Tid Bit from My Diary

Break Free - Image source A mighty elephant possessing the strength to large trees cannot gather the strength to free itself from a flimsy chain tied to a peg. It’s not the physical chain that ties the elephant but the invisible restraints that tells its brain that there is no point in trying to break free. It is the perception of this elephant’s personal reality that makes it feel weak and feeble with respect to the binding chain because it was created through earlier failed attempts. Unfortunately this is not limited to elephants. We too find ourselves restrained with our beliefs embedded through earlier experiences or teachings and we created our own reality around those. We are so strongly programmed that we cannot even distinguish between possible and the impossible. Human brain weighs only 3% of our body weight but it consumes 20% of our energy. This tells us something about its capability if we decide to put it to use, we can move mountains. Many peo...

C hange has always triumphed. So did the realists who adjusted their sails acknowledging change as the only constant in our world. While the pessimists who was whining and the optimist who expected things to revert back both perished. Continuing with my mini-series about the “Ones who didn’t lose”, this is the inspiring story about PayPal that was developed by Confinity Inc. in 1998. Their story of embracing change and redirecting the sails to stay relevant is another inspiring story. Jessica Livingston shared an interview with PayPal founder, Max Levchin, in her book “Founders at Work”  where it was revealed that the company was initially envisioned as a cryptography company. Later on they developed a service that would allow the transfer of funds between two palm pilots. The vision was to enable the consumers to pay their bills and make purchases digitally via their PDAs and eventually eliminate the purpose for carrying a wallet.  The transition wasn’t effortless, ...

Stressful Job Interview   Last time when I started with the cliché “one thing that is certain in life is death”, I forgot to mention “recession”. The theory behind recession is complicated, although we all can figure out few of the events that makes it happen. I am told that the economists can bring in recession by repeatedly warning the population about the onset of one.   The possibility of losing income frightens the daylight out of the population's spending habit. Evaporation  of liquidity from the market creates a dominoes effect on the greater economy and actual recession soon sets in. Some argue the phenomenon is visible in US economy as consumers are increasingly losing confidence despite economic KPIs looking good otherwise. After the global economic crash of 2008, the world economy has remained largely uncertain, as social and political unpredictability added to their already troubled economic counterpart. The psychological impact of too many wars...

T he winds of change have been prevalent since the beginning of human civilization. Perhaps at the beginning of the “Bronze Age”, the stone-crafters were super upset at the fear of losing their livelihood. Similar scenario must played out as the use of iron started to gain momentum and the bronze expert dudes must have put up great resistance! But the change triumphed. Today the wind of change is blowing faster & stronger or that our present perception. The only businesses that remained afloat are those who adjusted their sails in time.  I contemplating to post a mini-series about The Ones who didn’t lose and start with the fantastic story about Netflix . In 1997, American entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and March Rudolph founded Netflix as a video-rental company. The “dot com” revolution was then reaching its peak while a much bigger digital storm was brewing in the backdrop.   As the internet continued to grow more relevant, Netflix did not get into a den...

I was once told that “the science of knowing what conventional logic is wrong about” is a great marketing strategy. But now I know that non-conventional logic is not necessarily always astounding.    Can a new Samsung TV idea which can turn from vertical to horizontal and back again be classified as an innovation?  Haven’t we seen this happen before in our iPad and all other tablets! Agreed that millennial and gen z love their tablets but is that a good enough logic to assume that they will love to have their TV doing the same. But why sweat about a TV after all? How many of the young people watch the box these days. TV does not provide the privacy of space and contents that is so dear to them. I am certain that no theory of innovation can justify launching this creation of Samsung. We know that time will deliver the final verdict and rest assured that the wait will not be that long. While this vertical TV doesn't excite me, I have seen a fantastic use ...

A quick illustration created to support the post S oon enough our lives and everything that we do are going to be uberized, but are we going to be ready when that happens. Let’s start at the beginning by asking what this new word is. Uberization is the new buzz word, maybe not as new anymore. I remember the day in New Delhi when the term “Uber” was introduced to the younger me for the first time during the early nineties. Back then it was not a complete word by itself but came as the first part of the phrase “uber-sexual” men. It was defined as a male who has traits similar to that of a “metrosexual” but also possessed the traditional manly qualities such as confidence, strength, and class. A person who loves grooming but unlike metrosexual doesn’t leave a doubt as to his sexual orientation, an image so flaunt worthy for young men in those days! Fast forward a couple of decades and we have a new buzz. Thanks to the disruptive nature of the mobile app that have ch...

It’s not about getting annihilated. On the contrary this fire is about setting ourselves free. FIRE as a movement has increasingly grown in popularity among the millennial of the west. FIRE is the abbreviation for “Financial Independence, Retire Early” . This trend is gaining further traction because freedom from the shackles of “work for living” existence allows an individual to chase his/her passion. Who wouldn't agree that creativity and innovation blossoms where the mind is without fear and the time is our own. But how to reach there? The proponent of the FIRE movement suggest the “4% rule” as a guide . It is another name for “ Trinity study ”, an influential 1998 paper submitted by three professors for finance at the Trinity University. The study was to determine the “safe withdrawal rates” from the retirement portfolios containing a mix of stocks and bonds. The 4% refers to the portion of the portfolio that is withdrawn during the first year. If that...