Raj Shankar's Blog, page 24

Books and Me: Thrive

Book Title: Thrive

Author: Arianna Huffington

In a fast paced and competitive world there is no one who does not measure himself / herself against each other. People are comparing themselves with everyone possible and either feeling good or feeling bad, both feelings are sadly, temporary. Much of this comparison arises from two factors that have become the widely used measures: money and power. Since these two are measurable, most people end up falling in line to measuring success based on these. Because these are two measures that have fairly standard measures, they also become easy to compare and fall prey to feelings.

According to the author (who is successful and popular across both measures) the inevitable problem with living based on the above measures is that the individual is lost in the process of seeking worldly success. No please don’t stop reading – she is not against worldly success, but she provides a view to how we can truly be successful in our own eyes. Now, this is really difficult, because when the game is over, we are almost left with only ourselves and it is then that the real question of success comes up. When this happens, most successful people have regretted their choices to be successful in the currently understood way. The author quotes her own experience of having hit this ceiling, thankfully early in life, to make corrections.

The book defines a third metric apart from the above two, which happens to be the title of the book: Thrive. This is the third metric and it contains four components that make it up:

Our well being
Our ability to draw on our inner intuition and wisdom
Our sense of wonder
Our capacity for compassion and giving

The book is sprinkled with enough interesting anecdotes from the author’s life and the lives of other interesting personalities. The one I liked the most was her mother, who seems to have had a huge impact on the author’s life. I was very touched by her mother’s approach to life, especially towards the end of her life. I loved reading the portion of the book that speaks about ‘Death’ as it is a concept that is close to my heart. The book is not any emotional treatise on how to die or how to live better by sleeping for hours a day – it is filled with enough references to scientific studies from respected journals. While I loved every section of the book, I enjoyed the section on ‘walking’, ‘death’, and ‘giving’ more than the others.

Routines in life are important and they should be set by us based on our priorities. We must ensure our life is balanced so as to have no regrets in life. Many of the practices suggested in the book seem to help in bringing some order to today’s chaotic and turbulent lifestyle. I think every young person must read this book and benefit from it. If we can take away even one or two ideas and put it to practice in our lives, we will see phenomenal difference to the way we lead our lives. Even though the book refers to woman to a larger extent than men, the advice applies to all equally.

I must thank the author to reveal so much about her mom’s life as it has inspired me to re-look at my own and has also reinforced my study of philosophy.

Thank you Ms Arianna Huffington for sharing such a wonderful book with us!

Happy Reading!

“Taking moral responsibility” – what does it mean?

The General Elections to the Lok Sabha 2014 has just been declared over. The results have been a vent of all bottled up expectations. Lots of young people (in age & mind) went out to vote because they were frustrated. Everyone wanted change! Why not? Look at all the stagnation over the last few years, what else did we expect? Change was imminent!

But what surprised me most were the funny reactions happening over the last few days. Some of the senior journalists (not all) have been pushing people (the ones who have lost) to take moral responsibility. Many senior politicians have also used the same phrase “taking moral responsibility” just too many times! What does it mean? What must be the actions that truly reflect it?

It looks like “taking moral responsibility” means “resigning”. Sorry to say that it seems so obviously wrong! At least that’s what it means when we listen to the news. The politicians, journalists and political analysts seem to be reiterating this. Resignations are flying off the shelf! Every party that has lost the election has its leader putting in their papers. And we see people (senior journalists) on television praising such acts as signs of leadership. The singular message for anyone who thinks rationally is this: there is no understanding of what “taking moral responsibility” means and nobody seems to understand what “good leadership” is? What must a good leader do during a time of crisis? Is there not good quality research output describing what a good leader can do during a time of crisis? Are there not enough advisors who can guide leadership through these challenging times?

“Taking moral responsibility” or “taking responsibility” means “I want to do something about what has happened” or “I want to make sure I do something that will ensure this situation does not repeat itself”. It definitely is not simply throwing up the hands and saying “I tender my resignation”. Here are some more thoughts on what “taking responsibility” means: http://rajshankar.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/taking-responsibility-what-does-that-mean/ (Co-incidentally I wrote it one day before the counting started)

It’s time a lot more people in India really understand what “leadership” really means so that we can sieve the real leaders from the crowd.

The next time anyone (politicians and journalists amongst others) uses the phrase “taking moral responsibility”, please use it for its real meaning, not as yet another gimmick to gain attention.

