You'll be a Man my son!

Lateral Thinking

2008-05-16T03:03:00.001-07:00

Many years ago in a small Indian village,
A farmer had the misfortune Of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender.
The Moneylender
, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful Daughter. So he proposed a bargain.He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his Daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the Proposal.So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let Providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black Pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would Have to pick one pebble from the bag.1) If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven.2) If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.3) But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into Jail.They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's field. As They talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he Picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two Black pebbles and put them into the bag.He then asked the girl to pick A pebble from the bag.Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have Done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you Have told her?Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag And expose the money-lender as a cheat.3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order To save her father from his debt and imprisonment.Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with The hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral And logical thinking.The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with Traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she choosesThe above logical answers.What would you recommend to the Girl to do?
Well, here is what she did ....
The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without Looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path Where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles."Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the Bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I Picked."Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had Picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his Dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into An extremely advantageous one.
MORAL OF THE STORY:Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we don't Attempt to think.

NRN's speech

2007-06-02T02:35:00.000-07:00

May 28, 2007
N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor and chairman of the board, Infosys Technologies, delivered a pre-commencement lecture at the New York University (Stern School of Business) on May 9. It is a scintillating speech, Murthy speaks about the lessons he learnt from his life and career.
We present it for our readers:

Dean Cooley, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, and, most importantly, the graduating class of 2007, it is a great privilege to speak at your commencement ceremonies.
I thank Dean Cooley and Prof Marti Subrahmanyam for their kind invitation. I am exhilarated to be part of such a joyous occasion. Congratulations to you, the class of 2007, on completing an important milestone in your life journey.
After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my life lessons. I learned these lessons in the context of my early career struggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplanned events which were the crucibles that tempered my character and reshaped my future.
I would like first to share some of these key life events with you, in the hope that these may help you understand my struggles and how chance events and unplanned encounters with influential persons shaped my life and career.
Later, I will share the deeper life lessons that I have learned. My sincere hope is that this sharing will help you see your own trials and tribulations for the hidden blessings they can be.
The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur, in India. At breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university.
He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing. I was hooked. I went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer science.
Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel at how one role model can alter for the better the future of a young student. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.
The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974. The location: Nis, a border town between former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and Bulgaria. I was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore, India, my home town.
By the time a kind driver dropped me at Nis railway station at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank the next morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money. I slept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when the Sofia Express pulled in.
The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy. I struck a conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about the travails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned by the young man who thought we were criticising the communist government of Bulgaria.
The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated. I was dragged along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for over 72 hours.
I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when the door opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in the guard's compartment on a departing freight train and told that I would be released 20 hours later upon reaching Istanbul. The guard's final words still ring in my ears -- "You are from a friendly country called India and that is why we are letting you go!"
The journey to Istanbul was lonely, and I was starving. This long, lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions about Communism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for 108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left.
I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.
Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.
While these first two events were rather fortuitous, the next two, both concerning the Infosys journey, were more planned and profoundly influenced my career trajectory.
On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the seven founders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangalore suburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for the enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then business-unfriendly India, we were quite happy at the prospect of seeing at least some money.
I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans. Discussions about the travails of our journey thus far and our future challenges went on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word.
Finally, it was my turn. I spoke about our journey from a small Mumbai apartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges, but also of how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the dawn. I then took an audacious step. If they were all bent upon selling the company, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues, though I did not have a cent in my pocket.
There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloud about my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hour of my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way of thinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company, we should be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up to their promise of that day.
In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenues in excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million and a market capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer than the offer of $1 million on that day.
In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs, 2,000-plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires.
A final story: On a hot summer morning in 1995, a Fortune-10 corporation had sequestered all their Indian software vendors, including Infosys, in different rooms at the Taj Residency hotel in Bangalore so that the vendors could not communicate with one another. This customer's propensity for tough negotiations was well-known. Our team was very nervous.
First of all, with revenues of only around $5 million, we were minnows compared to the customer.
Second, this customer contributed fully 25% of our revenues. The loss of this business would potentially devastate our recently-listed company.
Third, the customer's negotiation style was very aggressive. The customer team would go from room to room, get the best terms out of each vendor and then pit one vendor against the other. This went on for several rounds. Our various arguments why a fair price -- one that allowed us to invest in good people, R&D, infrastructure, technology and training -- was actually in their interest failed to cut any ice with the customer.
By 5 p.m. on the last day, we had to make a decision right on the spot whether to accept the customer's terms or to walk out.
All eyes were on me as I mulled over the decision. I closed my eyes, and reflected upon our journey until then. Through many a tough call, we had always thought about the long-term interests of Infosys. I communicated clearly to the customer team that we could not accept their terms, since it could well lead us to letting them down later. But I promised a smooth, professional transition to a vendor of customer's choice.
This was a turning point for Infosys.
Subsequently, we created a Risk Mitigation Council which ensured that we would never again depend too much on any one client, technology, country, application area or key employee. The crisis was a blessing in disguise. Today, Infosys has a sound de-risking strategy that has stabilised its revenues and profits.
I want to share with you, next, the life lessons these events have taught me.

1. I will begin with the importance of learning from experience. It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place. I believe the Infosys story is living proof of this.
Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions.

2. A second theme concerns the power of chance events. As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events with intentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeed often fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It is this very quality of how we respond systematically to chance events that is crucial.

3. Of course, the mindset one works with is also quite critical. As recent work by the psychologist, Carol Dweck, has shown, it matters greatly whether one believes in ability as inherent or that it can be developed. Put simply, the former view, a fixed mindset, creates a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback and leads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential.
The latter view, a growth mindset, leads to a tendency to embrace challenges, to learn from criticism and such people reach ever higher levels of achievement (Krakovsky, 2007: page 48).

4. The fourth theme is a cornerstone of the Indian spiritual tradition: self-knowledge. Indeed, the highest form of knowledge, it is said, is self-knowledge. I believe this greater awareness and knowledge of oneself is what ultimately helps develop a more grounded belief in oneself, courage, determination, and, above all, humility, all qualities which enable one to wear one's success with dignity and grace.

Based on my life experiences, I can assert that it is this belief in learning from experience, a growth mindset, the power of chance events, and self-reflection that have helped me grow to the present.
Back in the 1960s, the odds of my being in front of you today would have been zero. Yet here I stand before you! With every successive step, the odds kept changing in my favour, and it is these life lessons that made all the difference.
My young friends, I would like to end with some words of advice. Do you believe that your future is pre-ordained, and is already set? Or, do you believe that your future is yet to be written and that it will depend upon the sometimes fortuitous events?
Do you believe that these events can provide turning points to which you will respond with your energy and enthusiasm? Do you believe that you will learn from these events and that you will reflect on your setbacks? Do you believe that you will examine your successes with even greater care?
I hope you believe that the future will be shaped by several turning points with great learning opportunities. In fact, this is the path I have walked to much advantage.
A final word: When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate.

I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time.
Thank you for your patience. Go forth and embrace your future with open arms, and pursue enthusiastically your own life journey of discovery!

Heaven or Hell

2006-09-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said," Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.
The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, "You have seen Hell."
They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, "I don't understand"." It is simple said the Lord, "it requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other. While the greedy think only of themselves."

Moral: Its people's attitude that makes our place of work, a hell or heaven to them!! 'Help and Seek Help' this makes all the difference to each individual's life...and makes our lives heaven or otherwise.Success and happiness is all about effective team-work.....make it a great life ahead!!!.

