Life is More Fun when You Have a Company

Few days back I went to watch Up In the Air-the latest movie starring George Clooney. His spellbinding performance did invoke many rounds of clap and laughter. But, the dialogue which I can’t still forget is-Life is more fun when you have a company.

I don’t want to elaborate the context, but very few among us would have thought about these splendid words.

Without any doubt, it is our life and we are sole owner to make a decision about it. But imagine yourself on an island where you have everything in abundance but any other person. Imagine! your Birthday and you have no one around to clap while you cut the cake. Imagine! you become the wealthiest man in the world, and no one to savor the beautiful luxuries with you. Imagine! you are in deep pain, and no one around to ask how you feel. Imagine! you bought a Ferrari and no one’s along to go for a long drive. Just the thought of it puts us off, doesn’t it?

It’s true that you have come in this world alone and will go back alone. But, as long as you live, make it a celebration. And celebration is never alone.

Justify Your Existence

I’m back from vacation. Trust me! No place like home.

We started with Dubai then went to different parts of north India and where we got severely tortured by chilled weather. Flight cancellations and train rescheduling pushed my change management skills to a new level. Hope you are aware- Delhi is known for extreme weather.

Now I’m proud to have first-hand experience at Burj-al-Arab (the only 7 star hotel in the world) and Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) and Palm Jumeira. Of course got a few photos clicked to brag about.

The most commendable thing about Dubai is- it’s built out of nothing but just a VISION. Few know that Dubai doesn’t have oil.

The place which once was a dusty Arab town is now a glitzy megapolis known of the best of luxuries in the world. I suspect if the concept like Desert Safari ever existed before Dubai marketed it. They must have got inspiration from Jungle Safari. Whatever be the case it deserves a must visit, where you explore sand dunes with twists and turns in a Toyota Landcruiser sometimes as steep as almost 90 degrees.

I forgot to mention legendary Palm Jumeira. We went there by road and had a coffee at newly opened the Atlantis. Hats off to the man who thought of creating artificial island like this. It’s truly magnificent. But missed the aerial view, which left the experience incomplete.

Places like these do inspire us to justify our existence by creating things which never existed.

King Maktoum, May God help you recover from the recent setbacks so that you keep adding new icons on earth.

Your Smile is Priceless

The New Year has just begun. So with it a set of hope, aspirations and resolutions. Wish you all a wonderful 2010. Hope we have more peace and prosperity all around this year.

Yesterday we went out to watch Avatar and it’s breathtaking visuals are still vivid in my mind. First time in life we were out for over nine hours with only purpose in mind-FUN! And without any doubt, it was incredible!

After the show, my wife wanted to buy a pair of Puma shoes and she finally got one of her choice. It was black leather sports shoes with yellow Ferrari logo which looked superbly appealing. The dilemma on her face was starkly visible for quite a while, she scrutinized them from every angle, tried them out and finally whispered, “It’s expensive!” I could comprehend her expression, smiled at her and said, “Your smile is priceless!”

Although it was expensive, yet I felt investment paid off when I saw the big smile on her face. Nothing makes us feel happier than giving joy to others.

Date with Destiny

Life keeps showering surprises every now and then. There are times when I worked very hard, but things didn’t work. I can also vividly remember instances when I didn’t take things seriously, but got groundbreaking results.

I strongly believe that there’s something which control our lives beyond our efforts. There’s someone who fixes our date with destiny or disasters. Don’t know how it works, but it does work.

I can’t visualize anyone who’s failed more than me. I was doing Company Secretaryship along with graduation, I failed there. Doubly motivated by my failure, I tried Network Marketing, it was again not my cup of tea. Started preparing for Armed Forces, passed the written exams, but couldn’t crack the interview. I can still recollect disappointment in my Mom’s eyes after she heard the result. Started preparing for other government jobs, nothing worked. Then, my fascination towards Call Centers started. Went for the first interview, got stuck in final stage. Tried at EXL, GE, Daksh, American Express, Convergys,Vertex, Global Vantedge and uncountable other companies which were hiring for Call Centers. None of them selected me. It went to the extent that GE would reject me right over the phone, whenever I called them again. Probably my voice skills were not up to the mark. I didn’t give up. Tried again, and again and again. Finally, I got a call from Daksh for non-voice process. I can’t forget how happy I was when I got the offer letter. It was the happiest moment of my life.

I know that was not a perfect interview, probably someone had fixed my date with the destiny.

Does it mean should we leave everything up to destiny? Not at all! Had I stopped trying, I would have never got that job. More important than luck was Persistence. Never Stop! Keep trying and wait for the lady luck to smile at you.

Don't be Serious, Be Sincere

Yesterday I received this speech through email from one of my colleagues. Chetan Bhagat delivered this speech at Symbiosys, India to the BBA students. It makes a lot of sense and hope will bring some spark in your life too. I'm a big fan of Bhagat, who's not just read all his book, but is also waiting for the next one. Just like his books, this piece is interesting and I'm sure will stay in your mind for long.

Love!
Vivek

Dont just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup.
There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts.
Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.

"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? .

It's ok! Bunk a few classes, score low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, have little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices..... ...." :)

"Don't be serious, be sincere."!!

