us

Working in an organization where I, Me, and You come before Us can be painful for everyone. In a way, everyone has a sword and is fighting battle among each other. Instead of working together, we are all fighting to prove ourselves corrected.

An organization is about working together and solving pain points for stakeholders. With in-fighting and divide, an organization is a dysfunctional system in itself.

The responsibility of building an organization is not only with the HR head but the founders, leaders. It is a full-time role like fundraising, marketing, and sales. With the modern era of build, fast-break things come with their own curse.

culture

What is culture for any organization? I am asking it because, with my limited knowledge, it distinguishes between a winner and a loser. Most importantly, it’s learned by doing and, leaders need to lead it. It is an ever-evolving process.

With growth-driven entrepreneurship, hiring gets uttermost importance next to fundraising. The team has become a commodity or merely a resource. We need to ship new features for fundraising. Let’s hire a dozen resources for the same. In these environments only incentive that works is money. Some of us fall for the quick bucks and work without asking anything like a robot following instructions.

Some of us do care about the team, company, and its culture. We like to have our career growth defined along with the organization. Most importantly, we want to be part of the rocketship as co-creator. Monitory benefits come after it on the priority of picking or sticking to a job.

In a broken, corrupt organization, a leader says something and does another thing. Or the company is run by their yes men or family. What culture will it have?

In most cases: with rapid growth, culture takes a back seat. The company becomes mediocre from maverick. Guarding an organisation’s culture with scale is a true mantra and, only a handful have aced it.

flood

Mansoon meant flooded mohalla [society] with lots and lots of water. We would store food for a month in advance, some of our neighbors would shift in our house because water had gone to their houses. My hometown in north Bihar will transform into an island with no connection with the rest of Indian. It would last for 60-90 days every year. Rivers like Koshi, Bagmati, and Ganga would be overflooded apart from many seasonal rivers like Lakahndei, Boodhi Gandak.

Some elders make temporary boats joining banana trunks. There were a handful of houses and many empty lands. All those get converted to mini lakes. No cricket for the next 4-5 months. My school will announce a holiday with no opening date.

At one time, we saw corpses of animals, humans floating in the water. Our neighbors told us that a dam in Nepal got over flooded and got collapsed. It created havoc, killing many apart from making millions other homeless. Every year flood has taken away more life and done the worst destruction imagined.

The colorful sharbat mug made of glass will become mine for keeping fish catch. There were a few colorful fishes that we would catch with our hands. We would feed the fish some boiled rice.

Fast forward now, highways and dams have gotten constructed. Floods inside the city are a thing of the past. We stay connected throughout the year from the rest of the country.

Darr

Darr darr ke ze liya aye zindgi humne tumhe. Har Waqt ziye darr ki parchai mae. Aisa kya hua hame zo zindgi parchai se bann gaye dar ke kale kambal odhe.

Hum khud ke hua karte the kabhi, mast the, madmast the apni chaal aur dhun mae.

Kya hua zindgi ko hamare, kaise laga ye grahan jo hamne darr darr ke zina suru kar diya?

Ek he to Zindgi hai, darree bhala hum kyun kisi se? Ye darr darr ke bhi kya zina hua bhala? Hum insaan hai ji, bakreed ki qurabani wale bher thore he?

Apni Zindgi ko ko zisne jina suru kar diya, samjho darr se duuur ho gaya wo.

Kaise Zina hai tumhe ye Zindgi? Darr darr ke, ya bekhauu: mann bana lo, aur zindgi ko zina suru karo.

Aakhir kuch waqt ki he to hai ye zindgi, darr darr ke bhi kya zina bhala?

actions

Our actions define who we are. It is the path for our destiny.

It is easy to complain about all the bad things encircled around us in life. It is easy to complain about how bad our work is. It is easy to complain about how complicated or misaligned we are in a relationship.

In short, complaining is easy. Once in a while, The truth is, we will get drunk, smoke for a few hours, and feel lost. Once in senses, again same life: hating cribbing about everything and blaming others.

What about taking life in your own hand and working ass off and changing the course of life: breaking away from the relationship or switching the job?

Isn’t our life too short to waste on cribbing instead of dying trying? Why are we wasting money on therapy sessions or expecting friends to listen to daily cribbings?

Creative destruction

Capitalism thrives on Creative destruction. A concept shared by Schumpeter, an economist.

According to Schumpeter, the “gale of creative destruction” describes the “process of industrial mutation that continuously revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one” [source] 

If we look back, see the history, we have many examples in front of us. From telegraph replaced by telephone. To black and white films replaced via color pictures. 

Our habit of not changing or not letting go of our cash cow for innovating in newer emerging technology killed Kodak, Blackberry, BlockBuster to name a few. 

self

Be it Socrates or Bhagwad Gita or Japanese Ikigai: all had a core teaching of finding within. In short, knowing: who am I?

The gurukul system was known for holistic teaching. From early on, a child was taught to self enquire: try, fail, learn, and once out of education, make their life. Your life becomes virtues you acquire.

With the advancement in technology, our new generation has a suite of options to pick from and make their life. I see kids in 18-20 years figured out everything in their life, sharing all their wisdom on social media. It pleasantly surprises me. Access to technology has empowered them at such an early age.

I also have friends in their mid 30’s after having kids, an established business, family talking about a void in life, and not being satisfied.

Finding self, Ikigai is more of a self-journey. It can only happen from within. It means trying all the journeys, paths, readings, and mentors. The purpose of our life hangs on our actions and, externals have a limited role in it.

Star Trek mentions: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”; essentially, that is what it is. We have to push ourselves into knowing ourselves, finding peace with our solitude, and making acquainted with who we are. We cannot fool ourself, but constantly evolve and continue that search. The journey of life is painful and, finding purpose can make it less miserable.

Kissa

Apni Zindgi ka kissa likh rahe hai,
Apne zindgi ke panno pe, kismat ki sayahi se.

Dawaat ka rang bhi mausam ke zaise badal zata hai, hum jab madmast hai tab alag aur jab gam me dube hai tab lag.

Kabhi lagta hai ki kuch likh rahe hai, kabhi bas dhabba sa chor dete hai.

Hum us madaari ke dur se bandhe he to hai, ziye za rahe hai uske isharee pe.

Madari ke hawale hai zindgi likh rahe hai kissa apni zindgi ka.

Kai baar aanshuoo ke rang ko bhi nichod dena padta hai, tab zake, kabhi koi kissa pura likha zata hai.

Freedom

Freedom is a double-edged sword. It comes with its own challenges. In the eyes of society, you are an outcast and, for actions, you are responsible.

The sooner we realize that the consequences of our decisions and actions will be on us, the easier becomes our journey.

In short, freedom comes with a lot of responsibility.

Privilege

I have been interacting with founder friends regularly. Most of them are working hard to sail on their journey. Some of them are seasoned and, some are out in the fundraising market. Their observation says privilege has switched sides. I am not sure if it is permanent or temporary.

An incident a founder shared a few days back where a marquee fund’s associate dropped a few times their alma mater, some Ivy League. In reply, the founder asked how many startups they have built. The call got over politely. He stopped the further conversation with the fund.

With all the money floating around in the ecosystem, the privilege has switched sides. Now founders are deciding whom to take money. As a founder, this is a perfect time for building a startup.

For a VC fund and the team, just dropping a pedigree will not win them a deal. One has to work extra hard and show them their worth for it.