The Art Of Persuasion by Jacqueline Andrews

2006-08-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

Ralph Waldo Emerson and his son tried to get a calf into the barn. But theymade the common mistake of thinking only of what they wanted: Emersonpushed and his son pulled, but the calf did just what they did. He stiffenedhis legs and stubbornly refused to leave the pasture. The Irish housemaidobserved their predicament, she couldn'twrite essays and books, but on thisoccasion at least had more sense than Emerson had. She thought of what thecalf wanted; so she put hermaternal finger in the calf's mouth, and let thecalf suck her finger as she gently led him into the barn. Andrew Carnegie, the poverty-stricken Scotch lad who started work at twocents an hour and finally gave away $365 million dollarslearned early inlife that the only way to influence people is to talk to them in terms ofwhat they want. He attended school only four years,yet he learned how tohandle people. To Illustrate: His sister-in-law was worried sick over hertwo boys. They were at Yale, and they were sobusy with their own affairsthat they neglected to write home and paid no attention to their mother'sfrantic letters.Carnegie offered to wager a hundred dollars that he couldget an answer by return mail, without even asking for it. Someone calledhisbet; so he wrote his nephews a chatty letter, mentioning casually in apostscript that he was sending each one a five-dollar bill. Heneglected,however, to enclose the money. Back came replies by returnmailthanking "Dear Uncle Andrew" for his kind note and you can finish thesentence yourself. Next time you want to persuade someone to do something, pause and ask, howcan I make him want to do it? Ask yourself how can I tie what I want to whathe wants? You can do this by asking theperson directly. What would you liketo see happen? What would you like to gain from this? What can I do for you?How can I help you getwhat you want? This skill is very simple, direct andeffective!

Goal-Free Living © By Stephen Shapiro

2006-08-03T01:01:00.000-07:00

Success and happiness are unarguably our Holy Grails, but the standardstaught to find them are all wrong. We have been brainwashed into believingthat the only way to achieve this elusive combination of success andhappiness is through setting goals. This is simply not true. In fact,goal-setting is often the shortest route to discontentment. Fifty eightpercent of those I surveyed say that they are consciously sacrificingtodays happiness in the belief that achieving their goals will bringfulfillment. Sadly, 41 percent say that each goal achieved brings little,if any, satisfaction, despite all the hard work. So, what do they do? Theyset another goal. This creates a perpetual cycle of sacrifice anddisillusionment. What is the solution?After interviewing hundreds of people and surveying thousands I discoveredthat the most passionate, creative, and sometimes wealthiest people livefree from the burden of traditional goals. Instead, they have mastered therare skill of enjoying now rather than delaying gratification until thefuture.Goals are not inherently bad, but many individuals have an unhealthyrelationship with their goals, distorting this potentially helpful toolinto a surefire recipe for failure. Why?
Quite often, the goals we chase are not our own. Fifty three percent ofthose I surveyed feel that they are living their lives in a way thatsatisfies others more than themselves. Whose life are you living?*
Goals can cause you to lose your peripheral vision. When you focus onyour goals, you are cutting off potentially greater opportunities fromemerging.*
Goals set you up for failure, say 74 percent of those surveyed,conceding to disappointment and dissatisfaction when they are unsuccessfulin achieving their goals. In fact, 92 percent fail to achieve their NewYears resolutions. That is a lot of discontentment.Goal-Free Living is liberating. It opens new possibilities typicallyhidden from sight.We often associate goals with our career. While that is a big aspect ofour lives, Goal-Free Living applies to all areas of life, from dating tobusiness.*
Dating. When you are on a date, do not worry about the next date.Instead, just enjoy the other persons company...for that moment. You willcome across as being more genuine and less desperate, and ironically, thisincreases your chances of getting that second date.*
Vacationing. When on a vacation, instead of planning every minute ofevery day, try venturing out into an area not in your guidebook. You maydiscover some hidden gems. You will feel less hurried and more relaxed.Isnt that what a vacation is all about?*
Meetings. When you attend a business conference, stop focusing on whatyou will get out of it and how you will use it. Rather, concentrate onjust being there and soaking in as much as possible. Incredïbleopportunities show up when you are unburdened and blinded by myopic goals.When you are doing something, ask yourself Why am I doing this? If youhave a reason--other than just to be there--then you may have a goal.While it is quite acceptable to have a particular interest in an outcome,do not let that specific focus become so dominant that it blinds you toother opportunities.How does one embark on a more goal-free life? During my travels around theworld and after hundreds of interviews I discovered eight secrets forliving goal-free.
1. Use a compass, not a map--have a sense of direction (not a specificdestination) , and then meander with purpose.
2. Trust that you are never lost--every seemingly wrong turn is anopportunïty to learn and experience new things.
3. Remember that opportunïty knocks often but sometimes softly--whileblindly pursuing our goals, we often miss unexpected and wonderfulpossibilities.
4. Want what you have--measure your life by your own yardstick andappreciate who you are, what you do, and what you have...now.
5. Seek out adventure--treat your life like a one-time-only journey, andrevel in new and different experiences.
6. Become a people magnet--constantly attract, build, and nurturerelationships with new people so that you always have the support andcamaraderie of others.
7. Embrace your limits--transform your inadequacies and boundaries intounique qualities that you can use to your advantage.
8. Remain detached--focus on the present, act with a commitment to thefuture, and avoid worrying about how things will turn out.For each of these secrets, there are a number of tips for implementing theconcept. Here are a few you can try today.*

Set themes, not resolutions- -rather than set a resolution (i.e., agoal), choose one word to describe your next year. Choose something thatis bold and inspires you. Instead of losing 10 pounds, you could choosehealth. Relationships --in the broadest sense--may work better for youthan finding a boyfriend. Any word will do: grace, adventure,serenity, play.*
Use could do lists rather than to do lists--to do lists tend to bedraining as they are the things you feel you must do. Could do listscontain those things that you want to do that inspire you. They keeppossibility in front of you. Keep your list of could do items large andyour list of to do items small.*
Change your filter. One creative way to seek out adventure is to makebelieve you are another person--an artist, a musician, or a doctor. Itdoesnt matter, as long as it is someone other than you. When you liveyour normal day standing in the shoes of someone else, you will see thingsyou have never seen before.*
Appreciate the whole spectrum of life. Create contrasts to help youappreciate where you are right now. Sleep in a tent and sleeping bagversus always staying in a five-star hotel. Volunteer for a charity. Takethe bus to work. Eat at a greasy spoon diner. Swap jobs with someone witha less glamorous assignment for a week. Experience the whole spectrum oflife.The origin of the word goal comes from the Old English word forobstacles or a hindrance. In order to achieve a goal, you must workhard to overcome these barriers and roadblocks. Conversely, the origin ofthe word aspiration is the same as the Latin word for spirit andinspire, which means to breathe into or panting with desire.Barriers or inspiration. Which would you prefer?

How to Get More Work Done in a Day

2006-07-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

By Zig Ziglar

How do you achieve employment security in a world where there is no employment security? I start with a question: do you consider yourself to be honest and at least reasonably intelligent? Okay. As an honest, intelligent person, do you, as a general rule, get about twice as much work done on the day before you go on vacation as you normally get done?
Now, I am going to ask you a long question, so stay with me all the way through. If we can figure out why and learn how and repeat it every day without working any longer or any harder, does it make sense that we will be more valuable to ourselves, our company, our family, and our community?
The answer is yes.

I want to make it crystal clear that I am communicating with you about you-I'm not referring to anybody else, but to you about you. You have undoubtedly already confessed that you are honest and intelligent.

Now, on the night before the day before vacation, do you get your laptop or a sheet of paper out and plan, "Now, tomorrow I've got to do this and this . . . ." We've coined a very clever name for that-we call that goal setting. So, you set your goals. Then, you get them organized in the order of their importance.

Let me encourage you to make one slight change there. Get the disagreeable and difficult things out of the way first. Free your mind so you can concentrate on what else you have got to do. You get it organized. You accept responsibility. You make the commitments. You know that some people are about as committed as a Kamikaze pilot on his 39th mission-they just aren't serious about it.

Now, commitment is important whether it is to get your education, make one more call, keep the marriage together, or whatever. Commitment is important because when you hit the wall-not if, but when you hit the wall-if you have made a commitment, your first thought is "How do I solve the problem?" If you haven't made the commitment, your first thought is "How do I get out of this deal?" And we find literally what we are looking for. When you make that commitment, things happen. It shows that you really care about the other people on the job. It demonstrates that you are dependable. Even though you're leaving town, you're not going to leave
an unfinished task for others to do. Your integrity comes through.

Have you ever participated in organized team sports? Did you ever go home one night and say to your parents something like, "Mom, Dad, you won't believe the game plan the coach has worked out. Man alive, it is incredible. We're going to kill those suckers tomorrow. You can count on it." You were optimistic simply because you had a plan of action, and likewise, you are optimistic that tomorrow you are going to be able to get all of the things done that need to be done before you can go on that
vacation.

