Have You Ever Done Self Talk?

Busy schedules nowadays don't give us time. From the time we get up until we sleep, it is difficult to find time in solitude. Once upon a while, it is necessary to close yourself in one room and be away from everyone. Just you. And in such times, do self talk. Napolean Hill writes about self talk in his book. He writes about how to gain confidence. You should stand in front of a mirror and talk to yourself. You must talk positively about yourself. You should talk about how much powerful you are and how you would use all that is possible from your end to attain the result that you want. You should assert yourself about the power you have and what goals you want to achieve. If you watch or read some detailed Shivaji life story, you will come across the self talk he does. Though he talks with the Goddess, it is more or less a self talk. And from this self talk he gets most of the answers. 

Erhard Freitag, in his book 'The power of subconscious mind' writes about the Auto suggestion. In Autosuggestion, he writes that we should suggest ourselves or to our subconscious mind about the targets we want to achieve. How you plan to achieve? At times, you can just suggest about the goals/things you are having in mind and suggest your mind that it has enough powers to achieve those goals. After some time, you will be presented with opportunity which if taken will take you towards your goals. But at such points, you should be aware of the opportunity and should be able to take & convert it into success. 

You can also go to Mother Nature, where your mind will be able to connect with nature. You get instant gratification, instant stress relief by going near nature. Go to the beach and hear the sound of the waves, the water. Go to the waterfalls. Go to the serene green zones and get the fresh air. Go for a walk early in the morning and do self talk. You will get your answers, because our subconscious mind is very powerful. 

Risk Vs. Reward

Once I had jokingly said that I take only so much risk that I am safe. Joking, because when you are safe, that risk isn't risk at all. There is a thumb rule, when it comes to Risk & Reward. The risk & the reward are directly proportional to each other. Higher the risk, higher is the reward. There is though, a science to it. Though there is risk everywhere, there are things where we can minimize it. Even when we get out of our house, there is a risk associated. But that does not mean that we should never get out of our house. If we do not get out of our house, how do you work? There is a risk everywhere. 

For small businesses, the risks are much more. But aren't there risks for others. How do you minimize risk? By planning. When you start a project, do the survey properly. Many of them start up because they have been doing the same work for others. However, they discount the other works that need to be done while doing the business. While working for others, they might be doing the work. But who will bring in the work. Such projects start and end soon. For avoiding the risk, you need to plan about how to bring in customers. With minimizing the risk, your rewards will increase. 

You can also look if you can get a running unit, because with the running unit, you can start revenues from Day 1. You just have to put in some money, bring in systems, market, etc and just deliver to get in money. By doing this, your risk is minimized. You can also have good communications with the prospects, because prospects would turn into customers one day. Don't let your existing customer go elsewhere. When you get a chance to work, satisfy your customer. A repeating customer is better than two new customers. 

Proper cash flow planning is another important thing that you should be doing. This is very important if you are looking to keep your business alive. Risks are many, so are rewards. Just take the steps to minimize your risks. 

Think Before Reacting!

This is what I have heard umpteen number of times when I was young. There are some people who will always talk roughly, no matter what. This is there normal tone, whether or not the situation demands. But if somebody talks to them in the same tone or language, they feel insulted. While you may see some people who will talk humbly even when they are talked to in a harsh tone. 

The rule which I have read / heard many times, says, 'Talk/communicate/reciprocate in a manner in which you expect others to communicate with you'. Before reacting, always think about the way you would feel, if you would have been in other's place. This thought will make you talk respectably with others, whatever is the situation. True, there are situations when normal talking won't do. As the saying goes, 'Laato ke bhoot baato se nahi mante'. The people who understand language of slap will never understand soft talk'.

But there is another angle to it. By reacting respectfully in a turbulent situation, you are showing your character. Showing respect to people who really don't deserve does not belittle you, rather it shows that you have a character. You should not lower your character because others have lower character. You always need to think about your image. By thinking the situation by putting yourself in others place, your respect will automatically increase and you will talk respectfully. There are examples when hard talk and violence has not been able to change things, but the talk does change things. 

By talking respectfully to them, they also understand their mistake. If you have humble voice, they will also lower theirs. Just beware of the situation where undue advantage is not taken. For that, you must know the right things.

Kaizen - Continuous Improvement

Kaizen! Kaizen is a Japanese word. It means Continuous improvement. It is conceptualized for work places. It can be applied anywhere. But the techniques are mainly in context with the workplace. It works on the simple concept that there has to be continuous improvement in whatever we do. When we start something, it is not perfect. Rather than on perfection, we always work on setting the things up so that it is well run. Once you get the things under control, you should start looking for improvement in the activities. Kaizen is not for short term. The meaning of the word itself has Continuous in it. This means it works for long term. To start with, consider that we have the goal to up the production rate. While increasing the production, we do many things. We use extra resources,, extra manpower, extra fuel, etc. The primary importance is given to the goal of increasing production. Other things are secondary at that moment. 

Once your production has stabilized, you should start looking for optimizing the resources. If you have gained in scale, you can ask for discounts & more credit periods, which will improve your cash flow. You can also make some special purpose machines or fixtures which will simplify your work there by reducing costs or steps. You need to break up things into different steps and check if any of the process is still needed. You should constantly ask questions. Find new answers. The day you stop your continuous improvement, you will stop to be a success. At best, you will be where you are. 

