Better Burn Yourself

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Most of my readers know that I am a podcast and book guy. For a while I have been listening to this podcast where Derek Sivers shares few powerful but counterintuitive thoughts on education, goals and business. The discussion on education really grabbed my attention, so I am trying to share it on my own version through this blog post. Hope you will enjoy it.

Grad school problem in Nepal

Look, I have done masters in something (usually in Business studies) and now I am thinking about going back to college and getting another degree (usually in Economics). I feel like having double degree will help me to open more doors of opportunities. And I think I will be able to learn a lot by taking this option, which in return will also add more value to my resume.

Can I add one and the real one?
I don’t have any better things to do; so getting a double degree is the best option to tell the world that I am into something big.
If you have managed to read this far, I am sure the conversation sounds familiar to you. Right?

What’s wrong with these people? Why they don’t want to leave college for their entire life? Does college teach them to get one degree after another or is it their assumption that they are doing justice to themselves by having a double degree?

My advice to these people is that you actually are doing yourself a disservice by staying at college for so long period. Just get down into the real world as early as possible. You will learn a lot by throwing yourself out than by sticking to the theoretical land for more than half of your life.

Guys you need to make mistakes. You need to get burned. You remember that so much more than just by getting enrolled in college and being in the land of safety. Getting your ass kicked is better approach of learning than allowing it to sit in a class and listening to those outdated theories. I plead, please don’t let someone else theory determine your life without testing them. In order to test it, you need to get your hands dirty. So, get your hands dirty as early and as much as possible. For that, I don’t think double degree is the right choice.

While saying so, I also have to admit that your degree might matter before you get your first job. After that nobody gives a damn. So get one if you need it but I don’t see any point on getting one degree after another. That’s simply is not a good investment, it’s a trap for the unwary.

What’s your thought on that? Do you think spending extra years in college and getting another degree is better method of learning or do you think getting one and going for experiential learning wins? Please drop your thoughts on the comment section. If you like this post, please share it to your network. Let the discussion begin.

Is this your story?

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I just can’t remember where and when i came across this fable which is quite popular in blogger’s world. Let me share it.

Once upon a time there was a person sitting at a computer who looked a lot like you. Freaky, I know. This person was reading words on a screen, kind of like the one you’re looking at now. The words on that screen were amazing. Mesmerizing. Captivating.

The reader (who looked a lot like you) thought, “I must tell the world about this website. It’s incredible.” So, the reader (who was not only good-looking but smart too) made a decision: “tomorrow, I will begin to tell people about this incredible free educational and motivational resource called sudangautam.com.np”.

However, something deep within told the smart, attractive person who looks like you not to wait. “He who hesitates is lost”, the voice said. But, being something of a procrastinator and time-waster, the person decided to “start tomorrow”.

Sadly, the Procrastination Dragon came in the middle of the night and ate the reader.

The End.

Heroes of my life

There are few topics that we don’t usually share with people but we keep them safe in our mind or in our personal diaries. This is one of those topics- Heroes of my life. I decided to share this list because it feels much better and fun to talk and brag about them publicly.

Heroes in the sense that they keep popping into my mind and make me think twice. They act as an observer for me and I do ask myself what s/he would have done in this situation and I do whatever answer comes back to me.

My list only includes those people whom I consider as my major source of learning and who influences my behavior and even my thought patterns. This list doesn’t include the people who could have influenced me (name any); it only includes who have already influenced me. This makes the list open so that I can edit it in future too. For now let’s start the journey.

Sakin Shrestha: Whenever I talk to people and about the person who has influenced them a lot, usually I get names of their school teacher. Personally I never had such an opportunity before I did my post-graduate.payday loans Like yours, I do have one teacher who made such a big impact in my life and career wise too. I was interested in HR but it wouldn’t have been to this extent without this man in my life.

I used to enjoy every class and the time spent together. He wasn’t only smart but highly intellectual too. There were few teachers who used to force us and he was the one who used to motivate us to do things differently. We even used to spent time outside classes (usually 15 -20 minutes) and talked about different issues and real learning used to happened there.

I have never seen such a down to earth person and I think that’s the quality which differentiates him from others. One line that still comes to my mind while I remember him- Mistakes happen. Never stop trying and being failure because that will always put you ahead of the person who hasn’t taken action.
The best part was he totally respected us and influenced us to share our understanding. He used to say that learning can happen anywhere provided you keep your mind open.

Derek Sivers: A great thinker and the most authentic man I have ever known so far. I have known him for last few years and that was more than enough for me to get influenced. His writings are very genuine (which we hardly see these days) and I always get something out of those blog posts. The man behind CD baby now lives at Singapore. Despite being so busy he replies to your email. Trust me and ask any question related to entrepreneurship or book recommendation he will write back to you. Take my word for it.

