How do we find our inner treasure...

Let me ask you something, dear reader. What is common between Da Vinci Code, the Sound of Silence and The Alchemist?

Da Vinci Code (as you know) is a novel written by Dan Brown. It starts off with the murder of the curator of Louvre Museum, Jacques Sauniere, who is found shot inside the museum with a paper in his hand that says "P.S Find Robert Langdon". Looking at the letter, French Police suspects that the murder was committed by the world famous Symbologist 'Robert Langdon'. Langdon is called to look into the case. 

In the meantime Sophie Neveu, a French Police Cryptographer who is assigned to the case informs Langdon that the murdered person, Sauniere was her grandfather. He used to call her 'Princes Sophie' and the P S in the letter was not 'Post Script' as police thought, but it was meant for her. It was a way of the murdered man asking her to get in touch with Langdon.

Langdon and Sophie work on this case and the work takes them all over the world in search of Holy Grail which was considered to be the reason of the murder. After a lot of adventures, finally they realize that the secret that they were looking for was right in Paris in the Louvre museum itself. 

That was Da Vinci Code. Now to 'The Sound of Silence'.

You may not have heard of this beautiful book. This is written by the Japanese author Katrina Goldsaito. This is the story of a Japanese boy Yoshio. While walking in the streets of Tokyo, he sees a 'Koto' player playing melodious music. At the end of the performance, Yoshio tells the Koto player that 'that was the most beautiful sound he had heard'.

The old Koto player tells him that the most beautiful sound is Ma, the sound of silence between words. 

Yoshio goes everywhere in search of silence. He goes to the park and listens to the chirping of birds. He goes to different parts of the city in search of silence, but he couldn't find it anywhere.

Dejected he comes home and starts reading a book. He is so immersed in the story that he suddenly 'hears' the sound of silence. It was there at his home all the time. He was wasting his time outside when 'Sound of Silence' was right there in front of him all this while.

And finally, 'The Alchemist'

The book The Alchemist, written by Paolo Coelho, tells the story of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago has recurring dreams of a hidden treasure that he should go in search of. He talks to an Oracle (Why not SAP, just kidding...) about his dream and the Oracle suggests that the treasure is in Egypt, in Cairo, below the pyramids. 

So Santiago sells his sheep and starts his long journey in search of his treasure. The book tells the story of his multi-year journey as he travels the world doing different jobs till he makes it to Egypt. There his robbed by a group of bandits. The leader of the bandits tells him that the treasure he is seeking is at his village.

So Santiago makes his long journey back to his village. In his village there is a dilapidated church. He digs up the church and discovers the hidden treasure.

That is the book The Alchemist. 

What is common between all the three books is that the lead characters in the books go all over in search of a treasure and finally find that the treasure was always with them. The treasure was right in front of them all this time. Only they refused to look inward.

'They' were the treasure they were looking for.

It happens to all of us. Our entire life is a journey in search of our treasures. We are always looking 'outside' for the treasure. We look for it in our jobs. We don't find them. We look for it in our successive promotions. We don't find them. We look in our boss's approval, our salary, our customer's satisfaction, in all the places that we visit, all the beaches that we go to relax, in the clubs, hotels...

Even in our homes.

But we don't find our treasure. Do you know why?

We don't even know what we are searching for. We are like the blind sparrow, thrashing about our wings in search of something.

So first step is identify our treasure.

Whatever be the treasure that we seek it is inside us. It is us. The treasure is generated by the decisions and the choices we make. Instead of the outward journeys that we undertake, we should start our inward journey. 

But we don't do that. We focus outside. We wait for a god or a messenger to get us our treasure. We buy lottery ticket, we go gambling. We take the 'treasure' at its 'literal meaning'. We don't realize our power or our potential to generate far greater treasure for ourselves.

I am a practicing Hindu. As per our belief system, we are god. In fact we are more powerful than god. We do everything that a god does. We create, we maintain and nurture and we are capable of unleashing great destruction to ourselves and our world.

The prayer that I make everyday is 'Aham Brahmasmi', which means 'I am Brahman'. In our belief system, even gods are in search of Brahman, the most powerful of all entities. Brahman lives inside me, you, everyone. 

Each of us is a god. We are capable of creating great treasures for ourselves and for many others. A businessman who gives a job to 10 people is creating treasures for 10 families. 

So, in summary, the treasure that we seek is inside us. It is us. Instead of looking outward for our treasure, our peace, our happiness, let us create our treasures.

We must always ask ourselves, what is the treasure we seek? How can we create that treasure?. 

Einstein came out with his theory of E=MC2. Considering the mass of an average individual is 80 Kilos, can you even imagine the kind of energy that we have every second of the day? We have enough and more of energy to create millions of treasures for us. And for others.

