Principles ?

 I used to believe principles were absolute. I grew up (like many people) reading stories about principled and idealistic people who gave up their lives for their honor. According to these, you’re either the hero who upholds your principles, or you’re the petty villain who gave up and made compromises.

After I grew up, I started to realize, life isn’t that clean cut. I realized that if a person is able to uphold a principle simply because that principle was never challenged, and they never need to make a difficult decision, that’s not being principled, that’s having privilege. And perhaps we should have a little bit of compassion for those who make the compromises.

I studied art in college, went to grad school for it.

When I graduated, I wanted to be a concept artist for games or movies. Of course, concept artist is the most coveted position in game production and the competition is insane. But, I have a dream. I’m going to go for it. Only losers give up. I found a non-game related desk job that paid the rent, I took out more student loans and got a second BA while working full time. I participated in various online art competitions.

And come 2008, the financial crisis hit. I got laid off.

I didn’t give up. I got my unemployment insurance and COBRA. I hunkered down and kept at it. It was depressing. So many game companies had gone under. I would send out resumes to THQ one week, and two weeks later, read the news about their bankruptcy.

6 months passed, my COBRA expired.

I didn’t get a single return from any game companies.

So, I lowered my expectations. Started to apply for any positions I can do, production, QA, anything, art or not. As long as I could get a game-related job.

Another 3 months passed, more companies went under. I wasn’t sure if I could get an extension of my unemployment.

I started to send resumes to non-game companies. Any job would do. As long as they needed people, and I could do the job, I would do it.

Mind you, I was living at my parents’ place. I didn’t have a mortgage, my student loan was on furlough. Yes, I was unemployed for 9 months, but I wasn’t in any real danger of being homeless.

In desperation, I went to blackjack dealer school, since casinos were the only place still hiring contractors.

I talked to people who had graduated and were working as dealers, getting to know the casino industry better, about what my future life might be. And at that moment, I gave up. I thought this was my life now. Finish training, get a job at a casino, and stand for long hours, in second-hand smoke, doing basic math for the rest of my life. Joint pain and lung cancer, a one-bedroom house in the middle of nowhere (California casinos are all built in the desert).

That’s how easy it was to kill my dream: all it took was a bad economy and 12 months of unemployment.

Of course, I eventually bounced back and found a job in the video game industry.

But I’ll always remember that moment when I accepted defeat and got myself ready for a different life. And that gave me a bit of a different perspective about people and their choices.

When I see people who work in retail, cashiers, cleaning crew, waitresses, telemarketers… The jobs that people look down upon. People think these people are either lazy or stupid. People play pranks on telemarketers and laugh about it.

They aren’t stupid or lazy or evil. They’re just desperate. They make compromises.

If a telemarketing company was hiring back in mid-2009, I would jump at the opportunity, and be ridiculed by the people I called. Imagine if it’s you, in that position, imagine if you have kids and mortgages, and your house was about to get foreclosed. Would you not take that job? Would you willing to go homeless because telemarketing as an industry has dubious morals and you wouldn’t lower yourself to that level?

And I realized the reason I get to be a principled person the majority of the time isn’t that I’m a better person. It is because I got lucky. I’m privileged enough to never have my principles challenged. I never need to choose between “feeding myself” and “my principles”. I never need to choose between “take your boss’s racism” and “be fired”. I never need to choose between “let your husband beat you” and “leave your home and live in a shelter”. I never need to choose between “my sexual orientation” and “my job”.

And if I were to put into that situation, I honestly don’t know how I would choose.

So now, my principle is: be kind and have compassion.

And I hope if my principle is challenged, I would have the courage to do the right thing

-Feifei Wang

Blessed ?

Wasted Your 20s ?

My kids have achieved some pretty amazing things.........

My kids have achieved some pretty amazing things. For example, my younger daughter was the youngest girl to have ever got an A* in her IGCSE (16+) Maths, when she was 9, and she can speak 6 languages.

My 3 kids are hard-working and motivated. Here’s some tips:-

• Empathise with them and they’ll listen to you more. So I’ve told them I agree studying is boring. C’mon, it is!
• …and then tell them why they should do it. They need to buy the vision.
• Always listen. If they’re not working hard, or they’re being rebellious, talk to them and understand why. No need to get angry, whatever they feel, they feel they’re right.
• Like adults, kids need a goal to get them motivated. So, for my kids the goal is typically an exam. They know the exam date and the grade I want, and are reminded of it every few days. Your kids’ goals could be to get As in half the subjects in the report card.
• With every major goal achieved there should be a huge reward. My kids will be spending an extra 4 weeks in London if they all get the top grade in June 2018.
• Every major goal needs to be broken down into sub-goals. Sub-goals should be tracked, ideally in a spreadsheet.
• Every sub-goal achieved needs a celebration. Typically it’s a film with pizza at home, or we go out for an ice-cream.
• Take an interest. I ask my kids every day what they’ve done and get excited with them when they’ve done well. High fives and all.

