Complete Your Dreams. Things To Do.

The first thing that you should do to start & complete your dream is to believe in it. Belief is the single most important factor which will make anything possible. Belief does one thing which no one can do and it is to convince your subconscious mind that 'Your Dream is Possible'. Once it is accepted, your subconscious mind will work and bring things together which before some time seemed a distinct impossibility or a mere chance. The next thing that you need to do is open your mind to recognize the opportunities that circumstances present before you. And the third most important thing is to follow through the right opportunities to executing it to the logical conclusion.

When you are doing others work, you give excuses where acceptable. When you have your own dreams, you do not give excuses but find ways to complete the job. You use anything - Saam, Daam, Dand & Bhed (to advice & request, to buy by offering Money, to Punish & to exploit the secrets or divide & rule) - to overcome the obstacle & complete the job. That is what will take you towards completion of your dream. You also know that there is no life when you have to go to the top floor of success. It is always hard work to take steps when you go up. But when you take the steps, you deserve and remain longer at the top. There is no substitute to hard work.

You will also like to do small things like getting up in the morning, doing some walk or warming up, making an agenda for today & then starting up your day. Complete the task on priorities and then go to your day to day activities. When closing the day, look back at the day and make plans for tomorrow. Do remember to put up your dream in words at places where you can see it daily.

If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It

Any, & I repeat, Anything you do, first takes shape in your mind & then in practical. You might have got visions that what happened just now was seen by you sometime back. You do not remember when you have seen it, but feel that you have seen it. If you are making a presentation to a client, you do it first in your mind. Then you do it in practical. The tea that you prepare, the product that you envision are all first made in our mind and only then they are executed in practical. Scientists first dream about the product, the application that they want to develop and then execute that in practical.

There were two boys who were playing near a pond. Somehow one of them loses control and falls in the pond. The other one cries for help then sees no one. Then, he does what he can do and saves the boy. After they reach there, they tell the story to their parents. No one in their village believes the story. They simply cannot believe that the boy had made one rope out of nearby tree and then put that rope in water to his friend to pull him out. How can one small boy do all this? Then one wise old man comes there. He tells that I saw all this from far away place. 

He explains that they boy could do it because there was no one who told him that he will not be able to do it. Yes, it is often our surroundings, our neighbors, our teachers, our elders who tell us what all things are not possible. And over the period, we start believing in them. 

Instead, develop your own visions. If you believe in your vision, there is no one who can stop you. You will be the one who will do everything that is needed to give a practical shape to your vision, to your dream. If is only when you dream that you can actually believe that you can do it. And if you believe, there is no reason why you can't do it. 

If You Do Not Use, You Lose

Our mind has more powers than we can think of. Not only our mind, but our body too has that capability. More often than not, we simply do not use them. The exceptional capability is seen only in people who actually practice too much on one particular thing or they are driven by some mission. Mission to do something - it might be due to circumstances or due to the inner goal. Once that mission is fixed, there is no barrier that you cannot cross. But if we do not have that mission, we simply live our life without using these powers. Take great people in any field. Did they possess special skills? No. They developed that special skills as they went ahead in life. If Sachin Tendulkar is remembered as God of Cricket, he has given nothing short to cricket. Cricket was his life. Similarly, other great people in their own chosen fields have done that extra hard work to get where they are today. 

Evolution is funny. Do you know that humans had tail? But since it was not used, over the years it became redundant. When we use too much of pesticide in farms, the insects develop inner strength to fight that pesticide. Consequently, the next generation of these insects are not affected as much by that dose of pesticide. If we exercise, our muscles develop into stronger one. If you run daily, the capacity of your legs will increase and you can run longer distances over a period of time. But if you try running long distance one day, you will injure yourself. These things apply to all the aspects of our body. Sometimes, these rules also apply to our powers that we have in our professional life. You need to use them sometimes, so others know that you have that power. You need to use your mind for concentration, for thinking, so your mind power grows and your mind gives solution before you actually ask it. 

You also need to develop discipline so that it increases your chances of success. Remember, if you do not use your power, you lose it.

Minor Things That Show Your Profile To Your Bank

Whenever we apply for loan, the bank/financial institution asks for our Bank Statements. They mainly check for any bounced cheques so they know whether the prospect has any problems/history. In addition to that, they also check other minor things. Like, if there are any entries of phone bill, electricity bill, etc., then they check whether it is there repeatedly every month. If the entries are repeated every month, that shows that the prospect is very disciplined with the due dates and payment of bills. But if the entries are not there every month, that will show to the bank that you are not disciplined. You may have money, but you do not have the intention to pay money on time. This is what the bank interprets. 

Many of you may reason that Bank takes the mortgage against your loan. Most of the time the value of the mortgage is more than that of the loan. But Bank does not have any intention to sell your mortgage. It's business is not selling mortgages and recovering the dues. When bank evaluates any proposal, it mainly sees whether you are capable of paying the money back. Some have the money, but do not have the intention to pay. The financial discipline showed in your regular statement goes on to show that you have the will to give away the dues. These small things may go in a long way towards working of your Business Loan. 

