Archive for January, 2006
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 22 Jan 2006, 10:24 PM - Leave Comment
A few years ago, I read Deepak Chopra’s “Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
” and I loved it. One of the seven laws was “The Law of Intention and Desire” which simply states that
Inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment
Powerful stuff there. In a way, intentions provide a starting point for any significant journey. Obviously, watching your intentions closely will help as your broad brush strokes of destiny are painted via your intentions. Unfortunately, when you ask someone what their intentions are on even simple things – people provide vague answers. It’s almost like someone else is packaging and storing “intentions” in their brains and hence they don’t have any control over them.
Having the right intentions alone may not make your life and/or career. However, having the wrong intentions is surely one way of messing up your life and/or career. If you are extremely smart, you can get away with “wrong intentions” and fool some people for sometime. That kind of success is typically shortlived. People will figure it out and while they may “pretend” to give you respect, they will start distancing themselves from you one step at a time.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 22 Jan 2006, 6:18 PM - 1 Comment
How much power is really required to do what you need to do?
First let me start with a personal example:
There is a sense of disbelief when I explain to people that the sotware I use most to write my blog posts is notepad. Most of what you read here has been first written in notepad, copied and pasted into the blogharbor application. There are several reasons for my fascination with notepad. Here are a few:
a. notepad is an extremely light applicatoin. Takes less than a second to launch.
b. With notepad, what you see is what you get.
c. No unwanted formatting suggestions. I am in total control and nothing gets modified without me wanting to modify it 
d. Since it is a lightweight application, it consumes less battery power on my laptop.I write my blog posts in notepad and save each one of them on the desktop. When I get connected, I open each file, copy and paste the content (format if need be) and take the post live. Once this is done, I can just delete the notepad files from the desktop.
Here is the point: While there are far more powerful applications on my laptop, for what I need to do, I may not need them. The world view may be different. People around you may urge you to use the “best” available out there to get your job done.
The reason I urge you to re-visit this temptation is that the “cost” of using the “best” out there may be a lot higher than using what is really required. Do you really want to pay that cost for the best when you really need only 5% of what the best has to offer?
Summary: Use power appropriately. There is usually a cost associated with power. If you don’t need all the power, you don’t need to pay all the costs.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 22 Jan 2006, 5:38 PM - Leave Comment
A few years ago, one of my mentors talked about this concept. The concept and the example used to explain it are both very clear in my mind even today.
I am assuming all of you have been to the circus at least once and you have seen flying trapeze artists in action. The artist does a number of things using the trapeze in the air. The act I want to describe is the one where the artist swings on the trapeze and at some point jumps out is caught by another trapeze artist by hand in the air. During this act, there is one point where the trapeze artist will let go of the trapeze he was swinging and for a brief moment he is in the air before he is caught by a fellow trapeze artist on the other trapeze. The artist is comfortable and confident of both:a) to let go of the trapeze firstb) be in the “hung” state for the brief moment when he is not connected either to the trapeze or to a fellow artist
Now, just for fun compare this to several real-life scenarios where you need to let go of the current situation and be “support less” for a period of time before hanging on to something new. Typically people don’t want to let go first as it is considered as a “risky” move. So, while hanging on to what they currently have, they start trying to catch the next thing and then once they have a secured the place there will “let go” of the current. Unfortunately, this won’t work all the time and in their quest for “security” in the future, they end up not giving enough importance to the present and mess up what they currently have.
In your own world, try and see if you are behaving like a trapeze artist who is wanting to make a jump but is unwilling to let go first. While you are not letting go, the advantage is that you won’t be in that “risky” position where you are “support less.” The disadvantage, though, is that you are not going anywhere.
What would it take for you to make that move?
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 21 Jan 2006, 7:40 PM - Leave Comment
I am honored as Tom features my book “Beyond Code” in his eaglezine. Here is the link:
Tom Hill’s Friday Eaglezine
Thanks Tom!
Posted under Endorsements, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 21 Jan 2006, 7:38 PM - Leave Comment
It may look like I have been silent. The reason was that I was on a plane on my way back to Bangalore for a quick business & plesure trip. I will be speaking at an “invitation only” event on Feb 4. If any of you folks at Bangalore want to attend, please send me a mail. My email address is on the right side bar.
The topic is largely surrounding the ideas in the book and my blog.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 19 Jan 2006, 6:00 PM - Leave Comment
You will agree with me that wherever you are today, you didn’t get there all by yourself. There are a lot of people who would have helped you at various points in your life.
