Four Ways to Use "Pull" to Increase Your Success

Published in HBR on 7:07 PM Wednesday April 22, 2009

Tags:Personal effectiveness, Social media, Technology

By: John Hagel III, John Seely Brown(JSB), and Lang Davison 

A friend had just received an inscrutable error message. Err = 8008, it read, entirely unhelpfully. What mysterious problem was there this time? He'd set his heart on the fourth season of HBO's hit series Entourage that evening, and now the download was stalled.

Then he realized: What if he Googled the error message? Sure enough, an answer was to be found on the Apple support wiki, and soon he was watching season four on the family laptop.

It's a small example perhaps. But it's symbolic of powerful new abilities individuals have acquired in the world of pull. These play out at three levels. The first enables us to access what we need when we need it — as when we transform previously annoying error messages into vital information. Particularly on the Internet, many of us have already begun to take this first level of pull for granted.

But what if we don't have an error message to enter into a search engine? As the big shift takes hold, and the world becomes ever less predictable, many times we're no longer certain what to look for or what questions to ask. That's where a second level of pull becomes more useful: the ability to attract people and resources you didn't previously know existed. Some percentage of these, once you encounter them, turn out to be relevant and valuable — just what you were looking for. This level of pull works through serendipity rather than search. Social networks are prime spots for serendipity to play out as we unexpectedly encounter friends of friends or even total strangers that ultimately prove to be helpful.

The first two levels of pull — the ability to access and attract — are ultimately static. They assume that the people and resources we need already exist and that the challenge is to find or discover them. Yet each of us may need to further develop our own personal and professional skills before we can even recognize how best to access and attract what we need and want. Said differently, we need to master a third level of pull — the ability to pull from within ourselves the insight and performance needed to achieve our potential and help other people do the same.

What follows are four broad ways each of us can use these three levels of pull to increase our personal success: 

Make your passion your profession. Do you love what you do? In today's economy just having a job is cause enough to be thankful. But the pace of change keeps none of us safe: a more uncertain world requires working harder to keep our professional skills competitive. Since most of us put intense effort only into those things that provide us meaning and emotional engagement, we must make our passions our professions or the world will pass us by.

Expand — and engage — the edges of your social network. You're probably on Facebook, LinkedIn, or some other social network by now. But how adventurous are you there? Serendipity works best when we extend the edges of our social networks. People on these edges represent "weak ties" connecting us to new insight, experiences, and capabilities that provoke us to improve our own game. Over time, these edge connections become part of our core network, transforming that core in deep yet unexpected ways.

Participate in spikes. As we begin to pursue our passions, something remarkable starts to happen. While a few of us will choose to remain in, or even migrate to, remote geographic areas because of our passion for certain physical locations, many more of us will be drawn to emerging spikes of complementary talent in densely settled geographic areas. Social networks in virtual space will amplify the forces of pull being generated in spikes as our passions motivate us to seek out people who can help us get better faster.

Maximize return on attention. Hearing these recommendations, some readers will ask how any of us will have enough time to expand our networks and explore talent spikes. Aren't we time-constrained already? Yet by adopting new tools and services we can all improve our "return on attention" — the value we get in return for the time spent looking for what we want and need. Search tools help improve this value immensely. But serendipity tools may prove even more helpful as they connect us to people and resources we don't yet know exist.

What about you? Would you accept a "friend" request on a social network from someone you'd never met? In what ways have you noticed serendipity at work in your own life and career? Have you found ways to shape serendipity to increase the quantity and quality of unexpected encounters?

On Startup Failure : Why my software startup failed and How I went Bankrupt?

It takes a lot of guts and courage to talk about one’s failure. Vijay Rayapati, bootstrapped his startup and shares his story on the failure and lessons learnt.A must-read for every entrepreneur!

NOTE: This post is a bit longer but If you have some time (15 mins) then it’s worth reading,You might save 6 Lakhs:) and learn some(1%) business basics.
Last weekend moved off so quickly and amazed me a lot about how fast the time (world) is changing than I thought ( Bills Gates got retired from Microsoft ) and what I am doing in the commodity crowd market ( Being one of the millions of Software Programmers in this world).
I have completed two more management related books this weekend and I feel I am back on my reading track which was almost lost after my college i.e I just read 2 management related books during last 2 years, May -06 to April -08. I feel sorry for almost giving it up for two years but thanks to Destiny for putting me back on the track to continue my further journey.

First book was “life BEYOND CODE” by Rajesh Shetty , this was an amazing book that talks about all aspects of being part of digital world and how to differentiate yourself in your goal seeking process.It NOT only teaches us some basic principles but also action plans that will help us to apply the core principles of success . Few things that inspired me a lot in this book were the details of “Get back on your feet as fast as possible when you are knocked down by goof up or failure” , “It is NOT what we know but who we know is what matters the most” and “If you don’t listen to customer, you cannot sell anything” and the importance of having right mentors and coaches.
Second Book was THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho , I really pity myself:) for reading it too late eventhough I heard of it 3 years back from a friend (A suggested book during his CAT coaching). It talks about a magical story of a shepherd boy (Spantiago from Spain) who yearns to travel in search of a treasure.The book teaches us , only very few can , about the essential wisdom of listening to our heart , learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path and above all following(pursuing) our dreams.

In simple terms the book is about , How many of us can dare to change from what we are now to what we want to be? , lets make it a bit specific , can I dare to change from What I am today to What everyday I dream to be? , say even you follow your dream then how long you can persist with it (pursue it) despite all the setbacks(blocks) on the way to glory (destiny). Can you follow your dream even if you are about to die?.

