Category: observation

Are You chasing Productive Happiness OR Consumption based Happiness

amit Leave a comment

With so many resources and distractions available at our disposal, we are always hard pressed for effective time utilization and making the most of our limited 24 hours. Everyone gets 24 hours in a day on the planet and it is how we use it matters the most in making our life a success or just going through the motions.

We all want to be happy and satisfied but still remain sad and empty. Everyone has a different definition of happiness and satisfaction but the generally accepted societal standard is a good career, stable income, family, status and the works.

 

What is Productive based Happiness and Satisfaction?

Productive happiness is the joy and satisfaction that we get when we produce something which satisfies our basic need to create. This can be anything from making your dinner, working on the presentation, creating a new website, painting your door or even sorting out your cupboard.

We are born to create and experience the enjoy the fruits of our labour.

 

What is Consumption based Happiness and Satisfaction

Consumption based Happiness is the joy we get from watching Netflix, Social Media, eating the chocolate and doing activities which cater to our urge to experience and enjoy new things and activities.

 

Successful people or people who are doing well in the society (based on the accepted standards) cater to their Productive and creative based Mindset first and keep their consumption based Mindset in check.

Normal people tend to cater to the consumption based happiness first without focussing their limited energy and time to actual productive behaviour which will give them long term satisfaction and happiness.

Consumption based behaviour is easier to adopt than the production based approach as the world offers us a plethora of distractions to lull the monkey mind and make us live in a make-believe world.

I am not saying that either approach is bad. We just need to maintain a healthy balance between the two and if we make the productive Mindset as our dominant philosophy and process , it will help us in achieving our short term and long term Goals faster.

 

So did you Create or Consume Today?

False sense of entitlement

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I have seen a number of issues / conflicts arising due to the false  sense of entitlement that we as a Nation suffer from.
 
We are a pampered lot right from childhood with parents giving in to our demands and supporting us till late in lives. So, we become used to demanding service and assuming that we are entitled to it. 
 
This makes us believe that everybody is there to serve us. 
So my job becomes the responsibility of the college, my growth is the responsibility of the company, my education is the responsibility of my parents and in the end I can blame them all for my failures.
 
Why don’t we introspect ? 
 
We are not entitled to anything. 
 
It is MY responsibility to make a failure or success of the platform that our parents, college or company provides.
It is my life and my ownership, responsibility is the only thing that matters. The sooner we realize this TRUTH, the sooner we can get to the path of SUCCESS.
 
YOU only need yourself to make a MESS or a SUCCESS of YOUR LIFE. 

Stress and how to reduce it

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Stress is a major part of our current lives and despite trying hard to curtail it , we still remain stressed.

Let’s stress on a few basic points that the experts advise on how to reduce stress.

 

  1. Letting go and accepting the things : Your kids are not listening , your team members are playing hardball , your maid has not turned up. Basically nothing is happening as you wanted or planned, just take a step back and accept the situation. The best solution at that moment will be to refine / lower your expectations and accept instead of fussing about things that are beyond your control. Sometimes it is easier to let go.

 

  1. Live a simpler life and reduce clutter : We need to de-clutter our lives and make them simpler. The desk, house, mobile phone, laptop , your relationships need to de-cluttered . I have seen some people keeping all their files on the desktop screen instead of keeping them in separate orderly folders. They are just cluttering up and it is a mirror of how we live. Just look at your wardrobe – If it is messed up and full of things that you have not even worn for a long time, you need to let go and reduce and organize the wardrobe. Clutter causes stress.

 

  1. Get a hobby: What do you like doing. It can be anything like photography, bird watching, blogging. Develop a hobby that you are passionate about. Reduces stress considerably.

 

  1. Listen to music or develop a reading habit – Music provides a soothing experience and reading helps in increasing knowledge and widening your thoughts and horizon. Great stress busters.

 

  1. Do some voluntary / charity work – Join an NGO or even teach your maid’s kids for free. Do something worthwhile free for someone else. Will give you tremendous satisfaction and happiness and will reduce stress.

 

  1. Attend a funeral – Funerals make you realize the eventuality of the circle of life and you start seeing life from a different perspective. Funerals make you realize that stressing on the client, team member, kids, maid is just a small speck in the life cycle and nothing is permanent.

How to hire people ?

amit Leave a comment

Being in the IT industry and having interviewed a lot of people, I have compiled a list of simple questions which help me in finding the most suitable candidate for the position. 

