spark

How many great things have happened in your life, the challenges you took because someone was out there cheering you up? As much as we seek self-knowledge, we need people around us. People who believe in us or those make us go the extra mile. They fuel spark in you. I have been fortunate to have some such incidents be it starting up, doodling, writing every day, or having a healthy lifestyle. In all these intervals, I had my friends fueling those spark.

You are defined by the company of friends, pick them wisely. They will be your shining star and bring a spark in your life.

I am halfway through my life, I am optimistic about meeting many more friends who will help me in becoming a better version of me.

groupthink

How many ideas, innovation, and projects got killed because of groupthink? How many times the assembled crowd made a mockery of the skeptic?

Our organizational system is hierarchical, like christ and his followers. No one dare question the leader and worship him/her and their ideas. If by chance once in a while someone went questioning the ideology, they became an infidel.

Running an organization and innovation requires seeing every side of the coin. Ingroup bias or groupthink affects radical openness. It results in class creation: You fresher, STFU. We know more than you.

Everyone likes sailing with a course of water, very few challenges the unknown. Success depends on knowing all odds and moving beyond groupthink.

We have to avoid falling for CEO disease.

Sugarcoating

Sugarcoating sucks. We should be very open and honest with giving feedback. Be it your kid, partner you have to give honest feedback. It does more wonders and helps in growing and getting better.

My product journey has made me realize users avoid giving honest feedback. They don’t want to hurt you or have not used your product.

Be it life or business, this honest feedback has made me a better person. No bullshit feedback.

Emotion

One thing which differentiates us from Robots is Our emotion. Emotions play a key role in how we respond to challenges. Our emotions can make or break our relationship or formal alliance. We are not Socrates to remain logical or rational on all occasions.

Emotional outbursts lead to an argument and act as a sign of incompetence or weakness.

On a receiving end one should deal it with empathy and care. Understanding the core issue for the outburst can help. Listening others without arguing also clears things.

Having a clear picture and end goal of working together and navigating through emotional outburst can be comforting.

magic

Carol S. Dweck, author of Mindset has given intellectuals a whistle. I had my share last night, I heard Growth Mindset over a dozen times on a call.

Mindset
Growth: Work hard, learn new things, and grow.
Fixed: Don’t work hard, stay as you are, and lose the competition.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote Outliers on the research paper of K. Anders Ericsson. It takes 1000 hours of hard work to master anything.

Angela Duckworth in her book Grit talks on the similar lines. If you want something: don’t give up and work hard.

Angela Duckworth, Malcolm Gladwell, and Carol S. Dweck are talking about the same thing. All 3 of them are psychologists and made millions selling their books.

The good old wisdom of Charlie Munger talks about Incentives. I feel without incentive, which can be internal or external reading these books won’t help. Hence focus on your incentive first and magic will happen in your life.

hedge

I am not saying leave your current job and switch to better pastures. I am definitely saying hedge and take chances.

Dislike relationship, move one.
Dislike job, switch.

Just don’t crib and sulk in your miseries. In the end, it is your short life, you are the master of your destiny. Also no one gives FUCK about you in the universe. Own it, hedge some bet. Crying, burning in anger will shorten your life.

world

When we stop caring about the world for appreciation, liking, salutations, and love that is when we are free. Once we are free we are living in our dreamland carefree as a child working on self-creation.

Creativity requires complete freedom but the world we are living in, we are a slave to externality. We all like being loved, appreciated, and recognized. We end up creating for what others will like instead of being self.

We end up living in multiple selves. It creates confusion, stress, and makes us vulnerable.

In the end, you are all alone, everyone has got their own problems. Build a world of your own.

On Softbank

I know Covid19 has had the biggest impact on a shared economy. Companies like Uber, WeWork, OYO are struggling to stay afloat. Layoff stories are everyday things now.

Matayoshi Son, the visionary behind Softbank fund is in the midst of all these crises. His vision fund 1 had to right off many investments. Venture Capital investments model works on binary return, either you get it all or go bonkers. It does not guarantee home runs on all investments.

Son’s vision is with OYO, Uber, or WeWork has been changing the entire market dynamics. Son has bet high on the sharing economy and a big believer of singularity. No one is left unhurt from the result of covid19, some are suffering more.

Sitting on the other side of the fence and giving an expert opinion or writing boom/bust piece for page hits is very easy. What is difficult is building, believing, and taking huge bets.

Lastly, chances are the phone with which you are writing your angry tweets would be running ARM, backed by Softbank.