Serendipity and Learning

Scott Galloways point that " Follow your passion" is bad advice somewhat resonated with me and I set thinking about it. I agree with him broadly. It took me a long time to realise what is my passion. And I realised that my passion is a stack - and has a couple of things at the core.  For one, I had to do something that was difficult for me - speaking in public in front of people and training them. It was through a fairly complex route that I reached here. This was neither natural not did I have a flair for it - it was pure effort and practice of getting better at it. It was also a derivative of something else - since I am not a natural speaker nor an extrovert.  The starting point was the design element of the training which I enjoy the most.  I remember from school times - I would read Brand Equity - the Economic Times supplement on advertising. And the creative side of advertising attracted me. But marketing was not something I was sure I enjoyed, so that fell by the w...

What is the kind of life you want to lead? This is a question I have asked myself. And in this context, I liked this article . Very often in the pursuit of our career, we forget what we want to do. Or we simply cant given the demands of a career. And what we want to do might be as simple as spend more time with children, parents. It might be getting better in an art or craft. It might be following a passion. It could be anything. He suggests a few things that resonated with me: Read books, Become a learning machine, Start a side business (not the multi level marketing kind please). But primarily, stop chasing vanity goals (material) and chase goals of self improvement (getting better at some thing - maybe one thing, maybe two things) I couldnt express it better than him, so here is the excerpt that resonated with me: B+ is finding something to aim for and going all-in on it for as long as you can. It’s not about the outcomes. Success doesn’t make you happy. Vanity goals ...

I was thinking of some of the lessons learnt in this lockdown - and I dont mean philosophical lessons, I mean, practical issues and some humbling lessons. First up, I admit, like many others around us, we realised how dependent on our maids and cook. But we also realised that, well, we can get by, just the four of us. Yes, it is tough, thinking from meal to meal and demanding kids and vegetable and ingredients not exactly available, but we managed well mostly, substituting with dal-chawal when we could not. A few minor kitchen accidents happened because the burner was forgotten while a call was on. So, yes while it is not easy, it is a readjustment. While we were at home, the kids wanted our time and there have been times where we have been unable to be available for them. But we managed to open all our board games (that were waiting for time) and play all of them. This was the toughest part.  Our internet was overloaded. Of course, all networks were creaking, but with...

The internet is a world of information. In an age of information everything is but a google search away. Take the example of science. When I was studying, if my textbook said water froze at 0 degrees, we took at as the truth. We did not have a doubt. Today, the internet is a great doubt clearing machine and ever so often when the kids come up with a doubt, we google and get an answer (or sometimes more confused). Apart from this, I am a huge fan of serendipity and believe it builds my divergent thinking muscle. The other day I was at an office and noticed a book called 'The Lego Architect' and bought it on Amazon. This book, while it is about Lego and architecture, taught me many words which I had no idea existed. Brutalism, for example. Leaded windows. How does water behave at 0 degrees (trust me the answer will surprise you) How to install CustomRom on a phone (yes, he got the bright idea that he can do it - luckily I dissuaded him). We dismantled an old mechanical ...

From Lost Moon: The Perilious Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jeffrey Kluger and Jim Lovell. After 1961, when President Kennedy outrageously promised to put Americans on the moon by 1970, the space agency knew the old way of doing business had to change. The cautious customs of the aeronautical inventor would continue to be observed, but this natural reserve would be enlivened by a new willingness to gamble. So, no ones ever tried building a 36-story rocket to accelerate a manned spacecraft to 25,000 miles per hour, fling it out of a circular Earth orbit and send it on a screaming beeline to the moon? Then its about time someone did. So, no one's ever contemplated how to build a bungalow-sized, four-legged ship so flimsy it can't even support its own weight, but so strong that it can take off and land under the moon's reduced gravity? Then maybe NASA was the place to do it. There is a thin line between arrogance and confidence, between hubris and true skill, and the engineers and...

The entrepreneur life can get quite lonely. My views  come from my perspective as a newly minted learning consultant entrepreneur. There are times when the market doesnt care if you exist. And like any other entrepreneur, such times have to be navigated. Here is where the story of Pumpelsdrop (previous post) comes in . Suddenly, out of the blue, one gets a phone call. To make a proposal. For a company you have always wanted to work with or sounds too exciting to be true or some work which you have always wanted to do or a new opportunity to learn something. And then, the works begins in right earnest. There is a flurry of activity, a few phonecalls, data, research, books to be read and much reading about the current state of the company, industry, concept. It elevates the energy to a different level. Powerpoints are made. Structures are created. Frameworks are conceptualised. Meetings are arranged with alacrity. And with that last minute scramble, the said proposal is sent o...