“I worked really hard and yet I failed”

This is one of the most common line I have ever heard from people.

Most people assume that one cannot achieve success despite putting in the hard work and success really depends on luck.

However the real problem is that most people cannot distinguish between manual labor and actual hard work.

Most people are stuck doing manual labor which fetches them no result.

Success on the other hand highly depends on what I call “High Impact Activities”.

A majority of people ignore these “High Impact Activities” because they are “Hard”.

Now don’t get me wrong, here hard activities does not mean they take effort, its just that they are least pleasant to do.

Hence people try avoiding these activities and focus all their energy and effort on low impact activities.

Lets take an example for both HIA and LIA:

In business context:

HIA: Cold calling customers, selling them products on the phone or reaching out to new customers, following up new leads.

LIA: Designing logo for your website, spending time to learn so called “productivity tips” from YouTube after wasting hours on designing the logo which you could have outsourced on fiver for $5.

In a student context:

HIA: Focusing on the most important yet hard topics and understanding them thoroughly.

LIA: Spending more time on easier topics, topics which you already know well.

In a newbie programmers context:

HIA: Working on a personal project which involves building something.

LIA: Reading and searching for answers on sites, deciding which code editor to use, debating on which programming language is better.

I hope this gives a clear idea of how High Impact Activities are different from Low Impact Activities.

If you compare them both, you will find that both of them take the same amount of effort to do.

However if you take a look at HIA, they are not very comfortable or pleasing to do.

Designing a logo for your business seems like a nice idea while cold calling a client sounds rough and hence people tend to deviate towards things that are of less importance just because they find pleasure doing them.

High performers on the other end know what activities would create the most impact for them and hence they are willing to do them irrespective of how un-pleasurable they are to do.

Doing hard work does not mean working like a donkey on some simple things.

Here is what hard work looks like:

1. Deciding and doing something which you know is not pleasurable but can give you the maximum results.
2. Taking risks in all walks of your life, switching careers if the current one does not pay you well.
3. Taking hard decisions, making a complete shift in the way you operate and think.
4. Taking responsibility, hiring people, or learning some new skill which can change the course of your career.
5. Being able to manage and make the most efficient use of your time.
6. Being consistent for years doing anything, be it at a business, learning new skills, or working out.
7. Doing something which you have never done before, or doing something where you are uncertain about the outcome.

These are the actual activities which can be termed as hard work.

The day you understand the difference between manual labor and real hard work is the day when your life would change completely.

-Saurav Sharma

Firstly, stop creating false beliefs in your mind

Read, read, read and read

Read, read, read and read

I cant emphasize how important it is to read. Read whatever you can get your hands on, if you have the money then buy every book you can on the areas which you want to improve, be it business, marketing, programming etc.

If you cant afford books, then read all that you can get your hands on. Just make sure that the quality of content you read is good.

-Saurav Sharma

Be stingy with....

Does not cracking the IITJEE make me smaller than those who actually did it?

Does not cracking the IITJEE make me smaller than those who actually did it?

There are a lot of occasions in life where you can feel absolutely worthless.

1. You cracked JEE and joined the best IIT but got 5–6 CGPA.
2. You managed 9+ CGPA but didn’t get a high paying job.
3. You got a high paying job but the work is absolutely boring.
4. You got challenging work but the manager is a tyrant.
5. You got a great manager but the company is laying off.
6. You escaped the layoff but you are unable to find a partner.
7. You found a partner but they can’t stop comparing you with their ex.
8. You found a partner without ex but they don’t love you for what you are.
9. You found a loving partner but have a hard time conceiving.
10. You have a child but they are not healthy.
11. You have a healthy child but they won’t listen to you.
12. You have a lovely, obedient child but you get laid off.
13. You escaped layoff again but your child couldn’t crack JEE.

Life is a giant cycle of ups and downs. The lows teach you humility. The highs teach you thankfulness.

