Time is Cake. Timing Is Icing On The Cake!

There are many things on Time Management. But few highlight or know the importance of Timing. The only time, I remember people appreciating timing is while watching a cricket match. When someone like Kohli uses delicate hands and times the ball perfectly so that it zips past the cover fielder and reaches boundary before anybody knows. That is the timing. Had it been stroked a few microseconds early or late, it would have ended elsewhere. Or when somebody waits till the last moment to counter the opponent's move by surprising him. Timing is doing the right thing at the right time to affect the maximum damage utilizing the minimum resources. Each and every word is important in this. 

Timing may be a part of strategy which will help David go past that Goliath. This might sound somewhat filmy but just remember the scene in the films when a rope tied to a tree right across the road is pulled to trip down the horses or men. Timing is a player like Rahul Dravid or Anil Kumble, do did not get their due just because they were in the age of someone who is God of Cricket. Timing's importance is undermined just because it's sibling Time is so important. Every body focuses on time. In general, offices start around 9-9.30 in the morning. That is the maximum rush time. If you start early just by 10-15 minutes, you can save precious 30-40 minutes simply because you are ahead of the crowd. You can simply reach office early and prepare for your day. 

Procrastination can tell you more about timing. When we procrastinate, it is opposite of timing. Remember that if you do not rectify the small mistake, a hill might be created out of a mole within no time. That is why it is necessary to timely rectify the small mistakes. Preventive Maintenance is one such activity which is about rectifying small mistakes and keeping machines in best shape. Timing is also important when you call your customers. If you call them when he might not be at his work or he might be in a meeting, the call may not bring in the results that you wanted. Remember to call them in a time when they might be ready to take action. If you are looking for order, call them when they might be comfortable to look at the inventory. If you are looking for payment, ask them in the morning or afternoon, so that they might take the action and immediately send someone with payment or transfer payment. Timing is the Key to achieve something big with limited resources. 

Resource Allocation

Resources is a limited commodity. Everybody has limited resource. Take most of the companies and they will tell that their cash flow is very tight and that they need money. Unless of course, they have reached a steady state. A state from which they do not want to grow, but just want to consolidate. For someone, 1 lac might be a big amount but for some other person even 10 crore is small amount. All these definitions change with time and from person to person. But for all those persons, one thing is constant that they feel that they need more money. The fact is that your point of view changes as soon as you see money flowing in. If you want to start a project with Rs. 5 lakh but you get Rs. 20 lakh, the plan changes. May be your project remains the same, but the execution style will change. When resources are scarce, you tend to make good utilization of them. However, if the same resources are plenty, the efficiency reduces.

To make my basic point about today's topic, I would give one hypothetical example. A & B start a project with same amount 5 lac. But by the end of the year, A is struggling, while B has grown into 20 lac enterprise. While the reasons might be different, but main factor could be optimum use of resource. I have written this example in one of my earlier blogs too, but this example is special. When IPL had just started, Bangalore's team was mocked as a Test team by many. In the second IPL, Rahul Dravid was leading the side. I don't remember the exact numbers, but Bangalore had lost too many matches. Probably, 7 out of the 8 matches. Then, management changed things. They brought Kumble as captain. And with the same resources, Kumble won many of the next games to finish in the Top 4. This is what I call proper use of resources. There is nothing to take away from Rahul Dravid as he latter proved himself to be made of same stuff with Jaipur. 

There are similar cases when people with enough money have launched such businesses that they failed miserably. While there are other people who started with very limited resource, but have rose like a star. 

Miracles? How Do They Happen?

Heard about the book 'The Secret'? It was all about Law of Attraction. Many people must have seen the movie, read the book, but many fail to apply it. It is just because they don't do anything wholeheartedly. You will try something for about a week and then just leave it. Rome was not build in a day. And you want your desires to be built in a day. It is not easy to climb to the top. And it is harder to remain at the top. At each stage, there are ifs and buts. For climbing to the top, there are different steps and it is here that you have to pass each step to reach the top. First and foremost, you must decide first that you want to reach the top. Then only you will actually get a goal. Once you have your goal / dream set, you have to think about it. You need to do something to reach there. You need to make a plan and take action. Only then will the dream fructify. 

