Philosophy of life  

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A boat docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village. 

A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long." they answered in unison. 

"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" 

The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families. 
  
"But what do you do with the rest of your time?" 

"We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children, and take siestas with our wives. In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. We have a full life." 

The tourist interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard 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?" 

"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 Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! 

From there you can direct your huge new enterprise." 

"How long would that take?"   

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years." replied the tourist.   

"And after that?"   

"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"     

"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the fishermen. 

"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 drinking and enjoying your friends."

"With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what we are doing now. So what's the point wasting twenty-five years?" asked the Mexicans.



And the moral of this story is: 
Know where you're going in life.... you may already be there.

Rules to Success - Get Inspired!  

Posted by NoeL in , , ,

Here is a YouTube video I came across while browsing the internet. I found it informative and interesting. Hence would like to share it with you all here in my blog.




About the video:
In his quarter century of working in Silicon Valley at such companies as Apple, @Home, and Google, CMC Alum Jonathan Rosenberg has had ample opportunity to watch successful people in action. He will share his observations on what makes great people tick and draw conclusions on how a liberal arts education can arm the next generation of leaders. His talk will include a set of "rules" that promise to be excellent preparation for any student who plan at some point to enter the real world.

Get inspired!

My thoughts on Leadership  

Posted by NoeL in , , ,

Be a leader’, ‘Hone your leadership skills’ etc are common jargons we hear in our day to day lives. It might not be a surprising fact for most of us that it is one of the hot selling topics in today’s world. It is the central theme of most of the self-help books and courses out there in the market. Again, I won’t be wrong to assume that all of us at some point or the other in our lives have made use of one of those books or courses. But have you ever asked yourself the question - ‘Who is a leader?’ 

Today I decided to ask myself the question. After musing over this for a long time, I came up with the following:-

A true leader should be someone who is capable of leading his team differently, as per the situation warrants. The first situation is when everything is going fine and the team is inching towards victory without major troubles. The true leader should then be ready to play the second fiddle to his teammates. He should let his teammates’ march ahead and let them collect the credits for their hard work.


The second situation is when things are not happening as per the plan and the team is facing hardships and is finding it difficult to advance towards its goal. The true leader should then lead the team from the front, guiding the teammates with expertise and skills, making use of his or her rich experience. 


How many of the so-called-leaders-of-today fit this description? Does today’s management education help bring to life the true-leader lying dormant within us? Are there room for improvement? Let us contemplate this thought and aim at becoming the true leaders of tomorrow…

30 second Speech by CEO of Coca Cola, USA  

Posted by NoeL in , , ,


Following is the 30 second Speech by Bryan Dyson (CEO of Coca Cola, USA)


"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you're keeping all of these in the Air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

But the other four Balls - Family, Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it."


This is really apt for today's corporate life where 'Work-Life Balance' is (almost) non-existent.

Footnote: I know, upon speaking to many companies, that many of them are now starting to worry about 'Work-Life Balance'. Recently I spoke to a company's (one of the world's biggest consulting companies) top management, who told me that they have now incentive structures in place to prevent their employees from working over weekends. It was amazing to hear about it.

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Posted by NoeL


Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow  

Posted by NoeL in ,


Today I will delete
from my diary two days:
yesterday and tomorrow.

Yesterday was to learn and
tomorrow will be the consequence
of what I can do today.

Today I will face life
with the conviction that
this day will not ever return.

Today is the last opportunity I have to live intensely;
as no one can assure me that
I will see tomorrow's sunrise.



Today I will be brave enough
not to let any opportunity pass me by,
my only alternative is to succeed.

Today I will invest my most valuable resource: my time,
in the most transcendental work: my life;

I will spend each minute passionately
to make of today
a different and unique day in my life.

Today I will defy
every obstacle that appears on my way
trusting I will succeed.



Today I will resist pessimism
and will conquer the world with a smile,
with the positive attitude of expecting always the best.

Today I will make of every ordinary task
 a sublime expression,

Today I will have my feet on the ground
 understanding reality and the stars' gaze to invent my future.

Today I will take the time
 to be happy and will leave my footprints and my presence
in the hearts of others.

KEEP SMILING
Have a good day and a better one tomorrow!

"Life is not what you live but what you love"

Employee Commitment near extinction? - An Interview with a Job Hopper  

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My search on internet and among my friends' circle couldn't lead me to the identity of Mr JH or to the original source of this interview. If any of you know, please let me know so that I can give them due credits.