Now, some of us are born optimistic, and some are born pessimistic. For your information, the 1828 Noah Webster Dictionary does not have the word pessimist in it. It has the word optimist. Now, I am a natural-born optimist. I really am. I would take my last two dollars and buy a money belt with it. That's the way I'm put together. But the good news is if you are a natural-born pessimist, you definitely, emphatically, positively can change. You are a pessimist by choice because you are what you are and where you are because of what's gone into your mind. You can change what you are; you can change where you are by changing what goes into your
mind.

Anyway, on the day before you go on vacation you not only get to work on time, you are a little early, and you immediately get started. You don't stand around and say, "Well, I wonder what I ought to do now." You can't wait to get after it. You want to do the right thing, so you get started in a big hurry. You are enthusiastic about it. You are highly motivated.
You decisively move from one task to another.

Now, I am going to camp on this one for just a moment. Have you noticed that as a general rule, people who have nothing to do want to do it with you? It's true, isn't it? Now, on this day before vacation, when you finish one task, you move with purpose to another one. And people just will not block you for that two-minute gossip session or four-minute or five-minute or six-minute chat. I am absolutely convinced and have no doubt about it that the listener has more to do with gossiping than the speaker does because if you don't listen, nobody is going to gossip to
you. They just won't.

When you move with purpose, people will step aside and let you go. I will absolutely guarantee that you will save a minimum of an hour a day in two-, three-, five-minute spurts of time. An hour a day is five hours per week is 250 hours per year. That is six weeks of your life that you've wasted and six weeks of combined time that you have wasted with people whohave been gossiping with you. What could you do with six extra weeks every year?

Focus on the issue at hand. Discipline yourself to stay with it until you finish. Cybil Stanton gave me the best definition of discipline I have ever read in her book The Twenty Five Hour Woman: "Discipline isn't on your back needling you with imperatives. It is at your side encouraging you with incentives."

Treat every day like it's the day before vacation, and you will get more work done!

About the Author:
Zig Ziglar has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Dallas Morning News as well as in Fortune, Success, and Esquire magazines and has appeared on "The Today Show," "20/20," "60 Minutes," and "The Phil Donahue Show." He has that rare ability to make audiences comfortable and relaxed, yet completely attentive. As an author, he has written 24 books on personal growth, leadership, sales, faith, family, and success. Nine titles have become best sellers, including Over the Top and See You at the Top. Subscribe to the free, weekly "Zig Ziglar Newsletter" at http://www.zigziglar.com

His article above is one of 101 great chapters that can be found in "101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life." This powerful compilation book with Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, and Denis Waitley contains 101 chapters of
proven advice on how to improve your life.

You Won the Lottery

2006-06-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

Valencia Mueller stops at Wagner's Food Pride and buys a single lottery
Ticket. She wins. "I had trouble catching my breath," she says. "This only
Happens in dreams or in the movies, not in real life." I think she
overreacted.

Even if Valencia Mueller had won the ultimate payoff against odds of
54,979,155 to one, it would have been no big deal, because Valencia had
Already won a much bigger lottery against much greater odds. Valencia
Mueller had been born.

I asked Ryan J. Sokol of the statistics department at Texas A&M University
To calculate the odds of a specific individual being born. Ryan estimated
The total number of fertile men and women in the world, calculated the
Number of different genetic possibilities a man might contribute, adjusted
For the number of hours of female fertility each month, and then factored In
a long list of other considerations.

The bottom line of Ryan's lengthy report to me said, "The chance that you,
Meaning exactly you, would be born are 1 in 1.3 times ten to the twenty-
Ninth power." In other words, 130,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to
One. You and I my friend, are two incredibly, amazingly, lucky people. We
Both won the genetic lottery!

Compared with the odds against being born, the odds are very good that you
Will be elected president of the United States. You have already won a
Lottery more amazing than human-kind could ever devise. You have already
Been awarded a prize far richer than anything the world has to give. You Are
alive. You are here. Make the most of it.

The finger of God never leaves identical fingerprints - Stanislaw Lec

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I
Sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Do not be afraid,
For I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord." -- Jeremiah 1: 5 & 8

Author Unknown

Control Your Feelings

2006-05-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

Learning how to manage your feelings and behaviors takes work and
practice. However, one simple way to get started is to develop "coping
statements" to counter upsetting thoughts. Coping statements are somewhat
like affirmations, but they are not necessarily positive ideas. Rather,
they are realistic or reality based. Coping statements are usually
challenges to specific upsetting thoughts, although you can use them any
time.

The idea hëre is to stop yourself whenever you feel upset, anxious,
worried, depressed, angry, guilty, ashamed, frustrated and so on. You can
also use undesired urges or behavior, like procrastination, smokïng,
drinking or drugging, as a cue to start the process. Catch yourself, then
try to observe what thoughts are running through your mind. Take a sheet
of paper and divide it in half vertically. On the left side of the sheet,
write out whatever thoughts you have observed.

Once you have identified the offending thoughts, just try changing them.
As you get into this more, you will probably want to learn how to dispute
or evaluate your thoughts on several levels, but the simple förm of this
exercise is to change the thoughts in any way that helps you feel or
behave differently. Keep trying different alternatives until you find one
that works for you. Hëre are some examples to help you get started:

1. Upsetting Thought: I'm going to fail.

Realistic Alternative: I'll probably do all right, but even if I don't,
it's not the end of the world.

2. Upsetting Thought: I can't stand it.

Realistic Alternative: I don't like it, but I can stand it.

3. Upsetting Thought: I'll nevër amount to anything.

Realistic Alternative: It may be difficult, but if I try, I can accomplish
a lot.

4. Upsetting Thought: That's awful.

Realistic Alternative: It's bad, but it could be much worse.

5. Upsetting Thought: I must be a loser because this person doesn't like
me.

Realistic Alternative: I want to be liked, but not everyone will like me.

6. Upsetting Thought: I need love.

Realistic Alternative: I want love, but I can live without it.

7. Upsetting Thought: That S.O. B.!

Realistic Alternative: I don't like some of his actions, but he is not all
bad.

8. Upsetting Thought: I'm not in the mood to do that.

Realistic Alternative: Tough! If I want the advantages of doing this, I
had better go ahead and get it out of the way.

9. Upsetting Thought: I'm going to get fired.

Realistic Alternative: I might be fired, but probably won't be. Being
fired would be a setback, but I can deal with it.

10. Upsetting Thought: I need a drink.

Realistic Alternative: I want a drink, but I don't need it. I might feel
better nöw, but I'll regret it tomorrow.

Hopefully, you get the idea. Try it! I think you will like the results.
Not only will you feel better, but you will probably find that you have a
lot more energy to put into solving the real problems in your life, not
just wasting energy on getting needlessly upset.

Robert F. Sarmiento, Ph.D. © 2002. All rights reserved.

