Unwinding is a very important aspect for everyone. Especially, for Entrepreneurs and Ideators. Why? Entrepreneurs and Ideators don’t just go to work and come home every day. They deal with lot of things which are not common for everyone each day.
I am mentally stressed when I don’t get time to unwind. It is a very important process of my day. I need to get my personal time at lease for 30 minutes each day and this should not relate to any work.
On a daily basis, walking in the morning with my pet unwinds me. Its a totally me time I get and in the night before I get to sleep, I watch some comedy video for 15-30 minutes which will make me forget the days hardships.
Scientists also approve unwinding every day is very important to ensure your body is is not taking any stresses and relax’s.
Organisation – Idea’s happen by observing, collecting, storing and retrieving the data which will make the idea happen.
Personality – One needs to really step out of comfort zone if you want your idea to come to life. Being optimistic, self-driven and ability to make decisions are key to building a successful idea.
Family – No matter how awesome your idea is, without having families support and buy-in will be very difficult to execute.
I am sure you have heard this from every speaker or successful person you have met. EXECUTE on your thoughts and ideas. But, how do you take the first step? Start the journey slowly and step-by-step.
All through this year, I was wanting to start writing. I wanted to give it a good shot. In the mean time, I got distracted and thought I will be consistent on my YouTube channel. I designed the header image and was all excited. But, i wanted to have 50 topics ready before I started. As I continued to build my topics, I decided to keep writing them each day. Unexpectedly, joined a 100 Day project initiative by Kiruba and with that, started writing each day. The 100 Day Project was a very good start for me. Thats the first step and post that, my motivation and commitment have started to roll. Since September 22, 2023, I have been writing everyday on my blog and also on LinkedIn.
Now, I am hooked, how ever busy i am, I try to stick to my every day writing. Unfortunately, due to a death in near family, I missed 3 days, but will make up for it. These writing have paved way for my first book.
In summary, start with baby steps and am sure you will get to the finish line in due course. As a famous quote says “the journey is important”.
This is a task management method, how did I customise this into an ideation tool?
I work on 2 things – HAPLO, our startup and Studio NAVAKA, my writings & consulting LLP. I distribute my time based on the weeks plan.
To write down and follow up on my ideas, I use TickTick and customised the template to suit my needs.
This is just for my ideas. I keep writing them down in this template. I created another matrix where i use that on weekly basis. On Saturday, I sit down to look at the upcoming week and put all the things I need to get done and select an idea or two to brain storm with myself.
To organise my ideas, I use Evernote and Notion. Evernote has all the links and articles which I reference and Notion has all blog writings. For articles and the book am working on, I am using LivingWriter, a cloud based book writing app. There are a lot of bugs, but its working for me.
Innovation is not just about bringing creative ideas, but it is a direct result of us organising our life and thoughts.
One of the first things we learn during ideation is the power of observation & organisation. These two are the key to bringing out any breakthrough idea.
Innovation does not happen overnight, it is a long process where you are working on something or learning something new, store the learnings and retrieve these at the appropriate time to incorporate into the thinking.
Sir Isaac Newton did not invent gravity in a day. He was an astronomy student and also a mathematician. He was working on his book for almost 10 years to understand how the universe works and during this process, one day when he saw the apple falling, it was his eureka moment. He understood that all objects stay in their place due to the energy of each of these objects. This is gravity and thus explains how all planets and stars stay at their place in the whole big universe without falling into each other.
Similarly, any idea is not curated on one day. It is a sequence of things which lead to the innovation. Now, if you wish to innovate, you need to collect your material consistently and store the information in a practical way so as to connect the dots when required.
The more organised in your data, the more easier it is to innovate.
So, in the recent past, there has been a lot of commotion, at least in India, where Mr. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder and ex-CEO of Infosys talked about 70 hours a week effort to ensure that we become economically stronger. Here is the interview if you have missed.
Look at the points he makes:
India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world.
Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the Government, unless we reduce decision making times in the Government, we will not be able to compete with those countries.
BTW, all these are true.
However, individuals like you and me (who are reading this) cannot fight the politicians and their atrocities, lets accept that. But there are two ways to give back to the country, contribute more so that the economy grows and help the right people win elections so that things can better up.
In this video by Ms. Palki Sharma (who I personally respect a lot), said that according to WHO, long work hours leads to health problems. (Amongst others, this caught my attention)
See the comments in either of the videos. One says “Billionaires exploit and they should donate wealth” and another one says “in the west people just work 8 hours and any additional work is compensated with money.”
Let me break these two comments down before I share my thoughts.
Billionaires should donate their wealth – Not necessarily. Why should they? They worked very hard to be where they are today and have made money with their work. Can you question your politician with the wealth they amass and don’t even give a single rupee in charity? No. Why? Because they will ensure you are out of the map if your comments come to hurt them. But these self-made men should distribute their wealth and up the economic status. If you ask me, more than Billionaires, Governments should stop giving free and meaningless schemes to everyone.
