All Entries Tagged With: "Success"

Our attitude towards failure gets formed very early in life. Usually in school…and it never just goes away. All through school, we perhaps take hundreds of tests, exams, assignments etc. And we are in BIG trouble if we fail even ONCE. So we are scared of failure. But real life is different. In real life [...]

An oft repeated fault in many organisations, is to automatically attribute success to the brilliance of the manager concerned or the team. Failure conversely is attributed rather automatically to incompetence. This is a serious flaw. In the above instance the CEO could have requested the ‘star’ performer to make a presentation to all the sales staff and share his insights into the strategy and tactics that in fact led to his grand ‘success’.

All of us want to forge ahead and excel in our respective fields. There are different approaches adopted by various persons for achieving their goals. Goals, of course, keep changing from time to time.

Many people think that Charisma is inborn, an innate quality that you naturally possess or you don’t. If you don’t, you lack a competitive edge to influence others as compared to those who do.

Most of us lead our lives with a major fear: the fear of failure. Have you ever found yourself facing this fear? Let us be truthful; the fact remains that no one ever wants to fail in any endeavour.

I do not claim to have been born with a halo, chanting hymns or solutions to life. After a lot of trial and error I did manage to stumble into a formula that worked for me and keeps me going. Along the path, several well wishers and mentors have given me interesting directions and inputs. [...]

What is the purpose of life? As Albert Camus said, “We humans are creatures who spend our lives trying to convince ourselves that our existence is not absurd.” If we are to believe in what Mr. Camus observed, we’ll also have to admit that the extent to which humans go to achieve this assurance is [...]

Here is a Do It Yourself Kit that each individual would find useful in the marathon race for survival and growth especially in these times of uncertainty.

Writing articles is one of the top 5 marketing tools I used when I first started my business 10 years ago and it’s one I continue to use today.  Why do I love it so much?  It’s free, I can leverage the information and use it in several places and it allows me to give [...]

Whatever tasks we do, we should make sure, that we accomplish each one of them as if they were great and noble responsibilities. Aggregate of small and noble tasks can mean accomplishing a big task. You have to hack small branches, before you can strike at the root, to cut down a big tree. Do [...]

Success and failure go hand in hand. “The things you are fired for are often the things that in later life you will be celebrated and given life time achievement awards for!” Francis Ford Coppola was canned for writing an “odd” and awkward script for the now legendary film Patton. The film was shelved, took [...]

I am amazed at the various self help and self development books that are currently on the best sellers’ lists. This clearly indicates that many people are looking for a road map to develop and succeed in their life quests. Most seem to be newer edits or versions of age old truths which are just [...]

Napoleon Hill once said, “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” Success comes with a price of failure. We were meant to grow and learn from our mistakes. How much we have paid for the lessons of failure determines our next step to success. Generally we do [...]

Allow me to help you WIN… and WIN in every single thing you do…  Come; let’s make winning a habit; a very easy habit; a habit that calls for constant and persistent practice of the mind… Most of us are made to believe that winning is something complicated…  BUT THE TRUTH is otherwise…. Winning is [...]

Well I can’t resist writing again and again about this favourite life and success topic…persistence. Persistence could communicate different meanings to different people, depending upon how it is interpreted, imaged and communicated – but by far it is the most singular differentiator and determinant for success in any endeavour. Just pick up any literature in [...]

All of us hope to succeed in our endeavours. All of us do wish that hope to get real. For the hope to get real, let us first know what the phrase ‘Nothing succeeds like success’ means. It means that nothing succeeds like ‘having successes in the mind’. And once you have the ideation or [...]

One quote you will hear me saying often to my staff, students and graduates; “Life is all about choices.” It is!  Everything we do involves choice. Whether it is your career search, climbing your career ladder, deciding to turn your homework in on time or making the decision to make a fresh start there are [...]

Most of us have been taught to work on our weaknesses, and overcome them assiduously! Here is a contrarian thought. Ignore your inherent weaknesses, and spend all the time and resources in honing your inherent strengths. You will do a lot of good to you, your life, and work.  Many contemporary leadership lessons speak of [...]

When you set yourself a big new goal in an area you’re unfamiliar with, you’re going to go through an initial phase of complete and utter confusion. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, you should be delighted. It means you’re doing things right. But it’s not always comfortable. Which is why you need to [...]

Underdogs never go under! Especially, every recession (economic, social and environmental) brings out some “underdogs” and catapults them into the league of “top dogs”! Rajasthan Royals started off as the underdogs and went on to win the Indian Premier League (IPL 2008 season). 2008 culminated with two significant achievements from the underdogs’ camp. India’s successful [...]

Break your goals into smaller goals and take the first step. Take action; take massive action on the goals that you have set. When you have one step forward, that is progress. Confucius had a saying that “If you know something and you do not act upon it, it is as though you know nothing.” [...]

You may have real obstacles or you may have imagined ones.  Either way they tend to stop you cold.  And guess what?  Obstacles are a normal part of the process – particularly life changing processes. If you spend your time avoiding obstacles – you get frustration and “what ifs” and regrets. If you are looking [...]

Every body talks about living the dream.  How many of us really get to do “living the dream”?  It is my belief that more of us are living it than we realize, while others watch others in wonder and say “Why not me?”  There is no magic formula, no special potion and (shhh…) no secret [...]

