Façade

I usually drive by the million dollar home daily twice. One of the kind façade and fantastic architecture, and flawless house. Yesterday when as usual I drive by, they were painting their mail box which was looking great to me though. I started wondering why they are obsessed with façade, why they want to perfect on everything. I thought I was right, because we are spending too much resource for façades and other unimportant things in our life for me those are show off. After some time, I started realized that those are needed to show our hard work, dedication, commitment and determination rather than show off wealth.

 Life is not to live as we wanted to live but there should be some meaning. We want to show others that we are capable of doing something, doing something unique. It is completely opposite to liberal point of view of everyone is equal. But at same time, most of us not ready to take that part of wisdom, so jump into conclusion based on façade. In order to satisfy all, giving importance to façade is not just show off.

                So a beautiful façade with a weak backyard is okay? But that depends on whom we ask, but conventional wisdom is “Internal beauty can be visible through façade”. 

Advice – It’s all free

If advice is a commodity then it is mostly freely available/exchange commodity in this world. We are all ready to give advice to others about many things. In fact, based my unscientific research, 70-75% of our communication is advice but without advice one can’t reach our goals also. Because most of us inspire with someone who are capable or scholar and their advice are sermon to us. But the point is what to take, what to ignore are real challenge.

Advice from following topic from unprofessional can be ignored straight-out.

1.     Medical: This is no brainer, whenever we seek advice from a group of people, say 10 people; we would get 10 different advices from 10 different people.

2.     Investment: We all know about this, we had bitter experience again and again but we need to follow advice as is from professional or let them handle our finance. Most of us burnt our money because of half-cooked professional advice.

3.     Office politics: We should not take other’s advice anything related to workplace politics. Because workplace politics are very unique and no one in a position to determine what exactly happening inside a private organization, hence outsiders can’t fathom exactly what is happening to us, to make a judgment or advise us for better.

4.     Kid’s Education: This is also similar to Medical, 10 people gives 10 different advice. But we should about our kids and we have to make plan or assist them to choose their future.

5.     Time Management: We all have our unique way of doing our day by day activity hence we should not take other’s advice what to do what when how etc. We have to use our instinct to perform our activity.

6.     Shopping: Each one has their own opinion about what to buy where to buy and when to buy. Getting advice won’t help much. There are some instance where i bought some stuff based on my wife's advice but later on i wasn’t satisfied with it but i couldn’t throw it away because she might feel bad and i couldn’t use it because i didn’t like it. 

7.     Web sites: There are one trillion web sites are there now. Each of us comfortable with some, taking advice which one is good and what to read are not good.

Bottom Line

Any advice from spouse, parents, siblings, close friends, and well wishers (personal level) peers and supervisor (professional level) are considerable. We have to make fair judgment based on their advice, all others can be carefully consider if we are not sure about it, ignore it.

Kurkure thoughts

Kurkure(a hindi word for crunchy) is hot and spicy Indian snack similar to Cheeto, my son picked up its taste when we went to india last time. The same kurkure now available in local Naperville Indian shops, so whenever he comes with me or my wife for Indian shopping,he buys it. But we noticed that he usually buys it for his sister also,he always pick up two packs to give to me or my wife whenever we are ready to check out. As usual today i went to buy some Indian spices,he accompanied with me, as usual i was ready to check out, he gave me the two kurkure packs to check out. But this time shop owner, noticed this pattern and he asked him why he always giving two packs of kurkure to me. He replied that one is for him and other one is for his sister. The shop owner praised that he said to me "see, this is very good nature, he is buying for him and his sister, very good boy,unselfish". A person who was next to me to check out expressed his opinion "he doesn't want to share his pack with his sister, which is why he is always buying for second one". I perceived that statement as a quick jump to conclusion based on a negative stereotype of kids. But as a dad i know that my daughter always likes the "Naughty Tomatoes" flavor of Kurkure but my son always likes the "Green Chutney Rajathani style" flavor and he always buy those two only and if he went the same store with my wife,sometimes she vetoed the snack shopping or allowed only one, he won't buy at all even for himself.

Actually i hate stereotypes from my heart but we are living in 'not perfect society' hence from my brain i think stereotypes are real and okay, most of us use it for various reasons. But the approach of using it is an art. We humankind evolving very fast nowadays. For example, human evolution from 1990s to 2010 is not same as 1900 to 1990. Due to technology advancements,easy access to information and industrial growth all changed the stereotype equation. So my point is,negative stereotype based on something, have to very careful before actually implement/express it. Actually if one is not good at 'abstraction concept' should not try to use negative stereotype towards other human being, it would backfire sooner rather than later. 