After reading above two books the vivid memories of How I started my software startup,bitterness of why it failed & how I went bankrupt ? are back in my mind.
I am Yet Another Software Engineer from CBIT , Hyderbad passed out in 2006 , whose ultimate desire is to be a Entrepreneur.Let me tell you about How I (yes it’s me ,my real story) lost more than 6 lakhs Indian Rupees (officially it is 4 Lakhs as per the startup bankrupt records settled with my partner but I lost more than that ) in just 8 months ,may be it’s not lot of money for few of you born with a gold spoon but for me a costly experience on my way to pursue a dream , which I believed in and desired , which I wanted to conquer ,A Journey to become a Entrepreneur that originated in my heart & fascinated me a lot when my childhood dream of getting into military service slowly got away from my heart after external forces (parents,friends,society etc) moved me to a engineering school.

The loss of money was a costly error for me at this point of time horizon, I mean today, ( I don’t want to term it a failure because I think when we do something wrong for the first time it is error/mistake but if you repeat it then it become’s failure) because I took a personal loan to fund my company ,I lost all my savings from the job till date, I have swiped my credit cards to payoff my office expenses when there was no cash-inflow, I didn’t send any money home for more than 6 months , my brother has completed +2 & I have to support him for the grad school and lot more personal obligations of a typical 23 year old Indian [Boy].But for sure when I look back at this error say after 10 years (23 years age + 10 years life experience) from now it will look like a simple mistake because of our learning curve. I have funded my startup (yes a software startup ) with one of my friend , who believed in my dream.We had a clear idea of what business we are going to be in? , how much money we need to bootstrap? and how we are going to run the business? but a omen was strewn on our way (an Idea to build a software product platform for retail food ordering business) from a friend, which we started to pursue instead of what we wanted to pursue initially because we believed in it as a good idea & it is something which we already know how to do that is writing a software application.This deviated us from our early idea , may be because my heart believed in doing something which it already know how to instead of conquering something new as a kind of security from the fear of failure of my heart to try a newthing.
We rented a nice office ( where previously a successful startup bootstrapped , those guys made lot of profit and brought a 3 floors nice building and moved out of this place ) , hired carpenter to partition the office , brought all the required furniture ,the computers ,the backup ups , the telephone & internet connection and everything needed to start implementing our idea including a recruitment of 4 developers of which 2 were assigned to work on the above idea and other 2 used to work on the Master students assignments from UK & US so we can have a steady cash inflow to run the business without investing from our pocket every month to develop the food ordering software application. I used to spend part of my day with the development team on designing the solution , planning next action items and meeting various people to improve upon the idea before going to my regular job as thought I cannot afford to take 100% risk at that point of time.When I told my Dad about starting a company he said NO ,you are doing pretty good compared to other guys I know of your age so don’t take lot of risk so early in your career but my Mom told me follow your heart if you think you can do it then go ahead.
As the ALCHEMIST describes when we start to pursue our dream , “The universe conspires all the forces to work on our way initially” which is called a rule of favourability or beginner’s luck.We did pretty good for first three months as we had a good cashflow to run the startup without any issues from the assignments money ( at that point of time I had seriously thought of quitting my regular job n put all my energies on startup ).But our development of software application was not moving as we planned initially,many times we were struck with tiny issues for morethan a day or so , the web application development was new to us eventhough our team had a good understanding of building standalone cient - server applications ,I am also new to the technology we have chosen. Sometimes I was damn busy with my regular job where I used to slog night in and night-out so if my team was struck with anything they will be stagnant until nextmorning I go to my startup office and discuss it with them.Then I have realized that lack of progress in development was because of we don’t have clearcut project task’s plan and required technology expertise.One of my team members was a dotnet expert but he was also beginner in web applications platforms.I sent out mails to couple of my friends who offered to lend their help if we need any technical expertise and I had drafted a plan for next 2 months and divided the task’s for my 2 team members.

But Slowly ,as described in the ALCHEMIST the rule of favourability moved away from me ,all the assignment works stopped coming from U.K so input of our cashflow decreased by every month. Eventhough we didn’t had any income from assignments after initial 3 months but still ,I believed in what we started so I did whatever I can do to mobilize money to payoff our expenses for next 3 months.
In the mean time most of my grad school classmates, friends and some of my colleagues came to know about my startup and everyone encouraged my pursuit of becoming a entrepreneur.Those encouragements boosted my morale,confidence,beliefs and I become proud of doing what many souls(people) just dream of doing.When I look back at my dream , it was an abstract & just used to wander in mind when I had no work on the job to how it become concrete , I was very happy & felt good inside myheart.This experience taught me many lessons which nobody will teach you unless you get your hands dirty(digging into what you want).In the initial six months experience of managing a startup company , I have learned some basics of how to deal with people , how to get things done? , how to set right expectations? ( Thanks to Srinath my manager at Trilogy who taught me a lot about this later) , bits and pieces of project management, how to boost my team morale? , how to retain a employee in a startup company and more importantly what a penny(rupee) is worth of?.For next two months I have forced our development task’s to speed up as much as possible and thought we were getting into a right direction of being able to deliver application in couple of more months for initial launch.

