3 Books

I recently bought and read three books. This is important because I don't consider myself anywhere close to a reader, leave alone avid reader. All three books were by the same author, Chetan Bhagat and these were all his books - The three mistakes of my life, one night @ the call center and Five point someone. The best thing about his books was that these were an easy read. I could see a story on television running in front of my eyes. I could relate to all the stories. Nice work. Looking forward to more books by this author.

Next on the agenda:

1. Freakonomics

2. The complete guide to accelerating Sales Force Performance :)

6 Steps to Greatness

Here is a summary from Prof Rajeshwar's class:

Step 1: Reverse the way you get out of bed

Step 2: Look for good in other people

Step 3: Learn how to greet people

Step 4: Establish Symbols

Step 5: Take care of your physical health

Step 6: Feed your mind

Here are the steps in details.

Step 1: Reverse the way you get out of bed

What this step really means is that you should challenge your comfort zone. You come out of your bed in the same way everyday, without consciousness. This is like a metaphor. You should seek what you really aspire. This should not be constrained by what you feel is realistic, because the limits are only in your mind. Of course, there is ambition and then there is over ambition which is when your ambition exceeds your capability. But when you live a dream, you only will know whether the goal is achievable or not. Give it a chance. Change after you have lived it for some time. Because if you would not look out for it, you would not get it.

This also suggests that you should be impractical, irrational while setting your aspirations. You should write down your aspirations and repeat it to yourself everyday. Everyday in the morning, as soon as you wake up say to yourself as if you are what you want to be. Last thought that you have at night, is the first thought in the morning. e.g. if you put an alarm to catch at flight at 4 AM, you would wake up 5 minutes before that. Your mind gets tuned to it. So, write a script and chase it. Stay focused!

There was an experiment done where a few flies were put in a glass tumbler and the glass was covered with the book. The flies tried a lot to come out of the glass, but their struggle failed. After some time, they were hovering near the top of the glass. Then the book was removed. None of the flies, flied out. From their experience they knew they couldn't come out. But they were so wrong. So, don't let your experiences limit you from chasing your dreams. You never know when the passage exists. Keep looking out for it.

Step 2: Look for good in other people

Consciously look for what is good in other people. Admire them for their good. Don't look at their shortcoming because that humanizes them. Look for the gold not dirt. Gold is difficult to find and you have to neglect a lot of dirt to find gold. Darkest hour is just before the dawn. If you see bad, good is just around the corner.

Praise is always acceptable. If you praise someone, there will never be a time that a person will be offended by it. This is a great tip for networking. It can be very uncomfortable, but still needs to be done. You should always look for good and develop others.

Step 3: Learn how to greet people

You should always greet others with energy. A cold Hello is just not enough. Show enthusiasm. Stretch yourself to show the enthusiasm if it doesn't come easily. Differentiate yourself.

Step 4: Establish Symbols

This one is a little tricky. You should develop your anchor. e.g. your calmness could be your anchor or symbol. And it should be one. Its like God. Whoever it is, doesn't matter. It should be someone and should be only that.

Step 5: Take care of your physical health

Would you sell your eyes if you were paid a million dollars? If not, then value them accordingly. Take care of your body and physical health. The old adage that if health is done - something is gone is very true. A health body only can have a healthy mind. Only mind and body are your own - develop them!

Step 6: Feed your mind

GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out works for the mind too. Don't feed garbage to your mind. Feed it healthy content like Classics, Motivations, Heroics, Good literature and Good thoughts.

Try to follow these six steps and greatness will be yours!

Fatal Flaws in Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes

All the tragic heroes in Shakespeare’s plays are strong characters and one of their attributes causes their rise and the excess of the same attribute causes their downfall. Some of the attributes of Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes are:

a) Hamartia – This represents a fatal flaw that the hero has that causes his downfall.

b) Pathos – This represents that particular action, whose consequences will be fatal.

c) Hubris – Excessive Pride

d) Narcissus – Being in love with himself. This is a curse.

e) Peripetia – Reversal in context, but the hero doesn’t realize that and continues to do what whatever he was doing.

f) Anagnorosis – Point of recognition.

g) Angulimaal Point – Point of no return. Non-reversible.

h) Nemesis – A justly deserved penalty, retribution.

i) Catharsis – Purification, Purgation. Sense of pity and fear will have catharsis effect on people reading Shakespeare because of secondary experience and it has emotional cleansing impact.

A tragic hero follows a graph, where on Y axis is the growth due to the attributes and on x-axis is the time. Initially there is a meteoric rise of the hero because of his attribute, e.g. say Hamartia. However, a threshold point 1 (T1) is reached at which the growth becomes stagnant and infact the downfall starts. This point is called Peripetia. Though, a constant growth path can still be charted out, the Hero doesn’t realize that because of Hubris. If the hero realizes that, he can still go back, however, as time passes it becomes increasingly difficult, until it reaches the Threshold point 2 (T2), called Metamoia. As you approach this point, the transition becomes Herculean task and the hero avoids it. By having no corrective actions between T1 and T2, the fall of the hero accelerates beyond T2, until it reaches point T3, called Angulimaal Point. This is the point of no return. The path to go back from here is almost impossible. The hero even if he realizes, would not go back and would rather undergo the consequences. He has to undergo the consequences irrespective. Further fall brings to the point of Anagnorosis where the Hero realizes but it is too late. From here follows death, decay, oblivion, derailment and shame.

On the x-axis as time progresses, there is also an increasing masculinity (assertiveness, desire for material goods) and that squeezes femininity. This hastens the fall. The learning for we future leaders is how to prevent ourselves from reaching Peripetia and even if we reach Peripetia, we can guard ourselves by having mentors, confidants and having a feedback mechanism in place. However, the time duration between T1 and T2 is very short and coming back on track from here becomes increasingly difficult as times passes.

To avoid reaching Peripetia, it is important to have strong Emotional Intelligence which comprises of Self Awareness (Introspection, feedback and Psychometric), Self Regulation (assertiveness), Maslow Hierarchy, Empathy (listening) and Social Skills (Networking – driven by commonality of interest).

Commitment vs Loyalty

One of our professors posed a question in the class, "Is there a difference between commitment vs loyalty?". e.g. Can you be committed to your wife but not loyal or may be you could be loyal to your wife but not committed.

Well, there is indeed difference between commitment and loyalty and he brought it out by an example. He says, as per a study done, most MBA students from top universities would join jobs and they would be totally committed but not loyal to these jobs. Meaning, wherever you work, you would give your 100% to the job. They will work hard, contribute with ideas and whatever it takes to make the company successful. However, if they find another good job where they like more, they would switch easily, i.e. no loyalty! And then they will be totally committed to the new job! Interesting thought!

Can a MBA ship goods?

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