A prominent negative stereotype of a dominate community in Tamil Nadu,India is, they can be easily threaten to get things done.But we have to look into historically why the stereotype affixed for them.

1. They were highly depended on British companies for a salaried work. Since India was 90% agrarian community but they weren't physically fit to work in farms.

2. Those days British companies are very limited in India, hence people has to face tough competitions in order to enter a job.

3. British quickly realized this weakness and kind of exploited it cleverly.

4. Due to modernization, the income from temple,veda related income declined for them hence they highly depended on British salaried jobs for living.

Now this era, those negative stereotype can't be applied because of the evolution from those old British days to these technology days. Because now India is a free/open country, there are millions of companies, industries hence a mere salaried job is not an issue like the olden British days.

Zeitgeist

Usually i don't watch NHL games, mainly i used to watch football and some baseball and some basketball. Before this Stanley cup final series, i hardly watched 10-15 NHL games,thats it. But why now i and many others are watching and supporting Chicago Blackhawks to win? Why families across Chicago land in front of TV at game time? Why we are discussing with spouse/friends/co-workers about hockey? It is called "Spirit of time".Even-though something not internally related to us but externally related to the place we live or related to our friends or related to our co-workers makes some excitement within us, just to cheer up, just to participate,just to explore,just to learn more. This seems to us a small thing but it is how we grow as good human being from our first day at earth to still now. We make history,we make some marvelous things all because of the unique nature of good human being,that is,enjoys spirit of time.

The companies started by human like us, they invested their time and resource to grow further. One point of time they completely rely on other people who are not related to anything with company's startup but how come they work for the company to take it to next level? The most of answer is there at first paragraph,which is they make sure to create a spirit with in company and expecting most of us participate,explore,learn from it, in other words enjoys the spirit of time. Just imagine, can all the top level management officials can see each and everything of day by day activity or micromanage each one us, simply they can't do,that is highly impossible. But they set the tone, set the overall companies future from their mindset hoping we all participate,explore,learn from it.

Unfortunately, all of us aren't made from same mold, if one can't understand overall spirit or don't know how to enjoy,here are some points to consider without becoming dead weight but still contribute something,

1. Don't substitute yours own spirit to your team.Every one knows what company's and yours.
2. Don't understand how to participate, step aside but don't discourage who really enjoys it.
3. Don't expect more than your compensation to explore more to enjoy the spirit of time.
4. It is okay to not to learn anything but don't stop other's curiosity if it inline with spirit of time.

17th Hour

The most important hour in our daily life is the 17th hour,which is, when we close our eye,of course for sleep(assume our biological clock starts as soon as we wake up). We all work hard for 8 hours per day and other 8 hours for eating,commutes,family time,TV,reading, so 17th hour is our first very private hour(most of the days). The 17th hour should be used for something productive, something creative and something to remember. When i was kid one of my school teacher told us to use the hour to run through your day abstractly to find what went wrong and what went right to improve our day by day life. I couldn't practice it consistently because it was easy to tell but hard to implement.But i believe that was a wonderful idea and great tool for self improvement and improve better decision making, moreover improves our abstract thinking.

Actually i told this same topic to a friend of mine 3-4 years ago, he argued that if you are president of country or prime minister then you can exercise this kind of routines, we ordinary human doesn't need this. But we ordinary human definitely need this because we are living a very dynamic world where from president of country to average joe are in same boat. An Average Joe under pressure now because

a)easy money flow become history.no more free lunch.
b)people become very selfish(in a positive way),no one now has time to correct mistake of others.
c)world become flat and a common man now dine at New York,breakfast at Paris and Lunch at New Delhi.
d)technology become very sophisticated,start taking its toll to replace human's repeating job.
e)smart people now start talking about giving life to all things(internet of thing)

So the power of 15 mins thinking at 17th hour is become very crucial. If we do, the benefits are

a) The oil spill could be averted if someone from BP,just spent 15 mins of their 17th hour by thinking about the negative impact of an accident.
b) We don't discuss about Moody's AAA rating of mortgage based securities, if we spent 15 mins of our 17th hour by thinking the abstraction connection of 2000-2001 stock market collapse.
c) We don't need worry about today's things because it was already planned and already put some thought process last year at our 17th hour thinking.

We don't need to be a genius or thinking required any things or meditation or brain power, all we need is some time before diving into sleep.

Manage situation before it controls you...

