Tips for Better Life

Nice Read: http://pravstalk.com/tips-for-better-life/

Poster kinda thoughts and most of the things are not that difficult to follow.

Discipline and doing the right things is the heart of the message.

Let's change to make a change

Check following inspiring story of eagle ...

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life.

A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results. Let's change to make a change!!!

Managing Career & Expectations: Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan's, Tata Sons talk at IIM

Again blog reader Dyer shared article/presentation titled: “Managing Career & Expectations”

This article is regarding: “Managing Career & Expectations” (Talk at one of the IIMs) by Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director - Tata Sons.

You can download from here.

In case you like to read in text format, you can read below.

Here is how it starts: There is a Thai saying that experience is a comb which Nature gives to man after he is bald. As I grow bald, I would like to share my comb with you.

1. Seek out grassroots level experience

I studied Physics and Engineering at University. A few months before graduation, I appeared for an HLL interview for Computer Traineeship. When asked whether I would consider Marketing instead of Computers, I responded negatively: an engineer to visit grocery shops to sell Dalda or Lifebuoy? Gosh, no way. After I joined the Company and a couple of comfortable weeks in the swanky Head Office, I was given a train ticket to go to Nasik. Would I please meet Mr. Kelkar to whom I would be attached for the next two months? He would teach me to work as a salesman in his territory, which included staying in Kopargaon and Pimpalgaon among other small towns. I was most upset. In a town called Ozhar, I was moving around from shop to shop with a bullock cart full of products and a salesman's folder in my hand. Imagine my embarrassment when an IIT friend appeared in front of me in Ozhar, believe it or not! And exclaimed, "Gopal, I thought you joined as a Management Trainee in Computers". I could have died a thousand deaths. After this leveling experience, I was less embarrassed to work as a Dispatch Clerk in the Company Depot and an Invoice Clerk in the Accounts Department. Several years later, I realised the value of such grassroots level experience. It is fantastic. I would advise young people to seek out nail-dirtying, collar-soiling, shoe-wearing tasks. That is how you learn about organizations, about the true nature of work, and the dignity of the many, many tasks that go into building great enterprises.

2. Deserve before you desire

At one stage, I was appointed as the Brand Manager for Lifebuoy and Pears soap, the company's most popular-priced and most premium soaps. And what was a Brand Manager? "A mini-businessman, responsible for the production, sales and profits of the brand, accountable for its long-term growth, etc., etc. I had read those statements, I believed them and here I was, at 27,"in charge of everything". But very soon, I found I could not move a pin without checking with my seniors. One evening, after turning the Facit machine handle through various calculations, I sat in front of the Marketing Director. I expressed my frustration and gently asked whether I could not be given total charge. He smiled benignly and said, "The perception and reality are both right. You will get total charge when you know more about the brand than anyone else in this company about its formulation, the raw materials, the production costs, the consumer's perception, the distribution and so on. How long do you think that it will take?" "Maybe, ten years", I replied, "and I don't expect to be the Lifebuoy and Pears Brand Manager for so long"! And then suddenly, the lesson was clear. I was desiring total control, long before I deserved it. This happens to us all the time - in terms of responsibilities, in terms of postings and promotions, it happens all the time that there is a gap between our perception of what we deserve and the reality of what we get. It helps to deserve before we desire.

3. Play to win but win with fairness

Life is competitive and of course, you play to win. But think about the balance. Will you do anything, to win? Perhaps not. Think deeply about how and where you draw the line. Each person draws it differently, and in doing so, it helps to think about values. Winning without values provides dubious fulfillment. The leaders who have contributed the most are the ones with a set of universal values! V Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King for example. Napoleon inspired a ragged, mutinous and half-starved army to fight and seize power. This brought him name and fame for twenty years. But all the while, he was driven forward by a selfish and evil ambition, and
not in pursuit of a great ideal. He finally fell because of his selfish ambition. I am fond of referring to the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophy. It was instituted in 1964 by the founder of the modern Olympic Games and here are two examples of winners. A Hungarian tennis player who pleaded with the umpire to give his opponent some more time to recover from a cramp. A British kayak team who were trailing the Danish kayak team. They then stopped to help the Danish team whose boat was stuck. The Danes went on to beat the British by one second in a three hour event! What wonderful examples of sportsmanship! Play to Win, but with Fairness.

