Conductor

I was talking to Karthik and got introduced to Zubin Mehta, a conductor. The next few hours were all watching and listening to his work. It was incredible. I have added one such video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDKssCu9Dds

Reading more about Zubin and Orchestra made me compare it with startup life. We are all part of an (Orchestra) as startup. Our leaders are conductor, the success of performance depands on the team and process.

It comes down to the culture, process and fuctions which conductor has defined. It again rests on conductor building the team to guiding for a perfect masterpiece.

If you are a conductor, the Orchestra’s success depends on you. You are responsible.

Companion

I am done reading Rashmi Bansal’s: stay hungry, stay foolish. The book talks about successful entrepreneurs from IIM and their journey.
The common theme was partners helping their wives or husband in starting up.

Media gloats over Sudha Murthy and Infosys story. There are numerous similar stories where companions helped each other rise and shine.

Entrepreneurship is not an easy ride. Having a life partner vested in personal and professional life makes the journey easy. It becomes easy in tough times.

Winning

Winning matters, in the end, something we have been taught mostly. The mantra kept propagated in every aspect of our life: personal or professional. We are in a battlefield and have forgotten to live a life.

How much of winning will matter without peers? Life for a purpose without living moment to moment: is it justified? Will it not make us sick and tormented every minute? The anger, ego, and unfulfilled wishes will only accumulate and make us sick on the journey.

Apple is a trillion doller company. Steve Jobs is dead.

Coins

We are collecting coins. The coins that we could redeem in the future. These coins are our hard work and relationships of the present. Our life is a line we are creating, and our current actions define where the future will lead to.

All our actions are those coins. We live in now, learning, growing, and becoming a better version of ourselves. In the process, keep collecting those coins.

Life is a collection of our thoughts which is essentially our environment. And major factor shaping our environment is where we spend time in. It can be social media, friends, or reading.

In short, we are all coin collectors. We fill our memories, effort, and present actions all for it.

Team

Until three-four years, media was all about funding news and showcasing startups yoga rooms or beer cafes. In some instances, the price of furniture and real estate. All social media platforms had element of celebration for joining a startup, and newly joined members sharing selfies with office coffee mugs, laptops, stickers and what not.

A lot many such companies have shut now or on verge of shutting. In most instances there have been mass layoff. They had no business fundamentals. They were mostly copy cats or hype driven.

The concept of team was temprory. There was no long term view by founders of stakeholders. It was all about making most in now. So was the team’s mentality: draw as much salary in boom time and leave for better pastures at bust.

Musafir

Musafir hu, ziye ja raha hun zindgi ko ek tasalli ke saath. Apne ek chote se duniya hai mere, mast hu, madmast hu isme. Koi kisi ki firkar nahi, kisi ka koi tiraskaar nahi. Apne me khoya hua hu, apne dhango se sil raha hu is zingdi ke rasto ko.

Kitne maze ke baat hai na ki hum karzdaar ho zate hai duniya ke, hum duniya par jina suru kar dete hai. Hum hai kaun hame uske koi khabar nahi rehte.

Kya na samjhi hai ye hamare jo ek musafir hote hue bhi itna kuch pane ke lalak mae aashrit ho zate hai auroo pae. Kya hame ye nahi mulaam ki yae duniya hamre mastisque mae bani hai aur hum usme he jee rahe hai.

Streak

One of the secrets of keeping any habit regular is not leaving it in the middle. Once you break that streak: It becomes tough coming back. So it is like your habit, and continuing it becomes like some karma point. Continuing it for Nth number of times, it becomes your nature.
No additional effort is required. Your brain starts doing it all by itself.

When I started writing every day six years back, first year was an absolute pain. I had procrastination hitting from all the corners. Now it is part of me, like eating and breathing.

We have to realize that things take time. We have to be stoic about it. We don’t have to break that streak.

busy

There is no such thing as being busy. It has more to do with priority. We have 24 hours during the day.

We have abundant time to meet peers, friends, and family. I don’t understand if we are busy or acting busy by wasting time on our phones.

We may need to prioritize our life and give little importance to another part of ourselves too besides what is called WORK, which pays for our bills.

Insecurity

We can live a life being aware of unlimited possibilities or insecurity. The brain is our master. It can make us do wonders or make us feel miserable.

Our insecurity has more downsides than positives. Imagine the misses in life because of it. Some people realize late in their life about it. They die regretting.

None of us are perfect. We have to accept it. But this does not mean living an invisible life cursing our life. We have to add more stars for those misses.

Marie Curie, Stephen Hawking, and numerous examples are in front of our eyes. They did not let disabilities come in their way of glory and making the world better with their innovation.

fearless

One of the virtues which has helped me in the last 7-10 years has been being more fearless. I will attribute reading stoics to it. There have been instances where I have called a spade a spade and walked away from lucrative deals. While I have lost money or relationship in those instances, I have continued living peacefully.

Our life is too short. Living it according to our guiding principle helps. One of my guiding principles is to not live with regrets. Another is taking responsibility and control of our life and actions.

I don’t want to live life blaming others for my misfortune. That is where being fearless helps. It makes you go to unchartered territory and try the impossible. It gives a different kind of joy, taking control of your hands.