Then came a storm to blow my dream , a situation where I can no longer mobilize the money we need in order to continue the business i.e employee salaries, office rent ,power bill , internet bill and other petty expenses (my savings are gone , my salary from regular job was a way less than my startup office expenses).But I haven’t lost my hope , I borrowed money from friends believing that if I can finish off the software application that we are developing in next couple of months and launch it in market then I can expect some cash inflow.So I slogged as much as possible to shield the fear of failure in my heart by telling it to keep working on goal instead of worrying,very soon a good day will be on my way.

I have started to meet few business people ( who ran/run a company or two ) and getting some advices from them , improving upon the idea , started working on drafting a vague marketing plan , how to handle logistics of food order delivery to user with guaranteed timeline ,preparing a business plan so we can meet VC’s to fund our idea once we have beta level product as the segment that we had targeted was pretty naive in India so VC people might not show authentic interest if they don’t see the real working model and also I have acquired a new habit of reading some of business management ,startup management and venture capital related blogs, regularly.During January ,I am really pissed off about my financial strength getting fragile.We estimated that it will take another 3 months to have a alpha level product and I need some money (atleast 3 lakhs) to run this startup and get the product out for next 3 months.I don’t have money and I started discussing with my partner and my other friend who conceptualized the online food ordering plan.I have discussed with known people , some close friends and prospective investors about getting some financial cash-inflow. I went to Hyderabad to convince few of my friends to invest in the project ,initially they were exited to come-in but finally everybody backed off.

I am almost bankrupt I don’t even have 500 bucks in my bank account for the past 2 months after first day of each month , there are more than 1.5 lakh dues on my credit cards but my hopes were still alive and I continued to believe in my dream.
I was unable to pay the office rent, I have delayed payment of my employee salaries and I haven’t paid internet connection bill for past 2 months and power bill for 1 month.I almost forget that I haven’t cleared utility bill payments and my employee called me and said the net connection got disconnected & Airtel customer-care said we haven’t cleared the bill for past 2 months. I rushed immediatly to Airtel office to pay the bill , guess what? ,they said we don’t accept credit card payment for internet connection bill , you have to pay cash. I have just 100 bucks in my wallet but I have morethan 10 credit cards.I gotto argue with that guy, finally his manager said there are few outlets where they accept creditcard payment.
The very nextday , office power connection was also got disconnected , I had a call from employee ,I really don’t have any face to show them when he said power was also disconnected.I don’t have any liquid money and I cannot pay through card for electricity bill at billpayment counter then I called up one of my friends in Kolkata to transfer me some 5k immediatly.Apart from all this the project development was still lagging behind , we were not progressing as we have planned so it kept bothering me.These things have puzzled me a lot and hunted my spirits.Then I called up for a meeting with my team and asked them how much more time they need to give me a basic functional food ordering site and we have agreed for another 1 month.
Eventhough my team has designed a nice business layer, transaction layer for the backend of the application , we were really lagging in the UI design & no clue about browsers compatibility based design.The initial UI was so ugly that I was damn irritated when I saw that but I had controlled my emotions , they tried to improve it and spent lot of time but the end result was not so great.I have consulted some freelancers to get it done but they were asking me to pay so much money which I cannot afford to spend as I don’t even have penny in my pocket.Then I had a lunch meeting with one management professor from XLRI and he said that current idea might not work and we need to revamp it , need to improve it a lot to provide a real customer value.

We were also lagging in meeting our vendors , discussing with them about the business plan and how it will benefit them.At the time I cannot afford to get a guy who can do this or even I don’t have many MBA friends to ask for help ,I cursed myself for all this mess but I took up the responsibility to fix things(get it right).The logistics were another important entity for our software solution system success.I spoke to couple of guys experienced in the logistics domain and created our logistics plan , how we need to distinguish our service? and how to create a logistics system that works for us at minimal cost overhead.
During March, I had lot of issues on my platter to resolve , I tried to mobilize some funds but everything went in vain ,I almost lost every hope and thought for a week and evaluated all possibilities then thought may be it’s time for me to quit so wrote a mail to my partner asking him what should we do next? he said whatever you decide I will be with you , I replied lets close the shop and get our basics right because I thought if I can’t get it right then get the heck out.As I can no longer skip my credit card payment, I can’t survive with 500 bucks for 28 days in a month ,I can’t afford go further bankrupt and lose my face. May be I have abandoned the dream because of ignorance , lack of readiness to take up 100% responsibility of my life ,lack of awareness, fear , need to be right , the need to feel safe , so I choose to get out and get my basics right , I am not making excuses for my failure or telling a victim story ,I just mentioned them because I want you to know that your life success depends on one person that is YOU ,I am learning from these mistakes and improving the outcomes in my new life.In the process I have realized we just have control in three things in our life , the thoughts we make , the dreams we visualize and the actions we take.If we want to grow in life then we need to learn how to master these three things because our success or failure just depends on them.
As I mentioned above ,I really need to get my basics right , a right business attitude , focusing on one thing instead of running a startup and doing another job,ready to take 100% responsibility of outcomes in my life,mastering to use others resources effectively to work for you , to learn how to get(set) things right ,networking with right people before starting a business instead of going by someone who is ready to work with you , conquering fear of failure and a courage to carry forward the dream even if I am about lose my face or die.

