Category Archives: inspiration

books, inspiration

After reading Outliers I write a time-travel letter to myself

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I finished reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell a couple of days back and lots of thoughts have been churning in my head. Putting them down as a letter to myself – a letter I would write to the 20 year old Venkat whose career is just beginning ( also applicable to anyone who is in college right now ).

Hi Venkat,

How are you doing? How is your new college? Here are some tips for you.

1. Eat Breakfast. 

This is not from Outliers – but my personal advice. I never ate breakfast in college – slept late, woke up late and would miss breakfast. Just by eating your breakfast daily you will get a better grade. Trust me.

2. Work hard.

You see your class topper ace in all the subjects. You think he has got an extra chunk of grey matter. Take a peek into his life – he works hard and works effectively. Takes notes in class, brushes through the chapter before coming to class, and he practices the problems. His parents taught him the right methodology to study, perhaps he had a cousin who taught him early in his school days how to present answers attractively – so he always scored higher than his peers.

Why do, on an average, Asian kids ( Singapore, Korea, Hongkong ) consistently score higher than US/European kids in Mathematics? – It is because they work hard. It takes 20 mins to an hour to crack some concepts – like fractions,probability,calculus etc. They spend that time and effort – it is in their culture to work hard. The kids from Western nations do not have the patience to understand the concept – they never get the fundamentals right – and the hatred towards Mathematics carries on. This is just a crude generalization – however – the finalists in Maths Olympiads from all the countries are all at the same level – all these kids are hard workers.

The yield from a small match box size Rice paddy field is higher than a hectare of wheat field. The rice farmer wakes up very early before the sun rises, makes sure the water level is just right, when sun comes out and water gets hot he should drain away the water, he plucks the weeds one at a time, the harvesting has to happen quick and has to be done with utmost care. Wheat on the other hand needs very little care, can be automated using large farm equipment – and yield is considerably less.

The same happens with the brain. The more effort and more energy you will spend on your brain – the more yield you will get.

Being “gifted” does not guarantee success. They have done a 20 year study on a bunch of high IQ kids in California. They followed their career. What they found is that they did not do any better than the average IQ kids.

So work hard – yes, all the proverbs about working hard are all true.

3. 10,000 hours

After you pass out of college, you will get inspired by Jimmie Hendrix and Santana – and go join a guitar class. But you will drop out after a few months. You cannot give up just like that. Any art, talent takes time. Researchers have found that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice before you can become an expert. They have analyzed the school years of high school music teachers and talented artists who play in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  The successful artists would have spent 20-30 hours every week of their school life playing their instrument.

Mozart became famous only after 10 years into his career. Beatles played 8 hours at a stretch 7 days week in a shady bar for 3 years before they became world famous. Almost all the famous authors would have produced numerous works before they would have had a best seller. Whatever profession you are choosing – put in the hours – long hours, weekends – so you can quickly reach the 10,000 hours – and then magic will happen – and success will come along with it.

So good luck on your career. Life is hard and complex – and therein lies the beauty of it. If your life is simple or easy – then it will become boring. Whenever you find that your job / career has become easy and you are not learning anything – change your job. Try to keep searching for complexity – you can enjoy life a lot.

PS : I know you are curious to know who your life partner will be – sorry the time travel protocol does not allow me to reveal that 🙂

inspiration, occ, startup

Sharad Sharma’s talk in Bangalore OCC – Mar 21

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Today I attended the Bangalore Open Coffee Club’s meeting in an interesting venue called Jaaga. Before I  jump into Mr.Sharad Sharma’s speech / adrenaline shot – will talk a little about Jaaga. It is spear headed by Freeman Murray and Archana Prasad. They have identified an unused piece of land – and has built this structure with minimal and eco-friendly materials. This space can be used by NGOs or communities who want a place to get together, startups can come and plug in etc.  They call it the Urban Community Art Architecutre Experiment – http://jaaga.wikidot.com/start. Brilliant concept and I am sure you will be visiting this place sometime in future – it is going to take off well. 
Now to the Orbit Change Catalyst’s lecture ( thats his twitter bio  http://twitter.com/sharads ) 
Mr.Sharad Sharma took us through his entrepreneurial journey and kept giving his insights and his learning peppered with lot of interesting anecdotes.
1. Innovation Blow back

