Author Archives: Aji Issac

About Aji Issac

It's me Aji aka AjiNIMC, still exploring about myself. I am into web full time :)

Wearing mask will increase swine flu chances of spreading…

Posted on by
Reply

I got this email from a friend of mine, so thought of posting it here. Please do your learning to this thread and lets spread awareness. I see more and more people are scared of swine now, thanks to our media (esp Arnab of Times Now)

PLEASE GO THROUGH THIS

I agree with you that swine flu awareness is needed, but there is no need to be panicky and join the publicity propaganda carried out by media and others which acts as a vehicle to spread misconception than
to spread scientific information. These are few facts about swine flu when discussed with the leading
epidemiologists.

  1. Swine flu, that is H1N1 flu is not new, first detected in 1987
  2. Infective stage of flu is 5 days, 1 day before and 4 days after onset of symptoms
  3. The best way to prevent it spreading is asking patients having symptoms of flu like fever, cough and running nose to take rest at home for 4 days so he does not transmit it
  4. Masks are of limited value if any, in this disease, it can spread through droplets on your skin, through contact etc, and I have seen that the masks in Pune are worn as fashion statement, while walking on road today morning I saw people wearing masks coming out for a morning walk with their dogs!, many wearing masks around their necks, and so on, in fact these masks shall act as the vehicles to carry the virus, instead, avoiding crowded places or cinema halls or malls where air conditioners are on, is advisable, because you get recalculated air, where the virus density multiplies
  5. Death after H1N1 flu is not common, in fact infections like measles is taking toll of thousands more every year, and we are oblivious of the facts. Swine flu is being blown out of proportion by media trying to create hysteria among lay people.
  6. Fever accompanied by respiratory distress, should be immediately notified which is likely to be a complication of H1N1 flu
  7. The mortality is less than .01 percent of those affected, that means may be one in 10,000 affected is likely to suffer the life loss.
  8. If you remember, 2 years ago SARS was blown out of proportion, what happened? Humans develop immunity to the virus, the same is going to happen, we develop immunity in due course of time, the virus is in the air, you can not stop it, our body is already developing the immunity so nothing to panic.

We need to take care of children and elderly who have less immunity and do not let them go to crowded places that are all.

WE MUST START THIS CAMPAIGN OF NOT TO BE AFRAID OF THIS FLU AND LET YOUR DAILY WORK CONTINUE AS NORMAL, NO MASKS FOR ORDINARY CITIZENS, HEALTH CARE WORKERS OR SPECIFIC EXPOSED TO LOT OF CROWDED ENVIRONMENTS MAY BE BENEFITTED, NOT PROVEN.

I am amazed to hear that people are selling masks of RS 20 each which are available to less than Rupee 1 in the market. See who is getting benefitted?

Please spread the scientific info, do not join the band wagon and stick to science, that should be the order of the day.

It was never between you and them

Posted on by
Reply

Working in a company, frustrated with baised world? Here is something to cheer you up?

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and the global CEO. It was never between you and them anyway.

:) May God bless all of us to do Good. Life is not about what you get but about what you enjoy.

Vikas Kedia – Vikasism, 11 lessons I learned from Vikas Kedia, My first CEO & mentor

Posted on by
Reply

Recently I got a tweet from Vikas and it took me back to 2003, when I was a student, dressing up for the corporate life and got the first job offer. I got the reference mail from Kolkata Linux Group, where he had posted a job requirement for his new venture. To cut the long story (Click here to read my Story) short, I joined and learned many Great Lessons. This post is a summary of what I learned from Vikas Kedia (CEO of InterNext Technologies Inc, my first boss, less of a boss and more of a mentor. We had different viewpoints at various points. Even we departed arguing :) , looks like yesterday and brings the smile), I am going to call it the first 11 Vikasism.

