JOURNEY

Have you ever written a testimonial for someone?  Or Have you ever Endorsed someone on LinkedIn?  If you have then it is very nice of you and I want to thank you for doing so for whomever you did.  I realized that in our daily lives we do a poor job appreciating people whom we meet everyday.  I don't blame anybody but try to write few paragraphs about somebody.  And it will not be so easy unless you are doing on a daily basis.  Now try same thing with some other person and some another person.  It is really hard to come up with different expressive words every time reflecting a person's identity.  If you want to experiment then try to ask somebody to tell a few words about some person X.  See how long it takes before they stop.  Ask same thing about person Y. As a leader it is very important to know key strengths and weaknesses of your team.  And knowing is also not enough, expressing is also crucial.  It boosts morale of th...

As we all know that Steve Jobs, the legendary innovator has passed away and left many people in tears around the world.  I was in a shock on Wednesday when I heard the news after I was done with my Art class.  It felt like a close family member had passed away.  I cannot do justice by writing about a person whom I have never met.  And lots of intelligent and smart people around the world have written about Steve Jobs.  Take a look at this Techcrunch article on Steve Jobs which aggregated some famous stories on Steve Jobs.  So me writing on Steve would be like a just another fan writing on Steve.  But I couldn’t help it as every other fan so I am just writing what I am feeling.  Just a coincidence, today is 14th October 2011,  the day iPhone 4S goes on sale and Apple has kept a celebration to remember Steve Jobs.  What a day to give a tribute to a legend.  I have been reading lots of articles on Steve and also eagerly waiting ...

In my earlier post on meeting management I wrote on how to keep meetings shorter and frequent to get the most out of meetings.  Shorter meetings bring a sense of urgency.  Remember people will work their butts off to ship a product on time.  In this post I want to talk on other aspects of how to get the most out of a meeting.  There are many issues related to it but I will just focus on three of them and they are very simple to remember.   The principle is known as IPAD principle.  Ok.  Very simple just remember IPAD.  It is very simple.  IPAD means I will come to the meeting P repared with an A genda and leave with a D eliverable (read outcome) .  These three aspects of meeting ( P reparation, A genda, and D eliverable) are very important if you want to get something productive out of a meeting.  So what do I stand for?  It stands for Responsibility .  It means I will be held responsible for not having thes...

Money covers our eye, instinct, emotion and common sense most of the times.  Its domination prevents us from executing our art.  So for whom do we really work?  We spend most of the time in offices staying away from our loved ones and sometimes we get angry or upset with our family for a bad day at job.  After risking everything for whom do we really work for.  Is it your boss? The company? The Money?  No. You work for yourself.  You work for your happiness.  You work for your joy.  If you aren't happy working for yourself then it's not going to produce great work.  It is not going to be a master piece. Check this video by Marian Bantjes titled, " Intricate beauty by design " on TED.com  In the video she talks about taking a more personal approach in graphic design her art got better.  In art and I believe in almost everything we should keep our egos out.  Marian examines if her work brings to her joy or not.  Le...

Did you knew that Amazon internally approaches a product from the consumers' perspective first and works their way backwards ?  What does that mean? OK. They first write a press release of their product and then they grill down on each and every aspect of the product by asking questions and answering them.  That Q&A stuff gets built into what is known as FAQ section of their product.  Before even starting work on the actual product they have worked on press release, frequently asked questions, user manual, and customer experience. All the questions that people would ask and would be confused about are tackled internally first by the team.  This way they are on track to deliver the most engaging and simplistic consumer friendly products.  Everyone should approach consumer products or service in a similar fashion.  Recently Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple and lots of comments were made online on various websites regarding his leadership.  He i...

Leadership is about steering like minded people to achieve a common goal, a shared vision, mission or solve a problem.  A project leader might have like minded construction workers who will build something as he says.  His job would be to steer them so that project achieves what it promised to achieve on scheduled time. How can a leader have everyone agree to a common goal? A leader can create a compelling shared vision that everyone strives to achieve.  A vision that is created in isolation inside board room without public participation will not go too far.  Sometimes leader's persona is enough to have everyone agree his/her vision (Remember Steve Jobs?).  But that is not the case always.  If you keep telling people about your vision or what you believe in continuously then ultimately you will have people around you who think like you and now instead one person working, now you have n number of people working for your vision.  Again if peopl...