Innovations are happening right now in India; a few being cataract surgeries, cardiac operations at low cost and better success rates, bio technology startups, products on cloud computing, and so on. These technologies / businesses will now start out of the emerging markets like India and will become global. This is the innovation blow back.
He also asked the crowd to look out for the “Inflexion points” – Oil crisis is one, Systems biology is one ( where probability / mathematics is needed to take Biology to the next level ), Cloud computing being another. He advised to identify the inflexion point that excites you – “pick the one that tickles you to death”.
Some interesting anecdotes:
* CDMA technology – first showed up in Korea ( because they could not penetrate US, Europe market where GSM was entrenched ) – and now it is percolating to the other regions.
* Airtel is having a return of 38% ARPU – Additional Revenue Per User. Whereas Verizon’s return is only 12%. IBM, who consulted Airtel,  is now taking this business model outside India.
* AT&T approached Infosys in 1993 for a buy out. Mr.Narayanan Murthy politely declined – and today Infosys has 3 times market cap than AT&T.
*It took $89 Million to launch Chandrayaan. Ning has so far obtained $140 Million as investment.
He also touched upon Early Adopters Vs Pragmatic Adopters and how today with the recession – the market is left with only Pragmatic Adopters ( who make the purchase decision only after they are convinced of the ROI and expect a whole product unlike the early adopter who makes quick decision after a view of the part product itself) – and Indian market always had only Pragmatic Adopters. He hit it right on the head; if you have sold to Indian customers you will know this first hand. 
He credited Guy Kawasaki for starting this “Bootstrap movement” – where the startup has to think of making money from day 1 – unlike the startups during the dot com boom.
2. Essence of Entrepreneurship

It’s a state of mind and there are a few important things
Be comfortable to be the underdog
Hold a contrarian point of view
Ability to influence without control
Ability to tell stories.
3. Rules for personal conduct

He said 7, but I missed one of them 🙂
Give more than what you take
Set up people for success
Say what you mean. Do what you say
Share good news and bad news
Cultivate a learning mindset.
Cultivate internal drive for excellence 
Some books he suggested during his lecture that I will be adding to my reading list.
1. Getting to Plan B by Randy Komisar and John Mullins 
2. Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey A Moore
3. Whole new mind – Daniel Pink
Towards the end he conducted a role play of how VC money, Investor (LP) and Startup funding works and why it is essential to pitch for only the amount a Startup really needs. 
This post is definitely not a complete record of the speech. Please add more if you were also at the event.
Finally it was great networking with lot of enthusiastic people – the next google / apple is brewing somewhere in them! Thanks to Amarinder, Ramjee, Vaibav and other organizers of the OCC for this event. 
Articles, ayn rand, books, inspiration

Who is lifting the world on their shoulders?

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atlas

Who is lifting the world on their shoulders?

Politicians?
Philosophers?
Writers?
Philanthrophists?

None of the above. The right answer is – entrepreneurs / business folks – they are the ones lifting the world. They create new markets, promote new ideas, blaze new paths by fighting the system, fighting stereotypes, taking risks against all odds.

In this post I will introduce you to “Atlas Shrugged” – a magnum opus by Ayn Rand.  This book glorifies the entrepreneurial spirit.

The key players :

Looters

These are the scum of the society – apparently holding top positions. The top brass in the Government, the industry lobbying heads – they do not produce anything but they loot – from the business and from the public. They know only to take and not give anything. They outnumber and control the producers.

Producers

The producers are the entrepreneurs, the inventors, the innovators. They are the ones fighting the system to introduce new ideas and keep the world ticking and moving forward.