Discipline is the best thing that you can have. Be it be in any field. You can prepare a monthly, quarterly & annual charts for paying the dues - either personal or professional level. If your government dues are to be paid monthly and you have it, please do the needful. If you are not having it, that is another thing. But discipline will make you do best out of available options. 

Sow The Seeds Today To Get Fruits Tomorrow

I have heard this famous story in my childhood. It rings true even today. In one garden, one old man was planting a tree. His grand daughter comes there and asks what is he doing? He tells her that he is planting a mango tree. Pat came the reply, 'But it will be very long before it bears fruit'. He tells her that now I am eating the fruits of plants that were planted when I was child. If we do not plant trees now, how can we hope to eat tomorrow. 

There is a very meaningful message given in the story. That you should not just look for short term. True, you should live in the present. But you should have some long term planning too. You need to do work today which may not give anything in near future, but in the long run it will definitely give you results. These results may be the best thing you might have done. No seed turns into a plant & tree without proper care. It needs fertile soil, it needs water, it needs fertilizer and it needs time. Without these things, you may not see the tree bearing fruits. 

Similarly, even if we are doing things for long term, we need to take proper care of those things. May be just thought isn't enough. We need to give it time, we need to give it a team so that it develops over a period. As the seeds will not grow after throwing it on the ground, similarly our long term plans will not take the desired shape just after thinking or putting some money. You will need to give some concrete action to it. Then and only then will you get the fruits that you so desire.

You may also like to see a different analogy here. If we want to eat a pomegranate, you cannot plant a papaya because it takes less care & gives fruits easy. You need to plant pomegranate only. Similarly, if your long term vision needs some risky decisions & solid actions, you need to do that. Else you will not bear the fruits.

Fasting - Method Of Self Control

Tomorrow is Maha ShivRatri - Birthday of Shiva. Many devotees observe fast during Shivratri. Even the most Atheist 'Nastik' of devotees observe fast. It has been a tradition coming from old days. Fasting is observed in different parts of the world and they follow different rules at different places. There are some places who eat everything but salt. Regular foods without salt are made. Reason - salt is the most important thing as far as eating is concerned and eating without it is like making big sacrifice. At some places, they do not eat regular things, but only special things which are allowed for fasting. Like Sabudana (sago), bhagar (samo), groundnuts, green chillies, milk, curd, buttermilk, fruits, etc. For some people who do not like to fast for religion purpose, they are happy to declare fast because they get to eat different things which they like but are not made on regular basis.

Why to fast? There are different views on fasting. The basic purpose for fasting is to show self control. Self control on our eating habits for one day. Self control on our thinking - when we do not eat, we try to remember God and his birthday for the whole day. It is a celebration. Fasting is a method recommended by sages. There may be different reasons - psychological, physical & religion. All these things come together in fasting. Psychological because we have to control our emotions throughout the day. Even if we are hungry, we are taught that we should observe fast and not eat any thing except things allowed. Physical because fasting also gives some rest to your digestive system. This rest is necessary so that our system remains in good shape for long term. And religion because of which people actually celebrate the birthday of Shiva. There are also other occasions when people observe fast.

We should also observe similar fasting for one day a month in our daily activities. On that fasting day, you should not do your regular activity but different thing like working on accounts, working on marketing, maintenance, long term plans, short term problems, etc. Such special working time given to these things will keep your system in good shape. We should learn something from our traditions.

By the way, Happy Shivratri.

Employee Recruitment Strategy

Employees are the backbone of any company. Though it is the leader who is seen by outsiders, it is his inner men who do all the work. Man is the best asset that any company can put his money into. Attrition is a major worry and so is rising employee cost. I have worked in few companies where the idea is to recruit retired experts in the field and give them youngsters. Youngsters have all the enthusiasm in them to learn things. While the retired experts appointed as consultants know that their days of working are limited. They have large chunk of knowledge which they like to share. They do not do work physically and hence guide the younger force to do the needful. The consultants as well as the trainee costs are quite low - for former this is additional income after retirement and for latter, it is their first job. 

There are other group of employers who like to keep only experienced staff. Though their costs are high, they are preferred class by employers. Their main reasoning is that the experienced staff will give you output from Day 1. He does not need any training. He is taking high salary and it is expected from him that he knows the work. This gives an advantage as compared to the first case. For example, though the cost of the trainees is less, there is no guarantee that they will be loyal and remain for long term. Since this is their brush with a new industry, they will gradually know whether or not they want to remain with it. Also, they need training and it is not guaranteed that they will not do mistake. The cost of the mistake depends on the type of industry. But if the cost of the mistake is very high, then it is not at all advisable to go for the first model. 

