Thoughts

Whats your reason to start up? You want to be your own boss, You want to change this world, You want to make BIG money etc. Everyone has a different reason. It is awesome once you get into the ring, but let me disappoint you by saying, your odds for achieving your dream are terribly low.

Over next two weeks, I am going to write some of my thoughts on startups in this space. Most likely there will be nothing new in these thoughts which was not told by others over time. The idea of writing these things down is just to recap my learnings over time. 

Result is out, Operation 30 was a failure. 

It started very well, but there was a break where i didn't have access to net for a week and after that i could not really keep it going...

We tend to avoid taking uncomfortable phone calls. We tend to avoid meetings which might turn out negative. We tend to avoid speaking to people who might disapprove of our ideas.

We run away problems and hope they get solved by themselves. We think behaving as if problems don't exists might actually kill the problem. We get too emotionally attached with our decisions and get into the fear of changing decisions. We think being rigid will send a strong message. 

I have done some of the above mentioned in various situations. It felt good for a short time, but i realized later instead of solving, i was running away. The problem was chasing me faster than i tried to run. Eventually there was no escape but to face the consequences of the problem.

Now i try to slow down, give a bit of thought, evaluate if changing my approach solves the problem. Instead of running away, i want to take the problem head on. I sleep well on the days when i try to solve a tough problem. 

These days in corporate world it is fashionable to hate meetings, for various reasons. I also belong to that category, I don't like meetings because they force me to stop my workflow and get in sync with team, they doesn't seem to add any value to my productivity. Meetings are usually longer than they are supposed to be. Also i am not a fan of banter that goes on in meeting rooms. 

Having no meetings is great and sounds like lot of freedom to the employee , but why is your manager is still pushing for meetings, why is you company management adamant on having weekly meetings. 

The single most important reason meetings required is to track status. If you want no meetings and still be as good, the solution is simple. Make status Information transparent & easily accessible to the concerned. If they can get information without you both sitting in a meeting room, you can avoid majority of the meetings.

The Second reason your manager wants meetings because it gives an opportunity to guide each other, seek clarifications from others on issues or simply to facilitation cooperation among the team members.  This is a tougher problem to solve than the first one. To communicate, everybody has a preferred mode. Skype calls, instant messaging, emails to name a few. I prefer email for the asynchronous nature of it. Whatever is the mode you use, the important thing is to set an expected Turn around time, being Predictable in your timelines. Other person wont bother you to call for a meeting until and unless you are not sticking to the schedule you defined. 

The last point i want to bring is about sharing common vision. Many times we assume as a team there is perfect sync, going forward to achieve the goal and question the point of having a meeting to discuss vision. But it is very easy to make a wrong assumption and take people for granted. Probably even without meetings you can go ahead, but by the time you realize there is a communication gap, it might be too late. The first two points will be easy to overcome but this lack of shared vision can cost a lot to the team. The bottom line is to make sure there are no communication gaps, especially between cross functional and management teams, monthly or quarterly meets are what people usually do.  

If i have to suggest one blog you must read, it is Seth Godin' s blog.

Subscribe to his mailing list, he writes one post per day and it will be most probably the best thing you will read in the day.

I read couple of his books and planning to read all soon. Like his posts, books are short and sweet too. He sends across most powerful messages and thoughts with as little words as possible. If you spend time on youtube, do watch his videos too, there are lots of talks on topics such as education, marketing, future of business etc.

If i have to advice my younger self..

Sketch a schedule and stick to it,  disciplined and self controlled in life is the the easiest way to achieve targets

Health is the single most important thing

Stop judging people

Under promise, over deliver

Spend as much time as possible with family and friends

Talk to as many unknown people as possible, sending an email to a person whom you never met but you admire might change your life forever

Money is super important..Plan to earn as much as possible, but learn to live with as less money as possible.

List out every thing which you fear...Try to overcome at least one from the list each year

More on some other day from my side

"Winners never quit, quitters never win" . 

I am sure we all heard this, people quote this hoping it will help others to get motivated and fight battles longer. I think there is a problem with that approach, we tend to treat quitting as failure and bad choice. There is huge difference between the both. We equate quitting to failure probably because we don't want to accept our shortcomings, we don't want to accept our choice of choosing a wrong battle or simply does not want to be seen as a quitter . 

Seth Godin in his book The Dip summarizes the problem very well, He says "Winners Quit all the time. They just quit the stuff at the right time".  Cant agree more to that argument, there is no reason to continue if you know you are not making progress. If the end result of continuing is not what is envisioned when the project started, quitting might be a correct strategy.

It is better to quit than to be a failure. It requires courage to quit, but you might actually save a lot of time. It is good exercise to take lessons and quit , start a new project than hitting a dead end. The reasons for quitting better not be on emotional reasons but on parameters what you have set at the beginning of project. Quitting should not be a way to avoid tough fights but a way to avoid battles which are not worth fighting.

What do you prefer - Reading from paper books or e-book readers.

My choice - always paper book. Even now i don't own any e-book reader, i do all my reading from paper copies. I think nothing smells better than a brand new book, every time i start reading a new book it feels as if i have met a new person. I take a long walk with that person, take down notes and bid a sad goodbye. But it feels good to keep it back it the desk and revisit it some time later.

