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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
Cynicism
A middle class hard working guy owned a horse. One day, while he was passing through the forest on his horse, he was stopped by an ailing poor man. The poor man wanted a ride.
Moved by his condition, the horse owner stopped, climbed down and with great effort placed the ailing man on top of the horse.
At that very instant, the ailing man threw his cloak away to show that he was indeed a robber. Just as he prepared to run away with the horse, the owner stopped him and said
Do me a favor. Don’t ever share this story with anyone.
Why so?
Because then no one will ever stop to help a poor man again.
There are a lot of human traits that I cannot stand. Cynicism is one of them.
I have lied
I have cheated
I have broken rules
I have been unfair
I have been judgmental
Buy I rarely will be accused of being cynical. Because it’s so fundamentally against my worldview that to win you have got to trust others.
The story above is from school. I don’t even remember which class, perhaps 4th or 5th. But it’s somehow stayed with me so far.
It’s a fascinating reflection of how we operate in our lives, choosing to not trust people because of our experiences or worse still that of others.
The opposite of being cynical is not being gullible! It’s trust. The belief that the basic instinct of every human is to mean no harm.
Innocent until proven guilty
Try it once
Work hard
Everyone around you tells you to work hard. You know it yourself too. This seems to be the magical key to success.
But what is working hard?
Most people surprisingly don’t know the answer. They don’t even bother. The simplest approach for most is to start clocking the hours. Strangely not knowing what for!
But here is the deal about working hard. It means making yourself uncomfortable. It means doing something that you always knew you had to, but didn’t thus far.
Public speaking for the shy
Working out for the unhealthy
Quick decisions for the cautious
Intuition for the calculative
EQ for the IQ
Because each time you chose not to do so, there is someone out there who is working hard at it.
Maybe your Idol!
Work so hard that your Idol becomes your rival
Herd sentiment
On my way to the gym there is a corner which always have a bunch of college students trying to hitch a ride.
I stop mostly. And have a nice morning chat before dropping them in front of the gates, which incidentally little more than a km away.
For the past few mornings I didn’t.
And I noticed that further along the road are some kids walking this path. At times trying to hitch, uncomfortably. But clearly ahead of the herd that stopped for someone to pick them up.
I gave a ride to one of them this morning. And it was a conversation that was the most fascinating ever. About his favorite subject in college.
That set me thinking. We humans are suckers for the herd. We gave undue importance to a mass gathering. Thinking that’s where the action is.
While there may be someone ahead of this mass. Not looking for help. Just walking their way through. At times charting their own path.
It’s usually the usual that attracts instantly.
It’s usually the unusual that delivers the most.
When hiring
When investing
When dating
At times, let’s try and give the mass a miss.
Nearby!
Life
Power of seeking
Data, massive amounts, hits us everyday as we live our lives. Most of which we ignore. Some of which we process. And some of which we never expected.
Over the years, this data makes us smarter. We know how to respond to data that we have seen before. And “unexpected” data occurs much lesser, though still does.
The world calls this data gathering process as experience.
I call it passive learning!
No one starts their day telling themselves “today I am going to learn how to fire someone” or “today I am going to know how to react to predatory pricing by my competition” or “today I am going to learn how to handle losing your cofounder”.
It seems that our experience is not a process rather a matter of chance.
What if it wasn’t?
What if we sought out experiences, either by listening to others, or by forcing ourselves in situation where we experienced them ourselves.
What if we became active learners, even if the experience is secondary.
“For sure” Secondary experiences > “Maybe” Primary experiences
Hiring and firing
Something I read several years ago has always stated with me
I have never regretted firing someone. I have only regretted how late I did it.
And so the question stems – how long before you fire someone.
I would start at the selection itself.
Groupon has this test we give every candidate before the interview. It’s a simple test comprising questions on general awareness, quantitative ability, verbal reasons and psychometric profiling.
Here is the deal. We have made every existing grouponer take that test. And now have average scores for each function.
So every new hire needs to be above the average score of the function they are being interviewed for.
There have been 5 instances where we made a hire despite the scores being lower. Each of those exited the system within 3-6 months. I regret making the call to hire them.
And then I would take a call after their first month.
It’s the most important month. At the end of 30 days I send a note to everyone, checking how the month went. Are they having fun. Are they enjoying their work. Are their managers and team members treating them well.
91% of those that didn’t reply to these emails left us or were asked to leave, within 3 months of their joining.
Sometimes, all you need to take a decision is just a signal.
Don’t get comfortable with failing
4 actions of time management
Archive (doesn’t warrant reaction or decision)
- it’s not worth my time to reply to this
- Happens 10% of the time, for me
Reply (take a decision)
- I need to clear the passage and take a decision
- The decision, if reversible or with low “capital at risk” will be taken almost instantaneously
- Else I will reply to buy time or seek more data
- Happens 30% of the time, for me
Forward (delegate)
- Send it to someone and empower them to take the decision
- Lay out the rules of the game. And what your expectation is.
- Don’t share the solution. Then you might as well do it yourself.
- Once taken, their decision is final. No review.
- Happens 30% of the time, for me
Compose (create a new task or seek help)
- Take the lead and create a new task or identify a new problem to solve
- Create the framework to approach it
- Assign an owner to the problem
- Set a time to discuss the possible solutions
- Track the progress and bring it to closure
And here is what most people do wrong
- Archive when they should be replying instead
- Reply when they should be forwarding instead
- Forwarding when they should be composing instead
Timestamp
I wrote to Indra Nooyi yesterday.
One of her interviews inspired me to write a personal letter to the families of our top performers. Acknowledging them for the invisible support they extend in the growth of the organization.
She hasn’t replied.
She perhaps never will.
But it feels comforting that I have left a timestamp of acknowledgment. Just as she so did through her interview.
So many people to learn from
So many things to learn
So many timestamps to read
And to leave
Productive or Busy
The two are not equal.
A productive day is when you glance into the future and take decisions to reach there from where you are today. Let’s call this a workshop.
A busy day is when you glance into the past to see how you landed in the present. Let’s call this a review.
Here is the thing about review. They rarely move you forward. Because they end up being just that – a review. Shifting a review into a workshop is an art.
And a necessity!
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