What Means SUCCESS to YOU?

I recently posted this discussion: What means SUCCESS to you?.. on LinkedIn and am overwhelmed with the responses. My wholehearted thanks to everyone who contributed precious time to comment. Most of the people felt that you should follow your calling to be successful. They also agreed that the meaning of success changes from time to time. To my surprise, many also felt that just one thing cannot be packaged as success, it’s a combination of many factors.

Here are some of the most stimulating comments:
“I look to my expectations of myself and goals I set. I don't compare myself to others as the "yard stick" for measuring is different for each person. I try to look at myself in a 360 view, as a well balanced person (I think) needs to "be successful" in all parts of their life, not just a couple. You can't have a great career and completely blow your personal relationships, that sort of thing. I agree with you Vivek, we continually change.”

Dorothy Tannahill Moran
Life Coach

“I think the steady realization of a dream and an ideal that is driven by the heart and Passion that cannot, and will never be denied, is Success from my point of view.”

Kalpana Panwar
Management Student

“For me Success is to balance my professional as well as personal life.”
Ankita Verma
University Student

“Success to me is achieving my goals and sharing it with my world.”
Jaya Lachhwani
Healthcare Professional

“Getting what you like is Success and Liking what you get is Happiness. Success is in Big things of life and Happiness is in Little things of Life. Success is more a relative term. It depends on with whom we compare our success. I compare my present success with my past success. I'm my own Benchmark…We should try to be Successfully Happy and Happily Successful!”
Arun Davay
Corporate Trainer and Management Professor

“Success to me means Happiness, apart from the acknowledgement by family, friends, colleagues and society in general, that I have made a difference to their lives.”
Balasubramaniam M.
HR Professional

“Success to me is my inner satisfaction with the things that I do..also positive feedback that I receive for my work.”
Pankaj Choudhary
HR Professional

“Success to me is a relative term and it keeps evolving. To me success is enjoying all that i do professionally and personally. I feel and sense success when I sense the gratitude in the responses from the people whose lives I have touched…”
Neerja Singh
HR Professional

Let’s take this opportunity to share your idea of success. Waiting for your insightful comments..

Love!
Vivek

A Cold Winter Forecast

Today I read this beautiful story and have been appreciating this profound thought since then. This incredibly tells us the influence we have on others although widely undermined by ourselves. Many of us get influenced by others, hardly do we know that we too influence many more. Must read!

Please do not hesitate to share it with all your loved ones.

Love

Vivek

It was autumn, and the Red Indians on the reservation
asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be
cold or mild. Since he was a Red Indian chief in a
modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was
going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side,
he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed
going to be cold and that the members of the village
should collect wood to be prepared.

But also being a practical leader, after several days
he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the
National Weather Service and asked "Is the coming
winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter
is going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist
at the weather service responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them
to collect even more wood. A week later, he called the
National Weather Service again.

"Is it going to be a very cold winter?"

"Yes," the man from the National Weather Service again
replied, "it's definitely going to be a very cold winter."

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them
to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service
again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be
very cold?"

"Absolutely," the man added. "It's going to be one of the
coldest winters ever."

"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, "The Red Indians are collecting
wood like crazy.

Source: www.managetrainlearn.com

If you can’t Measure, You can’t Manage

I was going through a time-management presentation and this slide hit me hard. The full credit for this quote goes to Peter Druker. How apt it is in our life?
It’s fun not to measure what we do. It takes extra effort to keep track of our performance.

Most of us complain for overwork in the office. If you make a log of productive hours, you will notice how underworked you are. We count the number of hours, not how the hours are spent. It goes very well with the saying:

“It doesn’t matter how many years you have in life; what matters is how many life you put in those years.”

80 per cent of our activities in life are not measured. Whatever we are is the result of the remaining 20 per cent. Imagine, where we would land if we measure just a little more?

Set goals, set up parameters to measure and strive beating yourself every time you try. It’s not going to be easy, but it will be worthwhile.

Smile

My wife shared this poem with me yesterday and it's truly inspirational. You too enjoy it and keep smiling. Let this poem travel the world, you can simply email to the ones who you want to SMILE.

Love
Vivek

SMILE

Smiling is infectious,
You catch it like the flu,
When some one smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner
And someone saw my grin;
When he smiled I realised
I’d passed it on to him.

I thought about that smile
And realised its worth,
A single smile just like mine,
Could travel round the earth.

So if you feel a smile begin,
Don’t leave it undetected;
Let’s start an epidemic quick –
And get the world infected!

I Will Keep Trying

At my first job, I had a very dynamic and wise colleague who was recently promoted. I was curious to know what led to his promotion while many others could not succeed.
He said, “Interviewers asked me, what would you do, if a guy in your team is not performing despite your best efforts?”

Out of inquisitiveness, I asked, “how did u respond?”

He said, “I said, I will coach him again, help him out with his problems and try to raise his level.”

But the interviewers were not convinced, they asked again, “If the guy still doesn’t improve, what will you do?”

He said, “I will keep trying until he improves!”

I was not surprised. He was the best fit for the job.