4. Enjoy whatever you do

Sir Thomas Lipton is credited with the statement, "There is no greater fun than hard work". You usually excel in fields, which you truly enjoy. Ask any person what it is that interferes with his enjoyment of existence. He will say, "The struggle for life". What he probably means is the struggle for success. Unless a person has learnt what to do with success after getting it, the very achievement of it must lead him to unhappiness. Aristotle wrote, "Humans seek happiness as an end in itself, not as a means to something else". But if you think about it, we should not work for happiness. We should work as happy people. In organizational life, people get busy doing something to be happy. The more you try to be happy, the more unhappy you can get. Your work and career is all about you’re reaching your full potential. Working at one's full potential, whether it is the office boy or the Chairman, leads to enjoyment and fulfillment. A last point about enjoyment. Keep a sense of humor about yourself. Too many people are in danger of taking themselves far too seriously. As General Joe Stilwell is reported to have said, "Keep smiling. The higher the monkey climbs, the more you can see of his backside".

5. Be Passionate about your health

Of course, as you get older, you would have a slight paunch, graying of hair or loss of it and so on. But it is in the first 5 - 7 years after the working career begins that the greatest neglect of youthful health occurs. Sportsmen stop playing sports, non drinkers drink alcohol, light smokers smoke more, active people sit on chairs, and starving inmates of hostels eat rich food in good hotels and so on. These are the years to watch. Do not, I repeat do not, convince yourself that you are too busy, or that you do not have access to facilities, or worst of all, that you do this to relieve the stresses of a professional career. A professional career is indeed very stressful. There is only one person who can help you to cope with the tension, avoid the doctor's scalpel, and to feel good each morning - and that is yourself. God has given us as good a health as He has, a bit like a credit balance in the bank. Grow it, maintain it, but do not allow its value destruction. The penalty is very high in later years.

6. Direction is more important than distance

Every golfer tries to drive the ball to a very long distance. In the process, all sorts of mistakes occur because the game involves the masterly co-ordination of several movements simultaneously. The golf coach always advises that direction is more important than distance. So it is with life. Despite one's best attempts, there will be ups and downs. It is relationships and friendships that enable a person to navigate the choppy waters that the ship of life will encounter. When I was young, there was a memorable film by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart and Dona Reed, and
named IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. It is about a man who is about to commit suicide because he thinks he is a failure. An angel is sent to rescue him. The bottom line of the film is that "No Man is a Failure Who Has Friends".

Conclusion:

My generation will never be twenty again, but when you are older, you can and should be different from my generation. Ours is a great and wonderful country, and realizing her true potential in the global arena depends ever so much on the quality and persistence of our young people. Good luck in your journey, my young friends, and God be with you.

Thank you very much Dyer for you wonderful contribution on this blog.

Awesome Ideas

Click here to download nice presentation.

Looking at creativity in this presentation, just one thought occured to me: wow !!! :)

Quotes by Chanakya - II

First part of this can be found here.

Visit here to know more about Chanakya.

 

1) A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode. 

2) As a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family. 

3) As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do? 

4) Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing. 

5) Do not reveal what you have thought upon doing, but by wise council keep it secret being determined to carry it into execution. 

6) He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy. 

7) He who lives in our mind is near though he may actually be far away; but he who is not in our heart is far though he may really be nearby. 

8) If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation? 

9) It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment's grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one's life. 

10) O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet. 

11) One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises. 

12) Purity of speech, of the mind, of the senses, and of a compassionate heart are needed by one who desires to rise to the divine platform. 

13) Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune. 

14) The earth is supported by the power of truth; it is the power of truth that makes the sun shine and the winds blow; indeed all things rest upon truth. 

15) The happiness and peace attained by those satisfied by the nectar of spiritual tranquillity is not attained by greedy persons restlessly moving here and there. 

16) The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects. 

17) The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort. 

18) The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep. 

19) The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability. 

20) There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy. 

21) There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it. 

22) We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future; men of discernment deal only with the present moment. 

23) A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does, loves him in the day like a sister does and pleases him like a prostitute in the night. 

24) Whores don't live in company of poor men, citizens never support a weak company and birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits. 

Recent Posts:

• Some Inspiring Thoughts....
• Strength of a Man and Beauty of a Woman .....
• Just Laugh ... Customer Support
• email from Mr. Narayan Murthy
• My Lessons in Life by Azim Premji

 

email from Mr. Narayan Murthy

I came across this nice email which is sent to all Infosys staff by none other than Mr. Narayan Murty. (Click here to know more about him)

 

Mail sent by Mr. Narayan Murthy to all Infosys staff: 

It's half past 8 in the office but the lights are still on...   
PCs still running, coffee machines still buzzing...   
And who's at work? Most of them ??? Take a closer look...   

