Himmat Karne Waalon Ki Haar Nahi Hoti..

Written on Wednesday, April 07, 2010 by Siddharth PV

A poem by Harivanshrai Bachchan:

Lehron Se Dar Kar Nauka Paar Nahi Hoti
Himmat Karne Walon Ki Haar Nahi Hoti....
Nanhi Chinti Jab Dana Lekar Chalti Hai
Chadti Deewaron Par Sau Baar Fisalti Hai
Mann Ka Vishwas Ragon Mein Sahas Banta Hai
Chad Kar Girna, Gir Kar Chadna Na Akharta Hai
Akhir Uski Mehnat Bekar Nahi Hoti
Koshish Karne Waalon Ki Haar Nahi Hoti....
Dubkiyan Sindu Mein Gota Khor Lagata Hai
Ja Ja Kar Khali Haath Laut Aata Hai
Milte Na Sehej Hi Moti Pani Mein
Behta Duna Utsah Issi Heiraani Mein
Mutthi Uski Khali Har Baar Nahi Hoti
Himmat Karne Walon Ki Haar Nahi Hoti....
Asaflta Ek Chunati Hai Sweekar Karo
Kya Kami Reh Gayi Dekho Aur Sudhaar Karo
Jab Tak Na Safal Ho Neend Chain Ki Tyago Tum
Sangharshon Ka Maidaan Chhod Mat Bhago Tum
Kuch Kiye Bina Hi Jai Jai Kaar Nahi Hoti
Himmat Karne Walon Ki Haar Nahi Hoti....

Posted in challenges, failure, harivanshrai bachchan, himmat, success | 1 comments

Nandan Nilekeni : On Freedom, De-construction and Being Resourceful

Written on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 by Siddharth PV

Nandan Nilekeni in conversation with Subroto Bagchi of Mindtree for the Zen Garden column in Forbes India.

Some excerpts here. Link to the original article:- (link)

SB: A lot of people fall short of their potential because they have inherent difficulty deconstructing themselves. Deconstruction is the ability to press a “reset” button at periodic intervals.
NN: Never thought of it like that but now that you say it, it is so true! I think in many instances I have pressed my “reset” button. From Bangalore to Dharwad and when I went from Dharwad to the IIT and then on to my professional career — it was another reset button and now this work is the latest reset in my life. So, I think my early experience gave me the self-confidence that I could go into a different environment and pull it off; that I can press the reset button.

SB: Have you ever felt that life is about to destabilise you?
NN: Yes, it has happened to me many times. Each time, I knew I am at the precipice, I have simply hunkered down, I have set myself to rethink everything and then I have gone back to make sense of what I am doing, to reflect on what has gone wrong here, how did I mess it up, then how do I solve the short-term problem of getting back my stability and then the long-term need of not repeating the mistake.

SB: How does one hunker down?
NN: You build capacity. It is a gradual, practiced process. You look at crisis in the context of the bigger goal. Suddenly, your setback does not look that big anymore. When you step back and see things in the context of your long-term goal, it helps you to re-calibrate the size of the problem. It is not that it is an inherited trait or something — I have learnt it over the last 30 years. The other thing is that I just do what I need to and I do not worry.

SB: A little while ago, you spoke about your “toolkit”. Show us your toolkit.
NN: I have very strong analytics. I can step back from the problem, detach and look at it from another person’s view. I constantly re-evaluate my priorities and focus. I learn from mentors constantly. I have built a huge network. My network is not just within the software industry. Through my network, I find that I am amplifying my capacity. I think the key thing for a leader is to amplify his capacity.

SB: Tell us about how you model your network.
NN: My model is Open Source. Ultimately, if you have a genuine interest in the other person, the bonding is immediate. That is number one. You back that up with good memory. That is not easy. If I meet a person, I recall about the person instantly. My ability to reconnect is instant. I back it up with homework. I remember when I went to Davos and was meeting with 20 chief executives, I had their full bio-data with me. I prepare for it. The other part of networking is the linkages. If I meet someone today and meet another person tomorrow, and if I feel they both can add value to each other, I link them up. There is a biblical statement, “You cast your bread in water, and it comes back to you.”

NN: I feel that “Freedom is having nothing left to prove”. That is freedom. That is the capacity to do what I have to do.

