Leadership and other blah

It seems that sanity of human life revolves around having ego. Without it, you'd probably have no sense of insecurity about your self worth and therefore have no motivation whatsoever to do anything. Ergo, you just sit and die.
This ego comes in many sizes and forms. By pareto, 80% of people have egos of the size of Taj Mahal - meaning they see everyone as a competitor and therefore are ready to be manipulated.
The other 20% - again by pareto - are the ones who are just happy to be. The ego that they have is the size of a pea - meaning they just get along and live in the present. Of course, the intent is not to find out where one fits. The intent is to debunk some myths, chiefly, leadership.
We are told to be leaders, we like leaders, especially in areas where we want things to happen and have no control over but are affected. While leaders should be from 20% (ideally), they mainly come from the 80% due to the entire ego-philosophy. Hey! if I don't have an ambition to lead someone, why the hell would I do it anyway.
Point being, you can cry your ass out about senior management, bosses, political leaders and other people who are out there deciding your fates, realize that (a) you are doing the same in your own territory; or (b) you are least worried about it.
There are preachers aplenty who talk about Leadership, thinking clearly, communication and other blah. Remember, you are born to do something. If you don't do it you will feel insecure and be the 80%. On the contrary, without thinking twice, if you take the plunge and achieve what you set out to you will never have to worry about being a leader.

Money

Money is a wonderful construct created by humans. As with anything human, it has its own fallacies and capitalism is bringing out more each day.

I believe that to ensure that any human design is flawless it needs to resemble the way nature tackles the same problem. E.g. if animals feel cold they migrate, whereas humans build houses and kill other animals for clothing. Now if only we could find out what polar bear's skin is made of, replicate the chemical composition and create something, that'd not only be bio degradable but more aligned with nature.

By this yardstick construct of money is obviously flawed chiefly because it makes you think you or your skill is worth more or less than other person's skill. If we have to align with nature, a tree is as much important or not to nature as is a creeper. Also, given the circumstances even a tree or creeper adapts and survives. Same is true of animals. Humans on the contrary need to feel important. Somehow we have linked survival instincts with ego. Ego leads to thinking of self-worth and that leads to invention of money and its distribution. Of course, since ego is a feeling so it can be said that people born with more ego are the ones who are highly insecure about their chances of survival in the world. Ergo, people needing/wanting/desiring more money inherently afraid of life itself.

Nature's focus is primarily to get you to do what you are born to do. Everything else is noise. Money or no money, you are born to do something. Because money is linked to a feeling, make that feeling of self worth strong by doing what you are born to do. Once this linkage is strong, ego need not come to play and money still falls into place.

professionalism

The definitions are changing and right in front of my eyes - a guy who completes 10 yrs in professional life.

• It started with looking like an executive meaning the entire drill of suit/coat/tie, then went to dressing "smart" and now in my office people wear jeans all the time.
• It started with having a desktop, then having a laptop, then having a data card and now if there is no need, my team "assumes" that they will be working from home/guest house/hotel/wherever
• It started with having strict rules of using internet and while porn is still a no-no, everyone realizes that social networking is a force to reckon with

It is time to accept that there are no 2 identities of a person - one that works and one that enjoys a personal life. The boundaries are falling, which means a single identity, that much less complexity and that much less hypocrisy.

Companies that are embracing this change are going ahead full force and why not. While every type of person is accepted, work is paramount and the more it is aligned to your personality, the satisfied you are with your job. Less HR work and obviously less frustrations. Plus company benefits from your individuality.

For an organization there are many challenges - right from HR policies to Systems management. But the simplification starts at leadership. If work becomes paramount and people themselves self select for a job, life becomes that much easier.

an emotional angle

Emotions are an essential part of being human. We feel good, bad, sad, angry, happy, awesome and so on. Never ever I thought that I would feel something so good, so great, so awesome and yet it does bring a sense of content.

Love may be the most talked about, exploited, marketed and abused word in the world, but as an emotion you cannot beat it. I am away from the family for close to 10 years now. I am away from my home for 4 days now. The pull is so strong at times that whenever I see, or hear anything about "staying away", the heart starts another song. Its like a melody only I can feel.