All or most specimens are ??   
Something male species of the human race...   

Look closer... again all or most of them are bachelors...   

And why are they sitting late? Working hard? No way!!!   
Any guesses???   
Let's ask one of them...   
Here's what he says... "What's there 2 do after going home...Here we get to surf, AC, phone, food, coffee that is why I am working late...Importantly no bossssssss!!!!!!!!!!!"   

This is the scene in most research centers and software companies and other off-shore offices.   

Bachelors "Time-passing" during late hours in the office just bcoz they say they've nothing else to do...   
Now what r the consequences...   

"Working" (for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the institute or company culture.   

With bosses more than eager to provide support to those "working" late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good feedback, (oh, he's a hard worker... goes home only to change..!!).   
They aren't helping things too...   

To hell with bosses who don't understand the difference between "sitting" late and "working" late!!!   

Very soon, the boss start expecting all employees to put in extra working hours.   

So, My dear Bachelors let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family... office is no longer a priority, family is.. and   
That's when the problem starts... b'coz u start having commitments at home too.   

For your boss, the earlier "hardworking" guy suddenly seems to become a "early leaver" even if u leave an hour after regular time... after doing the same amount of work.   

People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labelled as work-shirkers...   

Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays.. though) leave on time are labelled as "not up to it". All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on "working" not realizing that they r spoiling the work culture at their own place and never realize that they would have to regret at one point of time.   

So what's the moral of the story?? 
* Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!!   
* Never put in extra time " unless really needed "   
* Don't stay back unnecessarily and spoil your company work culture which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues. 

There are hundred other things to do in the evening..   

Learn music...   

Learn a foreign language...   

Try a sport... TT, cricket.........   

Importantly,get a girl friend or boy friend, take him/her around town...   

* And for heaven's sake, net cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low (plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change.   

Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: *"Life's calling, where are you??"*   

Please pass on this message to all those colleagues and please do it before leaving time,   
don't stay back till midnight to forward this!!!   

IT'S A TYPICAL INDIAN MENTALITY THAT WORKING FOR LONG HOURS MEANS VERY HARD WORKING & 100% COMMITMENT ETC.   

PEOPLE WHO REGULARLY SIT LATE IN THE OFFICE DON'T KNOW TO MANAGE THEIR TIME. SIMPLE ! 

Regards,   
NARAYAN MURTHY.

 

=============

Note: I don’t know authenticity of this email. So, if you know that this is fake, please let me know so that I can remove it, this is because I have lot of respect for Mr. Narayan Murty and I don’t want to be wrong here.

 

My Previous Posts:

o        My Lessons in Life by Azim Premji

o        Good Karma

o        Advice

o        Difference between GREATness and Mediocrity

o        I have Learned That ...

o        Learnings from Steve Jobs

My Lessons in Life by Azim Premji

I came across very nice newspaper cutting.

Check this out ... it's really worth reading.

Good Karma

Nice Presentation. Click here to download.

Previous Posts:

• Advice
• Difference between GREATness and Mediocrity
• I have Learned That ...
• Learnings from Steve Jobs
• Self Discipline
• Wonderful Thoughts

 

Advice

I came across this nice presentation; click here to download.

This is relatively big; read at your leaisure.

Wonderful Thoughts

Source Courtesy: http://www.pravsworld.com/

Secrets of success from Google co-founder Larry Page

This article is from: http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/jan/05slide1-want-to-succeed-like-googles-larry-page.htm

He's just 35, but Lawrence Edward Page is already one of the most successful men on the planet.

Last year, Forbes ranked him as the 33rd richest man in the world and the 14th richest American. Though his personal fortune took a beating the economic crisis that steamrollered the world -- he lost $11.9 billion as his shares shed 59% of their value -- the Google co-founder does not have much to worry about.

The company that he co-founded with Sergey Brin in 1998 is today one of the most valued sites on the Internet. By the time it celebrated its 10th anniversary, its name has become part of everyday lexicon.