A better alternative is to have a healthy mix of both. Normally, the experienced employees do not like to share much knowledge as they feel insecure. Here the consultants come into picture who can guide the new blood.

When Wait Is Inevitable, Enjoy It

Due to the recent demonetization announced by the Modi Government, Wait got a new meaning. For the major part of 50 days, there were lines outside the banks waiting to deposit the old notes, withdraw the new notes, exchange the old notes with the new ones. All these people had to wait in spite of the fact that they had various different tasks. There are other lines where we have to wait. Like in Government offices, Doctor's clinic, Petrol pump, local tickets, marriage, temple etc. Some waiting lines are big, some are small. 

In spite of the fact that these waits are inevitable, they have to be dealt with. Many get frustrated with the wait and leave just before their number comes. Some play with their phones, some of them just curse the situation they are in for 90 % of the time. I just wonder how come you improve your situation by just cursing it. There is one idea instead. You are already waiting for something to happen. Instead of cursing the waiting time and the situation, rather give a twist. Start noticing some small things around. There are many things that you can see. You can see the different faces of people, some are confused, some are happy, some are plain sad. You can also watch the different cloth color combination, the different designs on their clothes. 

You can also think about some things in this free time. Instead of doing time pass, you may well - enjoy it or use it. We are already lacking in free time due to our busy schedule. This is the best that can happen. 

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Mr. Ramamoorthy (fictional name) was walking too & fro in his room at 11 pm. He was quite restless. His wife could see this. She enquired why are you not sleeping. Why are you worried? He tells her that he owes Rs. 2 lakhs to Mr. Raju tomorrow morning. I don't have that and am worried about what will happen tomorrow. She immediately calls Mr. Raju and tells him that My husband was to give you Rs. 2 lakhs tomorrow and he is not having it. He can't give it to you tomorrow. Then she turns to her husband and tells him that now you can sleep. It's Mr. Raju's turn to have sleepless night. 

Jokes apart. What would have happened by worrying? Ramamoorthy will only lose his sleep and nothing else. The bigger problem than the real problem is ' thinking about the problem'. The more we think about the problem, the bigger the problem seems, when in fact the problem remains the same as what was earlier. True, whenever something happens, the first reaction is chaotic. But then everything settles as you get time. You get time to think about the possible solutions to the problem or coming out of the problem with minimum damage. Minimum damage is the right word. Whenever there is problem, after panic time do remember to gauge the damage which has occurred or will occur. Sometimes, the damage is much smaller than what we imagine. 

Gauging the damage and then finding some solutions to get out of the problem with getting as clean as possible should be the action plan rather than worrying. Sometimes, we also carry the guilt with us. This guilt takes a toll on our life. Instead of that just tell your heart about the action that had happened and that you know you are at fault. And that you are prepared to put that out of your life. You may cry a little which will release the suppressed emotions. And be happy forever.

Time Management Techniques

As I say often, Time is a precious resource. Once gone, gone forever. It never returns. It is a natural resource, but unlike earth's natural resource, it does not stop for anyone. It is imperative then that to be successful, you must be very careful with managing time. Everyone has 24 hours. Many people trade their time for money. Entrepreneurs use others time to increase theirs. Think. You have only 24 hours. But if you have 10 persons with 8 man hours per day, you will have 80 man hours from which you can do anything. And this does not include your time. You can distribute your time to guiding these 10 persons to create your vision. Since time is so precious, it should be managed effectively. 

You can manage your time according to your need. For example, if you have a project, then you can make a project based time management technique. There are special software created just for helping project people complete their projects on time. There are different steps in completing a project. Some steps are independent, while others are dependent on other steps. All these steps are fed in the project management software and independent steps are finished accordingly. This planning makes use of resources efficiently and helps in completing the project on time.

Then there can be different lists that you make. You can have a list of things to do according to their priorities. Some things need to be done immediately. Others can wait and still others can be done at any time. Whatever you want to do, just write down. There comes a time when you are free and since you do not remember those work, you don't do it. Writing down such list will make you do those things. You can also have daily, weekly, monthly and annual review list where you list out what you try to seek and then follow up in your review what you are able to achieve and why you have not achieved what you wanted. This will make things clear and give you a motivation to do things. 

If You Do Not Choose, You Let Other's Choose

There are two friends - Ram & Krishna. Ram asks what do you want to have? Krishna says anything you like. Ram orders Samosa and Krishna gets to eat samosa. Krishna asks where do we go tomorrow? Ram answers, Goa. They go to Goa. Krishna does not have any choices. While Ram has. So, Krishna goes where Ram wants and eats what Ram wants. 

