Lessons for a father - The Leader I Want To Be (A Prayer)

Image Courtesy: Flickr

I wanted to commemorate a huge personal milestone with something special. Writing a blog for at least a year has been on my bucket list and today marks the 1st anniversary of that effort. What I have written below summarizes the kind of leadership I want to follow. Whether it is for my son at home or my team at work, I do hope I can make a tiny, but positive, difference in their lives. Thank you for being a part of the journey till now. Normal services resume next week.

He who does what ought to be done.
He who kneels, but only to his One True Master.
He who works with justice and reason, his two best friends,
And with courage and conviction, hand in hand.
He who lauds enemies, not friends alone.
He who walks the extra mile,
And goes back to bring others along too.
He who scales the highest mountains and still knows,

He is but a speck of dust.
In his image, cast me Lord.
For that is how I wish to serve thee.

Lessons for a father - What Is Your Least Favorite Word?

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We all know that words are supremely powerful. Whether it is a request or an order, love, hate, justice, inspiration or leadership, we all use words to describe and communicate the feeling.

It should be no surprise then, that we are told time and again to choose our words well. I have also realized over the years, I am sure all of us have, that we like and dislike some words more than the others.

So here is my question for you: What is your least favorite word? (Use this link to let me know!)

Mine is the word almost.

I do not like it because it conveys the story but in a very non-transparent way. Consider the following statements that have "almost" in them:

• The project was almost successful.
• Your child is almost walking.
• I was almost on time for the meeting.
• I almost followed the rule, or 
• I am almost certain of it.

All these statements, apart from having the word almost in them, have something else in common. They do not really mean anything. At least not what they are supposed to mean.

An almost successful project could be a failure. An almost timely arrival to a meeting will still not be called professionalism. Almost following the rule and driving over the speed limit, for example, might still get you a well deserved speeding ticket. Almost certain still makes us unsure.

Both leadership and parenthood force us into situations where we can make mistakes. I have never been against failure or making mistakes. What I dislike, at a very personal level, is being indecisive about something. So here is a tip: When you are unsure of what to do, read and learn about it as much as you can, and then make a decision and no matter what happens, learn from it.

What other words do you think should just not exist?

Lessons for a father - A Supercar And Teamwork

Image Courtesy: Top Gear

What does a super car and teamwork have in common? Maybe there is nothing on the surface, but there is a lot of commonality if we looked "under the hood".

The Car

The car I in question (and oh, what a car it is!!) is the Porche 918. Consider this from the car's Wikipedia page:

The Spyder is powered by a 4.6 litre V8 engine, developing 608 horsepower (453 kW), with two electric motors delivering an additional 279 horsepower (208 kW) for a combined output of 887 horsepower (661 kW).

Those are some very big numbers belonging to a very good car. There are a few numbers and facts which are more than just technical specifications. They represent to me the very foundation of great teamwork.

A 4.6 litre V8 engine giving 608 horsepower is a very strong engine. It can be the core of a good car. However, that engine, coupled with 2 electric motors and an additional 279 horsepower, delivers possibly the greatest car of today. 

The 2 different sets of technology and innovation display teamwork and, in the words of Aristotle, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

And Us

So what is the commonality then?

We work with multiple people in a day. It does not matter what we do in life - professionally or otherwise. At work, if we are a part of an organization, we might be working with sales, accounting, administration, engineering and marketing. At home, we might be working with our spouse, our children and members of the group fondly, and collectively, referred to as "family and friends".

If we, with our individuality intact, work towards a common goal of being successful (whatever our definition of success be) we can create our own version of the Porche. We can create a team of super charged components that can leave any competition trailing in our wake and do seemingly impossible things.

If we are able to emulate what the beautiful piece of machine has proved to be possible, where we work not just to give our best individually but also work towards the benefit of the entire team, who knows,  we might even get away with the price tag of US$ 845,000.

Lessons for a father - Here Is How To Be Happy

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Eureka!!!!! 

Archimedes is supposed to have said that many years ago when he stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose. He is said to have been so eager to share his discovery that he leapt out of his bathtub and ran through the streets of Syracuse (Sicily) naked. 

Enough about Archimedes though. I want to talk about something that is very close to me.

I have always believed that happiness comes from within. External sources, circumstances and events usually play a very temporary role in elevating, or exacerbating, what is already within.

So, the question really is: How do we get happy and remain that way?

Multiple theories exist to do that. However my favorite one, a belief that I had been harboring, was given a huge boost from Dan Gilbert (way back in 2004 but I heard his TED talk this week). According to Mr. Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, our beliefs in what makes us happy are often wrong.

He suggests, like I have always believed, that if we tell ourselves (yes, it's that simple!) that we are happy, our mind does weird things and responds with happiness. 

So, there it is - the key to being happy is making ourselves believe that we are happy. The key is to tell ourselves, constantly and without a shred of skepticism, that we deserve all the good that we have, the bad will go away with time and effort and true happiness is within us.

It is very important, both at work and more importantly at home, to achieve a level of happiness that does not leave our side when the going gets tough. To bring joy to this world that seems to crave for chaos is a noble service that we should all indulge in.

Find Happiness. Feel Inspired. Dream Mighty Things.

Lessons for a father - Of Passion And Creation

I was going to write about something else this week but a couple of events changed that. The events were triggered by two people that seem to be all about taking risks and seem to take their sense of curiosity very seriously.

The first event was the launch of the beta version of an online game called "Chronos". The game's developer, Luke Pammant, works with me in my team and I have the privilege to have him as a good friend as well. He doubles up as someone that regularly gives me an opportunity to better myself. This game that he has developed is his passion written in code 

The second event was closer to home. Our son decided to take his first steps towards making his Mom (the only person that really matters if he wants to live a happy life) very proud. The picture that you see on the left is his first successful project with Lego blocks. 

Are there lessons for me here? Lots actually. 

As a witness to the development process of Chronos, I have realized, through Luke's efforts, that a healthy dose of passion towards what we are trying to accomplish always helps. Add to that a helping of curiosity and creativity and what you might get is an unstoppable force helping you on your road to success.

Both my teachers, this week, are very young in years but their relentless march towards creating things (whether through software or playing blocks) and being fiercely passionate about what they like doing is a lesson that great leaders have been teaching us for years.

So let us do ourselves a favor this week - let us write (story, poetry, code, blog or anything else), cook, paint, sing, dance, build or do anything else that we are passionate about. If not for us, then to honor those, among us, that still have the hunger and fire to dream mighty things.

Chronos URL: http://chronos.vitalsigns.biz