Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1 Billion – roughly Rs.5000 Crores – we usually hear these numbers only from Scams. This set me thinking about money – and is it what we should all be running after?

Before I get into money I want to share an important lesson I learnt on Running.Whenever I start with an end goal saying today I will run 8Kms, or will run 5 Kms within 30 minutes – I have a very bad run.

I will get exhausted fast, I will get angry with myself as midway when I check I will realize that I am not going to reach my goal and I will start running harder. My mood and run will be on a downward spiral at that point onwards and I will end my run frustrated and depressed. Every single time I had set this kind of a goal – the end result is the same.

However, the days when I am in a great mood and I run freely and simply enjoy the run – I run really really well. I do not get exhausted, I do not tire, my timing is great, and I can keep running longer distances.

A goal is important – but I should not let it become my boss and start dictating me.

Likewise I have to come to realize the same thing in running our Startup.

We do have a sales target,  but our team does not get stressed out if we do not achieve this number. We had a guess-the-number-of-wins-by-Diwali contest last year ! ( ahemm I lost to our Accounts Champion who guessed accurately.  Sangeeta refused to participate calling this Juvenile but she did monitor closely through out!  )

We have started focusing entirely on solving our customer’s problems and not go by the traditional sales goals. Early in the cycle we try to understand the problem and if we realize that our product was not the right fit – we directed them to other sites and solutions.

We connected our customers with Auditors, Lawyers, Rain Water Harvesting Experts, STP Experts, Facility Management Experts, Accountants and introduced them to other Management Committees who had walked their path. When they needed an Estate Manager, even though they did not use our portal, we sent them leads.

Guess what? We have customers increasingly returning to us. We not only met our goal, we exceeded it.

Now when I tie these 2 string of thoughts together – running and running a startup – the similarities are not surprising : When I enjoy my run the goal is achieved automatically.

This brings out another important angle to a Bootstrapped startup. We do not have a ticking bomb tied to our back – the equivalent of a 8km / 5kms in 30 minutes goal. We have the luxury of concentrating on solving our customer’s problems and building the ecosystem – training managers and accountants – and doing what brings maximum fun to the team.

And this run is what I call the Startup Run – and I am enjoying the run thoroughly.

Closing the loop on Instagram – if they had their primary goal as $1Billion – they would not have achieved it for sure – in the process the team would have got stressed and burnt out. They were so obsessed creating a kickass photo sharing + social network app that FB got threatened –  and finally bought them out.

So what are you running after?

I keep looking for flow / zone while working. Any interruption in my workflow will break my “flow state” and will drain my energy quickly.

However when I am in the zone, things will flow smoothly, I can look ahead and  spot potential bugs, I will get new ideas, better optimizations, I can write better blog posts or difficult emails – it is like being in a meditative state – I am the happiest at this point – it is a beautiful and calming feeling – a zen like state and it leaves me refreshed and I can keep working at this state the entire day.

Ever since I moved to OS X Lion I was always looking for ways to make my workflow smooth – so it fits in my flow and does not disturb it. I kept trying various options till I hit on the best combination to keep me moving without any slow downs or distractions.

Here is how I started :

Different Spaces / Virtual Desktop 

I kept creating a few spaces like the Virtual Desktops I used to have in Ubuntu – a primary development area, communication, music and others. But to switch from one application in a space to another space – I had to do 3 clicks – one to invoke Mission Control and then to click on the space and again invoke Mission Control to find that application in that space. Something was not right – an Alt Tab would have been faster and easier.

But why not Alt-Tab

However Alt Tab has a few problems – once I do Alt-Tab I have to keep tabbing and stop at the right application – energy is being wasted. If I have multiple windows open I cannot go directly to the one I am looking for. If I have to see if a job is completed, or a page has loaded – have to do too many unnecessary switches and every time keep coordinating my eye and hand to stop at the right Application Icon when tabbing. Tiring.

Here is the simple elegant solution I stumbled upon.


Enter Full Screen

Whenever an application runs in Full Screen it occupies a Space by itself. It solved my switching problem beautifully.

This is how my desktop looks in Mission Control / Expose.

The first space is my primary work area where most of the Applications live. The rest of the spaces to the right are all full screen apps. It is lovely to have a full screen of terminal – with tabs.  Having mail full screen is also wonderful – when I write an email my entire attention is on that mail.