Tribal leadership is the book one should read no matter if you are a leader or not. One of the coaching tips offered by the book is deserves to be framed and should be placed on everyone's wall. Here it goes. Coaching Tip: The central theme of the book is that you are only smart and capable as your tribe, and by upgrading your tribe you multiply the results of your efforts. If you think you don't have a great team or you are not satisfied with your results then change your tribe. Or if you think in the future you will be faxing with bigger problems then you have to start thinking ahead regarding upgrading your tribe. As the book further mentions, "What kinds of triads will help us spot and fix problems so big that we can't even think of?" Why people switch careers? Why people make a move to choose to work for a startup? People want to work with a team or tribe that will be able solve a problem.   People want to be a part of that tribe.

If you ever went to a Networking event and felt that you are a bit shy to talk to people then don't think that way. I went to a conference and met some people. Earlier that day I was sitting at one place, not talking to people other then very next to me. I asked one gentleman sitting next to me, "what should I ask people and I am unsure as to how others would react and so on".  He said one nice thing to me, "Don't think too much, everyone here is in the same boat. And everyone wants to make a contact with people here. And that is the reason everyone came here. So don't think. Just start talking." After some time I realized that I don't have anything to loose to get started so let's talk. So don't think too much, get started. And always try to finish with the sentence, "let's see how can we help each other".

Have you heard about the story of a tree where the tree gets destroyed?  You may or may not believe it but it has practical implications in our life, so its worth a mention. Once upon a time there was a tree and a guy named Joe. He used to cruse the tree everyday because it didn't gave him any fruits.  He cursed the tree so much that one day the tree died. The moral of the story is equally true is you take it in a positive way. If everyone around you just said that you can do it then one day you will definitely get it . I am blessed for having such people around me all the time in my life.  Eventually you too start to be like those people. You will tell everyone that yes you can get it. Imagine how much it can boost the moral of an entire team working on a project. To stay happy it is very important to surround yourself by happiest people in your life. Those people will encourage you, motivate you and will always say, "You can get it".  And you need an...

This is a very challenging topic to write leaving my male ego apart.  However, over these many years I have grown to respect women from all parts of my life even more.  People close to me would agree to it.  Men respect women and they do want to see them reach higher in life.  But sometimes they don't offer enough mentoring required for women to get excited and motivated.  From a husband's point of view, who wouldn't mind seeing his wife succeed in life?  Why wouldn't he mentor her?  He should mentor her enough so that she achieves what she aspires for.  And if I am right most men would do so.  That is not the problem. The problem starts when you have to mentor another woman which is not your wife or sister or girlfriend.  What if she is a co-worker in your office?  Or some woman or a girl junior to you at your job or your university?  Will there be same level of mentoring?  This is a very tricky pothole in which people...

Time is the most valuable, scare, underutilized , and wasted resource on earth.  And very few are able to understand this fact depending on how much they see value in time.     Time and time again we have been to endless meetings resulting into huge waste of time for everyone present there.  Everyone forgets that even though it's one hour meeting in reality it's not.  For example, if four star developers are scheduled to meet for one hour with one business analyst then let's start counting how much time is wasted.  We will assume that our fictitious meeting turns out to be useless. First let's put 5 hours straight since they all could have worked 5 hours on their projects.  We are talking about star developers which are far more productive and produce less bugs than the average developers.  So now we are talking even more hours wasted.  Let's put 30 mins extra for each star developer.  7 hours wasted and counting.  Ok we are still...

If you landed on the Moon for the first time then will you watch TV ? (assuming it is there)   No.  Right.  Who cares about TV on moon?  If your are exploring a place for the first time, then will you waste time watching TV inside your hotel room?  Nobody would do either.  That's right.  Then why people watch TV everyday and that too for hours?  There are so many things to do besides watching TV and wasting precious time.  All the happenings on TV are already crafted anyway and they are catering to a specific audience then why so much craving for it.  There is no reality on TV except your TV itself. There are more interesting things going outside that 42 inch screen.  5 PM to 12 PM everyday is enough time to do something that will change your life dramatically.  So what about family life, kids and all that stuff?  I think there is enough time left just by not watching boring TV.  It is about managing one's tim...