Posted in de-construction, freedom, nandan nilekeni, reset, zen garden | 1 comments

Fear of being misunderstood

Written on Sunday, February 28, 2010 by Siddharth PV

I am on my way back from Chennai where i had gone for my personal interview for XLRI. As i sit back and think about the interview, i am a little worried the panel might have misunderstood me. I am not so worried about being selected/rejected. Frankly, i am past the stage where i used to think that a degree could make or mar my career. I am sure that mba or no mba, eventually i'll make it good. But being misunderstood surely scares me.

One of the questions where i am afraid i might have been misunderstood is-

Q- So you switched from TCS to irunway.. And your salary jumped by X%.
(he calculated X wrt my current salary.. No wonder X was significantly large)
My Answer- yes sir, but over a period of two years....

And unfortunately this is where i stopped.. Or i guess the topic got changed.. I never explained that my real motivation for moving to iRunway was the profile.. In fact, when i first moved, my salary was nowhere close to my current package. In fact, the cost of staying independently had almost offset the increase in salary and the increment in my monthly take home was hardly anything to write home about.

But the sad part is, i never explained all this. I just said 'it has increased over time'.
Besides, i had also mentioned it amongst my long term objectives that i want to build a strong financial foundation for my family...

Just hope that the panel doesn't (wrongly) put 2 and 2 together and picturize me as a money-crazy guy who's doing his mba to chase a bigger pay package..

This is the problem with short interactions.. You might end up making unfair conclusions about people because you heard only one aspect of the story.. The short interaction did not leave enough time to explore the various layers to the person's answer.

My take away from this episode is-
When you haven't really 'interacted' with someone, you should avoid making any judgements about them. Its important to give people a chance. On the other hand, one must prepare adequately for such interactions. To me, it feels equivalent to faking it (at some level) as you are not being your natural self. But i guess there's no way out..

Posted in iRunway, mba, misunderstanding, money, motivation, passing a judgement, short interactions, xlri | 1 comments

Skepticism v. Cynicism

Written on Friday, February 12, 2010 by Siddharth PV

What follows is a small excerpt from the commencement address given by Tom Friedman (the author of the 'The World Is Flat') at the Williams College, MA in 2005.

Btw, the address is titled 'Listen to your heart' and is really worth reading..

Skepticism is about asking questions, being dubious, being wary, not being gullible, but always being open to being persuaded of a new fact or angle. Cynicism is about already having the answers -- or thinking you do -- answers about a person or an event. The skeptic says, "I don't think that's true; I'm going to check it out." The cynic says: "I know that's not true. It couldn't be. I'm going to slam him."

So, to summarize it, a skeptic is the one who 'questions with an open mind' whereas a cynic 'opines with a pre-conceived notion'..

While the skeptic is actually in search for better info before he can start believing, the cynic is only there to push his opinions..

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Gangu Teli v. Raja Bhoj

Written on Sunday, February 07, 2010 by Siddharth PV

Devdutt Patnaik recently had this great post (link) about the deference between people who just implement and those who dream and ALSO implement.

Over the last year, I feel that I have become more of a implementer and lesser of a dreamer. Saying that this is (probably) the result of my working atmosphere would be being unfair - because finally we all are responsbile for what influences we chose.

Well - either way, here's a great post that has again reminded me of the importance of maintaing the fine (and extremely critical) balance between just dreaming (a la Sheikh Chilli) and just implementing (a la Gangu Teli - just focusing on acting in the present - looking at the current 'small' picture while completely forgetting about the BIGGER picture). (So in a way, this is also a continuation of my previous post..)

Some excerpts from the post by Devdutt:

Shekchilli is a dreamer.

Gangu Teli does not dream at all. He likes to implement things. He calls himself a 'realist' and focuses on practical things like doing the task and measuring their effectiveness and efficiency. That's what the world should be doing. He has a disdain for dreamers. He is the frontline warrior; he knows. When times are bad, he will be called upon to do the ultimate sacrifice. The buck stops with him as he stands in the market. He is therefore most valued in the immediate term. Since he knows that, he often suffers from an inflated self-importance.

Mitti ka Madhav - He is what you want to be. On his own, he is neither. He is a reactive member of the team, doing whatever pleases you, with no mind or opinion of his own.