• If you have a product that's really gaining a lot of usage, then it's probably a good idea.
• When you grow, you continually have to invent new processes. We've done a pretty good job keeping up, but it's an ongoing challenge.
• We built a business on the opposite message. We want you to come to Google and quickly find what you want. Then we're happy to send you to the other sites. In fact, that's the point. The portal strategy tries to own all of the information.
• Pretty early on, I saw a newspaper story about Googling dates. People were checking out who they were dating by Googling them. I think it's a tremendous responsibility. If you think everybody is relying on us for information, you understand the responsibility. That's mostly what I feel. You have to take that very seriously.
• Part of our brand is that we're pretty understated in what we do. If you look at other technology companies, they might preannounce things, and it will be a couple years before they really happen, and they don't happen in the way they said they would.
• Through innovation and iteration, Google takes something that works well and improves upon it in unexpected ways.
• If you can run the company a bit more collaboratively, you get a better result, because you have more bandwidth and checking and balancing going on.
• The 'be good' concept also comes up when we design our products. We want them to have positive social effects. For example, we just released Gmail, a free e-mail service. We said, 'We will not hold your e-mail hostage. 'We will make it possible for you to get your e-mail out of Gmail if you ever want to.
• The dotcom period was difficult for us. We were dismayed in that climate... We knew a lot of things people were doing weren't sustainable, and that made it hard for us to operate. We couldn't get good people for reasonable prices. We couldn't get office space. It was a hypercompetitive time. We had the opportunity to invest in 100 or more companies and didn't invest in any of them. I guess we lost a lot of money in the short term -- but not in the long term.
• Talented people are attracted to Google because we empower them to change the world. Google has large computational resources and distribution that enables individuals to make a difference.
• We don't have as many managers as we should, but we would rather have too few than too many.
• We think we're an important company, and we're dedicated to doing this over the long term. We like being independent.
• Serving our end users is at the heart of what we do and remains our number one priority.
• It definitely helps to be really focused on what you are doing.
• My experience is that when people are trying to do ambitious things, they're all worried about failing when they start. But all sorts of interesting things spin out that are of huge economic value. Also, in these kinds of projects, you get to work with the best people and have a very interesting time. They're not really taking a risk, but they feel like they are.
• From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible. While many companies claim to put their customers first, few are able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder value. Google has steadfastly refused to make any change that does not offer a benefit to the users who come to the site.
• You (the Google user) want answers and you want them right now. Who are we to argue?
• Many leaders of big organisations don't believe that change is possible. But if you look at history, things do change, and if your business is static, you're likely to have issues.
• If we are not trusted, we have no business. We have such a lot to lose; we are forced to act in everyone's interest."
• I would rather have people think we're confused than let our competitors know what we're going to do.
• We chose it (the name Google) because we deal with huge amounts of data. Besides, it sounds really cool.
• The ultimate search engine... would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.
• Our company relies on having the trust of our users and using that information for their benefit. That's a very strong motivation for us. We're committed to that. If you start to mandate how products are designed, I think that's a really bad path to follow. I think instead we should have laws that protect the privacy of data, for example, from government requests and other kinds of requests.
• Many companies are under pressure to keep their earnings in line with analysts' forecasts. Therefore, they often accept smaller, predictable earnings rather than larger and less predictable returns. Sergey and I feel this is harmful, and we intend to steer in the opposite direction.
• We think a lot about how to maintain our culture and the fun elements. I don't know if other companies care as much about those things as we do. We spent a lot of time getting our offices right. We think it's important to have a high density of people. People are packed together everywhere. We all share offices. We like this set of buildings because it's more like a densely packed university campus than a typical suburban office park.
• We think a lot about how to maintain our culture and the fun elements. I don't know if other companies care as much about those things as we do.
• It is an advantage being young. You don't have as many other responsibilities.
• If you have a great product that meets people's needs, they start telling their friends, especially when it's a search engine, which is something that everybody has to use. So we've actually been growing 20 per cent per month, compounded, for our whole history, and without spending any significant money on advertising. It's an incredible phenomenon.
• We were, I guess, lucky enough to be trying to be profitable long before it was fashionable, and that was a really good decision. I think it's more luck than real insight on our parts, but Sergey and I really felt a lot better about having a business that could actually make money. So we figured that once we were at that stage then not much could hurt the company.
• We are focused on providing an environment where talented, hard working people are rewarded for their contributions to Google and for making the world a better place
• We're trying to use the web's self-organising properties to decide which things to present. We don't want to be in the position of having to decide these things. We take the responsibility seriously. People depend on us.
• Google is organised around the ability to attract and leverage the talent of exceptional technologists and business people. We have been lucky to recruit many creative, principled and hard working stars. We hope to recruit many more in the future. We will reward and treat them well.
• By always placing the interests of the user first, Google has built the most loyal audience on the web. And that growth has come not through TV ad campaigns, but through word of mouth from one satisfied user to another.
• You don't want to be Tesla. He was one of the greatest inventors, but it's a sad, sad story. He couldn't commercialise anything, he could barely fund his own research. You'd want to be more like Edison. If you invent something, that doesn't necessarily help anybody. You've got to actually get it into the world; you've got to produce, make money doing it so you can fund it.
• Invariably we try 10 things that don't quite work out in order to do one thing that's successful. And we learn a lot in doing the 10 things that didn't quite work.
• We have a mantra: don't be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.
• The amazing thing is that we're part of people's daily lives, like brushing their teeth. It's just something they do throughout the day while working, buying things, deciding what to do after work and much more. Google has been accepted as part of people's lives. It's quite remarkable. Most people spend most of their time getting information, so maybe it's not a complete surprise that Google is successful.
• Our goal is to organise the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. That's our mission. When we started, we had about 30 million Web pages, which was quite large for the time -- that was two years ago. Now, we have well over a billion Web pages. So that gives you some idea of how we've grown in content. So we try to make more and more stuff available to people. We try to, when you come to Google, fulfill that need that you have as quickly as possible.
• Because of our employee talent, Google is doing exciting work in nearly every area of computer science. Our main benefit is a workplace with important projects, where employees can contribute and grow.
• We've actually been very deliberate about making all of our decisions in a way that minimises the risk that we will go out of business basically. We have pretty conservative financial planning. That turned out to be really smart, and we've had tremendous viral growth anyway, so we haven't really had any marketing expenses or things like that and we have huge volumes.
• The increasing volume of information is just more opportunity to build better answers to questions. The more information you have, the better.
• You can try to control people, or you can try to have a system that represents reality. I find that knowing what's really happening is more important than trying to control people.
• In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to our online service, Google Inc. puts employees first when it comes to daily life in our Googleplex headquarters.
• Technology knowledge is going to drive wealth: people's ability to deal with technology and to build interesting things.
• Always deliver more than expected.
• It is a tremendous responsibility for us to have all eyes focused on what we do and to give people exactly what they need when they ask for it.
• We believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound foolish with respect to benefits that can save employees considerable time and improve their health and productivity.
• Our opportunity and responsibility has continued to expand. It doesn't feel all that different to me than it did a few years ago.
• The thing that matters is experience. We have lots of executives from failed companies; they learned a lot from these things. They say, 'We can't do that -- we tried that and it didn't work.' So failure is useful.
• When you have basic technology you find interesting things to do with them, and if you're lucky they'll turn into something big.