Most of the times in our life we are in good situation, but often due to law of nature, sometimes we are in bad situation. When ever a situation controls you, you might loose control of yourself. A situation in this context is blanket term. A situation can be good, bad, confrontation, anger, sad or happy. All uncontrolled situation can be bad for our health and wealth. When we start with our career at young age, lets say 21 years of old, we don't know what is even situation is. We just come and go after completing our tasks and enjoy our life. After getting married and having kids, we have to know how to manage situation cleverly and efficiently otherwise we have to carry enormous burden on our own, even sometimes our family also have to share the burden for us.

Most of us, try to play our game by the principle "don't drop ball". Don't drop ball is good and very honest way of doing our day by day job and reaching high on our career. But if we are stick with don't drop ball after having family and kids, we are vulnerable to "controlled by situation" person. If some situation happen to you, drop the ball and step back, analysis the situation, found an alternate way or delegate something and then carry the ball until you reach goal line. There is nothing wrong with that. If we are adamant to carry the ball all the time without dropping, each situation would make our life a living hell.

At the end of the day, our health, our family and our career is important to our life. We can make ton of money if we are in good health, good family support and good career. If we want to achieve all of this, drop the ball and step back and analysis when some situation demanding you to do so.

Needs Vs Wants

The things we have to have are “needs” such as food, cloths, winter coats, a warm cozy home, transportation etc. Basically we can’t live without “some things” are “needy things”. In other side “Wants” are we can live without it such as video games, designer jeans, branded value cars etc.

Other things to consider when trying to figure out a need vs. a want:

Will this item help me get ready faster? Maybe a new electric shaving machine that works better will help you to office on time, and electric toothbrush also.

I need a new sweater for winter, but is it necessary for me to have the designer version that costs $50.00 more than another brand -– even though both will keep me warm? what about quality? if I buy a sweater for $25 which is not that quality as $33, then I need $33 one.

I need a car to get to office, but do I need a 500 HP speeds and DVD player with navigation? in other hand I need a car for my big family with DVD for my kids and navigation for better driving and some power also required.

So based on each one’s context “Want” can become “Need”. It is depends on each one’s money goals and able to spend on “Needs”

American Foot Ball a training of Life

When I had arrived USA as first generations emigrate from India in the year 2000, I have no idea what American football was. I had seen this sports this in ESPN Indian channel couple of times and thought it is an intense, bloody game like euro rugby. But after started working in Silicon Valley, I was amazed by watching people talking about these sports in office every Monday morning and foot ball flying above my head in cubicle. I noticed that some of my team mates were upbeat from Sep first week to Feb 1st week until super bowl. This all compel me to watch this sports and my first complete football match was 2002 super bowl between Patriots Vs Rams. After Patriots won the match, I decided to watch all Patriots match and my favorite hero from that match is Adam Vinatieri because of his last minute kicking goal. Since then I continue watching football, and I learned following lessons from it which is very helpful for real life.

1. You should take risks on early part of your life. Most of the play selection in 1st and 2nd Quarters is pass play (risk selection prone to interceptions). If you score more in first half you would be better off in second half.
2. Especially last half of your life doesn’t take risks. Most of the play selection in 3rd and 4th Quarters is running play very safe and good game to pass time.
3. Always look for backup plan (Plan B) for every situations/decisions. This is very true after seeing each team’s depth chart.
4. Thrust others and give them plenty of chance to overcome there obstacles. QB throwing ball to wide receivers, even though they drop ball first couple of times. After they established correct chemistry, QB can throw ball in air, believing that his thrust worthy wide receiver will catch it at any cost.

More to come……

Don't enjoy at success time

Every human will be success at some time of there life span. Some lucky ones will be success for all the time in there life span. It is law of nature; we deserve that and all we need to do is be at right place at right time. Once you reached success, don’t settle down and start dropping balls. Ordinary people try to enjoy the success time overwhelmingly hence they would end up struggling later. We have to plan for future while we enjoying success at same time.
If Microsoft didn’t plan for XBOX or ZUNE while they are enjoying tremendous success with windows operating system, they won’t be now number two in gaming console market or MP3 player in North America.
If Google didn’t plan for Google earth while they are enjoying exponential success with search engine, we won’t get mega glorious software of century Google earth in our desktop.
Somebody can argue that they are doing business so they have plan new products to stay in market. But there are lot of corporation in America and even all over World failed because they were enjoyed too much success but not planning for future products. Classic example would be GM, FORD.
You can compare corporation life with human life very easily, because corporation also has same life cycle of human. Born (Start-up), Teen age (Mid-size), Adult (Corporation). One difference is nobody will buy or merge with other human but corporations can merge or acquired by other corporation.