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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
Life lessons when you take flights
“Before helping others, make sure you have your own oxygen mask on!”
Before helping others, before trying to save others, help yourself, save yourself.
“Your nearest exit could be behind you”
You may have to go back in life, to start all over again.
“In case of an emergency landing, brace yourself”
You are who you need, the most. Especially during tough times.
Leadership in times of crisis
During the Stone Age, if we were venturing out as a tribe and we’re suddenly threatened by wild animals, we would all stop to see what the tribe leader wanted us to do.
At that point, it didn’t matter what you own individual thoughts were. All of us were told – listen to the leader. They know best. They will protect us. They will figure this out.
Millions of years of conditioning has engrained this response in us. We are hardwired to seek comfort in leadership during the time of an attack, during the time of crisis.
Realizing this, is critical for a leader. A crisis isn’t the time to create autonomous cultures. It is the time to hold everyone together, give them a sense of togetherness and direct them.
Because they want to be directed.
In a time of crisis, 99% people WANT to be led!
How strong are you?
You are walking with a friend on a dark street and out of no where a robber comes, points a knife at you and asks both of you to get rid of your wallets.
You fight the robber, without getting hurt.
You have never done this before. Never got into a physical fight.
You surprise yourself.
You have lost your job. Loans are to be paid, people have to be fed. You are the only earning member.
You start taking online dance classes, earning from all across the world.
You have never done this before. Never danced publicly. You were good, but always danced for yourself.
You surprise yourself.
You go through a health check up and realise you have high cholesterol. Dangerously high.
You cut down on all junk. All sugar. Exercise daily.
You have never done this before. Never got up early. Never stretched a muscle. You loved sleeping.
You surprise yourself.
We will never know how strong we are, until being strong is the only option we have.
Was it always there?
This morning I saw a couple of egrets flying in the sky.
Beautiful white egrets, against the green trees, in a seamless flight.
It was a sight to watch, as I stood there in my balcony, admiring them.
And I wondered
Have they always been there and it’s only today that I have seen them?
Or
Have they come only today, because we have created the space for them to do so?
It’s the same with every beautiful thing in life
Has it always been there and it’s only today that I have seen it?
Or
Has it happened today, because I created the space for it to happen?
Peace happens when we wish to be peaceful
Peace happens when we create space for peace
Marketing in the time of crisis
During the time of crisis, it is not the dollars that earn you brand loyalty.
Instead, when you chose to listen, to be patient, to go out of your way, to help, to display empathy, to solve, it builds a brand name that stays forever.
When you fight against all odds to serve the customer, it tells them that they can trust you.
With their money, with their time.
Marketing in the time of crisis does not exist in the marketing department.
It exists in the customer service department.
I can but I chose not to…
“I can’t do this”
“I can’t understand”
“I can’t figure out how”
“I can’t decide”
Each time you find yourself saying “I can’t”, remind yourself that you can.
It is not a capability issue. It is an intent issue.
You can.
You just chose not to.
So the next time you say, “I can’t do this”, replace it with “I can do this. I just chose not to”
And see how that sounds.
Hate
We have to teach our kids a lot.
How to read, write, even speak.
How to eat, wear clothes, even walk.
How to play, build, even gather.
But we don’t have to teach them how to love.
They know how to hug, how to express, how to smile. How to love.
They are somehow born with it.
But here is one thing they weren’t born with.
How to hate.
They don’t know how to hate.
So all the hate that you see in the world today, is a result of them being taught how to hate.
How to differentiate based on colour, caste, religion.
This begs the question.
Are we encouraging our kids to love?
Or are we teaching our kids to hate?
Has your wish come true?
How would you react if 3 months back I told you that you could now work from home everyday, spend time with family, not travel anywhere anymore, cook, read, watch TV, listen to music and anything else that you wish to do with your time?
That’s your wish come true, right there, no?
But today, it may seem like a trap. It may seem like you are caged.
Because your wish has been made mandatory.
It’s amazing how the concept of choice is so powerful for the human mind. Choice almost equals power.
And the absence of choice creates resentment, even if we were to make the same choice that we are forced to chose today.
If your wish comes true, by choice or by force, it is your wish coming true!
Chaos
Whenever designing a new process or a new system, we have a tendency to think of the desirable flow, the ideal path, the happy path, the path that will happen more often than others.
And to then stop at that.
It is our way of avoiding chaos.
However, things don’t break because the desirable flow didn’t work. They break, because when the desirable flow wasn’t applicable, nothing else worked.
Things break because we didn’t think behind the desirable flow.
That’s where chaos comes in.
If, instead of starting with the desirable flow, we started with chaos, we would experience a lot in a rather short period of time.
If we allowed chaos and not order, to drive our design, we would end up with a design far more capable of handling different situations.
To design the product that works almost always, start with chaos.
To design the life that works almost always, start with chaos.
The Golem Effect
The Golem effect is intuitive.
If a supervisor or the individual themselves have lower expectations, then it leads to poorer performance by the individual.
It’s the Pygmalion effect that isn’t so obvious.
That if a supervisor or the individual themselves have higher expectations from themselves, it leads to higher performance by the individual.
We can understand how someone can lower their performance. But how can someone deliver higher performance? Isn’t there an upper limit to how much one can do?
Asking the question about the upper limit is precisely where the Pygmalion effect comes in. There is no upper limit. There are no limits.
Can you play that role for someone out there? When the entire world, including themselves, is bashing them up, can you act as the one who says, “I believe in you. Your capabilities. Your intent. Your potential.”
“And I know you will make it”
We don’t need 10,000 reasons why we will fail. We need the 1 reason why we will win!
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