How Much Does Saving Money Help?

Folks,

Last post for 2009.I thought i will write on something that i learnt. May be a small blog.

About a couple of years back one of my colleague and a friend of mine Venkateswaran (aka Venkat Anna) gave a piece of advice that you need to save some money every month and need to have about 50K in your account i.e. liquid cash always.

I did not understand the significance of that advice at that moment but decided to follow it because some one had taken time to give me advice.

How right he had been ,last couple of weeks has thought me why that should be done by every one.

I had been entrusted a task of taking my team for an outing ,first time where instead of my organization spending , i had to spend first and had to get the entire cost reimbursed later.This was also the first time where i am doing such a thing.

The cost was a lot and it had to come from my pocket first to pay out all the advances. It was such a coincidence that i listened to that golden advice of saving money ,which was the only thing that bailed me out of sheer embarrassment from telling people that i don't have money so cannot probably take you out,if we can pool in money and then we can claim it,would not have been nice to do that to your staff.

Golden advice. It is in fact golden advice for many people . Saving money does help.

Looks like this advice also holds good for the economy ,instead of working on credit if we do look at balancing our expenditure and saving life could be much better.

Infact it isn't too late even if we start now , we should be able to avert ourselves individually from the crisis like the one that swamped us last year and also whole economy could be saved .

Of course i am no economist and there are better qualified people who can write with an lot more acumen but i feel that this simple advice does make sense. One cannot live on credit and if some one is trying to do so , its just calm before the storm and disaster in waiting.

Signing off for 2009,wish all my followers and everyone else a very happy and a prosperous new year.

See you all in 2010.

Does Hard Work Really Pay?

This is my version, many of you who will read this might just think i am only one among the lucky few but Suresh i certainly know that you'll agree to what am writing.

Just a day back, i was sitting in one of the worlds top airline's business class lounges at one of the worlds busiest airport, having my Apple Mac Laptop and doing some business work.In between talking to my boss on various business strategies, not to forget the rich creamy coffee's with world famous nuts. That went on for about 30 minutes and then picked up a CNN business traveller and Financial Times paper to flip through and the magazine to read inflight.

Boarded the flight and was relaxing for about an hour , then suddenly a thought in my mind.

"Well for a guy coming from a village who had not even travelled outside his city for more than 21 years and who had been ruing about scores of lost opportunity in the past,all of a sudden how did this all come true?" Business Class travel, Apple Laptop what not.Travelled to various countries scores of times.How did it all happen?

Is it true that iam one of those top creme de la creme? Certainly not.Iam certainly not from any of the elite B schools, neither from top tier Engineering Universities where typically you would find those god's.I am one among the scores of ordinary mortals.

So how did this all happen. I asked myself, did i have extraordinary skills in certain areas, certainly not. Was i those one of the blue eyed boys related to some one at the helm.Well i wish so. Was i a champion performer, i could be but certainly not at the moment.

So how could i have pulled this off. I took time to think and after laborious thinking few buzz words trickled. Those were, hard work, discpline,dedication,passion and lastly a unending desire to learn and take a crack at things .

Exactly , those were the qualities that i had and that has given me those opportunities. Coming from a very average back ground, these were the qualities i had in built in myself. Every defeat was looked up as an opportunity,even sucess taught what could have gone wrong, every time i failed, i never said give up but said push even harder to achieve things. Every time criticsm fell on me , i took that in a positive view and said to myself that someone is taking their time off to give me feed back by the way of their criticism,who on earth would do that?

Apart from my strenghts , working on the weakness was also critical , as Azim Premji says quite often. That made me polish myself .

Lastly i was open to ideas and changes. I had a very open mindset.Lastly when i had all these, it just looks like i was there at the right place at the right time.

The answer to my thought finally was hard work does pay,may be one might need to wait but if we are dedicated and are not greedy of others success but learn a trick or two from their success, well one can definitely achieve things in life .

Although i have exaggerated the contents in the blog a bit but the point that i wanted to drive home was "Hard Work and Open mind does pay you and it pays you big time".

As always open for comments!

Corporate Jungle and Performance Management

Its that time of the year every manager dreads. Yes,its the time for performance appraisals.

It's not about the performance itself or the whole process which is scary but the scale of expectations from staff is!

As is said always,every one thinks he/she is a super performer and every one thinks he/she deserves a solid rating at the end of the year.

What i find missing in people is acceptance that a year has not been great,he or she has not performed well . Managers are chastised for handing out poor rating, as if they got up from bed thinking X or Y should not be given good rating even if they have performed well.

