Shortcut to Success

Is there a shortcut to success? Of course, it is a magic potion that has the following ingredients - commitment, hard work & perseverance!

I stumbled upon a videoclipping from a Tamil movie - Mayakannadi - the last day (Thanks to Pam's orkut updates) and I was pleasantly surprised that even now, there are some movies made that does its small bit of social justice to the community as a medium. You could hear various kind of arguments that justifies the storyline in various movies about the mass appeal, box office formulae and some amount of poetic expression of ideas & stories. Whatever may be the underlying factor, there is no doubt that cinema as a medium has an impact on the viewing public. It only varies in degree by the personality of the viewer.

I grew up viewing a lot of movies where we have the protagonist who has a poor financial & social background - have to face real hardships and finally we see him go off to "Bombay" or "Madras" - Time flies in a few seconds on the screen and we see a very well-to-do person return back to his hometown to take "revenge" (huh!?) on the people who insulted & assaulted his family in the past.

What happens to the protogonist during exile? How does he get so succesful in a short span of time? What makes him an overnight success? What other quality does he develop in a short span of time that he did not have in the 25-30 years he struggled in his village?

I feel dissappointed when I see a lot of youths nowadays who take on to making a quick buck, but not really ready to work or invest their time and efforts towards it. There are definitely a lot more smart ways now - than earlier - to develop a successful career or build an enterprise. Provided, you have the commitment towards that, you put in your hard work in building that, and finally having the perseverance in trying again and again when ever you fail!

I used to have a bookmark with me (forgot who gifted that to me!) which read like this -> It does not matter whether you get knocked down, but what matters is whether you get back up on your feet!

And here is the clip that I saw on youtube:-




I have started to like Cheran as a film director for some of the thoughtful movies that he had made in the last few years. Take out some of the sentiments & the masala from the scene above, I guess the message is loud & clear...

Exploring the Frontiers of Happiness - Talk by Dan Gilbert

Invest a 30 mins of time in seeing this video - Pretty interesting!!
Especially when Behavioral Economics is getting a great deal of attention off-late - in the wake of what we have made out of this world!!!

Oh Mind, Relax please…

My friend Kummi (Senthil) keeps sending me emails every day with a one liner that is very thought provoking and insightful. He has setup the series as “Oh Mind, Relax please…” and today is the 1137th issue - phew! That is a long time! - Since he started sending out this on a daily (working day) basis. I am sure that these one-liners definitely touches somebody every day and even makes their day – He has, many times, made my day by these one/two liners.

What prompted me to write this post was for two reasons.

1. Oh Mind, Relax please # 1137 has a very strong message – thought of sharing with my friends & readers
2. To thank Kummi for his continuous efforts to reach out & make a change in your everyday life

Oh Mind, Relax please # 1137:-
We grow through experience if we meet life honestly and courageously.
This is how character is built…

Isn’t that a wonderful truth?

We all hear about the experience that people have. My colleagues talk to me about their professional experience, my dad talks to me about his experience in the defense & having seen the world, my brother talks to me about the experience of running a business, my wife talks to me about the experience of strained relationships, my mom talks to me about the experience of running a home, my friends talk to me about their experiences in life – ranging from bachelor day adventures to drug addiction to girl friends to almost everything, my manager(s) talks to me about their experience of working in multiple organizations, industries…

What do each of us really take away from these experiences? Are these experiences worth if we have not met the situation honestly and courageously? Did we chose to flow by the tide or did we meet them courageously, true to our heart?

These are questions that at some point of time, we should ask ourselves. And then you would find inner awakening, which will lead you to tranquility & peace.

May be that explains why we find a lot of experienced people around us - who are still immature, hypocritical and political.

Thank You Kummi: -
I am not sure if somebody had ever taken notice of the wonderful job that you are doing by reaching out to everybody on a daily basis, sending a sweet & short message which is equally thought provoking and sometimes even makes somebody’s day.

