Elephant thinking–Unlock your potential

If you have read my book, “Why Do Elephant's Have Big Ears”, you would know that I use two elephant stories to help you understand how we limit ourselves and fail to realize our full potential.

Over the weekend, I had been to the library (In spite of the fact that I had TWO kindles !! sometimes going to the library and reading a non digital book has its own charm!)and picked up a few books to read. I was very surprised to read a similar story in the book “Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager.


Here is the extract –“When they begin to train an elephant for the circus, they chain the baby elephants‘s leg to a pole in the ground. The baby elephants wants to get away. He pulls and tugs. but he can’t escape – the chain is too big and the pole too deep in the ground. So he stops trying. As he grows up, he just assumes he can’t get away. Today he’s a six ton elephant.he could sneeze and pull that chain – but he doesn't even try. Circus trainers say that they can put a piece of sting around the six – ton elephants' leg and he won’t break away”


Coming from a traditional Indian background, the Indian society is more interested in telling you what you CANNOT do rather than inspire you to try  out new things. I call it the the “society's train track”. They create one for you, lay it and expect you to follow it !


Coming to the USA has been an eye opener. No constraints and the fact that you could work hard in whatever you want to do and make money/be happy or just live. It is very liberating ! 
So friend, whether you have Elephant thinking or Large Elephant ears, it is time you unlock your potential !

Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran

Teaching people to fish around the world !

One of my favorite motivational concept is to not give people fish, but teach them to fish (The proverb “"Give a man a fish and he won't starve for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he won't starve for his entire life."  has been attributed to everybody from Chinese proverbs to Confucius and Jesus Christ !). So I spent a lot of time teaching my team members the actual understanding of the concepts to get things done rather than give them a list of instructions to follow.  This has been  very useful for me during my years working with teams of all shapes and sizes.


I wanted to have a similar concept for my charity too. It was then I found Kiva.org. They allow individuals to a lend a little as $25 to help people around the world. They difference is that you can choose the projects and these projects are folks trying to better themselves by building a business or doing something for the society. As a trial I decided to help a gentleman Mr. Joseph in Uganda put structures on his farm and to buy fertilizers to support new live stock. It was a pleasure to see that the loan was repaid and his farm prospered.  This was followed by supporting the Amistad Group in Guatemala. All with micro loans of less than $50. That too was successfully paid back

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This is a great way to help people not just by donating money to an large trust and hope that they spend it wisely. But actually get involved in the process of selecting how the money gets spent. Also, 100% of the money you lend goes to the person needing help (Kiva is funded by other sources and contributions)
The only limitation I can think of it that some countries like India are not represented here !

Do check it out today ! Join me in doing good.,.

 

Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran

Good is the new average !

There is an interesting article in Business Insider  which is based on Seth Godin's view "If You're An Average Worker, You're going straight to the bottom". Interesting read. This one of the lessons I have learnt during my years of working and one I keep preaching to my team members all the time


Right from the school days, I always put in the extra effort to differentiate myself from rest of the students. While working, I spent a lot of time creating my own brand - Hard Work, Good Grasp  of  the problem, Structured thought process, Innovative solutions and successful delivery. In fact, in my first start up I worked in, I was the Mr. Fix It. If there is problem, they would call me to fix. 

So the two takeaways I try to give my team is 

Good is the new Average
Being average is no longer an option. You have to be good. You need to put in the extra effort to make sure you exceed expectations and deliver. Working out the details, Making sure the documents are formatted properly (I hate it when people are too lazy to do a spell check- Takes two minutes !), preparing for the presentations more thoroughly. Small things, which add to separating you from the rest of the team members and helps you leave a very positive impression in the minds of your stakeholders. Try it and see the difference !


Create your own brand
In my view, we sell all the time. Whether it is in our personal life or in the professional work environment. So why not sell ourselves so that our talents are properly understood by the others. If you set you standards higher, you have won half the battle. But if you can "market" your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - create you own personal brand - you have the magic mix to make sure you are recognized and rewarded for what you do. More on this in a later post...


Read the article and start your journey to being Great. Average is for losers ! 

Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran

Being Indian is now a badge of Honor?

I have been fooling around with a Proud To Be Indian web site for quite some years without  much traction, In its current incarnation, it can be seen at www.P2BI.com.


So it was with great pleasure I started reading the book by Ramith Sethi (I Will teach you to be rich Blog fame). His blogs are fantastic. His writing style is very different. You see his interviews, you can see his passion just burst out ! Overall, his blog is something I would strongly  recommend to everybody. Even though he pushes his ware very strongly, his interest in helping others shines through. And who can blame him for charging for the value he delivers. Not me !
What was interesting was the fact that he was using his “Indianness” as a badge of honor. He talks about his parents (Who migrated from India) who spend 5 days negotiating for a car and then walk out of it because the dealer refused to add a Floor mat to the deal. He also coined the interesting acronym – WWAID (What would an Indian Do?).


When I came to US (about 15 years ago) most of us felt the need to blend in. As the IT boom took over the country and the Outsourcing became the name of the game, we felt  guilty for causing disruption in the life's of the locals here
Finally I think we have moved on to a state where being Indian, and bringing in the values of our culture is considered to be good. People recognize us not just for the nerds who are the “Computer Whisperers “ but actually folks with an idea to present and the presence to make an impression !


Go for it. Love this. In fact, as part of this discovery, I am starting a career focused blog (Take off on my book Why Do Elephants Have Big Ears) to share the lessons learnt over my 25 year career with folks who can use them.


The blog should be ready in the next few weeks, But you can go over and register so that  you can be notified when it goes live….


Your thoughts?

Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran