Serendipity and Learning

This year, we decided to introduce trekking to the kids. And we took them on a short trek in the Garwhal Himalayas. It was a 2 days, 1 night trek. They were trained enough. With short 6km walks, a little stair climbing for a few weeks before the event, carrying their bags and walking. They were sensitised to carrying their own bags. We involved them in the shopping (shoes, trek wear, ponchos, plates), got them to break in the shoes through the training and they kept up their training. But then, you never know. They might get bored or fatigued or pass on the bags to the adults or complain of pain or fatigue and so on. We neednt have worried. The night before the trek, they were so excited, they could barely sleep. At the point where the trek started they were like race cars revving up their engines waiting for the green signal. They set off with the advance guide and set a blistering pace. The adults were behind all the time with the trailing guide. They enjoyed every aspect of t...

Trek guides have a difficult time. Their lives are filled with loaded questions of the "Have you stopped beating your wife" kind. No answer will be right. I have written about this earlier, on the learnings from a trek guide . The recent trek we undertook, the guide used a similar 'language'. The perfect balance between authority and free for all. The perfect balance between fear and abandon. The perfect balance between discipline and fun. He kept us on time - each time - he would give us a time and stick to it. He correctly estimated the time it would take for a bunch of people in their 40s and a bunch of energetic kids to reach the place (any place). He took a call on where we should be eating. He kept an eye on the weather and smiled each time his calls were proved right. He kept the group in sight by splitting the local guide to lead and himself bringing up the rear. And after all this, you have the laggards (us) asking him questions like, How am I do...

The story of Israel is inspiring. And this is a story by Shimon Peres, one of the founding fathers of the country, so to say. After getting a recommendation on reading this book, it waited on my shelf for its turn to arrive. The book itself is worth a read. More importantly, here are my takeaways on what it means to be a leader from this book. For one, A reader must prepare hard. Work hard. In different situations. Be Prepared for any opportunity that might cross her way. Listen; listen well; listen actively... Take risk: it is only after we see failure that we will know if we misjudged the risk. Open new possibilities Optimism and naivete are not one and the same... Make the hard decisions that leadership demands (and therein lies one of the most important tenets - as a leader you cannot escape facing and making tough decisions. If all one had to do was to take easy decisions, one does not need leaders.) Standing still is not an option, despite many successes Seek and hav...

Recently, I read Paul Allens - Idea Man. And set me thinking about how in a team when there is one 'Big' founder, the story from the other side is often more unvarnished and presents a different perspective than the dominant narrative. And thus, I started re-reading iWoz to see if there were some parallel perspectives there. For one, both Paul Allen and Steve Wozniak were the 'idea' guys. Both were avid tinkerers (and I am coming to believe that tinkering is an essential part of the learning process.), got interested in something early and pursued it with a lot of freedom. In the not so prominent founders book, you get to see a more human side of the prominent founder with all their flaws. You get glimpses of the early culture of the company at the time it was founded and so on. The founders seem to have something in common (passion for technology, hands on in technology) and a complementing skillset (one tech, one business). One of them is more 'communicat...