If you haven't taken a vacation since long time then I urge you to take one .  It's an amazing feeling.  Even if you can't take a vacation, then go to some place in your town or city which is quiet and peaceful.  Go alone or with your loved ones.  Go out there, take a deep breath and just let your feelings come out.  It will bring freshness to your life.  I think this is a form of meditation.  Everyday people spent time in front of bright television listening and watching not so bright news about world.  You might not remember every episode of " Lost " series but these moments will stay in your memory lanes forever.  In a not so happening city like Toledo, you can still enjoy such moments.  I think there is lot more to explore and enjoy in this world.  These moments are priceless and you have to create them.

I first realized this through Fred Wilson's blog( A VC ).  In this post, I am trying to describe why I think that we are going through a cultural revolution. More power to People Prior to social media and the internet, the world population was disconnected. People could not share or communicate crucial information to different parts of the world.  People now have a voice through social media.  And they can share anything to world in just a matter of seconds.  They have more power than ever before.  We have witnessed Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Watch this interactive timeline from guardian for more on Arab revolution. First time like poles attract each other With increasing internet connectivity and more people joining twitter and Facebook more people are sharing.  And sharing is likely to increase exponentially .  As a result of this, more like minded people are able to connect with each other.  So if you believe in something then you don't ...

There are bad bosses.  And there are good bosses.  You can't escape them until you quit you job or change positions within your company.  It depends on your perspective about your boss too because in reality that boss might be doing his or her job.  The problem for most people is that they keep thinking about their bosses and what they are doing to them and how unfairly they treat them.  And that's the trick that will put people in a never ending thinking loop until they find another job.  Such a waste of emotional energy.  Just not worth it. If you feel your day with your boss was not good then for a second put yourself in your boss's shoes and think how his or her typical day might look like.  How would you have reacted if you were in that place?  Would you make similar choices?  The moment we switch places, our perspectives changes.  For the most part, I believe it is the communication problem that keeps the other side thinking...

With globalization reaching its new high, English language is becoming more and more ubiquitous.  Preference for sending kids to English medium schools is on the rise.  Our cultural values are diminishing and merging more towards a global culture.  It is difficult to measure culture and argue on numbers but it is happening. So are we about to loose our cultural heritage and integrity?  What should we do to create awareness about local culture among everyone?   Who will teach Gujarati(regional language for Gujarat state in India) and who will do marvelous poetry that we used to learn in schools?  And most important of all will anybody care for it?  Shouldn't we preserve our rich culture of local language?  In different countries they have still preserved their languages.  In fact in many countries they have computer key boards in their languages. In a world of globalization it is very important that we learn a universal langua...

If I were to put up a comfort zone light bulb on everyone's head then I bet it would never blink for most people around the world.  Comfort Zone Rules!  95% of people don't do anything radically different or change anything that is out of their comfort zone 90% of the time.  Breaking a routine, making tough calls, pushing beyond limits, building networking skills, challenging other person's thoughts, building life long relationships, calling just to say hi to someone unexpected are some of the out of comfort zone things.  These things many people hate to do or simply it is not in their top to do list. No matter how many apps related to time management or other things you put up to change yourself, they won't last long because of the comfort zone.  We seldom make the first move to keep in touch with some rare friends or business contacts.  It is tough work to beat your personal buddy aka EGO.  It is difficult and challenging task to change some part o...

Is Indian constitution so helpless that we cannot bring about any change without carrying out procession or disrupting assembly sessions with violence and dis-respecting our fellow politicians? Can change be only brought through Satyagraha or non-cooperation movement?  If it was a country like Egypt ruled by Monarchy it would have made sense to take your anger on streets.  Guys, this is the largest democracy in the world.  Why after so many years we feel that we are still ruled by an alien government, who is helpless in cleaning up its own mess? After almost 64 years of India's Independence, there are many loopholes in the system which need to be addressed and fixed for a modern society.  In a modern society people are more civilized and are willing to play a role in governance.  They are willing to be socially responsible citizens.  But people of modern India need clean and honest politics, better governance and commanding leaders in order to participat...