Some, rather most organizations reject his CV today because he has changed jobs frequently (10 in 14 years). The ‘job hopper’ (referred here as Mr JH), does not mind it. Well he does not need to mind it at all. Having worked full-time with 10 employer companies in just 14 years gives Mr JH the relaxing edge that most of the ‘company loyal’ employees are struggling for today. Today, Mr JH too is laid off like some other 14-15 year experienced guys the difference being the latter have just worked in 2-3 organizations in the same number of years. Here are the excerpts of an interview with Mr JH:

Q: Why have you changed 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: To get financially sound and stable before getting laid off the second time.

Q: So you knew you would be laid off in the year 2009?
A: Well I was laid off first in the year 2002 due to the first global economic slowdown. I had not got a full-time job before January 2003 when the economy started looking up; so I had struggled for almost a year without job and with compromises.

Q: Which number of job was that?
A: That was my third job.

Q: So from Jan 2003 to Jan 2009, in 6 years, you have changed 8 jobs to make the count as 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: I had no other option. In my first 8 years of professional life, I had worked only for 2 organizations thinking that jobs are deserved after lot of hard work and one should stay with an employer company to justify the saying ‘employer loyalty’. But I was an idiot.

Q: Why do you say so?
A: My salary in the first 8 years went up only marginally. I could not save enough and also, I had thought that I had a ˜permanent™ job, so I need not worry about ˜what will I do if I lose my job™. I could never imagine losing a job because of economic slowdown and not because of my performance. That was January 2002.

Q: Can you brief on what happened between January 2003 and 2009.
A: Well, I had learnt my lessons of being ‘company loyal’ and not ‘money earning and savings loyal’. But then you can save enough only when you earn enough. So I shifted my loyalty towards money making and saving. I changed 8 jobs in 6 years assuring all my interviewers about my stability.

Q: So you lied to your interviewers; you had already planned to change the job for which you were being interviewed on a particular day?
A: Yes, you can change jobs only when the market is up and companies are hiring. You tell me – Can I get a job now because of the slowdown? No. So one should change jobs for higher salaries only when the market is up because that is the only time when companies hire and can afford the expected salaries.

Q: What have you gained by doing such things?
A: That's the question I was waiting for. In Jan 2003, I had a fixed salary (without variables) of say Rs. X p.a. In January 2009, my salary was 8X. So assuming my salary was Rs.3 lakh p.a. in Jan 2003, my last drawn salary in Jan 2009 was Rs.24 lakh p.a. (without variable). I never bothered about variable as I had no intention to stay for 1 year and go through the appraisal process to wait for the company to give me a hike.

Q: So you decided on your own hike?
A: Yes, in 2003, I could see the slowdown coming again in future like it had happened in 2001-02. Though I was not sure by when the next slowdown would come, I was pretty sure I wanted a ‘debt-free’ life before being laid off again. So I planned my hike targets on a yearly basis without waiting for the year to complete.

Q: So are you debt-free now?
A: Yes, I earned so much by virtue of job changes for money and spent so little that today I have a loan free 2 BR flat (1200 sq. ft.) plus a loan free big car without bothering about any EMIs. I am laid off too but I do not complain at all. If I have laid off companies for money, it is OK if a company lays me off because of lack of money.

Q: Who is complaining?
A: All those guys who are not getting a job to pay their EMIs off are complaining. They had made fun of me saying I am a job hopper and do not have any company loyalty. Now I ask them what they gained by their company loyalty; they too are laid off like me and pass comments to me – Why will you bother about us, you are already debt-free. They were still in the bracket of 12-14 lakh p.a. when they were laid off.

Q: What is your advice to professionals?
A: Like Narayan Murthy had said “Love your job and not your company because you never know when your company will stop loving you.” In the same lines, love yourself and your family needs more than the company's needs. Companies can keep coming and going; family will always remain the same. Make money for yourself first and simultaneously make money for the company, not the other way around.

Q: What is your biggest pain point with companies?
A: When a company does well, its CEO will address the entire company saying, “Well done guys, it is YOUR company, keep up the hard work, I am with you.” But when the slowdown happens and the company does not do so well, the same CEO will say, “It is MY Company and to save the company, I have to take tough decisions including asking people to go.” So think about your financial stability first; when you get laid off, your kids will complain to you and not your boss.

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I study at European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel. The opinions expressed here are my own, and neither European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel nor any other party necessarily agrees with them.