Tim Ferris: The self experimentation guy. He is the one who influences me to do self experimentation. If you want to hack your life read his book- The 4-hour workweek. One thing I learned from him was that entrepreneurship is not about running a business, it’s about the lifestyle. In order to be ultra effective you should be able to manage your business even in your absences. Apply Tim’s productivity habits and you will surely be more productive than others. Go to your near book store, buy his book and apply them.

He is a mastermind when it comes to getting disproportionate result. This statement is more than enough to tell you why I consider him my hero.

Ramit Sethi: Probably the only Indian I admire. The standford graduate guy who kicks my ass with his writing and makes me laugh at the same time. If you haven’t heard of him wait for few years and he shall be everywhere. I used to hate finance in my college but through his writing my interest in personal finance has increased a lot. I love his confidence and the humor he adds to his writing. If you have no idea about personal finance, read his book I Will Teach you to be rich and start managing your money. Like Ramit says- If not now when? Don’t be like other guy who regrets for their whole life just because they didn’t get their ass off when they were 20s -30s.

Josh Kaufman: I have no words to describe him. Everyone loves him and I belong to that crowd. If you love business and entrepreneurship Just go through his site and read the topic reading list. Grab any book from the list so that we can talk ahead.

I take him as a greatest resource while it comes to reading. He created his own reading list and didn’t opt for MBA. Perhaps he might have felt that going for MBA was not the apt utilisation of his time and learning which he could do just by dedicated reading of a few selected books in a cheaper way. He always says- Skip business school. Educate yourself. This is better way to learning. Sometimes I regret why I didn’t follow his advice.

Tony Hsieh (CEO,Zappos): I was totally unaware about Zappos before my teacher Mr. Shrestha shared it in our class. I loved this company from that very day and after reading his book, I have become a great fan of Tony. Probably being into HR my affinity towards tony and Zappos has increased more than before.

I believe, he is the man who has shed light on the importance of organization culture and has practiced it too. Every HR guy as well as entrepreneur needs to take that advice seriously. Take time in the selection process rather than wasting time thinking about whether to fire him or not. If people learned and adopted his approach to business and life, this world would have surely been a better place to live and work.

Seth Godin: What really makes him stand out, though, is the quality of his ideas. There is more in his books than in his blog. It seems like his brain was designed to produce ideas one after another which brings revolution in those fields He is the one who leads the tribe and drives people to think outside the box. If you want to know why I admire Seth Godin you better read his book “The tribe” and follow his Domino Project. They are freaking awesome.

After writing the whole list I wanted to find out what were the common factors in all of them. The answer was: They were all linchpin in their field, totally immersed in their work and truly honest. They all are such curious guys, which I, in turn find very curious. Most of the people when they reach that level of height lose their level of curiosity and quest for knowledge and I think that differentiates my heroes from the crowd.

I would give anything just to have coffee with them. I would love to purchase their brain even for a day. Sometimes I wonder doesn’t it pain to hold such a big brain?

Do you have any heroes who influence you so much that you feel like a learner at every walk of your life?

Be honest. Be virtual- human Google.

Most of the organizations try to provide the mediocre services even knowing that they do have competitors who could do better job for their client. When asked why they didn’t recommend competitor’s name for the same, the usual answer is we didn’t want to lose our client and we did it because we cared about them. Generally, we call it good customer service as well. Right?

Wrong. In fact, if you care about your client, you need to recommend the best service provider when you can’t provide the same. By doing so, you are not only being honest to them but also telling them that you care about your client as well.

On this podcast, I heard this insightful argument made by James Altucher author of the book I once was blind, But now I see, which I will summarize and riff on here.

Question: Is it really an advantage in business and your career when everyone else is lying around you and you’re not?

Answer: Yes! Here are some examples. For instance, let’s say, and this has happened to me in the past, I’ve had a client where the specific needs that they had were not something I could easily fulfill. So I was happy to recommend my competitors to them. I analyzed every competitor and what their skill sets were, and I said, “Here’s the competitor that I think you should talk to.”

Doing this doesn’t only make you honest; it will make you feel like you are Google in a weird way. Why do you go to Google? You don’t go to Google, because of any content on Google. You go to Google to find out what other websites you should go to given certain needs you have. Google by itself fulfills none of your needs. Like if you type in I have a cancer, Google will direct you to other sites. Google is not going to solve your cancer worries.

So the same way, if you become the source where people know that they are going to get an honest and quality answer, then it’s how they will think of you. You are the source- not the competitors, you. And that’s what honesty brings. Honesty turns you into a sort of virtual-human Google where people know that they can always come to you for the straight answer about where they should go to if you can’t fulfill their ideas.

I too have come across this situation where I had to recommend competitor’s service to ours. Just sharing it, because this habit has to be cultivated in our society as well and the podcast has captured the topic beautifully.