But even if you do not have the plan and have dream, you can think about the dream again and again. Do not forget that you have given too much of energy to your fears. The fears because of which you have not been able to go on the path to the top. The fears might be different for each person. But you give in to that fear and then do not take that action. Even if you don't see anything concrete, you will get some opportunities. It is only a matter of clarity in thought that you will be able to recognize the opportunities. Once you have recognized the opportunities, you also need to have talent or learn something about the opportunity. Then you need to take action to profit from the opportunity. When you have reached the top using the opportunity, only then you can think that your dream has been completed. 

If you give in to your fears, you will go nowhere. Instead of giving your energy to the fears, give it all to your dreams. Enliven them in your thought. And meditate often to clear your thoughts. This is a process. When you enliven your dream, your subconscious mind begins to feel it. It will begin to believe in your dreams. And it will do what it takes for you to reach there. To understand the messages, you will need to keep your mind clean. Keep yourself free from clutters, as far as possible. And last but not the least, Take Massive Action When Opportunity Presents Itself. 

Should You Have A Side Hustle OR Focus On What You Have At Hand

Grant Cardone! Ever heard this name. If not, search on the internet and you will find his name. He is the author of the book - 10 X rule. His book focuses on how to evolve your business 10 times as fast as what it is now. He says that you must have a die hard passion for what you are doing. The book focuses on Massive Action for whatever you want to do. The first step is as usual - To identify a goal. Next is to have a plan in place. And the third but the most important and the obvious one is Massive Action. Without Action, you will achieve nothing. And for this you need to focus on one and only one thing. 

There is second thought, however. I don't remember the author, but it is probably Kiyoski OR Investment Guru Buffet. He says that you must have multiple stream of incomes. When this happens, you will not be dependent on one source just in case it fails. It can also be called as Don't keep all your eggs in one basket. Multiple stream of incomes can include anything - side hustle, part time job, consultancy, royalty, investment, income through assets, shares or alternative investments, etc. 

You might agree with both thought processes. And both thoughts are powerful too. I personally believe that everything can be a success if proper time and efforts are given to any task. Unless of course, nature, government, rules or technology interferes and changes your world upside down. For this second reason, I recommend the second thought. However, to put it in perspective it is also necessary to give some time to it. What can you about it? See if the below thought provokes you.

You must be doing something which will take your maximum time and is your primary work giving you primary income. To have some secondary source of income, you must first build assets instead of spending on liabilities or what you call as 'spending on your needs rather than wants'. Once your assets are build, they should give you income which will be more than your needful expenses. This will give you financial freedom. If you want to do something part time or side business, then you must give it time. Unless, you have something automated or you have some person/team/system in place to take care of your side business/income. You must strictly follow the rules for that. Either you give a couple of hours daily or you give continuous block of time on your holiday. Even if you give 7-8 hours on weekend, you would be working close to 25-30 hours in a month. This is not a very small time. Think about it.

Why Positive Self Talk Is Important?

Have you watched movie 'Taare Zameen Par'? It is Amir Khan movie with Amir in supporting role. Yes, the main hero of the film is the child. In that movie, Amir tries to explain the condition of the child to his parents. The child's results in studies are not so good and are pale in comparison to his brother's. He is not able to understand because of his condition dyslexia. The parents are not happy at this as they don't know the condition and are seeing only the results of the child. They are constantly scolding the child. In one of the scenes, Amir explains to the father a system followed in South African tribe. Whenever the tribe had to cut a tree, they won't cut it directly. Before cutting the tree, all people would surround it. After that they will give all kinds of abuses *basically negative talk*, to the tree and return after a few days. Believe it or not, after a few days even a greener tree would have turned into a dry brown tree which is ready to fall. 

The effect of the negative talk is so much that even a tree cannot accept it. You might also like to hear stories of the nursery's where some good music or Om sound is being played and the effect is phenomenal. The plants show a marked improvement in good environment. When a tree or a plant shows such marked effect of the good & bad environments, how about the human mind. It is much more sharper than the tree. When there is bad / negative environment - be it at home, at work, in your neighborhood, or at other places that you visit - it is bound to affect your work. Remember the often said lines - Aaj mera dimag kam nahi kar raha. 