Motivation is the key to all success. There are many factors in life that determine the amount of motivation we have at any given time. Pain can be a motivator as well as pleasure. The degree to which we desire to have something or some situation is another motivator. Desire and determination has the ability [...]

We are all faced with our challenges, whether it is a physical handicap like I talked about in my article “Yes I can”, people in our lives telling us we can’t do it or our own attitude preventing us from moving forward. I and my staff are fortunate that we get to watch students and [...]

You are committed to achieving your success and if you’ve been on the journey for any length of time, you already know that there are no short-cuts. We have to commit ourselves to completing the journey and every time you make a commitment to anything, it will be tested! Along your journey you will experience [...]

Have you ever heard of “the butterfly effect”? It states that if a butterfly flaps its wings in New York it could cause a hurricane in Tokyo. The butterfly effect is a law of causality and chaos. It basically means that one small change in one place can have a dramatic effect somewhere else at [...]

Did you think that vision statements or credos are only for organizations and not for you and me? It’s time for a reality check. The most important driving force of any successful and contended individual is his or her ‘vision statement’. And this statement can be made by the person at any point in life, [...]

“A person with half volition goes backwards and forwards, but makes no progress on even the smoothest of roads.” – Thomas Carlyl The secret of success is known to both successful and unsuccessful. Then why do we have to be told how to succeed? By one and all? Have you ever pondered and mulled over [...]

Cash is God. Such was the mantra of Venture Capitalists at the TiE Summit 2008 Bangalore. Money has always been expensive, but since the economic meltdown, it has now become more of a rarity. The mechanisms for the financing of small-time start-ups are breaking down. The future looks bleak, if you are looking for funds. [...]

“Who is an entrepreneur?” Scott Cook, Founder & Chairman of Intuit asks. An entrepreneur makes something better or faster or cheaper or all three. These words were representative of the Entrepreneurial Summit conducted by TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) – straight-shooting, practical and unblemished. A grand event at the Hotel Lalit Ashok in Bangalore, the TiE [...]

All of our achievements and accomplishments – on the personal, family or career front – not necessarily in that order though – are completely connected to our ability/habit to set goals with deadlines, write them down on paper and review the progress regularly and with rigour. This progress towards achievement of our goals is made [...]

So sitting here at 8 pm on a Monday night winding down after having attended an all day meeting that explored using social media to reach out to people; i.e. blogging, twitter and such.  Also thinking about the recent elections and the power behind the “yes we can” verbiage used in the campaign for President.  [...]

I have come across several articles and books on “Success” and all of them have very special messages for the reader. It is truly motivating to read and learn how people are making their dreams take shape. We can certainly benefit from the lessons learned by those who have driven themselves on the road to [...]

When you have to interact with people in diverse fields, energy levels have to be very high. To maintain high levels of energy, one has to get away from all that depletes it. The idea of having high level of energy is to use it on things which matter to you most. One needs to [...]

“No, it can’t be done,” said people to a man named Thomas, as he kept on failing at his experiment. Had he given up, today we would be still living in the dark. He failed for a thousand times until finally he made a bulb that could glow. And what did our hero Thomas Alva [...]

What and who is a leader? The Webster’s Dictionary defines leader as a person who by force of example, talents or qualities of leadership plays a directing role, wields commanding influence, or has a following in any sphere of activity or thought. It defines leadership as that ingredient of personality that causes men (and/or women) [...]

Most of us have been told, as we grow up, that knowledge and learning are the most important requisites to attain success and win. No doubt knowledge and skills are important; but there is one singular differential that makes winners stand apart: Perseverance with a capital P. If there is one quality that makes people [...]

One of my professors in my management classes used to say, “Shape up or ship out.” In our world today, it seems that one thing that is fully certain is change.  The speed of transformation that our business world is seeing – the rapid growth of technology, the ever changing needs of consumers, the needs [...]

Emerson states, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”. A majority of the issues related to worker productivity stem from enthusiasm or the lack thereof. Individuals simply go to work despite their abhorrence of their employer, the monotony, and the products. There is no passion or pride. Much of this issue stems from practices embedded [...]

At every point of time, we are doing things. Sometimes for ourselves, sometimes for others. Actions, words, deeds, thoughts flow from us all the time. What should be our approach? How should we deal with the flow? I feel that one have to always “Do Your Best” (DYB). Why DYB? I think that this is [...]

If I live to be a hundred, I’ll still remember Friday, January 28, 1983. It was a bright sunny day, and I blissfully sang “I’m on the top of the world!” off-key as I dressed for work.  The day before, the company physician had confirmed what I’d suspected for weeks–I was three months pregnant–and after [...]

I have a confession to make.  I am a procrastinator.  I can find a reason to do just about anything other than the tasks I dread.  For example, I should be getting a mailing out right now, but I am writing this article.  However, I recently completed a ton of tasks I had been putting [...]

If there is a singular thought you must equip you with, when faced with a pink-slip, it  is to reiterate to yourself that what happened is owing to extraneous factors – the event per se is no reflection of your own professional or personal capabilities. Embedding this deep down in your mind will keep you [...]

Did the past year deliver what you wanted? Did you attract the outcomes you really desired? If life did not meet your expectations, perhaps it is time to prime the pump first! Let me explain.

Who is a winner? To me a person, who decides to do something and then does it, is a winner. At the same time someone who decides not to do something and doesn’t do it, is equally a winner. A loser on the other hand decides to do something and doesn’t do it or decides [...]