About the Author:
Dr. Rob Sarmiento is a licensed psychologist in practice since 1976 in
Houston, Texas. He has developed a powerful Psychology Self-Help Website
with tools, articles and information about his consulting services. He
provides consulting services for mental health, human resources, lëgal and
business professionals. You can visit his website at
http://www.cyberpsych.com

Be a hero at work

2006-03-04T02:28:00.000-08:00

Author unknown

The only way you will ever truly succeed in this new knowledge-based economy is to become a star at work, that is, an individual who stands far above the crowd and one who is totally unique in a world where most people are trying to be more alike. The moment you make a deep commitment to becoming a star at work and burning all your bridges to the person that you once were, your life will change in an unmistakable way. The day you decide to start acting like the person you were destined to become is the day that you begin to tap into the wellspring of human talents that will lead you to your own form of personal greatness.
These are not the simple musings of yet another professional thinker spouting hackneyed euphemisms in the hope that one day someone will take note. These are the hard, cold facts of life - and they have been so for hundreds of years. And to deny them and continue living a life of complacency is to abandon your duty to do something special with your life.As Ashley Montagu observed: "The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become."
To become a star at work and to start seizing some of the matchless opportunities that are out there in what I believe to be the most exciting time in the history of humanity, you first need to make the decision to raise the standards that you will work and live by. Commit to living by a benchmark far higher than anyone would have the right to expect from you.
Take a good hard look at the way you spend your days and ask yourself whether your agenda reflects your priorities. If there is an incongruity between the activities you invest your energies in and the values you hope to live by, you have a problem and need to make some immediate course corrections. For example, if your goal is to have a meaningful and rewarding work experience but you devote your days spinning your wheels on mundane tasks that never advance your professional goals, you need to refocus yourself on the things that truly count. If a rich and happy family experience is high on your list of life priorities but you have not been to your son's soccer game in a year and you cannot remember the last time you sat down to do homework with your daughter, you need to sharpen your pencil and rework your schedule. The facts never lie and the activities of your schedule will ultimately reflect the quality of your life.
The next step in becoming a star at work is to dedicate yourself to becoming "a person of action". In life there are three types of people. First are those that make things happen. Second are those that watch things happen. And third are those people who wake up one day, at then end of their lives, and ask "What Happened?"
Today, make a firm decision to join the first group - the group of human beings who have decided that life is a gift and every day is a new opportunity to learn, grow and contribute. As you go through this day, look for opportunities to bring a sense of excellence and mastery to your work.
What little thing could you do over the next few hours to build relationships at work or make your clients say "Wow?" What mentalattitudes could you adopt to reframe what is negative into positive and rekindle that enthusiasm that you had when you were just a kid? What simple gestures of decency could you do to show your teammates that you care and are committed to showing leadership in a world where real leaders are few and far between?
As I wrote in my latest book "Who Will Cry When You Die?" "the smallest of actions is always better than the noblest intentions," and today is your chance to make a difference. "There's nothing really difficult if only you begin. Some people contemplate a task until it looms so big it seems impossible but I just begin and it gets done somehow. There would be no coral islands if the first bug sat down and began to wonder how the job was to be done," noted John Shaw Billings.

Here are 7 more things you can do over the next 10 days to become a star at work:

1)Take your hero to lunch. Find someone who has created the kind of professional and personal life that you want and have the courage totake them out to lunch. If there is an author you admire and she lives in your city, pick up the phone and ask for a meeting. If you just read an inspiring article about someone who had turned adversity into advantage and you know you can learn from him, send out an e-mail and open up the lines of communication. In this new knowledge economy, the person who learns the most wins. Learn from heroes.

2)Set "learning goals." Most wi se performers on the playing field of business set career, financial and personal goals but few set specific learning goals. For this year, I have set clear objectives as to how many books I will read, how many seminars I will attend and how many personal growth retreats I will visit. I also try and set a daily learning quota of three new things every day to keep me stimulated and excited about my work as a professional speaker and leadership coach.

3)Become indispensable. While working at a major league legal firm after I had completed law school, I asked one of the senior partners what one had to do in order to become successful at this firm. His response has never left me and has been exceedingly helpful. "Robin," he said, "the real secret of success is to be so good at what you do that this firm will not be able to run without you. Be so good at what you do that you are the fir st person that we all think of when we need advice. Be so good at what you do that you become indispensable. Then your success will be assured." to my challenge to you is this: pick your best three talents - 3 core competencies that you have that truly make you special - and then commit to refining them over the coming twelve months until they set you apart from the crowd. Make a personal vow that you will become so good at your professional craft that you become indispensable to your team and to your organization as a whole. Then watch your career soar.

4)Make time to think. It is a strange paradox of the frenzied age that we live in that we have become so busy that we do not even have time to think about the things that we are so busy about. We spend our days on projects that need to get done and in meetings that need to be attended. We spend our evenings with people we need to meet and doing activities that need to be completed. But let me ask you? When was the last time you went for a solitary walk in the woods and deeply reflected on the way you are working and living? When was the last time you took a few hours to gain some real clarity into where you want to be professionally and personally five years from now? Henry David Thoreau said: "It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is what are you so busy with?" Carve out at least one hour every week for some serious reflection, introspection and self-examination so that you will keep learning from your weaknesses.

5)Start a reading group at work. If you want to be a leader, you must first become a reader. Knowing how to read and not doing so puts you in precisely the same position as someone who cannot read. We live in an age where ideas - not bricks and mortar - are the currency of success. One idea, well executed, can transform your team, your culture and your entire organization. One idea, read in a single book, can reshape your thinking processes, transform your character or renew your health. Here's the thing: you just don't know which book contains that one idea that will revolutionize your life. But believe me, it is out there. And it is waiting for you. Read daily and ensure those around you to do the same. The company that learns together stays together.

6)Look like a star. Get serious about physical mastery. Commit to being in peak shape so you increase your energy levels and enhance your stamina. Rekindle that healthy glow that comes from running or swimming or going for a brisk walk at lunch. And make the time to dress and conduct yourself in a way that conveys your commitment to excellence, not only in business but in life.

7)Think contribution. We all have a deep human hunger to be a part of something larger than ourselves. We all carry within us a core craving to do something important in our work lives and know that, at the end of the day, our energies have been invested in activities that have added value to the world and made a difference in people's lives. Begin to see the higher meaning of the work that you are doing and stay focused on adding value to others. As the 13th Century philosopher Rumi said: "When you are dead, seek for your resting place not in the earth but in the hearts of men."

The Top Six Ways to Stay Motivated

2006-03-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

by Chris Widener

I receive many emails from people that basically ask the same question: How can I keep myself motivated long term? This seems to be quite a common dilemma for many people so I want to address it because it can be done! Here are my tips for staying motivated:

1. Get Motivated Every Day.
Zig Ziglar was once confronted about being a "motivational speaker." The guy said to him, "You guys come and get people hyped up and then you leave and the motivation goes away. It doesn't last, and then you have to get motivated again."

Zig reminded the gentleman that baths are the same way but we think it is a good idea to take a bath every day! It is true that motivation doesn't last.

We have to renew it each and every day. That is okay. It doesn't make motivation a bad thing. We simply have to realize that if we want to stay motivated over the long term, it is something we will have to apply to ourselves each and every day.

2. Have a Vision for Your Life.
The root word of motivation is "motive." The definition of motive is, "A reason to act." This is the cognitive or rational side of motivation. It is your vision. You have to have a vision that is big enough to motivate you.

If you are making $50,000 a year, it isn't going to motivate you to set your goal at $52,000 a year. You just won't get motivated for that because the reward isn't enough. Maybe $70,000 a year would work for you. Set out a vision and a strategy for getting there. Have a plan and work the plan.

3. Fuel Your Passion.
Much of motivation is emotional. I don't know quite how it works but I do know THAT it works. Emotion is a powerful force in getting us going. Passion is an emotion, so fuel your passion. "Well, I like to work on logic," you may say. Great, now work on your passion. Set yourself on a course to have a consuming desire for your goal, whatever it is. Do whatever you can to feel the emotion and use it to your advantage!

4. Work Hard Enough to Get Results.
You can build on your motivation by getting results. The harder you work, the more results you will get and the more results you get, the more you will be motivated to get more. These things all build on one another.

If you want to lose weight, then lose the first few pounds. When the belt moves to the next notch you will get fired up to get it to the notch beyond that!

5. Put Good Materials into Your Mind.
I can't say this enough - listen to audios. I still listen to audios regularly. I buy audio clubs from other speakers and I learn and grow. Their successes motivate me to get my own successes!

Read good books. Read books that teach you new ideas and skills. Read books that tell the stories of successful people. Buy them, read them, and get motivated! Buy great music and listen to it. I just did a spinning class at the club today. Whenever a good song came on I was actually able to get motivated to ride faster! It gets you going and motivates you!

6. Ride the Momentum when It Comes.
Sometimes you will just be clicking and sometimes you won't. That is okay. It is the cycle of life. When you aren't clicking, plug away.

When you are clicking, pour it on because momentum will help you get larger gains in a shorter period of time with less energy. That is the momentum Equation! When you are feeling good about how your work is going, ride the momentum and get as much out of it as you can!