What others say is not in your hands? Of course, to some extent it is. If we talk with a smile, normally we will get back a smile. And if we talk in rude way, it will be greeted in a rude way. But the most important part comes when there is criticism and negative talk around you and it gets into your head. In such times, it is extremely important that you talk positively to yourself. This positive talk will instill confidence in your mind and you will be taken out of the negative effect. 

Productivity Tip

I don't remember whether I have written this earlier. But I remembered this tip now and thought to share it here. I think I read this in some book or book summary which was a special productivity book. The book was written at a time when there were no cell phones available. The internet also had a limited penetration. However, today it is a different case. Today, there is internet everywhere. There are smartphones all over. Smart phones today are available at a cost lesser than what feature phones cost when they were ruling. I remember, I bought a phone of 3315 - the most run phone during those times - 2003 and it cost around 5000 bucks. Today, you get a smart phone in that money and you also get Jio 4G which is at good speed. This has increased the smartphone penetration in India like wildfire. This smartphone has made an impact on our life. It has addicted us to it. We are continuously looking at our screen for any notification. After 5 min, 10 min interval, we lose our comfort and tend to look at the screen. This can make us lose focus. 

In such situations, a tip given in the book can help us. The author suggests that we keep a bucket / pocket / book near us at our work place or table. You should break your periods into half hour or one hour no break periods. In this period, focus on only one job. Only take any urgent calls because it is a part of our duty. There are fire fighting going on in our job and for that call taking is necessary. Except those urgent things, shun from looking into your phone. Or do it only if it is a part of your task like calling customer or calling supplier, etc. During this time, there might be many things that might creep into your head. You might be tempted to look at those things. You have to pay an electric bill. If you don't do this, it will creep into your mind. You might think that you may forget this and so tempt to do this task. Here is where the bucket will come in. Whenever such things strike you, immediately take the book or take some paper and list them and put it in the bucket. This will enlighten you from the load that your mind has to take while focusing on the task at hand. Once you know that the task will be looked after some time, you will be able to focus and this will increase your productivity.

Bye Bye VAT Welcome GST

Tonight will be a historical night. When the clock strikes twelve at midnight, a singular tax system will be implemented in India. This tax will supersede all the tax systems. How is this different from what we are already doing? This is best explained in the joke circulating around on whatsapp. When you were single, you had to report to your parents and siblings & explain one thing to each. After marriage, all these are replaced by single person - WIFE. 

Jokes apart, how is it going to change business. How will it affect common man? How will it affect business? Things will be clear only after implementation. Overall, there would be no great effect. But see closely and you will be able to see some differences. At present, there is tax system which differentiates between small businesses and traders with big businesses. Small businesses & traders normally register only for VAT which is a local state tax. The big businesses will normally have excise registration along with the VAT registration. For small businesses, they will levy only VAT on their final product price. So, a product priced Rs. 100 at factory will be levied by VAT (say 10 %) and the price out from factory is Rs. 110/-. Above that there is transportation and margins by the distributor and the retailer, depending on the product as well as the supply chain. For a bigger company, they have to first levy Central excise. So, if 12 % is the excise duty, the same component coming out of this big factory will be Rs. 100 plus 12 % excise and on the above total, 10 % vat. The final price becomes Rs. 123.20. There is a marked difference between Rs. 123 & Rs. 110. This is the reason why branded products cost is higher. 

After GST, the tax structure will be same for small business as well as big business. GST somehow levels the disadvantage faced by the big manufacturers, while the small manufacturer loses his advantage of lower tax. The flow of people therefore, would be towards branded products because simply other products will also tend to price in a similar way and the price difference between branded & unbranded, organized product to unorganized product will decrease. This will be big game changer in the near future. 

Secondly, earlier the material dispatched outside state was levied 2 % central sales tax provided that the C form is given. The person supplying outside state would have to follow continuously for C Form. Now, this state boundary will disappear. People can send beyond state boundaries and there will be no C forms. The extra 2 % tax won't be there thereby reducing the tax burden. This will probably increase the transportation between state to states. Material flow will be there from one state to other. This will also bring a boom for transportation business. 

This is bound to bring many changes for India. Hope for a better India.