You have to decide what are your choices. Because if you do not have choices, you will not do what you want, but rather what others want. If you do not decide your goal, then others will decide what you should do. If you do things on your own, you will go places. Have your choices. You should not be adamant about it because you need to care for others too. But if you allow to choose every time, you will be led to where others take you. You should divide your world into professional, personal, etc. At some places, you take the lead. At other places, sit back and enjoy. If somebody meets you and asks are you doing anything? If you aren't, you will be asked to do something. So before someone tells you to do something, choose a definite topic, goal and get going at it. If you choose for your customer, it will be more friendly deal. But if you let customer choose the terms, it will be in his favor. Try to put in things as per your choice, lest others have their own. If you do not put up your choice, you will definitely end up with his choice. For example, payment terms. If you put immediate, if other has no issue you get immediate payment. If they have issue, they will discuss. But if you do not put any payment terms, you will be told for 90 days payment, and you may have to agree. 

Each day you get up and have to make choices. You have to choose whether to be positive or be negative. If you choose to be positive, world will give you positives. If you react to a situation negatively, you will get negatives.

Solar Power Option For Bigger Power Consumers - Major Saving

Power Cost is a major problem in industries. For some plants, power cost forms the major part of the process cost for  manufacturing. Though the power cost is different in different states, it is quite high in Maharashtra. It goes down in Gujarat and a few other states. In Maharasthra, it is as high as Rs. 10.50 including the other duties. This is very high. For customers who are bigger consumers of power, there is good news though. For starters, the minimum power bill should be about Rs. 70 lacs to Rs. 1 Crore. This need not be one plant electricity bill. For a bigger group of companies, the bill  can be of combined plants.

The group which has a big power bill, will have to make an partial investment in one company. The company will generate solar power. The power generated by solar plant will be uploaded on the grid and that much power will be billed at Rs. 7 - Rs. 7.5 per unit for the next 25 years. The saving of Rs. 2.5 to 3 makes the breakeven of 2.5 to 3 years. For the balance 22 years, there is all saving. The solar plant need not be operated by you. It will be operated by third party. The solar power company will also have your stake.

For power requirement of 1 MW, a 5 MW solar power plant needs to be installed. This  plant will be located at other location where there is ample low cost land available. There is no operational trouble. This is a big win-win. The company can also boost of environment friendly power usage. If you have a big power bill, it is time to consider this option.

How 3D Printing Could Speed Up Development Of New Models?

There is a lot of attention that 3D printing is drawing. And fittingly so. A 3D printing is nothing but a printing which has 3 dimensions. Our normal printer gives print in 2 dimensions, (X & Y). 3D printing adds the third dimension - Z. And it does not use ink, but material. Because of using material, we get a 3 D print which resembles the model that we want. We have 2D drawing in autocad and 3D drawing in different software. 3D printing makes the 3D drawing a reality. 

Whenever new models are developed - be it of vehicles, goggles, bags, bottles, child parts, assembly, building, chair, etc, the prototype making cost is very high. You need to make a mould, cast it, machine it, wire cut it, spark it, etc. After working so hard and heavy capital investment, we get a prototype and sometimes we get to know that all this is wrong and have to rework it. Maximum amount of capital investment goes into tooling & machining. For making prototype of each type of drawing, that many tooling dies will have to be made and each of these dies needs investment. And the time taken by this process is also quite high. It may need anywhere between 2 days to 2 months for development of these prototypes. 

All this fuss comes to end in 3D printing. In 3D printing, you will just need to make a 3D model. If you need 2-3 options, make those models and simply print. You will see that these models are converted into reality in a matter of hours. Whenever we see something physically, it is easier to make a decision. So, once this 3D model comes in your hand, you can understand whether all things are working, which option is better. And all this in a few hours time. Maximum a couple of days. 

Can you imagine how fast things will change then? Today development is slow because of two things - (i) cost of development & (ii) time of development. But when both of these are not limitation, then there will be a lot of requirement for designers. More designs will come out. More models will come out. And this is all about prototypes only. 3D printing is already going ahead in terms of printing bridges or workable models. Now, how good that would be! Hail the 3D printing.

Break The Shackles Of Your Mind

I have read this story before. You may have read it too, but it is worth writing here as you can take home the message that I want to give. A child was visiting a zoo and saw an elephant. He saw that the elephant was tied to a small bamboo with a small rope. He just wondered what if the elephant goes out of control? His father explains him that this cannot happen. "Why? Does the elephant not have the strength to break this rope." 'The elephant has enough strength, but it does not try.' "Why?"

'When the elephant was small and brought here, they tied it up with a strong chain to a strong Stone. It tried to break free many times. But the stone and the chain both were strong enough. Many a times it even got blood all over its legs where the chain was fastened. It tried many times but could not succeed. It then gave up on trying to break the chain. After a few days, it did not try at all. The chain was then changed to rope. But the elephant did not notice. He could tell anybody with his experience that you may try however hard, but will not succeed in breaking the chain. Slowly the chain changed to a rope. But the mindset that the elephant had, did not change. It was so set in his mind that he could not notice that today it is more strong. Today it can break not only that small rope but even the big chain. However, his mind tells him otherwise. In it's mind there is a image of him trying to break the chain, but failing. Slowly it became the mark on his mind.'