• Get involved. You need to induce hard work. I take my kids to cafes as they can’t really do much apart from study there. And they love it as they eat what they want. Once bored of one cafe, we go to the next. BTW I don’t teach - I do my own work.
• Make sure your kids understand that their brains are like muscles, which get stronger by going to the gym. When they study and don’t understand things they’re getting smarter. Studies show that kids that believe intelligence is fixed do worse than those that believe it can change.

That’s all I can think of for now…

-Asim Qureshi

Concentrate & Focus but how?

Be Happy Be Cheerful !

 

1. Past performance has minimal role in future success: You can be successful even if you were a failure in the past. So don’t fret on your failures, just work on present and make your future successful.
2. Every second matters: Utilizing every second of your time matters. For e.g. travelling in metro and looking here and there is unproductive, rather watch some productive podcast or your favourite TV show.
3. Family over friends: Family is the one which will remain with you all the time both in your good and bad (it includes some very good friends which are like your family). Normal friends will come and go. Even your best of friendships work on give and take principle but your family works on only give, give and give principle.
4. Marks in School are just a number: What marks you got in school have zero impact in your career. So, those tensions and crying over marks were useless.
5. Value of Fitness: What you eat and do today will reflect 10 years later in your body.
6. Art of saying No: Learning to say no is an art, the early you learn is better. Unnecessarily remaining available for people for their stupid stuff is useless.
7. Side income during college: We genuinely have some spare time during our college days. Having a online side income may give a sense of confidence and independence.
8. Solo Travelling: The early you start travelling, the better it is. You will have a lot of time and energy to cover places all over the world. Preferably starting from college days with the help of side income.
9. Selective Friendship: Give your effort and time for only few friends who will remain with you for the lifetime.
10. People Pleaser: You don’t get anything but regret in doing this.
11. One lifestyle Sport since childhood: I wish I could have known that playing one sport religiously and daily helps a lot in your future college and work days. I started late in college.
12. Relationships are healthy: Not all relationships waste your time like our Indian parents advice and warn. So don’t hesitate in getting into one.

Nonetheless, Be Happy and cheerful !

-Nikhil Panwar

 

1. Are my dreams truly mine? — people give in to society’s vision of what they should be.
2. If I had all the money and time in the world, what would I be doing? — these things will nurture you.
3. Are my friends and family keeping me stuck? — most times it’s the ones closest to us that hold us back.
4. What do I regret the most? — learn the lessons or it will keep happening.
5. What is calling me but I am afraid to do? — asking someone out, taking a trip, etc.
6. When was the last time I was ecstatic? — notice what you were doing.
7. What’s holding me back from my dreams? — it’s usually a bullshit story.
8. Why is it holding me back? — another bullshit story.
9. Why don’t I believe in myself? — take a chance on yourself.
10. Am I in a loop? — like the mundane existence of most people.

-Rafael Eliassen

You are your own ceo........

Between the ages of 18 and 25 you have a certain power that will never be as powerful going forward: The Power to Screw Things Up!

Between the ages of 18 and 25 you have a certain power that will never be as powerful going forward: The Power to Screw Things Up!

Barely any mistake, failure or screw-up can permanently damage you or your life at 22-years old.

You still have the body, the mind and the time to make it all up and that is a phenomenal strength, because it allows you to explore!

Not all the investments you will make are going to be golden! Some will be piles of crap, but that’s okay!

If you spend the time you have now to grow, to become better than you were and to find out what you can about yourself and your life, you will be miles ahead of everybody else even if you do screw up along the way!

Dive right in, take a chance, do the things that scare you and take the time to give yourself your all!

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#1. Invest in Books

Understand that every book you read holds information that someone else spent years collecting, organizing and making easy to understand.

Use that help!

Invest in your own improvement, your own mind and knowledge, because it will stay with you forever!

The biggest reason why so many people stagnate as soon as they get a job out of college is because that is the moment they stop growing and learning at the same rate they used to.

Go above and beyond and learn those things that others are unwilling to learn so that you create an arsenal of knowledge that supports you in creating the life you desire!

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#2. Invest in a Coach/Mentor

Coaches and Mentors can see the things that you will miss.