The word Kaizen is also associated with Gemba; it is Gemba Kaizen. Gemba is nothing but the location, the field, the plant where work is carried out. Until you go to that place, you cannot look for improvements that can be done. 

How To Overcome Fear?

I may be repeating this, but this is the best example. Can you walk on the 6 inch boundary of the footpath? Try walking. It would be like catwalk, but you can do it. Would it be any better if you were asked to walk on a path of 12 inch wide. Yes, definitely. It is so easy. Now, if I say the path is 6 feet high. Suddenly, it becomes difficult. But not impossible. You may still try it. Why did it become difficult? Because when we are walking on a 12 inch path on ground, you know nothing will happen if you go wrong. And 99 times out of 100, you will be able to walk on that path. However, when this path is taken at a height of six feet, it appears difficult. The one and only one reason is the question, the imagination that comes to your mind. And that is, 'what if I fall'? The fear of falling, here and at other places, the fear of failing. There is no risk associated when you are walking on ground level on the same path. Even if you go wrong, nothing to worry. However, as you go high, it becomes difficult and impossible, later. This is induced by the fear factor. 

I had seen one program on Discovery, where a man takes up the challenge to walk on a very narrow path of 6 inch; the path is connecting two multistory building tops. He trains his mind for one full month using different techniques including meditation, walking at increasing heights, walking through a virtual reality program, etc. After a month, he is successful in training his mind and completes the challenge. 

The key to overcome fear is belief. Belief in yourself as well as others is important. You must first believe in your mind that you can do that. Half of the war is won there. The rest is about training. You need to move in the direction of training your mind or body to be able to complete the task. You should not be inactive. You should do something. You cannot go one day and walk on a path at 50 meters high or 20 meters high. It will take training. You will have to do it step by step. You should be able to analyze and look for mistakes that happened last time when you failed. Instead of taking the failure to heart, you should rather analyze what could have been done differently to successfully complete the task. And do whatever is needed. Acceptance is very necessary. If you fear something, fear that. Acceptance will lower the intensity of the fear. The next step is to tell your mind that you can do something about it and you are positive & confident that you will do it. The moment you do that, your fear level will be down to 1-2 from level 9-10. This itself will bring in confidence in you and once that confidence, that belief, that faith comes in, there is no one who can beat you. 

Go & Win the World. 

Age Is No Barrier In Entrepreneurship

When people don't want to accept a challenge, they give excuses. There are different types of excuses that we can hear. One among them is the age factor. People say they are too young to do this or are too old to do this. But there are examples when some extra-ordinary persons have been able to achieve the dreams that they took off with. In today's age of entrepreneurship, there are all sorts of entrepreneurs who start a variety of company. There are some students who have not got their voting cards, yet they have startups behind them. Then there are people who start a company at a age when many others retire. These are the extreme ends of the range. But there are people who in between have started and failed. Failure may not be due to the age factor. While that may be the case, but many a times, it is the other factors like vision, focus, execution, hard work, etc. that make or break a start up or an entrepreneur.

Take the name of Mr. Velumani, founder of Thyrocare, who left his government job and started Thyrocare. Normally it is better to start at an early age because the liabilities are minimal or not present. There is ample scope for learning and standing up after the fall. But as you grow older, there are more pitfalls. Normally people get married in their late twenties to early thirties. After they get married, there are many a responsibilities which care you want to take. And the thought of these responsibilities puts a bearing on whether or not you will take the jump in the entrepreneurship. Then there are people who have started their companies from school campus. If you want to take bigger names, then there Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, etc will be at the forefront. Closer home we have entrepreneurs like Phanindra Sama who had the guts to look in the eyes of the opportunity and create an enterprise. When he had to go home from college and wanted to check out with buses, he had to run here and there. It is then when he founded RedBus from college. Today there are many copies of the same business, but Phanindra was the pioneer. 

We also have Rahul Yadav, founder of Housing.com, who made Housing a famous name. What happened after that is altogether a different story. Then we also have Bhavish Aggarwal, who started Ola at a very young age. It take a lot of hard work and time to start the way these youngsters have done. It is very easy to take a job and sit back & relax. But they have found their own way. 

All the people have shown that Age is just a number and nothing else. It is only the hard work that matters.

Success - The Way People Think

When people see successful person, they are sometimes jealous of him. They remember the times when he did not have anything and how today he has everything. He has got all this because of one good idea / one good decision, etc. They all think that it was too easy to do what he has been doing. To them, the success looks like what it is in the first figure. 

But it does not get as easy as this unless there is some luck. The role of the luck is to give opportunity. After getting the opportunity, it is up to the person whether or not he is able to grab it with both hands. It is up to the person to be able to make a living out of the opportunity that has come. There are many opportunities daily presented to each & everyone. The one who spots it and believes in it, takes the risk to leave what he is doing and accept the challenge the opportunity presents. Success then does not look like what the first figure shows, rather it looks like the second figure. Going towards the path of success, however, isn't really straight forward. There are ups & downs, there are curves, there are learning, there are many a turning points from where you could either quit or have confidence in your chosen path. 

People really measure the success by its final point. The actual process should be noticed though. Rather than the destination, it is the road on which success has been achieved. As Pele says it, 

'Success is not an accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrificing, and last but not the least, loving what you do.'