead and make the choice.
The first step to solving any problem is - identify your problem correctly.
The moment you get that right, your problem - solving efforts will automatically get aligned in the right way.
Thanks to Ravi for bringing up this thought.
If you are not adding any value to the opposite party in the
relationship, it is bound to fail.
When, is just a matter of time.
- Srinivasan Alagu
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that! "
-Rocky Balboa
When you are experienced - you have seen a lot more.
You have been in similar situations before.
You have seen the possible problems that you could face.
You know that A,B,C things work... And X, Y, Z approaches dont work. ( The list may not be exhaustive, but you still more than others.)
You have the initial 'comfort factor' of having 'been there and done that'
This can be a BIG morale booster. It helps you begin well.
And well begun is half done, well done.
Period.
So, how does a newbie on the job try and match his manager? (who, on most occasions would be his grand-daddy as far as the domain is concerned)
1. Be exceptionally brilliant (unfortunately cant proactively do too much about this)
2. Out-Listen, Out-Read & Out-Think
Out-Listen:
Keep your eyes and ears open - Take in ALL the gyan that you can.
You never know what might come in handy.
Out-Read:
What makes your managers so good is the rich exposure of the years that they have spent - handling problems REAL TIME.
If you read enough RELEVANT material (there are enough books, blogs, manuals out there) - You will read about the mistakes that you could make - that your manager would have already made, lived through AND LEARNT.
That way, you are cutting through your learning curve, putting yourself in a better position.
Out-think:
Most difficult of all. But spend more time analysing the problem at hand. Spend more thought on it. If you are reading and listening enough, this will be easier.
............
Of course - at the end of the day - living throuhg something can never be replaced by Listening, Reading or Thinking about it.
But atleast - you would know more. Your mind would have been exposed to a newer dimension. And as Einstein says -
Once your mind has been stretched to a new dimension, it WILL NOT go back to the old dimension.
You would have grown.
But i realise now that this is true even for dealing with issues that
you may be facing.
No point avoiding painful issues till they cross your threshold.
Instead spot the issue's root cause right away and start cracking!
Especially true for work u avoid cos you dont like it / are not good at it.
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Cheers!
Siddharth 'PV'
Saw Luck By Chance today.
The movie is quite good. Worth watching once.
The best part however was - it reminded me of some of my older fundas...
For instance -
1. There is a smart WAY TO GET THINGS THAT YOU WANT -
Just try asking for them.
When you really want something - go ahead and say 'I want this'
Most people are reasonable. If they can give it to you without too much pain - they will give it to you.
Else - they will tell you WHAT STOPS YOU FROM HAVING THAT THING.
(They could be rude in replying. But finally you will know what it takes to have 'IT')
In short - asking for it will TAKE YOU ONE STEP CLOSER to getting it.
2. Make your OWN CHANCES.
The more you try your luck - the luckier you get.
3. Bank on yourself. Give yourself a CHANCE.
4. Always know WHAT you WANT for Yourself.
5. Just chose to be happy.
You lost in the competition today cos you were not serious enough about it.
Why weren't you serious enuf? U did not think it was WORTH COMPETING IN.
Going forward-
there might be multiple occasions where you will be forced to BE PART
OF A COMPETITION THAT YOU THINK IS NOT WORTH IT.
What should you do then?
1. If you really think it is not worth it- QUIT being party to it
2. If you cant quit- make sure you give it your all
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