Never Eat Alone is the ultimate book on networking recommended as one of the best business books ever. But after first few pages, I was skeptical
that this book will turn out to be another broad level guide about networking containing
importance of relationships and fearlessness ultimately from which I will come
out BORED. I can say instead I have come out wiser, clearer and more creative.
The book is FULL of practical and usable tips and tricks which will go a long
way in improving one’s connections if implemented. And Keith Ferrazzi knows
what he is talking about. He has played the game, mastered the game and
reinvented it as well. Whether you are trying to succeed as a businessman, want
to be a CEO or even running an NGO, this book is a must read to at least take
you in the right direction. It will open your mind towards the vast array of
possibilities of how you can go about expanding your network.
Now acknowledging that it is
definitely a must-read I will like to criticize it a little bit as well. Mr
Ferrazzi you would have been much more helpful if you would have included some
bits about how people with different set of strengths than yours should try to
achieve what you have. Without a doubt, as you yourself have also mentioned
numerous times that you were born with gift of the gab and with an upbringing
which made you comfortable in one-on-ones with seniors. Not all have the same
strength as you have and by simply stating what you have done would not be of
much help to the million shy people. Agreed some of your tips are easily
embraceable and practice will make you better in the other tips, but because of
your immense knowledge in the field I think we can expect more out of you.
So overall I am immensely benefited from reading this book as I plan to continue my struggle to come out
of my shell and be comfortable with new people, making good conversations and
enjoy in a group other than that of best friends and family. However, I do have
these two thoughts in mind: Can drastic changes be made in personality traits
and the other one being should I try to address my shortcoming or I should
rather strengthen my strengths further.
Ever tried reading those mystical or spiritual books in
which half of it you do not understand and the other half that you do understand;
your mind does not buy it because of being utterly illogical? If you haven’t then
you should give a shot to “The autobiography of a Yogi” as I am sure your mind does
not have capacity to imagine how absurd a book can be. “The Art of Happiness”
was started by me with a fear in mind of encountering a similar book but since
I liked an interview of Dalai Lama somewhere I did expect it to be little different.
And what a fresh breeze of air this book is. I feel lucky to have read this, to
be able to get a glimpse into thoughts of Dalai Lama. Amazing book.
There is always a sense of disbelief and scorn in my mind when
I hear spiritual or religious views because of my atheist inclination. But when
you hear a person who is quite similar to you in thought process, trying to
explain those spiritual or religious views, how they make sense and even cite
some studies which prove the views right, it becomes hard to reject his
narration. This book is an effort of a psychologist, Howard Cutler who is
trying to first get convinced by the views of Dalai Lama and then give world a way
to be able to witness the brilliance and clarity of one of the purest minds in
the world today. It makes the book very interesting and credible as the author
does not sound completely submissive to Dalai Lama. He reasons it, questions it
and presents his view as well.
I especially liked the meditations that are suggested in
this book. To me meditations were always equal to reaching the state of
near-blackout while keeping your thoughts away but for the first time I have heard
about mind exercises as part of meditation. And I did find these exercises very
effective and practical. The book is heavily focused on the power of compassion
and how you need to control your mind. Power of compassion is really unique in
my readings till now but controlling your mind did seem clichéd, though the
treatment of the subject by Dalai Lama is not at all hackneyed. Must Must Read
Book!! Go buy it. Read it. Now!!
As I am writing this, I have just paid the last installment
of the fees for making a web-based application. The cost of making it was
significant as was the time spent on visualizing, interacting with the
developer and testing it. And now I am not sure that it is something I will be
translating into a business of my own, at least not in the near future. Sigh. When
I got this business idea, I wanted to just-do-it nike style before it gets too
late and so I wrote the B-plan in a train travel, met the website designing company the next day and closed the deal day after. I now wish I would have
read this book before that.
