Body Building

There were two friends Dharam and Veeru,both of them were born in a village where Body Building was taken as a status symbol.

Veeru loved to build his body but Dharam was reluctant and had no interest in working out those muscles.
Still due to societal pressure he gets into the profession.

One day a renowned body builder comes to the village and lectures them over latest techniques of body building.
He told that if they worked on his preachings he'll take them to new heights,he would get them a brilliant job.
He gave them a few hand written scriptures and a few web URLs to go through.
He also promised to come and see their progress sometimes later in the year and fixed 12 DEC for the meeting.

Veeru just loved the lecture and from the next day he followed the tips and tricks told by that man.
He would browse the URLs one by one and then do the exercise regularly.
He was enjoying what he was doing ,gradually he started loving the PROCESS and results were there to be seen.

AS Dharam had no interest in all these workouts he thought that he would go through the scriptures and URLs just 2 Weeks prior to the day of meeting.He would not workout regularly.He knew the stakes were high and if he didn't work hard he would lose the offer.

Meeting with that person was a EVENT for Dharam and he thought that he would easily get the job because he would have read all the books anyways.

Meeting day finally came and no prizes for guessing who got the job.
Veeru made it because he took body building as a PROCESS .

Even if Dharam read all the scriptures, his bulging flabby tummy defied all his knowledge.

The renowned body builder told Dharam that TRUE SUCCESS is not an EVENT ,its a PROCESS.

You have to go thorough the Process .enjoy it and success will be all yours.

Foresight and Hindsight

There is a investor who has $1 million to invest in a startup and there are two teams who are looking for this investment.

Leaders of the two teams come to pitch their ideas to this investor.

Now one leader is 23 years old but has a brilliant idea which has never been done earlier and has a lot of potential but risk is there as he doesn't have any market experience.
Another one is a 45 years old with 23 years of industry experience,returns might not be that high but he has a mature head and success of his venture is almost sure.

Who would get the investment?
If answer is first one you live in an economy where talent and foresight is given preference over experience and hindsight.You will find people in there early twenties as CEOs running FaceBooks, Twitters or youtubes.

If answer is second one then you are living in an economy where experience and hindsight is given preference over talent and foresight and you won't find people in there early twenties as CEOs running FaceBooks, Twitters or youtubes.

Talent and foresight tell us what can be done to have a better world? How the future should be? They envision something which just doesn't exist.

Experience and hindsight tell us What should not be done? They tell us about what went wrong when they took that particular step.They prevent us from getting stuck in that trap hole once again.

I suppose its better to prioritize talent and foresight and then when the vision/dream/goal is set in place we should rope in Experience and hindsight so that we don't mess up our vision.

Its better to fund Larry and Sergey first and when they sort of know where they are going, get in Eric Schmidt.

Passion for Passions

Imagine

You go up to Sachin Tendulkar and ask him

“Why do you keep playing CRICKET?”
Now imagine the way he will react to your question.

I suppose he will feel irritated ,bemused ,baffled ,frustrated at this question of yours.

But still if you pester him to answer this question he might come out with a irritated reply which probably won't be anything more then

“I just love to play cricket and that's why i do it.”

This reaction and reply are probably the reactions that you would give when questioned about the truest and purest of your passions.

As they say “Chase your passions and be successful”, but how does one know what is his passion??

Just ask yourself this very simple Question “Why do you keep doing XYZ ??” and if the answer and the reaction are similar to Sachin , you are indeed following your passion unconditionally in its purest and truest form.

Who runs your company?

It took me a long time to recover from my catastrophic last (deleted) Blog :-).A lot has happened since then and a lot is happening right now.

Amidst all these happenings and non happenings there were a few things that i wanted to share.

One of them was the following......

Nandan Nilekani (Infy co founder and at present Chairman Unique Id project) was asked that when you leave Infosys what damage it will have on Infy.How will Infosys function without you?

Nandan--" Infosys is not a individual driven Company it's a values driven company and when something is value driven you need not worry about it's functioning."