That brings us to Raja Bhoj, the ideal leader, a dreamer as well as implementer.

(He then explains the behavioural difference between Gangu Teli and Raja Bhoj through an example.. really worth reading)

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The Small Picture and the BIG one too..

Written on Thursday, February 04, 2010 by Siddharth PV

The Small Picture and the BIG one too..

The Context:
Its 8 p.m. and I am polishing off another proposal. Just like all others till date, this one also came with a short-ish deadline. We somehow managed a decent (I would like to believe) version and that too about just in time.

I send it across to the big bosses and wait for any changes that might be required. 10 mins pass and the feedback starts:

This assumption shouldn’t be here. Doesn’t make sense.
- I reply saying that I had included it using inputs from the delivery team and as far as delivery goes : who knows better?

Now, 5 minutes later, I sit back and think about the assumption and realise that boss wasn’t wrong after all.

Maybe the assumption was valid – but surely the language needed to be better
(as in – while the assumption made sense from a strictly delivery standpoint - given the BIGGER business context in which the proposal was being sent, it surely did not make sense)

So, why did I not spot it in the first place?

My guess is: when I was busy getting the proposal in place, with all the 10 sections.. with inputs on pricing, exec methodology, etc coming from 3 different sources..
I was more focused on getting the smaller (yet very important) things right...

Is the formatting in place?
Is the English correct?
Is the content complete?

That’s what I was worrying about. I was looking at the document through a magnifying glass, making sure that I don’t miss the minute details – while assuming that the inputs that I was getting were correctly thought through.

But turns out that while thinking about the tactical issues, I did lose the BIGGER picture.

While getting the minute details is mandatory – you do not get any brownie points for getting them right. Its part of ‘hygiene’.

But if you miss the BIGGER picture – you could end up losing the project all together.

So – its mandatory that I quickly master the art of checking the small picture while not missing out on the BIGGER one too.

(I know that I am capable of doing it. Just that the challenge is doing both in a crunch situation where having time is a luxury.)

Posted in details, strategy | 0 comments

Read It Like Your Reader Would

Written on Sunday, January 31, 2010 by Siddharth PV

In the last 3 days, there have been a few occasions when I have sent out a mail to mail and somebody (a 3rd party observer) has pointed out possible instances in the mail which could lead to potential misunderstandings for the final reader..

This has led me to add his step just before I finally hit the send button: read the mail like your reader would read it..
I just tried it, and I already think it works!

I guess most people would say that checking your mail in this fashion is a part of protocol..
But I guess I had started giving lesser importance to this step as censoring my own mails seemed tantamount to compromising on my thought process - I was just very concerned about doing complete justice to my thought train.. Tailoring my mail to 'suit' the reader felt like a compromise.. Something I wasn't really cool about.

Well, such a compromise is still not acceptable. So, now while I do review each mail, I do make sure that I convey my thoughts - however dis-comforting they might be for the end reader - but I also go slightly out of my way to prevent mis-communication..

That leads me to the next 'natural' question: should I also tailor my blog posts to suit my friends who read it? Should I change it in anyway to prevent potential misunderstandings?
I guess, the answer is no - I am pretty sure that these friends will be friends enough to comment/mail back in case they need any clarifictaions / or there are any misunderstandings..

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Go without them - A great post from Seth Godin

Written on Tuesday, January 05, 2010 by Siddharth PV

Link to the original post: here

One of the most common things I hear is, "I'd like to do something remarkable like that, but my xyz won't let me." Where xyz = my boss, my publisher, my partner, my licensor, my franchisor, etc.

Well, you can fail by going along with that and not doing it, or you can do it, cause a ruckus and work things out later.

In my experience, once it's clear you're willing (not just willing, but itching, moving, and yes, implementing) without them, things start to happen. People are rarely willing to step up and stop you, and often just waiting to follow someone crazy enough to actually do something.

I'm going. Come along if you like.

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3 types of employees...

Written on Thursday, December 17, 2009 by Siddharth PV

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.

Posted in morale, work ethics | 0 comments

You must love the process of 'trying' to be successful

Written on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Siddharth PV

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

Posted in love what you do, repetition, success | 0 comments