Saturday 29 August 2009

Belief - Reform or Kill


On my last post on The Looser within you I tried to cover how the looser within you hurts your success right when you have won... however I thought it would be of help if I try to cover the important aspect of this looser that sits in you... Belief.. the word always had different meaning and is taken in different perspective.. but I believe the looser within you can only arise in you when there is a lack of this noun Belief...

Its the belief that can let this Looser within you be in a dead state and its the belief that can help you never let the looser inside you ever ever get its head up... I remember the first match that Stuart Broad played after the famous 6 sixes in one cricket over by Yuvraj Singh ... he had belief not only in himself but in his actions... no wonder it got him the Man of the Match award in the last Ashes win..
Don't go far very recent comeback of Rahul Dravid is an example of having comeback only because of strong belief...

However there are 2 modes of belief .... 1 is the self belief and the other is the Team belief... of course if each member of the Team if believes in himself and the Team the Team belief is active... and that is what would make the Team succeed. Eventually there are also cases where individuals may not believe in themselves but they see the team around roaming with the strongest belief... The strongest belief that generates enough confidence in them to succeed...

Individual beliefs gets you closer to success , Team beliefs get you closer to revolutions and miracles... If you think positive and feel strong about the Team that sits around you... it would be you along with this same team that can change the direction of Fate...





I remember when I was a part of the cricket team for my college, university and of course the club cricket... it was belief that we were good cricketers, we were the best in the lot, We could win anything and anyone, We were Invincible... Yes this belief always bought us back in the game.. always. We must have lost several matches, tons of them.. but we still believed we played the best cricket and that always showed in the game....

At the same time I have seen the bestests of individuals and Teams loosing greater grounds because they stop believing themselves, they stop generating the zeal of belief that leads the path to success...If you have the slightest doubt in your mind about your Team or yourself its the beginning of your end, and I am sure you wont want to begin your end...

Moral of the Story :

1. Keep your hopes up
2. People who don't believe in you or your teams would never be with you, the ones who do would stay with you always
3. A belief can never be killed completely, it can either be turned positive or negative
4. Have no place for those in your life who don't believe in you
5. Always ensure that you believe in your abilities not by showing it off, but by grooming it in the best possible way

Sunday 23 August 2009

Kill the Looser within you!!!

Mark Suster's post on winning is amazing, inspiring and thought triggering... not only it reveals on whats and how of winning but also tells us on whens of winning... Back to the reference of winning and loosing I completely share the same view on

3. You are most vulnerable right after it has been announced that you won (I will write a separate post on this). This is the most important lesson I learned from this experience. All other lessons were sort of obvious. This one was eye-opening.


Yes... that's what I call the Looser within you, that gets activated right after you have won... Most of the people who WIN , sustain to this looser within them right after they win... My first such experience was when we started the second office in Pune for CMC's training division... My then Boss had struggled a lot (I was given a deep insight to majority of critical discussion's that happened) to change the management's decision to let him run the groups second venture. Just after we won and we started our second office in the center of the city, We lost.. The fact of keeping the existing training centre running with the one that was started new started to be very costly, Competition within the group started to make negative steps in offering lucrative trainings for existing students elsewhere and above all gave a rumour that the new centre was closing.. A couple of months and the center was closed..

It was too early for me to derive learnings from it.. the usual (Don't know what went wrong syndrome) and the I am not the one who did it wrong syndrome.. however now when I review those days back I have a feel that the Looser in you gets activated right after you have won.. A few more experiences...

1. Our Team was able to deliver a classic version of the archiving tool almost a year ago. We won, we delivered the tool in the shortest time and we could win hearts of our sales/business teams by showing them what we did. The feel of win took us back and after a year of development we really really delivered the first archive this month...The winner that was proud within us took us back and made us lazy enough to not make that small success convert into a larger one.