If I could have read “BEFORE YOU QUIT YOUR JOB” ,”HOW TO GET FROM WHERE YOU ARE TO WHAT YOU WANT TO BE” and “THE ALCHEMIST” books before starting my company , I would have planned it thinking realistic Instead based on assumptions & just going by my desire to become a entrepreneur before preparing myself.
If I can sum-up , below are the few reasons why I have ( my startup has ) failed?:

1. We never had a formal mentor ,before you start something find a good mentor,someone who has done what you are planning to do because you really need help in lot of business situations eventhough you are a street-smart.
2. We moved from our initial idea to some new idea that came on our way. In a startup always focus on just onething, only onething at a time. Even when you come across a great idea that is a lot better than what you are currently pursuing , never go to it until you complete what you have started of.
3. I was wrong in creating the right team - always get the people who believe in your dream and who are capable of doing things.Get someone who has entrepreneurial spirit rather than one with employee mindset.
4. I can also do attitude - Gates did it ,Ambani did it,Steve did it , Larry and Sergey did it, Dell did it,Ellision and so on did it so I can also do it.It is good to get inspired from great
   people live’s but what we are missing here is that whether you are doing it with a passion or a desire?.If you have a passion then you will build something first then start a company. I had only a desire to be entrepreneur lacking a real passion to drive me ahead ,I didn’t quit my job because may be I am scared or afraid of failure ,see I didn’t made myself clear before starting a company.
   This attitude screwed my ass and made me bankrupt. Before you plan a startup company ask yourself a thousand more times whether you are really prepared or not?.Even if you have a .001 percent doubt somewhere in your heart , don’t start a company unless you are crystal clear about your decision.
5. Understand a software company as a System rather than a bunch of people and computers working on tasks. A System is a entity which maintains it’s existence through the mutual interaction of it’s parts.If one part fails then the system halts it holds true for startups.
6. The desire to win doesn’t give you the success ,we really need to put all our energies to conquer the dream we believe in. Before you plan a startup think whether you can spend 100% of your time on it or not?. It’s not a distance education course where you can do job and earn a degree so make yourself 101% committed. As famous philosopher Jim Rohn said
   “You can’t hire some else to do push-up for you” , if you want result you have to do it.
7. In Startup everyday you need monitor your goal progress instead of checking how you are doing once/twice in a month and spend as much time as possible with your team everyday to get the most out of them afterall it is your company,the baby needs high care. When I told my parents about the loss, Dad didn’t say anything , he remained silent but Mom said the experience is worth morethan the loss but I felt that I let them down because when initially Dad opposed I told him , ” I am starting it to make money ,Not to loose money”.Sometimes I feel bad for losing 6 Lakhs thinking I could have brought a decent car, yes it’s a costly error but I believe that as my Mom told the experience learned was richer than the money I had lost because now I am better prepared to conquer my new dreams.However oneday I will again start journey of conquering the dream that I have abandoned after nearly 9 months of starting it.
   If somebody today asks me what it takes to run a company I would say it is the money first, the team next ,the idea last.May be you have a great idea but if you cannot get a right team together to implement/execute it then it means you have no idea.Never start in a hurry ,evaluate as much as possible , find some trust worthy people and discuss your plan with them at length before embarking on it and never spend a penny unless you really need it.

   

   This experience taught me many lessons in simple words ,”Start to conquer your dream when you are ready to give away even your life to achieve your destiny” and the quality of our current life is a result of our past actions and thoughts, now again damn it  I feel I don’t need to spent 6 Lakhs to learn the gist of conquering a dream:) which I could have learned if I had read ALCHEMIST worth 100 bucks 2 years back or I wouldn’t have understood the gist in ALCHEMIST better if I had no failure. May be that’s the reason why history say “Good Leaders are also Good Readers too”.