Vikas Kedia - 11 Vikasism

11 lessons I learned from Vikas Kedia

  1. About dreams & stars: “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But he dreamed things that never were; and He said, ‘Why not?’” …. His dreams were so big and so strong that his team could see it real all the time. He always talked big. He talked about Nasdaq when the bathrooms were smelling. You might find it crazy but his dreams always pushed him and his team for the extra mile. I used to dream about visiting NASDAQ too, I think it was too contagious :) and too fun. Dreams are like stars…you may never touch them, but if you follow them they will lead you to your destiny. If InterNext Technologies Inc is something today then a lot of credit goes to his dreams (and I am sure he will take it to NASDAQ one day). He always said “You dream big and the rest of things will be added to you”. Even InterNext Technologies Inc’s website will reflect an image about dreams. I hope the new building will also have the boy looking up towards the star. DREAMS.
  2. Hard work has no substitute: There are so many people to criticize your hard working abilities, some will call you workaholics but I wish there was a substitute for this hard work for an Entrepreneur. He will work day and night to make a thing work. He will be on a call while traveling, he will be on call while shopping and almost all the time he will be available for work. We all are born with various limits but there are few who believes that “Life has no limitations, except the ones you make” and Vikas is one of them. His CV would reflect all the non-technical educational achievements but his technical knowledge and expertize is much above a professional techy. I often asked him, “Vikas, how did you expertize so many technical things”. He will always answer, “I tried, I failed, I retried till I understood”. His hard work made him a TRUE LEADER, whom people respect from their heart. I always respected him for all his hard work. I always prayer for his success as if anyone who deserves success then it is him as he has worked so hard for it. I met so many ex-colleagues, we all had our own complains but almost all admired Vikas for who he is and his hard work. I think a great achievement for anyone. HARD WORK!
  3. Impatient Early releases: He always pushed us for an early release. I was not a very big fan of releasing something too early (I still struggle with it but to lesser extent, we released our new design without even completing it). It certainly helps to release a bit early with some bugs. IMPATIENT.
  4. Best Infrastructure: He will change the computers, will have all of us use the dual monitors, will have the best infrastructure. Being a programmer, all I cared about was a pujama and computer (may be thats why people still call me pujama programmer) but he taught us how good infrastructure influences the company. You will always find InterNext Technologies Inc to be full of Gizmos, latest network cables, advance networking, best phones and so on. INFRASTRUCTURE CRAZY.
  5. Programming standards: I remember the days when I and Vikas were the only two programmers in the company, we will change the file and keep a copy of it with a note about the changes. Our codes will have all the includes. With Vikas, we have come a long long way with proper coding standards, version controlling with SVN, inline documentation (I LOVED IT THE MOST, I STILL FOLLOW). Our function names will be like FnGetSomeSleepAjiAsYouNeedToGetUpEarly($ArrayInputs). Alpha, beta, productio and multi layer backups. IP KVMS, over 50 servers and much to add to it. Architectures and a lot to write about it. He is great programmer too. He is really TECHY.
  6. Documentation: Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is worse than nothing. He will create great documentations. All the technical team used his documentations to solve many FOP (frequently occurred problems). It helps to have something immediately accessible, … Getting documentation immediately available online is very appealing to a lot of people. At InterNext Technologies Inc we learned the art of documentation using Google docs. The credit goes to Vikas for pushing us towards Google docs. Documentation.
  7. Failure is OK: One of the biggest lessons we learned in InterNext Technologies Inc, Failure is ok. Infact we had plans to launch a campaigns for Indian B-Schools, where we wanted to teach about failure. “An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he’s in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.” This is so true for an Inventor like Vikas. He tries too many things, he fails more often than anyone. I remember how he shifted the task system from gforge to google docs, then to google calenders, then to emails, then to …. He tried, he failed but he always knew the importance of these failures. Failure is OK, Inventor.
  8. Create products like Gods: He was a strong believer of products over services. He always wanted to create products that providing services to other companies. InterNext Technologies Inc would have been 5 times richer financially than today if Vikas had taken service path but his decision to stick to products helped us experience the magic of brands and products. I will always remember InterNext Technologies Inc for the innovations we did for our own products. Products.
  9. Converting quality to numbers: Our new company SEOforClients is fully running on it. We have implemented all over. Even the stock options are about converting work output in numbers to your stocks (may be a good HR innovation). Vikas was always in favor of putting quality and work into numbers. He always said, “If something is not Measurable then it is not manageable”. Measure-ability is manageability (and manageability is scalability and scalability is GOOD for business).
  10. Let the problem come, we will see it: Another great lesson for life. We used to worry a lot about future problems, the problem that don’t exist. The problems that will be encountered only if the products becomes successful. He always used to say, “Let the problem. These are welcome problems that comes with success”. Now I focus on the core product, launch it and when we hit the success we have enough resources to fix a lot of possible future problems.
  11. Learn it yourself, no spoon feeding There are occasions when you love spoon feeding. I remember an instance where I was asked to password protect a folder. It was late at night and I was about to leave. I had never done something like that before, so I asked Vikas. He asked me to Google and get the solution. I was disappointed but it made a rule to try yourself to the possible levels. Also in the process of password protecting a file, I learned a lot more about .htaccess. GOOD Mentor.