This is our own story. Right from childhood, there are patterns that are made on our mind. Time is changing, so is our education, information and technology in general. With this, many boundaries are fainting and we need to reinvent new patterns. We have to break the patterns that have already been made in our mind and which are not able to allow us to fly. Change the pattern. Instead of thinking, this is not possible, ask why it is not possible. Probably, you will see that today it is possible and you are the one to make it possible. 

You can imagine our plight had Thomas Edison decided not to do any more experiments because all had failed. But instead of that, he broke the failure mode and did that 10000th experiment and succeeded. And see his outlook - He says that he knows 10000 ways how bulb cannot be made. Think before rejecting any idea. You can break the jail and come out of it.

Rome Was Not Built In A Day

This is the best thing to remember. All the great works done by great persons started as a small step. You cannot capture everything in first few days. In fact if you grow that fast, chances are that your growth rate will itself eat into yourself and make you smaller. The fact is, Sales should always be good. If your expansion rates are high and your sales do not go as per plan, there will be considerable stretch on your balance sheet. 

Also to keep in mind is the fact that during expansion, you should keep your fixed cost as low as possible and try to gain whatever market share is easier, be it be as little as possible. Once you have Cash In, you will be confident enough and will feel better, which helps to increase your business. These small steps are as important to build your business, because even Rome was not built in a day. It required long time to make the Rome what it is. Similarly, you need to put in a lot of time in the business to make it successful. 

Often it is difficult to take first step because we have a direct picture of our goal. If someone told you to build a city like Rome, you might get pretty overwhelmed. But rather take it step by step. Virat Kohli, now the Captain of Indian Cricket Team has renewed the art of chasing large totals in limited overs game. He likes to build his inning, settling up first and then propel towards the end of the innings. If you keep a target of 350 in mind, then it is difficult. But if you keep smaller target like 6-7 runs per over, then it becomes very easy. This is how we should approach big targets - One step at a time. Rome will surely be built by you then.

Listen To What Your Heart Says

You must have experienced many occasions since your childhood where everybody told you to do something, but you still did another. And you were pretty successful at that. These little things are called intuition. Intuition is nothing but a message from your mind, your heart that tells you to do something which cannot be explained logically. The statistics, past records and the logic all will tell a different story, but still your heart will tell another thing. This happens in the story of a favorite vs under dog. Very few support the Underdog, but you feel that somehow it is this underdog who is going to win today. 

This type of intuition is very important in the business. For developing your intuition, you need to meditate daily. If you can still your mind for ten to fifteen minutes daily, then your mind power will increase and you will try to hear in the silence. You can try to hear smaller sounds like that of the leaves, wind, the aeroplane, etc. Just close your eyes and listen to the sounds. Try to smell the flowers with the closed eyes. Try to hear someone approaching you. All these things will give you a feel of your surroundings. You will be more aware of your surroundings. And ultimately this will take you to your heart. When you are in some dilemma, listen to your heart. It may defy logic and tell you to do something. You just need to have those guts to follow your intuition.

External Audit Of Quality Systems

Quality is the single most important factor for a company to be successful. All other things being equal, if your quality suffers, you would not be able to find success with your company. The quality should not be only at par, but above expectations of customer. The quality will be good if it is hammered onto the mind of the staff. An audit is an essential thing for the things to be under control. Surprise Audit is one of the best things that can be, because it will keep the employees on their toes. 

There is an internal employee of the company who works as Management Representative (M.R.) and he is authorized to keep all the documents and systems in place. He is empowered to implement all the systems. But, it is imperative that he will be less effective because he is internal auditor. Internal auditor is seen daily and if you do anything daily, it will lose its specialty status. For example, if you like Gulab Jamun very much and you are given a freedom to eat Gulab Jamun daily in any quantity you want, the Gulab Jamun will not be your favorite. It is a daily staple. It is like Home Food. Till you are at your home, you will feel it is regular one. But if you are eating outside because of your tour, you will feel at home when you come back and eat home food. 

Similarly, if you keep an external agency or an external auditor who will have audits once in a quarter at a maximum notice of one day, the systems will be in place. Such a short notice is quite disturbing and people will be kept on toes to do the needful. External auditor will have his aura. He will not be very friendly and will understand both point of views - of management as well as staff. Often Management does not give proper audience to staff as it is a daily matter. Staff is also not serious about internal problems and do not tell the Management. But they will tell all these things freely to external agency. External agency will also have good audience with the Management. It also would like to show good progress so that he gets the contract for the next year and so he will be very very effective. You can try this in your company too.

Be Boring & Become Successful!