Performance in my opinion is always relative and its true in an organization. Comparison has to happen on relative scale.If X has performed at a super status level with the same tools as Y has had , it is only fair to rate X higher than Y,even if Y is more experienced and senior in the role.

Expectations from people have soared,even in this economic climate that's not changed. That is what intrigues me quite a lot. When an organization is performing well , they need it to give promotions year after year and so is the case when the markets are tough. This is a sheer paradox or even a Pandora's box for me.

There are two things that i see are the problems. On the one hand not all managers are fair in their ratings , some times being in the boss's cabin or doing stuff for him/her do get things done.On the other hand people ,especially at lower levels also need to understand that not every year things remain the same and performance is relative. One more bigger head ache is that how well has the organization clarified what its goals are ,if this isn't done properly,it can be a real problem answering people at the end

Then comes the big daddy of statistics the bell-curve, i would not delve into it but this some times inhibits rewarding very good performers.

In a nutshell, organization,managers and employees need to do their bit to ensure a smooth and a transparent performance management.

The reason i called this post "Corporate Jungle" is because as in a jungle , even in a corporation only the best gets rewarded,not that average performers do not again its a question of relativity and matter what in economics is called "Bandwagon Effect" or "Network Externality" i.e. a person next to me has got a promotion or a solid rating so should "i",without thinking am i really worth it?

If people can ask themselves that question and reason it out , how much of a camaraderie would be there in organizations. Well its anybody's guess on how much better it would be.

How Much Do we Live for the Society!

I am writing this with an absolute fury in my mind. Am absolutely furious.

Just about half an hour back , i was witnessing how much our society drives what we do.

A cousin of mine had a love marriage three years ago.My family had cut all relationships with her.She had a complicated pregnancy and had a baby after battle with death.

The story unfolded today,when my cousin and her better half came to see her parents.

Rain was lashing today , my cousin and her husband had come today with the baby to get the blessings of the family. First they waited in front of her home. Not even one soul spoke to the couple and did not even call them into the house.

I just was a meek spectator trying hard to argue with my parents ,uncle and also eldest uncle,the head of the family about what was unfolding and what they were doing was incorrect.As a human we should show some courtesy was my argument.

I just could not understand why we do not forgive and why this much ego . Why don't elders understand we are in 21st century.I was shattered to hear that the reason my uncle did not want her daughter into her home is "What would the society say", i was stunned and pained to hear.

Not even my eldest uncle heeded to my pleas. How long do we intend to be driven by the society and live for the society.

I in no way am undermining the importance of the society but there are limits to every thing. What is the cost that we are paying!!!!

I am not giving up without a fight and am deeply hurt on what has happened .I am sure i am not a loner in this , sure many of you would have been a part of or witnessed a similar situation.

Two States- Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat

I am no marketing manager for Rupa & co or do i have special stake in this book selling well.

What i am i going to write in this blog , the subject line could make you think its about the book and maybe you are already thinking i am going to do a review.

Well no , what i would like to focus is the subject of the book. These are my own opinions on the subject of the book.

I read this book in one shot , considering this is a very small book so the completion of the book in one go is not a great achievement by any standards but the book for sure enough was riveting.

The story is about two lovers from different community in India and the hardships that they undergo to get through to their marriage .

What are the hardships portrayed by the author , is it all fictitious ? No, the author has done justice to the subject and i guess it was also his personal story.

When i read the book , emotions ran so high in me , don't ask why but it was so vividly explained that i had no way not to accept what has been written.

The moment i was in the middle of the book, all that flashed in my mind was the dialogue from Chak De India movie,where the new coach Kabir Khan (sharuk) gets to know his new team and asks every one to introduce themselves , everyone states their name and the state but only Vidya Malvade says that she is Vidya and playing for India. Hearing this the coach Kabir is impressed and thundered to every other player that this should be their attitude as well.

Why did this dialogue flash my mind because even now in 21st century,when we want India to shine and do accept that we have the right resources and are resourceful alas only in thoughts but not in action.

Even now , when we want to marry , our parents have a say and one cannot marry a loved one from other caste or creed . What an irony!

No cross pollination , we want India to win world cups , we want India to lead the financial recovery,we need India to do every thing that we individuals dream of but we will frown at a Tamil brahmin marrying a Punjabi or even a Gujarathi marrying a Bengali.

