Animals

Are we a social animal or the herd? With the progress in civilization, we have gotten domesticated. We took shelters and created our identity with religion? Our daily work defined our social status. We moved to live in a bucket and society construct. Our identity got associated with the family we were born, caste/social status became the prime.

As we started domesticated ourselves with decades of adjustments, we seek for others around us. We can no longer live alone in isolation. We went on from being an alone worrier to attention hogging wreckless animals. We started craving attention, approval seeker, by the crowd.

The society we created is biting us now. Can anyone live alone all by himself in isolation? Those were the days when saints and sages would go to the Himalayas, forest for mediation. It is a rare occurrence now.

Our developed society is crowded, overpopulated, and full of faith. The advancement in technology, the internet, and mobile phones have added a materialistic persona to us. We are no more who we are; we are now what others want to see in us.

The construct of cosmopolitanism is just on papers. We are more divided and alone than we were a century ago. We want attention for that; we create fake personas for the external world while being a hollow from the inside.

What have we achieved? Are we not back being an Animal? Violence, rape, fights, and constant destruction of mother earth?

Our individuality was long missing and looks like it will go for a tragic death in the future.

History

“History Is Written by the Victors,”: Winston Churchill. That is why all his atrocities towards Indians got less attention than all his greatness.

Does our history has any truth? How much do we know about the past? Artists, painters were commissioned to sing laurels, brevity. There was an exchange of money to write, paint. How can it be true? Was Socrates a real living being or a mouthpiece of Plato?

I am reading Paul Johnson: Intellectuals, going through the lives of Rousseau, Hemmingway, and Tolstoy. It was sad, dark, and depressing.

I kept asking: what is the truth? Which persona of these intellectuals I should stick by.

Star Trek

I am watching Star Trek again. My founders at Minio introduced me to it.

Start Trek is not limited to space exploration, intergalactic expedition but; full of philosophy, leadership, and co-existence. It makes you think about our co-existence, challenges, and opportunity.

The author was ahead of our time. Most of the devices used in the series is a gadget of common man now: flip phone, Earpods, iPad, Teleconferencing. Star Trek showcased it all many years before.

The leadership of Kirk, the logic of Spock, and the wittiness of Leonard McCoy make it a combination for running the ship.

Seeing and thinking makes me wonder if we can have an organization with a similar combination of personas? Isn’t running a startup like venturing into an uncharted territory filled with surprises, tackling unknown obstacles? Isn’t running a startup as a leader requires humility, optimism, and fearlessness?

Art

My friend told me he would pursue art after retirement. At this point, it is all about grinding and running after money. I am not sure if retirement as a concept exists anymore. We are working throughout our life.

Art is not a wine that gets better with age. It can be taken together with a live chorus. We can always find a few hours a week to paint, sing, listen, or write. We don’t need to wait for retirement.

power

The last 18 months have made me more empathetic with the telemarketing calls and people on the other side. It was not the case before.

What has changed? I find myself in their shoe now. I am a sales guy now for our product. Every week, I write numerous emails, messages, and talk to people.

There has been a constant flow of communication, sometimes rejections, and sometimes appreciation and conversion as a customer. Early days it would get very frustrating; I would be in all rage and anger. Sometimes even end up crying alone at night.

People will reject you, never reply to you or make fun of you. That is the part of the sale. I have to live with it. Not everyone is going to buy my product or going to believe in our journey.

I am lucky that I have a few mentors who are very successful now in their life. They went through the same struggle in their early days. Talking to them, listening, and learning from their story helped me grow and come this far.

culture

As the company grows, we get lost in many activities that take away focus from culture. We hire in a flock with people of various backgrounds and expectations. We forgo our principle because we need a 10X engineer or high flying sales folk. The side effect of this is people who were with you from day zero when you and company was nothing start to see the change, some leave. They no more find the organization sticking to its original principle and culture.

Culture is an asset that can help in building a successful company for the long run. A founder should not delegate it to some HR. Monkey see monkey do. It is the founder’s responsibility to keep the company aligned and work as an operating system, not independent silos fighting with each other.

We like to see and learn from our leaders. If we are not doing our job well, why do we expect the team does it differently?

The entire family/organization needs to know what is not acceptable as company culture. That is the founder’s job.

Great companies like Zenefits, Uber, and Carta are up into ashes because of culture mismatch. [find web link]

If you don’t trust me, do read The phoenix project book. 🙂

success

Society has associated success with the accumulation of wealth. The more money you have, the more successful you are.

Is success the manifest of our wealth accumulation? Or is it about seeing people around you, believers getting better with you? Is it not about being together, going hand in hand with our life journey?

How much money does a man need? I have heard about stories where many have died with all their wealth in isolation. They made wealth but not close-knit of friends, people around. We are a social animal and, we thrive with like-minded people around us. Some of us are not rich with wealth but knowledge.

perfect

Are we all perfect? Even the moon has a dark spot. Lotus grows in the swamp and diamond deep beneath the coal mines.

How can we expect humans to be perfect at all things? We are broken, imperfect in one or the other way. I will not go in the deep how Mozart was deaf or Van van Gogh an eccentric or Picasso ultra egoist.

We are not perfect. We have to live with this. People who like us, love us will be with us in all the times of our life. Our imperfection will not scare them. That 1000 hours to perfection via deliberate practice was flawed.

judge

Every minute, every meeting, we are judging our counterparts. It is a human tendency; we like and dislike people on our experience, observation, and our likings.

I get advice from friends and people on how I should talk, dress, and act when on a sales call. The problem for me is, I have never followed any of their advice. As a result, I have lost many customers and also got a small bunch of believers who are helping us in shaping our product.

People who have rejected it because we have not fallen to their checklist does not affect me. I don’t want to build a business where I have to pretend or act what I or as an organization is we are not.

others

Who are we to judge, define, and comment on the actions of others? Are we so complete within ourselves that we have got the world to have an opinion?

It is so easy to get carried away in the noise or have animosity over other actions/appreciation. We will become better by acquiring self-knowledge rather than telling, pointing fingers at others.

Our journey of life is small, mostly spent in our thoughts and, it’s our thoughts which or whom we have to fight.

It took me many years; I am still learning. Our dependence on the outside world is not as much we think. In the end, our life depends on our guiding principles and the true north.