numbers

Last evening, I was at an event, and some folks were too curious about our growth numbers. When I told them I didn’t know, most were shocked. For them, it was like a cardinal sin, and how could I have no clue about the SaaS and financial metrics on my fingers?

I tried explaining that I care about Income, Expenditure, and Profit, nothing else. I could see the sense of anger and frustration.

As a founder, we are all unique and have our way of running a business. Some are data-driven, while others are for solving customers’ pain. There are many others purpose driven.

I believe in simplicity: doing business, earning, and paying to the team.

Priority

As the company and customers grow, the organization needs to prioritize. It can be on what existing features to improve versus building something new or continuing both.

We should keep our existing customers and their pain in the center and set honest expectations on deliverables. The what, when, and why have to be put in sync.

In unique scenarios, we have to co-create and charge for the development. The customer should be willing to pay for priority development.

Positive

One has to be in an unlimited positive state of mind to make anything happen. There is a thin line between success and failure. What gets us success is our radical optimism. It is that unlimited positivity.

Wright Brothers, Edison, Einstein, Ford, and others went along the grind. They had no option of giving up. It was their radical optimism that got the world all the innovations.

Also, success requires a lot of dedication and commitment. It will only come with the optimism.

The media talks about success without mentioning what one grinds for it. Overnight success has many failures, grind, hard work, and the will to not give up.

Kind

While entering the job market, you had a few people helping you grow. They could be your manager, co-workers and partner. They fuled optimism, guided, trained you and made you belive you can do it. Most of us have to be really lucky to find such folks in our life.

The world around us has people with multifaces. They try to dump personal agenda and biases. You get sucked in and manipulated. You have to keep an open mind.

There are kind people. Kindness goes long way. You have to pass the baton to the fellows later join this journey, who look at you for inspiration.

dislike

People will dislike you. They will avoid you if you talk about things they dislike. We are all different, and we see our world differently. We cannot push our way or pitch our opinions to others. It applies even to your close ones like siblings, kids, or parents.

Our mental well-being and consciousness is what keeps us alive. Acting desperate or preaching will harm.

We live in a small society where maintaining trust and relationships is hard. We should not give others a reason to dislike or avoid us.

Trying

We have to give our best in whatever state of life we are. Not because of the outcome and result but to avoid guilt. As we age, we revisit the past and get vulnerable in the present.

We all work towards becoming successful in our personal or professional lives. But what differentiates us is our effort. How much we are working and aiming towards it. The outcome, in most instances, is not in our control.

Did we do our best without a favorable outcome? If the answer is Yes, we will not have sleepless nights later. It will be painful in the short run.

dependable

The virtue of becoming someone whom the world can depend upon is like magic. We are living in a world of distrust and self-centeredness. Someone who delivers, and we can bank upon matters more in these times.

Look around yourself, and you will notice people who are successful in their business and life are the ones the world around them can depend upon.

In simple terms, if you are making a commitment, you will do it. We have very few around in our lives who are like that be it our personal or professional life.

Priority

We are all aspirational. The same applies to a team of developers. Most want to work on shiny things, technologies, and features. But the sad reality is that a customer gives a flying fuck happening under the hood.

They need a product which should behave/work as promised. They are paying and using it.

It creates some a challenge within the organization and the balance between teams. One team promised time to deliver a feature, another toyed with shiny language or framework, and another fought with angry customers.

As a leader, you have to make a balance and ensure everyone’s expectations and aspirations are well met.

We have to manage technical debt to runway to customer support. It is the leader’s role, and we have to do it.

But the priority should always be solving customers’ pain for which they pay.

cravings

We humans are different beasts altogether.
We crave what we don’t have.
We are rich. We will still find misery with it. We will not be grateful for it. When we have someone caring, we feel it’s suffocating. When we are loveless, we dream about ideal love. In short, our cravings never end. We are not satisfied with anything. That’s our conditioning.

phoenix

Every decade, many of us rise within. It is like a reincarnation of ourselves. It could be because of a change in personal life or profession.

These are the times when we get to rebuild ourselves. Some make the best out of it. Many others disappear from the world in solitude or die figthing within.

Rebuilding. in these schenario is like rebuilding from ashes like the phoenix.