What is wrong in some one marrying another person of their liking , where does caste , language etc come into play.So long as they are able to manage their lives and be a good son, father,daughter,mother,daughter in law , son in law what else should they do and why should they not marry. I am still not able to get my head around this.

The only reason i can come up with is that "What will the society tell?" Well,the society isn't going to do anything if the daughters and son marry some one other than whom they like. It's like doing something when one doesn't like it .

Tamil Superstar in one of the cinema says that "If you don't get what you want be happy with what you get" agreed but in this case , i don't see a reason why a boy and girl who like each other do not deserve to live together happily. Is it their sin to be born a Gujarathi or a Marwari or Bengali etc.

If india is to shine , this attitude has to change. It is changing i do not deny that but more should come .

This emotional black mailing,the nuclear weapon called crying by mom's and dad's just to stop the marriages just because either the son or the daughter is marrying some one outside their community should be a thing of the past.

Let's put India first.

The Joy of Giving

They say share your happiness and it doubles , they say share your sorrow and it halves . I say give things to people who need it and the joy knows no bound.

Yes, i mean it . I went through it personally yesterday. I have a cousin who is twenty eight years elder to me and has two kids. Their family were not doing well financially .

After a very long time ,she had been to my house yesterday. We had a good lunch together. Late in the evening my mom asked me what i wanted to do for them. I said anything but i don't

really know what they want .

It would not be wise to ask them what they want but it would be even worse to buy or give them something which is of no use to them. It was a catch-22 situation.

I just thought for a second and said to my mom how about buying them provisions for a month , it would be quite useful . It worked.

I took my bike and off i went to a super market to buy a months groceries. I had such guts that i easily assumed this was easy to do all by myself.

I had never gone to a super market without a list of what was needed and i had no clues what provisions and groceries would be required to run a family.So here i was in the super market without knowing what to buy.

I was stuck , did not know what i wanted . I stared in disbelief about my inability but trusted my common sense. I started from the basic household needs and went through them in my mind on what all could be required.

When i was finished , i just called my mom and told her what i bought believe me i was not too off the mark.

I bought everything , packed them neatly,billed it and was back home.

Just when my cousin was supposed to leave, i called her and gave all that i bought.

I stood still and smiled at her as tears rolled past her cheek , she gave me a huge hug and a kiss. That embrace said it all and how much my affection meant to her .

It was only a small token of my affection but meant a lot to her . What i learnt in this whole episode is that , it takes a very little effort to make others smile and make them feel special.

My joy was over the roof why because i took the first step in giving something . It was a magical moment for me .

It was a great joy in giving.

Time Off

I was inspired to write this blog by Stefan Sagmeister a famous Austrian born designer.

I watched a video of him speak about the value of taking "Time Off" from one's work i.e. a sabbatical and do something one is interested in. That video sent thinking waves in my mind.

Stefan says that one learns quite a lot during the so called time off aka sabbatical. How true,i cannot agree more with him.

We are all so stereotyped in our daily chores that we forget what we want to do.We are embroiled so much with work that lot of things skip our mind. Mind you i am not talking about holidays which most of us do take,this is specifically focussing on a sabbatical.

Sabbatical as dictionary defines it is a short break that is taken every seventh year . Stefan in his video says that this does lot of wonders. Lot of my friends who are going to read this blog are going to think , is this guy become 'crazy'.

Well not really . Let's understand this in the right sense. How many of us take time daily or even on a monthly basis to think first of all. Our lives are so robotized these days that it is just short of being programmed. It so happens that even some of surprises that nature throws at us on a daily basis are by-passed with precision or near precision.

Life has become so monotonous and how many times in a day we hear people say that life is so dull and has nothing new to offer .

Stefan did have an answer to this. He basically forced himself to close down his design studio for customers for a year and go to different/far off places . He said that when he was back from his break, he made more profits than ever and did things in a different way. The reason is one immerses oneself into what he or she likes during the break.

That could be true to people like us too , although i can imagine that taking a years break from work can be too much of an ask but it should be possible for us to do , if only we do careful planning.

Half way through the video Stefan gave a wonderful view of planning . The first time he took the break, he basically said to himself that he would take a break and do different things but at the end did nothing. The second time , he actually planned what he wanted to do and he stuck to the plan,it worked.He shows the example of what and how he planned.

Even for us it could be possible with a little planning. I do know some people who take a break to go and study , we can do different things all of us are different and possibilities are end less.

So let's think about it and see where and how we want to let the steam off.

If you are interested in the video - http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html