Beat The Best

This is just a wild imagination. If this resembles anyone or anything in the real world, i can't be held responsible. See, all the thoughts originate from you and you are responsible. :-)

How to beat the best? Best in what? how do you decide what you do is a thing that you feel great when you are best at it? Is it only thing to be best at or Are there many things that are so interesting? If there are so many things why did you choose the thing you are doing and trying to be best in it? Is it choice you made or did you take it because there is no one else willing to do that or you have options? If no one else is willing, then being the best is so easy because you are the only one who is doing that. In some way, it is always easier to beat the best. Being the best in the industry for quality, being the best in the industry in X, being the best in the industry in Y and the best list goes on. These days, you ll get enough media support for creating a sensation (out of nothing).

Rather than that, be best of yourself and beat your best everyday. Evolution is nature.

Black Holes in Professional Life

Never put efforts in professional life without measuring. It is like a black hole and the size of the hole depends on the size of the organization. It drains a lot of energy from you and you never get anything back if you don't measure. If you say that it will add to your experience, my experience says 

• if you don't measure, you/others think it is easy job (but which may right or wrong)
• "no, it doesn't add to your experience" because you will be swimming deep to find that experience
• it will be very difficult to come out of highly viscous habit.
• you will lose focus and end up doing everything which has none to do.
• you will end up in staying up late to do your daytime job while you help for others in the daytime
• you will be literally struggling to put forward your assignments/results, then people take you for granted, then you lead austere life and finally write this kinda post ;-)

If someone asks you "can you do this?", ask questions and never accept until you are 100% convinced that you like the task, you will do the justice to the job, you can measure the efforts/results and in fact they will pay you back.

"True Leader" is a State

Good Morning Folks,

"True Leader" is a state and "true leader" is not something that is gotten by virtue of one's position. For example, Mahatma Gandhi never called himself a leader but yet he is one of very few people in the world who is known to be possessing the qualities of "true leader". So are Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. All these people are known to be exhibiting or being in the state of "true leader" on a daily basis. All these people were working for a vision which is liberating the part of the humankind that was in slavery. Not only that they had a vision, they were also able to stay connected with the vision always.

Does it mean that the others who were not known to external world were not  "true leaders". No. There could be or should be "true leaders" who never wished to show off. If such a people do not exist, then his world could have been destroyed with the volume of garbage we thrash at her. Certainly there are people who pick the mess that is thrown and bring in the order. They know that deed matters the most than the publicity. Good people really understand what they achieve by publicity stunt and they don't need it or do it.

I was wrong in looking people who are true leaders because such a people never exist. When i looked for people, i always missed the qualities that made them. I should have looked for people who are being in the state of "true leader".

Yes, "true leader" is state but not a person.

How to find true leaders?

True leaders are the ones who have best interest of the people and vision but not personal vested interest. Can't we find "true leaders" who live with us in home/next door, travel with in city bus and work with us.

Have a Great Day

Try Not to Become Something, Be What You Are

Evolution is the key. As i posted sometime back, the egg can become chick only when it allows evolution. Either evolution or extinction cannot be forced or predicted or tracked. The evolution happens over a period of time under certain conditions. We alter the conditions that incubates/affects positively or affects negatively the process of evolution. The term evolution signifies the never ending journey and the evolution is not starting from point a and reaching point b. The evolution is a journey that passes through point a, point b and so on.

The obsession on wanting to become something is going to take us to the place much slower than what we think and the evolution (the naturally process) will take us much faster than we think.

So, try not to become something, but stay what you are. Let the evolution transform you.

Leaders to "Follow" and Followers to "Lead"

A couple of years back, i was reading "My Experiments with Truth" by Mahatma Gandhi and i was awed by the qualities of Gandhiji particularly the "Truth". On 2-Oct-2010, i was searching for a picture of Mahatma Gandhi for the background of my blog (i m trying to bring in event/news based image like Google). Googled and got the following picture (which also set as background picture).

This picture sounds really interesting and conveys a lot to us. Mahatma Gandhi, though he was keeping good health and a brisk walker, he seems to be guided by a small kid. For me, it appears that Gandhiji has given full control to this kid and he seems to follow the steps of the kid with great confidence, great joy and following the kid with great respect. No fear whatsoever and absolute faith and calm in following the kid.

By seeing this, my heart longs for something like the above in all our workplaces. Won't it be great if all the leaders follow and all the followers lead?

Presentation on "Basics Things on Objects"

Last week i shared with you one of my old presentations on Security. From this week and for few weeks, i ll be writing/sharing few presentations on "Objects", "Design", "Design Principles" and "Design Patterns". I m not sure whether i ll be regularly posting every week. At this point of time, i m trying to find my consistency to post the presentations every week. Please bear with me until i find my consistency.

Each deck will have

• slides focusing on only one thing
• short recap of things that are discussed
• drill for the week (you can try to reflect on the problem until i post the next presentation)
• the topic of next week

Here goes the first presentation. This is just a curtain raiser to help us to set in same frequency. [ I would love to hear from you - what do think and how can we make this much better.]

Basic Things on "Objects" - Part 1

Rain, Rain, Rain

Can you expect a better day particularly on Gandhi Jayanthi when you

• be with your parents both listening to classical music and feel so peaceful
• have your mom to recollect that my grandpa (mom's father) used to listen such a great music and still remembers that she used to play classical music in her audio cassette player.
• see, feel and smell the rain that pours to its heart content and makes our heart so peaceful.