When I have to switch an App, I invoke Mission Control and I can go to any app with two clicks – one to invoke Mission Control and one to select the Application Window. When I am in the Terminal app I start a job ( hehe.. ex Mainframer ) I switch to Mail to type my email and now and then invoke mission control again to see if the job is complete.

Other things that help me in my flow :

Quick Look

I am so used to quick look that now I find it very hard to use Windows. Any attachments in email, or when I want to quickly look up an excel or a PPT – I can look at it instantly without waiting for a big application to load and show its fancy splash screen. Also these Apps do not stay in memory hogging precious RAM ( even though OS X’s philosophy says it doesn’t matter in my experience it does matter – having too many open unused Apps does slow down the machine )

Magic Mouse with Better Touch Tool

I actually bought this Apple Mouse on a whim. Felt guilty initially for having sunk so much money on a mouse. However my guilt is all gone now – it so well fits in with the OS and my flow. Two taps – it invokes Mission Control, swipe down fast – I go to the end of the page, swipe left I switch spaces to the left. I have become so fluent in switching between Applications or navigating within an Application I do not notice any more.

Less Distractions in Full Screen

When I am in full screen Mail – an Instant Message comes – it pops up once and then goes away.  No Application can pull me away from what I am doing. The tool bars, icons all go away leaving just my content.

Yep – as the old adage says : Mac for Productivity.

Thank you Apple Engineers – OS X Lion is lovely. Please do not spoil it in the next release.

Why did this not occur to me earlier?

Last week I went to Staples to pick a pen. I only write on cheques nowadays and I want to keep my dying handwriting alive as much as possible and for that I want to pick a good pen.

There were rows and rows of Pens – all endorsed by Shah Rukh Khan or Katrina Kaif or Amitabh Bachan. If there was a Javed Akhtar or a Vairamathu or an Arundhati Roy ( I don’t subscribe to her views but I respect her as a writer ), a Chetan Bhagat ( I am yet to read any of his novels – till then he is eligible to promote pens ) it made sense.

Mentally I worked out this equation :

(Cost of Ad money to SRK,AB,KK) – ( Manufacturing Cost of a Pen + Reasonable Profit for a pen ) = The after tax-money that is being swindled from my pocket to pay SRK,AB and KK.

That did it. I decided not to pick any pen endorsed by any of these celebrities. It made my choice quite easy.

When I looked around there was this Sachin 100 Tendulkar – promoting Kaspersky anti virus. All the Cricket heroes were promoting chips and colas – peddling things which are either not needed or are truly harmful.

This brought me to this conclusion : If a cricket celebrity or a bollywood celebrity is endorsing a product then

a) The product is junk
b) The product is not an essential thing for our survival.
c) The marketing head is a clueless bozo

I have decided to support the underdog who is not engaging a celebrity to peddle their products and outright reject the ones promoted by celebrities.

Now a new game begins in my life – to prevent my after-tax money from reaching the pockets of a SRK or an AB or a KK.

It is a running thing – less fat on the body, can run better. And animal fat is bad for running. So I decided to kick the meat out of my diet. Nothing ecological, nothing religious – just a plain selfish reason to run better.

I don’t like fish and whenever I eat, I eat very less – so I decided to leave it in my diet. Also it helps me “fit in” with the other carnivores around.

My real test was a couple of days back when my sister gave a treat for her clearing a big exam after 2 tries in her path towards becoming a CA. The treat was in a typical Chettinad style hotel in Coimbatore which I love. Whenever I enter these places – the whiff of aroma from biryani and kurmas will make me salivate like a pavlo’s dog.

The time for ordering came and I ordered an Egg Biryani and a prawn dish. I am surprised this was not reported by any breaking news channel. The first ever in my history. Mutton Biryani, Chicken Biryani, Fish Curry, Thalai curry and Chicken Lollipop were ordered and were sitting real close to my plate.

Yet I did not feel tempted to try them out. The egg biryani had the same taste as a mutton or chicken biryani. I did try a few prawns and sent it around and they disappeared immediately.

I was not being a spoil sport or a holier than thou because I am a herbivore – I think 🙂 Enjoyed the lunch, they pulled my legs on turning veggie and I was quite happy that I did not get an urge to sink my teeth into any of the dishes.

Since I am giving meat the boot, and also running regularly nowadays ( 13 runs, 57 Km in March ) –  when I order Veggie dishes I let go off all restrictions – I don’t feel guilty eating those delicious Panner or Butter laden dishes.

Turning a herbivore amongst a family full of carnivores is not easy – but it is certainly doable.