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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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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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
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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
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Written on Sunday, October 25, 2009 by Siddharth PV
From an article which appeared in Inc.com
Stick With It
"Start-ups don't die, they commit suicide. In other words, 90 percent of start-ups fail because the founders get bored, discouraged, or something else, and they move on to other things, not because of some catastrophe. No matter how dark it is today, things will always better tomorrow."
-- Justin Kan, Justin.TV
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/
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Written on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 by Siddharth PV
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:
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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
DCH,
forbes india,
relationships,
ritesh sidhwani,
subroto bagchi,
zen garden
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Written on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 by Siddharth PV
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
ambition,
creating wealth,
determination,
discipline,
paul graham,
success,
want something really badly
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Written on Friday, July 24, 2009 by Siddharth PV
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.
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Written on Saturday, July 18, 2009 by Siddharth PV
Written on one of those days when nothing exciting's happening in Bangalore..
Or let me say - I HAVEN'T been able to find anything exciting to do out here..
Getting Bored of Things..
You move to a new town..
The town delights you with its new sights and sounds..
There's a new world out there waiting to be explored..
Life is beautiful, no chance of getting bored..
The answer to 'What's Up' is nothing short of a 1000 words..
Or a 10 minute speech.. Full of the choicest expressions..
You settle in..
You dont know when, but familiarity creeps in..
Slowly, you have gotten used to the town..
Before you know it - you are wearing a frown..
New activities always hold a lot of promise.. Some even run the entire course..
But some of them are fads of course..
Parallely, you have new people to meet and greet..
They have interesting stories to say.. And you lap it up, wihtout missing a beat..
But over time, people also become a little predictable..
And within some time, the fable has drained down to a babel..
---------------------------
So what does a guy do to / should a guy do to overcome this trap of boredom?
[Its almost like time-based promotions - even if you do nothing, it will definitely happen to you over time]
1. Once a while, plan a trip to a new place in the vicinity
2. Take up some activity he is REALLY interested in. It could be Music, A Sport, Photography - whatever..
And follow it religiously..
3. Make a CONSCIOUS effort to meet up with newer people
----------------------------
PS:
Bangalore is actually a very nice place. Great weather.. Green parks..
Buzzing culture scene.. Lots of music concerts.. Quite a few great place to eat.. A very young crowd to keep all this going..
Just that I am having a bad day..
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Written on Tuesday, July 07, 2009 by Siddharth PV
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."
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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.
---
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.
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