Life Beyond Code

Archive for April, 2006

Quotes worth recording – Stanley Horowitz

By Rajesh Setty on Fri 28 Apr 2006, 9:42 PM - Leave Comment

This comes from Tom Hill’s Friday Eaglezine. My teacher used to say “Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you’ll ever regret.” This gem is below says something similar

“Nothing lowers the level of conversation than raising the voice”

- Stanley Horowitz

Posted under Great Quotes, Main Page.

10 things you might have forgotten in your busy schedule

By Rajesh Setty on Fri 28 Apr 2006, 6:50 AM - 2 Comments

#1 Journey is the destination

By the time you reach your goals, your goals change. You go after them and the cycle repeats. This is not wrong but forgetting to enjoy the journey and treating that as the destination can help make this process more enjoyable. Think about your last big and successful project. If I ask you what you remember most about the project, it will rarely be what really happened when you just completed the project. Most people remember several memorable moments throughout the journey – good and bad. If this is the case, why not enjoy what you are going through in your current project(s)?

#2 It’s always easy to solve somebody else’s problems

When your friends have a problem, it looks so easy. Sometimes you wonder why your friends are even calling them “problems.” It is true the other way around too. Your problems will look simpler for your friends. Rather than trying to analyze this, you can actually try to take advantage of this by simply asking for help to solve your problems or working with a mentor.

#3 You can’t lose what you don’t have.

This one rule has helped me go and try the most insane things in my life (in a good way.) Think about it. When you don’t have something and you want to get it, the first thing to remember is that you don’t have it yet. So you can’t lose it. If you try and not get what you want, you won’t be worse than where you are now today. So, most often trying only has an upside (except for the opportunity cost for the time) So why not try rather than not try?

#4 Long-term relationships take long time to build

Just like you can’t have a baby in less than 9 months even if try to place a “rush” order with GOD, long-term relationhips take a long time to build. If you are young, you have a huge competitive advantage if you start building your network right now. If you are old, it’s never too late to start anytime.

#5 The biggest risk is to not take any risk at all

If you don’t step out of your home, you may not have the risk of meeting with an accident but you don’t go anywhere either. They say risk and reward go together. One thing to remember is that taking a risk and being irresponsible are two separate things. I am not advising you to take the latter and label it as risk. Any action (or inacation) in your life has consequences associated with it. If you are irresponsible, there are consequences and they are probably bad ones.

#6 You may not be responsible for all your success

During our breakfast meeting today, Jeanne Urich at Adexta had a comment on this. She said many times it is just that “the rising tide lifts all boats.” What happened in the valley between 1997 – 2000 was an aberration. Almost everyone was successful not because they were smart but because the market was so hot that people were buying anything and everything. Salespeople had become order takers. If someone was successful during that period and was attributing that success to solely his or her smartness, there would be a problem. You should develop the wisdom to know what you get from luck or smartness or a combination of both.

#7 Knowing is not doing but doing is doing

In the valley, if all the ideas that are floating become companies, I am sure there will be a few hundred companies created everyday. Having an idea and having an ability to execute on an idea are two different things. Think about it. How much effort do you need to put in to think about a new idea? How much risk do you have to take to continue to just “think” about an idea? Now compare that with what it takes to execute on an idea. Its a world of difference.

#8 The hardest thing to do is to keep a promise you make to yourself

People complain to me about bad bosses, company culture and economy and so many things. However, the biggest enemy that is making it hard to “win” is within themselves. If you can religiously keep the promises that you make to yourself, you will be a “different” person very soon. I have wrote about this before here.

#9 News takes the path of least resistance

Several leaders say that they don’t get bad news easily. Only good news travels to them fast. When I ask them to remember those instances when bad news DID travel to them what was their reaction, there is a big silence. If you shoot the messenger when the message is bad, naturally the messenger is careful next time. When you don’t hear bad news quickly, think about where the resistance points are and try to clear the them first.

#10 Either you succeed or you learn

I have wrote about this before too but it is worth re-visiting. When I ask people what are the chances that all their decisions will be right in the upcoming year, none of tell me 100%. Finally we settle down to 50-50 – meaning they are OK to have 50% of their decisions turn out to be right and 50% of their decisions turn out to be wrong. This is just fair. This will lead to some successes and some failures. At the concept level, people agree with this but when they ACTUALLY fail in something, they can’t take it. When we go back to statistics, they say that it is true that 50% of the time they would fail. But they really can’t handle failure.