At first it seemed like just another cliched management funda but slowly it got big on me.The more i thought about it the bigger it got and more i could relate it to our day to day life.

Analogy from day to day life is like parents try and teach there child some values which he should adhere in his life. A few fortunate parents can say with pride that "I don't need to worry about my child ,i know he'll do well".These are the ones who know there child is now values driven and not individual driven.

A child remains "individual driven" or "values driven" depends on a few metrics such as

Do we force our decision on our child or Do we let him think independently ?
Do we treat him as a nobody or Do we let him have a sense of ownership ?
Do we let him learn from his mistakes or Do we force our burden of expectations on him?

A company is also like a child , it needs the same values as we give our child.

Think of a values driven relation where you remain loyal even when your other half is not monitoring.

Think of a values driven classroom which sits quietly and does its work very very diligently even if the teacher is not there.(I know it would be very boring but still think of it :-))

Think of a values driven company where employees work honestly and with integrity even when your lead is not there.

It's a very simple concept to listen yet very complex to comprehend and even more difficult to execute.

Think about it and answer......

Who runs your company??
or more relevant.......

Who runs you ??

Polarize -v 1.2

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Now we come on to the question that was responsible for the polarity and this series of blogs.
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So in the meeting all of us were having a discussion on the topic "Why Indian IT is service based and not product based?".
Answers were something like--
To find a market for a product is much more difficult then to find a market that needs servicing.
Another reason that we got was --Return of investment is much faster in a service based industry.
Another rationale given was --Risk is much less in a service based industry.

I was sitting there listening to all these pretty convincing points...but somehow i was not able to digest that these are the sole reasons for our being a service based industry.I was thinking that if we remove all the constraints of money,risk,rate of investment and potential market.Do we have it in us to come up with a iPhone** and suppose we do come up with a iPhone.Do we have the self belief that our iPhone will be consumed in the western markets or our own markets.

It really needs a leaders mindset ,a winners mindset to see a market that just doesn't exist.To be a leader one doesn't just need hindsight,it has to be foresight as well and to be a industry that comes out with Products(innovative and path breaking ones) you have to have a Leaders mindset.The whole industry should feel like a leader.It has to believe that if we manufacture a car,a phone or a computer.Our product will create a market of its own.

The fact which was disturbing me even more was that we as Indians will be behind most of the softwares being written.It is very much possible that for iPhone also the software has been written by some Indian software company.This means that we have the talent and the expertise to write software for Apple but we just can't think of it ourself. It has to be Steve Jobs who comes up with this idea and it has to be us who will implement his idea.

We make pretty handsome money from this Apple deal but we lose on the bigger picture.We don't create the hype and the excitement that Apple and Steve Jobs create.In the end it is Apple that is the apple of everyone's eye and we just have a few hundred thousand dollars.

To add to it was the fact that Steve Jobs hasn't written a single line of code in his whole life.He just has a mindset and a vision that does the magic for him.In addition to these i had read CK Prahalad quoting somewhere "Being a Developing nation is just a mindset".


All this facts led me to the deduction that we have got everything (talent,expertise,knowledge etc),only thing we are lacking is in mindset.

All these things were going on in my mind,
I raised my hand and let go of the revolution that was going inside me...

I took help of a story to keep forward my point

Once upon a time there was a Gurkha(lets name him Bahadur singh).He was a watchman and so were the men from his earlier generations.He was fed up with his job,he didn't want to be a watchman any more.He used to cry ,he used to ask god to free him from this boring and mundane job of his.He decided to leave the job and start a Tapsya(prayer) to Lord Shiva.After 12 years of rigorous tapsya in the himalyas,Lord Shiva decided to meet this devotee of his.Clouds thundered,lightening occurred,it started to rain.Bahdur Singh felt a hand on his shoulder....he opened his eyes and was very happy to see Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva:: "I am really happy with your devotion.Ask whatever you want to have?I'll heed any number of wishes??"

Bahadur Singh::"I want to be the richest person in the world"

Lord Shiva ::"Tathastu (Granted) .What else??"

Bahadur singh ::"Most beautiful lady should become my wife"

Lord Shiva::"Tathastu,what else??"