Eric Ries has written a masterpiece for entrepreneurs with
radical concepts and ideas. And you come out buying everything the author has
said much like a textbook because everything he has talked about makes sense,
is practical and is backed by reason. The book is divided into three parts –
Vision, Steer and Accelerate which is further divided into 12 chapters.
In the first part, he talks about how once you get an idea
you should go on defining it and go about testing your hypotheses. Every
business idea is made up of some hypotheses – people need X, A is inferior B
will do a much better job, if there would be Z in the market people will
completely change how they are currently doing things etc. All these beliefs of
ours, which are obvious to us has many more layers to it or is sometimes even
outright wrong though it might appear infallible from our vantage point. All
these hypotheses need testing and further refinement for which one should start
with what the author calls MVP – Minimum Viable Product. There are many
arguments against MVP for example, mine were I will not get the best response
if they do not experience the full thing or they might steal my idea. But if
you think deeper through those arguments, MVP does make perfect sense.
In the second part, author discusses developing the product
further by testing each and every change and deciding which one are making
sense and should be included and which ones should not be. Here he highlights
vanity matrices and how we should stay away from them. It is very important for
startups to use relevant matrices. He also talks about pivot-or-persevere
moments in startups when you have to take a call whether to continue working
hard on the path you are going or to change the path now knowing something you did
not know earlier.
Third part is all about the organization structure, policies
and processes that will help you grow. Here he talks about different engines of
growth on which a startup needs to be very clear that which one it is going to
target. Here he has emphasized on innovation and how to inculcate it as part of
the startup culture. The epilogue in which he has discussed how Taylor’s work
has been misinterpreted and misused in today’s business world and why startup
should not be victim of that, is also very interesting read.
Overall it was very enriching book. I especially liked how
the author has been talking about how so much energy and talent is getting
wasted chasing unclear and imagined ideas. His work has been an amazing effort
towards reducing that loss. I highly recommend this book if you want to start
your own company, you have one or are in involved into intrapreneurship.
This
is pretty much my first real post on this blog ignoring the quizzes of course.
From my very childhood we were taught to start everything with God’s name. So
we used to start our new year’s notebook with God’s name on the first page, not
to mention even some of my examination answer sheets had “Om Ganeshaye Namah”
on first line. I remember our housewarming party was a grand pooja, new
machines getting installed in Dad’s factory also preceded by poojas and Mom,
Dad and Grandpa starting there every single day with Pooja (still do). So
carrying on the tradition forward here also I am writing my first post about
Him or rather about Him being not.
I got born in
the family of Brahmins – the priestly caste of Hindus who are expected to play
the role of custodians of Dharma in Hindu Society. Knowledge of religion was imparted
to us – me and my siblings – by our parents with the same sincerity as parents
teach their child about morals. Actually sometimes both were so intertwined for
us that I do not remember any such immoral act which does not offend God. I was
probably the most religious kid among my friends till I was 10-12. The main
influence for it was my Grandpa who himself is a very religious person. He was
retired from business by the time I got born and so he used to devote
significant amount of his time worshiping or reading about Him. I used to
accompany him to daily morning ritual of hour-long pooja on Sundays I still
have fond memories of him singing me lullabies of God’s bhajan which I
absolutely loved.
As a little
kid, I had this definition of God – He is someone who has all the powers in the
world who will grant all your wishes if you are a good person and show respect
to him regularly failing any of these you are bound to be doomed and all bad
things will happen to you. Pretty basic eh? As time passed I started seeing
some anomalies about it – like my wishes came true only about half the time (I
was a pretty demanding wisher) and I was not bad to others and I had my own
share of visiting temple to show respect (and to wish more too). Then somebody
told me that the wishes should come out of your heart and if your heart is pure
you will get what you want. And of course they told me you need to work to get
what you want – only wishing wont help. Wont help? Wont help? But why? I am
fulfilling all conditions to get what I want and what is this pure heart
anyways!! And if I need to work for it then what is the use of the wish. I was
confused.