We are not operating at our 100% capacity. We are under utilizing our resources and wasting on top of that. Just for introspection, Do you know all the features of Microsoft Word? I doubt if everyone knew just how powerful Microsoft word is. In your company, if it is like very big then do you know all the different stuff it does? Many people as citizens don't even know what their rights are. It is no wonder why so many Attorneys are making millions in doing just basic stuff for their clients, forget about lawsuits. How many times we throw away food because it's date had expired? Why do we buy things that we would never use them? First of all, we don't utilize the existing stuff we have and then we complain for not having access to enough resources. It doesn't make any sense. In an organization, many of its functions are unknown to its members. Because no one took care to explain them or make them simple enough to be understood. Why dealing with government s...

I want to start this post with this status update I did over the weekend on my Facebook wall. " When I went to school, college it was all about Engineers and Doctors. That's it. No questions asked. It was all the rage then. In the next generation it will be all about Entrepreneurs. If you are in dilemma to choose a country to settle, then go where Entrepreneurs are treated like Rock stars. Ever heard of Chile? Search about their Entrepreneurship program. " Although it didn't received it's share of discussion, I think Entrepreneurship is something everyone should strive for. No matter how big or small is the competition, you should not be deterred by it. Even if you are against Google or Apple, you can still be different and sell. However, the point of the update was if you are in a dilemma to choose a place to settle then choose a place where Entrepreneurs are treated like Rock stars. Where lawmakers are pro-business, who can get things done in order for ...

Have you ever started something with great enthusiasm and then later found that it was over the very next day?  Many times I have found something working awesome for a moment but something happens and I loose focus, interest and I move on to next thing.  I have made schedules, calendars, timetables, and agendas hundreds of times and found that sticking them to it is very difficult and requires a diligent effort.  Almost always it never works for me. We put tremendous amount of effort in taking an initiative but sometimes those initiatives go nowhere.  Have you tried doing sit ups, where you stand up and sit down, and do them like for 20 times?  When you do it the very first day, you start with great enthusiasm.  You do something like 10 to 15 and feel pumped up.  Awesome.  The problem starts when you wake up next day and realize that you have problem even lifting up your leg.  It pains like hell.  And this is only if you...

We do not want act stupid .  We want to be intelligent and smart.  Brave and Bold.  Being stupid doesn't feel right. It is not the preferred choice.  Will you make a smart choice or a stupid choice?  Smart of course as anyone would say it.  Wonderful but it is not always true.  The "smartness cover" on our mind makes us blind while making gutsy decisions.  Decisions on where we have to rely on our gut instinct. Sometimes we have to leave our personal differences to make a smart choice and we can still look stupid.  These are tougher situations in life where you have to trust your heart and hope that some how dots will connect in the future.  And when those dots connect, you have to be wise enough to recognize them as decisions well made.

This is a nice one.  I have three one of the greatest and super awesome friends.  We have shared some great moments together.  Alright this is not a post about friendship and bonding.  It is about ideas.  Just wait a bit.  Oh ya, so whenever we used to hang out together we used to come up with super sexy ideas about starting our own businesses.  Yeah I heard you saying, "I too have had such moments in life".  Awesome.  Back in those days when we were together we used to think that if we execute our ideas  then we would be rock stars of the stock market, the next Bill Gates and the next McBrothers of Burger industry.  The reality had different thing for us.  Instead of rocking the future, I am certain that future rocked all four of us apart in four different corners of the world. What I found the factor behind our failed attempts of becoming oil tycoons was that we never did anything .  We just talked.  And talked....

I am reading book named, " The Best Software Writing I "  which assembles talks, articles and thoughts on software given by great people like Adam Bosworth , Raymond Chen , Paul Graham and you get the idea of people.   If you don't get it, don't worry, I found something interesting in this book.   If you are a software engineer then do yourself a favor by reading this book. Adam Bosworth mentions about what T. E. Lawrence wrote in " Seven Pillars of Wisdom " and I am going to directly quote it below. "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Adam finishes in style inspiring us to dream with eyes open. I encourage all of you to act your dreams with open eyes. I encourage all of you to dream of an internet that enables people to wo...

