In last three days, I have come across 2 books in last 3 days and let me confess, I am in a buzzing state. Buzzing as in the thoughts are buzzing in my mind. Like the electric current in any circuit. First book was 'I too had a love story' by Ravinder Singh. It is a tragic love story. and a true love story. A love story where they never met. Amazzing! I am not talking about the language, its about the emotions. Its about love. Its about death - a sudden death. In hindi I would say it as - Hila k rakh diya! Second book I read is 'The Last Lecture' by Dr. Randy Pausch. Dr Pausch was a professor in Carnigie Mellon University and worked on Virtual Reality. He was diagonized by pancreatic cancer(This cancer has mortality rate of 96 %). He knew that he had few months of healthy life. In the CM univ, there is a tradition of giving Last dlecture before retirement and he planned to give his last lecture before he is no more. Here I am attempting to pen down some of the learnings from this book.
This is what Randy's parents said and I believe that it should be followed by every family to cultivate curiosity among oneself and more to that drenching that thirst. It says - If you have a question then find the answer. Don't sit like slobs and wonder arround. Open the encyclopedia, open the dictionary, open your minds. This I think would be the best way to cultivate your mind, rather open it.
Here are some more points which Randy's father believed.
Stories should be told for a reason.
Never take the decision untill you have to.
Play fair. Even if it is at your own cost.
Randy had some dreams since childhood. One of them was to experience zero gravity. He had that chance with Nasa. But unfortunately, as he was a faculty member, he was not allowed to participate. Then he some how managed to get in by pretending himself as a journalist. But he promised that their experiment would get enough coverage. It was here where he learnt that - Have something to bring to table; that would make you more welcome.
This incident is about his football dream. He wanted to play for NFL(National football league). On the first day of his coaching, his coach came without getting any football. Students asked for the reason. He said that there are 22 players on the field and just one of them is touching the football. We would first learn what the rest 21 do on the field. Lesson - Get the fundamentals right. Or else the fancy stuff on its top would not work.
There are a lot such learnings he has learnt. I would list them out here.
When you are screwing up something and no body says you anything, means they have given up on you.
Develop a feedback loop for your life.
There is no 'no-win' scenario. There has to be a way out. There has to be a solution.
The brick walls (hurdles/setbacks/hicups) are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. They are there to give us a chance to show the world that how badly we want something. This is an inspiring lesson. It says that you need to prove that you are worth of getting that before you get it.
Once he goes to disney land and as a child asks the gate keeper 'will this park get closed at 8 pm?' Gate keeper says - The park is open till 8 pm! - think on the difference.
A dutch uncle is aphrase for the one who gives honest feedback. For him it was his professor Andy van dam. This is related to the required feedback system for life.
People are more important than cars.
Not everything needs to be fixed.
This one is the most impressive - We cannot change the cards we are dealt. It is just how we play the hand.
Time is all you have. And one day you find that you have less than what you thought you had.. Who would know it better than a dieing man.
Some lessons on time:
Time must be explicitly managed. Like money.
You can always change your plan. For that you atleast need to have plans. So plan it.
Ask yourself - Am I spending it(time) on the right thing?
Develop a good filing system. That saves a lot of time.
Re think the telephone. Don't waste time on that.
Delegate things and trust people.
More things other than time:
Luck ois where preparation meets opportunity
Head Fake! - Read the book to know more.
Give yourself permission to dream- dream big.
Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite energy and time. Stop whinning and spend 1/10th of that time on improving things arround. You would see the difference.
Treat the core diesase instead of the symptoms. This one needs more explanation. There was his co-worker. She was into some debt. And she used to be tensed about it. She started going to yoga classes on tuesdays for stress bursting. He suggested that if you skip yoga for a couple of months and do some part time job, you can repay your debt. why dont you try this. She agreed and in some 4 months, she was out of debt. So hence he says - treat the disease instead of symptoms.
He empasizes on team culture. Some learnings on it:
Meet people properly.
Find things you have in common.
Try for optimal meeting condutions. Every one should be comfortable.
Let every one talk.
Check egos at the door.
Praise each other.
What is experience. Experience is what you get when you dont get what you wanted. Deep sentence - give a thought.
Write hand written notes to express gratitude.
Send thin mints to get work done.
Apologize properly from deep inside the heart. Say the following to them:
What I did was wrong.
I feeel badly that I hurt you.
How do I make this better.
There are more than one ways to measure profit and loss.
The last but not the least - The head fakes work!
These are all heavy thoughts. To get into it deeply, read the book!
Thats all for now.
Thanks,
SD
No comments:
Post a Comment