Bahdur Singh::"Most beautiful home in the world"

Lord Shiva::"Tathastu ..what else??"

After heeding to as many wishes as Bahadur asked for.

Lord Shiva says::"Bahadur ,now you have everything possible.Can i leave or there is something else??"

To this Bahadur singh(richest man in the world) replies

Bahadur Singh ::"Itna kuch de diya ,ek shaab aur ek mem shaaab bhi to de do."

Lord Shiva::"With a big satirical smile said ....TATHASTU"

:D

think about it...
We have everything that is required to be the leaders ,but it's just a case of changing our MINDSET.


**iPhone - its just a representation that i have taken to symbolise a product which creates a niche for itself.

Note:We already know what happened after narrating this story.If not , please read the previous two blogs of this Polarize series.

Polarize -v 1.1

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Sequel to polarize -v 1.0
(if you have not read version 1.0 ,Please do that first or else you'll lose plot )
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Guy Kawasaki in his book has talked about a concept called "Polarizing people".In this concept he says whenever you come out with a product in the market ,it should be able to polarize people.





People should either have a jaw dropping ,eyeballs-popping reaction

(ie Oh my god....i just want to have it right now)
eg .iPhone



OR




They should have a "just-take-it-away-that's-pathetic" kind of reaction.
eg Chinese variant of iphone



Your customers should either like it or they should dislike it,it shouldn't be a ok-ok reaction.If the product polarizes customers it will stick.Your brand will stick. You'll keep your visibility intact in the market .

so that was from marketing perspective,but i felt it could be applied anywhere.

For example schools- After 10 years if you go to your school,chances of your being recognized by your teacher are directly proportional to the degree to which you have polarized your teacher.

If you were a brilliant student --you'll be recognized.(+ve polarity)
If you were the nastiest student in class -you'll again be recognized.(-ve polarity)
but if you were a ok- ok mediocre student-- chances are that you will be greeted with a name that you have never heard before.(may be a rahul or a pooja )[no polarity]

So i suppose you get the concept of polarity...

Now we'll continue from where we left.....

I got a mail from tie about another event.This time i told myself that please ask your questions sensibly or better-- keep quiet and listen.
I reached there ..attended the presentations.In between the presentations we had a tea break(high tea or networking tea as they call it).

In this tea break i was trying to hide myself from the attendees of the previous meeting.As they might have seen Mr Rekhi knocking the hell out of me.

A person in his mid 40s approached me and we exchanged greetings.He told me that he felt bad for the way Mr Rekhi responded to my query.He said it was a valid point but Rekhi sahab just blew it away.

I couldn't believe ..this man had thought about my point ..he still remembers me.... how was that possible?

Then a few more entrepreneurs came to me and talked to me about that discussion.I was like stunned that so many people recognise me and actually they remember my point which i had given almost a month ago.

If i would have kept quiet....rekhi sahab wouldnt't have answered in that way...

if Rekhi sahab wouldn't have answered that way...i wouldn't have POLARIZED the audience....

so that was a case of negative polarity working for me .....although it was -ve but it was polarity and i was happy.

So many entrepreneurs gave me there visiting card and asked me to keep in contact.

It got all the more exciting when i realised its mapping to Guy Kawasaki's concept of polarity.I came home --told my friends about my stories of bravado(this time they were real).

I thanked Mr Kawasaki for writing that book and my devotion as a fan to Mr Kawasaki increased many folds.

I knew he is a super busy person but still i wanted to share this event with him.
so i sat down and sent him a detailed explanantion of what had happened.i sent him an email...i wished he would reply..

and yes

my wish was heeded .....he replied....GUY KAWASAKI replied ....:)



I had a guy kawasaki mail in my personal inbox.....i was jumping all over the place....telling my friends about Guy's mail...

It was a nice little journey from that guy kawasaki video -to guy kawasaki responding to my mail.


From all this i have learn't my lesson ie

Try real hard to polarize people positively,try to be on the positive end of poles but in that process if you come across some -ve polarity as well. Take it. It will help you remain visible.


