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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
Shitty about me
When do you feel the shittiest about yourself?
Someone criticizes you?
You fail?
You eat too much?
Someone says they hate you?
Your loved one doesn’t love you back?
You aren’t inspired. Or can’t inspire?
Feeling shitty is self imposed. You have created it. You can destroy it too. It doesn’t exist.
What does exist is the reason behind it. And if the reason for your feeling is someone else, then don’t blame yourself. Don’t be harsh. It will pass.
And if the reason is you yourself. And your actions. Then don’t blame anyone else. Fix it.
The key to not feeling shitty is to find the source. And who not to blame.
The first hop
The biggest challenge when building a large company, is communication.
How do you get everyone on the same page?
How do you ensure everyone is working towards the right goals?
How you dissapate information rapidly? And effectively?
The trick lies in realizing that every hop will lead to 50% reduction. In clarity. In conciseness. In direction. In all the good things that matter
So suddenly the first hop becomes the most critical layer.
Chose the first hop wisely.
It doesn’t matter what you say to them. What matters is what they tell the others.
Portfolio of people
There are three kinds of people that we need
- Those who tell us what we should be doing
- Those that tell us how to do it
- Those who tell us how we are doing
We live in a world where all three are mostly the same person. Our school and college teachers, our parents, our friends, our own selves, our bosses.
Sub optimal.
The first person should be you
The second person should be your teacher
The third should be your enemy
Create a portfolio of people
Reminder: What are you spending your time on?
Sometime back, I was asked to answer the following question on Quora
What qualities does Ankur Warikoo expect when he says, “If you are awesome”?
In many answers he mentioned that apply if you are awesome. What is his criteria?
Here was my response to the question
I was at the ISB Admissions Interview yesterday.
A candidate walked in.
Asked him his biggest achievement till date
He replied “the fact that I can read and write today”
Perplexed, we asked him to elaborate2 years back he met with a motorcycle accident.
Suffered 2 skull fractures. 1 in his collar bone.
After 2 days, he lost his memory.
He couldnt remember words, he couldnt remember how to dial numbers, how to read, how to do things that one learns by simply growing up.After 10 days, he was watching a football match with his brother. Between Liverpool and Manchester United. He didnt even know that this was football. But somehow it looked familiar.
He asked his brother why it was looking familiar.
His brother replied that Man Utd was his favorite football club.A visual had triggered his memory.
Over the course of the next 3 months, through doses of music, films, re-enacting incidents from before, travelling to places, and a thorough language training, he regained a large part of his memory back.
He is now an Income Tax Officer, after clearing the IAS with an All India Rank of 41
Awesome cannot be defined.
I do not know what awesome is.
I just know when I see it.
80% of the comments on this page were about correcting the fact that one doesn’t become an Income Tax Officer after clearing the IAS.
They missed the point completely.
Reminded me of the the most powerful lesson I have learnt in life
If you spend enough time – everything will have flaws.
But that may not be the best use of your time.
Doesn’t matter who started first
??I hate running
It is boring It is painful ??
And it doesn’t come naturally to me
But when I ran the half marathon 2 years back, it was for a goal I had to achieve
To tell life that I have overcome
This year, running the marathon was to give my wife moral support. She wanted to run and I felt I should accompany here.
The stadium was a festival
Delhi’s largest selfie gathering
People were dressed in the right gear
Ammunition, whether it’s music, or water, or energy drinks, around their waist
Warming up
Making all the right noises
It started
I took a deep breadth
Put on my headphones
And started to run
With my head always looking at the road
Reminded every km by my running app, on how I was doing
Along the way, I saw “death”
The cool headphones guy was dead
The energy drinks guys was limping
The puma gear guy was unable to run
People with the noises were somehow silent
And I just kept telling myself
Run
Don’t fucking stop
If you stop before the next km, we will not hit our December GB
If you don’t do better than your precious time, we will not raise as much as I want to
If you don’t complete it within 2.5 hours, we will not be a best company to work for
And then, all of this makes you realize
There are people
Who will make a lot of noise
Who will have the right equipment
Who, before the run, will try and convince you they are better
But in long distance running, the enemy is your mind
We are not running a sprint
We are running a marathon
And it doesn’t matter who starts first
Because the ones that will finish, will always win!
