Bob and John had ring-side seats. Bob was very unhappy with the way his team was playing. Bob had detailed comments on how the team should really play. After listening for an hour, John said, “Relax, Bob. Being close to the game is not the same as playing the game.”
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Note:
1. A mini saga is a story told in exactly 50 words. Not 49 or 51 but exactly 50.
For all my readers who are celebrating Diwali, I want to wish you a very Happy Diwali.
Diwali is the festival of lights. As we know we all need LOTS of lights to get out of the economic darkness that’s looming
Now, a quick related thought.
I was reading John Maeda’s brilliant book called “The Laws of Simplicity“. John recollects the lesson that he learned from his teacher Nicholas Negropante at MIT. I quote John Maeda here:
“I was once advised by my teacher Nicholas Negropante to become a light bulb instead of a laser beam, at an age and time in my career when I was all focus. His point was that you can either brighten a single point with a laser precision, or else use the same light to illuminate everything around you.”
Love and Entrepreneurship go hand-in-hand I think. Think about it – you can’t be an entrepreneur if you can’t be TOTALLY PASSIONATE about your idea.
Over the weekend, I saw this Bollywood movie “Jab We Met” (meaning: When we met) starring Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. Here is the video of the one of the songs called “Hum Jo Chalne Lage…” (the song begins after about 20 seconds)
The song is a romantic song but you can easily apply every bit of the audio to the story of an entrepreneur.
Here is the first piece of the song.. (in Hindi)
Hum Jo Chalne Lage
Chalne Lage Hai Yeh Raste
Haaan Haaan
Manzil Se Behtar Lagne Lage Hai Yeh Raste
Sort of translation to English:
We have started walking
Started walking this path
Yes, Yes
A path where the journey is better than the destination!
Can you see the similarity to how an entrepreneur views his startup
HARP v. – Having an Attitude that’s Recession-Proof
If recession is here, you have been given a free-admission
None of us can be totally recession-proof. However, we can all strive to have an attitude that’s recession-proof.
None of us have to be reminded that how we come out of this recession will be largely based on what actions we take personally. We also know that
Actions move us
Our thoughts precede our actions
Our attitude shapes our thoughts
Our awareness influences our attitude
Our knowledge raises our awareness
Our teachers amplify our knowlege
So this is the time (if you are not already doing it) to aggressively pursue finding and seducing the “right” teachers to help you survive and thrive in this recession.
Remember that having an attitude that’s recession-proof won’t guarantee you success but not having that attitude may guarantee failure
All the best.
Note: This is the introductory post for the series on HARP (Having an Attitude that’s Recession-Proof)
“Nothing” plays an important role in our life. It is basically a space of possibility. Imagine speaking without a pause. Without that silence. It will be hard to understand what you are saying. You need that “nothing” in between the something that you are saying otherwise that something will be nothing
In a way, the “nothing” that surrounds the something will amplify the meaning of something. So not only should you not ignore “nothing” but you should become comfortable with it.
When I started my first company, I was totally uncomfortable with “nothing”. When I reached out to a prospect, I expected that “nothing” should come in between my offer of help to their providing a “purchase order”. “Nothing” would drive me crazy. Something had to be happening all the time. Looking back, it seems silly to expect that – but that’s what is experience all about.
Go ahead and enjoy the “something” by appreciating the “nothing” surrounding it. You will not only be more comfortable, you will put people surrounding you at ease.
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Note 1: For links to the other 196 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic: Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 6, 2008. This is a photographic manifesto featuring 15 of my mini sagas (stories in exactly 50 words). Here is the link:
A quick progress report on my little project (background) with my son Sumukh.
Quick Background
“Behind The Car” is a community project to collect cool and interesting bumper stickers from across the world. An example of one such bumper sticker is here:
The project was launched on his 10th birthday. So it has now been a week on the project. We spend a few minutes a couple of days a week to discuss his questions. Sumukh cleans up the photos and uploads photos that he has received to the site.
The traffic on the site is growing. Now that we have some content (a few dozen bumper stickers), we are starting to focus on marketing.
