interview

I had an interview scheduled with a successful founder last day. I have revived aroundstartups podcast and mostly talking to founders.

What was supposed to be a pre-interview conversation went on for an hour. We later realized it was an interview, not a coffee conversation. It was more like two listening and learning from someone who had this journey. I forgot about recording it as the conversation went on very personal and fascinating.

Has this occurred to others too? Instead of going on for a formal interview for the show, it ended up being a life learning session.

We think successful people have it all on their platter, but we or the media never talks about their day to day ongoing struggle in the journey. Each one of us in our life is struggling and fighting our own battle. It is illogical to conclude or make comments about someone seeing the externalities.

Growth

One matric which I consider for growth is how people in my team are growing and how they are maturing and getting ready to fill in our shoe.

We had a good discussion with one of our early hires, the feedback we received as a founder was an eye-opener. I see growth as my team members are gearing for taking some leadership roles. They will impact our principles well to the newcomers.

A leader should be a good listener and follow radical openness and independence. As a result, the team will become more creative and grow. Growth is not binary or a zero-sum game. It happens along with the journey of building the company at every stage; it is like a compound effect.

I am getting old and happy with my team’s growth. I can happily transfer some more responsibility without worrying much. I feel our company and team is growing.

The Impressionists

I was watching the documentary and got to learn about: The Impressionists. A half a dozen of misfits going against odds and creating a new style of painting. Most of them were poor and; not part of the existing elite and, selling their artwork via Salon was not an option.

The Impressionists came up with a new kind of paint brush and colors. Freedom was utmost to their virtue, painting nature, farmhouse, orchids, ponds, or faces. The got it all in their paintings, going against the defined existing norms.

The Impressionists got acceptance from the local crowd, ordinary people. The Salon accepted them later. They were the misfits who lived their lives seeking freedom and creativity without worrying much about the status quo.

Van Gogh is not part of the Impressionists gang. But his liking for nature, his love of the countryside, and experiments with colors, he would fit in.

communication

With a group of great people when you are on the journey of building something, communication can make or break the ship. The other aspect is the expectation mismatch.

If the product team is not explaining correctly to dev leads about customer’s pain and the sales team are not indicated on realistic feature releases. It will result in a deadlock. The overall result will be losing customer’s faith and falling morale of individual groups: sales, development team.

The clarity in communication is must have attributed to every team member. Imagine the heart and kidney in our body not communicating clearly: will it not result in an ailment? How is the scenario not different when it comes to running your company with failed communication between sales, marketing, or product development team.

revisit

Have you ever spent some time revisiting memories of your school, college days? I spent last evening going through my school websites, checking on the archives, and all. It was like I am there in those moments: hostel, playground, mess, tuck shop. I could find myself everywhere, just a little lost and clueless, ignorant of the present.

I looked at the faculty list if I could find any familiar faces, school days I could not, the college I could a few.

It gave me goosebumps like transported in my past and realizing many things have changed: hostel rooms with more light, reading chairs, and a table. Playgrounds got smaller because of newer buildings.

I imagined myself with my friends playing, shouting, fighting, and faces gearing for a world ahead of us all.

I will try to visit my school, college on a trip to Delhi.

Being Hindu

In his last India visit, Akshat Sir gave me this book title: Bing Hindu. I was not keen on reading it because of the title. I was cynical with the book title.

The book talks about our golden age, history, and many intellectuals. It also talks about how westerners came, plundered, and erased our past. I could not understand what the author was trying to imply with the book.

My definition of being Hindu is above any religious bindings but more on the way of life, Independence, self-realization, and caring for nature. I do not incline towards the bigotry paddled via various establishments claiming to be the flag bearers of our religion. A Hindu is not attached to a temple, sect, or political affiliation but how he thinks, lives, and cares for overall humanity. The violence, loot, and worshipping of any persona is propaganda and lies for the interest of a few. It is not Hinduism. The media is biased; the action of a few for their self-interest should paint entire others with the same paintbrush.

Hinduism never sent evangelicals to destroy monasteries or convert the universe under one roof. It does not preach about salvation or moksha by converting others to a particular religion.

People who are associating Hinduism with a religion, sect, or ideologies are doing it for their personal gain.

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.