Lets do it.

Graciously growing old...

The other day I and Jiji went to Sudhakaran's house. Kochuthomman had come from Mumbai and we went to meet him and have dinner there.

Sudhakaran has taken voluntary retirement. This is the first person in our batch to retire. This is a signal that we are transitioning from middle age to old age. In another five years we will officially become senior citizens.

How will we be as a senior citizen? Will we be broad-minded and inspire the next generation or will be become bitter and morose people who get frustrated by what the later generations do? Will we keep harping about the good old days or keep our enthusiasm and excitement as time goes by? Well we age gracefully or will be be disenchanted and irascible?

It is time to think about how our grandchildren will see us. Will we become a kind and pleasant granddads? Will our grandchildren be proud of their grandpa or learn to just ‘put up’ with his ‘ancient views’? Will we age hating people of other ideologies and religions and finding faults with other people of our generation or realize that each of us is a part, a tukda, a portion, a piece of god and learn to appreciate our differences?

How will we handle the inevitable personal tragedies? As each of our loved ones leave, will we learn to grieve gracefully and be grateful for all the good times that we had shared and let go or will we cling to the past and blame the universe for what happened to us?

This paragraph was difficult for me to write since I know that many of us have already lost our loved ones and some have gone through terrible ordeals in their lives.

What if things happen that we do not like. Will we learn to accept and move on?

What about the regrets, that nagging feeling of ‘If only I had’. Will we learn to accept the past graciously and make peace with ourselves?

What about the anger and hatred we carry against people who have hurt us? Will we learn to accept and move on?

Will we learn to accept each day as if it were a blessing? Will be learn to relax, read the morning paper, make new friends and enjoy ourselves.

We have learned a lot in the last 55 years. There are many advises that we can give to the next generation. Will we follow our own advises.

Will we understand that we are all god’s children and each of us is here for a special and spiritual purpose? Will be learn about our special purpose and conduct ourselves with dignity?

30 years ago, we graduated with dreams in our eyes and with fear and excitement about the future. We wanted to conquer the world and there was nothing that we could not do. We had an idea of how we will conduct ourselves if we become elders. Guess what, we are there now. Are we the 55 year olds that we thought we will become 30 years ago?

Are we pleased with who we are and what we have become

At the end of the day, that is all that matter.

Book Review: Do the work: Author:Steven Pressfield

The objective of the book 'Do the work' by Steven Pressfield is to help a budding creator on the journey of his creation. 

This book is a part of Domino Project. It is a platform of self published books with the objective of getting people to read which will create a 'Domino Effect'. The cover of this book has the drawing 'Man with a hoe' by Vincent Van Gogh. This drawing was a part of his lifelong pursuit to 'give happiness by creating beauty', an objective that Domino Project shares.
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This small book of about 100 odd pages packs a punch. It is a creator's companion. It covers all aspects of the creation process. The insights provided in the book makes you question your assumptions. It acts as a mirror to any creative person. Being currently in the process of writing my book, I found myself saying 'Hey, this is happening to me too'

The word 'Creation' as used in this book should not be conflated with 'Creativity'. Creation is the art of creating anything new. It can be writing your book, directing your movie or starting a business, or even writing this blog post.

The only condition? The creation should be close to your heart.

There are three forces arrayed against any act of creation. These are Resistance, Rational Thought and Friends and Family (Really!). We can call these three as the 'Enemies of creative work'.

The first one is Resistance. Any act of creation will face resistance. That is the rule of the nature. 

What is resistance? How does it manifest? What are its characteristics? How do we identify it?  How do we overcome it?

Resistance is the force that pulls the creator away from his creative work. It could manifest as fear, self-doubt, procrastination, addiction, distraction, timidity, ego and narcissism, self-loathing and perfectionism. All acts will not elicit resistance. Only creative acts do.

These acts could be:

• Pursuit of any calling in creative arts
• Creating any new business
• Any health regimen
• Any action to drop a bad habit
• And others 

Any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health or integrity will elicit resistance. Any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower will elicit resistance.

What are the characteristics of Resistance?

Resistance is invisible. But it can be felt. We experience it as a negative energy field. We experience it as that 'wanting to sleep for five more minutes before I hit the gym' or 'wanting to post one more tweet before I start my writing'....

Resistance is insidious. It will tell you anything to keep you from doing your creative work. It tells me for example, 'ditch the swimming today. Water will be very cold', and even worse, 'what is there to write about? All your ideas are prosaic and bland'

Resistance is impersonal. It doesn’t know who you are and doesn’t care. It is just a force of nature. It doesn't care for you or your creative act.