Are you surprised by the title? But it's true. Though the term is boring, the thing you do is not boring if you have passion for it. Boring is - doing the same thing day in & day out. It is said that if you train for 10000 hours, you will be an expert. But isn't it boring to practice for 10000 hours. How about practicing drawing for 10000 hours. I calculated one day and it comes to around 8 & half years if you work daily for 4 hours daily and 300 days in a year. If you start early childhood in any chosen field, you will be successful. But you need to be very passionate about the trade that you are trading. If you are passionate enough, only then will you be able to practice for those long hours. 

There are so many youngsters coming up in cricket, tennis, badminton, and other sports. All of them start young and continue to excel because of their passion. It is not just that, but when you find some chinks in your armor, you need to rectify them. Technology is evolving, so you need to evolve, learn and apply that in your trade. I remember the occasion when India had gone on a tour of Australia. Tendulkar had some problems with his form and he promised his brother Ajit that he will not play the square drive. And true to his word, he played a boring game without any risks without any square drive, but at the end he had hit double century. 

We have another example of Virat Kohli. He may not be as visually impressive as Sehwag or Tendulkar, but he is so boring about scoring runs. He will not take risks and those shots are missing. But he has become a run machine like no one. How can someone have so good form that you are breaking all the records in all the three formats of the game? And he does not stop there. He has same routine and in his own words, he is just trying to set up a process. Sehwag had entertainment. He also scored runs and broke records. But how about consistency. Virat has brought the viewer's interest back and setting up records. 

You too can become boring - consistent in your work and you may see the results.

Fight Within Us - Battle With Our Mind

Today I got to lay my hands on a magazine - Infinithoughts. I was reading it for the first time, but I saw Mind written over it and started to go through it. It was amazing. I went through some of the pages and then came over to one experience written by one of the contributors. 

The contributor informed his family that he would be taking part in half marathon - 21 km stretch. This marathon was for raising fund for some NGO and he wanted to help the cause. His family suggested that if he wants to help, he can simply donate. There was no need to run the marathon. Especially when he has not practiced it at all. But in his mind, he had already prepared a plan to take part in the half marathon. Many of his colleagues and friends tried to dissuade him from running. But he had already accepted the challenge. There were still two months to go. There were challenges. He had not run more than 3-4 km at a stretch. 

Then later it was announced that his office had organized a Sports Day event just before the marathon day. This delighted his family as he was an active member in sports and would be very tired to get next day for marathon. But it was not to be. In excitement of running the half marathon, he did not get to sleep at all. The race started at 5 am and he was already up there in the race. He had run for 4 km when his knees started paining. His mind started to reason that this is the maximum that he has run. How can he go further? His legs gave up. He wanted to take a break. But he fully understood that if he took a break, probably he will not be able to run. He knew that it was the fight with the mind. He focused on the next step, next 1 km and doing so he completed  a landmark of 11 km. He was pleased.

Now, he had to run only 10 km to complete the race. He had won over its mind. He had run around 11 km when he had not crossed 4 km earlier. After walking for some distance, he again started to run and completed the 21 km line. He was satisfied to win a war against himself. 

Our life is similar. Many a times, it is not the situation, but our mind who puts limitation. And we believe our mind. As soon as we hear it, we start losing our war with it. It is at this point when you have to focus only on the next step and not on the full target. Each step will give you confidence to go up to the next step.

Make Notes Of Things You Want To Do

Time moves fast. It is a very limited entity. We are too busy doing our work. We want to do many things, but we are not able to do because we are too busy in regular work. There are small things which may have some good tangible effect, but you are not able to give it time. There is something you can do about it. 

Take some time - say half an hour from your busy schedule. Not daily. Only once a week or month. Sit in a peaceful location. Keep a note book with you along with pen. Keep mobile out of reach. If mobile is there, keep your data off. Data is the most disturbing factor now a days. Sit still for about 10 minutes. Note the breath you take. Slow down your breathing rate. Take long breaths. After your mind is still, take the note book and pen. Begin writing the things that you want to do - personally as well as professionally. 

You can write anything - right from wanting to eat at some favorite restaurant, to going to getaway location to going to native place. Yes. Make a list of these things. You want to meet some customers. Write it. You want to install some small machine or make that modification, write it. Make a list in quick time. Now put this list on your desk or in front of the space where you sit. Put it in such a place where you can see it. You will not believe it, but you will be able to complete most of the things on that list. This is the power of writing. And when you are done with each task, just cut that task. Only remaining tasks should be seen. 

The feeling that you could do what you wanted is wonderful and you would believe that you can do what you want to do. You would become more adventurous with making the list next time. 

Want To Win A Lottery?

One day a person goes to a temple and prays God to enable him to win a lottery. Next day, he finds that his name is not there. He is not happy and again goes to temple and prays to win a lottery. He finds that his name is not there this time too. He is frustrated and angry. Again he goes to temple and he not only prays, but also is in duel with God. He tells God that if this time he does not win lottery, then he will never come to temple. Just then God appears and slaps him hard. Astonished, he asks God – what was this for? God tells, I’m waiting for the moment when you would win a lottery. But what do I do if you do not buy a lottery ticket. Without lottery ticket, how can you win?