With all the setup, it is so blissful to listen violin concert by duo Ganesh and Kumaresh. After they started to play Kapali, the rain too started and it was at its peak when they completed. I didn't feel that rain and their music is co-incidental. It is because of their music, rain mother started to touch the soil. It is cause-effect relationship.

It is so Peaceful.


Three rains happening now - peace, music and rain.

Thanks to Podigai TV for brining wonderful music.

@Sandy,

We should go to concert by Ganesh & Kumaresh.

Fair Share & Equilibrium With God

Everything (that you can measure) in this world has some quota. They food you eat, the number of hours you spend in sleep, the number of days you work, the number of days you think, the number of kilometers you walk, the number of good companies you have, the amount of garbage you can thrash on to the soil, the amount of air you can breathe in your lifetime and everything has a fixed quota. It is your choice on how to use it. A balanced life or an equilibrium is the outcome of mindful thinking, the awareness on things we do and how it affects us. When you take something from somewhere, we got to remember that there is going to be imbalance in another side from where we take. If you slog at late nights in office, you have to sacrifice in your personal life. On a contrary, if you don't work enough, you got to take home much less salary. It all depends on mindful choice we make.

We cannot get away from the system, the system is so fair. Fairness is the language. Even if the part of the system is unfair, the overall system tries to bring in the balance. Everything from recession to green house effect to necessity of a climate change pact is manifestation of systems (The time by which the system threatens the humankind, the mankind reacts with climate change pact. The system knows how to survive and if needed it will wipe off mankind. The question is whether we will survive?) When someone abuses the system, the system reacts but it takes a while for effects to erupt and this doesn't mean that the system is tolerant to abuses. It means that we are not used to sense little change in the behavior of the system. We are so insensitive to early symptoms. We realize only when we choke. The guys who believe in God say that as cosmic energy or Karma and the atheists say that as system or a gravitational force. Very few agree with both (because everything has a limit :-)).

But at the end - everything has some quota.

The system is equal opportunity environment.

Be On The Right Side And Be Responsible For That

Be on the right side and most importantly be responsible for it. Let us get back to the story.

One of the friends who loaned 1000 rupees (just after his graduation) just reflects on his life. It is just a year since he graduated. He sees that the money he borrowed has become1080 with interest. He puts himself in a time machine and he is at the 11th year. His loan has become 2158 bucks, he throttles 10 more years in time machine and his loaned amount has become 4660 bucks and a final push to 40 years in time machine, his loan has become 21.7K. He feels not so bad because it is a time machine. After stepping from the time machine, he just zooms to his bank and pays 1080 bucks for the loan he borrowed and he invests another 1000 bucks. So, that is what we call "responsibility". Responsibility is not power but action, responsible for attaining ones own vision. Everyday we put 24*60*60 seconds somewhere. Are we putting in right side and do we feel that it is "we" who is responsible for putting 24*60*60 in right side?

In everyday's life, it is not really possible to be always in the right side. At times (or most of the times) will be in wrong side. Being in the wrong side is not a big issue as long as you have a mechanism to detect that you are in a wrong side and be able to come to right side. If you miss couple of years or couple of lacs, it is not a problem. Nothing is free in this world and you got to pay for everything, the air you breathe included. Being in wrong side always teaches you how to be in right side. Wrong side becomes your experience/wisdom when you are responsible (reflect upon your action and act on making the course corrections).

Being in right side or wrong side, it needs responsibility to maintain the track if you are right and detect/change the track when you are in wrong side.

Be On The Right Side

There are two friends. Quickly after they graduated, the first one got a loan of 1000 rupees for 8% interest and the second deposited 1000 rupees in a bank for the same 8%. After this incident, they just moved on with their life. The years passed by and they were about retire at the age of 60. Forty years just passed like anything. The first one had a debt of 21.7K and on the other hand the second one got 21.7K accrued in his account. Do the math and understand the power of compounding. What happens if first one gets 1000 rupees loan everyday and the second one deposits 1000 rupees everyday? Do the math :-) (Compound interest calculator)

After completing the college, all of us take up some profession. But only very few feel satisfied. We just put our efforts everyday like money being deposited in bank without knowing the compounding effect of time. If we follow our heart, we deposit in bank and if we don't follow our heart, we just buy loans. At the end of show either you got pay for it or take your money happily. And that is why, being on the right side makes sense.

By right side, i mean the side of your heart. Always, your heart is right and so if you follow your heart, you will always be on the right side.

Presentation on "Security - An Introduction"

Here is one of my presentations on security titled - "Security for Thinkers". You may want to view the presentation in full screen (and if you see full presentation, treat me with a comment/feedback :-))

Don't miss to visit revived "Unstuck". I have made some changes to linkbars, removed some stuffs and added few stuffs. I m planning to make one presentation per week and host it here. I welcome your comments on this initiative - "Unstuck Blackboard" and Unstuck in general.

You may want to subscribe to "Unstuck" via Email subscription so that the email notifications is delivered to you whenever new posts/presentation is posted. Here is the link for Email Subscription.

Security - An Introduction

Thanks to Scribd, for making us to converse through presentation.