Resistance is infallible. It will always work on that action that is close to one's heart. We can use this to our advantage. By identifying those activities that we face the maximum resistance to, we can identify those that are important to us.

Resistance is universal. Every creative act faces resistance.

Resistance never sleeps. Every time we perform an act of creation, we will face resistance, no matter how old or experienced we are. Fear doesn’t go away.

Resistance plays for keeps. Its objective is to 'Stop' us from the act of creation. Not delay, stop. Its target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we were put on this earth to give and that no one else has but us.

Next to resistance, rational thought is the creator's worst enemy. It comes from the ego. We don't want to work from our conscious thoughts, our ego. Best acts of creation arise from the Self, that is, from instinct and intuition, from the unconscious. The deeper the source we work from, the better our stuff will be—and the more transformative it will be for us and for those we share it with.

The third enemy of a creator is Friends and Family The problem is that they know us as we are. The act of creation also creates a new you. F&F do not know this new you, heck, even you don't know this new you. They are the enemy of this unmanifested you, this unborn self, this future being.

But, do not despair. In our creative journey we also have some Allies. These are Stupidity Stubbornness, Blind faith, Passion, Assistance (the opposite of Resistance)  and Friends & family (there are always exceptions.

Stupidity and bullheadedness is the greatest friend of a creator. Ignorance and arrogance are the artist and entrepreneur’s indispensable allies. She must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult her enterprise is going to be—and cocky enough to believe she can pull it off anyway.

I can relate to it. Back in 1998, without any knowledge of IT, and just by going through the user manual, I installed Oracle Apps 11i in our Server. I was one of the very few people to achieve this feat. I had not known the challenges that I could face. I just knew that I was intelligent and that I could do it. Later I came to know that what I did was a huge achievement. 

So I know the benefits of being stupid. I have been there.

Second friend of creator is stubbornness. It’s less lofty than “tenacity” or “perseverance. When we’re stubborn, there’s no quit in us. We’re mean. We’re mulish. We’re ornery. We will sink our junkyard-dog teeth into Resistance’s ass and not let go,

Blind Faith is a creator's great friend. It is different from confidence. Like petrol does to oil stains, blind faith wipes away any self doubt. You know that you will succeed in the end.

Passion another friend of the creator. You may think that you have lost it or you have not found it. But it will present itself every time one starts an act of creation. Fear and self doubt saps passion. When we conquer our fears, we discover a boundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion.

Assistance. It is the opposite of resistance.

Friends and Family is another friend. The history of creation is replete with families that supported the creator's endeavours with wholehearted enthusiasm. Only two things will remain with us across the river: our inhering genius and the hearts we love. All acts of creation are aimed at honouring these two things.

Now that we have identified the enemies and friends of creative work, the next questions is When is the best time to start the work?

We should START NOW. We should start before we are ready. Our enemy is not lack of preparation; it’s not the difficulty of the project or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account. The enemy is resistance. Until one is committed one has the option to draw back, to be hesitant and to delay action. The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. 

Begin it now. Remember Goethe's couplets, “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

A creator might want to do some research before committing to the creative work. Author says that research can become resistance. He recommends reading only three books before we commit to the creative work. It is better to let the ideas percolate and let the unconscious do its work. Work on instinct. Instinct leads to inspiration.

A creator must consider two things before he or she begins. One is to stay primitive. Do not look for beauty as you create. The creative act is primitive. Its principles are of birth and genesis. Any new creation is covered with dirt and clay. Don't worry. You WILL refine it and it will become a thing of beauty later. Don't worry if your first draft is ugly. They always are.

Second is to swing for the seats. Come up with big ideas. We should not let ourselves work small. Start playing from power. We can always dial it back later. If we don’t swing for the seats from the start, our work will always remain insignificant.

How do we begin? 

We begin by dividing our creative work into three parts - beginning, middle and end. Start with the end. How do you see your story ending? How will you know that it has ended? For example, if one is planning to start a small business the ending could be 'I created a business with employee strength of 20 and a monthly turnover of 5 Lakhs'. 

“But how do I know where I want to go?”

Author suggests to start with the question what is this project about? What is your start up about? for example. You may say 'By the end of the first year I want to have five customers with a satisfaction rating of 4/5'. That is the end state. 

Work from the end state and then fill the middle and then finally the beginning. 

For example, if I am writing the story of my friend Joseph, I will do it as follows.
End: How he is running a company employing 120 workers with a turnover of about 10 Crores a year.
Middle: His struggles to start and establish the company
Start: When he resigned from his job as a medical representative at the age of 39 with no prospects for future and a young family to look after.

