Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing

 

Winning as a commodity is in desperate short supply in our lives.  It isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.  That’s the reason why I liked the U-boat metaphor in the expression “if you sink, sink like a submarine”.  It exhorts us to triumph against all odds and resurface.  While winning is important, we should build resilience to face defeat.

Winning is important because it validates excellence.  It blunts the naysayers. The winner displays an energy that only he knew existed.  While in the trenches, skeptics stare him down with the spiteful expression - “what makes you think you are unlike the rest of us, you idiot”.  The mainstream majority is so awash with egomania that doesn’t easily recognize the winner’s right to be different. All is fine if he joins them, loses all exclusivity, never rises above mediocrity.  Trudge along - is the norm.   

Achievers don’t really conquer anything more than their own worst fears and self-doubts. Winning needs a good combination of gut instinct as well as strategy with dollops of positive outlook and self-estimation. They start on some impulse that gets iterated gradually.  The scathing derision from all around can hurt while starting out. Face up to it and it fades away.  Then you are on your own, on the path to victory leaving all else behind, way behind.

That scares them.  Know why? Short-term thinking and risk aversion dominate this planet.  A person like me who embraces intelligent risk and thinks decades ahead doesn’t fit in very well here.  That was a bit of a problem for me when I was younger, but now I just embrace it.  It’s simply who I am.  I get all the support I need from my connection to my purpose and from feeling a sense that I’m working to serve all that I believe in.  The whole world could turn against me, and it wouldn’t make me want to give up.  It would probably just inflame me more.  I never get discouraged because I believe my approach to life will produce some amazing results in the long run.  It’s only a matter of time. I overcome fear of risk by tapping ever more deeply into what I love most.  The thought of taking a risk produces excitement instead of anxiety.

Go find an intelligent risk you can take today.  Most likely it won’t pan out.  But what if it does?  Celebrate either way because no matter what the outcome, you’ll gain courage just by making the attempt.  Recognize that there is no safety in passivity either.

 

Courting herd

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I am totally confounded by all this talk of impending recession, liquidity crunch, inflation and all things catastrophic.  Sometimes I think, ”Gawd, will there be an economy when I wake up tomorrow?”

 

I am not saying this is all babble.  But what annoys me more is that nobody tells me what to do or how to cope.  Tell me `this is your last day on earth’ - there is some finality to it.  But clearly that’s not the case because nobody has a clue what it is going to be like.  Nothing is clear.  But they still twaddle. 

 

So, left with no options, you follow the herd.

 

There is a tendency for business leaders to mimic their peers: following the herd is a safety mechanism. Should the herd start running, one instinctively follows, regardless of the threat. More often than not this makes sense, unless the threat has changed but the herd responses have not.  Herd behavior thus is of limited merit in a rapidly changing environment. In any case, herd theorists will no doubt be aware that those who choose to follow the group spend most of their time wading through the mire.

So we see talk of innovation and competitive advantage instantly replaced by sustainability and survival. “Bringing costs into line with revenues” becomes the new mantra.  But what if this impending recession is actually one of a series of seismic adjustments that can be attributed to inevitable realities such as globalisation or the web? If so, then simply battening down the hatches until the storm blows over is at best a tactical response and at worst one that might permanently damage an organisation’s ability to cope with turbulence.

Enlightened business leaders will see economic clouds as an opportunity to steal a march on their competitors.  The fact that it is unclear when there might be a return on this innovation investment should not be reason to abandon it – periods of inactivity do not just halt progress, they reverse it. Fair weather innovators, like fair weather athletes, never reach their full potential.

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Refuge of the feeble minds

Indian businessmen and executives may not yet be the most meticulous executioners of management principles in the world. But when it comes to keeping the Gods and lady luck happy, they leave no stone unturned.  Hang on!  Is that just an Indian prerogative?  Not really.