I wanted to let you know that you have made my day more than a couple of times in the last 5-6 years by these messages, and I profusely thank you for making that change in my life.

Thank you, my friend!

Compelling Message with Great Representation - BANG on Target!

I stumbled upon Jeff Brenman's presentation on the larger concern of fresh water scarcity on the earth on Slideshare and I was really amazed by the simplicity of the representation that makes this one of the best presentations that I have seen till date! The way the whole presentation is structured, along with the compelling message that it sends sure reaches the audience BANG on target.

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THIRST

THIRST

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: design crisis)

This is an educational presentation exploring humanity's water use and the emerging worldwide water shortage. It is designed to act as a stand-alone presentation. Enjoy!

SlideShare Link

What are Leaders made of!

Hello World! I am back with a bang! LOL :)

I tried my best to stay away from the blogging world for some time due to external pressures & realized how intensely I am in love with expressing myself, talking to others & communicating to the outside world. With out expression, I cease to exist! So, here we go.

I am actually in a hangover from one of the classic movies that I saw in bits & pieces over the last 2 weeks – Scent of a Woman. Wonderful movie, great performance & considered one of the classics of English Cinema. Al Pacino won the Academy Award & the Golden Globe award for the Best Actor in portraying the retired, blind (caused by mishandling grenades), Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade. I am not going to talk about the movie or the plot or the performance of the actors here. But there are many take-aways from this movie in general - on living and on leadership.

The dialogue he delivers at the court-room kind of setup in the School where his assistant Charlie Simms, a student of the graduate school, is being tried as a witness to a silly prank some fellow classmates did outside the Headmaster’s Chamber - is just mind blowing & thought provoking. Charlie is recommended by the Headmaster to the jury council to be expelled from the school for not giving out the names (Apparently the Headmaster offered a bribe to Charlie in terms of a seat in Harvard for exchange of the names - which he declined) thereby permanently damaging his career, when Lt. Col. Slade gets up and gives out this thought provoking dialogue.

The dialogue, though not exact, is below: -
By expelling Charlie, you think you are sending him home with his tail between his legs; but you are executing his soul! For what?

When I walked in today, I heard something about this school called the “Cradle of Leadership”. What kind of leaders do you make here? If I were the man I was five years ago, I'd take a flame thrower to this place...

Charlie has reached a cross road in his life & he has chosen a path. Its the right path. It is a path made of PRINCIPLES... that leads to CHARACTER... He won't SELL ANYBODY out to BUY HIS FUTURE. And that, my friends, is called INTEGRITY. That's called COURAGE. And that's the stuff that leaders SHOULD be made of!

I just couldn’t agree any more. Are today’s leaders (Corporate & even others) made of this stuff?

I don't know. From my experience, It is a dirty, murkier, back stabbing game of shamelessness where there is not even a trace of integrity, forget courage.

Some food for thought!

To Listen or not to

Off late, I have come across a lot of examples and situations in my personal & professional life that had gone in a totally different directon because of the influence of listening skills. Do we need a special 'skill' to listen? Or just by having a set of ears mean that you are a good listener? I beg to differ. I have also found that many of the problems - starting from the ones in your day-to-day life up to world affairs - can be effectively solved if both the parties in arbitration develop some kind of listening skills.

When I took up this new assignment mid last year, I was meeting with managers & analysts at different levels as a part of my on boarding process and I had this telephonic conversation with a senior manager (some 25+ years in the present organization). She is in a distant location and I have not even exchanged emails with her before - the first interaction. We introduced each other and talked about the background and experience and the general expectations from each of us. She then started talking about where she grew up, her family, kids, family life and philosophical outlook and on and on... And I just listened with patience when the talk went on about how bad she thinks life had treated her, how frustrated she is with her job, her personal life and differences with in the family. In a few minutes, I realized that I was becoming a weeping shoulder to someone whom I had never met, never spoken to before and have very less chances of even working together in a team! At the end of it, a full hour, she thanked me for listening to her and did not forget to apologize to me for piling me up with her frustrations. Since then, we share a very cordial work relationship.

Another instance was recently, a month back, with one of the Project Manager - who is very senior by age (in her late 50s). I used to meet her in the hall way when I go to the Cafeteria or the Bank. This time, she looked very depressed and sulking and as I walked past her, I asked this question... "Hey XYZ... Are you OK? You look very tired...". Unexpectedly, she stopped and told me that she is not OK. Her mom had expired the last week and she was very much concerned about her dad (who was in 90s) being all alone by himself at this age. When she said this she almost broke down and mentioned to me that... "Thank you Santosh - that you asked. All I wanted was somebody to listen to me and help me drain out the stress that I have accumulated over the week". And I was surprised! Because she stays with her family, have kids and grand kids, but none had the time to take a break from their busy schedules and empathize with her.

Sometimes I feel we all get very busy with our own lives, or pretend to be busy with our own lives and forget the humanitarian part of it ... that we all are human beings, we all will need some kind of support at some point of time. Spending some time to "keep our mouth shut" and listening actively would enlighten you in many ways. You get to know the perspectives of others, what they are going through & how they feel about it. It definitely makes you a better individual in terms of emotional & philosophical maturity.

I have personally known people who respond to emails with out reading them out completely (read the first few lines & then bingo!) and understand what they are trying to communicate. Many a times when I get responses similar to that, I just pick up the phone, call them, request them to read the mail completely, and most of the times I could visualize they biting their tongue... "Ouch... I should have read the mail completely before sending that one out". So, what is that called? Prejudice? When you allow your prejudice to drive your actions, you can't expect anything better than where you are now or even worse. You are shutting out a communication channel which otherwise could be invaluable inputs in developing yourself as an individual, or an innovative business plan, or sometimes even a feedback on how badly you might be screwing up your own work & life.

So, is it just that we are so busy that we really don't have time to be a sensitive person? Or is it that we pretend to be busy as a part of hiding away from the inevitable parts of our life because we want to be seen along only with success? Or is it that we have become so obsessed with success and goals so that we forget the small little things that (who knows) might make somebody's day?

I feel there is some food-for-thought in there!

Walking the talk

Leena started working here and another chapter of hectic schedule in our life has started. She goes to Manhattan (New York City) every day which is a train journey of an hour and a half from Morristown which makes me a close-to-full-time home maker.

Amiya had the habit of putting her toys in the mouth or biting them and I used to tell her not to bite the toys lest she get worms in her mouth…

Yesterday, we were coming home and I had parked my car in our parking lot and was helping Amiya to get out of the car – The car seats and regulations in the US is a bit annoying especially when you are in a hurry, though it is meant for the safety of the kids – I had the laptop bag on my shoulder, had to keep the door open and pick up her from the seat. After picking her up, I need to lock the car and was lazy to keep the keys in the pocket and take them back again! I held the keys with my mouth and was picking her up when she gave out this statement – “Thakkolu vaayilu vekkallae pappa…. Puzhu varum…” (Transalation – Don't keep the keys in your mouth, Pappa… You will get worms in your mouth!) I was stunned for a minute hearing this and then realized how small kids catch even the small statements that we make, watch every thing that elders do and even try to emulate them…

Yes, charity begins at home, Walk the talk – A quick lessons learned for me!


Note: Text in italics is malayalam, my mother tongue

Living your life inside out

I really do not know how to start this post. This is kind of stuff that sometimes I am at loss of words expressing...

I have pretty much lived my life so far based on what I thought is right and felt like doing. "Living life in your own terms" if you could call it that way. But honestly, who will be interested to know about that? Consider my life as a canvas, where a director is painting a beautiful story - Who is the hero? MYSELF!! EVERYBODY is the bravest, smartest, cutest, strongest IN THEIR OWN LIVES... There is no better way an incident could have been handled by somebody else if they were in your role... given that background, let me get into what I wanted to say.

I keep telling my wife and few others that I as an individual is happy and content if the environment around me is happy. Like when it comes to personal life, I am pretty happy & content (Ahh, now we see the seggregations...) because I think my environment is happy. Perceptions too have their part in the story... Being happy does not necessarily mean being together at the same house or calling up and being in touch every day through emails or phones. It is just that feeling that we all exist for each other. You could be out of touch for ages together, but still if you have that feeling inside, thats the point.

So, I keep talking (read as lecturing) about this non-materialistic way of living and being happy from inside and not necessairly the materialistic gains and assumes that people around are so much excited & happy to listen to me... And my environment continue to put up with me despite this boring yap yap... until recently when my mentor (during our first meeting) threw this curve to me. "What is your Philosphy of life? Do you live your life inside-out or outside-in?"

Honestly, I was stumped by the depth of this question and I realized that I was somewhere between. (I always wished there was a half yes, half no - somewhere between the yeses & the nos). I should admit that more than a few times, I had allowed my environment to take charge of my life and I remained being a spectator. To live your life inside-out takes a lot of courage, commitment and focus and I realize that I am not there... To a great extend, it was mediocrity that drove my decisions because I have a tendency to make everybody happy. I am OK... to let it go, if that makes my environment happy which inturn is my criteria to be happy and content. Does the famous Indian corporate worker who does not know how to say "NO" ring a bell somewhere in this context?

To be or not to be... difficult choice. You can be really there and live your entire life sleeping peacefully EVERY night with no regrets - Be prepared to be ignorant to your environment's feelings. Or try not to be there, keep everybody happy and live a life of guilt & remorse.

Or try to balance it off between the both ends based on specific situations and live your life by doing a continous Cost-Benefit-Analysis, and feel regretful about running your life like a business.

I sometimes feel that way when on top of a drink or two ;)

Boris & a few Indian Techies

I was contemplating on whether to write this post or not; later decided that I should. Because, this shows how badly some of us behave and take things for granted. This is an incident that happened on Thursday, the 7th June 2007 at the hotel where I stay in Morrisplains, NJ - Candlewood suites.

Though Candlewood is an American hotel, there is nothing American about it except the names. All the employees who work there are either Mexicans or Eastern Europeans; more than 80 pct of people who stay in this hotel are Indians of which 70 pct belong to the category "Techies". As I climb-up or lift-up to my 3rd level room, the fragrance of sambar, rasam, indian masala and maggi welcomes me and makes me feel home.

And who is Boris?
Boris is the midde-aged Mexican cabbie... rather the driver of the complimentary shuttle (station-wagon) that plies from the hotel to pre-defined destinations every week day. His day starts with dropping people from the hotel to the railway-station and the Pfizer office at 7:30 AM, comes back to pick the people to Honeywell at 8AM, and then another trip to some other offices at 9AM. He has a similar routine in the evenings - A very nice chap; has an opinion about anything and everything in the world (if not anything; atleast f*** them) and more than anything, speaks his mind regardless of the place or situation.

As a quick pre-curser to the story, we got late to office on wednesday coz one Indian Techie (hereby referred as IT) who had to take the 7:30 AM shuttle to Pfizer missed it and demanded that he should taken to the Pfizer Office at 7:50 AM when Boris came back to pick the Honeywell crowd. He oblidged and we got late. Pfizer is actually walkable from the hotel, just half a mile on the same side of the road, but driving takes around 10 minutes.

And here is what happened on that fateful thursday.

Boris (BO) comes in at 7:55 AM; we all get in. And the IT tries to getin.

BO: Maaan.. u no gonna get in now. I have a schedule; I gonna meet my schedule.

IT: Why? You dropped me yesterday naa?