Interview with Uday Chopra

Interview : I've stopped running from myself

Uday Chopra returns post a sabbatical from acting, after a lot of self-introspection His last movie Dhoom: 2 released in 2006. After that, Uday Chopra was not heard of or seen. I was worried that he was turning into another Aditya Chopra but that fear turned out to be baseless. I met Uday at YRF studios and was impressed with his candour. The scars of failure have healed and Uday is radiant with newfound confidence. Read on as he talks about battling depression, facing insecurities, soul searching and his relationship with Tanishaa. And about his production Pyaar Impossible with Priyanka Chopra where he returns as an actor. Excerpts from an Interview: Why have you been living under a rock for the last three years? I was taking a sabbatical from acting and figuring out where my future is. Sitting behind, learning from my father and brother, being a part of meetings, etc. Actually, I have been working with Yash Raj. I have been looking after the digital division, the new media department, as I have an aptitude for that. I believed that we should have our music, not just in iTunes, but on various other platforms too Was it a conscious effort to take a break? Well, you could say that. But in a big way, it was because I wasn't happy with the kind of work I was getting. I believed that if I am not satisfied with what I am offered, I (touchwood) have the liberty to take my time and decide what else can I do. My sensibilities were different from the comedies that were being offered to me after Dhoom. I love comedies, I have grown up watching sitcoms, I love those witty one-liners and situations you create, but I am not much of a slapstick guy. How has the break changed you as a person? It's definitely humbled me a lot; not that I was overtly over confident. You come with stars in your eyes, thinking everything will work out, then you realise it's not the way you think it is. So you keep trying different things to figure out where you fit in and then insecurities arise.  That's what I went through during 2005-06, and I had to tell myself to stop. Having gone through that, I think I have come out of my insecurities, I understand who I am and how people perceive me, and I don't have a problem with it anymore. Earlier what people thought of me would affect me; today, it doesn't. Somewhere along the way, I have grown to accept that, and it has helped me for the better. Was there pressure because you are Yash Chopra's son and your brother is already an established director? It's not so much pressure because I have grown up in this atmosphere and I am used to this. But when everyone's focus is on you then you don't really do things for your self-satisfaction; you do it because of what dad will think, or what other people think. So that's the problem of being Yash Chopra's son, or being part of Yash Raj films. I think if you are running, then you have to run for the love of it, not because someone is chasing you. I have stopped running from myself. What was the flashpoint that made you give up the sabbatical? I think the debacle of my film Neal 'N' Nikki put me into a shell. That was the beginning, and it wasn't a nice period in my life. I had gone into a depression-like stage, but what came out of it was a lot of soul-searching and trying to understand things. At one point, my love and desire for being an actor was being questioned, so all those thoughts of maybe God has a different plan for me, was what made me look within me. Did you approach your dad or brother during the low phase? Not really, because I had gone into a shell, so I didn't speak to anybody. I am pretty much a loner. But over a period of time when things weren't really going anywhere, I had a talk with my brother and he said invest in yourself if nothing else. He asked me why I didn't try writing. And that's when the thought came to me that I should write something. Is that how Pyaar Impossible came into being? I had this idea for a long time, in fact this is the film I wanted to make instead of Neal 'N' Nikki. So now when I went back to it, I made it more contemporary and modern. I saw myself in the role as the guy, and decided to not just act but also produce it. Jugal Hansraj my friend was making Roadside Romeo and I asked him direct and he agreed. Then we met Priyanka and she said yes to it . Isn't there a director lurking inside of you? I will definitely want to direct some day, but at this point there are too many things am doing. I don't want to write, produce, act and then direct as well. I want somebody to tell me where I am going wrong. Right now, I am at that stage where I need guidance, once I develop it on my own then I will be ready to direct. Is the film semi-autobiographical? Not really. Except for the part that the guy is shy and reticent which comes from me, and he's also very much into technology, which is a big part of me. Why have producers outside YRF not shown an interest in you? I have interest in working outside Yash Raj, but people have certain perceptions about me. It's the reason why I say no to most films. How do you react to the criticism Yash Raj is getting for their films not doing well... I think people are saying our films aren't doing well because some of them haven't done well. Also we gave consecutive hit films for two years. There will be some hits and some misses and once people get that, the criticism will stop. Who are you closer to your father or brother? I am close to both of them in different ways. I am close to my brother, because we share a different equation. But I also am close to my dad. We sit and have conversations which he will never have with other people. Dad is more like a friend. We talk like equals and that's great.. Why are you still single? I am single, because I haven't found anybody. I don't want to be single. Are you doing anything about it? No. I believe in destiny and she will come when the time is right. I know it will happen... the one woman I will go mad about. I still haven't found her and that she's out there. I don't know when it will happen, but till then, I am happy to be single. Are you romantic at heart? Yes, I am a hardcore romantic guy, but I don't do anything about it, which is why I am still single. I don't want to have casual relationships. I would love to be like that, but I am not that kind. I'd love to be someone who would chat up with a girl, go out on a few dates and say 'Sorry, babes'. My first thought is always that I don't want a relationship, I don't want commitment. But then slowly you realise that it's nice to be in love. Weren't you dating Tanishaa in the past? Yes, and I have mentioned that before. My relationships have been few and far between. We are friends, there's no bad blood. In fact, she called the other day and wished me all the best for the film that I am starting it in a month. We are very much in touch. Are you open to dating actresses from the industry? Of course. I think an actresses would understand me better because we are from the same line. Actresses are really interesting. They have lots of mood swings, there's so much fun that can be had with their brains. They have a lot of convolutions in their head and other insecurities and a lot of drama. So if you like that, you can actually have fun and go crazy.  Normal people don't have that! Three directors you would love to work with I would love to work with Shimit (Amin), Mani Ratnam and Ashutosh Gowariker for their style and technique. Three leading ladies who would look good with you Sonam, because she's gorgeous and has something unique about herself. Deepika, again because she's drop-dead gorgeous. And Konkona, because she's a fantastic actress. Courtesy by: Midday

Life Is Baeutiful.

-posted by singlestep on Oct 29, 2008

Do you remember the name of your kindergarden teacher? I do, mine. Her name was Mrs White. And I remember thinking she must be some older relation of Walt Disney's Snow White, because she had the same bright blue eyes, short dark hair, red lips and fair skin.

I don't remember much about what we learned in her class, but my mother once told me that we used to write a lot. And I would bring back what I wrote and she would look at it and see there were so many mistakes. But no red corrections. And always a star. Sometimes even a Good! scrawled in that would make my heart soar with happiness. But it worried my mother, so one day when she went in to meet Mrs White for one of those Parent-Teacher meetings, she asked her why she never corrected my mistakes. Why she never red-pencilled in the right spellings of words or pointed out grammatical errors.

And my mother says Mrs White said-The children are just beginning to get excited about using words, about forming sentences. I don't want to dampen that enthusiasm with red ink. Spelling and grammar can wait. The wonder of words won't... And maybe she didn't say it Exactly like that. It was a long time ago. And what my mother gave me was the gist of what she could remember. The rest I added in. Because I grew up learning to use words with loving confidence like that.

And it occurs to me that if Mrs White had used her red pen more precisely I probably wouldn't be telling you about this now. Which is kind of obvious but also kind of not. I look back now and think she must have been a rather extraordinary teacher- to exercise such red-pen-restraint. To allow the joy, wonder and excitement of expression flower- however faultily- like that. Because to bloom is better than not to bloom. And a bud once nipped never opens. May we all be so kind...

I used to misspell beautiful a lot. Never could quite remember that the e went before the a. It exasperated my teacher in high school no end. If I was going to employ the word with such lavishness she figured the least I could do was spell it right. Eventually the e's and a's settled into their right places of their own accord. Am glad I didn't wait on them though. Pretty is easier to spell but it doesn't hold as much as you mean sometimes.

And thanks to Mrs White I had no qualms about writing what I meant even if couldn't quite spell it out. Because Life isn't Pretty. It's Baeutiful.

The Humanist's Top Ten quotes regarding Life

1. Number 10, Samuel Butler:
   "Man, unlike the animals, has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it." We fell into this existence almost like thieves. It was never promised or ordained for us. The evolutionary miracle of miracles that we got to exist at all! And we promptly set about inventing all manner of things to bring ourselves the most misery humanly possible. Smooooooothe.
2. Number 9, David Russell:
   "We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian psychics ruled by Frankenstein logic." Goodness gracious, how terribly unfair to Franky, I've always seen him as infinitely smarter than most.
3. Number 8, Mark Twain:
   "In his private heart no man much respects himself." And how could he? From the time he is chewing on his pabulum he is told he is weak, low, sinning, dirty, offending, downright stinky, told this life is a mere dress rehearsal for something better, and in need of some kind of miraculous salvation. This is the way to engender excellence in humanity?
4. Number 7, Oscar Wilde:
   "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." You go boy!
5. Number 6, Chris Volkay, yours truly:
   "We are all the unintentional designers of our own misery." My what gall, placing myself in this illustrious grouping! By creating expectations and paradigms of what we should do, should think and should achieve, we set ourselves up for lifelong disappointment and misery when we fail to live up to our fantasy lives.(Unless of course your Bond, ........James Bond)
6. Number 5, Ingmar Bergman:
   "Everything is worth precisely as much as a belch, the difference being that a belch is more satisfying." What can I tell ya, I like his films.
7. Number 4, James Branch Cabell:
   "MUNDIS VULT DECIPI" (The world wants to be deceived) And will pay handsomely for its deception. Poets, priests, politicians, psychics and psychoanalysts, among others, make pleasingly plump livings by simply telling people what they want to hear.
8. Number 3, William Shakespeare:
   "Nothing is good or bad, but our thinking makes it so." Truly one of the most important concepts ever penned. What the world believes at any given moment is simply the prevailing popular opinion. And as nothing that stands today is either inherently or intrinsically so, all manner of currently held notions have the ability to be changed.
9. Number 2, Francis Bacon:
   "Man prefers to believe what he prefers true." Sounds something like Shakespeare's sentiments, hey you don't think Bacon was actually Shakesp.....nah. Bacon's statement is really the short history of the world. Evolving into scary environs, man set about inventing a swirling dust cloud of illusions to ensconce himself from the harshness of life. Our job, should we choose to accept it altruistic brethren, is to enable people to see that fuller, richer lives await them here and now should they opt to break free from their various dream worlds of illusion.
10. And the Number One Top Ten Humanist quote regarding Life, Ta da ta da...Mark Twain:
    "Such is the human race...often it does seem such a pity that Noah...didn't miss the boat." And who can argue with that?

My only question is...was sixth place for myself really fair.. Or did I deserve higher?

Interesting Dialogue from Fight Club

"You are not your bank account. You are not the clothes you wear. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your bowel concer. You are not your grande latte. You are not the car you drive. You are not your f**king khakis... I say, let me never be complete. I say, may I never be content. I say, deliver me from swedish furniture. I say, deliver me from clever art. I say, deliver me from clear skin and perfect teeth... I say, evolve, and let the chips fall where they may."

- Tyler Durden
Fight Club

Blogs Links for UX

1. http://www.dexodesign.com/
2. http://uxgyan.blogspot.com/
3. http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/
   

Finding Money for Innovation: Develop Those People Skills

Published: January 07, 2009 in Knowledge@Wharton

Innovations typically involve trial, error and outright failure before turning into successful products or services. Thomas Edison, for example, conducted approximately 10,000 failed experiments before perfecting the incandescent light bulb. For decades, leading businesses have willingly shouldered the expense and the risk of innovating as the price of staying ahead of competitors.

But innovating has become a lot tougher lately, according to a panel of technology experts who recently spoke at the University of Pennsylvania's Executive Master's in Technology Management program. With R&D budgets shrinking and markets retrenching in a worldwide economic crisis, the panelists noted, technologists will need more than lab expertise to convince their employers to keep the research funding spigots open.

Indeed, the ability to communicate well and other "soft skills" are just as important as technological expertise when it comes to selling new ideas to investors or senior management, suggested several members of the panel, which was titled "Street-Smart Innovation to Align Emerging Technology and Business." In addition, future scientists, researchers and program managers should focus on aligning innovative projects with company goals. As panelist Nicholas D. Evans, vice president of the innovation division at Unisys, pointed out, it's much easier to justify budgets for speculative projects that show an obvious commercial benefit to the parent company.

That lesson became painfully obvious this past summer to employees of the storied Bell Labs research group, based in northern New Jersey. Alcatel-Lucent, owner of Bell Labs, all but gutted much of the non-commercial "basic research" performed by the lab. The product of a rocky 2006 merger, struggling Alcatel-Lucent sought to align Bell Labs' operations more closely with the parent's commercial interests in wireless, optics, networking and computer science.

So, how do organizational entrepreneurs keep innovation alive in companies looking to slash costs? And how do start-ups and growth companies attract investors when the rest of the economy is melting? That's another place where those soft skills come in handy. Several of the panelists suggested that while technical people are generally not known for soft skills, those individuals who desire funding to continue their work would do well to acquire them.

Anthony P. Green, a vice president with first-round funding group Ben Franklin Technology Partners, said he frequently sees entrepreneurs stumble because they lack such skills. All too often, entrepreneurs come across as rude, dismissive and disrespectful to audiences of potential investors, thereby "infuriating the investment community." Panelist Eric F. Bernstein, a laser surgeon, dermatologist and technology entrepreneur, echoed that point. "Business is all about relationships. They need to like your idea, but they also need to like you."

Suzanne Taylor, portfolio director of corporate operations for Unisys, pointed out that budget handlers are also more inclined to favor innovation if it can be shown to cut costs. Innovation department heads must become adept at "making the case for maximizing productivity and reducing waste," Taylor said. This requires excellent communication skills, she added, including the fine art of schmoozing. And the higher up the case is made, the better for the innovator, added Sanjoy Ray, director of global application engineering for pharmaceutical giant Merck. "Executive sponsorship is very powerful. It provides 'air cover.'"

From Nanotech to Alternative Energy

The panelists agreed that amid the ruins of the current economy lie vast opportunities. The question is: Where?

Bernstein, who is involved as an investor in four companies, said a huge opportunity exists in digitizing and networking medical information. Medicine is a final frontier for information technology as paper records contribute to the escalating costs and delays of healthcare. Green also sees possibilities in nanotechnology, which involves engineering at the atomic level. Some products have already come to market, but the technology has yet to reach its commercial promise. Bioethicists have noted that nanotech presents a host of as-yet unanswered questions, including the issue of what it will mean to be human if, as predicted, "nanobots" are developed to attack disease and enhance performance. "If [nanotechnology] is really as disruptive as biotech was, it will make a big difference," said Green, a self-described "veteran of the biotech wars."

Alternative energy, which had been gaining steam in 2008, has been undermined as an investment because the global slowdown has resulted in lower prices for traditional fossil fuels, the panelists said. That makes alternative energy projects tougher to justify to jittery lenders, who bank on the projects being cost competitive with fuels such as oil and natural gas. "The ills of Western banks mean, inevitably, that the supply of debt finance for wind farms, solar parks, biofuel plants and the like will be less plentiful, and more expensive, in the months ahead than it has been in the last two years," notes a recent report by New Energy Finance, a research firm that covers the deal-making environment for renewable energy projects. On the other hand, President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to devote much of his economic stimulus plan to investments in green technologies.

But in times like these, is there any money for enterprising business people with superb ideas in these fields? Are angels and venture capitalists still in the game? Green conceded that "it's brutal" for those seeking early stage, non-seed funding. "No one is funding at the $1 million level," he said. The problem surfacing right now is that full-blown venture capital groups want to deal only with requests in the $6 million to $8 million range. "Not everybody needs or wants that" amount to get a business to the next stage, he said.

Where the Toys Are

Jim Senior, a speechwriter for Unisys who was the panel moderator, noted that cost-conscious executives might want to carefully consider any cuts they make to innovation departments if they are interested in retaining top talent. Many brilliant and highly marketable technologists will remain in an otherwise unremarkable place if the company has the financial muscle to invest capital in labs and equipment. Senior recounted the story of one researcher who was asked why he stayed at a large bureaucratic company. His response: "Because you have all the toys."

According to Wharton marketing professor George S. Day, many well-known companies remain committed to innovation in spite of downturns and earnings myopia. "There are some companies that see beyond that and continuously invest in innovation and growth," said Day, co-director of Wharton's Mack Center for Technological Innovation. "The best known ones are Samsung, American Express, Nokia. These companies are not cutting back on innovation.... We're not just talking about products and services, but about customer experience." For example, American Express last year invested $50 million in its "Chairman's Innovation Fund," money that is reserved for financing employee ideas to improve the business long-term.

"Since true innovation entails uncertainty, as opposed to quantifiable risk, there will always be an element of vision, entrepreneurship and faith involved," noted Mack Center research director Paul J.H. Schoemaker. "The C-suite recognizes that business is about taking risks and that not everything can be analytically proved or supported when venturing into the unknown. Too often, companies focus on incremental innovation -- since it is more predictable and less disruptive."

What's more, Schoemaker said, a difficult economic climate is an ideal time to diagnose defects that may have gone unnoticed when the economy was stronger. "Tough times present an opportunity to assess systemic weakness in one's industry, company and leadership team," said Schoemaker, who is also an adjunct professor of marketing at Wharton. "Just think of a sport like golf or tennis. When conditions are tough, the weaknesses in your game will show more clearly." His advice: "Use the bad times to conduct a deep self-audit."

Decision - Making

by Avish Parashar

I have a confession: I hear voices.

Here's a secret: you do to.

We all have "little voices in our head," that give us lots of advice and guidance on what we should do. Unfortunately, a lot of times we put way more weight on that little voice, even if the information makes no sense or doesn't serve us.

This year, I started a new weight lifting program which I have really been enjoying. One of the premises of the routine is that you start with extremely light weights on workout one (just the 45lb bar), then increase the weight by 5 pounds each time you do the exercise. By training in this way you develop really good form while slowly increasing your strength to handle heavier and heavier weight.

Those of you not ridiculously bad in math will realize that in order to add 5 pounds to a barbell, I needed to use 2 1/2 pound plates. The first time I grabbed the 2 1/2 pound plates a little voice popped into my head:

"Don't use the 2 1/2's. Those are weenie."