Source Courtesy: Rediff

Self Love

I came across this nice email. Some of the advices are worth following.

Take full responsibility for your life.
Stop blaming other.
See yourself as the cause of what happens to you.

Do things you like to do.
Don't stay in a job you don't like.
Participate in life at the highest level you can.

Stop terrorizing yourself with your thoughts.
Be gentle and kind and patient with yourself..

Give yourself the simple pleasures of life abundantly.
Wear clothes you feel good in, get a massage etc.

Watch what you say. Avoid self put-downs.
Stop being critical of yourself and others.

Take care of your body.
Give it exercise and good food.

Be willing to create a life-style that generates and nourishes self-esteem.
Associate with others with high esteem.

Acknowledge yourself frequently.
Keep a diary of your successes and accomplishments.

Avoid comparing yourself with others.
Remember that it's who we are, not what we do, that's important

Give yourself permission to do nothing periodically.
Schedule time by yourself.

Frequently take deep breaths.
Discover the benefit and pleasure of breathing fully.

Eat first class frequently.
Don't look at the right side of the menu.

Stop trying to change others.
Focus your attention on being the way you want others to be.

Look into a mirror regularly
and say "I love you, I really love you".

Stop feeling guilty and saying "I'm sorry".
See mistakes as valuable lessons and avoid judging yourself.

Consciously generate positive thoughts and feelings of self-love
in place of old thoughts of inadequacy.

Be willing to laugh at yourself and at life.
Stop taking yourself so seriously.

Accept compliments from others without embarrassment.
Don't invalidate their positive thoughts and feelings about you.

Be kind to your mind.
Don't hate yourself for having negative thoughts.
Gently change your thoughts.

Keep your awareness and your thoughts focused in present time
instead of living in the past or future.

Acknowledge others frequently.
Tell them what you like and appreciate in them.

Invest money in yourself.
Go to seminars, workshops and courses that develop your talents.

Make a list of 10 things
you love doing and do them frequently.

Treat yourself as you would treat someone you really loved.
Praise yourself.