Can my future be brighter than those IITians?

My mother isn’t very educated. She has been a house wife throughout. She managed the limited household budget very well. She nurtured and took care of her children to the best of her abilities. She monitored them during their teenage. As a result, she produced 3 (three) IITians. I think she is more successful today than all 3 of us IITians put together.

Be THAT parent if you want to beat IITians. You will literally become the “mother/father of IITians” :-)

For now, love, respect and obey your parents who have been there for you all along. Their prayers and blessings can take you far far higher than what you and I can imagine.

-Imtiaz Mohammad

Changing the World

Lock in Brain

Don’t be a slave to your smartphone, instead make it your slave

Don’t be a slave to your smartphone, instead make it your slave

Most people in todays world have become a slave to their smartphones.

Notification bell rings, they pick up their phone saying that “Ill watch this one video and then I’ll get to work”. Even before they know it, they have spent an entire hour watching other recommended videos.

Remember, it’s now machines vs humans. Social media algorithms have gotten so good that they know what exactly you like. In fact they know more about you than yourself and hence they know how to keep you hooked.

Instead of being a slave your your phone, make it your slave.

Don’t let it suck value out of you, instead you suck the value out of it.

Use apps like reminders to remind you of the important stuff you need to do, use the phone to talk and network with people.

Download apps like Kindle, Audible read and listen to a ton of books.

Use apps to remind you to drink water and take a walk every hour so that you stay healthy.

There are hundreds of ways you can use your smartphone to optimize your life and to your own advantage, but only when you actually stop being a slave to it.

You have paid a hefty price for your device, extract every drop of value out of it.

-Saurav Sharma

To have bigger goals, you must be around good people

To have bigger goals, you must be around good people: Most of your achievements do not depend on your hard work but depend upon the people around you. If you are around mediocre people all day long, chances are that you will end up being like them. This is why families which belong to a certain class in a society always remain in the same financial circumstances for generations to come. The way in which this works is that when you be around people, you are influenced by their thoughts and actions. For example, if you are around drunkards you will thinking that drinking a lot is common and you will end up being a drunkard. When you be around chain-smokers you will find smoking to be acceptable and you will end up being a smoker as well. If you be around people who think making X amount of money, buying a car which costs Y is acceptable then you would impose that standard on yourself as well. Imagine if you be around your friends who are terribly fat, they eat potato chips, drink soda and lay down all the time. Chances are that if you hang around with them, you will end up being like them as well. On the contrary, if all of your friends are fitness addicts with a six pack, even if you are a fat guy the next time you go out with them you will feel ashamed of your body and would at least think about joining a gym. Hence always be around people who are better than you, it’s better to be along rather than being in the wrong group of people. If you have no people around you who can be ideals then read autobiographies of great people, reading them has the same influence as being around them.

-Saurav Sharma

Once rain is over, the same umbrella becomes.......

Act on the criticism

 Act on the criticism : Don’t just say “I am a lazy person, I procrastinate a lot”. Instead do something about it. Self-criticism is the first step, acting upon it is the second but more important than the first one. Once you address your flaws, act upon it. If you have certain habits which are holding you back then find ways to eradicate those. Criticising yourself alone wont do anything unless you find a fix for your problem. You wont improve yourself in a day, even in a month. The process of improvement is gradual and continuous and lifelong.

-Saurav Sharma

Self-criticism is extremely essential

Self-criticism is extremely essential :If you are someone who truly wants to improve then you need to be your only biggest critique. Being a self critique is extremely hard and not a lot of people can be one. You cannot improve unless you know whats holding you back from achieving your true potential. Analyse what habits are holding you back. Im sure you must have a habit that you know is holding you back and you know that you should do something about it but when you think about it, you feel guilty and try to ignore it on purpose. criticism can be harsh, it can make you depressed for a while but is extremely essential for self-improvement. Its like that bitter pill you need to take when you get sick, it tastes terrible but it will make you better.

