Do Good

Should you forget the goodness of the past if someone harmed later

/

Sometimes, you break up the relationships because you think another person has done some sort of injustice or act of harm to you.

However, ideally, we should not forget the kind of good act. I want to tell you about an incident. When Shishupal was born, he was cursed to be killed by God Krishna.

His mother came to know this at the time of Shishupal’s birth itself. She prayed to Shri Krishna and pleaded with him not to kill her son.

Krishna agreed with the condition, “I would forgive his 100 mistakes, but after that, I can’t tolerate them.”

Shishupal started abusing Krishna, and God was smiling.

Once the 100 count was over, God Krishna killed him with his Sudarshan Chakra.

Krishna’s finger got hurt, and noticing this, Draupadi instantly took a piece of her sari and tied Krishna’s finger.

When Dussasan made an attempt to strip Draupadi’s clothes, Sri Krishna came as her saviour, and she reciprocated his kindness.

Shri Krishna said, “When I was hurt during the Shishupal killing, you tied your sari thread to save me. By safeguarding you here, I have only paid the instalment of your good deed.”

Should you forget the goodness of the past if someone harmed later Read More »

What if I am good at nothing? NOTHING.

/

Absolutely. That’s the exact feeling I woke up with today.

If I ask some people who know me well what I am good at? They will undoubtedly tell me about some or other things that they feel I am good at.

But what if I am not enjoying the things that I am good at?

Shall I continue doing things that someone else thinks I am good at or shift gears and pursue different crafts?

Shall I leave the work that doesn’t feel like work or an attempt at achievement? It doesn’t feel like anything close to what I dreamt about it.

I recall the days when I decided to quit Zee in pursuit of being able to take breaks and not feel pressured to produce results constantly.

It is pretty OKAY to feel like you are good at nothing from time to time so that you can reflect on your own skills, interests, and passions to uncover what you might be good at or enjoy doing.

What do you do for self-discovery and experimentation to find your strengths and areas of expertise to find the pursuits that don’t feel like work and bring you joy?

I am WAITING for your thoughts, ideas, and actions. PLEASE.

What if I am good at nothing? NOTHING. Read More »

Swim or float, else die

/

Whether you are struck by mud or jump in the river, you cannot stand still. Are you feeling like you are stuck in the mud? You have to float and make a gradual effort to come out of it. On the other hand, when you’re in a river, then you have to swim.
Whenever you’re in an inescapable situation, you need to examine your situation and begin floating or swimming, depending on the situation, but you can’t just remain standstill.

Swim or float, else die Read More »

Life is what you make of it

/

“Life is not about hard things and soft things; not about good or bad; or evil or gentle. Both has to coexist like two legs. It’s about what you make of it.

As soon as I was conceived in the womb of my mother, I was put behind the prison. My parents were extremely worried about my safe birth and saving my life from the curse of Kansa. I planned and prepared to handle life difficulties while I was being nursed inside the womb of my mother.

You’d have heard that I was born wearing smile. I am a rare child who’s born smiling. It was because I was fully aware of my difficulties and I was prepared to face it.

I was born inside the prison but didn’t live there even for a minute. It was raining when my father took me to Nandgaav, but I asked Sheshnag to protect me. River Narmada was overflowing with flood, but I asked her to give pathway.

I gave you option to choose whatever you want. I gave you energy and capacity to pursue whatever you wish. I tell you to live a life that is closer to your feelings and desires. I tell you not to worry about the outcome. Your life is not a destination, it’s journey. Make yourself so hard that hardship shall hardly matter to you.”

Life is what you make of it Read More »

Working for yourself

/

“When you work simply for yourself or for your own personal gain your mind will seldom rise above the limitations of the undeveloped personal life; but when you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break bounds; your mind transcends limitations;
your consciousness expands in every direction; and you find yourself in a new world, a great world, a wonderful world;
dormant powers, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a larger man by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

Working for yourself Read More »

Way to achieve mindfulness

/

“Serenity of thought, gentleness, silence, self-control, and purity of purpose—all these are declared as the austerity of the mind.” Bhagavad Gita Ch.17.16

Not to get affected by the worldly matters which arise due to situational, social, and economical events.