Henry Rearden
He is a business man who invents a new kind of alloy that is cheaper and stronger than steel. The Government wants it because their research institute cannot produce anything close to this. He refuses and he is threatened with sanctions, taxes, a govt official watchdog is sent to curb his production ( because the steel industry is fast becoming reduntant ). Yet he fights the system to produce his alloy.

Francisco d’Anconia
A rich man who inherits a copper smelting business owned by his family. However he destroys all his fortune – but before that he lures the looters to buy all his stock and bonds – there by making them lose big.

Dagny Taggart
She runs a rail road. Her brother belongs to the looters group and is the President of the rail road. She fights him and fights the lobby industry to keep the trains running.

John Galt
He is the key person or the hero of this book. He invents a new type of electric device which can generate electricity from air ( its fiction remember ! ) – but he refuses to share it with the world run by looters. Along with this invention he takes the other producers ( Henry Rearden, Dangy Taggart and there are more – a musician, a writer, an oil digger, a banker etc. ) from the world and moves to a world he builds himself – among the mountains unknown to the world. And he brings the world to a halt.

This book is a fat one. 1000 pages with page after page of philosophy being dished out from different angles – on almost all the professions. Then there is a section where John Galt addresses the public on radio – it is a master piece. It runs for some 40 pages if I remember correctly and has thoughts on all aspects – love, honesty, dignity..you name it.

I had written about this book in my personal blog earlier. If you are interested you  can read this post – Who is John Galt?.

If you are a bibliophile and an entrepreneur or planning to jump in – do read this book – it will give you brilliant new insights.

Some memorable quotes from the book:


“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” – This is the oath everyone who joins John Galt should take.

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.

Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned.

Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it.

The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence.

and finally the quote that sums it all up beautifully :

Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other.

Articles, ayn rand, books, inspiration

Blaze a new path like Howard Roark

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tf_pb

“The FountainHead” by Ayn Rand is an eye opener in many ways. Howard Roark is an architecture school student who has a different philosophy on how buildings should be built. He wanted to build structures that will be aesthetically pleasing, economically meaningful, in tune with the environment and the building should make a statement. Whereas the industry was aping what the Gothic and romantic architectures of the past had built – with meaningless arches, facades and wasted space.

He is thrown out of his college because he refuses to design the traditional architecture and struggles for work – but he never once compromises on his ideals. He waits and his time comes and the world accepts his style of architecture. It is one man against a well established industry who tries hard to keep him down. But the harder you push a ball into water – the faster it rises out and with more force – Howard Roark wins in the end.

As an entrepreneur – you might have battles yourself – as you are trying to blaze a new path, a new product, a new concept. You might be told many a times that your idea will not work. Listen to them to retune your product or offering – but do not get discouraged. If you have faith in your idea just stick to your guns – you will win in the end. There are so many success stories out there where perseverance and believing in oneself helped create an industry.

This book is a hard read – 600 or so pages – and it takes a full 100 pages before the pace picks up. And the first half of the book is quite discouraging because Howard Roark goes to the very bottom – but the second half gets very interesting and you can relish his victories. Somewhere in the middle while Howard Roark is fighting a battle, he gives courage to a drama writer  – to take the hard path. The advice he gives very much will apply to an entrepreneur.

Some interesting quotes from the book :

“Wheeling his bicycle by his side, the boy took the narrow path down the slope ofthe hill to the valley and the houses below. Roark looked after him. He had never seen that boy before and he would never see him again. He did not know that he had given someone the courage to face a lifetime“

” I don’t build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build!”

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”

Howard Roark you are my hero 🙂

Articles, books, inspiration

Follow your heart like Santiago

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175px-thealchemist

The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

This book written by the Brazilian author, Paulo Coelho – is a very very bad book – in a good way  – because it has the potential to change your life upside down !! You can finish it on a weekend  – 160 pages is all it is. It traces the journey of Santiago, the shepherd boy who goes in hunt of a treasure.