As you can only expect, many of those people who helped you at an earlier stage in life no longer have the capacity to help you anymore. May be you have grown bigger than those very people who helped you to get where you are today. If you decide to forget the help that these people provided, there won’t be a material impact on where you will be going next. So, why not just FORGET people who provided SIGNIFICANT and timely HELP to you in the past?
Here are some reasons for starters:
1. This is more of an attitude issue. If you think about the past help in this fashion, remember that there is a possibility that you will think about the people who are helping you TODAY in the same fashion TOMORROW. Walking on people on your way up is never a good idea.
2. Long term relationships are built one step at a time. Not acknowledging and remembering TIMELY help is one way of distancing yourself from people that helped you.
3. If you do this to someone, someone else may do this to you. Whatever you give out in the universe will come back. So, why not change the trend?
4. After a certain level of growth you are in the company of accomplished people. They can see through your design and attitude of forgetting any help you get. These people don’t want to be “Used” by anyone. You don’t have an option but to change your attitude or risk losing these people as friends.
5. Last but not the least, very few people remember all the help that they received. You will be special just by deciding to take the road less traveled.
All the best!
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 19 Jan 2006, 11:31 AM - Leave Comment
Some spammers think and are intelligent people. They write interesting subject lines that may make you click on that particular email message. Some of the recent headlines were:
a. Confirmed for the friday event; Look forward to meeting with you
b. Re: Press release last week
c. Thank you; Will connect back next week as discussed
d. Your voicemail; Please note my updated contact information
When you click on the message, of course, it does not take more than a second to realize that you have been spammed (again!)
One thing that these intelligent people have not realized is that clicking is not everything. By making me click on that message, you have done the following:
1. You wasted my time. There are only 24 hours
2. Brought down the credibility of the company. If they have to resort to spam, they must be desperate.
3. Made me remember the name of the company and ensure that I won’t buy anything else from the company
What good is it for the spammers and the companies that are partnering with them?
Posted under Business Models, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 19 Jan 2006, 6:00 AM - Leave Comment
The topic of mind-body connection has been written about endlessly. We all know that there is enough scientific evidence to establish the mind-body connection. If this is the case, it is in our best interest to keep our mind healthy. Meditation, I think is one easy way of doing just that!
According to available history, meditation has been practiced for thousands of years. As you can only imagine, there are variety of meditation techniques that have become popular. While I have read about a number of meditation techniques, I have not studied them deeply. Practicing what I know for the last few years has helped me to reduce stress and be calm and composed.
In its simplest form, meditation is an exercise where you try to “blank out” your mind. In other words, if you can somehow control those “never ending” thoughts that pass through your mind, you are meditating in some way. There is scientific evidence that when you meditate, the frequency of the brain goes down to a level (alpha state) which is most beneficial to you.
If you have been meditating, you already know the benefits. If you have never meditated, it is never too late to start. Here are some popular meditation techniques:
There are people who meditate for hours and there are people who meditate for a few minutes a day/week. What is common is that every practitioner of meditation acknowledges that meditation has helped them to lead a better life one way or the other.
What are you waiting for?
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 18 Jan 2006, 5:00 AM - Leave Comment
One of my good friends was recently recounting his experience in Italy. That was his first trip there and he had made all the bookings online and was hoping that everything would be as promised. The topic that is of interest was the hotel room which was supposed to have an air conditioner. I know you all must be thinking that why are we even discussing about an air conditioner. Let me explain.
My friend told me that that once they checked in to the room, they found that it was pretty hot and it didn’t take long to realize that the air conditioner was not ON. When he looked around, he found that the air conditioner was situated somewhere on the top, not easily accessible. He went down to the receptionist to find out where the controls were for the air conditioner.
This is where everything got interesting. The receptionist told him that he could provide a remote control for the air conditioner but that would cost an extra $10/day. The rest of the story is not that important.
The hotel was technically correct by saying that there was an air conditioner in the room. However, from a customer service standpoint, it is right for the customer to expect that whatever was promised would be present and in a working condition!!!
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 17 Jan 2006, 6:00 AM - Leave Comment
I am a big fan of asking the right questions than trying to find answers. The speed with which you will move towards your destiny depends on the quality of questions you ask yourself.
I wrote an article recently for Kavita Chibber’s online magazine. It was published in the January 2006 issue. Here is the link:
The Power of Questions
Hope the article will prompt you to ask one new question that you have not asked before!
Posted under Main Page.
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