Now that we have got our beginning, middle and end, the next step is to fill the gaps. This is where we should start our research. It is important not to allow research to impact our work. Do research early or late. Don’t stop working. Never do research in prime working time.

The first draft is the most challenging. They are always imperfect.  Get that first draft quickly. Remember that ideas do not come linearly. Ideas come according to their own logic.  We may get the end before we get the beginning. Be ready for this. Don’t resist it.

Follow the process of action followed by reflection. Never act and reflect at the same time. In writing, “action” means putting words on paper.“Reflection” means evaluating what we have on paper. For the first draft, go light on reflection and heavy on action. Keep working.

How do you reflect? The author says that at least twice a week, he pauses in the rush of work and have a meeting with himself. The agenda is to answer the following questions “What is this project about?”. "What is the theme?" and "Is every element serving the theme?". This lets him keep refining his understanding of the theme; keep narrowing it down. This is the most difficult part of any creative work and one that evokes the fiercest resistance

There is one point in time that every creator must be wary about. It comes somewhere into the middle of the project. We have invested our hopes and dreams into this project. We are looking at success and we freak out. 'You suck' voice howls loudly in our ears. We’re poised at the brink of a creative breakthrough and we can’t stand it.

If you have faced this situation, it is time to understand the Seven Principles of Resistance.

One, there is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognize this. This recognition alone is enormously powerful.

Two, this enemy is implacable. This enemy is intelligent, protean, implacable, inextinguishable, and utterly ruthless and destructive. Its aim is not to obstruct or to hamper or to impede. Its aim is to destroy.

Three, this enemy is inside you. It is those peripheral opponents like fame and ego that hampers us from doing our best work.

Four, the enemy is inside you, but it is not You. You are not to blame for the voices of Resistance you hear in your head. It is not your fault. You are not bad. You do not 'suck'. Your work is divine.

Five, the “Real You” must duel the “Resistance You”

Six, resistance arises second. What comes first is the idea, the passion, the dream of the work we are so excited to create that it scares the hell out of us. Resistance is the response of the frightened, petty, small-time ego to the brave, generous, magnificent impulse of the creative self.

Seven, the opposite of resistance is assistance. It is the universal, immutable force of creative manifestation, whose role is to translate potential into being, to convert dreams into reality. Your work started with a dream. The love is the passion and enthusiasm that fill your heart when you envision your project’s completion. We can align ourselves with these universal forces of Assistance—this dream, this passion to make the unmanifest manifest—and ride them into battle against the resistance.

Resistance puts us through two tests. The first test is “How bad do you want it?". Are you passionate and totally committed to your idea? The second test is "Why do you want it?" If your answer to the second question is anything other than 'the beauty' or 'because I have no choice', you will fold under resistance. When you are in the creative zone, you should remove your ego, anger, hope, impatience, fear and sense of entitlement. The only items you get to keep are love for the work, will to finish, and passion to serve the ethical, creative Muse.

Somewhere towards the end of the project, we face the  big crash. We are stuck, we are desperate, we panic, we can't see any further. The Big Crash is so predictable, across all fields of enterprise. The worst part of the Big Crash is that nothing can prepare us for it. It arises organically, spawned by some act of commission or omission that we ourselves took or countenanced back at the project’s inception.

The good news is that crashes are good. Crashes are hell, but in the end they’re good for us. A crash means we have failed. We gave it everything we had and we came up short. A crash means we have to grow. A crash means we are at the threshold of learning something, which means we’re getting better and are acquiring the wisdom of our craft. 

When we face the crash, we go back to our allies: stupidity, stubbornness and blind faith

Finishing is the critical part of any project. If we can't finish, all our work is for nothing.Finishing is difficult because we fear our success. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that we fear the most. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are we not to be? We are the children of God. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

In mountain climbing there is a term called 'exposure'. When a climber is 'exposed', there is nothing but thin air below her. That is what happens to a creator when he ships. He is exposed. He has lost control over his creation. He cannot modify it. Once he ships, he can fail. He can be humiliated.

Remember, failure happens only if you try. When you are in the arena, you take a few blows. That is the nature of the game. Once we realize that fundamental fact, we have arrived as a pro. From the day we finally finished something, we will never have trouble finishing anything again.

Congratulations ! You did it. You have created something new. You have become a member of a select club of creators. You have produced something that was in your mind and gave it wings and you are happy to see it fly.

Now get working on your next creation.

Book Review: Steve Jobs: Author: Walter Isaacson

There is no question about it. Steve Jobs was THE tech icon of late 20th and early 21st century.