Make sure, we do not have the same story. If you take one step, God is there to guide us in some form or other. But if you are just waiting for others to do everything and wait for moment, that moment may not come at all. You have to keep yourself ready so that the moment lottery time comes you are ready to win it. How can you hope to fly an airplane if you do not take course to become a Pilot? How can you hope to fly outside country, if you do not hold the passport? How can you become a millionaire, if you do nothing to move to that goal? Unless you buy a lottery ticket, you are not eligible for winning a lottery.

Ask any sportsman, how he achieved success. Did he not do anything? You need to be proactive and be ready for the moment. You never know about the moment. There is no point in groaning that if I had applied for this, then I would have been at such place. No. You have to apply and then only you will have any chance to prove it. You cannot say, I did not go on that talent show – I could have won that easily. No. It is not the best who always wins. It is the person who persists who wins ultimately. Persistence leads to you becoming the best.

Habit Of Doing More

There is one complete chapter devoted to this in the Great Author Napoleon Hill. Habit of Doing More Than What You Are Paid For. Indeed this was the turning point in the author's life. He was quite young when one of their employee union leader suggested to them, his plan of action to increase salary. He told all of them that lets go to our employer and tell him that if we work so and so, there would be increased profits and that we should get some part of it in terms of increased payments. There was nothing wrong in this proposal and he could see that there was no way that any employer can turn down this. If the employer are getting their due, then he would be much interested in the employees needs.

Everyone is paid for their job. But the great leaders and workers do have a habit of doing more than merely what they have been asked. There is also a story where there were employees Raghav & Ram who had joined the organization at same time and had similar backgrounds. Raghav was regular employee who worked hard, but he was not able to get as many increments and promotions as Ram. Ultimately he goes to his boss and asks the reason. His boss gives the demonstration. He asks Raghav to go & find the suppliers for Tables. He goes and finds one and comes back. His boss asks for the contact details. But Raghav has forgotten to collect this and will have to go back to the vendor. Instead, the Boss asks Ram to find suppliers for Tables.

Ram goes and comes back after some time. He reports to his boss - There are two suppliers of Tables. He gives the contact details of both of them. He reports about the types of tables that they make and what would be the approximate cost and the time that they would need to make the table. He also suggests that the first vendor seems to be better equipped because of his infrastructure. Raghav understands his mistake and decides to do more than what was asked for.

We also need to apply same principles in our business. Ever wondered, how ecstatic the customer feels when he sees extra spoon of cream in their ice-cream. How delighted ladies feel when they see extra curry leaves being put in their bag by the vegetable vendor. Learn the lessons and see how you can apply the same in your business.

Restart Your Effort

In one of the surveys on startups, it was observed that timing was the most important factor in the success of the organization. Sometimes there are great ideas, but the timing might be quite wrong. The idea might be well ahead of its time. There are times when you do your effort but there are no results. You try to launch a product. You try to contact big customers, but your organization is not ready for it. Such efforts go waste and we seem to put in our mind that these things will not work because it has been tried earlier. 

But this ain't tradition. We know about many traditions which we follow but have absolutely no idea about. There is a whole experiment involving monkeys. A set of 8 monkeys were placed in a big cage and bananas were kept at the top of the prison. If some monkey tried to get hand on bananas, the other monkeys were poured with water. They understood after sometime that whenever any one of them tries their hands on bananas, others will have to suffer. Others in turn beat the one trying to go up for bananas. Soon, one monkey was replaced with other. He did not know anything about tradition and he tried to go to get the bananas. Result: Others started beating him. Rest of the monkeys were changed soon and without knowing reason, they understood that if someone tries to go on top, others will beat him. A tradition was formed.

Similarly, we too form tradition and do not want to give old things a try. Instead, try them and who knows the time of the idea has come. And you will be successful. When you start again, take a fresh page and restart your work. You may get new ideas and it will be worth your effort.

Long Term View - Business Plan

Once I had gone to one of our customers for a meeting. There was another supplier sitting at his office. He introduced me to that supplier. The supplier was into printing business. He supplied material related to printing - pages, printing machines, colors, etc. He was not having good time, but he came to our customer and asked for some references. Our customer told him one idea, do not see short term loss or profit. Think Long term. 

The idea was to give the bar code label printer at wholesale price. A price at which none of the suppliers could retail. This will make sure that he gets the entry into business. Normally, when the capital cost is low, people have perception that the regular supplies should also be at lower cost. This gives an edge over other suppliers and this would give long term business to the printing material supplier. 

There are some businesses where there is one time purchase. In this kind of business, the profit margins have to be kept quite high. But their is another category - regular purchase. In such businesses, you need to keep the initial costs low keeping in view the long term pictures. Take 10 Rs. less today, but you get a regular business for long time which will return you more than what you think you lost.