Marketing “Behind The Car”
Since there is simply no marketing budget (remember, we are a startup), we have to find innovative ways of marketing. So he is annoying his Mom to tell her colleagues about this project and asking me to post again on my blog
The other thing we did was to get a few bumper stickers with “Behind The Car” written on them and, literally, we (Kavitha and I) have “Behind The Car” stickers behind our cars.
We didn’t know if this would work but it seems like it is working. When I look at the traffic, I see that there are many people who searched on Google for “behind the car” and landed on the site.
Thank you
Thanks to all the supporting emails, comments on the website. Some of you have taken the trouble to post about the project on your blogs and on Twitter. Special thanks to those of you.
I have been following Sramana Mitra’s writings for a long time now. She has a new book called “Entrepreneur Journeys” that was published earlier this month. It is a collection of in-depth interviews with movers and shakers in the technology world.
Quick bio of Sramana Mitra
Sramana Mitra has been an entrepreneur and a strategy consultant in Silicon Valley since 1994. Her fields of experience span from hard core technology disciplines like semiconductors to sophisticated consumer marketing industries including fashion and education. Her current focus, however, is primarily in the realms of Web 3.0 and Enterprise 3.0, and related infrastructure. She has a particular interest in Media and Retail companies and their transition to a Web-centric world.
I had a chance to discuss her new both with Sramana and here are the excerpts:
RS: What is “Entrepreneur Journeys” about? What motivated you to create a series?
SM: I am deeply interested in mentoring entrepreneurs and teaching them how to build companies.
As a self-taught entrepreneur myself, much of my learning came from my own mentors – coffees, conversations, dinners – through which they told me their stories, shared their insights.
Entrepreneur Journeys is my attempt to capture that knowledgebase and institutionalize it, so entrepreneurs all over the world can vicariously experience those conversations, those dinners, lunches, coffees which I have been fortunate to have access to, and through which I built myself up.
Series? There are so many stories, and so much tribal knowledge. I want to capture a great deal of it, and leave it as a resource for those coming after. And for those in all the emerging markets.
RS: The book provides a snapshot of the entrepreneurs at a point in time? What is your plan to keep it “alive”?
SM: I don’t think the “time” is so critical as the “lessons”. I think the lessons are timeless.
RS: If there was a common theme across all the interviews in Volume 1, what is it?
SM: Inspiration. In later volumes, I will be zeroing in on more specific themes like Bootstrapping, Positioning, Innovation, etc. This one is meant to be pure inspiration, which is why it ends with Harish Hande’s story.
RS: What were some things that surprised you from the responses?
SM: Assuming you are asking about the responses from the entrepreneurs whose stories I have told, I think the surprise element is in how deep and detailed they were all willing to get with their stories. Over time, as I started getting more clarity myself on what I want to do with this body of work, I got better at explaining to the entrepreneurs what I want to focus on. That helped create more engaging, meaningful conversations – well beyond the bragging that comes in traditional PR. And now that this volume is out, it is very easy to explain to entrepreneurs exactly what I am trying to accomplish with the series.
RS: I know that people have to buy the book to get everything but would you please give a sneak preview of some of the lessons from these interviews?
SM: As I said in the book, what you will learn from the book is going to be personal and subjective. What I want people to learn is that entrepreneurship – successful entrepreneurship – is a very achievable goal. Not something to be scared of. Not something to put off until next year, and then next year, and then next life. Get going with it, is my advice.
RS: Sramana, the book has great content. Why chose the self-publishing option when you could have easily got a big-name publisher to get this book out?
SM: I have only done the Amazon deal so far. I have not sold the non-Amazon rights, and am in discussions to sell that with other publishers. I wanted a fast-track way to get this book series out ASAP. Traditional publishers take very long to get their acts together, and frankly, I don’t operate with those timelines. Besides, I got a great royalty structure plus lots of other goodies from my “special” deal with Amazon. It gave me an opportunity to be an entrepreneur and disrupt an industry. You can imagine how attractive that is for someone with my profile.
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