**Next post is about the Question that i asked from Mr Rekhi..

Polarize -v 1.0

Some facts you need to know before i start this series...
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1)Polarize -verb To cause to concentrate about two conflicting or contrasting positions(eg. magnet -north pole south pole)

2)Guy kawasaki - ---Author to some amazing business books,
out of the world Blogger, entrepreneur, venture capitalist,great great orator,Apple evangelist

3)TIE - The Indus Entrepreneurs - Nice platform for budding or want to be entrepreneurs.join one in your city

4)KR - Kanwal Rekhi - Indian-American engineer, businessman ,venture capitalist ,entrepreneur ,millionaire philanthropist

=================================================

It all started with a TIE Conference video.Guy Kawasaki impressed me like anything,the guy has amazing articulation skills.After the video i searched on the net about Guy Kawasaki .I went through his blogs,the books that he has written, some speaking assignments.I bought a few books and after reading those books,i must say i was a fan of Mr Kawasaki.

In these books he has come up with a funda of Polarizing people.I'll discuss about that later.

Then i searched for TIE ,i wanted to know -what is this organization that invites such brilliant speakers ? after some googling i knew that TIE is a pro-entrepreneurship organization and it has a chapter in delhi also(it has one in major cities).I checked on the new delhi TIE site for some upcoming events...and yes ...There was one coming for the weekend -"A Discussion with KR-How to promote entrepreneurship in recessionary times?"

I was all excited for the event. Little bit of aage-se-left-then-right-then-turn got us to the venue.If any one is thinking of starting his own enterprise but is not being supported by family members (parents ,girl friend or your wife),i will say this is the place to be.Its like the dream world -utopia for all of us "wannabe entrepreneurs".I mean ,you are surrounded by around 200 young enthusiastic entrepreneurs,a renowned investor is telling you about the nuances of the trade,and the best thing is people are listening to your idea.The atmosphere is so stimulating that you just get the confidence to be the next Google.

now about the discussion....
The discussion began with Mr Rekhi giving us his inputs .That was followed with Q&A session.Somehow towards the end of the discussion we were not discussing "How to promote entrepreneurship in recessionary times?" but instead- discussion had shifted to "Why indian IT is service based and not product based?".and that i must say .... is a sensitive topic to discuss with someone(Mr Rekhi) who is like a father to indian IT services.As expected discussion got a bit hot.

I had an answer to our being service oriented and not product based but Being the youngest in that group(22 yr-avg age of group was around 38) ,i had my reservations as well ....but still i gave it a go.

Rekhi listening to me .....looking straight through me.....i knew he was fuming and not liking what i was saying...

I stopped with my explanation ....and that proved to be the breaking point for mr Rekhi.He blasted me off with expletives such as non sensical :(.It was as if i had talked about carnal pleasures to a person following celibacy or vice versa.

Phewww......

After his attack ...i sat quietly on my seat .I couldn't feel the seat...infact i couldn't feel myself.
Why did i say that? I shouldn't have spoke in my first meeting?? How could i ask that??How do i run out of here? where is the door?

With all these thoughts and a few nervous handshakes i just ran the hell out of there....

Now being an optimist i decided to take whatever positives i could make out.I tried to convince my self that my point was valid ..it was just that Mr Kanwal Rekhi was too intimidating to have a debate with.

Reaching home , my friends asked me about the event.I couldn't tell about Rekhi overpowering me ,so i did just the opposite.It was very much like that andaz apna apna scene--In which Aamir khan and Salmaan khan come downstairs after facing the wrath of Uncle and when there girl friends ask about what did they say to Uncle.Both of them boast away to glory by telling false stories of bravado(unka ek ek sawaal mere do do jawaab).


So that was what-- i also did.Rekhi sahab ka ek ek sawaal mere do do jawaab..aur phir ek lambi khamoshi... :D.

The event was done,i had my share of censure but there was something that made this event worth remembering .

but that is for the next post ....

What followed was another TIE event....my interaction with guy kawasaki.... concept of polarization and yes the question that i asked from Mr Rekhi.