You will suck at everything

You will suck at everything :When you start something for the first time, be it a new business, a new job or learning a new language. You will be terrible at it no matter how high your IQ is. Everyone who starts something new will suck at it at first, however most people don’t start or pursue something new just be cause they expect to hit the home run in their first attempt. If you lift weights in a gym for the first time you will realise how weak you are and your body will ache terribly the next day. When you start to learn a programming language for the first time, most of the things wont make sense and everything will seem so complex. However if you keep doing it, you get better at it after a period of time and you will suck less. When you still keep pursuing it you will get good at it. Hence, don’t be afraid to do something new just because you don’t know how to do it. Unless you do there is no chance you would learn how to do it. You can’t learn to swim unless you jump in the pool.

-Saurav Sharma

Karma's Role In Unemployment 

Do motivational Speakers bring massive, or, even real measurable transformation in your life?

 Let me ask another similar question.

• Do good teachers help students to learn?

The answer to this simple question is not so simple.

I had the occasion to teach during my PhD course and also as an Adjunct Faculty in my institute.

I was also the Course Director of the IRS (C&CE) officers of 2008 and 2009 batch where I took a large number of classes.

• I have found that in the class some students learn so well that they can write even better answer than me.
• However, I have also found that some students are so ignorant of my teaching that I feel as if I have not taught them at all.

The learning by a student is a combination of the effort of the teacher and the student.

If a student is not willing, no teacher can teach him.

If a student is mischievous, he would learn bad things even if the teacher is teaching good things in the class.

A teacher was trying to explain to the students the ill effects of drinking alcohol.

He took two beakers. One was filled with water and the other was filled with alcohol.

He then took one insect and dropped on the beaker that was filled with water.

The insect could easily swim over the water and reached to the other side.

Then he dropped the insect in the beaker filled with alcohol.

The insect couple not swim but died within no time.

Then the teacher asked the students, ‘What lesson you learn from this experiment?’

One student replied, ‘Sir! It means that if you drink alcohol, it will kill all the worms in your body.’

This is what happens with motivational speakers also.

If you are a good learner, you would find their lectures extremely useful and life transforming.

However, if you're dumb or you are there to only prove the speaker wrong, you would find the lecture and the speaker both useless.

-Awdhesh Singh

Karma's Role In Unemployment

20s 30s ?

 I am way past that age, but I have some really good advice for you.

• You really do not have to worry too much about the time you have lost. Unfortunately that time would not come back, but you can do some significant improvements in your life and lifestyle for future.
• Fortunately, you can make up for all the things you could not do back in your twenties.

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• First of all, what you really need to do is to eliminate things that do not matter in your life. For example, cut connections with negative people, and then negative activities.
• You have to put an immediate stop to all those things. Without this you really will not change, and nothing will be better in future.
• This will sound hard, and feel bad in the beginning, but this is actually good for you. It will bring an immediate impact and then you can focus on great activities.

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Next, you should find three things in your life: Inspiration, motivation, and discipline.

• Inspiration: You have to find a set of people with whom you are willing to swap positions. Write down on a paper why you think those people are amazing. They must have done some great things in their lives. You have to identify those things. You have to read books and increase knowledge. You have to gain the experience they gained. You have to develop the habits they developed, and refine those habits for your purpose.
• Motivation: You have to look up to the great things you can do now, and how things in your life would look like when you have achieved them.
• Discipline: You have to build daily habits that help you get closer to your dream. You have to be very consistent with these habits, and keep tracking your progress on a weekly basis.

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Some greedy approaches:

• You can find out from others what are good skills to learn whether you like them or not. You have find out from others what daily habits they follow and reason with them why those habits are valuable.
• Last but not the least, you have to tell yourself, that any great success comes to you in 10 years, and a short version of it can be realized in five years.
• If you go by this plan, and systematically work on your life, you can achieve a lot, and your future can be significantly bright.

