What Does “The New Way To Work” Mean To You?

Three minutes after he woke up ,he stood by the windows of his bed room,looking through the small steel bars which constituted the windows.He saw a violet sky and a serene atmosphere, the whole world was silent and beautiful,few seconds later, he realized two things – it was early in the morning and Life is Beautiful.When he started from home after thirty minutes,he walked in the roads of that place.He saw that the doors were open in many of the homes in that street.He thought, there must not have been an incident of theft in that place, ever.It made him chuckle.The dogs did not bark at him, they are accustomed to see him walking early in the morning, every time he visits that place.

He lived in that place and often visits it when the time permits him to.He has a house where nobody lives except at times when he visits.Every person in that place knows him.He was helped by every single soul in that place ever since he lost his parents at a very young age.He sat under a big oak tree with his macbook and pondered on what he has to do for that day.His Calendar program showed him 4 interesting assignments planned for that day.A Complete architecture of a proposed building at a major city in a near by country , A Creative advertisement for a new production company , Screen play writing for scenes 12 & 13 for a new movie titled ‘Make it tonight’ and an Idea Storm discussion for his new Business venture ‘ Black Shadows’. While he was thinking about them, He saw a family approaching to their home with a purpose for the day.They looked at him strangely, but with a smile.It didn’t last long and they passed soon later.

When he thought about all the strange looks given by the fellow humans on him,He realized that he never belonged a Community or an organization or a Collective entity.He was never sent to school.He learnt the languages through his friends, talks given by the graduates of that place , social service workers, books from the Library and the gifted books from the Charity Organizations.Most of his wisdom and Common sense are through his hearing and Observation.He observed everything with meticulousness and passion. Though he was an orphan, the people of that place thought of him as a gifted kid, a gifted man.

He remembered , “As a young kid , he has traveled to the near by cities and wandered in the streets exploring the monstrousness of the cities.He served in the hotels for food.He learnt Geography and History of the world , through the visitors of the Hotel and by their talks.Once on a holiday , When he stood opposite to the brick manufacturing company, He wanted to work for it. He mastered the techniques of it in two days.He thought,” How non-living things work with perfect harmony when guided by a mind with a purpose of creation.He then moved on and joined several companies and worked for it as long as he mastered the nuances of the operations of the company.Each of them was different.”

As days went on, He mastered architecture,He learned Maths and Physics and was passionate about Advertising and Computers and Writing.He lived every moment of his Life.He often felt ,”He is excited to be alive”.

When he was lost in thoughts, His macbook showed him ,It was eight O’Clock in the morning and the sun confirmed it.There was movement of people between the roads and there were small talks between them and the strange looks on him. He wore an Orange and White pin striped half-sleeve shirt tucked inside a blue trousers.He thought, “Why he never belonged to any particular collective entity called – School,University or Company.He thought , may be , He belonged to the entire world. He thanked all the graduates Who, during their holidays, gave talks on several things they learnt , to the kids of that place.”

He thought,”People work because they want to earn money for their living and for their needs, to spend time , and to satisfy their quest of achieving their dreams , to gain intellectual and social pleasure. Since work occupies almost the entire life-span of a person, everyone needs intellectual and Social pleasure at work.” He wondered How he was able to enjoy those pleasures even if he never belonged to any particular collective entity.He defined “Social pleasure” as a relationship to the society you live in and the relationship with your friends, and collegues and it is to satisfy one’s Heart and “Intellectual pleasure” is to satisfy one’s mind.He always felt and worked as an independent Creator,ever since he was able to. He thought ,”The passion to do is more when one is independent because behind every action there could be three reasons : 1) Under Compulsion 2) for Recognition 3) to one’s own satisfaction. When one is independent , the reason is always your own satisfaction of doing the things which brings out a perfect creation.”

He often thought ,” Companies should always be a platform of bringing many independent creators together, for the world of billions of people from various cultures , and for their needs”.

