listen

We need a few close aides around whom we can speak our mind. The world we are living in is plastic. Everyone is working hard to become someone else. Authenticity and credibility are the last of the virtues talked about.

Be very wise on who to listen to. Whose ideology if at all to follow. Once you are lost in the deep ocean of posturing, it will become to come back and taste the reality.

lost

It is good to get lost in life, questioning everything. Most of the answers about us have to be found by ourselves. No one other than us can fix it from within.
I understand we get all the love, support and, encouragement for becoming a seeker or finding ourselves. In other instances, this will also create FOMO in others or educate them.

But in the end, it is our life. No Socrates, Gita, or Jiddu will help us. We are all on our own, In our castle of thoughts. We need to fix ourselves from within.

productivity

We are living in the era of hyper-productivity. The market for health apps monitoring our food, sleep, exercise trackers has grown multifold. All of a sudden, Homo-Sapiens is transformed into superman/women.

While this is good, what are its side effects? Is this constant monitoring turning us into productivity zombies? What and when to eat, sleep and exercise are defined in an app.

I liked the concept of singularity. But consumerizing everything is turning out to be stupidity and madness. It is like we are running our lives for the machine.

I am not sure what happened to the consciousness Socrates died talking.

happy

Who are we trying to impress with our work? Our bosses or ourselves? There is this trend I am seeing where more and more folks are trying to impress their seniors or subordinates instead of building themselves.

It can work in the short run and take you to a level. But in the longer run, work speaks and builds credibility.

Aim for personal growth while growing the organisation, not ass liking or taking the initiative to keep seniors happy.

mind games

Our brain acts crazy at times. It can lead to making us sick or confident as a king. The more and more I surrender to it, I realize how our entire body is its slave. Our mind can guide, heal and corrupt us.

What becomes most important then is what affects it? The mix of our thought and external information has a role to play.

Be very wise with what you are consuming and your thought bubble.

autobiography

After reading a few dozen autobiographies, it seems like most of it follows the template below.

  1. Rags to riches.
  2. Not giving up attitude
  3. Finding a problem to solve and doubling down on it.
  4. The family suffered most because of no work life balance
  5. Great team and excellent incentives
  6. Treating customers like god
  7. Taking company public
  8. Transitioning into an advisor role
  9. Opening a non-profit, saving the world

There will be one or two distinctions, but most successful entrepreneurs’ autobiographies will have the same template.

brands

Most brands are built on a story crafted in the early days. Everyone is responsible for it, most importantly companies culture. If employees are il treated, it will reflect outside. The same goes with vendors or other associates. The saying monkey sees monkey has a reason.

A founder has to hire trainable leaders to replace them with the brand value intact.

Crisis

Crisis tests leadership. When things run smooth, we don’t notice much about the pillars or fundamentals of any business.

COVID was one such situation that defined a company, especially how they treated their employees. There were mass firings and, many businesses got shut down.

When the Brazilian frost hit in the early days, green beans price skyrocketed. The coffee chains like Starbucks had a tough choice to make. In the end, they went and increased the price apart from fixing inventory leakages and building a robust system.

Every adversity throws doorways of opportunity to us. In the end, it is on us how to take the situation and move forward.

Duality

One filter that has worked for me last 5+ years is duality check. Seeing what people tell you in one on one, what they do in real life and how they project on social media.

We are all craving for importance and, social media is a melting pot for the same. It is also a place to distinguish between Zebra and Donkey.

In the end, our life is short, and we need to be with people who believe in us and are virtuous enough.

Open

I feel most successful organization ensures their principles are not just presentation slides.

An employee is not working for a founder or team lead but an organization and its stakeholders.

I see principles taking a backseat sometimes because of the founder’s ego and maligned culture. It can hurt an organization and its stakeholders badly.

An open culture gives voice and opportunity to everyone, not just founders.