Apart from the technical round which is done by an expert panel of team members plus a technical test, I tend to look for these points in the candidate.

  1. Does he arrive on time or earlier for the interview.
  2. If he is running late, does he call up the HR department and inform. 
  3. Is his resume full of spelling and grammatical errors. 
  4. Has he done research about our company and what do we do. Has he visited our website and what did he find.
  5. Why did he chose his current domain / technology? 
  6. Is he just changing his current job for a small pay rise or is he passionate about the work he does.
  7. What extra work he has done apart from his regular projects and has he posted his work online. This shows passion.
  8. What does he read about in his spare time. Is he doing the job just for the sake of it or is he really passionate about his core skill / subject and learning constantly.
  9. What new skills / technologies he has learned himself with no pressure of the project / job.  This can even be picking up a new language , starting a blog etc. 
  10. How does he handle pressure situations. How does he react in them. I will challenge them on a point and then work on rubbing it in and then see their reaction.
  11. What hobbies / other interests they have and are they really passionate about them. What do they do in their free time ? 

I tend to recommend those candidates who have a good grasp of their domain and are emotionally passionate about their work.  

If you hire good, passionate people, you have won half the battle in the startup arena. 

So how do you hire ?

Basic Qualities that Owners and Managers desire in their team members

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We normally think that business is about money but BUSINESS is about PEOPLE and their management and one of the most critical factors for the success of any company or business are the team members /employees.

Having been involved with a number of start-ups, MNC’s, SME’s and having first-hand experience of the people management issues that occur, I would like to list down some very basic qualities that owners / managers want from their team members but are hard to find.

• Reliability – This is the core aspect of any team and you need reliable , dependable people who will stand with you through thick and thin. You need team members who will work with you when the going is tough and are not afraid of rolling up their sleeves and slogging when the situation demands.

• Honesty and Transparency – You want people that are honest with you. You don’t want people that fluff around or present a rosy picture and hide things which can lead to huge mess-ups later. You also don’t want people that lie about their abilities and then are unable to deliver. Be clear about what can be done and deliver it as expected . You want people that will provide you the correct picture no matter how bleak it might be.

• Leadership and Solution providers – Normally we are trained to think and act individually to grow our careers, which might not be in the interests of the group or the team. You want leaders that can organize the team and solve problems with the team. You want people around whom other team members can rally to solve an issue. People that provide solutions to problems and not highlight them only are very essential.

• Grammar and communication – This point is normally ignored but you want people that have good grammar and communication skills so that basic mistakes are avoided.

These are the basic skills which are desired by the owners and managers. So does YOUR TEAM or YOU have them ?

Can you Afford your lifestyle ?

amit Leave a comment

We believe in instant consumption and gratification.

That is the theory nowadays which is totally different from our parents who used to think about the future and save and invest and live comparatively simpler lives.

But with the television and peer pressure and a lot of other factors, instant consumption has made the current generation financially sick which can take a long time to recover.

Most of the times we earn well as salaries are very high nowadays but there is very little wealth and no savings and if the earnings dry up or some medical emergency happens , then what ?

Then we are screwed and need the support of our parents and in-laws to fall back on.

Take a step back and think before making that latest smartphone buy which is the second one in six months even when the last one is absolutely fine. This is just an example of unjustified consumption. There can be more examples like the fancy bike that you bought.

Always need to question if you Can you afford your current lifestyle  ? If your parents support you in financial crisis , then I am afraid you are not the one who can afford but it is the parents wealth that maintains you.

We tend to forget that lifestyle creep happens and it is very difficult to let go of the lifestyle and comfort once you are used to it.

Learning to Say No

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Many times at work or even at home , we get caught up in complex situations with the attitude of pleasing and saying “Yes” to everybody and to each extra work, request or expenditure. 

We say “Yes” to our bosses, our colleagues and to our children as we don’t want to offend anyone. 

It is good saying “Yes” when you job or relationship depends on it. But we normally tend to overlook that saying a small “Yes” will impact the other tasks on the project or will upset our monthly budget and you will regret it later. We need to think it through which we tend to ignore. 

We as an individual and as a society as a whole need to learn to say “No” to things or acts which we know will have repercussions or will snowball into huge nightmares and mishaps later on. 

Saying “No” does not mean that you say “No” to everything but always think and try to put across your point in a polite manner without being offensive. 

9 times out of 10, the other party would understand your valid reason for saying “No”.