I guess I can write many more lessons that I have learned from Vikas. He once said, “Call someone sir only when they deserve it not because they are your seniors or your boss”.

Vikas Kedia in 11 words

DREAMS, HARD WORK, IMPATIENT, INFRASTRUCTURE CRAZY, TECHY, Documentation, Failure is OK (Inventor), Products, Measure-ability, Let the problem come, GOOD Mentor. (and a good human being, may God bless him with all success)

Summarizing Vikasism: Don’t listen to those who say, you taking too big a chance. Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don’t listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says. they all smarter than you out there. They’re more talented, they’re taller, blonder, prettier, luckier, and they have connections. I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you’ll be a person worthy of your own respects (and others). Thank you Vikas SIR!

External links that talks about Vikas Kedia

Vikas Kedia
Rest at Wikipedia page on Vikas.

Twisted answer – “Teacher” is the best job in the world

Posted on by
2

We were discussing about our jobs and one of us said “teacher” is the best job in the world (in terms of job satisfaction) as they limited responsibilities and many other reasons to count. So argued about having your own business is more satisfying. And of course, there was a group supporting IT sector, high profile branded job and so on …

I had been a librarian, a volunteer teacher (taught every sunday for almost 2 years), secretaries, programmer, researcher, team leader, marketing head, leader and a lot more full time jobs …. what I have seen is:

  1. I see that every sector offers space for innovation and improvements.
  2. I see that every sector offers great satisfaction of achievement when we achieve some targets and standards. In library, it was about how to make more and more people read books, in programming it was about the final display with no errors.
  3. and more …..

Now I am on discussion point on whether the job satisfaction is about job or person or both? I will say both, everyone will say both? But how much person and how much job then :) ?

I get dissatisfied with my job when

  1. I don’t see money coming my way
  2. I see my boss is screwing himself and his company AND ME
  3. I see mistakes, I suggest improvements but still the politics hardly allows the change
  4. I see a mismatch with my expertise for long run (This is just not that very important), I am still open to become a travel guide and I will fit in my expertise there, or a cook … But when I have spent years into a line, i will like to milk it.
  5. The company is selling my blood for money … Some people are never happy with the quantity of work .. they demand more … I will SAY NOOOOOOOOOO to them right then … run company where we all earn our breads and the owner his cake.

I am in hurry so stopping here, whats your take on it?

Sramana Mitra – Books & Some pages

Posted on by
Reply

Last Saturday I visited starmark and spent some good hours after some really long time. The only condition was “NO SPENDING AT ALL”. The days of Rs 5000 per month on books are over (Thanks to the companies that allowed me the luxury that time). Now my total income per month is less than Rs 5000 :) …. Things are good at my end, its good to work on some of the interesting things. Anyway, at starmark I stumbled upon Sramana Mitra’s books, I fell in love with it. I spent few hours and most of the time, I am going back to her book. I liked the true experiences of Entrepreneurs.

Since I am on a very strict budget (I even forgot my atm card number time as taking money out of ATM is a rare occasion these days), I ended up buying one book (Old habits don’t die easily), book on insurance (I bought it as it was written by someone whom I trust).

So issues, I will be buying her book soon :) . For the time being one should not miss this page http://www.sramanamitra.com/entrepreneurship-case-studies/. Thanks for all your hard work in providing so much information for all of us. Thanks again.

How to fire employees? Firing employee? Firing employees? THE GUIDE

Posted on by
Reply

These days every now and then we hear about a friend/colleague getting fired or a company laying off its employees. Then the blame game phase, where the employer will blame the employees and the employees will blame the employer.

Firing employees is not easy

For any sane minded company (you should work with sane minded company only) firing is one of the most difficult part. I had interacted with some of the people for whom firing is just a way to improve his business. If somebody is not performing ask him to leave, thats all. Some people are good at firing, I am not. I have always struggled with firing employees and I have learned my lessons too. Firing is awful for the person doing the casting out and, surely, for the person being fired. Still it is important to let people go at times. I was a part of many discussions where we were passing the ball to each other for the firing announcement. I was also a part of the team that got fired. So I have been on both the sides of firing table and felt the heat exact same on both sides.

Why employees get fired

Just 4 reasons:

  1. For breaking laws.
  2. Non performance
  3. Economical problems
  4. Strategy changes by the company

Employees getting fired for breaking laws:

Now even this can be further divided into 2:

  • Being unethical: This is when people steal or cheat or sell off some proprietary things. This is highly unaccepted. In this case one doesn’t need to think twice. Hear the person, give a good and fast trial and call the fire alarm. In such firings it is important to announce the reason for firing really loudly. I remember a case with a very high profile US based company that started its operation in India. A senior person, very high performing person, was fired from the company for bribing the government officials for a contract. Company did get the contract. In any other company the person might have got appreciated with incentives as bribing is taken as a accepted practice in some part of the world. BUT this company wanted to make sure that its people understand the value behind its integrity, so fired the person loudly. Every person in the company got a mail with the reasons and was asked not to take this route ever. So in such cases do shout loud enough after firing. This will also settle the dust of confusion among the employees. Leave no place for gossips or misinterpretation after firing.
  • Breaking of other company rules: There can be other breaking of rules like coming late, or being arrogant to the seniors etc. In such cases I haven’t seen much of firing as most of the firing had non-performance as the real reason and breaking of company rules only as the surface reasons. In such cases before firing the person you need to give the person atleast 3 to 4 chances. Provide training to the person, assign a mentor and delegate the firing process to the mentor. After 3 to 4 chances do let go the person with proper explanations. Also it is advisable to clear this process with other employees. I will also suggest to drop a common mail to the company explaining the reasons and the process for such firing.

Firing employees for non performance

This is a much debatable topic when it comes to firing because of non performance. I have only seen few occasions when the person has accepted that he/she wasn’t performing. In most of the cases both the parties will disagree on the non-performance status. I recently interacted with a person who got fired from one of my known companies. I know their management really well. So he asked me, “Why did so and so fired me, I was one of the most performing person in the team and they fired me for non-performing”. I inquired and found many more reasons behind his firing including some level of politics (You know what I mean). But overall this guy wasn’t clear on “WHY I WAS FIRED FOR NON-PERFORMANCE”. There were instances were people were getting fired for non-performance and I advocated and mentored them. To the surprise of many they became the pillars to the company. Also there were instances when non-performers did not improve and did cost to the company because of my intervention.

With non-performance based firing one need to be very careful and make sure that their is no foul play involved. As in one of my previous post it mentioned that “People leave company because of their manager“, so can be the case with firing. There are many cases where the firing happened because the manager was not happy with certain thing (which can not be counted as non-performance at all), or the manager was feeling threatened because of the junis talent and so on. So in case of non-performance, let the HR department define the non-performance clearly. THE KEY IS CANDID. You need to be open to the employees as in what you mean by non-performance since performance is estimated based on results and results are depended on team work. At many times the job profile may not be well defined leading to non performance. Different people have different attitude towards work, some are task oriented or well-defined job description oriented, so you need to define their roles very preciously to avoid non-performance. A scrutiny of non-performance may also lead to improvement in work and work-flow processes.

In case of non-performance firing make sure that it doesn’t come to the person as a surprise. Let there be a complete open and candid process for such firing. (Also take it as lesson for your hiring, generally a lot of initial stage non-performance firing happens because of bad hiring)

Mass Employee firing due to economical problems

This can be really sad when all of a sudden the client flow dies off and the company find itself in a financial crisis. Company does try to fight back but at times nothing work out. In such cases, it is very important to involve the whole of the company to understand the problem and fight back. Recently I visited a CEO of a growing company, he explained me how his company went through financial crisis and how his employees helped him come out of it. In that conversation he did mention that he was very open to the employees about the financial crisis faced by the company. He attended few meetings with the whole team and explained them the issues faced by the company. Then everybody worked extra, analyzed the problems and brought the company out of financial crisis. In all possible cases one need to be very candid with the people in concern.

Even when the CEO explains the issues to the next level it sometimes doesn’t flow down to the core people group. CEO of the company need to ensure that the next level is passing on the information with the same intensity. I have access to some of the top companies in India and I have seen how their CEO sends regular group emails, be it a happy moment or a sad one (but most of these companies are tech companies and every employee has access to emails).

Point of the matter is that employer needs to involve the employee in these situations. Such layoffs should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Employee firing due to strategy changes by the company

This was another reason that I have personally witnessed where the company decided to stop a particular department as they felt it is not the right direction for the company. Such decisions can come out of management meetings and can hit the team as a surprise. But even in these cases company need to discuss with the team about such a move. After all success is all about fine tuning. It is easy to destroy but very difficult to create one. When the company shares its observations with the team then there can be a mutual discussion and sometimes it can come bring huge profit out of such departments and products. Even when the company need to take such decisions, it needs to make sure that the team members are given enough time to explore new opportunities in life.

Do not just delegate firing to the HR department

At many layouts and firing the top management is not at all seen, it is taken care by the HR department. Delegating layoffs or firing to the HR department is not very much advisable. I used to get involved in firing representing the management. Also CEOs and other senior members do jump in at serious firing cases. It is very important to involve the immediate managers and team members in the firing process. In some cases i will also advice the involvement of management including the CEO.

Overall summary on How to fire employees

  1. Make sure employees know the exact reason why they are getting fired.
  2. Make sure it doesn’t come to them as a surprise.
  3. Make sure you hear different version of the story before taking a decision. Allow fair trail.
  4. Make sure you don’t delegate firing to HR department alone.

I poop therefore, I am

Posted on by
1

Guy’s always mentions about “Eat like a bird and poop like an elephant (Birds eat upto half of their size and Elephants poop 150 pounds a day)”. he also said “I poop therefore, I am”. He was the Evangelist at Apple and was into sharing a lot of things.

I poop therefore, I am

It is so important to give away for free. Many of us are too busy in “creating things like God” and “working like slaves” or even “demanding like Kings” but hardly have time to Poop (sharing it away for free).

I remember a Bible quotes (Ecc 11:1-3),

“Cast thy bread upon the running waters: for after a long time thou shalt find it again. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight: for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. If the clouds be full, they will pour out rain upon the earth. If the tree fall to the south, or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall, there shall it be.”

How true it is! People are not interested in free giving aways but are very interested in getting free give aways. Before giving we calculate the return whereas when we do what is needed the return does come. From my personal experience, Pooping is very useful for your career too (Long term).

Reasons why Pooping (Sharing for free) is useful

  1. Whom you know is more important than what you know: Pooping allowed me connect to a lot of like minded friends. Pooping allowed me to chat with industry experts. I got in touch with them when I pooped (sometimes free blog advices, sometimes free work etc) and we are still in touch.
  2. Pooping reflects what I ate: Only when I poop people will come to know what I am eating (or what I ate).
  3. It does bring gift too: Because of the free help that I provided I have got many many gifts. I got free memberships worth $150 per quarter, ppts of the latest seminars in US, great information and access to tools.
  4. It builds trust and customer: I got my first customer through a friend of mine who used to ask me questions on a web forum with different name. Because of your writing people can know more about you and trust you and your work.
  5. It makes you better: Only when you speak and share you are criticized and improved. There were many occasions when people have corrected my concepts. Even one of my earlier SEO mentor came in my life because of Pooping.
  6. Written pooping allows you to focus on new things: Blogs have saved me so much time. I write it once and then I forward the links for similar queries or trainings.
  7. Written pooping allows others to recommend you: A good blog of yourself do encourage others to recommend you to others.
  8. I poop there, I am: I pooped in an interview, took around 30 mins class so that the person can understand some important concepts. After few years the same person has brought me clients. He accompanies the person to our home.

So do poop freely and enjoy the best gift called LIFE.

Rule Vs Purpose of rule – Religion Vs Jesus way

Posted on by
4

This speech was so much inline with the post that I could not ignore posting the video on Youtube (which is against the rules, just hoping that many will benefit from it).

Religion Vs Jesus way


It says, “if people ask you about following Jesus and you come up with 100 do’s and don’t then seriously you have messed it up ….. if coming to church becomes more important than loving your wife/children/neighbor then you are missing something … Sabbath is made for men but not men for sabbath” …. Do see the video, it teaches you so much about religion vs Jesus.

What is rule vs purpose of rule?

Do you remember my post http://www.seoforclients.com/hr/break-rules-often/ (Why do I break rules so often?)? I will give you a simple example: When a company starts, it starts with almost no rules, people come at any time, work anytime and return back anytime. Everybody knows what others are doing and most of them are fully committed to work but as and when the company grows you will get people manipulating the timings and there comes the rule, 9 to 6 rules. You need to come to the office by 9:00 else you will be marked half day and so on.

Now look at the scenario? There is a person who did not get enough sleep till 3 am and in order to be in office at 9:00, he need to get up at 7:00. He will feel much better if he can sleep till 9 am and comes to the office at 11am. If he comes to the office at 9am with just 4 hours of sleep it will neither be good for the company nor for himself. Now the rule says “9 am”, purpose of the rule says “work effectively” … the owner of the office will certainly agree about the person coming at 11am and finishing his work effectively but the keepers of the law will kill his day for coming late. What if the person always comes late but is going his job (this guy has problem at home and can’t sleep early, I faced it with some people).

Why we don’t allow exceptions in rules?

Simply to make sure that people are not misusing the exceptions. Though rules are not meant for everyone but it should be followed by everyone for the SAKE OF NO-Partiality. I had always been a partial (Showing favoritism) leader. I showed partiality based on the performance irrespective of what the non-performers say. When the performers go out of their ways to help the company, why can’t the company go out of the ways to help these performers. HELL with non-performers who check on what I got and what other got. I have seen that performers are too busy getting the thing done and hardly bothers about what others are getting. He/She should get what he/she deserves :) .

Some people will never change

Even after the rules (which are meant to correct the bad people), the bad people will never change, they will find loopholes and will keep manipulating the system. In a society we are not able to throw all of them off and are forced to have laws but in an office we can certainly go with minimum laws.

When it comes to religiously following laws, it becomes dangerous

Some people follow rules religiously and are after everyone who doesn’t follow it. Example: “(Debatable) Women are suppose to cover their heads while praying. At times some of our new members don’t do it. The people who did not cover their head are praying sincerely and the religious people are thinking and looking at the person without the head cover judgmentally. They messed up their prayers by just being judgmental. Also they made an opinion about the person with a non-religious label. BUT DIDN’t Bible also say “Don’t Judge others”?“.

There comes the community, community of religious people based on rules. “We don’t do this so we are separate from others, we come early so we are the most sincere employees, we brought a card for mom on valentines day so we love mom better and so on ” BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW.

(Once Jesus was asked) “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew- 22:36-40

It is important to follow rules

It is important to follow rules but more important to understand the purpose of the rule and follow the purpose of the rule.