He chuckled , When he thought that,”The transformation of the world is happening right in front of his eyes and the percentage of Independent creators are increasing rapidly. He appreciated the evolution of the world and the way the ‘work’ is seen across the world and How that evolution has helped him to be part of many prosperous industries like – Architecture, Design , Advertising , Writing and his own Business !!! and How it has helped him to live his live the way he wanted to live not letting or compelling him to compromise on things just for the sake of making money and How it has helped him to add new dimensions to him as a Writer , Designer , Architect , CEO and so on.He thought that the new way to work is to be an Independent Creator with the freedom to choose the work at your own will and with your passion.”

When he started back to home from that place, He saw a team of boys playing football in the near by ground. He said himself , When he visits that place next time, He will teach them “Set Theory in Maths”.On his way back home , He wished , when those boys start working , the world will be in a state where this evolution and transformation has reached its peak.

To the love and freedom of the Humanity.
The above is a post for the Contest by Elance.

Its Monday again…

Irrespective of where you come from , No matter whether you are working in a Govt entity or in a private Organization , Regardless of the Industry and the position at which you work, you may have a uncomfortable & fearful feeling about Monday. If you nodded your head as ‘yes’ or if you silently grunted as ‘hmmm’ you belong to a broader community of this world – who also have this kind of phobia.

I never liked monday since my sixth class, I hated it for two reasons one is that I will not have holidays for 5 consecutive days and the other is that there was nothing interesting in school.Every sunday evening I have felt as if the entire happy universe is coming to an end. Sunday evening sunset meant so many things to me. Unfinished homework , haunting lectures , tiresome journey for the next week. This fear factor continued in college and also in the profession till day and will continue for the rest of life unless and until…

The fear sets in, in my opinion, because one cannot be free as long as he / she has to report to someone. Like if you don’t like working on a day because the climate is too good and you would love to spend it reading Jane Austen’s novels or watching Steven Spielberg’s movies or listening to Rahman’s music, you may not be able to!!! as you may have to report to your superior at your workplace. More simply , you cannot be yourself , at all times. You will have to adjust to the environment, especially at work.

Those who do not want to report to someone , become individual creators and work for their customers. They don’t have to report to anyone , everything is in their hand: every decision , every penny.

I have imagined at times – What would the world be!!! – if it is filled with individual creators and only with Individual creators – with No corporates , no big organizations – except for the government entities. In real time , it may not be possible as perception in minds differ.Some may want to work in a big company because the perks are high and the reputation is good and some may not realize that they are potential creators and some may think that its not worth living life this way but the ratio of individuals creators with the rest is exponentially increasing nowadays. There are freelancers in every industry and in every geographical region.

Some succeed at it with passion and intelligence and they start companies to manage and to satisfy their customer’s needs and they inspire others to join their company.

If you have read it completely from the beginning – It might seem that it is a cycle.a circle.It comes back where it started.

My wish is that someday i would not report to anyone and would not want anyone to report to me. What would I become then?!

The Presence of mind @ Work

The Objective of this writing is, certainly , not to impress anyone. When you get a thought hundreds of times a day , and if you are convinced that this is worth sharing, you just can’t get away with it. The outcome is – this writing. The Objective of this writing will be obvious when you finish reading the entire content.

If I asked you what is the most amazing thing to you – I would get different answers as each of us is unique and our individuality differs. There is one thing that most of us would not deny as the most amazing thing – The power of the Human Brain and the Intelligence of a person.

Philosophically , Intelligence is the presence of mind with the appropriate information and How it helps to solve the problems / issues / open up a mystery. To imagine , We can think of these three entities as concentric circles of varying radius at various times : Information , Presence of Mind, Intelligence. The Presence of Mind makes one smarter.And the truth is – Everyone likes Smart People.

Mohammed Siddiq had a note in his desk, “ If I have 20 hours to cut a tree , I would spend 16 hrs sharpening my axe” – These are very famous words. It’s been a long time since we sharpened our brain. It was those times at college , when we prepared for our aptitude and quantitative skills. Some of us would have had the opportunity to attend some thinking activities and to participate in some thinking exercises : Lateral thinking , Problem solving , Puzzle solving and logical debates and so on. We would have appreciated ourselves when we were able to solve some of the problems and we enjoyed working in a team when we contributed to the solutions. It’s an enlightening fact that we enjoyed those times. It’s a been a long time though !!!.

