The Pivot and what can one learn from it?

Pivot = A change in strategy without a change in vision - this is a term coined by Eric Ries, author of "The Lean startup" has now made this word a business vernacular.

Eric observed some of today's most iconic companies like, YouTube, Twitter, Groupon etc., had abruptly changed course before they became successful. If they hadn't, Twitter would have stuck with audio podcasting, Groupon would've continued organizing political protests (and no one would have heard of them) and YouTube would have been a video dating site. Paypals original mission was to beam IOUs from Palm pilot to Palm Pilot. Flicr grew out of a massive multiplayer online games as a way for players to drop photos into text messages.

Fab.com came out of a failed gay social network called Fabulis. Instagram;s founders created a check-in technology called Blubrn before settling on photos. Pandora was a B2B music recommendation service. Yelp transitioned from email recommendations from friends to a local search and user review website.

They all "Pivoted"

SnapDeal started out as an marketing venture selling discount coupons, and today they are going global. Flipkart wanted to sell mobiles online, but, competing with Amazon and Ebay worldwide.

Change was needed sometime as they evaluated the growth trajectory

Firstly, they were focused on what they wanted and then they Pivoted based on the evaluation on what they believed would serve or earn money.

How much do we Pivot in our offices? in our businesses?

Nokia once made paper and rubber boots. Nintendo sold playing cards. The Marriot chain of hotels which is the largest chain of hotels in the world today, began as a root beer stand in Washington DC.

Microsoft only wanted to make operating systems! IBM used to be a billion-dollar computer manufacturer and now its a billion dollar seller of business services.

What can we learn from this?

Richard Branson published an indie music magazine, Tom Hanks wanted to be a standup comedian, Arnold Shcwarznegger wanted just to be an actor, Sachin Tendulkar wanted to simply play in the Ranaji once before going back to School.

What exactly constitutes a pivot?

Its applicable to everyone, every startup, every business that exists today.

"Clarity breeds mastery - the more clear you are on what you want, the more focussed you can be to achieve that. Everything else will fall in place - Robin Sharma."

So lets all Pivot towards what we want to be. Wherever you are, whoever you are in whatever condition, it can change and get even better.

If you dont plan for your own, then chances are that you will fall into others' plan. Guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

Many things aren't equal but everyone gets the same 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We make time for what we truly want.

It all comes down to focus and effort. If you want something you've never had then you've got to do something you've never done.

No substitute to Risk, Persistence and hardwork. Period

Resist the Naysayers who tell you that you can't do something or indirectly repel your approach. If they laugh at you, or advice you not to do it, tip you to do something else instead, etc,. these are signs you are heading in the right direction.

I'm going after mine, what about you?

Wish you all may have the most productive year, Pivot consciously and grow to your true potential, discover new strengths, scale up in everything that you're doing and go on to make the world a better place!
Happy new year

regards
Maddy

Power of Nothingness

Everything started with absolute nothing! the stars, the galaxies the world! they were all a small particle in the infinity! they were nothing!

The universe has got its power to create a flow, just like metamorphosis or a cycle just like the black hole or the nebula!

Success is pure physics! Success is scientific. What we become, what we create, whom we serve is all a process of what we think!

Let me prove this to you in layman terms.

Imagine a pressure cooker. Yes the one they use to cook rice. Consider what a grain of rice in boiling water and high pressure steam will go through as heat is applied externally. Raw rice changes its form into boiled rice. We call this a natural phenomenon. Simple isnt it?

Heat applied boils water and converts it into steam, steam pressure builds up and thus the end result is achieved.

Take any example, where a natural phenomenon forces a change. Global warming, Green water table, Soil erosion, Evolution etc., are some examples of changes. Man evolved from an Ape due to force applied externally causing a change. A goat evolved to a Giraffe trying to chew on a leave taller and harder to reach!

Channeled Force + Time = Successful Change!

