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The Fastest Way to Succeed in a New Job: Identify the Right People

Introduction  Starting a new job is often treated as a learning exercise. You read your job description, attend training sessions, learn the software, and understand the processes. All of these things are important, but there is another factor that can dramatically influence how quickly you succeed: knowing the right people. The fastest way to struggle in a new job is not always incompetence. Sometimes, it is simply talking to the wrong people. After working across large supply chain and logistics operations, I have seen highly capable professionals take longer to adjust because they did not understand the organization's stakeholder network. Meanwhile, others became effective quickly because they identified the people who could influence their work.  Your Job Description Is Only the Beginning  Your job description tells you what you are expected to do. It does not always tell you how decisions are made, who controls approvals, where important information comes from, or wh...

Mysteries behind Holi and important Life lessons

In Hindi, we say " Bura Na Mano Holi Hai" while celebrating Holi. This means please do not feel sad because it's Holi". It's an Indian version of La Tomatina with the only difference that Indians use colors instead of crushed tomatoes. Obviously, Holi is a time to become exuberant but we must also learn some life lessons from Holi. This a time when caste, creed, and color doesn't divide people. People from different walks of life enjoy Holi together and this is a time when enemies become friends. There are also many mysterious stories behind the Holi festival which have some greatest lessons for us. Let us try to understand and inculcate those lessons in our lives. Lesson 1: Never Boast of your resources: Hiranyakashyap was a king in ancient India who was just like a demon. He wants to take revenge for his brother's death from Lord Vishnu. Once Hiranyakashyap performed a prayer for several years. In the end, he was granted a boon and because of w...

Corporate lessons from the life of Sh. Manohar Parrikar

Born in Goa on 13 Dec 1955, Mr. Parrikar had done Engineering from IIT Bombay and he was a batchmate of Mr. Nandan Nilekani. He entered politics to uplift the downtrodden common man. Below are the life-changing lessons from the life of Mr. Manohar Parrikar. 1. Duty is always first: In 1999 he lost his wife Medha who died because of cancer. Just after 1 month, he had taken oath as the first BJP CM of Goa. Let's read the realization of Dr. Jagannath (Doctor who treated Sh Parrikar): He was never out of touch with the af­fairs of the state. In spite of being in the hospital, he ran a full day of office work with his staff in the hospital. When I went to New York to meet him, I saw a similar arrangement of his getting information and passing the necessary instructions back to Goa. Many times we used to take leaves from the office by giving lame excuses like I had pain in my hand, head, etc. Here is an example of a man who is lying on his deathbed but still fulfilling his duties....

The Importance of Setting Clear Goals

It's good that we have dreams, goals, and desire but we must think twice before setting up any goal in our life. If you ever been on a long route without proper GPS or a map then it might have turned out to be a good adventure but you might have taken a long time to reach the destination. It's important to focus on your goal instead of focussing on the problem. This can be understood by following analogy " when you focus on your problem then you lose your goal but when you focus on your goal then you lose your problem". Many people used to left their job when their bosses scold them, but they must not change their goal but they must change their strategy. We cannot play football without a goal, a ship that has no rudder cannot go anywhere and hence a professional without any goal cannot go anywhere. No goal means no direction. There is also a very famous shloka in Bhagwad Gita where Krsna has spoken about Goal setting: vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru- ...

The Science of Self Management

Socrates was a great philosopher of his time. Let us learn self-management from one of his life events. Socrates used to spend hours in philosophical discussions with his friends in the evening hours. During one such occasion, his wife, who was by nature quarrelsome, shouted at him in front of all his friends about her usual chores of the imagined problems. Socrates continued discussions with a cool head while his friends were a little taken over by anxiety. When Socrates observed that his fellow mates are getting disturbed due to the rash behavior of his wife, he suggested to them that they all better proceed to some park to continue the discussion. As soon as they came out of the house, all of a sudden there was a downpour of bulk quantity of water from the top right on the head and body of Socrates. Everyone was stunned to notice that it was Socrates's wife who went to the first floor to pour a bucket of water on his head as a display of her anger. No one could steal the cal...

The Power of Positive Thinking (Part 1)

Positive thinking is not just a matter of thinking but its a matter of perceiving and its a matter of responding to external stimuli. Two people looking out from the same window and one sees the star and others see the mud. When two people look like this then it shows the focus of their vision, energy level, and motivation. One who looks at the sky may dream, aspire and utilize his creative energy to achieve his goals but on the other hand, a person that looks at the mud might be thinking why bad things happened with me and this world is worthless. Our vision and disposition are symbiotic. What we see that shapes how we think and how we think shapes what we see. Let us understand the importance of positive thinking with the help of a short story: A very famous shoe company sent two salesmen to Africa to determine the market potential for their products. One of the salesmen was sent to the North of Africa, while the other salesman was sent to the south of Africa. Both of the s...

When Circumstances Are Beyond Your Control

Viktor Frankl rightly said that "When we can no longer change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves". Let us read one of my realization for a better understanding: On a hot sunny day when I returned to my home after an exhaustive cricket session of 6 hours, I was sweating like a crazy man. I decided to make lemonade for myself and took out some fresh lemons from the refrigerator. As I started cutting lemons I got a call from one of my best friends. While talking to my friend I poured around 5 times more lemon than what was actually required. It was so sour that it can actually bring anyone back to consciousness from the state of unconsciousness. Somehow or the other I had to correct it now. I wanted to remove the extra lemon from my lemonade but it was impossible. Because there are some things in life that can never be undone. So there was no way to remove extra lemons from the lemonade but surely there was a way to correct that mistake. Th...

Move out of comfort zone to effort zone

An interesting incident happened on the day Abraham Lincoln took office as a president of America. When he was about to give his first speech, an Aristocratic gentleman stood up and told Lincoln do not forget that your father used to make shoes for our family. The whole senate started laughing at Lincoln. He thought that he had made a fool of Abraham Lincoln. But the Lincoln was unfazed, he looked at this man and told him that he is very proud that his father made shoes for his family and of many other families. I am very happy to say that when my father made a shoe for anyone he makes sure that he put his life and soul into his creation. If anyone of you has any complaint regarding his work then let me know as I am also trained in shoemaking. Life really begins when we come out of our comfort zone and enter into the effort zone. Nobody can hurt us without our consent. Let us read a sloka from Bhagwad Gita (17.15): Gitaanudvega-karam vakyam satyam priya-hitam ca yat svadhya...