There are two ways if you want to move up in the system(I mean any system).   Create your own system. Work with the system. There is no rocket science involved in this and if you get this thing right then you can achieve what you set to achieve in the system.  If the central government is not in your favor and they don't support you then you cannot create your own central government.  Think from a state's chief minister standpoint of view.  What will you do?  Work with the system and learn how it works.  That is exactly what Shree Narenda Modi , the chief minister of Gujarat, India has done till now.   He has implemented different projects which no other state government has even thought that those could be done. Hence either you can complain all day hoping that manager don't understand your problems or take a different approach that would solve problems.  There is one thing though that you cannot afford to waste and it is time and opportunit...

I didn't liked playing sports back in college days where the only game you played was cricket.  As a spectator I enjoy cricket but I don't play it.  Since few months I have started playing Badminton and I am loving it.  It is great.  If you play it regularly your game will improve drastically.  We bought a pair of badminton racquet  from Walmart for a mere $4.  That means one costs $2.  Cool.  I was delighted already with the price.  But after few days those racquets fell apart.  No big deal we bought another pair since it was only $4.  I already spent $8 on two pairs and now both are broken.  Not to mention  the frustration and round trips that go into buying these. The problem with those is they break often and in the long run you end up paying more. Then we came across Wilson's racquet worth $20 each. That is 10 times the price of the ones that I bought from Walmart.  As soon as you hold that piece in y...

Numerous articles and books have been written on "How to be an effective manager?".  And almost every piece mentions about having a " TO- DO-LIST ".  Great.  To do lists work best if they are religiously followed.  Not on my list sorry I have not time for you.  Otherwise these lists are useless.  I too have taken my shot at them and you can read them below.  Those who deal with creativity are always challenged with these lists but they eventually manage them.  However in this post it is all about managing a Think List .   OK. Is that something new?  No not quite.  So what is a Think List ?  And Is it another list that I have to maintain when I don't believe in a To-do-list?  Please stay with me to get full idea about think list. When we are dealing with challenges and solving problems that make our lives easier then quite often we are facing with problems or concepts of which we are not sure so we need to think mor...

When we continue to do our daily work with almost exact precision it becomes a routine.  And when it becomes a routine we keep doing some things even if they doesn't make sense after some time.  I am re-thinking everything about my blog right now.  Few months ago, I had fallen into the trap of writing it everyday and it became a routine for me.  I would open the editor and start writing whatever I liked.  Now I am falling back(as you might have noticed infrequent posts from me) and I am thinking of taking a step back .  Taking a step back to re-think few key issues about blogging. Writing everyday is not difficult, in fact after continuous practice you can do it almost flawlessly and you will even get ideas frequently.  The challenge is to do something different and in a big way which pushes the limits.  Since few days I am thinking to write with more substance and more research(noticed the Learning in a Digital Age Series ).   Ya...

Have you heard of CAI?  CEO Accessibility Index (CAI)?  Don't worry I just made it up.  How accessible is your CEO?  Or If you are the CEO then how accessible are you?  I wish there was a metric like CAI which would measure a CEO's accessibility within a company.  Of course that would be subjective to each company and wouldn't be too realistic.  But try to find out how accessible if your CEO.  For example. 1.) Can anybody email the CEO? 2.) Can anybody meet CEO? 3.) How often does your CEO addresses employees? Once a year, twice a year or frequently. 4.) Is the CEO often found behind closed doors? 5.) How far is the CEO's office from the main entrance of the company?  In short how many steps it would normally take to reach to the CEO's office. 6.) Does your CEO hold open meetings? 7.) Does your CEO conducts video conferencing company wide? I know many of the above cases, some are not realistic for many companies because of their com...

Important Note: If you are reading this from cafeteria of a silicon valley company then please ignore.  If your company has a cafeteria and a restaurant paid by the company then please ignore. Of course if it was my company I would also like to have sleeping beds on campus.  But that is going too much the Google way.  It is not bad though.  So in this post I am arguing as always that companies should invest more into cafeteria and restaurants rather than installing more and more individualized compartments for people.  Compartments add more bureaucracy and halts open discussions.  Yeah! I heard those privacy advocacy groups rambling about needing more private space, but what is private in a company after all.  Shouldn't everything within the company be considered open? Cafeteria and restaurants is a nice way to bribe your employees to do amazing stuff and help company innovate with bright ideas.  Don't give me that windmill idea once...