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Stay blessed and stay inspired!

-Rohit Malshe

Life Problems

Regret

Are you like this guy ?

 I had a classmate who was finding it really hard to get a job.

We had just graduated at the time and he was looking for a job.

It was about a month since he started his search and one day I decided to call him up asking whether he got the job.

Me : “Hey man, how is your job hunt going? , any leads yet ?”.

Him: “Not yet, I am still struggling to find one”.

Me: “What exactly are you done so far? What companies have you applied for?”

Him: “I have setup profiles on a couple job portals, also applied for a couple jobs , waiting for their response but no response yet.”

Me trying to help : “Make sure you apply for a ton of jobs, most companies on job portal sites are fake and are setup by job agencies so make sure to …..”

He interrupts me mid-sentence.

Him: “Hey I got to go, Im out with my friends for a movie”.

Me: “Okay, bye”.

Upon disconnecting the call, I was like WTF ? This guy is jobless, calls him selves as someone who is struggling and is yet out with friends for a movie ?

He was not a local, he was living in a shared apartment, surviving on his parents money and yet was so relaxed.

A couple days later, I was in his locality for a client meeting after the meeting was over I decided to visit this classmate to see what was going on.

He was alone at the apartment as most of his flatmates went to work. He was laying on a mattress on the living room floor with his laptop watching a movie.

He still didn’t get a job and used to spend the entire day all alone at his room watching movies.

Upon asking about his job situation, he replied: “I was called for a couple interviews but was rejected by all of them.”

I asked: “So what’s your plan ahead?”

Him: ”I decided to enrol in XYZ institute to learn Java, they also have a good placement record, I can do the course for a couple months and also get a job”

Me: “Have you already paid the fee for the institute?”.

Him: “Yes, I did. The batches start next week”.

I knew that most institute courses are trash and the placements are even worse, However I decided not to tell him about it as he had already paid the fee and I didn’t want to discourage or demoralise him.

Him: ”Life is hard and unfair man, there is so much struggle.”

Me: “Yes it is, I know. But we got to work hard, skills is all that matter, maybe you should work on your skills and Im sure you will get the job”.

Him: “heck no, I don’t think skill matters, you see the guy “X” form our class, even he got placed despite of being so dumb. I am much better than him at all costs”

I nodded my head, even if I knew that X had far better skills than this dude.

After a while, I left for home.

A couple months later I come to know that he went back to his native place and was now working at his family farm.

In this entire duration of time, I had still other couple friend who had found a job off-campus and were doing quite well. Even I had started freelancing at was doing well. Whereas this guy “struggled” and yet didn’t get any job and had to go back.

Here are the reasons why:

He had an illusion that he was struggling, in reality however he was just being lazy. The real strugglers were my other friends who literally spent days applying for job, attending multiple interviews in a single day while this guy was spending his parents hard earned money watching movies.

He thought life was unfair only to him, even though his parents gave him enough time to find a job and settle. He could have been grateful for that and could have worked hard but instead he invested all his energy into the victim mentality.

He was entitled, he thought he deserves a job and companies are out here just to give people jobs. Rather than being responsible for his own actions and his future, he laid his future in hands of an institute which promised him a job.

He never saw a fault in himself, but always thought others were wrong. Had he focused on his own shortcomings analysing why he was rejected in an interview, and had worked on it, he would have easily managed to get a job.

So to answer the question:

Why do some people couldn't achieve much success, they should have achieved, despite putting effort and hard work?

Hard work is a relative term.

I know a lot of people who think they “work hard” but in reality they just have an illusion of working hard.

Yes, luck plays an important role. But the doors of luck only open up when you work hard.

Also, hard work is not just about doing manual labour and just completing a task at hand.

Hard work also involves self analysis, taking hard and life changing decisions, and being critical of yourselves.

-Saurav Sharma

Do this before any goal...

Grit............