In the last few years Kindle and other e-book readers have redefined the rules of book industry. It was never easier than now to buy a book or even publish a book. Some people call it democratization of publishing industry. The bigger publishing houses have lots of things to worry about.

Along with the above, there is lot of debate over whether paper book will industry exists in future. Ultimately, Book content is the message and physical or electronic is only just medium to deliver, there is lot of difference in both of them perceived by the reader. 

Given a chance  what will you gift to your 15 yr old cousin ? 

Latest iPhone, the new Kindle reader or a gaming device ?

Today if i am a 15 year old, i would have loved to get one of those as gifts and the ones who gifts would be my heroes.

But today i am close to 30, i would stay away from gifting any of those latest gadgets and gift a paper book and most probably that would be autobiography of an influential person.

In this world where attention times are getting shorter and shorter there is nothing like getting lost in magic of a book. These days people don't read, they just browse. There is a ton of difference in both. I consider it reading you gain new information and thoughts and consider it browsing when you skim through headlines on a Facebook news feed.

My generation needed to learn the power of being connected on internet and its advantages. But today, kids need to be taught about being disconnected.  Being disconnected once in a while helps and there is nothing like being on your couch with a great book.

4 Days of no posts on Operation 30, the writing streak is broken. It could have been avoided if only there was better planning from my side. I went to my home town Warangal on Friday but was hoping to continue writing expecting a decent internet connection and lots of free time. I was wrong about both of them. I am back to Bangalore today and will continue operation30 from where i left. I expect no more breaks although next week i am travelling to Warangal.

Feedback for this experiment has been encouraging overall but most common suggestion was to asking me to choose a specific audience and write in depth of chosen topic . I understand the intention of that suggestion and i do like the long form articles. But for this experiment, i intentionally didn't choose a topic/audience because the intention was to get writing into daily schedule and write about a different topic everyday. I probably wont be able to spend more than 30 to 45 mins now, which wont be enough for long form articles. When i am done with this op30, i will probably reduce the frequency posts to one or two articles a week (I can call it Mission52 :) ) with bit more research into the article. Some of the topics i will write will be startups, education system, politics and relationships etc. Till then probably this short articles will continue :) 

We create concrete jungles out of forests and run away in search of  forests during weekends to have fun.

We drive 10 km in a car, take elevator to 5th floor to run on the thread-mill

We make tons of money selling cigarettes and spend millions trying to stop people smoke

We create stringent rules for the system and admire who break them.

We never take enough risks and regret later not trying enough things.

We create problems and run around finding solutions from them

There are two kinds of persons in the world. The ones who want a window seat when they travel and the other who doesn't 

I am the window type..I like watching the world as a stationary observer, I like to notice world running at insane pace. I write stories when i travel. I get inspiration when i travel. I usually love the journey, i kind of dislike when i am about to reach the destination on time, I don't mind if the journey gets delayed as long as i am on the way to journey. 

Take a note of experiences from your journey. It teaches you lessons, learn from the mistakes. The biggest mistake one can do is not to learn the lessons from mistakes. 

Life is a journey. When we stop, things don't go right. 

-- Pope Francis

In 2009, Finland made Internet ( minimum of 1 Mbps) every citizen's birth right. That was a great step by a country and displays the forward thinking of leadership. I wish our country moves in that direction. Internet is no more just a way to access a social network or eCommerce store or play games. It is a tool which can make democracy flourish, information access transparent and citizens aware. 

In a country as huge as ours, it will take decades to complete this herculean task. It cant be done with out a strong will of govt and consistent push from society.  Some of my friends dismiss this as a first world problem and say India has bigger problems to focus on. I agree there are bigger problems but I think Internet and its spread across India can only help in solving our bigger problems more easily.

There is some magic in those 90's advertisements. Watching those ads gives a smile on my face even now,  makes me nostalgic. They made a lasting impression on every one who watched TV in 90's.

I bet every kid from 90's can sing the Nirma Ad even today.  I remember how Priety  Zinta Liril ad was talked about in school. I love you Rasna was a household line and i think watching cadbury ad a million times will still not stop anyone from watching it again.

All those famous ads had a catchy tune and lyrics which were easy to sing and in latest terminology viral content. I am not sure if today's commercials are loved by people as much they were before, very rarely do i see people talking about ads or using the lines from commercial in a general discussion. 

I want to write more because it makes me feel liberated. The feeling of hitting submit button and publishing the post gives a satisfaction.

I believe for every person the first true sense of freedom is when they start walking, but we are too young to realize how big a step we have taken in life.

I felt liberated when i drove a vehicle for the first time. Nothing feels more joyous than taking the first long ride. 

When i traveled alone for the first time , i thought i could conquer this world

Doing things for the first time offer a great feeling of freedom and satisfaction. Doing things repeatedly might kill that enthusiasm and energy levels

To keep that interest going, every time the task is done i believe it should be done as if we are doing for the first time. Whether it is driving, writing, speaking, painting etc. 

When was the last time you did something for the first time ?