These are the top six ways to stay motivated:
1. Get motivated every day.
2. Have a vision for your life.
3. Fuel your passion.
4. Work hard enough to get results.
5. Put good materials into your mind.
6. Ride the momentum when it comes.

These are simple principles, that when you put them to work regularly, will change your life by keeping you motivated all the time! So don't wait -- Get going!

Always Possible. I M Possible

2006-02-17T19:53:00.000-08:00

Here's a story about George Dantzig - the famed mathematician who's contributions to Operations Research and systems engineering have made him immortal.

As a college student, George studied very hard and often late into the night. So late, that he overslept one morning, arriving 20 minutes late for Prof. Neyman's class. He quickly copied the two maths problems on the board, assuming they were the homework assignment. It took him several days to work through the two problems, but finally he had a breakthrough and dropped the homework on Neyman's desk the next day.

Six weeks later, on a Sunday morning, George was awakened at 6 a.m. by his excited professor. Since George was late for class, he hadn't heard the professor announce that the two unsolvable equations on the board were mathematical mind-teasers that even Einstein hadn't been able to answer. But George Dantzig, working without any thoughts of limitation, had solved not one, but two problems that had stumped mathematicians for thousands of years.

Simply put, George solved the problems because he didn't know he couldn't.

You are not limited to the life you now live. It has been accepted by you as the best you can do at this moment. Any time you're ready to go beyond the limitations currently in your life, you're capable of doing that by choosing different thoughts. All you must do is figure out how you can do it, not whether or not you can. And once you have made your mind up to do it, it's amazing how your mind begins to figure out how.

A person is limited only by the thoughts that he/she chooses.

THE BALD MAN'S COMB

2006-02-14T08:12:00.000-08:00

A Story on how to manage your career & your expectations
by R. Gopalakrishnan

There is a Thai saying that experience is a comb which Nature gives to man after he is bald. As I grow bald, I would like to share my comb with your people, about their career ahead.

1. Seek out grassroots level experience

I studied Physics and Engineering at University. A few months before graduation, I appeared for an HLL interview for Computer Traineeship. When asked whether I would consider Marketing instead of Computers, I responded negatively : an engineer to visit grocery shops to sell Dalda or Lifebuoy? Gosh, no way. After I joined the Company and a couple of comfortable weeks in the swanky Head Office, I was given a train ticket to go to Nasik. Would I please meet Mr. Kelkar to whom I would be attached for the next two months? He would teach me to work as a salesman in his territory, which included staying in Kopargaon and Pimpalgaon among other small towns.

I was most upset. In a town called Ozhar, I was moving around from shop to shop with a bullock cart full of products and a salesman's folder in my hand. Imagine my embarrassment when an IIT friend appeared in front of me in Ozhar, believe it or not! and exclaimed, "Gopal, I thought you joined as a Management Trainee in Computers". I could have died a thousand deaths. After this leveling experience, I was less embarrassed to work as a Despatch Clerk in the Company Depot and an Invoice Clerk in the Accounts Department. Several years later, I realised the value of such grassroots level experience. It is fantastic. I would advise young people to seek out nail-dirtying, collar-soiling, shoe-wearing tasks. That is how you learn about organizations, about the true nature of work, and the dignity of the many, many tasks that go into building great enterprises.

2. Deserve before you desire

At one stage, I was appointed as the Brand Manager for Lifebuoy and Pears soap, the company's most popular-priced and most premium soaps. And what was a Brand Manager? "A mini-businessman, responsible for the production, sales and profits of the brand, accountable for its long-term growth, etc., etc. I had read those statements, I believed them and here I was, at 27, "in charge of everything". But very soon, I found I could not move a pin without checking with my seniors. One evening, after turning the Facit machine handle through various calculations, I sat in front of the Marketing Director. I expressed my frustration and gently asked whether I could not be given total charge. He smiled benignly and said, "The perception and reality are both right. You will get total charge when you know more about the brand than anyone else in this company about its formulation, the raw materials, the production costs, the consumer's perception, the distribution and so on. How long do you think that it will take?"

"Maybe, ten years", I replied, "and I don't expect to be the Lifebuoy and Pears Brand Manager for so long"! And then suddenly, the lesson was clear. I was desiring total control, long before I deserved it. This happens to us all the time - in terms of responsibilities, in terms of postings and promotions, it happens all the time that there is a gap between our perception of what we deserve and the reality of what we get.

It helps to deserve before we desire.

3 Play to win but win with fairness

Life is competitive and of course, you play to win. But think about the balance. Will you do anything, to win? Perhaps not. Think deeply about how and where you draw the line. Each person draws it differently, and in doing so, it helps to think about values. Winning without values provides dubious fulfillment. The leaders who have contributed the most are the ones with a set of universal values �V Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King for example. Napoleon inspired a ragged, mutinous and half-starved army to fight and seize power. This brought him name and fame for twenty years. But all the while, he was driven forward by a selfish and evil ambition, and not in pursuit of a great ideal. He finally fell because of his selfish ambition.

I am fond of referring to the Pierre de Coubertin Fair Play Trophy. It was instituted in 1964 by the founder of the modern Olympic Games and here are two examples of winners.

- A Hungarian tennis player who pleaded with the umpire to give his opponent some more time to recover from a cramp.
- A British kayak team who were trailing the Danish kayak team. They then stopped to help the Danish team whose boat was stuck. The Danes went on to beat the British by one second in a three hour event!
What wonderful examples of sportsmanship! Play to Win, but with Fairness.

4 Enjoy whatever you do

Sir Thomas Lipton is credited with the statement, "There is no greater fun than hard work". You usually excel in fields, which you truly enjoy. Ask any person what it is that interferes with his enjoyment of existence. He will say, "The struggle for life". What he probably means is the struggle for success. Unless a person has learnt what to do with success after getting it, the very achievement of it must lead him to unhappiness.

Aristotle wrote, "Humans seek happiness as an end in itself, not as a means to something else". But if you think about it, we should not work for happiness. We should work as happy people. In organisational life, people get busy doing something to be happy. The more you try to be happy, the more unhappy you can get. Your work and career is all about your reaching your full potential. Working at one's full potential, whether it is the office boy or the Chairman, leads to enjoyment and fulfillment.

A last point about enjoyment. Keep a sense of humour about yourself. Too many people are in danger of taking themselves far too seriously. As General Joe Stilwell is reported to have said, "Keep smiling. The higher the monkey climbs, the more you can see of his backside".

5 Be Passionate about your health

Of course, as you get older, you would have a slight paunch, greying of hair or loss of it and so on. But it is in the first 5 - 7 years after the working career begins that the greatest neglect of youthful health occurs. Sportsmen stop playing sports, non drinkers drink alcohol, light smokers smoke more, active people sit on chairs, starving inmates of hostels eat rich food in good hotels and so on. These are the years to watch. Do not, I repeat do not, convince yourself that you are too busy, or that you do not have access to facilities, or worst of all, that you do this to relieve the stresses of a professional career.

A professional career is indeed very stressful. There is only one person who can help you to cope with the tension, avoid the doctor's scalpel, and to feel good each morning - and that is yourself. God has given us as good a health as He has, a bit like a credit balance in the bank. Grow it, maintain it, but do not allow its value destruction. The penalty is very high in later years.

6 Direction is more important than distance

Every golfer tries to drive the ball to a very long distance. In the process, all sorts of mistakes occur because the game involves the masterly co-ordination of several movements simultaneously. The golf coach always advises that direction is more important than distance. So it is with life.

Despite one��s best attempts, there will be ups and downs. It is relationships and friendships that enable a person to navigate the choppy waters that the ship of life will encounter. When I was young, there was a memorable film by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart and Dona Reed, and named IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. It is about a man who is about to commit suicide because he thinks he is a failure. An angel is sent to rescue him. The bottomline of the film is that "No Man is a Failure Who Has Friends".

Conclusion
My generation will never be twenty again, but when you are older, you can and should be different from my generation. Ours is a great and wonderful country, and realising her true potential in the global arena depends ever so much on the quality and persistence of our young people. Good luck in your journey, my young friends, and God be with you and our beloved Nation.

These are the personal views of Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Director( now chairman!) - Tata Sons.

