Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The Silent Count Down is On !!!

"Five, Four, Three, Two, One !!!" Sounds like some race which is going to start / some game is getting over/ some one shouting out the last five seconds of 31st December isn't it ?

But there is a deeper countdown which has already started and is going to reach the end point but no one knows when, its the countdown of Life !!.. It began the day we were born and remains on till the moment we take our last breath. It would have been great if we could hear the counts so that we manage our life actions accordingly. But unfortunately  the count down is silent one and I think god wanted it to be so. 

One of the famous stories which I can think of about relating to this idea is from Mahabharata. During exile, once four other Pandavas happened to drink water from a lake, which was haunted by a Yaksha. Yaksha had  warned them that they should answer his questions before they drink water, but none of them paid attention and were eventually got killed. Yudhisthra went there and agreed to answer all the questions, yaksha said if you answer the questions correctly then he give life to all his brothers. He asked many questions to Yudhisthira and he got good answers, one of the question was " What is the greatest mystery / Paradox/ wonder of life ? Ans by Yudhistira was : "We all know that we are going to die but we behave as if we are immortal" Now there are many versions to this text but the idea is quite clear and relevant in todays world. 

We happen to postpone many things to tomorrow, next year, once I have xyz then Ill do it etc. But we don't realize the silent countdown is on. We have many things we want to try out / do / experience / talk to,  so many things which we  postpone it to some wonderful (ideal) day in future. I would like to admit that I do the same thing all the time, but I am really trying to resist it whenever possible. 

Follow your passion is more or less has become a Career Gospel in today's world. It is astonishingly appealing concept, but in my personal experience says that its not so simple as it sounds like. There are many other concepts like "Purpose is more important than passion" which means finding out a cause which you value / problem in the world which bothers you and then contributing your life to do it. 

I have come across many videos and articles which are very convincing about various ideas relating to this concept but I don't want to list them here. The only thing I have realized or rather have continuously come across events which rebuilds my realization is that "Success is a personal thing,  we have to define it for ourselves, because if we leave for others (so called Society)  to decide we would never accomplish it. The reason is  the one who taught society punctuation marks forgot to teach  "." (Full Stop).  Society will always point towards the grass which according to it is greener, than yours. 

I am very sure I have confused you, though it was not intentional. The moral of the story is "Its your life, do what you always wanted to.. its good to fail ..and blame your self for the wrong decisions you made rather than, getting carried away by the ideas which look right in the eyes of others and end up making you feel incomplete."










No one of us is as Smart as All of Us.


"No one of us is as Smart as All of Us !! ", what a statement by Sir. Ken Blanchard, I don't think he has received knighthood yet but I am sure he will, and even if he formally doesn't for me he will always be a great teacher. I have read two of his books ie. Leadership Pill and Yes or No, and I have learned a lot from both of them but mainly a lot from leadership pill.

I happened to have an experience of leading a small team when I was working with a start up.  As we all know working with a startup is a really different and great learning experience. I faced many internal questions and learned many things of leading a team, probably a hard way. I used to reflect as to what worked and what didn't while holding this position. During that time I happened to stumble upon this book called "leadership pill". Its a short 80-100 page book, light weight , very user friendly. In that book I could relate to many experiences which I had while being the leader of this team. I started understanding many mistakes which I committed, and it was a great help. I know I have lot to learn in the area of leadership, but now at-least I know where to look for guidance and insights. The reason of telling you all this is that I wanted to give you a context as to why I feel that this person great and is full of insights and wisdom.

Enjoy the video: