Become Successful

The best motivation is self-motivation. The guy says, “I wish someone would come by and turn me on.” What if they don’t show up? You’ve got to have a better plan for your life. – Jim Rohn

A Blessing in Disguise

My father had been in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for last two days. We met doctors the same morning that we arrived in India. The timing was perfect as they had enough time to review my father’s case during this period.

He was brain dead, half side paralyzed, his heart was working at about 15% of its capacity and he was put on ventilator. The doctor briefed on his condition: there is no chance for his survival, it is just matter of time.

But the family wanted to wait, to see if a miracle can improve his health.

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Connecting the Dots

Steve Jobs used this term in his 2005 Stanford commencement address. It is worth reading. If you haven’t, please do so. Here’s the link.

He says “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Instead of “…Life, Karma, whatever”, I call it “Lord’s hand in everything”. I’m sure all of us have observed this phenomenon in our lives. Though at times, it becomes very difficult to believe in it especially when we face adversity and there doesn’t seem to be any hope.

I can recall many incidents related to this phenomenon ever since my elementary school years. Here is the most recent one.

Fall season was around the corner and it was time to visit Europe again. It is my most favorite time of the year as Summer crowds are gone and weather is just perfect..60-80 (F) degrees. I spent about a month planning this trip. It had to be a different place, different culture that we haven’t had experienced yet.  The final itinerary looked like this: spend two weeks in Rome, Florence, Venice and one week in Istanbul.

The trip was going great, no flight delays or unexpected travel hassles. Every day was a beautiful sunny day in Rome. To make the most of our vacation, we don’t carry a phone while traveling international and limited internet access is good enough for us.

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Listen to Your Heart

If you do that then you will be the happiest and most satisfied person in life.

 

So how do we do it?

By spending some time in silence and contemplation daily. Or whenever possible, given the challenging and busy lives that we lead. The ideal place is your prayer room or your quiet space. It can also be done while doing other favorite activities of yours such as walking, biking, exercising, showering, taking bath etc. The key is to be alone so that you’re able to listen or talk to yourself.

The problem is that we can’t do without Noise :-). We need the radio, music, TV or headphones all the times. If that’s the case, how will we ever connect with ourselves?

Each one of us has inherent strengths or some unique talents. We are here in this world to fulfill a purpose and the “art of listening to our heart” allows us to discover the very same. It allows us to be in sync with the Higher Purpose and relieves us of everyday anxieties.

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Time is Money

It is an old adage that I swear by.

There is so much noise in the world. In this Age of Information, we get continually bombarded with endless options. So it is important for us to be selective and choose the ones that will add value and quality to our lives.

For now I will focus on the “Time” aspect in terms of career and education.

In order to be successful in the corporate world, there’s a constant pressure to update (that too continually) our skills. I have been told and advised many times to do a master’s degree, especially during the early years of my career in IT. This advice usually came from my techie friends and the family. Surprisingly, it never came from my seniors or mentors. 🙂

I personally didn’t feel the need of earning a Master’s degree, especially an MS (Master of Science) in some technology field. Several reasons for the same:

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Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs

I hope you have read Greg Smith’s letter by now. It takes a great deal of courage to do something like this. I wrote about the very same issue in one of my earlier posts:

“Hiring wrong Financial Advisor: The Big Financial advisory firms such as Goldman, Merrill, Credit Suisse and other prestigious ones are the Worst. Even the firms like Fidelity and Schwab that are portrayed as Customer Friendly are bad. Your best bet is to work with a Fee based Independent Financial Advisor.”

Now you get to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.

But if you have been in the corporate world long enough, this shouldn’t come to you as a surprise. I have found such ethical issues with all the Fortune 100 companies that I worked for and it is not limited to financial or brokerage industry either.

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