I did not stop
wishing though and even found out ways which increase my chances of getting
what I wanted. There are three ways– donating money/kind to God, do pooja/havan
or you have to visit some superholy temple for your wish. For any of these
three means there is a pre and post – either you could have faith and do them
and expect for the best or you could tell God you would do them if your wish is
granted. I always preferred the second one as there is no risk attached to it.
If it doesn't happen I have nothing to lose.
The odds of
wish coming true were still the same. Also every now and then I used to get
some experiences which seemed strange to me. Like how I made donations to God
but it ended up being used by priests to lead a lavish life. Like the priests and helpers used to ask
money for doing services to God. Aren't they supposed to be doing this for love
of God and get what people voluntarily give them, if any? Like how some of the
most religious looking people chanting prayers all along were the most
ill-behaved lots in extremely crowded temple atmosphere. Aren't these guys
supposed to be the good guys? Why my mom has to keep so many fasts to keep God
happy and why would God want anybody to be suffering for him? Saying which why
at all God wants us to show him respect regularly? What is he so insecure
about? Isnt he the one who controls everything? Doubts keep coming in my mind
during 12-15 age whenever I thought about God and religion. But who has courage
to say bad things about God and “people of God” as I knew bad things might
happen to me if I do. Then came Godhra riots and the idea of people killing
each other in name of God was absurd even to a 15-year old. Can God allow such
cruelty in His name? The idea of God not being there started breeding in my
mind as I got bored of visiting temples often and praying regularly as they
were not taking me anywhere. And I failed to see any other utility but out of
fear of bad things happening to me I still used to visit Him and then wished
some more while I was still there.
As time
progressed to college and work-life, things changed. As I read more and kept on
thinking about it, I started doubting my faith in God in whatever form it
remained. I want you to ponder over the thought of him not being visible to
anyone. It is like He has decided to conceal himself and let people guess He is
there. If God would have been there it should have been possible to see him,
feel him or sense him. And we are told of God being a fatherly figure taking
care of us. What kind of father would be like “you are my son but you can’t figure
out whether I exist or not. So you would have only your faith to bank upon.” Or at least He would have taken care of His children,
which brings me to my next point.
The world is full
of evil – evil in the form of atrocities on innocent people by other people or
nature. Please note that I am not talking about the hardships that people face
that make them stronger at the end and which religious guys want to think as
God’s way of helping us. There are mothers dying while trying to have babies,
small kids dying of diseases ranging from dengue to cancer, wars causing
villages to be wiped off. I am talking about pure evil which is cruel to
humanity helping no one in the process and is absolutely unfair to those who suffer.
There can be four possible things supposing God exists. God can’t make a
difference to this but He doesn’t want to, He can’t but He wants to, He can but
He doesn’t want to or finally He can and He wants to. Well if He can’t but He
wants to then that makes him impotent. If He can but He doesn’t want to that
would make him out rightly cruel something which doesn’t go with the image of
caring father as mentioned in my previous point. If He can’t and doesn’t want
to then it makes him both Cruel and impotent. If He can and He wants to also
then probably God is doing a pretty lousy job it seems and the concept of
omnipotence is just hyperbole.
Believers point out that if God is not there how possibly this majestic
universe full of millions of intricacies and just too perfect can there be.
There is someone out there who created this and who is driving all this. Well I
agree that there is some energy which created this and is driving all this and
that entity is nature. Nature is not fair, it doesn’t have feelings – it is
just indifferent and that precisely how life is. The nature is actually the
real power but it in no way fits into the image of God that we have. My theory
is that the concept of God and religion has been created for two reasons – to comfort
ourselves and to control public. Just think about how religion just gives
answers to all the questions unknown which causes fear in our mind.
Life after death? Well there is God who will
take you in His home. There you will reunite with your loved ones. Your died
loved ones can see you from up there already. How do I deal with this immense
problem in my life? God is watching who will make everything right. And when
that problem doesn’t get sorted out? Whatever happens it is will of God and it
happens for good eventually. Why we are here? God sent us to fulfil certain purpose
and you need to find that purpose.