Congratulations Mr Modi

Congratulations Mr Narendra Modi! You seem to be the next Prime Minister of India (in all probability). Since people have voted you to power, their wishes are going to be with you for the next 5 years. But the real test of your leadership is going to begin once you sit on the top job. The millions who have voted this time around are waiting:

The millions of people who have voted for you are looking to see you make changes.
The millions of people who voted for you are yearning for you to bring development.
The millions of people who voted for you are waiting to hear you make the changes that will change their lives for the better.
More importantly, the millions of people who did not vote for you are waiting to convince their friends (your supporters) how wrong their choice has been!
Every one of the millions who have voted are waiting to see India change and grow for the better

The truth is that nobody who has come to power has said the opposite! All who have come to power, came there making promises, but somehow most of those promises have not been kept. While everyone is expecting you to make changes to development and other issues, there one big change that you can usher in: Here is your chance to bring the biggest change of them all – keeping promises!

We all look forward to unblocking the potential that Indians contain. We have been restricted for too long. Will you be the change that everyone hopes?

The big lesson from your victory is that in times of crisis, people want bold, courageous leaders. They want leaders who will take decisions. They want leaders who have some stand on issues. They want leaders who will lead them from the present state, without worry about where they are headed. Whether these are the best for all of us only time will tell, but people still want a strong personality leading them.

Peter Drucker said “The future cannot be predicted, but it can be created.” Isn’t that true? To create a future we need leaders who can take decisions, follow it through to completion and live a life of character. There are a lot of hopes, possibilities and expectations. If they come true (through you) they are good for India as a whole.

Congratulations once again Mr Modi and best wishes to keep the hopes of India alive!

The Big Lesson from Indian Lok Sabha Elections 2014

If there is one big lesson that has been delivered through this election results it is this – if you don’t change, change will be thrust upon you.

Was this not imminent to every party that lost this election, months ago? Hence this is not the time to submit resignations and make emotional statements. This is the time to introspect, reflect and discuss, so that each of your organizations can learn from your own mistakes / lapses in strategy.

This is also the best time to reflect on your mission and purpose of existence. Why does your party exist? What can you and your fellow members do to make course corrections? After all one election is not the end of the world. It is just one exam in life’s never ending semester examinations. So, don’t waste this valuable time in complaint and regret. Seek corrections actions, right measures, direction and suggestions. You and your party need a clear goal and focused strategy. This is the time to create it. This is the time to identify the best people to resurrect each of your institutions. You have time, but it has to be channeled. This is the real test of character and that is the biggest trait of leadership.

Please use your time well instead of engaging in trivial conversations in public over inconsequential and hypothetical situations.

So, I reiterate the biggest learning from this election for everyone (not just politicians) – change or be ready to be run over by change! The choice is yours!

“Taking Responsibility” – what does that mean?

Every now and then you hear about the word “responsibility”. Most people complain that most others don’t seem to “take responsibility” for their actions. But sadly no one looks at themselves and more importantly no one really understands what that phrase means! It bothers me a lot more when I hear entrepreneurs talk about others not taking responsibility. What exactly does “taking responsibility” mean?

What do people mean when they use the phrase? In most of the cases where I get to hear people say the above phrase, they mean “should not have been done or should not have been missed”. Almost always this happens in hindsight. He should have been more careful or she should have taken greater care while planning for it! Whenever you catch yourself saying such statements, remember: you are just complaining. There is no corrective action or suggestion for improvement to that person. Most of these conversations end up becoming heated debates or arguments, with both the parties irritated and agitated.

What should the phrase actually mean? It should mean that we will be more mindful of what we are taking on as jobs. It should mean we should treat the activity we take on as though it is critical. It should mean that we will lose something personally if we don’t get it done right. It should mean that for someone what I am getting done is really critical. Hence if we come across people not doing their jobs with care, we must remind them that they could be in the receiving end. It is important that people understand the collaborative nature of the working world. “Taking Responsibility” hence when used by anyone means “I will get this done as promised or will keep you appropriately informed in case of any changes in plan well in advance.” And very important is to note that if I want to do this like I do it for myself, I must take care of two things:

Avoid multitasking while carrying out tasks of responsibility
Avoid potential distractions while carrying out tasks of responsibility
Avoid assuming anything about the activity itself

Think about it!

Vedantic Wednesday: Focus on the doing, not the quantum

We all want to save money, but the excuse we give yourselves is that we will do that when we start earning a lot. But the reality is ‘saving’ is a habit and has to be cultivated. It is easier to feel good saving a few thousand rupees or a few hundred rupees every month, than looking at placing fixed deposits for a hundred thousand every time. The most important thing is routine doing or habit, not really the quantum. But the mind asks, what are you going to become by saving so little? Wait and you can always save in larger quantities; at least it makes financial sense!

The same goes with exercise. What if you can’t go to the gymnasium every day? Why can’t you start by going for a walk every day? Why can’t you start by going for a walk every alternate day? Even better why can’t you start by going for a walk every Sunday? No! I am not joking. The more infrequent the periodicity, the easier it should be to follow. But the mind asserts itself and convinces you saying that it really is not going to have any effect if you walk once a week. Absolutely! The reasoning is right. You are not going to lose weight walking once a week, but it is easiest to start a habit doing that, than waiting to join a gymnasium and go every day.