The person who commented said that he/she worked overseas in IT field and people are compensated when they put in long hours. I really don’t know which country or which company, but let me honestly give you my personal experiences.
In US, people are at their desk by 8AM (or even earlier). They have breakfast at their desk and also I have personally seen many having even their lunch at their desk. They focus without distractions and complete their work by 5 PM and leave. What is wrong with that?
Let’s come to India. First, we don’t come to work on time, giving lame excuse of traffic (In general). So, you are lazy to plan your day and you blame others for your delay. This is exactly the problem. We don’t take ownership of our mistakes but happily live by blaming others. Now, after coming to work, first switch on laptop, check mails and then will be a coffee or chai break catching up on last nights game of cricket.Then get to work and in short time, planning where to eat lunch. Get back to work and in a little while, chai break again. When is serious work getting done?
(I apologise if i am coming across strong, but this is the reality and this is my view and it is generic, does not and will not apply to everyone)
So, you see the trend? We do not actually put in extra hours, we only stay at office for late hours and then blame the company for that.
I am very sure that I will get very nasty comments. But, before you comment, just see for yourself and around you and tell me if i am wrong. This is 60% of the cases.
Yes, genuinely I have seen companies pushing their employees to over work and underpay. That happens every where in the world. Not only in India. Thats a very different problem to have.
All people who have a problem with 70 hours work, please listen to what he says. How Germany and Japan pushed their country men to work hard and today, you see the result. If you cannot see the result, then you are reacting and not understanding what he is saying.
As Ms. Palki was saying, today, China’s workforce has a problem with 9-9-6-6, but what is the result? We know where China is. There are pro’s and con’s to every thing and they might be wrong in a number of ways, but we know how China is the Manufacturing capital of the world. It didn’t come easily. How they are treating their workforce is a different conversation again.
Do US, Germany, Japan, China take aid’s from any country or institution? No. Fortunately, India too has stopped taking aid in the recent times.
Why should self made people donate their money to charity? They need not, and those who give, give with their personal interest.
Next time, if anyone is saying the rich should donate, just ensure politicians also give. Else, its meaningless. Public servants don’t make so much money, but they amass large assets, while hard working people should pay taxes and also donate to charity, which is not fair.
Don’t put 70 hours, just put in 40 hours, but very truthfully work for those 40 hours and see the results for yourself.
I am not in support of any arguments, but these are my views.
How did I arrive at these views, the day I heard, read and then memorised what a great person said in the European Parliament..
Where there is righteousness in the heart There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character, There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home, There is order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation, There is peace in the world.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Don’t think what the country has done for you, rather ask yourself what you have done for the country.
To close, what Mr. Murthy said is nothing wrong. Listen to him completely and then think and then debate. Lets put 40 meaningful hours at work so that it impacts our productivity score.
There is always a question in the global and Indian media, “Why can’t India build a Apple, Microsoft or Google or any other innovative company?”. There are many answers, which I call reasons.
I have few theories as to why we face these challenges and is there a way we can address these. These theories do not just apply to building innovative companies, but also apply to our kind of living.
Constant “Follow me” instructions
Our education system is good, but many things changed from the Gurukul system to today’s education system. Times have changed but we have stopped incorporating the learnings into today’s text books. How many of you remember Moral Science? Today, this subject is not even taught in many schools.
Education should teach self confidence and ability to solve problems. But, unfortunately, only few are able to learn these either from parents or seeing the society. Today, predominantly, we do not ask questions to learn, but only to check if the teacher knows or not. Students are not encouraged to explore outside the box, but the pressure is on completing the syllabus and writing exams. What after the exams? Ranks. These ranks are useless and do not help in anything.
We do not identify the uniqueness of each student, but just focus on mass teachings. There are many movies which pointed this out, but we do not incorporate any of the learnings, but enjoy the movie and walk out.
The same attitude continues to work. Almost all companies today hire Graduates based on their marks and train them they way they need them to work, but very rarely people are hired based on their skill and knowledge. What happens then? These freshers fall into the trap of working long hours and solving problems in the way their managers ask them to solve. Here too, if an employee thinks different, manager has a problem.
As time goes by, these new joinees become managers and the cycle repeats. Where do we end this?
Few people quit their jobs and try to do something different, start their own company and industry and as the company grows, new people come into the picture and again, the cycle continues. It is very rare for an individual to become a leader.
It’s mostly “follow my orders” rather than “what do you think” attitude.
So, where is the time to innovate?
Constant Pressure for making money
How much are you making is what defines the standard of living. It will decide how you live and where your kids go to school. The cycle repeats.
In a society where there is constant pressure for making more money, it becomes difficult to innovate. Innovation takes time and dedication and during this time, limited or no funds will kill the innovation process.
