Pioneers and Settlers

Adam Grant talks about Pioneers and Settlers in his book Originals.

Pioneers are the founders and organizations that lead innovation.
They depend on the first movers’ advantage.
They launch early with the hope of grabbing the entire market.
In most instances, they are category creators.
They take risks, do price exploration, and do product chops.
They win big or lose big.

Settlers are the founders and organizations that follow pioneers.
The settlers learn from pioneers.
Settlers move on a defined marker with less pain and experiment.
A lot many things are less experimental for them. Settlers are copycats.

In short, your strategy defines what you want to become, a settler or pioneer.

freedom

Freedom means you are an adult and aware of your responsibility. You don’t have someone monitoring your everyday work. At the same time organization makes you part of its own with a belief in mutual progress.

Time and again, it has been observed some are taking advantage of it. As a result, everyone suffers.

Peace

How much peace are you with yourself?
You have been running in your early 20s to uplift your family.
As a good son, you have been at your parent’s service.
In your late 20’s got married, and now you have one companion to talk to and live life together.
You want to bring the best of the world for her.
You are working, running a sprint, and managing your best work-life balance.
You become a father in your early 30’s.
You are working hard so is your wife, an ideal family.
You have a stable job.
You will retire in your 60’s.
You will start working towards your child’s secure future.
You will get him an education, pay for his education, and get him married.
The universe is in your favor.
You will die peacefully.

When you were a child, you wanted to be a painter.
You participated in many competitions.
You were a shining star.
You died.
You have forgotten yourself.
All you did was react, a sprint for the betterment of others.
You were a machine.

Are we supposed to be a machine?
Do we not have our own identity?
Do we not have the right to live on our own?

Who are you? Are you at peace with yourself or a born robot running on a societal treadmill?

enemy

The enemy is within us. We are our own daemons. We torment, suffer and cry within. We constantly fight, blame, and anger ourselves. The fear, hate, and lovelessness of ourselves make us lose even before we start anything.

Why are we like this? Is it generational? Is it because of our fight-flight response or our lizard brain? I don’t know.

But I do know that unless we overcome our insecurity, start accepting ourselves, and start being grateful and forgiving to ourselves: we will not succeed.

agent of change

Some people walk into our life, make us better and stay with us for eternity or disappear. After my class 10th, my mother sent me out of Bihar for higher studies. I believe this was one of the milestones in my life.

Later on, during engineering, participating in FOSS and open source technology and meeting folks like Vivek/Karunakar cemented my career for good. I have always been an outstanding student(mass bunking, focusing least on studies).

The same happened while starting taghash six years back, meeting Karthik, Krishna (my partner in crime), and other early believers.

They have all been agents of change and shaped my course of life. I am not saying life has been a smooth ride. I have had my share of failures in losing people and opportunities.

Our life is how we see it. It is not easy, painful, and full of failures. But during the journey, we end up meeting a few people at instances who end up being our agents of change. We have to seize those opportunities, trust them and join the cause.

We have options to cry on all our misses or celebrate our wins.

trust

A lot of my friends tell me I trust people easily. As a result, I suffer. I don’t know about the suffering part. One thing is sure: radical trust has been a mixed bag for me. I have made lifelong friends, lost money, and suffered emotionally. All of it has happened. But when I see the bigger picture, it has been a net positive for me.

The advantage of radical trust has been that I am all in, and without a doubt, I give my 100%. I understand the downside of it.

I have the option to be a radical trustworthy or a cynic. I choose to be former as it gives me a good night’s sleep and less heart pressure.

focus

Focus is absent in a hyper-connected world with gadgets and mobile apps available around the clock.
I still remember growing up controlling the Internet and television purview.
We were less distracted and grew up taking limited knowledge.
As I aged, with time learned and gained knowledge with time.

Our time on this planet is limited.
We can progress in life and relationship only by being focused.
We should invest our limited time in a more focused manner.

We can learn from plants and animals around us.
Our mobile apps, notifications, useless meetings, and catchups should be limited.

parchai

apni parchai me hum unko dekh liya karte the kabhi, ab to aalam ye hai ki parchai se dur bhag jane ko ji karta hai.

Itne sapne dikhaye the hame un dino zindgi nae, ab to sapne me zane se bhi darta hai.

Milna, bicharna to ab mausum sa jano lagta hai. Ek cheeze he saath reh gaya hai mere wo hai mera ahankaar aur na zindgi ko chorne ki zidd. Uske alawa zindgi ko apne marzi se to zee he raha hu mae: apne chaal me, apne usuloo pe.

Ab koi khauff nai hai na he koi kami hai. Ab to sabkuch jana pechchana sa lagta hai. Log aate, zate hai apke zingdi se, kuch bana dete hai apko umer bhar ke liye to kuch chor zate hai apko har tareh ke chott ke saath.

Zina to hoga he hame, akele apne aap ke saath. Ye auro ke liye zi zee ke aap kab tak fanna hote rahenge.

role

In an organization, we all have a defined role. We have to strive to be the best at it. Some people try to become change-makers and start changing the system. It affects us and the existing system and process. Does it help? We don’t know. But does the management need or be interested in these changes? We don’t know.

Why do we have to run pillar and post to cure our itch? We can be best at our role. Why do we have to lose focus or ride on multiple areas.

You are the chosen one to execute something at brilliance. Focus on it.

permanent

Nothing is permanent in life.
The sooner we accept it, the more we will be at peace.
People we meet, relationships we make, and jobs we are part of all change with time.

Is our health, life, or attraction over some worldly asset or beauty permanent? Ask yourself. We age, our body rots, and beauty fades.

The only thing we have is our thoughts. It can make and break us.