Start-up Secrets from America's Smartest Entrepreneurs

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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Relationship Fundas - from the producer of DCH

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:

---

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!

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The Anatomy of Determination

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.

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Winning an argument..

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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Getting Bored of Things..

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..

| 2 comments

Why you need to fail...

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."

---

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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Now is a good time to pause, prioritize, and focus...

Written on Sunday, June 28, 2009 by Siddharth PV

This is from a HBR article: The two lists

---

Make two lists:

List 1: Your Focus List (the road ahead)

What 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?

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 ever

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Follow Your Bliss

Written on Thursday, June 25, 2009 by Siddharth PV

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."

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Marketing to Self

Written on Thursday, June 25, 2009 by Siddharth PV

From the SAMBA Blog:

Marketing to Self

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.

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Narayan Murthy on 'Foundation for Success'

Written on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 by Siddharth PV

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.

 

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Start-up Secrets from America's Smartest Entrepreneurs

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/

Relationship Fundas - from the producer of DCH

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!

The Anatomy of Determination

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.

Winning an argument..

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.

Getting Bored of Things..

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..

Why you need to fail...

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.

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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.

Now is a good time to pause, prioritize, and focus...

This is from a HBR article: The two lists

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Make two lists:

List 1: Your Focus List (the road ahead)

What 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?

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 ever

Follow Your Bliss

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 to Self

From the SAMBA Blog:

Marketing to Self

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.

Narayan Murthy on 'Foundation for Success'

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.

 

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