Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Ideas...

Ideas are not stolen...Ambition is!

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Sawaal hi Sawaal...


It's that time for us..when parents deal with endless questions day-in-day-out.
And we make sure to enjoy this phase..just hope it stays though.


Sawaal Jawaab


वो वक़्त भी क्या वक़्त था
सवालों का छज्जा जवाबों से मिलता
हर मोढ़ पर एक ऑर सवाल इंतज़ार करता
जवाबों में ऑर सवाल ढूंढता
आस पास हो रहे फेर बदल ने
परत दर परत चढ़े अबोध ने
हरप्पा मोहेनजोदरो की सभ्यता की तरह
सवाल कहीं गहराई में दफ़ना दिए
जेबों में भरे सवालों को
किसी जेबकतरे ने चुरा लिया
जहाँ सवालों पर जवाबों की छूट थी
उस दुकान को क्यों बंद कर दिया
Source: Rajesh's Blog.


Monday, May 27, 2013

Believe in Schedule


Source: Image Search


..not because they are supposed to be accurate or they are 'right'.










But because, a schedule can:
   1. help track your work progress. Breaking a big piece of humongous work into small chunks and tracking against time.
   2. help encourage accountability, commitment and frequent communication.
   3. tie people together in a project and help them being part of the process.

It should not matter if your schedule is inaccurate or your project progress is not respecting your schedule.
Though, it does not mean it should not strive to make it as accurate as possible.
Try your best with this but it's more important to make sure you have a schedule.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Mistakes are Useful..

..only if you learn from them.

And you can learn from them, only after you have admitted that you have committed one.

Blaming others (people, circumstances etc) for your mistakes means you are distancing yourself from the possible learning that might come your way.

If you have not committed mistakes in your life, you clearly lack experience.

IMHO, learning from your own mistakes requires few qualities.
Most important of them being, being able to role-play yourself in situations where you made mistakes. i.e able to go beyond denial mode.
Second, self-confidence that is needed to admit things.
Third, courage which is needed to bring changes.

So, In short:
1. Admit your mistakes. Be wise.
2. Make sure to make use of your mistakes. Learn from them.
3. & MOVE ON to next venture.

Remember: Mistakes are not shameful things.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Experimenting with camera...

Location: Hotel Hilton Union Square, San Francisco.

Monday, May 06, 2013

Not-So-Good Organizations

It's a poor organization if the following happens:

  1. You observe people spending much of their time fighting organizational boundaries. (think broken processes and practices).
  2. You observe people are confused about their job. Or are not very clear about expectations from their job. This leads to the situations where/when no-one knows if they are getting the job done (or not). (missing value-add)
  3. You see some people working hard and extra hours, and they think that they get the job done. But in the hindsight, they have no idea what it means for the company and their own careers. 
  4. If someone finally manages to work up the courage and tell management how screwed their situation is. Following things happen (in sequence):
    1. Denial mode ensues. Management denies there is a problem.
    2. And then..Defend mode ensues. Management defends status-quo.
    3. And then, Do-nothing mode ensues. Management ignores the problem.

    Hiring is too much skewed towards referrals and interview feedback is not respected.
    ...

Good Organizations

From an employee perspective, In a good organization:

  1. People 'can' focus on their work.  
  2. And 'can' have confidence that, if they get their work done, good things will happen. (for both, the company as well as personally themselves). 

I should be a true pleasure to work in an organization that satisfies both the above.
This is what makes a job motivating as well as fulfilling.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

What have I learned...


- Always plan assuming that it would change sometime soon. Still plan.
- Understand risk management. Many people claim to understand risk, but that is not true.
- Identify your blind spots (thought process). This will take years and a mentor to do it right.
- Hope for the best. At the same time be prepared for the worst. This is not easy to do both of these at the same time.
- Learn to learn from what people *did*, not what from they *think*. (Even if they have failed.)
-- Opinions are just opinions.
-- Strategy is also just a strategy until it's executed (even if you fail).
- Execute quickly...and if you have to, *fail early*. Or *Pivot* into new strategy before you start hearing about it from outside.
- Don't paint everyone with the same brush. Context/perspective is the key to understand the world around you.


Thursday, April 18, 2013

Self Image, Self Worth and Ego...

line between self image, self worth & ego is not easy to draw...heck most of them don't even know the difference between these.