Heard Barack Obama lately carries a Hanuman idol to beat his rivals in the race for the White House.  Now that he has successfully put Hillary behind, he’s sure to bank on its charms to beat McCain

Here is a list of other famous people that harbored mythical attributions to their endeavors…..

Where reason ends, fickleness begins. The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization; the factors of decadence - luxury, scepticism, weariness and superstition - are constant. The civilization of one era becomes the manure of the next.  Legend becomes part of the process; over time it slides from the realm of individual belief into that of an enterprise habit, more so if it has its origins at the very top.

But when Venu Srinivasan of TVS motors sends first 21 units (motor cycles) to his choice of religious shrines before he starts commercial production, he is not exactly appeasing the Gods; not when oil is peaking at $140 a barrel :-) 

Not all of them mix up superstition with security.  Perhaps they know to strategize better and had realized that security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger - to them - is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. You don’t have to rate excellence and innovation so low below mythical tales because when you do that, you are in fact bidding good bye to creativity altogether.

 

 

Power of humility

Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box – Italian proverb.

 

The farther a man knows himself to be from perfection, the nearer he is to it – Gerard Groote.

 

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children - Kahlil Gibran

 

All quotes on that great virtue called humility.  I can never have enough of that.  Then I read Chuck Gallozi on Why are we so gullible - 

 

…”[One] reason is we can’t face the truth. We’re too weak to accept the fact that not all of life’s questions have answers. We want stability, security, and answers. And we would rather find what we hope for or already believe than the truth. We’re willing to sacrifice the truth whenever it makes us feel uncomfortable.  I quote Plato here - “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

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If we seek the light of truth, we need to strike a balance between skepticism and open-mindedness. Broadmindedness is called for because every new truth is first ridiculed, then opposed, and finally accepted as self-evident. So, we need time to weigh the evidence. Isn’t it true that we can’t make progress unless we arrive at new conclusions? Yet, skepticism is equally important. Each false belief we cling to diverts us from the truth and wastes precious time.

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To discover the truth we need to wear the cloak of humility, for we cannot advance until we realize there is much we do not know. Indeed, there is much we cannot know. However, if we accept that there is truth in opposing views and that the truth is shared by all, we can learn a great deal more. Charles Caleb Colton (1780 ~ 1832) offered this sage advice, “The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.” The search for truth is never-ending because our understanding of it is ever evolving. That’s why Andre Gide (1869 ~ 1951) advised, “Believe those who are seeking truth, doubt those who find it.”

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When we discover the truth, we must not brandish it about proudly and act superior, for as Albert Einstein (1879 ~ 1955) wrote, “Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive, but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger or more intelligent than a fellow being or fellow scholar easily leads to an excessively egoistic psychological adjustment, which may become injurious for the individual and for the community.”

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Let’s experience the beauty and joy of truth by accepting things as they are rather than as we wish them to be.

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 Sweet.  How high do you figure on your humility index…?

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Role swapping - not for all

Why do most business books suck?  Asks Ben Casnocha.  While promising to air his own views later, he has excerpted from an insightful “Uncle Saul”.  I liked it.  Hope you do too.

But I sensed something was awfully amiss. It never touched on who writes those books.  Are they really qualified to write?  Mostly these are anecdotal biographies that are often written in retrospect, in reported speech. Not by the entrepreneur that had the first hand experience.  Professional writers build up great readable passages, but they are not much use when someone buys the book to fix a mess.

So here goes my comment under that post.

“I remember the Chinese General Sun Tzu quote “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”. It happens in the publishing world as well.

An added reason why most business books suck is it is written by professional writers (or worse -management consultants spending not more than a few hours watching an enterprise) who also dabbled in entrepreneurship. It may lean heavily on logic and rationality (the damn book has to sell) but will make little commercial sense to a reader having real customers to service or having a business to run. An entrepreneur is infinitely more impulsive, latching on to opportunities as they come.