Where did that come from?? Then I remembered. It wasn't me, it was a friend from years ago.

I have a good friend I used to workout with. Let's call him "Spigot," since that was his nickname back in the day. Don't ask...

Anyway, when we started working out together, Spigot was a much more experienced weight lifter than me. I wasn't a novice, but he was more experienced (and bigger and stronger, and when weight lifting, it is natural to follow the lead of the bigger and stronger guy).

I was very into squatting (putting a heavy barbell across your back, squatting down, and then pushing back up. Sounds silly I know, but it is the single best exercise you can do). I had been doing sets with 195 pounds, and was excited to finally break the 200 pound mark. I grab two 2 1/2 pound plates to make an even 200, when Spigot looks at me and says, "Don't use the 2 1/2's. Those are weenie."

Hmm, what to do now? My experienced weightlifting buddy was telling me that real "lifters" don't use the small plates. And you don't argue with a big guy names Spigot.

So I diligently put the 2 1/2 pounders away and added 5 pound plates and squatted 205 pounds instead. So I suppose it all worked out ok.

But now here I am *10 years later* following a program where using the 2 1/2 pound plates was essential, and I still felt an internal resistance to using them based on that one conversation. Ding!

Because I was consciously aware of the voice and where it came from, I was able to evaluate it and push it aside since it did not serve me. But how many times do we all make decisions and act in ways that don't serve us simply because we have some voice in our head from years ago that will still blindly obey.

One conversation from ten years ago was still effecting my decision-making process today. How much more subversive would that voice be if it was from a influential source (say, a parent) and was repeated over and over years ago?

Start paying attention and evaluating those voices as they come up. You may be surprised at why you are (still) making some of the decisions you are...

Future Enterprise- Enterprise Information integration

by dhtow01 (Director)

Tracking the impact of emerging information technologies on the future enterprise.

Information integration- combining information from different sources into a unified format, poses one of the most complex and critical technology challenges to the future enterprise. 

Huge volumes of transactional, customer, logistical and operational data are now being generated as organisations expand their web service networks, linking directly with suppliers, customers and partners. This must also be archived for record keeping and data mining. 

The process involves a range of activities and tools including- 

Schema standards- mapping and matching- oriented to generic kinds of data as well as particular application domains such as- cad, news, procurement, medical, government etc. 

Data cleansing- duplication elimination and identity resolution 

Information extraction- production of structured information from free-form text, using a set of annotators or extraction rules 

Message mapping- integrating independently developed applications by moving messages between them 

Object to relational mappers- allowing programs written in an OO language to access data in relational form 

Document management- managing information held in text files, spreadsheets, slide shows as well as unstructured formats. 

The overwhelming proportion of information in an enterprise is unstructured and cannot easily be stored in relational databases that provide the repositories for enterprise transactions and entity profile data. 
This unstructured data exists in the form of web pages, slide shows, documents in proprietary formats, emails, paper based and video objects, as well as rules, regulations and informal but valuable employee intellectual capital or tacit knowledge. 
Some documents such as product catalogues contain both unstructured text plus structured attributes. 

Enterprises seek to enhance the accessibility and value of unstructured information by adding structure to it and storing it within an Intranet RDBMS. Also the increased adoption of the XML protocol is now commonly applied for document retrieval as well as the use of meta-data tags such as document, author, title etc to achieve a semi-structured and easily retrievable format. 

Although there is still a clear difference between the operational performance standards of the enterprise Intranet and global Internet, many of the same techniques applied to the web are already being applied to intranet desktop information. These include spidering, clustering, taxonomy and ontology creation and adaptive refresh indexing, involving sophisticated change-detection mechanisms. 

At the web level, knowledge must also be integrated across incompatible platforms, mainframe legacy systems and proprietary applications. 

In order to support a more adaptive, decision-based architecture in the future, there will also be a requirement for an additional layer of intelligence to achieve a more seamless meshing of both structured and unstructured information, available on the fly. 

Such a level of dynamic autonomy can only be achieved through further development of the Semantic Web 3.0- linked to search engines and based on the Resource Description Framework – RDF, providing a means of linking data from multiple websites or databases. 
By using the SPARQL query language applications can extract RDF data from traditional databases. 

Many current semantic web applications are now being deployed within industries to do enterprise data integration and related functions such as 
automatic interpretation and retrieval of information, often using intelligent agents that act as mediators and facilitators in the process. 

Intelligent information integration beyond simply integrating databases increases the value of the information accessed. The intelligent deployment of knowledge will also depend on invoking methods of valuing information as a function of the utility of the decisions involved. Such methods are currently available through Decision Engineering technologies. 

Future Trends 

High performance automated systems will be the norm in the future. Any system, particularly an adaptive one, which continues to depend on explicit human intervention in areas such as data integration, is destined to rapidly become uncompetitive. 

It will also be necessary to continue to improve the core problems of handling inconsistent and incomplete data from different sources as well as tracking and verifying its derivation- that is, its provenance. Semantic technologies such as logic based reasoning engines will help automate these tasks. 

Improved methods of information storage, using grid and cloud infrastructure, will also be an increasing requirement, driven by the need to access vast volumes of integrated data on the web- from searches, hosted applications, web services and open interfaces to web applications such as social networks and media resources. 


The explosion of data on the web and its optimum local integration has emerged as both a new problem space and a game-changer for the future enterprise, that will require next generation technology to solve.