Opportunity Cost

I do not remember if I have written this earlier. When we value something, normally we go by the material value attached with it. Also called as the tangible value. But we never associate with it the intangible value. Intangible value can be in the form of time, luxury or emotional. For example, you are doing a job and have an opportunity with 20 % rise. We look at 20 % rise only. Rather we should also look at other factors like whether you have to change location, what are the roles & responsibilities, how is the culture in the organization, whether it is a start up or an established giant, etc. When you think about these things, then you might be able to gauge the real rise that you would be getting.

Sometimes there may not be enough rise in money terms, but the responsibility, the role, the exposure and the power that you are getting with that role might supercede the money value associated. You might get better role or opportunities a few years down the line. You have to think of all these before you make a decision. There was a friend of mine who used to be very adventurous and had a philosophy of taking more roles and responsibilities for better pay package. He often used to get good raises. His philosophy was that even if I am not able to do justice to the new role, and have to leave this job after 5-6 months, I will get another job at present package within 1-2 months. Even then, the rise I am getting now will compensate for the period of 1-2 months. If not anything, I will gain the experience and the precious 1-2 months in which I can do anything.

This is called the Opportunity cost. If you are not making a deal on rent for the want of 500/1000 bucks and keeping the place of 9-10000 bucks idle for 2-3 months, you are anyway loosing 2-3 months rent. Time value is not attached and hence the decision. Time is very significant and you need to value that.

Documentation - An Important Facet Of Life & Business

Right from when we start our education to our job and buying different consumer appliances to gas to vehicle, there are many documents that come in our life. Some people are real organizers from the bottom of their heart. They will keep everything in proper files. They will have separate files for everything. There will be files for electricity, phone bill. There will be different file for home related documents, one folder kept for things like cable, gas, newspaper, milk, etc. Then there are some who in this world of smart phones overuse the camera for taking photos or scanning documents and uploading on their gmail drive.

Then there are some persons who are not at all at organizing and documenting. These people will not have anything in place and will keep the things as and when they come to whatever place they find. No things are lost, but things need to be located when they are needed. And it may take too much time. If you want to sell your Refrigerator, cycle, bike or other articles, it is always better that you have documents in place. If documents are not found, there is a likelihood that the item will not command at par price.

One of the important things to note is that we do not attach any value to documents. If we are able to associate it with some tangible value, then we might be careful with it. For example, if you are selling bike and you are getting 20000 bucks; you might get up to 1500 to 2000 bucks less if documents are missing. Similarly with other items. Producing the bill at the time of sale gives the outlook that you have taken very good care of the item. Similarly, in our workplace we should have this habit of organizing the documents in place. If you are not good at it, you can give the responsibility to one person. If you lose or miskeep one bill, then your offset in the taxes will not be allowed.

You can extend this habit to your personal life. Wherever you give some documents, you can take a receipt of it. This will help you in long term.

Why We Should Be Positive?

There is one story about Mahabharat. Duryodhana led the Kauravas and Yudhisthir was the eldest in the Pandavas. Once Duryodhana was asked how is the world like. He went on to say that the world is very bad and there was not one thing that was good about it. People were lying, they were cruel, etc. To cut long story into short, he said that the world is full of negatives. 

 

The same question was asked to Yudhisthir. His views on the world were very good. He observed how people were helpful and kind with their fellow people. How world was such a good place to live. He could note the beautiful lake, mountain and other such things. He saw everything positive in the world. 

The world was one thing only. But why two people had different views on it. It was because of their mindset. It is true that our mind can see only what it is trained to see. If you are optimistic from inside, you will see positive in every step. If you are negative, then you would be pessimistic about most of the things.

For spotting of random opportunity that may come your way, you need to have a positive outlook. By being positive, you can spot an opportunity in crisis. By being positive you also relax a lot and in general have less stresses. You can meditate for 15 min to 30 min daily and view where does your mind run. Gradually you can see that you can concentrate and you will turn positive.

Don't Compare Yourself With Others - You Are Special

It was sports week and students were taking part in race. There was one participant who was running with others. After taking 20 m or so, he slips. Students in the audience start laughing at him. It is at this moment that one teacher comes and says that he is at least participating in the race. You people have not participated at all.

The teacher meant to say that it is important that you try. Whether you win or come last is secondary. It is similar with us. We dream about work and dream about being as successful as your idol. But you may not succeed as him. And when this happens, you often get disheartened and leave what you were doing to start something new. This is totally unwarranted.

You need not compare yourself with others. It is important that you be happy with what you are doing. The moment you feel that you are not happy, you can plan to leave it. The resources, the timing, the team that your idol had may not be with you. Instead of comparing yourself with others, you should rather focus on the job at hand. In last week, Jackie Chan had come in Kapil Sharma's show and he said a very nice thing. Whatever you do, do wholeheartedly. Do positively and focus all your energies on that. It may not be long enough when people will recognize you.

You should look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are special. No one is like you and you are like no one. Try to be yourself.