In every aspect of our lives we do this mistake of not creating routines and getting started with action. Rather we will wait to have the perfect way to get started and end up not getting started at all or in too many failed starts. Why does this happen? Because doing is a habit, it requires a routine, which is easiest to start when the quantum is small. But the mind does not like small quantities of anything. Hence it dissuades you from getting into action and more so in building little routines.

Spirituality in its core is all about building routines, that too consciously. To make this happen one needs to be alert to the functioning of the mind and the intellect. Once we become aware we realize that in life action matters, not the quantum, results matter, not the quantum, happiness matter, not the quantum. We will become Child-like! We will become joyful at everything. We will be excited to do even little things as though they are the biggest things. The child is able to do this. We are not, because we have lost the fundamental ability to think clearly.

Try doing little routines daily – and watch your mind revolt, give you reasons, justify and convince you as to why it is not worth doing it. It is an experience worth experimenting!

Think about it!

Entrepreneurial Skills: Beg, Borrow, Steal?

We have heard a lot about entrepreneurs bootstrapping. Bootstrapping is often referred to as doing more with less. Here are some broad ways in which it is practiced. If you are an entrepreneur, check to see if you have used some of these methods?

Beg: Entrepreneurs typically should not have an ego. They will go to any extent for the sake of their entrepreneurial dreams. They will do anything to see their dreams turn into reality. But I come across a lot of entrepreneurs who can’t ask others for stuff! This is because their egos’ don’t let them ask. To be a successful entrepreneur one must learn to ask. Ask like you cannot live without it. Lesson: Learn to ask (literally beg if needs be) for resources your start-up requires.

Borrow: Entrepreneurs should not buy stuff, but they do. The moment a start-up sees little money, it is spent buying assets. Buying should be the last on the list, but very often it is the first action that the entrepreneur engages in. Many times entrepreneurs take loans (debt) to buy assets. Borrowing does not seem to occur to entrepreneurs as an option because they worry that others might copy their idea. They worry that borrowing could lead to competitors. They also believe that borrowing is costlier than owning! Yes it is from a purely financial perspective for established / mature operations. This rule does not apply for experiments. If you can borrow capacity for production, you must. If you can borrow office space, computers, machinery, except probably co-founders, you must. Lesson: Borrow resources before buying into any.

Steal: If borrowing is not practiced enough, stealing is almost considered sin. The famous quote from Picasso comes to my mind – “Good artists copy, Great artists steal”. Does that not apply to entrepreneurs? Absolutely! I will re write the quote as: “Good entrepreneurs copy, Great entrepreneurs steal”. What does stealing mean in this context? It means looking for good things that others have already discovered and trying to incorporate them into our business. Why reinvent the wheel? Lesson: Keep an open mind to pick and use what has already been created. Don’t reinvent the wheel.

If you are not doing enough of these then maybe you are not using enough of your entrepreneurial skills. Try to see how you can practice them. I will elaborate them in future posts!

Share your thoughts and ideas on these and good examples of these in practice that you have observed.

Entrepreneurial Decisions: Intuitive or Data-Driven?

Entrepreneurs – how do you make decisions? Intuitive calls are your strength, but how should you use the data available to make your intuitive calls even better – read on…

During one of our monthly interactions, one of the CEO’s of an emerging company asked me if we should move towards data-driven decision making? I was surprised! I presumed a lot of his decisions were data-driven considering the size of operations he was running, but alas to my surprise (not really!) he was taking a lot of intuitive calls.

As an entrepreneurial venture, he and his partner had taken a lot of intuitive calls. They had become successful with most of their decisions being right. But as they had become bigger and the stakes of the decisions now larger, this question seemed right! After all now they had something to lose!

Is shifting from intuitive decision making and data-driven decision making very different? Is it mutually exclusive? While theoretically it seems possible to objectively practice one of the two, they seem too interlaced in practice. Hence I was telling him that he should go by his nature. He is an entrepreneur, someone who studies and lives his business. He knows his business best. But because his world was smaller he never needed more information to know how the environment around him functioned. Now that his enterprise has grown larger, he needs to know the environment a bit better. For this he needs information from the external world. How much and how this information should be consumed is a matter of need and convenience, but it cannot be avoided. Will decision making change because of this – obviously yes!

Now that he is armed with a lot more insights about his function, his own company, its position within the industry, and lot of information about the market in which he operates, he is bound to make decisions differently. It is almost evident from this argument that he should use the information to strengthen his ‘gut’. In my opinion, entrepreneurs should use information to keep their ‘gut’ up to date and strong. It is then better for the ‘gut’ to take those intuitive calls. After all if pure data-driven decisions are what is needed, then we can do away with human beings, computers can do them better – isn’t it?