How
comforting. Isn’t it. This is all too good to be true. Apparently God is answer
to everything unknown. Even tides were explained as an act of God some time ago.
Second
reason for creating religion was that it is just too easy to control people
through it. People will not do immoral act with the fear of God which terribly reduces
the act of catching and punishing people. It unites people towards a common
cause and is a strong cultural foundation. And moreover “People of God” got
upper hand over the general public making ruling much easier. How Vatican used
to call shots in entire Europe at one point of time and Brahmins being
essential King’s advisors in India.
I
am not against religion. On the contrary I think without it society would just
collapse. It is must for keeping order, uniting people and letting people feel
a sense of comfort. Without religion, life would be very difficult. But it is
not for me. It is too difficult to believe in something which you do not find
logical just for the sake of others. I can’t. Saying that I know the life this
side is not easy. Just imagining how it would feel losing a loved one and
getting to terms that there is just no getting back makes my Heart stop for a
bit. Also realizing life is not fair because nature is indifferent is difficult
to imbibe too. But I believe that is how world is and I will not resort to
comforting answers to feel better. Rather I can’t. If you want to explore
atheism more do read this book The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality
by Andre
Comte Sponville from which I was able to consolidate my thoughts.
4.
Kevin,Seamus, Ted and Otto created this. They wanted the name of the
product to be 4 letters. Hence the name. It has been found to be equally
popular with kids as well as adults.
5.
In Chetan
Bhagat’s novel “2 states”, X sees future in you. What is X? (How can chetan
bhagat’s novel come in a biz quiz!!!)
6.
“Stock market is
a racket. Those stock market guys are crooked.” Who said?
7.
Landis and Gyr
have been acquired by this company. Name it.
8.
AndrewFluegelman coined this term after he wanted a particular
distribution system.
2.
Identify the trademarked logo from the world of
music.
3.
Identify the first guy.
4.
Identify the company.
5.
What is special about this place?
6.
Identify this shareholder of a famous company
Answers
1.
Durex
2.
AC DC
3.
Larry Sanger – Wikipedia’s other co-founder
4.
Spark The Rise by Mahindra
5.
This hotel is in Finland made completely out of
ice which is created every year in winters and gets melted in summer.
6.
Zynga the dog after whom the company is named
Round 3 – In Focus
1.
Who is the author of the book “blink”?
2.
Which celebrity owns Boy ToyInc.
3.
Which apparel company was created by Donald
Fischer?
4.
Who owns IMDB?
Answers
1. Malcolm Gladwell
2. Madonna
3. GAP
4. Amazon
Round 4 – Line of Thought
Connect to a
company.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Answers
1.
Adani – Logo of Welsupn, Wilmar and Gautam Adani
2.
Godrej
3.
Coca cola
4.
Disney
Round 5 – Different Strokes
Format was
like – 3 hints will be given one after one which will connect to someone/some
company. Points will reduce as next hint comes. 15 on first hint, 10 on second
and 5 on third.
1.
A. Founded in
1982 byGary Hendrixwith aNational Science Foundationgrant, it was originally focused onartificial intelligence-related projects.
B. James Gross
sued it for scareware alerts
C.
2.
A. Giridhari Das
– president of Iskcon used it to draw attention through this to spread Krishna
consciousness
B. Its producers
areRaine
Maki,Harro
Gronberg and Mikko Hakkinen.
C.
3.
A. I am founder
of Navjyoti India Foundation and the India Vision Foundation
This Saturday sat through a quiz after a long time in which
I was not participating whatsoever. So to avoid boredom jotted down all the
questions to put it out here for the general well being (as if I care ;) )
Prelims was 20 questions long and was common for both Tata
and Non-Tata Track. Questions were as:
(Answers at the end)
1. It was an invention by John Walker in 1825.
Samuel Jones copied and patented it under the trade name Lucifer. What is this
product range? (Hint: Found in Indian kitchen; Hint 2: Also found in Indian
poojaghar)
2. Which business classic is dedicated to “greatest
marketing strategist the world has ever known – Klaus Von Clausewitz”?
3. Which european soccer star and Giorgio Armani’s
friend owns two Armani boutiques in Kiev? (Hint: Spelling doesn’t matter as
difficult to spell)
4. In which organization or ‘club’ are customers
called GMs or gentil members (nice members) and staff members GOs or gentil
organisateur (nice organizers). (Hint: this is a big tourism club in asia)
5. Whose Award winning campaign was this?
6. What was started in 1946, when a young
businessman named William Rosenburg opened Industrial Luncheon Services, which
provided food and snacks to Boston Area Factory Workers?
7. Economicst and demographer Alfred Sauvy in an
article published in the French magazine L’Observateur on August 14, 1952
coined this term referring to certain parts of the world. (Hint: It was related
to Asia)
8. During mughal rule in Northern India, a city was
comprised of Qasbahs and Ganjs. If Qasbah is a small town in countryside then
what did Ganj mean? (Hint: Dariyaganj is still a good example of this)
9. Used loosely from the 15th century to
refer to gold producing regions of West Africa. It is also a British gold coin
produced in tower mint from 1664 to 1813. What is this word?
10. Identify this engineer: (Hint: He had problem
with another legendary engineer during his time)
11. Thomas Sutherland, the Hong Kong Superintendent
of the peninsula and Orient Steam Navigation Company proposed the foundation of
a bank on “Sound Scottish Principles”. Which bank?
12. ADCB is a diversified full service bank with
over 50 branches in its own country and 2 branches in India in Mumbai and Bangalore.
It has tagline “long live ambition”. Which city is it headquartered in? (Hint:
Work out from ADCB if CB stands for
commercial bank)
13. Jack Cohen was a pilot in World War 1. After war
he used demob money to buy and sell surplus groceries. What brand was created
in 1924, when cohen bought tea from a supplier? (Hint – its a retail giant)
14. A particular profession in London has been found
to have bigger brains in UK according to a study conducted. It is suggested
that this is probably due to their intense study for 2-4 years to pass a test
called The Knowledge. Which specific profession?
15. Identify. A revered family name from 19th
century.
16. An airline launched a new brand platform called “Hello
Tomorrow” to position itself as the enabler of global connectivity and
meaningful experiences. Which airlines? (Hint: It has one of the largest market
share in Indian International Air Travel?
17. True North is an unchanging and true point on a
gyro-compass. Which management consultancy company has its founder in 1973 created
this company with guiding principle of True North – “our unswerving commitment
always to do the right thing by our clients, our people, and our communities”.
18. This company entered home entertainment and TV
Industry in 2012 with Uppleva range after suggestion by a customer that normal TVs
do not suit their furniture. Which company?
19. With twitter handle ‘sparker’ who joined
twitter in 2011 with the first tweet. “Sorry Zuck. I had to do it.
(Actually@scooterbraun made me do it.)” (Hint: one of the founders of Facebook)
20. Which luxury brand is associated with short film
“A Therapy” shown in the pic below.
Answers:
1. Matchstick
2. Marketing Warfare
3. Shevchenko
4. Club Med
5. Lego
6. Dunkin Donuts
7. Third World
8. Marketplaces
9. Guinea
10. Nicolas Tesla (Was absurdly simple with the
hint)
(Imported from my earlier blog)
Thanks so much for the comments. The winner of the quiz was Accenture team and our team from DMS, IIT Delhi being the runners-up. The cutoff for the on-venue prelims was around 13. Here are the answers :-
1. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
2. Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders
3. Ergonomics
4. Vodafone
5. BJP campaign in this election
6. Lijjat or Shri Mahila Griha Udyog
7. Customer which are easily convertible and do not require a lot of effort.
8. Archies Gallery
9. Bollywood
10. Cricinfo.com
11. Raj Thackery
12. Supreme Furnitures
13. IMDB
14. BCG
15. Amazon.com license to Apple
16. Word-of-mouth Advertising
17. Tihar Jail
18. Thomas Cook
19. Bit Torrent
20. Greenpeace
21. C.K. Prahlad and M.S. Krishnan
22. London Olympics Logo designed by Wolff Olins. It seems to resemble the swastika sign of Nazis.
23. Durex
3 teams were selected through online prelims for the quiz. So the on-venue prelims was comparatively a lot easier. The finals was very interesting. It will be posted soon.
1. The National Herald and its Urdu edition Quami Awaz was started in Lucknow on September 9, 1938. The paper was recently shut down due to running into losses for several years due to overstaffing, mainly non journalists and in the press, and lack of advertisements after 70 years of operations. Who is the founder?
2. Which are the only 2 teams to make profits in the Indian Premier League?
3. It is a science concerned with the ‘fit’ between people and their work. It takes account of the worker's capabilities and limitations in seeking to ensure that tasks, equipment, information and the environment suit each worker. What?
4. Who invented and has the patent for the present size and shape of mobile sim card?
5. To focus on three “I”s —Inflation, Internal security and Incompetence, Lintas and Graphic Arts were called to propose plan for the campaign. What for and for whom?
6. It was the brain child of seven semi-literate Gujarati housewives from Bombay. The women lived in Lohana Niwas, a group of five buildings in Girgaum. They wanted to start a venture to create a sustainable livelihood using the only skill they had i.e. cooking. What?
7. In marketing lingo, what are “low-hanging fruits”?
8. Founded by Anil Moolchandani in 1979 starting out from a basement in Delhi's Daryaganj area, it initially sold posters and song books containing lyrics of hits from groups such as ABBA, Beatles and BoneyM. The company's signature product - greeting cards, were introduced in 1980. What?
9. It is a portmanteau of two places. However it does not exist as a real physical place. Though some think the term is derogatory. What?
10. It was launched in 1993 by Dr. Simon King, a British researcher at the University of Minnesota and Dr Badri Seshadri. It grew thanks to the help of students and researchers at universities around the world. It initially operated as a volunteer-based collective, and started life as a simple IRC bot. It was soon made available via Gopher as well, and with the advent of the Mosaic web browser in April 1993 became one of the earliest content web sites on the Internet.
11. Who is the director of Matoshree Realtors which was in a controversy recently?
12. It is credited with pioneering several products in India. These include Cross- Laminated Films, HMHD Films, Multilayer Films, SWR Piping Systems, PP Mats and more. It is the country's largest plastics processors. What?
13. It began with a posting titled "Those Eyes", on the subject of actresses with beautiful eyes. Hank Driskill began to collect a list of attractive actresses and what movies they had appeared in, and as the size of the repeated posting grew far beyond a normal newsgroup article, it soon became known simply as "THE LIST". Acquired by amazon.com in 1998. What?
14. It was founded by Bruce Henderson in 1963 and now has 66 offices in 38 countries. It prides itself with the first eSOP. Which company?
15. The patent for 1-click system was given to this company in September, 1999. It licensed this technique to one more website. Name the two.
16. Because of the personal nature of the communications between individuals, it is believed that product information communicated in this way has an added layer of credibility. It is believed to be the oldest form of marketing. What?
17. Who is the biggest supplier of files and folder to Delhi High Court?
18. The idea came to a 32-year old printer while waiting for the stagecoach on the London Road at Kibworth. He founded the company in 1841. Which company?
19. The company was founded on September 22, 2004 by Bram Cohen and Ashwin Navin, its Chief Scientist and President respectively. Identify the web based company.
20.
-->
Identify the advertiser.
21.
-->Identify the authors or atleast one of the authors.
22.
-->Identify the logo. What is the controversy attached with this?
23.
-->
Identify the advertiser.
Please do reply in comments. Answers will be posted within few days.
by Andre
Comte Sponville from which I was able to consolidate my thoughts.