They hold you accountable, make you see your own mistakes and help you grow in a way you could never grow alone. That is why the smartest and most successful people in the world know this and all have mentors, coaches and a circle of amazing people themselves.

Even Warren Buffet is taking financial advice from someone!

A good coach/mentor will take your mind for a loop, they will make you feel like you got slapped across the face, and by doing so will cut through all the limitations you have set yourself, giving you a clear cut path.

It’s one of the most luxurious, high-class investments you can make, especially if you start early.

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#3. Invest in your Circle

Invest in the relationships that will help you succeed!

Find people that push you to be greater than you were and people that make you do uncomfortable, but great things.

Do not spend your time with “Feel-Good People” or those that do not even care for you. Invest in the relationships that push you to be your best!

You want to find people that are better than you at the things you want to get good at so that they pull you towards them, but also those that will not allow you to cheapen out on what you are capable of!

Find at least 5 of those people that have the same drive or that will not allow you to B.S. yourself!

Once you find these people push them in the ways you want to be pushed and they will push you back, creating an upwards spiral of growth!

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#4. Invest in One Hobby

Go all in into something that you love and improve, grow and master that thing.

Maybe it’s playing Music, Writing, Drawing, or even becoming a Master in how to invest.

The point is that you pick one Skill that you already love and become even better at it.

This does not have to be a marketable skill! We are not going for Sales or Money here! What’s important is that YOU derive value from this hobby and love it.

We all need some ways to get our mind off of the daily stress and off of our problems, and if you have something that gives you self-worth and makes you feel phenomenal outside of what you do for a living you will have a powerful safety net when hell breaks lose!

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#5. Invest in Getting to Know Yourself

Who are you? What do you like? What do you dislike? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What do you do well with and what do you struggle with? What makes you uncomfortable? What makes you scared? What is your mindset like? What are things you still wish to gain? Who do you wish to become?

Get to know yourself right now and become comfortable with who you are. Travel alone, meditate in peace, or take some time to answer the questions above.

When you become comfortable with who you are there will be less things that scare you. You grow a belief in yourself, which will bring you far more joy in life.

Go explore life, test some things out, do what you find uncomfortable right now and put who you are to the test. Only when you do what scares you do you clearly see who you are and only then can you truly act upon it.

Learning who you are and how to love yourself is the best, self-repaying investment you can ever make.

-Lukas Schwekendiek

Working as hard as Elon Musk?

 

Start Ups

You mean that 2 guys who might have never worked before, with no experience of making tough business decisions, with no financial experience or cash cushion, putting together a product that was never seen and entering a market that doesn’t exist, with a brand that no one cares and a business entity with no real process, but still taking on large complex problems do fail often? Yeah, what do you expect?

So many startups fail because new and risky ideas are by design failure prone.

I worked for a “startup factory” project within Microsoft — where they assembled some of the best scientists and engineers tasked with building new ideas. There was money, there was experience, there was Microsoft’s brand and distribution channels. Despite all that most ideas never succeeded.

For another company, I was managing new venture creation and it was quite hard to push new products despite having large customers for the existing product and the brand name.

New ideas fail everywhere with a high probability. If the risk of failure were not there someone else would have done that already. Startups by design take those ideas that have a slim chance of success.

It is not like IBM could not have built an operating system for microcomputers. Just that they rightly guessed it was risky and the market not big. But, it actually turned out to be a huge market due to changing economic conditions and Microsoft ruled the roost. Walmart entered ecommerce late as they believed people were not likely to buy through computers. The Internet evolved way too fast for them to react.

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As a startup founder you are entering a lonely coast known for tsunamis. You might drown by the huge wave or might actually catch a huge amount of fish (that no one else is taking).

You are trying to put a completely new concept or a new market and assemble a group of people who might not have worked together. While they might have studied together, working together is a different ball game. There is no process to hold the discipline and no brand to lean on. The cash cushion is not big enough to withstand multiple failures and the executives might have no experience wading through tough times. There is no real HR process to manage talent and no good financial management. There is no established relationship with customers and no established channels. Product quality is often poor in the early days and customer support not as professional.

It is just a miracle that some startups even succeed. Startups that got incredibly lucky being at the right time with the right people succeeded. Most others with similar capabilities died.

And many of the startups that die should not have existed in the first place. It might be a feeble attempt by a group of people who might have met at a meetup and decided to try something for a few months. Or a lone ranger trying to build the next big thing. Or some new grads who try something before getting a good job.

For startups with founders who have experience, connections and a team, the failure rate is not as high. The failure rate is just proportional to the risk of the idea itself.

-Balaji Viswanathan

“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