The looser that sits within you and is ready to take on you right when you have achieved something is the one that has the biggest potential to hurt your success and turn it into failure...Thats the lesson that the movie "Lakshya" gives us when the Army Subhedhar says that the enemy has a habit of firing back the next day after you have conquered the territory.. it is not them it is you who relax...




My 2 cents about how to kill this looser in you...

1. Have the Usain Bolt in you awaken... 9.69 is a great win and achievement, but what makes you kill the looser in you is the thrust to achieve 9.58 immediately after and what makes this warrior feeling better is to achieve another record in 200m

2. The actual race starts the moment you win. (Did I just say that we are working more hard after we had a decision on our product after a long time, Or did I tell you that we are thinking of working more harder after we achieve our first release?

3. Winning is Good, But don't make it a habit.. Its the failures that keep the winner within you awake..

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Change Begins!!!!

So finally I seek the evening to let you know that the change has begun...the first day of change was the late evening of 15th August our Independence day....So back to your question what is this change about?

I think over a few last days I learnt a few bitter lessons... and have decided to work over them and bring some passion back to life spiced with some professional joy and of course some critical changes to the modus that I operate with....

So here is the first change .....

Change # 1 Pomodoro
I always felt that over the last 2 years I never saw anyone more dis organized than myself..
1. Dis organized thoughts
2. Dis organized work method
3. Disorganized lifestyle

For those who have no insight to all the 3 lifestyles please dont worry... they are more associated to my way of working than myself on a whole... except work I am the most organized person on earth ;) Did I just say that ONLY work is my life?

OK... SO Boss I admit that though I try to be very organized I end up being not... and here is the change I promise to bring...

I tried my first Pomodoro on 16th worked very well... I tried it on last 2 days and it worked well.. I intend to try it tomorrow and I am sure it will work well... Now for those of you who think that the April fool joke would add no value ... I think it is making some difference...

What I tried today?
Between my meetings today I got availability for 4 pomodoro's .... exactly .. approximately 2 hrs... 2 Direct hours.

I decided to get my pomodoro to setup 4 tasks :

1. First : Work over the JIRA cover for the Release Map .

2. Second : Update the resource plan

I set them up across 4 pomodoros and eventually with the said focus and time I was able to get through.... Now I intend to apply a bit more of it tomorrow... let me tell you how it works ...

OOOOOOOOPPPPPS... I may have not told you what Pomodoro is .... Welll thats another change I am going to bring upon... no giving answers ;) letting you find it on your own... until this approach ruins my and your time...

If you are interested in using it or knowing more about it here is the link .... http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Change is coming... final 3 days

I took the chill pill in the last 2 days... honestly it has being very tight, very very tight with several issues around... I take this time I am getting free to tell you that I am getting ready for the change...

While I let myself prepare more and organize it more....

Saturday 8 August 2009

Changing my Life - 6 Days to Go

Are you getting bald?
No I am not... I love my black hair. And though I want to get bald I think it will be only when I will not be around my kids.. who would definitely think I am a villain

Are you changing your job?
Hell No. I am very Happy doing what I am doing and I enjoy every piece of my time with a great team I work with.

Are you leaving the City/Town/Country?
Not in next 7 days. And that doesn't change my life.. just the place where I would live it ;)

Are you trying to be like Rakhi Sawant? Catching attention by making tricky statements
No not really... I want to bring this change.. so this questions is useless.. the answer to it not worth mentioning..

So what the hell is it?
Wait.... Patience.. I will reveal starting the 7th day from now.

Friday 7 August 2009

Changing my Life - 7 Days to Go

Over the last 2 months I have being planning to change my life.. Yes bigger and smaller things that affect me and my life, closely and from far off. I expect these changes to be highly positive and would affect my future very very positively. Ofcourse the change is in terms of improvising myself, though I know I havent been very good at it.. I have a feeling that I am going to make it work for me..

So what are these changes going to be? Well have patience my friends... it will come to you in next 7 days.. No Hype , No Mood Spoils.. I am sure you would like it and appreciate it...