BO: I did a favor maaan... d'you know that? I did a favor... you gonna better catch the 7:30 time... I gotta schedule to meet.. (to us) u'no guys... i drop this jerk yesterday and he just say thank you and walk off... these guys just come over and....(sound fades)

IT: I think you can drop us today also... onnly one more day naa...

BO: You better close that door maann... I gotta guys waiting here and I gonna meet my schedule... you guys just gonna come over and d'maand things... maan.... do you know that i did a favor? now you close the door.. i gotta go...

IT: Yes, I know you did a favor, do a favor today also naa...

BO: maan... just close the door... u d'maand a favor... i gotta schedule to meet... u guys just come oer and have no idea what the **** (showing a finger) is going on here... close the door maan...

The door closes... Boris looks into the mirror and finds Mak (Adaikappan Meiyyappan from Honeywell) in the van and then to him...

BO: Mak, my dear frriend... I'll drrop you anny time... coz, u r my frriend

Mak: Thank You Boris

BO: Those jerks...(sound fades..)

Boris puts on the radio and then after a second, shows his desperation and switches to the tape where he has his favourite songs...

"Habeebee... Habeebee... " - reminded me of the song with Mohanlal & Sreenivasan in the film "Chandralekha - Maanathae Chandiranothoru..." the very same one...

And we raced to the Honeywell Corporate Headquarters on Columbia Road.

Note: Information technology workers a.k.a computer programmers are generally referred to as "Techies"

Hooray, I am a PMP!

I just completed my first Certification in professional life. I have been certified by the Project Management Institute(PMI) as a Project Management Professional(PMP) on 21st May 2007. It had been a long and tiresome push & pressure from the management and this year it got officially listed in my goals for 2007; which means no escape... I have no chance to dodge it any more.

Personally, I dont believe in certifications. Especially after I interviewed an OCP 5 years back who did not even know the basics of programming in PL/SQL. And that is why I never had any certifications in my close to 8 years of life as a Software Engineer (trainee, junior, senior, principal & now senior principal). And now why this? This is a message; a message to people who believed that people like me cannot do it - especially because I never had any certifications before.

And finally yes; money! I should admit, I am greedy, I need lot of money. And there is a long story behind it - I dont want to open the pandora box here, because it would require a space in the weekly columns for a year... long story(Neenda katha)... Sahana samarathindae oru neenda adhyaayam... I dont know whether it helps me at my present job, but definitely yes, when I decide to hop, it would.

More than anything else; this would help me to keep my name like "Munnabhai, MBBS" - "Santosh Subramanian, PMP" :)

Note: Text in this font is Malayalam, my mother tongue

Corporate, Politics and a few Puppets

Bitching, bitching & bitching...

Is that the only way to get over it? And what is that constructive way to get over this whole mess? Ahh yes... sportsman spirit! What we need here is sportsman spirit - to effectively get over it and be back in the ring.

Sometimes you find very smart people; And there are others who think they are smart; Poor guys, I can only pity them. Because all they can do is to pull strings and they feel that they are good at it. Poor souls! And they walk into the real booby traps exposing themselves!

And now, why am I cribbing, having known the terrain? Atleast my father does not have cancer & my mother is not down with ulcer and I dont have to get my sister married off with the dollars in tow.

I feel depressed of only one thing. Somebody starts this game, it is like the termites; it goes on and on until it swallows the whole organization. It is like the religion card the politicians play; somebody plays the card and every other person goes on defensive with their own cards. Trust, teamplay, relationship, sportsman spirit, all of them are at stake. And at the cost of?

We need to recognise and identify these weeds in the organization before they start breeding and outgrow the real professionals. They are like the bacteria, and breeds very fast and slowly sets up a "company" - like the one of ram gopal verma...

Anyways, the parting shot is that it is short lived, and let the poor fellas have some fun.

Taxation Simplified - As explained by an economics professor

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve.
"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison.
"We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Professor of Economics University of Georgia