Hariharasudhan Ramanathan does solve Sudoku every morning – When I asked him – Why do you do that ? He said that it’s a good way to start a day. Any thinking exercises will help improve our presence of mind and intelligence. Which is very much required in Business and at work. Harishankar has got Good Presence of Mind – His influence has also made our friends to be conscious and sharp.

There were so many smart solutions because of presence of mind or intelligence : I was fascinated by two of them. First , Astronauts had a tough time to write something in space as the space lacked gravity. The pens that they took to the space did not write because the ink did not flow from top to bottom; there was no gravity. Some scientists spent a considerable amount of money and time to invent a pen which can be used in space for writing but the smart Russians did use pencil instead of Pen. The Presence of mind is staying at the problem always – In this case , the problem was not that the astronauts did not have a pen – The problem was that they wanted something to write in space. It’s not the pen but the writing .Second , Soap manufacturers had this problem – that in the delivery line there were some soap boxes which did not have soaps inside it. About 2-3 % of soap boxes that were delivered to the retail stores or to the Customers did not contain soap. It was a huge blow to the reputation of the Soap manufacturers. One firm spent time and money to invent a sensor which would send some detectible rays through the soap boxes that are on the delivery line and detect whether the soap was really inside or not and another smart firm kept a fan which blew air on soap boxes that were on the delivery line – The blew of air from the fan removed all the empty soap boxes from the delivery line. Smart- aren’t these solutions ?

I cannot end this thought without saying about Drupad Patel – He was my manager at Charlotte. He was sharp and intelligent. What impressed me was that He always asked right questions at the right time. If normally, a person takes n minutes to write an email , he would take n + x minutes to write an email which is copied / sent to Drupad. He would spend that extra x minutes especially to answer or to provide all the information that Drupad will ask in his reply email after few minutes the email has reached him. The same thing happens whenever he joins a Bridgeline. Simply put , Drupad demanded respect by his Presence of Mind.

Presence of Mind – or Asking right questions at right time is something that we can obtain by self-training and by observing and learning from people who have already attained it.

Nagendra Gudipati , my friend at Charlotte, used to burn lights at work. I asked him once – Why do you spend so much time being awake ?– He told me casually that he is training himself to stay long at work and somehow those words convinced me that it’s possible to train ourselves to do anything. As Adidas and Nike say : Impossible is Nothing and Just do It.

Of course, Its practically difficult not to have any assumptions at work but It is possible to assume only a very few things and only if it demands in cases where – Perhaps, Assumption is the only way to move forward or to step ahead. The more we assume the more we become blunt because we can assume almost the entire thing as perfect or as expected and that leaves no room for improvement or for Progress. The point is – If it is possible not to assume – and if we can get information / answers to our questions – Why do we have to?

Presence of mind is – Thinking about the Consequences / effects / action points when the other communicates – at the pace of the other involved in the Communication. Simply put, asking the right questions at right time. If we could demonstrate this at few instances – Everyone who works with us will be very conscious and cautious and they will spend more time in getting answers for the questions that we will ask – as Drupad and many others were able to.

What do you think – Should we do?

Organization(or Team) and its Success depends on the people it posses and how it nurtures them. To be competitive at work (to be a pyramid of proper shape) – apart from having commitment (to accomplish the task – synonymous to the base of the pyramid ) – One should also be equally competitive in the 4 walls of the pyramid too – Technology , Business , Communication and Intellectual ability – We have been forgetting the last, steadily, at a constant rate.

Together , If we could demonstrate these at work – We demand respect neither by asking nor by requesting but by the way the work is done. Whoever works with us will know that they have to be extra-conscious and cautious.

When Everything is said and done!! , What we would have achieved is – Excellence.