To say that he was versatile is an understatement. He excelled in creating customer needs and then delivering products that met these needs. He was a master at creating successful businesses. He started two highly successful product companies, Apple and Pixar. He oversaw the creation of several iconic products including Apple, iMac,iPhone,iPad and iPod, not to mention the terrific movies like Toy Story (1 and 2) that were created out of Pixar Studios.

Click here to buy the book Steve Jobs @Amazon

He had a ken for identifying the right people and getting the best out of them. He recruited great engineers, great designers, great technology developers and great marketing people. He was a master at creating a great support ecosystem. He Identified, developed and partnered with great advertisement, marketing and hardware manufacturing companies. He had the artistic vision to see how a perfect product will look like. He was as deeply involved in the design of the Apple Store as he was in the design of the latest iPad. He was the numero uno when it came to negotiations. He managed great people, negotiated, bullied and cajoled strong personalities from different interests to partner with him in his journey. Changed the music industry, the desktop publishing industry, the software industry, the hardware industry...

How Jim Carey helped me in my Career....

It was the beginning of the April 2016. I had just started out my career as a Freelance ERP consultant. I had no prior experience as a Freelance Consultant. I did not know how the freelance consulting worked, how a consultant received leads, how they were converted to opportunities, how consultants set their price, how they branded and marketed themselves....

Except for updating my LinkedIn profile title as  'Independent ERP Consultant', I had done nothing. I did not know how to proceed.

That is where Jim Carey appeared out of nowhere.

Story of R, the super insurance sales person...

"Sir, I am now in Koramangala. Can I come and meet you at 2.30 instead of 2.00 PM as planned earlier?", R asks me over the phone.

I am impressed. I shouldn't be. R is a thorough professional, and communication is a major part of her repertoire.

"OK, I will wait for you", I tell her

The bell rings at 2.25 PM, she is there on schedule.

R works as an agent with a leading insurance company in Bangalore. She tells me that we had met for the first time in 2006 at my office in Bangalore, when I was working with TCS. I don't remember any of that. She keeps comprehensive information on each of her prospects and prepares thoroughly before each customer meeting.

We have been keeping in touch on and off for the last 10 years. Every year, without fail, she wishes me 'happy new year', earlier through SMS and now through Whatsapp. The other day, she called me.

"Sir, our company has launched a new product. I wanted to come and explain the same to you. Can you give me a convenient time?", she asked.

We planned to meet up at 2.00 PM the next day at my home and there she was...

After some initial discussion on the product, we got talking, general chitchat

"How did you get into this work? When did you start?", I ask

"I have been working as an insurance agent from 2001 onwards. I got this opportunity after completing my BSc. The company provided me with 20 days of training after which I had to clear an examination conducted by IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India). From then onwards I have been with this company, it is almost 16 years now", she beams a satisfied smile.

"How many customers do you have?", I enquire.

"Currently I have 486 customers. I add about 40 new customers in a year", she replies

That was an amazing number. I did a quick math. 480 customers in 16 years is 40 customers per year on an average. 

"How do you get paid?", I am curious about the financials of being an insurance agent.

"For new customers, I get about 20% of the premium paid as commission, this reduces to 10% in the second year and further to about 3% in the year 3 onward.", she replies

Assuming that each customer pays an annual premium of 50000 rupees per year, her income would work out to about 12 Lakhs per year. That was very impressive.

Perhaps she saw me doing the mental math. 

"Sir, it is not the money that makes me get up and go out for work everyday. Everyday, as I get up, I am grateful that god has given me opportunities to make people happy", she tells me.

This was new. First time an insurance agent is talking about making people happy as the benefit of their work. I ask her to elaborate.

"We add value when people are going through their most stressful and traumatic events in their lives. Let me give an example. There was a customer of ours, a school teacher by profession, who had taken a policy of 10 Lakhs with us. No one in his family knew about this. One year, we observed that his yearly premium was unpaid. We called up his number and it came unanswered. So we went to his home to enquire and found that he had passed away three months ago. So we helped the widow get the policy amount of 10 Lakhs. At that stressful time, when there is a lot of demand for money, when there are many unpaid bills to pay,  to see the happiness on the widow's face as we gave her a check of 10 Lakhs was priceless. These are the experiences that keep me going", she is so happy

R is lucky to have a higher purpose to look up to every day. How many of us have a similar purpose as we get up in the morning to go to office? 

R has a cleft upper lip. I ask her what she has done about it?

"Sir, ever since my childhood, I  have had four surgeries for this. In fact, I think that my father passed away because the fourth surgery did not go well", she says in a matter-of-fact manner.

I ask her to explain.