Stay focused
Stay awesome
do epic shit
At will
About 16 years back I held a camera for the first timeand fell in love with it, instantly
We weren’t rich and this camera was a gift.
Back then films rolls were how we used to take photos.
A 36-photo roll used to cost Rs.100 and another Rs.3 to process one of them.
So an investment of Rs.200 – not knowing which one would come out the way you want it to.
But just the fact that I could imagine a picture, capture it in my lens, and see it convert into an image forever, was fascinating.
And overtime I realized the biggest lesson of my life
I could change the image
At my will
By controlling how I saw it through the lens and how I captured it through the camera
Every single day, we meet people at work
And as we grow, we will meet even more
More often than not, we will have an image of them, even before we meet them
Always remember – you have the power to change that image
At your will
Watch this beautiful video and you will know what I am talking about
Don’t ever let perception come in the way of discovering people
Every interaction can be a new image
Of the very same person
beautifully composed
FOMO
I couldn’t watch XFiles the movie when it was released in india, because the ticket was too expensive
But I don’t remember missing out on it. I remember loving the movie when I did watch it several months later
I didn’t travel to even one city during my masters in the US, because I had to save up for home
But I don’t remember missing out on it. I instead remember the awesome time Ruchi and I had going back to the US several years later
I didn’t have enough money to enroll for classroom coaching for IITs
But I don’t remember missing out on it. I instead remember topping college and going to the US for my masters.
I dont party. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke.
But I don’t remember missing out on it. I instead remember feeling awesome at the end of everyday, having accomplished things at work and anticipating love at home.
FOMO is always instantaneous.
It never ever helps.
Because it does not inspire. It instead scares.
How about converting FOMO into something else. Something that could drive, could motivate, could make us move.
The fear of never being able to do it
Me!
Question to Vidur (my 4yr old): “Aap bade hoke kiske jaisa banna chahte ho?” (Who do you want to become when you grow up?)
“Apne jaisa” (I want to become me)
Life lesson 101
Your task is the same
Michigan state university was the only university I got through, for my masters
ISB was the only MBA school worth it’s name that I got through
A. T. Kearney was the only consulting firm that I got through, post mba
Rocket Internet was the only company that shortlisted me, when I quit Accentium
The management buyout was the only option Groupon india had
It’s scary to think what would have happened if either of these things didn’t happen in my life
I never had choices
So I grew up giving no choices to myself
When you are building a company, you must believe there is an answer and you cannot pay attention to your odds of finding it. You just have to find it. It matters not whether your chances are nine in ten or one in a thousand; your task is the same.
Hard Thing About Hard Things
Success is the only mother f***king option; failure is not
The embarrassment tee
Last year, during my fitness transformation exercise, my coach Ajay (who also happens to be a colleague) gave me the best gift ever
A Nike dryfit tee, size medium
It sticks to your body. Showing all your contours.
I called it The embarrassment tee
“Wear it everyday to the gym. Your bulges will show, that extra mass that needs to be worked upon. You should feel embarrassed”
Because then, you have two choices
- Stop wearing the tee to work
- Work so hard on yourself that the tee now looks good on you
The easy path
The right path
When you say sorry to the customer, you wear the embarrassment tee
When you apologize on behalf of someone, you wear the embarrassment tee
When you tell employees that we fucked up, you wear the embarrassment tee
When you own up to who you really are, with your mistakes, your shortcomings, but determined to work hard to overcome them
You wear the embarrassment tee
And that is any day better than wearing a loose fit tee of an awesome expensive brand.
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