How much time you spend to get back on your feet after a failure is a key indicator of how fast you will succeed. Agreed that you need to analyze what led to the failure and learn from it but if you are in an endless loop of blame and regret, it won’t help.

Posted under Main Page.

Things that make me smile #5 – A friend in need…

By Rajesh Setty on Thu 27 Apr 2006, 10:04 PM - 3 Comments

Actually I am so glad that my name does not start with J. After Java gained popularity, anything starting with J seems like a technology acronym. Although I love acronyms, I don’t want to be confused with technology This one gets even better.

When I coined an acronym for myself “EAT with Passion” where
* E= Entrepreneur
* A=Author &
* T=Teacher
I was still feeling that there is something missing. My thirst to learn more. So a few days ago, I modified my acronym to EAST, where S=Student. So the latest tagline looked something like

Rajesh Setty
Living in the West but always heading EAST!

This was OK until it caught the attention of an old friend who is really sick of me trying to experiment with these things. He wrote me an email recently about the same topic. The last sentence was what caught my attention.

<snip>

Now that you have moved from EAT to EAST, here is one more suggestion to complete the puzzle piece. Since you are also a Blogger (B), you can add that to the mix and call yourself a BEAST

<snip>

I really have to do some thinking now

Posted under Main Page, Smile Please.

Re-designed “Distinguish Yourself” lens on Squidoo now live!

By Rajesh Setty on Thu 27 Apr 2006, 6:16 AM - Leave Comment

Heath Row suggested a few months
ago that I needed to do some serious work on my Distinguish Yourself
lens on Squidoo. After that I got several emails on the same topic.
Yesterday I spent a few hours categorizing about 124 items on the lens.
The re-designed lens is now live. Any comments or suggestions are
welcome.

Squidoo Lens: Distinguish Yourself

Thanks Heath for the original suggestion and push.

Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.

Thank you; “Personal Branding for Technology Professionals” – statistics so far

By Rajesh Setty on Tue 25 Apr 2006, 9:08 AM - 2 Comments

The first day of the launch of my new ebook (PDF, 40 pages) titled
“Personal Branding for Technology Professionals” was great. Thank you
for the warm reception. Here is the image showing some statistics so
far.

Here is the link to the FREE book again (right click to download)
eBook: Personal Branding for Technology Professionals

Also, special thanks to the following people who linked to this immediately and are helping me spread the message.

1. Guy Kawasaki
2. David Maister
3. Phil Gerbyshak
4. Ravi Char of Musings on Information Security
5. George Reavies of Frontline Leadership Trends
6. Andrew McCaskey of Slashdot Review
7. Jason Darrow of Java Entrepreneur
8. Bill Grosso at Wander, Think, Repeat
9. Shaun Orpen at For Immediate Release
10. Reinout van Rees
11. John Keegan

I am honored. Thank you.

PS: If anyone else has linked, I don’t know about it. Please send me a quick note at “rajesh301 AT gmail DOT com.” Thanks.

Posted under Compelling Offers, Main Page.

Quotes worth recording – Leo Buscaglia

By Rajesh Setty on Mon 24 Apr 2006, 5:23 PM - Leave Comment

Great perspective on risk. If you never walk you won’t have the worry of falling down but you won’t get anywhere else either

To laugh is to risk being a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To express feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.

The person who risks nothing,does nothing,has nothing and is nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live. Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave, he has forfeited freedom. Only a person who risks – is free.

- Leo Buscaglia

Posted under Great Quotes, Main Page.

The 24/7 Offshore disadvantage

By Rajesh Setty on Mon 24 Apr 2006, 10:55 AM - Leave Comment

Whether we like it or not, globalization is here to stay. It comes with a “24/7 Offshore disadvantage” if not handled properly. While the organizations will eventually gain by saving costs, people on both sides of the globe are working 24/7 to make this happen.

My column in CIOUpdate this time is titled “Avoiding Global Burn-Out” and provides some strategies to deal with this.

Here is the link:

CIOUpdate column: Avoiding Global Burn-Out

Best
Rajesh

Posted under Main Page.

Audio interview on the “Cranky Middle Manager Show”

By Rajesh Setty on Mon 24 Apr 2006, 10:29 AM - Leave Comment

Wayne Turmel hosts a show called the Cranky Middle Manager Show. While it is not Wayne’s full time job, this is something that Wayne does to distinguish himself from the commodity crowd. In other words, Wayne is on to building a personal brand with this initiative. Wayne interviewed me on the topic of “Personal Branding” for this show. It’s an audio program and it’s up on the site now. Here is the link:

Cranky Middle Manager Show #44: Personal Branding with Rajesh Setty

Thanks Wayne.