Selfish act with the motive of self-profits and fulfilment of ego.

Make compassion, forgiveness and kindness a permanent residence in your heart and mind.

Always think, decide and do things for the holistic welfare of all living being.

Way to achieve mindfulness Read More »

Stop Your “Work” To Get In The Way Of Life

/


I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a person who once said to me, “I’d love to travel to the Himalayas with you.”

I asked to join Vipassana with me, it was refused, “I have a lot more on my platter than thinking about these things right now.”

Most of us are caught in the web of responsibilities; kids, family, financial, work, learning, etc. Where is life? You’re like a dead one en route to your graveyard – sometimes alive, sometimes dead.

Long story short: The world around you will keep unveiling on its own because of the safe hands of the maintainer. You need to take charge of yourself only, enabling life to happen not forcing yourself to get things done.

Stop Your “Work” To Get In The Way Of Life Read More »

Being Organized

/

“Sharpen your axe for 45 minutes, if you’ve to cut tree in one hour.” I like this proverb and refer it during most of my talks on self development.

Being organized is synonyms to “put in place”, its like having all the ingedients needed to complete a task at hand.

But, before you claim yourself organized, you need to realize and organize things, pricesses and outcome in intirity. You need to equip yourself in a manner that helps you complete the process hassle free so that you don’t get interfered in the middle with distractions and errors.

Its also like pursuing clutter-free. While in the process, clean as you go to avoid clutter. Clutter interfere in your way when you are not organized. Clear your path.

Being organized is the first and most important part of life and living, live organized anyway!

Being Organized Read More »

You’re Not Reading Enough

/

Whenever I go to colleges to have workshops with students and quizzed students with a question: “How many of you read less than one hour?”

95% people have put their hands up and this is not a good sign for us.

I request you, if you find any youth in neighbourhood, please tell him to read:

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none, zero” and
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day – if you live long enough like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.”
~~~Charlie Munger

You’re Not Reading Enough Read More »

Cyclic Learning for Mastering any Skill

/

A student of architecture got the chance to meet one of the most successful architects in the world today. Something had been troubling him about his future architectural career, and he asked him a question:

“Why is it that all the most successful architects only appear to become successful in their 60’s?”

He responded, “All mastery comes from learning cycles: starting it, trying it, completing it, learning from it, and then repeating the cycle. In architecture, a learning cycle can take five to seven years. So by the time you’ve gone through enough cycles to begin mastering it, you’re already in your 60’s.”

“But I want to be successful faster,” Student said. “How can I do that?”

“Simple,” the Architect replied. “Don’t be an architect.”

Cyclic Learning for Mastering any Skill Read More »

Your way, Ideally

/

Whenever we get good at something, we start repeating ourselves, and it becomes routine – like machines keep producing as per its capacity at all time.

Life becomes monotonous. Routine. Autopilot.

Lucky few realize that good is the enemy of great, and the journey from good to great begins by giving up the good.

And both good and great are the enemies of possibility.

The success secret of Apple a company that pushes the possible upfront, keeps pursuing the good, and it continuously aims to be great at making the possible.

Being labelled as great reassures us we’ve hit on one best ways to succeed. Your way, your turn.

Your way, Ideally Read More »

Six sources of enjoyment in a life

/

I was reading a shloka from Vidur Niti:


अर्थागमो नित्यमरोगिता च
प्रिया च भार्या प्रियवादिनी च।
वश्यस्य पुत्रो Sर्थकरी च विद्या
षड् जीवलोकस्य सुखानि राजन्।।

It provides us six sources/means of enjoying a happy lifestyle in this World:
(i) regular source of income from your work

(ii) Having good health

(iii) A loving and soft speaking spouse

(iv) Wise, obedient and kind children

(v) Knowledge and expertise in the profession which yields regular income.

It’s going to remain relevant and timeless.

Six sources of enjoyment in a life Read More »

The entrepreneurship model is changing

/

In 2010 I bid goodbye 18 years of corporate career resigning from the top job amid lots of hopes and desperation. It took some efforts to free myself from fears of loosing out because of apprenticeship habits and then I started to see the world from a different perspective.

There is something extraordinary happening in our country and the world. To experience this phenomenon, I needed to be like a free bird, it became necessary to fly to explore the voyage. Bonded inside e corporate world with a brand tag , I won’t have quite realized it.

There are 200 million youths are coming to the employment market and our current system can provide employment opportunity to only 60 million people. We need the explosion of startups, thousands of entrepreneurs and facilitators who can turn the fortune of our countrymen by bringing up their billion dollar ideas to life.

We need to correct our entrepreneurial thinking. Our belief that the vortex of entrepreneurship is to find an investor and get funded needs tuning. Our notion that be funded is like winning the Cricket World Cup must change. And those who strike funding and start living like a species from a different world should realize the ground realities before their daydreaming becomes nightmare.

If you speak to those who got funded they will tell you that they get back to being an employee. Even though you have brought in the people who share your dreams and vision, they may not agree with your process and soon it becomes all about the money. Accomplishing the financial end becomes the main driver of business. We all saw what happened with housing.com.

Entrepreneurs are suffering with it. Excellent startups began to tumble because the money seeking model is endless. One of my own startup went berserk when I begun focusing on raising money more than running the business.

A new way to enter into this phenomena is needed for fulfilling India’s success through a collaborative entrepreneurial ecosystem. Think and let me know what you think?

The entrepreneurship model is changing Read More »

Life is What You Make It

/

Last week we did a survey in our office — we asked people how do you feel working with us by voting anonymously.
65% responded Happy
20% responded Worried
and 15% responded Sad

I told them that those who feel sad should find a better place where they can turn happy because I feel sadness cannot be repaired and we are not in the business of repairing sadness. To those who felt worried, I asked them to have an appointment to discuss the way for them to turn happy.

I made a commitment to employees that let’s work together to make happy ones more happier and worried ones to turn happy while listening to their concerns and solving it.

One employee dropped me an email. We spoke and what I discovered was that the employee was worried because she was not happy with her performance and she had doubts about her own capabilities of becoming successful in her current role. I drew the analogy from the marriage system and said to her, “We marry with so much excitement but, all the fun fades so quickly. However, we don’t give up on the relationship. We gradually strengthen the relationship and enrich each other’s life with commitment to make it a fulfilling one together. If you start thinking about the job also like a marriage, it will turn out to be a much more fun and rewarding thing to pursue. Life is what you make it. It’s not a ready-to-eat food platter from which you can choose to eat only what you like.”


I could see a smile and peace on the face and hope that next month our rate of happy employees will increase.


If you want to know how to conduct similar exercise in your office, please drop me your message.

Life is What You Make It Read More »

How to use your head to handle yourself

/

Our mind is like a child, it wants everything whether it’s helpful or harmful and that’s why God gifted us the parents. Parenthood is a role in controlling children’s minds using care and discipline; knowing well what is good for their ward. As a grown-up, how do you control yourself?

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, “A man must elevate himself by his own mind, not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well. “

We are living the world highly influenced by the material and marketing which influences our mind and our senses.

In order to make your mind your friend you build habits, focus and principles guiding you to not get attracted to greed, fear, fame or fetish.

Ask yourself:

1) How do you define self-control? Do you remember an event of the past when you won because you imposed self-control or lost because you could not?

2) Have you included practices like Yoga or meditation to build the habits of self-control? If not, what are you going to do this year?

3) Write down the events in the last one year of losing s

elf-control? What did you do to get back? What if you would not have reacted to the event?

How to use your head to handle yourself Read More »