Never Check Email in the Morning

2006-01-01T20:02:00.000-08:00

This is nice. It gives an important tip about managing the morning hour, which invariably goes to the Outlook.
How much do you accomplish each day? Do you turn work around quickly or does it get backed up on your desk, the victim of multiple distractions throughout the day? The most valued employees get things done despite the distractions – and there’s no bigger distraction than email. Let’s face it, email has many drawbacks despite all its benefits. It saps our energy, drains our creativity and often keeps us from doing what’s really important. “It is the world’s most convenient procrastination device,” cautions Julie Morgenstern, founder of Julie Morgenstern Enterprises, Inc. (www.juliemorgenstern. com) and author of "Never Check E-mail in the Morning" (Simon & Schuster, 2004). Here, she says, is how to take control of this communication behemoth.

1. Avoid email for the first hour of the day.

Most people start their workday by checking their email. Then, before they know it, a good half hour or more has gone by as they send out a few quick messages, reply to inquiries and so on. Change the rhythm of your workday, says Morgenstern. Devote the first hour of your day to concentrated work, to your most critical task. Don’t even peek at email to see what’s there, she cautions, or you’ll open up all sorts of different drawers in your mind that will distract you from concentrating only on your real work.

2. Focus on your most critical task.

Each night ask yourself this question: If tomorrow flies out of control, what one task would I be thrilled to get done? Put another way: What can I do to earn my salary by 10 a.m.? Deciding on your first, most critical task at night accomplishes two things. First, it prepares you to walk in the door the next day and get immediately to work without wasting time. Second, it lets you begin work knowing what needs to be done. On your drive to work, you’ll be thinking about that task and how to approach it. Even in your sleep your subconscious mind will be crafting solutions. “Turn off your email alarm, turn on your voicemail and walk into your office with a single focus – completing that critical task,” says Morgenstern. “Don’t drop in on a friend. Put on your blinders and tear into your task. The energy you’ll feel from accomplishing it will fuel you all day long.”

3. Manage your email.

Now that you’ve finished your critical task you can take a look at email. Here are some tips for controlling the barrage of messages.

Turn off the alarm and check email at designated times of day – 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., for example. Process emails fully during those times. Delete what you can; respond immediately if you can do so in less than two minutes. For anything requiring thought or research, schedule a specific time later in your day to take care of the matter. When you can, say what you need to in the subject line and leave the body blank. For example: Please schedule staff meeting for Friday 11 a.m.
Set filters on your email to presort by sender so you can process emails in priority order. Then deal with different categories of email at different times of day.
Remember that email is no substitute for human contact. If it can and should be said in person, handle it that way.

Enjoy your Coffee

2005-12-16T01:48:00.001-08:00

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups." "Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and
position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change." "Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it." So friends, don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead.

How to Retire at 34

2005-12-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

The story of Ramesh Ramanathan, founder Janaagraha-How to Retire at 34
As with their finances, so with their lives--the Ramanathans give the ‘high-risk, high-return’ philosophy a new definition.

HALF A million dollars is what they set out to earn, as they winged their way to the US in the late eighties. To 24-year-old Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan, that had seemed a good sum to return home with. A garage sale of all their worldly possessions had fetched Rs 3 lakh, they had mustered an educational loan of another Rs 3 lakh to fund Ramesh’s goal of a Yale MBA, and they were off.
The couple’s decision to upend a promising life in Bangalore and take on debt to chase the American dream was roundly deemed foolhardy by family and friends. The sense of disbelief at their departure, however, was nothing compared to what greeted the couple a decade later when they actually returned home.
As managing director of Citibank’s Equity Derivatives Business in Europe, Ramesh was among Citi’s top 150 executives, tipped as potential CEO material. Their personal fortune by then was "many multiples of half a million dollars." Swati’s Masters in design from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute had found her jobs at Fortune 500 design firms. Daughter Shunori was six and son Rishab all of two. At this point, the Ramanathans decided it was time to give up their jobs, retire and head back home.
When he took this decision, Ramesh was 34; and it was the third time in his life that he was veering away from a scripted success story to rewrite the plot. "I grew up in a middle-class home–financial security is extremely important to me–but equally important is intellectual honesty; I need to believe in what I am doing," he says. And if that has meant plunging into decisions that put everything achieved thus far at risk, the Ramanathans have never hesitated.
The first right turn
The tough decisions started early. The couple met in Bangalore when they were 18. Ramesh enrolled for a Masters in Physics and Computers at BITS Pilani, while Swati convinced her conservative Gujarati family to allow her to train in design at NID, Ahmedabad. Determined to marry in the face of stiff parental opposition, Ramesh decided to drop out of BITS in his fourth year so he could start earning. Says Ramesh: "My mother was devastated but my father backed me and allowed me to start working with him in his machinery-handling business."
It was his first brush with the real world of smokestack industries and grimy shop floors. He quickly learnt the ropes well enough to enter into a profit-sharing arrangement with his father. His first earnings of Rs 3,000 went to Swati, who promptly opened a bank account. After a year, and now married, Ramesh had learnt enough to launch his own business trading in specialty steel, while Swati started off an interior design firm. The 20-something couple was soon earning close to Rs 30,000 a month. A rented apartment in downtown Bangalore, a car and Rs 1.2 lakh invested in a piece of real estate, the couple was well on its way to yuppiedom. Already, the real estate investment is clear evidence that, unlike an average couple that would have put its money into savings accounts or a mutual fund, Ramanathan was ready to tread deep waters.
Spiritually, however, the couple felt stagnated. Says Swati: "We were making money but intellectually we were vegetating." They wanted a change.
To throw away an established life and start afresh in the US took courage. But that’s something the Ramanathans had in plenty. With his sights, as usual, set high, Ramesh would choose Ivy League. They decided to take on a loan but get the best degree from the best college. Again, a glimpse of that ability to up the stakes. The two of them reached Yale with just enough for Ramesh’s first year’s tuition. Swati waited tables and ran the college cafeteria to make ends meet. They hoarded discount coupons and wondered if their budget would stretch to include cauliflower for dinner.
When Ramesh landed a six-week summer internship at Citi that paid him $1,200 a week, it was the first vindication that throwing up a flourishing career back home had been the right choice. A university loan completed the second year and, as Swati says: "The second year was wonderful–we knew he would get a placement at Citi."
On the fast track. A starting salary of $65,000 as management associate and a sign-on bonus of $20,000 launched the Ramanathans on a halcyon stint in the world of international finance. But Ramesh soon realised that the salary was incidental: "The real money in international banking is in the bonuses; the more profit you generate for the bank, the more you earn as bonus." Not a gambit the punter Ramesh would easily pass.
In two years, drawing on Citi’s proven strength in derivatives, Ramesh created a derivatives product with a basket of multimedia stock for the retail market. However, all he got out of it was a fat bonus; somebody else got to run the business. Undeterred, he put together another derivatives product aimed at corporate clients. This time, he insisted he would run the business. The gamble paid off, and in two years, he had built a $50 million business from scratch. Four and a half years after joining Citi, Ramesh had moved into the high-powered orbit of the bank’s boardrooms. Meanwhile, Swati was working with top-notch design companies.
Ramesh’s investment antennae were meanwhile twitching sharply. He chose equity, and put money into Nokia, EMC and other less-known stocks with high performing potential. Nokia, a Finnish forest produce company, that was flirting with telecom, was one of his first buys. Listed in Europe, it was first noticed by the Fidelity Magellan Fund. Ramesh put in around $20,000 in the stock and stayed invested even as Fidelity cashed out. The faith paid off when Nokia became a byword for mobile telephony. EMC, the computer hardware maker, turned out to be another winning buy. By the time he moved to London as head of Citi’s equity derivatives business in Europe, his personal portfolio, fuelled by his spectacular bonus earnings and a very high appetite for risk, had a compounded annual growth rate of 40-50 per cent.
High-flying careers, jet-setting lifestyle, and more money than they had ever set out to earn. Nearing the summit, you’d say.
Turn right back
For the Ramanathans, though, the lure of India was a constant note in the background. In fact, they would not buy real estate in the US because that would have been tantamount to putting down roots there. Returning was always the background motif. When Swati volunteered for community work, she saw something that made this wish stronger. She says: "When I went for community work, I was surprised at how efficient the systems were for citizen participation. I asked myself why India couldn’t be like this."
It was at this point that the couple realised that the system worked because somebody had taken the trouble to put it in place. Says Swati: "It was a simple leap from there to asking ourselves, if not us who else, to put a system in place?"
Moving back to India was no longer a distant option, it became a certainty. By giving up a high-flying career at Citi, Ramesh knew he was staking everything to chase an ideal. But as always, he was comfortable with the gamble–punt high but take the chips home.
The final move came when a friend, who had lost both parents within a week of each other in India, spent a weekend with them. Says Swati: "The enormity of her loss jolted us. All we could think was, what were we waiting for?" Monday morning, the couple put in their papers. Even as Citi flew in a director to make Ramesh reconsider, the couple was already looking ahead to India.
Planning the move
The couple sat down and listed every detail, down to household help, of what it would cost to retire at 34 and begin afresh back home. The derivatives genius brought to bear some of that formidable skill to crafting a personal finance strategy. Central to the plan was ensuring a regular cash flow to take care of living expenses. "It was tempting," admits Ramesh, "to return to India under the Citi umbrella." But he knew it would be self-defeating, if his heart was set on provoking social change.
The family was clear they were making a geographical shift, not a lifestyle one. So, living expenses–including household, fuel, staff, two cars–was calculated to average about Rs 2 lakh a month. The children’s fees alone totalled up to Rs 4 lakh annually. The capital cost of the move, including a new home, was pegged at
Rs 1.5 crore. Says Ramesh: "We realised that with about Rs 24 lakh annually, we could support a very comfortable lifestyle in India." Then, they promised themselves a no-expense-spared overseas trip every year to touch base with friends–another $30,000-50,000 a year. Says Ramesh: "All put together, it would amount to Rs 50 lakh annually; still half of what we spent at the time of my last posting in London."
The big difference: then he drew a hefty salary and bonus, now he would need to make his money work to get the Rs 50 lakh. Says Ramesh: "To get the best return on investment, we had to be free to invest our dollar earnings anywhere in the globe." They, therefore, set up a private equity investment vehicle registered in Mauritius, Ramanathan Capital, to handle the couple’s personal finances and invest in private equity worldwide.
Soon, their personal finances were in fine fettle. Their cash flow needs were now met by their investments–stocks, fixed- income instruments and a gradual exposure to Indian equity. However, meeting lifestyle expenses was only a part of the overall financial plan. Their money would also have to fund the voluntary initiatives that would henceforth form the bedrock of their lives in India.
The new role
Meanwhile, Ramesh was searching for a role for himself in a changing India. He travelled across the country for the first six months, meeting NGOs and bureaucrats. Micro-finance investment and public policy were his two areas of interest. In Bangalore, the state government was putting in place the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), inviting corporate participation in public policy. Enthused, Ramesh signed up to devise a fund-based accounting system for the Bangalore City Corporation. The double entry book keeping system was in place by April 2001, allowing detailed listings such as the money allotted to each city ward for development work.
Finally, disappointed when BATF was unable to involve citizens in the decision-making process, Ramesh and Swati founded Janaagraha, funded entirely by the Ramanathan Foundation with a corpus of Rs 2.5 crore. "True democracy means a citizen should have a voice in government," is what the couple firmly believes. Today, every citizen in each of Bangalore’s 100 corporation wards can participate in the budget allocation of her ward. In 22 wards, corporators have accepted citizens' suggestions. Two years after inception, Janaagraha supports a volunteer staff of 15 and Ramesh reckons it will cost Rs 30-50 lakh annually to run.
Therefore, he realigned his investment strategy. The Ramanathan Foundation corpus is now invested in tenanted commercial real estate, earning tax-free returns of 12 per cent. Says Ramesh: "Our personal investments on the other hand return 6-8 per cent after tax, a reason why I will consider more investment in real estate." As Janaagraha draws up more of his time, Ramesh is moving his personal investment decisions into the hands of professional money managers. Says Ramesh: "By the time we’re 50, both our children will be in their undergraduate courses. We will support them through that and for their future, we’ve set up an endowment each."
As the couple turns 40, says Ramesh: "Our everyday cash flow expenses are being met, the children’s endowment is in place, Janaagraha has been provided for, so what’s left?" Very little. They returned because "they wanted to give back," and they’ve done that very well indeed.

Grass Seems to be Greener

2005-12-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

The grass isn't always greener on the other side!! Move from one job to another, but only for the right reasons. It's yet another day at office. As I logged on to the marketing and advertising sites for the latest updates,as usual, I found the headlines dominated by "who's" moving from one company to another after a short stint, and I wondered, why are so many people leaving one job for another? Is it passé now to work with just one company for a sufficiently long period? Whenever I ask this question to people who leave a company, the answers I get are: "Oh, I am getting a 200% hike in salary"; "Well I am jumping three levels in my designation"; "Well they are going to send me abroad in six months".
Then, I look around at all the people who are considered successful today and who have reached the top - be it a media agency, an advertising agency or a company. I find that most of these people are the ones who stuck to the company, ground their heels and worked their way to the top. And, as I look around for people who change their jobs constantly, I find they have stagnated at some level, in obscurity. In this absolute ruthless, dynamic and competitive environment, there are still no - short cuts to success or to making money. The only thing that continues to pay, as earlier is loyalty and hard work. Yes, it pays! Sometimes, immediately, sometimes after a lot of time. But, it does pay. Does this mean that one should stick to an organization and wait for the golden moment? Of course not. After, a long stint, there always comes a time for moving in most organisations, but it is important to move for the right reasons, rather than the superficial ones, like money, designation or overseas trip. Remember, no company recruits for charity. More often than not, when you are offered an unseemly hike in salary or designation that is disproportionate to what the company offers it current employees, there is always an unseemly bait attached. The result? You will, in the long term have reached the same level or may be lower levels than what you would have in your current company.
A lot of people leave their organisations because they are "unhappy". What is this so called unhappiness? I have been working for donkey years and there has never been a day when I am not unhappy about something in my work environment - boss, rude colleagues, fussy clients etc. Unhappiness in a work place, to a large extent, is transient. If you look hard enough, there is always something to be unhappy about. But, more importantly, do I come to work to be "happy" in the truest sense? If I think hard, the answer is "No". Happiness is something you find with family, friends, may be a close circle of colleagues who have become friends.What you come to work for is to earn, build a reputation, satisfy your ambitions, be appreciated for your work ethics, face challenges and get the job done. So, the next time you are tempered to move on, as yourself why are you moving and what are you moving into?
Some questions are:
* Am I ready and capable of handling the new responsibility? If yes, what could be the possible reasons my current company has not offered me the same responsibility?
* Who are the people who currently handle this responsibility in the current and new company? Am I good as the best among them?
* As the new job offer has a different profile, why have I not given the current company the option to offer me this profile?
* Why is the new company offering the new job? Do they want me for my skills, or is that ulterior motive? An honest answer to these will eventually decide where you go in your career to the top of the pile in the long term (at the cost of short - term blips) or to become another average employee who gets lost with the time in wilderness?"

DESERVE BEFORE YOU DESIRE"
- Dr. Gopalakrishnan, Chairman TATA Sons.