To quote my favorite ghazal:
"Kahan maykhane ka darwaza ghalib, aur kahan waayiz,
Bas itna jaante hain kal wo jaata tha ke hum nikale"

The levels at which Ghalib sensed love can only be known if you feel that kind of love every second of every hour of every day of your life.

Action has reaction..

Action has equal and opposite reaction. So true and yet so unbelievably undermined, ignored and most often forgotten principle.

If you believe in something, you choose to believe in it. A main factor in that choice is the feeling that choice gives you. Satisfaction, joy, happiness and at times deeper emotions, like love, trust. In short your choices of believing (or not believing) lead you to feel better about yourself, at least for the moment, or at most your entire life.

Guilt is one of the primary factors that makes us take those choices. Right from the day you were born the guilt just starts to enter your life. First the upbringing, then your own guiding thoughts ensure that if there is something making you take a choice, guilt has a lion's share in that decision making.

Guilt's cousin is anger. They don't have to go hand in hand, yet they do. Ever seen parents controlling their kids by means of beating them up? Yup, that's anger stemming from guilt.

Now if you believe in choices, you will always be guilty because you think you made those choices.

Love, the all pervasive feeling, the attraction, the passion and the care, the feeling that cannot be defined by words at times, very ironically doesn't need a choice. Its right there. Ever seen a kid making sand castle, sunrise, sea, birds, flowers. See there is no choice to be made. Your senses are already spellbound. The feeling is out of this world and yet it seems to be emerging from somewhere within us.

So the only choice you have to make is are you going to act or feel? Remember, the choice you make is also an act and every action has....

IE9

Writing this blog from IE 9. well I think not using IE9 on win7 means you are not using most of the features. But still the question lingers, why would I switch to this if I have chrome or firefox? esp chrome when it is :

1. much cleaner with a ton of tabs

2. faster. I just don't understand why IE team fancies loading time. Its about page rendering as well.

3. has already done what IE9 is now doing like larger space for website content, HTML5 support etc etc that IE9 touts.

Well, realized that browser is a red ocean. what will it take to create the next bunch of internet browsing app??

PS: published this from Chrome.. somehow the button didn't work. Also why aren't they showing the status bar?

Positive journalism..

One of my classmates at ISB and hopefully a friend as well has started an initiative "Better India". It is a very good initiative, and I for one have been a protagonist.

India today needs something like this to develop a sense of purpose. Unlike the countries we get compared to (with an exception of China), Indians carry thousands of years of baggage. This baggage comes with a price in that we still carry the "suspect" and "doubtful" gene with us. Therefore as a society we have become over cautious of anything.

Added to this is the cultural degradation that has happened for about a thousand years. And I am not talking about Western influence. The aspect of being open minded and having faith in knowledge / learning has long been forgotten. Now its just money that matters. We can argue the reasons for this as well, but the results are not conducive to a better India. Ironically its money that is the root cause of this degradation as well.

It is really chicken and egg problem. But the power of a positive mindset doesn't need reiteration. We are what we are and all humans have limitations but there always a beginning. And it all begins with trust. We have to trust that positive mindset and open mindedness will bring the right opportunities for Indians to make this a wonderful place.

Is it just me or...

I generally hate trashing somebody. I am of the opinion that there are views and opinions and which is why world is an interesting place. I also believe strongly that that is how world exists. Although somehow I am realizing that maybe there are some thoughts that need to be trashed completely. Here are some:

• Showing emotional appeal to have people buy your product has been taken to an extreme. I mean for God's sake its an ad for popcorn. Why do you need to show puppy love and child angle with some "ta-ti-tu-te"? Its a popcorn. Ultimately, its a FMCG and therefore it will be picked up by a random guy for random reason and all the company has to do it is to keep them on shelves! Have you ever seen ad for Joshi's Chiwda? No! Because its right there and tasty and they need not.
• I am all for tourism. I am all for preserving the culture. And because it helps a lot of people to earn an honest day's living. But to show people what they already know, doesn't create a large impact. What to do? Show that India is already beautiful. For God's sake we have a billion people, can't you employ and pay people to take care of such things. Better still have Aamir Khan endorse for Citizen watch or something like that.

The list is endless. At times I feel do people really know what advertising is supposed to do? Actually every time I see an ad like that, I feel there is an overpaid MBA sitting there and giving gyaan on whether he wants "share of mind" or "sex appeal" or some such crap..

Ad-ios... I say!!