The logic is very simple and after continuous observation it becomes obvious that best people always land up at the best places in the world .  Some people either find best places to work (superstar employee) or they create their existing ones the best place to work (superstar CEO) or they create ones from scratch (superstar entrepreneur). If you have one fresh mango in the midst of 100 rotten mangoes then either one of the two things will happen:  fresh mango will be picked up(most likely) or one fresh mango will make rotten ones fresh (highly unlikely).  If one invests in becoming the very best in the world or in one's domain then sooner or later the best company will pick'em up.

Heard of rave parties? Right.  Rave Parties where everyone is standing and dancing to music of DJ.  The DJ is the king of the floor in such parties.  He/She controls the environment and the mood of the floor.  DJ knows the crowd: their likes and dislikes.  The DJ serves them music that takes that group on to next high.  The crowd swings to the music.  You get the feeling of such parties.  If you have been to such parties then you know DJ really can make or break the entire experience. In an organization, the leader, the CEO is the DJ.  Picture annual meeting of a company taking place in such a format where everyone is swinging to the dance of the CEO.  Of course this is depends a lot on the CEO, the DJ.  Rave parties are great because they bring a sense of togetherness.  Everyone is one.  You jump and the crowd jumps.  Try this out and be a DJ for one party or at least for one song.  You will get the feeling...

Have you heard of  Tom Pinckney , co-founder of Hunch.com?  Read this piece of brilliance .  Tom never got a high school degree and none but MIT accepted him in their undergraduate program.  Who all rejected?  Stanford, Berkeley and everyone rejected him.   Tom submitted his software programs to all the top colleges and everyone rejected him.  Just because he didn't had a high school degree they didn't even bothered to look his software codes.  How lame!!  MIT recognized his talent and boom.  He is a star and now MIT has set a very good lesson for everyone.   I am arguing that stop worrying too much on each and every detail of your resume.  If I do this, my resume will look like this.  If I add some skills, some certifications, some references it will help me a lot.  Well it will but what about solid projects you have done.  Real demonstrable work which cannot be ignored.   Lots of startups in their...

I do believe in first mover advantage. Does that mean that latecomers have no chance?  Well it depends on each case you consider.  Did Friendster won the social networking despite being ahead of everyone in networking space?  Friendster was launched when Mark Zuckerberg was in school.  Facebook came much later  in the game.  Now we don't even hear about Friendster.  Facebook is the king.  So can Google challenge Facebook in social networking?  Well it depends on execution.  Facebook came and took over Myspace like zoom.  Reason: Facebook executed faster and maintained its simplicity.  Can Google go ahead do that?  They cannot go faster and just do what Facebook did it. Another case if we consider is Bing from Microsoft which is doing very well.  Microsoft despite their failed attempts at search having spent billions of dollars still decided that they can challenge Google.  And in some vertical searche...

It almost feels magical moment when you think of the day when you were first hired.  Yup! The day when you got your first job.  Amazing memories.  That was the day when you felt that almost everything is possible and now life is going to be an easy ride.  After you heard those magical words, "You are hired", silence spreads in the entire room and nothing is audible.  You are able to feel it I guess.  Fast forward to today and take a deep breath and ask yourself, "Is today the same day like it was when I was first hired?  Is it like the first day at the job?" If you get the answer NO, then remember something has changed.   And you would have to change it once again to just like the day you were hired.  What is that something?  Your interaction with your boss, your ego, your perception, how people perceive you, your interaction with people, basically that's you gotta find out and fix it .  Yup fix it.  If you can't then remembe...

In this third part of series " Learning In a Digital Age " ( Read Part I here )( Read Part II here ), I want to focus on three important aspects which our schools and universities should adopt.  Those aspects are Adaptive Learning, Life Long Learning & Tasks Based Learning.   Adaptive Learning One thing our traditional classroom models do not accommodate is adapting to individualized learning needs of students.  It cannot be customized.  All students are not build same and they demand different learning environments.  First of all, in a digital age every student should have access to learning materials available in different formats like audio, video, paper hardcover books, podcasts, webcasts, so that students can choose whichever format suits them best.    Currently students have to advance to next level whether to really understood the concept or not.  In online models they can learn at their own pace and whenever they are c...