Have a great week ahead all of you.

Posted under Endorsements, Main Page.

FREE eBook – Personal Branding for Technology Professionals

By Rajesh Setty on Sun 23 Apr 2006, 8:13 PM - 7 Comments

I have been fascinated by the work of both my heroes Tom Peters (Brand You) and Seth Godin (Purple Cow) for quite a while. My series on Ways to Distinguish Yourself is an offshoot of my passion on this subject. Technology professionals need to brand themselves more than anybody else as the consequences of not doing it can be losing your job to someone offshore. Excellence in commodity skills can only take you so far.

Earlier this year, I wrote two columns on this topic for CIOUpdate

1. Jan 30, 2006: Personal Branding for Technology Professionals – Part 1
2. Feb 27, 2006: Personal Branding for Technology Professionals – Part 2

This eBook is the result of a few months of research and writing and of course, lots of help from lots of people. You will see that Personal Branding is no longer a “nice to have” thing. It is no longer a luxury. Earlier it might have provided the much required competitive advantage but now, you almost require it to survive and thrive.

Special thanks to the following people:

* Bill Sherman, partner at Intulogy. Bill also serves as my writing coach. If you like this eBook, a big
part of that should go to Bill.

* Renee Hawthorne of Intulogy. Renee helped me with the branding of the book. If you like the format of the eBook, all the credit should go to Renee.

Also, I have to thank the sponsors for funding the research leading upto the book and writing this eBook. These companies have been instrumental in ensuring that this book remains “FREE” for you.

Intulogy: Intulogy helps companies create outsource training solutions. They can almost fulfill every training need you may have.

Compassites Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd:
Compassites provides outsourced product development services. Their services extend from idea validation to post production maintenance for a web product.

Here is the link to the eBook (right mouse click and download the PDF document)

eBook: Personal Branding for Technology Professionals ( 40 pages PDF )

I would love to hear your feedback and comments. I stopped short of
promising that you will get your value for money. It’s FREE. So I guess
I have to make a promise that you will get more than the value of money

Want multiple printed copies?

I have partnered with a printing
company that will print and ship 10 or more copies at cost. Send me an
email at “rajesh301 at gmail dot com” and I will get them to send you
the pricing.

Posted under Compelling Offers, Main Page.

Things that make me smile #4 – Oxymorons

By Rajesh Setty on Fri 21 Apr 2006, 7:37 AM - Leave Comment

I met Tom Hill a few months ago when he spoke at our Vistage Group. His talk was fascinating. Since then I get his Friday Newsletter and read it without fail. In Eaglezine issue, I found this interesting piece about Oxymorons.

Oxymoron [def]

A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist.
(from Dictionary.com )

Here are a few oxymorons

United nations
Virtual reality
Open secret
Minor miracle
Non-alcoholic wine
Extensive briefing
Unbiased opinion
Almost exactly
Dodge Ram
Constant change
Half full
Assistant supervisor
Black light
High ground
Crisis management
Ill health
Nothing much
Partially completed
Authentic replica
Random order
Small fortune
Student teacher
Steel wool
Civil War
Half dead
Exact estimate
Completely unfinished
New tradition
Act naturally
Found missing
Original copy
Resident alien
Genuine imitation
Dry wine
Good grief
Uninvited guest
Highly depressed
Final version
Sanitary landfill
Rigid flexibility
Small crowd
Live recording
Dry lake
Good beating
Rock opera
Bittersweet
Farewell reception
Deafening silence
War games
Death benefits
Clearly confused
Rolling stop
Safety hazard
Clearly misunderstood
Initial results
Friendly argument
Healthy tan
Cold sweat
Holy war
Peace force
Minor disaster
Home office
Extinct life
Random logic
Plastic glasses
Terribly pleased
Political science
Tight slacks
Definite maybe
Pretty ugly
Rap music
Working vacation
Even odds
Great Depression
Terribly nice
Jumbo shrimp
Freezer burn
Same difference
Second best
Alone together
Work party
Standard options
Sweet sorrow
Now, then
Passive aggression
Soft rock

You can read more about Tom Hill and his Friday newsletter at Eagle Institute website

Enjoy!

Posted under Main Page, Smile Please.