Now imagine yourself standing in a park. Imagine an aerial view of yourself from the sky, then zoom yourself out to see the whole earth, then the entire solar system, and the whole of our galaxy, and then the whole of nebulae spiral, and finally perhaps an entire universe. Imagine the universe to be a huge big box. I dont know whats outside of that box, but lets focus on whats inside of it. Because thats where we are.

We are just a tiny particle in the huge universe, agree?

Let me deviate a bit and draw you to some more visualization - Imagine, how gravitational collapse creates an interstellar medium, this chain reaction induces supernova explosion due to the ionization of energy of gravity and heat combined with carbon and elements a neuron star takes birth!

Star that has a force, force of gravity that is acting across the universe. This attracts particles, law of mass - big bodies attract small bodies. - In some way like this in layman terms, earth was formed along with other planets in the solar system. Ionization caused ionosphere, thus we have a blanket of atmosphere. This act of gravity and ionization and change induces, evolution!

One fine day, organisms and microbes evolve and during the course of time, humans like you and me have evolved and we continue to evolve in the force of nature and threads of time.

Lets go back to that Rice example that I gave you. Think from the Rice's perspective. Rice harnessed the power of universe, well it didn't have much of a choice. But to get a bit more anatomical, the atoms in the molecules of that rice grain were covalently bonded with the hydrogen and oxygen electrons due to a high pressure environment.

How are we different to other particles? You agreed above that we are nothing but just a tiny particle!
There is energy flowing through us, all the time! Energy of the vast infinite universe! Powerful and mysterious force that when channeled can bring in change.

Thus we have the power to harness the power of nothingness! We are a part of this universe, we are a physical body in a meta physical world with continuous forces of nature are constantly acting on us and all laws of physics known to man applies!

We have a choice, how we channel the energy to open up our minds, how to renew our spirits, and open up limitless possibilities for breakthroughs in every aspect of life! is why we have perhaps we have been given this life, it is that same force that you and me are here, you and me have evolved to be here! and it is why that the power is us, within us!

Its never too late no matter where you are or what you are! Start now and focus on what you really want, use your mind, and let the universe do the job for you.

Like the saying goes "if you deserve it, the universe will serve it"! you just have to think without doubts, believe without fear and work without lethargy!

We often chase conceptual dreams of wealth and short term fame and success. It is a blindness prevalent due to the dark matter in the universe (google out dark matter) that prevents the energy manifold! Open up, think bigger.

Look at the sky, see how vast and infinite it is! This sky is your mind, this ionosphere is the abundance of space provided for your thoughts to flow, to give back into the world, to contribute, to channel the transfer of energy you are that particle medium! Let the vastness flow, let yourself become an extraordinary being of luminescent power who can create, who can resolve, who can save, who can protect, who can spread the energy, happiness and thus become success beyond imagination and measure!

Go get your piece of the world, create your own pressure, make your own break, your own change! I'm on the journey of creating mine!

thanks for reading.

rgds
Maddy

Friends most memorable musical moments

Remember the Copacabana?

2. Ross's Sound

3.smelly cat smelly cat

And then there was the space oddity

Phoebe's bathroom song

The Mixed Tape :)

Hi Again, the cow in the meadow goes moo!! HILLARIOUS!!

will share some more of friends on my next blog...

hope you enjoyed it

New Motivating Entrepreneur Quotes

These bits of motivation and power are needed as a daily dosage to all those struggling and fighting entrepreneurs.