"As you can imagine, while growing up with a cleft lip, I did not have any friends in school. Everyone used to make fun of me. Every evening I will come home and my dad was my best friend. I will unload all my frustrations on him and he will pacify me. He was a goldsmith and we were not well off. But he strived hard to finance my four surgeries. My fourth surgery was just after I completed my 10th exam. After the surgery, the doctor told that it did not go well. I think it affected my father badly. He was already suffering from high BP. A few days after the failed surgery, one evening, as we were having dinner, he collapsed. We took him to hospital and found that there was a clot in his brain. Slowly he slipped into a coma. My family never allowed me to see my dad, my best friend. Finally I forcefully entered his room as he was lying in coma. I shouted 'Papa', 'Papa' in his ears, but he never responded. Within a day or two he passed away", she was narrating this story in a very objective manner. My eyes well up, I try to act it off...

"Must have been terrible, to see your best friend pass away", I make an inane comment.

"I am very courageous and a positive person. But I was not able to handle when one lady relative told me at my father's funeral that had it not been for me, my father would have been alive now. That hurt", she tells me.

I explain that some people can behave badly, there are so many examples. She knows. She has experienced it first hand.

I try to change to more positive topics. 

"What are the incentives given to the agents for meeting the target?", I ask.

"In addition to better commissions, we are also sent on company paid vacation to various countries", she answers

"Which all countries have you visited so far?"

"I have been to UK, UAE, Srilanka, China, Thailnd, Switzerland and Maldives", she replied

"All based on your achievements?", I was incredulous.

"Yes sir", she replies modestly

"You know, I am not going to give you any business", I tell her, "I do not like endowment plans. I only go for term plans and I am already insured"

"That is OK sir, I understand. But I also believe that no personal interactions can go waste. There is a purpose behind every personal interactions. I remember that I had gone to meet a customer, far outside Bangalore about a policy. He did not express any interest. Almost 10 months later, my company was planning to send people to China and I had to get a business of another 4 lakhs in the next 20 days to qualify for this trip. I did not know how I was going to achieve it. I had almost given up", she says

"One day I was sitting in my office and got a call from this customer. He asked me to reach his home in the next 45 minutes so that he can buy some policies. I expected a business of about a lakh from him. I and my colleague reached his home in 30 minutes and within 10 minutes of reaching his home, he took policy of one Lakh each for his three sons. I just netted a business of 3 Lakhs. I cajoled my family to buy some policies for the remaining Lakh and I was on my way to China.", she is very excited.

"In China, first we landed in Shanghai and we rode the fastest metro train from Pudong Airport to Shanghai City in 10 minutes.", her eyes lights up as she was telling me this. 

"Every interaction has a purpose", she repeats.

"Now I see that you are a 'senior advisor', what does this mean?", I ask

"Based on the business we do, we get different designations. I started as an executive and slowly climbed the ladder to reach this level. At one time, I was made an associate, but I found that I had to manage a team of 40 members. I found this draining. So I asked the company to move me back to advisory. I like moving around the city in my two wheeler and meeting customers. That is where I get the energy from.", she tells me.

I couldn't help but admire. Here was a lady, born with a facial deformity, facing all kinds of insults growing up for a deformity that would have defeated most of us, doing some work that she absolutely enjoys, getting everyday with a clear purpose to life, enjoying life, adding value to the universe....

It am seeing the plot of the movie 'Wonder' being enacted in real life.

In his LinkedIn post on his Ironman journey, Atul Tuli writes about how endurance athletes make great sales people. Endurance need not be shown only in physical activities. Getting up everyday with a purpose and doing a honest days work and adding value to the universe is in itself an 'Endurance Event'. Add to that a physical condition that would have defeated most of them, R is an 'Ironman' in my opinion....

Respects....

Kenyan Engineer in Dubai

I met Eric when I was walking around Dubai Mall early morning one Friday.

I had gone to Dubai Mall at around 7.30 AM. At that time, the mall is just waking up. The housekeeping staff is just strolling in and one or two coffee shops are open. There is none of the hustle and bustle that you see if you come to the mall at say, 12 noon.

It is fun to walk around the mall at that time. It is fascinating to see the transition that the mall experiences every minute from 8 AM.

So, as I said, I was walking around the mall, and there I met Eric and we got chatting.

Eric is from Kenya. His full name is Eric Wilfred Ongwae. He is an Engineer working for a leading Air Conditioning Multinational in Kenya. He had come to Dubai to attend a product presentation.

His return flight was booked for 3.00 PM, he had some time in the morning and he wanted to see Dubai Mall.

When I told him that I was from India, his eyes lit up.

"I did my Engineering from India. Marathwada Institute of Technology, Aurangabad. I graduated in Mechanical Engineering", Eric told me.