This book will have a huge impact on your life. While reading and after reading it will leave you disturbed, questioning yourself, and if you had suppressed a dream – a dream of starting your own business, or learning something like guitar which you keep postponing, or going on a crazy bike ride to another city – anything – these dreams will come alive and will dance before you.

The book teaches  you to follow your heart. It is as simple as that. In fact all of Paulo Coelho’s books have this recurring theme – do not suppress your dream, you have one life and you have to allow it to go where it is destined to go. Do not restrict yourself saying this is all you were born to do – a 9 to 6 job, slogging at work day in and day out. Take risks, and let your heart decide what is to be done – and 9 out of 10 situations your heart will pick the right path.

Go ahead hunt for the treasure by listening to your heart – your heart already knows where the treasure is.

Some memorable quotations from the book:

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

“There is only one way to learn. It’s through action.”

“Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World and it will one day return there.”

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

If you are interested you can read what I wrote about this book a year back on my personal blog – when I was still working 9 to 6 –  http://kvrlogs.blogspot.com/2008/07/alchemist.html


apple, inspiration

What is the secret sauce of Apple,SAP,Nintendo…

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First the disclaimer – I don’t have the answer to the question – What is the secret sauce of these companies. It is a rhetorical question.

Today morning I woke up to be greeted with iPod shuffle – and Apple has released a simple but very useful feature ( unlike the shuffle feature they bragged about in shuffle’s first release ).
Now shuffle can talk to you about the song or the playlist name – very neat. Most of the time when you are working out or driving – it is hard to switch playlists – now this feature has made it really easy to use an iPod. I hope Apple updates its firmware so my iPod classic gets this feature.
But it makes me wonder how Apple can consistently come up with “cool” features. Is it the culture, is it because of Steve Jobs, is it some magic potion they put in the employee’s food? I really wish Steve Jobs writes a book on Apple.
Nintendo is in the same league as Apple. Their graphics is rudimentary when compared to PS3 or XBOX 360. But Nintendo consistently captures the imagination of gamers – with their innovative products like Wii or a DS. Why is that Nintendo alone is able to rewrite the rules, while Sony,Microsoft keep staring like lost puppies.
SAP is another company I admire – they have built this really complex software that runs heavy business and does complex transactions – between continents, between various industries and suppliers, between various systems, databases. How did they achieve it? What is the secret process they follow – is it XP, Waterfall, RUP or some unique Technik.
There are so many successful companies and each one of them have a secret sauce.
What is the secret sauce my startup has?
inspiration, movie

An inspiring movie – 300

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Last weekend we saw the movie “300” – the amazing story of a crazy bunch of 300 Spartans who bring the mighty Persian army to its knees – almost. Had I watched this before I started working on Apartment Adda , I might have only appreciated this movie for its slick production and technicality. But I was emotionally involved and felt charged up while seeing this movie. 

The Spartans believed firmly in their abilities – all their life they practiced for this one day. They were able to draw all their life’s experiences and lessons to this one fight – which they know is extremely hard and odds are stacked heavily against them. Yet, they hold on amazingly as wave after wave of attacks hit them. It is a fantastic story that will inspire you and push you to do things that seem daunting – just like running any startup.
Like the Spartans, Apartment Adda is a lean team now  – and we are trying to build useful features, build a brand name, sell the product, support our customers, fight the recession’s scary omens and some more – the challenges that are confronting us are numerous. But what drives us is the sheer enthusiasm and determination to grow this little baby of ours into a great portal – that one day Apartment Adda will be counted with other useful and much loved Indian portals like a rediff, or yahoo or a money control. I wish I can imbibe atleast a fraction of the audacity and determination of those mighty Spartans.
 
Do  watch “300” – and let it inspire you to do amazing things. 
Ok… now I will put my sword back in it’s sheath 🙂 Shinnnng.