Getting reference from lapsed relationship.

Relationship matters to me more than anything else in this world. I always want to build relationship with people and get in touch. But despite my desire, sometimes I get disconnected with few people. I wanted to reach out and build my lapse relationship but had no clear idea how to do it. So I asked my online mentor keith Ferrazzi for the help. Let me share with you all about the approach that I took. Hope this might be helpful to you as much as it has been to me.

My question: I have been thinking about reaching out to the head of my old group for quite a while. I would love to use him as a reference in the future, but hate the thought of calling someone up under the presence of reconnecting. Any tips?

Keith’s Reply: ( Just write in this way) I will be honest; your name came up in my head because I am going to be needing references soon, so I got to thinking about the people I had great working relationship with. My thought went to you immediately, and I realized it’s been far too long. Could I take you to coffee to catch up, or give you a call? I am making some changes in my career and I would love your advice on……..”

Bonus tips: You can send them any article or piece of information that you think this person might find interesting. Shoot an email saying something like this, “It’s been a while since we’ve talked, but I saw this and thought you might find it interesting.” Then you can ask what is new with him/her with some open-ended questions that will start a conversation.

Was this really helpful tip for you? What is your approach while trying to get references from lapsed relationship? We’d love to hear in the comments below.

Cheers!

Shut your mouth! Don’t share your goal.

Have you ever had this kind of a conversation with your friends/ family where you talked about your intention? How many of those goals did you really accomplish? Perhaps your conversation was somewhat like this.

You: I am on my way to lose 5 kg and have a better figure or I am thinking of running my own business or I am planning to travel or I am thinking of being a vegan or thinking of doing yoga every morning.
Friend: Wow! That’s great. Congratulations!
You: Yeah! Thanks. (And then you moved on and hardly made any effort to achieve that goal)
Do you know why this happens again and again?

Because you shared your goals and had the psychological satisfaction of accomplishing the goal without actually doing the work. In fact, the social gratification of getting those listeners to nod in agreement made you lazy.
I know you might be saying, what?

Yeah! I was also a big believer of this conventional piece of wisdom that sharing your goal is a powerful tool to bolster commitment and transform a goal from an idea to reality. But after watching this TED talk by Derek sivers, I had to give a second thought to my habit.

In this popular TED talk, he shares that actually we are doing ourselves a disservice by taking that traditional approach. It is less likely that, we take action after sharing those goals publicly. According to him and the research study he mentions in the talk says that those people who talk about their intentions are less likely to make them happen. It looks like talking satisfies our brain, which on the other hand makes us lazy to take action. In other word, talking becomes a substitute for doing.

What do you think? What is your approach on goal achievement?

Winners create. Losers only consume.

Be careful it might be your story too.

Losers only consume

On a normal day while coming back from my work I open my laptop and start browsing sites like:
Facebook/ Twitter/ Google +, Youtube, Blogs, TED talks, Emails, TV show, Books.

It looks like I just keep on consuming information through various sources. I keep on consuming until I am in a burnout zone. This happens more during my leisure time.

Looks like all my leisure time is my consumption time.

Though internet has made our life easier, what I think is, it is helping to create more of a consumerist society than a producer one. People feel that consuming something might help them solve their problems which to some extent might be right.

But what I think is until and unless you aren’t going to do something with that information you shall only be in self delusion of knowing something. You will fall in a trap of consuming one after another and feel lazy to produce. As producing needs a lot of energy whereas consuming can be done without it.

Consuming information isn’t bad but it has to be purposeful and limited. Otherwise you might be so lazy that you keep on consuming information without giving a second thought about the time wasted and never finding time and energy to create.

Ramit sethi has put it in the right way saying: It is easy to consume information and do nothing but it takes real hard effort to come back down from that induced euphoria and create something to share to the world.

Yeah! I also need to improve on this. I too need to bring balance between consumption and creation. Though I might learn a lot by reading books and blogs it won’t have any purpose if that knowledge isn’t being used to create something.

While looking for solution I came up with this post from Keith Ferrazzi titled; 25-50-25 rule
1. Spend 25% of the time researching and studying the subject matter.
2. Spend 25% of the time observing.
3. Then spend 50% of your time actually doing.

Now your turn: How do you create a balance between information consumption and production?

80/20 rules in Job Market

There are two job markets in Nepal. (Probably in the world)

1. Formal Market: This is all we see and hear about. This market gets filled through cold resumes submission in reply to posted ads. This accounts for only 20% of jobs or probably less than that.

2. Informal Job Market: Most of the employers and HR professionals know that how this works. When a company needs a position to be filled, they (HR or Employers) ask their friends, colleagues, current employees or in overall use their network. If they know anyone who would be good enough for the job they will go with him/her.

Funny part: When going through the formal market, people spend their time looking for perfect candidates. On the other hand, while going through informal job market, it is highly negotiable. The academic, work time and even salary.

My advice: If you have a good academic knowledge fight through formal market but don’t stop growing and using your network. You will never know who is going to be helpful for you in near future.

If you are street smart guy, let your network know what you are good at. They will surely help. Don’t hesitate if you don’t have college degree; believe me, you have got higher chances of being hired if you can show them your learning and how they can be benefited from it.

Talk Back!
Have an opinion? Just drop it in comment section and help me to know how we differ.

My Reading style

Personally what I find is just purchasing a book doesn’t enrich your knowledge. The book belongs to you only after you start reading it and start applying those concepts that you learned over there. Otherwise your reading might be just a matter of pride of discussion in your friends circle. When you fail to utilize those learning in your practical life it just becomes a theory that your mind holds. It might increase your store of information but it won’t increase your level of understanding. And as far as I know, I have never seen a man being praised just for the amount of theory his mind holds. Have you?

Don’t waste your time reading books.(Read this line again)

Yes! I am serious. As someone who reads book frequently my suggestion to you would be don’t waste your time reading books passively. Grab the book when you truly want to learn something new or when you want to enrich your level of understanding in that particular field. I learned about this method from a book “How to read a book” by Adler and Van Doren. Let me quote the part that really brought change in my reading style.

“When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, just as you do in clothes or furniture when you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book. Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it- which comes to the same thing- is by writing in it.”

I truly agree with the above statement. Personally I use pencil, highlighter, notebook and sticky notes while reading the books. I use notebook or Evernote to write phrases that I keep for reminding myself and sticky notes to note down the few actionable concepts learned in that book.

Recently I learned another technique on how to make those highlights better from Don Brohowiak. Now I write notification on those highlights to indicate what they were made for.
• R- Research it further
• Q- Quote directly
• T- Technique to integrate in our life or work
• A- Action items to put on my To-do list.

What I believe is while reading a book you should be holding a conversation with the author, asking questions, making comments and not being afraid to disagree either. Occasionally, at the end of the book I write my overall observation about the book and email it to the author if possible.

This is my reading style. If you have any specific reading style which has made your reading effective please let us know in the comment section.

21 Random thoughts about HR

1.A lot of things HR does are things managers should be doing and usually good managers are already doing.

2.No matter how much time you spend on making performance appraisal, it hardly works; the better method is ongoing feedback process.

3.Office is not the only place where your employee needs to do their work. Allow them to work from their favorite places and check the result. Usually they do better job outside their work station.

4.If you treat employees like children, that’s how they will act and if you treat them like adults that’s how they will act.

5.Always set expectation for your employees and share it with them. They will try their best to meet that.

6.Don’t hire a person just because of experience. Hire for their talent, curiosity and drive.

7.Even if you aren’t sure make decision for your employees. Otherwise they will stop coming to you for your opinion.

8.The basic human unit in the workplace is the team, not the individual.

9.Leadership is a gift word-as is mentor. You can tell yourself a leader by little but it has way more impact when the word is gifted to you by someone else.

10.People don’t work for the company; they work for the people around them.

11.Don’t force employees to do things in your ways. Just define the outcome not the steps and provide them full freedom to get the things done.

12.When you enter your workplace, you never leave it at zero. You either make it a little better or a little worse. Make it a little better.

13.Always try to make the first day of your employees memorable. Most of the time their first day impression determines whether to stay or not.

14.When you are taking interview just pause and remain silent and listen to what they are saying. If they ask what that means to your question tell them it’s not about what it means to me but what it means to you.

15.If you can’t spend four hours (ok! At least one hour each quarter) a year with each of your people, then you’ve either got too many people, or you shouldn’t be a manager.

16.Don’t treat your employees equally. Treat them uniquely as they have different talent and needs.

17.Don’t treat your employees like your family. They don’t want to be treated like your family if that is calling them unnecessarily, asking them to attend programs on holidays, unnecessary emails to be responded, and fixing the problem even after office hours. They want paychecks, bonuses and clear boundary lines.

18.While doing performance review focus more on what your employees did well and less on what they did poorly because “We all grow by exploiting our strength not by correcting weaknesses.”

19.Most of the time your employee lacks direction not the motivation to do work.

20.Meetings have to be exception rather than the rule. An organization in which everybody meets all the time is an organization in which no one gets anything done.

21.HR is everybody’s job. Managers should supervise, mentor and coach; employees should know their rights and the HR policies of their organization; human resource professionals should support the mangers and the employees.

You don’t have to agree with all these points. They were the ones that I jotted down after reading several books, blogs and few through my own experiences in the field of HR. If you have some powerful thoughts that you think doesn’t match with conventional ones, feel free to share here. You never know that might change the public perception about HR.