He lives with endless series of challenges and a book is the last thing on his mind. It’s a rare day when a hugely successful entrepreneur also happens to precipitate great content because reality is often brief and unromantic and is not elastic enough to fill beyond 20 pages in bold print. A writer usually relies on his reflections and fertility of his imagination centered on experience of someone else (an entrepreneur whom he knew), and it loses flavor as it occurs in retrospect.

And as you say, the publisher often prescribes the size and substance on the basis of most recent sales trends projected by analysts which a writer has to cater to. Value to reader or authenticity of content figures nowhere in that list of priorities. So they invariably suck.

The reason why I love blogs by hands on guys.”

Did you feel the same way?  Do you harbor a different view?  I am all ears.

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Life ain’t bad. You’ve just been a little irrational

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“Can we restart our lives?”

 

Who doesn’t wish that?  Not the balanced amongst us can claim we’ve led a perfect life.  There could’ve been instances where we had badly screwed up that we wished we could go back in time and fix it.  If it still impacts your life, you crave for that fix all the more.

 

That’s when we say “How I wish I could restart my life?”

 

May be you cannot.  But you certainly can recognize the irrationalities that led you to those mistakes.  Here’s a good post that I’ve come across at marcandangel. 

 

Money quote –

 

“…Irrational thoughts occasionally occur in the minds of all people.  Intelligence does not make someone immune to irrational thought.  These thoughts typically clutter our minds with feelings of resentment and distaste. 

Here are 10 irrational thoughts that rational people often fall victim to at one point or another:

1. Mistakes are never acceptable.  If I make one, it means that I am incompetent.
2. When somebody disagrees with me, it is a personal attack against me.
3. To be content in life, I must be liked by all people.
4. My true value as an individual depends on what others people think of me.
5. If I am not involved in an intimate relationship, I am completely alone.
6. There is no grey area.  Success is black and failure is white.
7. Nothing ever turns out the way you want it to.
8. If the outcome was not perfect, it was a complete failure.
9. I am in absolute control of my life.  If something bad happens, it is my fault.
10. The past always repeats itself. If it was true then, it must be true now.”

 

So Just don’t be despondent.  Spot that irrationality when it occurs to you next time and just shrug it off. You’re going to be alright. 

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Straight from the (Yale) Dean’s mouth

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My constant carping on the irrelevance of traditional B-School education found a great ally in none other than Joel M Podolny, Dean and William S Beinecke Professor of Management, Yale School of Management.  Money quote -

 

“… The Internet, the 24-hour news cycle, the popularity of social networking, and almost instantaneous ‘on-demand’ access to knowledge have all contributed to a significant shift in the mindset and the learning process for the 20-somethings now entering our MBA programmes…..New methodologies and new approaches to MBA pedagogy that more accurately reflect the demands of the contemporary work environment and the realities of the current MBA student population are urgently needed.”

 

My line of business brings me face to face with several CEOs, COOs and all CXOs – all B-School grads - but most of them lose interest if the presentation is innovative or even slightly deviating from the template they’re used to.  I give them a simple ratio analysis or a balance sheet projection (the old stuff) together with post event capital structure, they are doubly happy to cut my check.  I try to give a bit of ancillary industry comparison or a new revenue line, they lose the picture.  Recently it happened with a NLS/AI startup focusing on Mobile Apps. I found use for AI in web analytics being developed by a CRM client of mine, they kinda’ gave a cold response. Perhaps, they marked it “off-priority”.  Well, I am happy for the check part. But I want to do more justice, make clients see hidden opportunities – but they won’t let me.  Just do so much types.

 

The world didn’t sit up when I cried out.  Now the Dean of Yale says it, I hope some of them will

 

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Getting it wrong and still be loved

Paul Graham dwells on a hierarchy of disagreements.  Sarah Perez gives it a web twist.

I recall Tim O’Reilly in this old post recounting a story from a speech by Charlie Munger, a long time associate of Warren Buffet.  That story elucidates knowledge gained by rote and the one got by conscious labor. 

I quote -

“After winning the Nobel Prize, Max Planck went around Germany giving talks. His chauffeur heard the talk so many times that he had it by heart, and so one time, he asked Max Planck if he could give the address. Planck agreed, they changed places, and the lecture came off famously. But then came the Q&A, with the very first question being one that the chauffeur had no hope of answering. The chauffeur replied: “I’m surprised to hear such an elementary question on high energy physics here in Munich. It’s so simple; I’ll let my chauffeur answer it.”  

Munger went on to point out that what went wrong in oversight of Enron was a lot of chauffeur knowledge, great ability to give a presentation, but no deep knowledge.

As Graham says -

“the greatest benefit of disagreeing well is not just that it will make conversations better, but that it will make the people who have them happier…..Most people don’t really enjoy being mean; they do it because they can’t help it.”

To those haters of discord, I would just say this.  Most bloggers that we know are amateurs. They must entertain dissent while canceling those that go over the edge. Readers don’t expect professional quality in their output. So just they need be tolerant of dissent and be grateful to acknowledge a mistake when pointed out.  They can of course outwit a scathing comment by adding a dose of humor.  But never try to get around that by pleading you were way too busy and wrote in a hurry.  That makes you look like a stinking orifice.  You may well be one but why that secret be made public knowledge?  

Admit ignorance where you were. You need not be  Dr.Samuel Johnson for that! .

Having Greenspan for company

Most rules of public speaking or norms of even simple conversation urge us to stay away from jargons.  I for one don’t think I can remember all those rules, much less act them out.  When I speak, I am busy collecting my thoughts in tandem, test their adequacy so that the listener is put in context, apply emphasis where necessary and liberate them in a simple vocal exercise. Where do rules figure in this mind-mouth scamper?

Yet I think of occasions when jargons came in handy.  It helps me compact my sentences amongst people that liberally use them. Saves me and the listener lot many words, long winded explanations. Sometimes it effectively helps parrying questions that are uncomfortable to answer or are totally out of context or even irrelevant.  Few inquirers have the chivalry to admit ignorance and persist.  If they do, I throw more jargons at them. Signal their cluelessness and convey it’s just beyond them. Wear them out.  They’ll soon find something better to do.

Now I find from this article Alan Greenspan used this tactic to avoid answering questions when testifying before Congress !!! 

I am no great fan of Mr.Greenspan.  But it feels good to know I have his company

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Not just in India

If you think I’d been particularly hard on Guy Kawasaki for blowing the Steve Ballmer interview yesterday, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet !

Here is Business Week reporter Sarah Lacy going onstage with Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder) and completely botching it up. I thought it’s just with the snooty woman interviewers of CNBC-TV18 in India that cut off famous people and butting in with their flirty lines. Ms.Lacy is several notches below though.  Clearly, they are not quite ready for prime time. 

Journalism professor Jeff Jarvis gives a fantastic low down here on how (not) to conduct onstage interviews..

I watched that video and a few things struck me. If not knowing her audience has been her error of omission, she committed another horror in assuming that they knew her - in the process mistook Zuck’s audience as hers. She imbibed an osmotic vision of hollow personal grandeur commensurate with that of the person sitting opposite. She comes around as a naturally bad listener and the result is of course, predictable. She blew it. 

Somewhere in the interview she could’ve salvaged it by turning the mic over to the audience.  She blew it again by angrily reacting “Let’s go with the Digg model and let them have mob rule.”  That did her in, completely. 

The audience was unusually forgiving till Mark prompted her to ask a question. I understand they just blogged and twittered over this egotistical boor.  But will she ever realize what a chop she’s been?  Her response after the fiasco (rough video) says the opposite.  For starters, she could cut that narcissistic giggle out.  If she still doesn’t get it, a sex change is all that’s left   

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