Understand rule from the context

Always remember the context of the rule. When was the rule made? What was the purpose of the rule? Who made it? etc …. There are people wearing white on Sundays (thats great), it started in a part of India as that was there culture, white was official. You follow the rule but don’t make it rule above the purpose of attending church. “Don’t make it uncomfortable for others who are not in white”.

Inspire don’t force rules

People do a a better job when they know why they are doing it. So inspire others not force on others. “If celebrating valentine day is bad for Indian culture then come up with the reasons, inspire your fellow brothers and sisters not to go for it BUT WHY THE HELL YOU NEED TO FORCE ON THE PEOPLE. Isn’t you breaking the bigger law of hitting your own brothers and sisters.”

Rules are subject to change, add exceptions

There is no rule that is perfect. There are purposes/themes that are perfect. “You need to work sincerely for your office” is a perfect theme but you need to work from 9am to 6pm is an imperfect rule. There are times when you will need to add exceptions to make the rule more effective and easy on performers. 9am to 6pm atleast 15 days of the month, you can come late with the permission of the team leader, star performers will get exceptions in the rules etc etc.

Enjoy the rule but do understand the purpose of the rule :)

We always want cloning, big hinderance in life

Posted on by
Reply

This has been one of my personal learning in professional life esp at recruitment level. We always expect others to behave like us, work like we do, talk like we do and everything else possibly like a clone. This is so much against the rule of our own existence and identity. We all are given different circumstances and we all have our own learning and thus we all expect to act differently.

In my early days of interviews (way back in 2004-2005), I used to expect programmers to be of certain nature. I expected them to have certain backgrounds. I expected them to know few things. It wasn’t wrong until I realized the prejudice behavior in me. I would have judged the candidate even before they step in for interview. It almost stopped me from hiring a person with different talents, which was such a disadvantage for your team. I could come out of it really soon (thanks to the Church teaching and great books on HR).

There are people who want their clones everywhere, at office (all the people should dress in my own approved way, work and behave like me), at home (my wife, husband, father, mother, relatives should talk and behave as per my own set of rules) and at other places (friends should only do things that are permitted by my own laws).

Why expecting a clone is big hindrance in life?

  1. It certainly prevents you from getting diverse dimensions in your team/life.
  2. It prevents others to be free with you.
  3. It prevents you to acknowledge the good things done by others as you will always be busy comparing your clone properties with others.
  4. It certainly increases our prejudice level (have an Influenced opinion in advance).

Most importantly, it prevents you from being happy

Oh, bet on it! We will never be happy if we expect clones. We will never be happy with our relatives who will shout loud on a six and licks their hand after eating. During the whole span of interaction, we will keep looking for differences and will get annoyed with everything that doesn’t matches with our rules. I always smile at people who are working so hard to change their parents. It is their wish that their parents matches with their status (I don’t know for what reason). Personally, I also used to try (even today I try explaining things from my perspective) to change a lot with my parents, friends, teams etc but now I enjoy their uniqueness and will always allow them to be what they are comfortable with. I enjoy the way they are. I don’t have wrong expectations from them.

Enjoy the difference

We all are different and it is so important that we enjoy our differences (and learn from others). Now I have started enjoying the difference. I enjoy when our relatives at KFC will spill the burger filling here and there, I enjoy when my friends jump on my bed with their dirty legs (grrr…) ……

Hey after-all life is not about rules, rules are good but certainly life is not only about rules. Don’t get too much tied up with your own rules (expecting your clones everywhere), enjoy the differences and be happy that you have people who come and break your rules :) .

Next video is a great video, Religion vs Jesus way (I will be writing about rules and the purpose of rules).

