Short Term View

Normally we take a very short term view of our careers and get carried away by what others are doing. We just look at the outside and seldom realise that the reality maybe different.

When we start our careers, salary is the most important aspect for choosing a job, well salary is definitely important but it should not be the only criteria for accepting a job offer - job role, organisation, growth prospects should also be looked into. Even if we do chose a relatively low paying job for better learning and greater long term benefits, we lose patience midways and jump on to low quality high paying jobs. I had read a very good article by the founder member of a prominent consulting firm, it narrated a story of a young boy who joined a low paying job and worked there for 3 years. The boy had one more year to go before rising in his career but due to pressure from family and need of money for his sister's wedding he shifted to a clerical job with double the salary. This was a disaster because just when it was time for him to accelerate he left his job. In this case the boy was in need of money, but had his family members supported him for another year their monetary problems would have been solved for ever. Switching of job at that juncture destroyed his career.

There has to a be fine balance between long term career plans and current salary structure. We should not run after money, once we have really built ourselves as indispensable assets, money will run after us. So, we should have the vision, the boldness and the perseverance to reach the top.

:)

Read between the lines

In the corporate world, communication is very indirect and words are normally pregnant. It is very important to be able to interpret the true meaning of any mail, conversation, statement. The more we understand the corporate language the easier it is to save our jobs and move ahead in our career.

For Ex :
Boss - When I was of your age I never used to be late in office. As a well wisher, I do not want you to get into this bad habit at such an early part of your career.
Actual meaning - Please treat this as the last warning. Be on time or I will kick your ass.

It is very important to read between the lines which will easily come from experience and alertness. It is foolish to take things on face value. One has to be diplomatic and sharp to tackle such things :)

Beyond Job Role

In our workplace we generally do not bother to learn skills or gain knowledge beyond the boundaries of our job role. Eg : If a person is in the MIS team, he or she never bothers to look into anything beyond MIS or even get into the depth of MIS like why this, why that, what if we change this etc...This slows down our growth because we limit ourselves.

I have always been very fond of reading about new topics no matter how irrelevant they might be to my job role. I started my career, in an Aluminium Foil Packaging company IFL - a part of Sterlite Industries, with a short 10 day stint in Finance and then was moved to marketing both domestic and exports. When I became fully involved in Exports I generated a lot of interest for the international non-ferrous market trends and started reading vigorously on the primary metals market which had absolutely no direct link to my job role. My boss used to tell me that I am wasting my time but I did not listen. In 10 months my newly developed passion bore fruit. The global markets became very very bullish and in one quarter the prices reached historic highs. This sudden turn of events made global benchmarking of prices a must and I was the only person in IFL at that time who knew how LME (the benchmark for non-ferrous metals) works. You must have guessed it by now - I became a very important employee :)

The above is just a small illustration of why we should continuously build our skills and should be very well read. Just knowing how to do your work well is not enough. Anyways after a certain time period you master your work, so to ensure faster progress one should always be looking at building new skills, preferably keeping in mind our goal in life. A career is like a jigsaw puzzle, we have the final picture in mind and all our moves should be directed towards putting the pieces in place.

Brainteaser

I came across this cool gadget which has 20 simple calculations and you are timed for solving them. I found it really cool. I keep playing and my best time till now is 19 seconds. I have put it at the end of the blog. Hope you guys find it interesting. I will keep looking for interesting stuff and my blog will be very dynamic. You will find new stuff every now and then and the layout will also change frequently.

enjoy

uday

Where are you going in Life

I came across a really interesting mail. Thought I would share with everyone :)

A boat docked in a tiny Goan village (Goa-India). A tourist from Mumbai (Bombay) complimented the Goan fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

'Not very long,' answered the fisherman.

'But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?' asked the Mumbaite.

The Goan fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The Mumbaite asked, 'But what do you do with the rest of your time?'

'I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play guitar, sing a few songs.... I have a full life.'

The Mumbaite interrupted, 'I have an MBA from IIM-A, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.'>

'And after that?' asked the Goan.

'With the extra money the larger boat will bring you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you
have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with
the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Panjim, or even Mumbai. From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.'

'How long would that take?' asked the Goan.

'Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,' replied the Mumbaite.

'And after that?'

'Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting,' chuckled the Mumbaite, 'When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!'

'Millions? Really? And after that?' asked the Goan.

'After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like with your buddies.'

'With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what I am doing now. So what's the point wasting 25 years?' asked the Goan.

And the moral of the story is? Know where you're going in life. You may already be there. Life in the present world is indeed a rat race. Give it a serious thought

love

uday

How to take leave from Office for Seva

Many people have asked me this question time and again that how do I manage to get so much leave from office - the answer is 'I dont know'. People have told me that I am blessed with too much of grace...nothing of that sort. There are a few things that I follow religiously which might be the reason why I manage to get leaves -

1. Intention - Everyone must have heard this before. Your intention makes all the difference. If you really want to do seva, situations will be created in your favour. I have experienced this too many times. Keep your intention very clear and very strong.
2. Efficiency at Work - You have to be extremely good at your work. Being one of the best in office, if not the best, makes it easier to get approval for leaves
3. "You do my work, I will do your work" - This one of my favourite statements of Guruji....and trust me it works miraculously. You have an unfair advantage over others and you should use it shamelessly. A word of caution - it is very easy to get carried away by this statement, please do not be irresponsible at any point of time. Once you start getting involved in seva activities, of course with very noble intentions, you will see everything else just falls into place - orders start pouring in, customers become your best friends, seniors start noticing you etc etc.....so what are you waiting for - just start doing seva right now.
   
4. Have good relations at workplace - This is also very important. You should be friendly to everyone right from the security to the CEO. Be genuinely nice and do not go around buttering people unnecessarily. Being in the good books of the majority helps in building an overall image that in turns makes it easier for your bosses to give you leave.
5. Be genuine - Please be true to your bosses as much as possible. I have personally been very open about my involvement in AOL and it has worked for me. Speaking the truth increases mutual trust and improves your relation with seniors. This point is very case specific, but do make an effort to be truthful, if it works then bingo - you have hit the jackpot. If it does'nt, please follow other points :)

Well that covers more or less everything that I do to get leaves for seva. I have also noticed that sadhana makes a lot of difference. So please keep your sadhana very very strong and all the best to all of you. I am sure that if you really want to do seva, no force on earth can stop you :)

My First Blog

Well, inspired by Bawa, I have finally managed to post my first blog. Frankly, I used to find blogging a waste of time and I have no idea why am I typing this blog. For me its more of a platform to share my writing skills with the world. Yes, I am a pretty decent writer and generally write very simple, humorous and emotional stuff. But blogging will be a new challenge for me as now my talent is open to the public scrutiny :) I also do not have any specific topic in mind. I intend to keep this particular blog as a general one, I do intend to start a blog on management with a special focus on dealing with people, which I think is a very important aspect in any field. Lets see how things flow, as an amateur writer I know one thing for sure, you can never think and write, it always flows. So I will wait for the words to flow. Do give me feedback. I am also open to suggestions about blog topics, page layout etc.

I will keep on improving the layout of the blog gradually, till such time please bear with me.