What makes you unhappy ?

Welcome to my special post, this is a special post as this is my first post from my iPad, so firstly thanks to my loving wife for providing me this tool , so that I can play with it and ensure than I am happy ( even for some months) . In past couple of months I have come across some amazing stuff which was always around me but I could see it. Well this brings me to this topic of what makes you happy ?
W often say school life / collage life is the best time of life or earlier my life was so good. Do we ever think why we say so? What impact it has on our future actions ? Well it's a well know fact that if people around you are happy , you will will be happy and vice versa , also there are lot of empirical evidence to suggest that if you are unhappy then that will create same felling of unhappiness around you, so what exactly causes happiness or unhappiness
Being a person who loves numbers and equations
Happiness = (expectation) < (reality)

Reality here is something that cannot be changed ( though influenced indirectly)
Expectations is something which is a variable factors and thus can be changed

Well all if us want to be happy , so how can we ensure we set our expectations right, does it mean that we should not be ambitious , should we not have goals ?
No , definitely not, please be ambitious, please be hungry , keep a goal in front of you and slog your ass of to achieve it , but once you have achieved it than Wait , enjoy it  and then take your next task.
Harvard research shows that 99% of students who study there are not happy, these are the best students in d world , brightest mind in the world, then what makes them unhappy ? Studies have shown that unreasonable comparison have been the major cause of unhappiness, this trait can be seen in yours truly also. Unfortunately due to competitions that we face right from starting our school , to college to work only increases this . John Lennon had rightly summarised it "my mother told me the purpose of life is to be happy, when my teacher ask me what I would like to be in life , I wrote I want to be happy, my teacher said you didn't understand the assignment, I said you don't understand life "

Me , my anxieties , My fear

Water finds its way from highland to lowlands by flowing in the predefined path or by making a new path . Ships are meant to sail in sea, to face the storms, to face the typhoons and shows its supremacy  by surviving and winning over its nemesis  , then its get its respect and due. If it’s afraid of depths or storms it will stay on the coast and will never reach to its potential. Similarly humans to get respect, to earn money has to go through storms , through typhoons, you will be drown for some time , you will hit an ice block but you have to stay afloat and then only you will be able to reach to the shore.  This week has been very interesting for me , first I met anju tai (Renu cousin sister) , she is an IITian (respect respect) and works in HP at a very senior position.  Its was good interacting with her ,  I found out that she also has her anxieties  about her professional career and is very much like me. Though through her experience she can control it much better, she know after working for 30 years how to control it ,the one thing I like is her  dedicated approach and her planning ( I was surprised that she and her husband have planned the activity the intend to do this year and do this activity every year.  This is something that need to implemented ASAP .

One thing I need to work on power of  positive thinking , spoke to Sachin today , he also echoed the same sentiment based on what he learnt at an arya samaj function. Having read and heard every one saying the same thing makes me think that if everyone from india to US is taking about it , then there has to be some element of truth in this. As Peanuts in one  comic strip said “My anxiety has their own anxieties “ , I think the problem with me is that I let too many negative thoughts come in me  and worry too much. it’s a abysmal pit , the more I think of negative thoughts ,  the more I go down with lesser chances of coming up. Geeta also says “Do your karma and good result will come” , the more I am thinking about it the more its is making sense to me . At the end of the day , this is what every religion, every learned man is trying to teach.

What I learn from Sachin Tendulkar – Management principles that can be used in life –

“If cricket is a religion, Sachin is GOD”, a whole generation has grown up idolizing a man, a messiah, whose name is Sachin Tendulkar. 2012 was very sad as the great batsmen decided to hang his boots and took retirement from ODI cricket ,From the great man what can people like me in business can learn :-

1)      BE Modest – In 90’s every mother wants her son to be Sachin , every girl wanted to marry Sachin, Sachin was the india’s biggest celebrity , it is every easy to get lost with so much adulation , money and fame but Sachin kept himself grounded. he was never part of any controversy and has been a role model for all the countrymen. Similarly in business , you would have completed a successful project and you might be the rock star of the company , still it is important to be modest and keep learning  

2)      Don’t get bothered by what other’s talk about you, Let your work talk - Indians are passionate people , when they like someone they will treat him like a god but when they are angry at you they will be in their worst behavior,  whenever Sachin  was not performing or did hit a bad form all the critics used to jump on him but he never said anything to anyone , he kept practicing and came up with a brilliant hundred. He let his bat speak for him. Similarly in business , you will hit rough patches, its important to concentrate on job and keep giving results, people will talk irrespective.

3)      Play to win – Sachin in one of his interview said, “I hate to lose”, he made winning his habit.  I remember india was playing Pakistan in Chennai in 97-98, Sachin made 162 and was suffering from cramps, he got out and we lost the match.  even in life one has to play for win and give his or her 100% to achieve it

4)      Passion – for success, it is important to have the of passion for your job/project,  often one lose out the steam due to internal and external factors. We can see the professional life of  two talented crickets , Vinod kambli and Sachin tendulkar, what made latter a great batsmen is his passion for the sport

5)      Team work – Cricket is a team sport. Even though you are the greatest batsmen on earth, you require a team to win the world cup , similarly in business teamwork is important for achieve the results

the dark night rises

today following the hyateri 

A monster called IPL

                                                            A  monster called IPL

“IPL is not a sport but a rave party, it should be banned” said the ex finance minster, what has changed in IPL which started 5 years back with a bang , modelled on profitable league (EPL , NFL ) of the world, attracted the best talents of the world and also give opportunity for new players to show their skills and then go on to play for the country.

Lets try and understand why some section of politicians and media are against IPL this year , no doubt that IPL currently is not professionally managed compared to EPL and the looks like BCCI is following the philosophy “if its not broken , then it need not be fixed” , you have owners fighting with ground staff and some players doing everything except playing cricket ( read molestation , scandals etc) but does it mean that we should close a venture which has shown potential ? or is it our resistance to change ? or just that opposition wants to target government and media wants to increase their TRP?

A simple porter model on competition analysis reveals there Is a huge plus in IPL

Opportunity – we are a nation of billion plus people, crazy for cricket from birth. This is a country which Treats crickets as god and cricket as their religion. IPL gives a great platform for companies to reach to people. On top of this IPL already has been able to create a brand and some loyalty among people regarding the teams they support , thanks to inflow of so many international players strengthen the profile of their respective team.

Weakness – In the current avatar of IPL, couple of thing clearly evident are lack of transparency and lack of professional approach in managing IPL . One doesn’t see BCCI or IPL governing board intervening to resolve any of issues, Also the high profile owners are becoming big compared to the league and as seen previously also when the owner / players becomes bigger than the league, issues are bound to crop up.

Threats –

The biggest treat is to ensure the credibility of the league , if match fixing or spot fixing hits this league then this will be a huge blow and may drive people away from league , also fatigue is one of the important factor to be kept in mind, too much of cricket and banal cricket will drive the people away. With now other countries also coming with their version of league this needs to be thought well

Opportunities -

IPL has all the potential of becoming a global level sports venture, with now Indian Diaspora reaching around the world and with international players in the league there is a huge opportunity to take it international audience.

For league to do well it is clear that they should keep the players and owners in check , ensure positive news reaches through media, with this measure we should see a great venture unlocking value for everyone players, owners and Board.

Random Thoughts - 27 Dec

Hi,

well good to be back to the blog, dont know whether anyone is reading it or i am the sole reader , but who cares... the big story of today is the abandon of the