Failure is rewarded with coldness
Many organisations talk about innovation, hold seminars and workshops and pretend to encourage individuals to think different, but when they actually do and try to do something, if the idea fails, employees are treated cold. So, many individuals I know don’t tend to take the initiative because of the fear of failure.
One innovative idea comes to life only after at least 100 failed attempts. If one failure decides the fate of the employee, why will anyone think of doing something different?
Bureaucracy
Let us accept, bureaucracy exists everywhere, in the US, In India and any other country. Across the Governments and also across the private organisations. Even the so called innovative companies have bureaucracy built into the system. It is not wrong. However, designing the organisation to overcome this and encourage innovative team thinking is what makes the difference and for this, leadership should take a strong stand.
Evolution of open economy
In India, the economy opened in the 90’s which enabled a lot of western companies to open their extensions in India.
When foreign companies open offices in India, 99.99% of the time it is to get some back-end work done. Employees here are only instructed to follow their motherships. So, we are used to following. Undoing this mind-set needs a very strong leadership, which very rarely happens.
In Summary, all I am saying is that we should find ways to build innovative mindset with small steps by designing a new way of working. This will take time and until then, big innovations coming out of extended offices will be difficult. Not only this, the social stigma also does not allow for thinking different, one needs a very strong personality to achieve this.
There is one thing which I learned in the last ten years, being unreasonable. Even if it is not in the preview, often people go out of the way and respond to you when you ask.
After I started sales for my product, I have been doing reference sales. I reach out to people in my network, search on LinkedIn and Facebook, send a personal message and reach out to them. 8 out of 10 times I get a response.
Initially, I searched for professional introduction email’s, but somewhere in my heart, I was not convinced. It was not touching my heart, what would the person who is reading it would feel?
Just imagine the advertisements and a marketing email from one of your connects coming as a personal message or InMail. How would you respond to it? How would you read it? This made me change the way I write.
Now, instead of writing an introduction about me in a line or two, I start by writing how we are connected and if there was any of my previous experience with their last writing or activity on FB/LinkedIn or use a context when one of our acquaintances was mentioning about them. Then I write about my story and ask if I could make a request.
8 out of 10 times, I get a response.
Please don’t think that this is a marketing gimmick, but it is a way of first establishing a connection with the person, sharing your problem/solution and then making a request.
Whatever anyone says, in today’s world and in the times to come, emotions will always play a role in building your credibility.
How many times do you follow up on a request? Be it sales, life, a request or anything. If you ask a sales person, they say that they follow up 4-5 times and the decide what do next. But, 4-5 times is max a follow up is made.
In life, if you need anything, how many times do you follow up? As many times as required until your job is completed. I personally have followed up on few requests for extended times until my work is done.
In 2021, I met a potential client. Did the presentation and demo. They asked few questions and I genuinely got back to them in a day or two. However, no response. I continued to follow up. I followed up twice in two days, then sent a reminder the following week and this continued for 4 weeks. Post that, i followed up twice a month (alternative weeks). After 2 months, I followed up once in a quarter. In between, a response saying that they are still considering but will need time. I left it there. After about 6 months they called and asked us to come. We went and a new set of team was present (point of contact being the same). Again, blank. Followed the same process. Finally in March 2023 they called us back and signed the contract. What made it memorable is when the client said “Hari, your consistent and periodic follow ups are the key reason we are signing with you, that shows you are serious about the long term commitment.” This made my day.
It took persistence and patience, but the result is a success. I am not saying every time it might be the same, but there are good chances when you continue to follow up persistently, it will definitely leave an impression.
My friends in Sales are against it. They say that you should follow a template and stop following up post a timeline. Why? Probably because they are in sales and I am a founder?
In Today’s world, every day you see new competition, but how do you differentiate yourself, by being persistent and then demonstrating your loyalty.
Follow up regularly, it does matter and it will matter one day.
In a conference, Seth Godin was speaking about how he managed to bring out so many books, articles and columns which made an impact. He said “The key to being a failure is shipping. Keep shipping your product, article or book even if in your mind its not completed. In the many failures I have had, one of the key things I did was to keep on shipping my work”.
Knowingly or unknowingly, I think even i am doing the same thing. After i decided to write each day for 100 days, no matter if it makes sense or does not, I am writing. Its almost 60 days now and I have not stopped. I have not gained many followers nor did people start interacting with me on my expertise, but all it takes is one good article and one good day, am sure i can make an impact.
Coming to Entrepreneurship or even personally, the key to achieving your goal is to keep on shipping out what you do. It might not be complete, will never be, but you will be making an impact.
There is nothing called completion for any individual, its an ongoing process. Be it a product (thats why we have versions coming out regularly) or writings (updated books are reprinted), the completion is never there. It keeps going.
So, the next time you embark on solving a problem, keep trying out the result every day, don’t procrastinate. Keep it going. It will be a mental pressure for you indirectly and you will keep pushing yourself to bring it to shape.