"I love India. Aap kaise ho?", he threw in the mandatory Hindi phrase to prove his bonafides.

I told him I was good. How was he.?

Over a cup of coffee, Eric told me his story.

He did not need much prompting. He was keen to tell me his story of the Engineering College days.

"While studying engineering, I was also running my own business. Every weekend I will travel to Mumbai, buy clothes and watches from Crawford Market and sell the same in Aurangabad. I should confess that I used my black colour to mislead the customers. They thought that I was getting these from Kenya, I never bothered to correct them.", Eric said.

"I also earned money selling my Engineering Skills. I used to buy old, non-working refrigerators at about 1000 rupees. Most of them had problems with compressor or leaking pipes. I will repair the compressor or replace the pipes and hand over the working refrigerator to my friend Imran who was a painter. He will paint the fridge, make it look as good as new and we will sell the same in second hand market for about 10000 rupees. After all my costs, including the charges I paid to Imran, I used to make about 6000 rupees per refrigerator. I did a lot of business.", Eric continued.

"In addition, I also learned to repair Television sets. In my college and around, I was the go to person for any problems with TV. In fact I even manufactured remote for the TV which was unheard of  those days. I will repair the TV, make it remote compliant and hand over the repaired TV along with the remote to the owner.", Eric took a sip of coffee before continuing.

"I had a number of happy customers those days and I made a lot of money. In fact with the money I earned, I purchased an Enfield Bullet. I was the only person in the campus who had this bike. People thought that I had a rich dad in Kenya who was financing my lifestyle, that was not the case. My lifestyle was entirely financed by me".

"I spend a fabulous four years in India", said Eric.

It was a great story and Eric was a good story teller.

His story got me thinking.

The problem with Indian education system is that we do not teach children to monetize their knowledge. We do not demand that they go for part time work and earn money for themselves. Due to this, when they join Engineering college, they do not undergo a paradigm shift. Instead, Engineering is just another degree which they have to earn by studying the subject by rote, without ever thinking of the practical aspects of Engineering Education.

For students like Eric, Engineering education is where they learn to work with things. They look at  engineering as a qualification which deals with making things work. Perception is different. Indian students look at Engineering as just an extension of their studies, where as outsiders look at the practical aspects of studying engineering.

That is the reason why while Eric 'used his Engineering knowledge to repair TV and Fridge' while his Indian classmates must have whiled away their time sitting in front of their tables and studying 'Engineering' without ever realizing the practical aspects and the money making potential of what they were studying.

Eric story is fascinating and inspiring. Good job, Eric...

My Table Tennis Heroes...

I would like to say I had a difficult early teens, but raking my memory, except for the fact that I was aimless and clueless as I entered my teens, I can't say anything else about my teens.

Yes, I matured a bit early. I developed hair on my face much earlier than my friends did, my voice started changing earlier than my classmates. Just like all teens who go thru such episode, I was a child inside, but everyone considered me a grownup and set their expectations likewise.

And I was aimless, I did not have any goals and did not have any mentors who could guide me. 

But in my mind I knew that I was intelligent, I used to read a lot and write a lot, I had a good grip on the English Language and in a curious sort of way, I also realized that I was perfectionist.

When I did anything, I was not content with doing it piecemeal. I went the whole hog.

But without an aim or a goal in life, there was nothing worthwhile to go the whole hog about, if you see what I mean.

During those days I used to play a lot of table tennis. I used go for tournaments across Kerala. There were a few good players whom I got used to appreciating. There was Bona Thomas John a young boy of my age who went on to dominate Table Tennis scene in Kerala for a long time since, there was P Sudhir, who joined Medical College and went on to become a doctor....

And then there were V Kumar and Srinivasan...

Both of them were from Trivandrum and were leading players during my time. V Kumar flirted between State No. 3 and State No. 5 for a long time and Srinivasan, while he was ranked in the 20s was the captain of Kerala University TT team, a formidable team that won many tournaments those days. 

What fascinated me about these two guys was their intellect. While playing a lot of Table Tennis, Kumar found time to study and do exceedingly well in his academics and did Electronics graduation from Kerala. During those days getting admission into Electronics was the ultimate achievement for a teenager in Kerala. 

Kumar was a soft spoken guy. He was always courteous and respectful to everyone. While he did not go out of the way to talk to people, he would engage with them pleasantly.

Srinivasan was another brilliant guy. He scored 10th rank in Class 12 exams in Kerala and went against the public perception and social pressures to join graduation in Mathematics and Physics from Kerala University. 

During those days I was doing my Class 12 and was not unduly worried about my performance since I did not have any aim in life.