IT Survivors - Staying Alive In A Software Job

2005-12-06T03:32:00.000-08:00

Before I started working for myself, I spent some years in some of the top IT companies in India and still have many friends working in various software companies. I wrote a blog Recruiting like crazy, about the same time last year about how Indian companies are recruiting like there's no tomorrow and the possible consequences. However I was avoiding writing this particular piece as it seems like an unpatriotic thing to do, to tell the world how bad the working conditions in software companies in India have become. And there's always the risk of excerpts being used out of context to bash up IT in India.
I am now writing this because I just keep hearing horror tales from the industry and it doesn't seem like anything is being done in the matter, so I thought I will do my bit and write. First and foremost, before stereotypes about India kick in, I would like to clarify that I am not saying that Indian software companies are sweat shops where employees aren't being paid and made to work in cramped uncomfortable places. The pay in software companies is very good as compared to other industries in India and the work places are generally well furnished and plush offices. India being a strong democracy, freedom of expression is alive and well and Indians are free to express their opinions and voice their concerns. Yet, I say that the software industry is exploiting its employees.
IT work culture in India is totally messed up and has now started harming the work culture of the nation as a whole. Working 12+ hours a day and 6 or even 7 days a week is more the rule than the exception.
Consequences:
· A majority of IT people suffer from health problems.As most of the IT workforce is still very young, the problem isn't very obvious today but it will hit with unbearable ferocity when these youngsters get to their 40s.
· Stress levels are unbelievable high. Stress management is a cover topic in magazines and newspapers and workshops on the subject are regularly overbooked.
· Most IT people have hardly any social / family life to talk of.
· As IT folk are rich by Indian standards, they try to buy their way out of their troubles and have incurred huge debts by buying expensive houses, gizmos and fancy cars.
Plush offices, fat salaries and latest gizmos can give you happiness only if you have a life in the first place.
The reason I feel this culture has emerged, is the servile attitude of the companies. Here's a tip for any company in the west planning to outsource to India. If you feel that a project can be completed in 6 weeks by 4 people, always demand that it be completed in 2 weeks by 3 people. Guess what, most Indian companies will agree. The project will then be hyped up as an "extremely critical" one and the 3 unfortunate souls allocated to it will get very close to meeting the almighty by the time they deliver the project in 2 weeks. Surprisingly, they will deliver in 2-3 weeks, get bashed up for any delays and the company will soon boast about how they deliver good quality in reasonable time and cost. Has anyone in India ever worked on a project that wasn't "extremely critical"?I was once at a session where a top boss of one of India's biggest IT firms was asked a question about what was so special about their company and his answer was that we are the "Yes" people with the "We Can Do It " attitude. It is all very well for the top boss to say "We Can Do It ".. what about the project teams who wish to say "Please....We Can't Do It " to the unreasonable timelines...I was tempted to ask "What death benefits does your company offer to the teams that get killed in the process?". I sure was ashamed to see that a fellow Indian was openly boasting about the fact that he and his company had no backbone. The art of saying No or negotiating reasonable time frames for the team is very conspicuous by its absence. Outsourcing customers more often than not simply walk all over Indian software companies. The outsourcer surely cannot be blamed as it is right for him to demand good quality in the least cost and time.
Exhaustion = Zero Innovation
· How many Indians in India are thought leaders in their software segment? - Very few
· How much software innovation happens in India? - Minimal
· Considering that thousands of Indians in India use Open Source software, how many actually contribute? - Very few
Surprisingly, put the same Indian in a company "in" the US and he suddenly becomes innovative and a thought leader in his field. The reason is simple, the only thing an exhausted body and mind can do well, is sleep. zzzzzz
I can pretty much bet on it that we will never see innovation from any of 10000+ person code factories in India.
If you are someone sitting in the US, UK... and wondering why the employees can't stand up, that's the most interesting part of the story. Read on...
The Problem
The software professional Indian is today making more money in a month than what his parents might have made in an year. Very often a 21 year old newbie software developer makes more money than his/her 55 year old father working in an old world business. Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work.Another important factor is this whole bubble that an IT person lives in.. An IT professional walks with a halo around his or her head. They are the Cool, Rich Gen Next .. the Intelligentsia of the New World... they travel all over the world, vacation at exotic locations abroad, talk "american", are more familiar of the geography of the USA than that of India and yes of course, they are the hottest things in the Wedding Market!!! This I feel is the core problem because if employees felt they were being exploited, things would change.
I speak about this to some of my friends and the answer is generally "Hey Harshad, what you say is correct and we sure are suffering, but why do you think we are being paid this much money? It's not for 40 hours but for 80 hours a week. And anyway what choice do we have? It's the same everywhere."
So can we make things change? Is there a way to try and stop an entire generation of educated Indians from ending up with "no life".
Solutions
1) Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the "employee of the month" award said something like "It's unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working".. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.
Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing that should work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week . 2) Estimates:
If time estimates go wrong, the company should be willing to take a hit and not force the employee to work crazy hours to bail projects out of trouble. This will ensure that the estimates made for the next project are more real and not just what the customer has asked for.3) Employee organizations / forums
NASSCOM (National Association for Software and Services Companies) and CSI (Computer Society Of India) are perhaps the only two well known software associations in India and both I feel have failed the software employee. I do not recall any action from these organizations to try and improve the working conditions of software employees. This has to change.
I am not in favor of forming trade unions for software people, as trade unions in India have traditionally been more effective at ruining businesses and making employees inefficient than getting employees their rights and helping business do well. So existing bodies like NASSCOM should create and popularize employee welfare cells at a state / regional level and these cells should work only for employee welfare and not be puppets in the hands of the companies.
If the industry does not itself create proper forums for employee welfare, it's likely that the government / trade unions will interfere and mess up India's sunshine industry.
4) Narayan Murthys please stand up
Top bosses of companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. need to send the message loud and clear to their company and to other companies listening at national IT events that employee welfare is really their top concern and having good working culture and conditions is a priority. Employee welfare here does not mean giving the employee the salary he/she dreams of.
Last word
I am sure some of my thoughts come from the fact that I too worked in such an environment for a few years and perhaps I haven't got over the frustrations I experienced back then. So think about my views with a pinch of salt but do think about it. And if you have an opinion on this issue, don't forget to add a comment to this article

Written by Harshad Oak

Don't Hope , Decide

2005-12-06T00:55:00.000-08:00

While waiting to pick up a friend at the airport in Portland, Oregon, I had one of those life-changing experiences that you hear other people talk about--the kind that sneaks up on you unexpectedly. This one occurred a mere two feet away from me.
Straining to locate my friend among the passengers deplaning through the jet way, I noticed a man coming toward me carrying two light bags. He stopped right next to me to greet his family.
First he motioned to his youngest son (maybe six years old) as he laid down his bags. They gave each other a long, loving hug. As they separated enough to look in each other's face, I heard the father say, "It's so good to see you, son. I missed you so much!" His son smiled somewhat shyly, averted his eyes and replied softly, "Me, too, Dad!"
Then the man stood up, gazed in the eyes of his oldest son (maybe nine or ten) and while cupping his son's face in his hands said, "You're already quite the young man. I love you very much, Zach!" They too hugged a most loving, tender hug.
While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps one or one-and-a-half) was squirming excitedly in her mother's arms, never once taking her little eyes off the wonderful sight of her returning father. The man said, "Hi, baby girl!" as he gently took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her face all over and then held her close to his chest while rocking her from side to side. The little girl instantly relaxed and simply laid her head on his shoulder, motionless in pure contentment.
After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, "I've saved the best for last!" and proceeded to give his wife the longest, most passionate kiss I ever remember seeing. He gazed into her eyes for several seconds and then silently mouthed. "I love you so
much!" They stared at each other's eyes, beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands.
For an instant they reminded me of newlyweds, but I knew by the age of their kids that they couldn't possibly be. I puzzled about it for a moment then realized how totally engrossed I was in the wonderful display of unconditional love not more than an arm's length away from me.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I was invading something sacred, but was amazed to hear my own voice nervously ask, "Wow! How long have you two been married?" "Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those" he replied, without breaking his gaze from his lovely wife's face. "Well then, how long have you been away?" I asked the man finally turned and looked at me, still beaming his joyous smile. "Two whole days!" Two days? I was stunned.
By the intensity of the greeting, I had assumed he'd been gone for at least several weeks - if not months. I know my expression betrayed me, I said almost offhandedly, hoping to end my intrusion with some semblance of grace (and to get back to searching for my friend), "I hope my
marriage is still that passionate after twelve years!" The man suddenly stopped smiling.
He looked me straight in the eye, and with forcefulness that burned right into my soul, he told me something that left me a different person. He told me, "Don't hope, friend...decide!" Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand and said, "God bless!"
With that, he and his family turned and strode away together. I was still watching that exceptional man and his special family walk just out of sight when my friend came up to me and asked, "What'cha looking at?"
Without hesitating, and with a curious sense of certainty, I replied, "My future!"