What is more important, Personality or Character? Unprepared is the key

Posted on by
Reply

This has been a big debate for years. Personality gets the thing done, character adds the sincerity to it. (Please don’t confuse it with the moral character of a person :) )

Let’s take two example to understand:

  1. Giving one speech: Person X can just memorize the speech, get the speech from someone else and practice it enough to look it really real. Judges are judging it on the basis of Person ‘s presentation skill (personality) irrespective of whether Person X feels a damn about the words spoken. Character is when the person puts his opinion that he/she feels is correct. Person Y may have worked in the field has a lot to say from real life examples and so on. (Who will win the competition?) (Probably Person X, I have written many speeches for people, when I write, I write it from my feelings but when the person says it, it is merely the presentation.)
  2. Donating food to poor: Person X is very well dressed in white and is put all the things to be labeled as the best spiritual leader. He distributes the food as he was accompanying a friend. Person Y is also very well dressed but he is doing it as he feels about the poor. (Was there any difference between feeling for poor and just showing off? Probably not)

In both the above example’s Person X and Person Y has used their personalities to do the work. The inner feeling can be termed as Character (motive/feeling behind the action). So is personality more important or character?

Now lets take Person X and Person Y again.

  1. Surprise Speech and Q&A: There was a surprise speech on a similar topic. Person X fall short of words and ideas whereas Person Y is more comfortable with the speech. Even in the Q&A, Person Y does better than Person X (assuming that none of them prepared for the Q&A sessions)
  2. Need volunteer for regular food distribution for poor local organization Who will volunteer for this poor local organization? Probably Person Y as Person X was doing it without much feeling and Person Y feels about poor.

    So what is more important personality of character?
    I always advocated for both. Personality is required for a short term with short conversation impact whereas without character personality can fade out soon. At many times you don’t need character level work (Example: Presentation on goat (assuming that you are not in a goat business)), you just need to prepare enough so that you can score good marks in this presentation.

    But you will have to learn at character level for your related topic. When a student of marketing put a presentation on niche marketing, the purpose behind the presentation is that the person learns niche marketing really well, he/she will have to learn it in deep. Even after the presentation the person should go back and learn it at a character level. If the student doesn’t learn it at character level then later in some stage he/she will face a surprise question on niche marketing with some goodies for effective answers. For the presentation you may not be able to learn niche marketing at character level, for the presentation you just need to do enough at personality level to get enough marks.

    What is personality and character?

    Personality is the part of action that gets the work done. Character is the part of action that works behind the action. Some important points about personality and character:

  1. Personality is what makes the character: When you visit the orphanage you may not feel anything but your personality (where you went to orphanage) helps you see a lot of things, experience a lot of things and then teaches your self (Character part) about the importance of working with them. When you visit again and again, you may start feeling it from inside. Another example is: When you read a book or topic, you may not understand it but reading it again and again can make you a master of it. Reading is personality and understanding it is character.
  2. Character alone is useless: What if you feel for poor (Character level) but never takes an action (personality) to help them. What if you understand the subject like nobody else (Character level) but can’t explain it or use it (personality level).
  3. Personality alone is dangerous: A girl with great make up without original beauty can surprise her admirers when seen without a makeup. Doing makeup is good (personality level) but take care of things like health, drinking water, eating habits etc (that makes the beauty) is required for long term and true beauty (Character). So one will have to do makeup when required but one must be more careful in there day to day activities to develop a true beauty.
  4. Character doesn’t need preparations: When you know the subject and you have good presentation skills (Presentation skills again has to be at character level, not just for one speech but for any speech, it is developed slowly slowly), you can present yourself without any preparations.
  5. Character is the difficult part of both: Personality can be achieved quickly whereas character takes a lot of time to develop. You can learn how to distribute food to poor but make you feel for poor is a difficult and time taking job.
  6. Character is more desired: Character is more desired as a man with character can be taught the personalty but not vice-verse.
  7. Don’t be discouraged for character: I don’t feel good about the subject so whats the point in learning it. This is a common question. We all went through this at times but after reading it for a while (without much understanding) we started feeling it. There are many who comes to Church/Temple just for fun but someday the start feeling about it. There continuous actions (personality) taught their inner self(Character). So never get discouraged about not having the character just keep working with personality and keep focusing on developing character. When we worked in SEO field, at times we did not understand what we were doing, we just did what was instructed to us. BUT WE WENT BACK HOME AND LEARNED THE WHY PART OF WORK. So slowly we started developing the character.

Final word: Personality is very much required to get the work done. Character is very much required for long term and for unprepared times (Unprepared is the key, so keep developing everything at character level)