But I was fascinated to see that Kumar, despite his hectic Table Tennis schedule, managed to score high score in the exams. He was my hero. I used to watch all his matches, hang around him to listen to his words. 

I was like a lap dog, hanging my tongue out, wagging my tail and always around Kumar.

If he had noticed my presence, he did not show it. 

Srinivasan, on the other hand was a Tamil Brahmin, of my cast. He was the exact opposite of Kumar (possibly due to this, they were very good friends). He was flamboyant, extroverted and loved telling risque jokes and laughing at them..

But he was brilliant.

While I did not hang around him like I did with Kumar, but his brilliance and that he was a Tam Bram had an implicit effect on me.

I he can do it, why can't I do better?, I used to ask myself.

During one of the tournaments, I think it was in Trichur Engineering College, I asked Kumar how he managed to score very high despite his hectic schedule.

"The trick is focus and hard work", he made a motherhood statement

"But there is also some smartness involved", he told me

"Like?"

"The responsibility of preparing the questions for class 12 exams is assigned to one or two professors every year. Since it is a very tedious job, what they do is to scan the question papers of the last 5 to 6 years and copy the questions and then change the numbers and prepare the paper for the current year. So if you rigorously answer the question papers of the last 10 years, with a reasonable certainty you will score about 90%. Only 10% is for new questions", he told me.

I wanted to become like V Kumar. I wanted to become like Srinivasan. I wanted to do exceedingly well in my exams. I wanted to prove to them that I was good. I wanted to impress V Kumar, my hero.

I had a goal, to impress Kumar by doing better than him. I was no longer the aimless teenager.

I was like a target seeking missile. I came home, and started studying. I got the question papers of the previous 10 years and methodically completed each of them.

By the time of my exams, I was well prepared. Of course, not prepared enough for 100%, but I scored about 95% which was sufficient for me to get into engineering in a good college in Kerala...

Both Kumar and Srinivasan did exceedingly well. Kumar became an electronics engineer and Srinivasan topped Kerala University in his graduation, topped Kerala University in his Post Graduation and did his MBA from IIM Kolkata..

I have lost touch with them since, but I believe that I was a spark waiting to be lit and Kumar came and lit that spark. I needed a guide and mentor at a difficult time in my life and Kumar, unknown to himself, became my mentor...

They were my heroes and I am proud that I was able to live up to them...

TVS Iyengar: Story of an inspiration...

I am currently doing a project for TVS group in Chennai. The group has HO in Chennai and has offices in other parts of country including Madurai. 

Selvakumar is an accountant with the group and he works out of Madurai. He is a third generation TVSian (or is it TVSser? I am not sure). His grandfather used to work with TVS Group when it was founded by Mr.Sundaram Iyengar. His father followed and now Selva is also working with the group for the last 24 years. In fact many of the people I met are second or third generation employees, especially in Madurai.

Selva is a storehouse of knowledge about the group. I asked him to give me some nuggets into the group.

TVS group was founded by TV Sundaram Iyengar who trained as a Lawyer and worked in a bank, before quitting working to start his business. He originally started his business as a timber merchant in Palakkad district of Kerala. He later moved to Madurai and started a Cycle Repairing unit. When General Motors wanted to enter India, he took the pan India dealership of GM. 

During second world war there was acute scarcity of Petrol. Mr.Iyengar designed a gas powered bus and started running the bus for public transport.

He also set up the first Public Road Transport network in India. The buses were known for their punctuality. It is said that the temples on the route will do their morning pujas based on the horn sounded by TVS Buses plying in their area.

TVS buses did not allow any standing passengers. The buses were frequent and hence that was not a problem for the passengers. 

He also started a logistics business through a company called Southern Roadways Limited which later became TVS Logistics (I think).

TVS group is currently being run by third generation Iyengars. Most of the employees are also third generation employees like Selva.

This is an employee friendly group and has many amenities for employees like Schools for Employees Children, Hospital (both inpatient and outpatient), Houses that can be purchased by the employee based on 100% low interest rate loan provided by the company etc. Hence the turnover is very low.

The story of Mr.Iyengar is fascinating. Every time he saw a problem he took steps. When petrol was scarce, he ran his buses on gas, started the public transport system known for their punctuality etc.

He also took part in the Independence Movement and was a close associate of Rajaji.

For marriage purposes, employment in TVS group company is like US Visa. Just as US Visa removes the need for local vetting by Visa authorities in many countries, a TVS Employment means that the boy is of high calibre. Boy belongs to the TVS Family and that is it. No more vetting is required. This a tremendous honour for the TVS Family. 

Truly great man, Mr.Iyengar. I salute you for all that you have done for the country.