But combining the two to make better intuitive calls is something that a computer can never do (at least today) and that makes an entrepreneur still someone who is a prized possession for society. Hence entrepreneurs must use data but not shift totally to data-driven decision making. It is good to use data for the right purpose, rather than get carried away with the amount of data that is available today and get enticed by justifications that it can provide for decisions.

Can intelligence aid in making better intuitive calls more than pure data – definitely yes, but still the ‘gut’ is from where the decisions must flow.

Think about it!

Entrepreneurship and Well Being: What’s the connect?

According to the 2013 GEM report (http://www.babson.edu/Academics/centers/blank-center/global-research/gem/Documents/GEM%202013%20Global%20Report.pdf ), it looks like being in entrepreneurship is a really good thing. “Well Being” and “Happiness” seems to be very high amongst entrepreneurs. At least that’s what most of the entrepreneurs have to say in response to the GEM survey across the world. The returns on both these parameters are even more if you are a women entrepreneur. I am so glad to be reading this since I am currently engaged in a women entrepreneurship development program in India where we are attempting to help scale 100 women entrepreneurs.

During my interactions I found that many of these women entrepreneurs had started this off as a hobby or a way of keeping themselves occupied (exceptions exist). But the startling thing is that all of them suddenly woke up to the fact that they can actually grow their hobby or keeping themselves occupied vocation into a business. The resolve that they have shown so far in taking their ideas to the market are phenomenal. While many of them are yet to see much results from their endeavours, their enthusiasm, energy, aspirations and drive remain ‘infectious’. I am sure through my workshops and mentoring sessions with these energetic women, I come back charged to practice being entrepreneurial even more.

So, when I was going through the report again this week, I was struck by the importance of taking this information to educational institutions across India. It is so important to teach entrepreneurship in colleges, especially science and technology institutions. Young minds should be inspired to explore and experiment. They should be helped with the needed tools and techniques to shape their ideas into enterprises. The most important thing is that they should be educated on the fact that ‘entrepreneurship’ is probably the most sure route to personal satisfaction and well being. Students need to be exposed to this! India needs a lot more entrepreneurs be it as start-ups (entrepreneurship) or within established enterprises (intrapreneurship).

Yes, entrepreneurship is a journey that is neither rosy nor easy, but nothing worthwhile in life truly is!

Think about it!

Scaling Challenges of Start-ups: Leadership

Heroic Leadership is always interesting and inspiring. This type of leadership is especially visible amongst early stage ventures / start-ups. But what provides strength and valour during the early days of venture creation, becomes the biggest weakness during the later years. When the start-up wants to scale and mature into an organisation, it becomes the singular weak link. The entrepreneur keeps wondering why his abilities are not helping any more. When this happens, the entrepreneur typically falls into two modes of thinking. They are:

First: The entrepreneur invariably gets caught in this self sympathising mode and begins to wonder if he/she has stunted. He/She begins to wonder if they are the right people to continue growing the enterprise.
Second: The entrepreneur finds enough reasons outside of himself, including but not limited to his employees, suppliers, distributors, costs, and many times customers themselves as the reason for not growing.

Both of which are wrong! The entrepreneur must recognise the fact that start-ups are very different from enterprises. The moment a start-up experiment has been validated and the start-up moves out of experiment mode, it has to be treated as an enterprise. Once we treat it as an enterprise, then we need everything that an enterprise system needs to stay moving – including but not limited to structure, systems, processes and importantly leadership. The problem with most entrepreneurs and the founding teams is that they don’t fundamentally believe in both till something / someone from outside forces them to think so. While they agree and put in place some systems and processes, they invariably falter when it comes to putting a structure in place. They end up creating a structure around them. They just fill their plate with more decision making responsibilities rather than move some out of their fold. There are companies where even after reaching 2 – 5 Crores in size, the entrepreneur is signing off petty pantry purchases. There is nothing wrong with controlling expenses, but the big question is, should it only be you doing it?

Heroic leadership or visionary leadership is what is required to create entrepreneurial ventures. We also need these entrepreneurial ventures to scale and grow so that they provide jobs and services to society. If they have to do this at a reasonable scale, the visionary entrepreneurs must also recognise the fact that they have to develop leaders. Developing leaders is a very important part of scaling an enterprise. How are you developing your leadership? Are you feeling exhausted wondering why no one else is not taking as much responsibility in your venture as you? Are you wondering why there is even after establishing scalability the venture is not scaling?

The question to ask is – are there leaders in your venture who are as good as you or better than you? Are you thinking and taking decisions as much as you within the enterprise? If you don’t develop this, the venture will invariably stall (at different levels though)!

Think about it!