These quotes are sourced from http://www.incomediary.com (Courtesy)

The longer you’re not taking action the more money you’re losing – Carrie Wilkerson

If you live for weekends or vacations, your shit is broken – Gary Vaynerchuk

Go Big, or Go Home – Eliza Dushku

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure -Napoleon Hill 

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work – Thomas Edison

Have the end in mind and every day make sure your working towards it – Ryan Allis

He who begins many things finishes but few – German Proverb

The best use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it – William James

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance – Derek Bok

Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t – A student in Warren G. Tracy’s class

Lend your friend $20, if he doesn’t pay you back then he’s not your friend. Money well spent – Ted Nicolas

Be nice to geek’s, you’ll probably end up working for one – Bill Gates

To never forget that the most important thing in life is the quality of life we lead – Quoted by Tony Hsieh on Retireat21

Its better to own the racecourse then the race horse – Unknown

When you go to buy, don’t show your silver - Chinese Proverb

It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission – Grace Hopper

To win without risk is to triumph without glory - Corneille

Example is not the main thing in influencing other people; it’s the only thing – Abraham Lincoln

Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company – Booker T. Washington

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great – Mark Twain

There is only one success–to be able to spend your life in your own way – Christopher Morley

You don’t buy a nice car and get rich you get rich and buy a nice car – Unknown

Fall seven times, stand up eight - Japanese Proverb

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching – Mooie

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve - Dr. Napoleon Hill

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work – Thomas Alva Edison

If you ain’t making waves, you ain’t kickin’ hard enough – Unknown

What is not started will never get finished – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Do not wait to strike until the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking - William B. Sprague

When you cease to dream you cease to live - Malcolm Forbes

My 5 Favourite Quotes From Films

Shawshank Redemption

Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying.

Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies

Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.

American Gangster

The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room

When Huey Lucas flaunted his Nicky Barnes-like superfly outfit at a nightclub, Frank stepped in and dressed down his dressed-out brother. Frank told his brother he was “making too much noise” by wearing a “clown suit” that acted as a billboard to the police advertising, “Arrest me.”

Catch Me If You Can

Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Life’s simple. You make choices and you don’t look back.

Forrest Gump

My Mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.

To our success in 2009,

Michael Dunlop

Hope you enjoyed it

thank you

Maddy

A Prayer for Peace

Asathoma Sathgamaya - From ignorance, lead me to truth
Thamasoma jyothir gamaya - From darkness, lead me to light
Mrityorma Amritam Gamaya - From death, lead me to immortality
Om shanthi, shanti, shanti - Om peace, peace peace

This was my school prayer. Beautiful isnt it?

Is there religion in it? NO

Is there caste in it? NO

Its what our civilization that derived this and taught us this as education. Its an upanishad excerpt you may associate this with Hinduism, but know this that Hinduism is not a religion. Its a civilization. Its a virtue of science and practice.

Annadata Sukhinobhava - May the one who provided me with food live in prosperity!

What a nice thought. Do you see religion or caste or creed here? They dont exist in the mind of the one who practiced this. Such is the greatness of Hindutva.

Maatru devo bhava. Pitru Devo bhava, Acharya devo bhava. Athithi devo bhava. - Respects to Mother, Father, Guru and Guest. They are all forms of God

Is there religion in it? NO

Is there caste in it? NO

Still we have communalists in our country.

Why so much of hate? Why Hindu, why Muslim?

Some restrict kids from going to a hindu origin school, some restrict from going to a christian school.

Our practices are beautiful, our actions aren't.

Above all that we are, we are Indians.

Look at our Economy!

downstriding GDP. Ever declining Assets, growing liabilities. 69% fiscal deficit - this means we are to pay double the money of what we collect from taxes. 1,83,028 crores of tax was collected this year, to clear the deficit we have to pay 2x times this money and still have the interest payable. Cost for growth is high, FDI is struggling to meet growing demands of food. Farmer mortality rate is on the rise. Consensus are alarming. Inflation is showing a upward stride.

Want numbers? check this - http://www.finmin.nic.in/stats_data/monthly_economic_report/

When we have so much to fight for amongst us, then why not fight together and show our strengths towards one direction?

We have so much to create, to rebuild, renovate, innovate, excavate and celebrate. An opportunity to create a whole new world! And all we do is work selfishly, own desirably and live materialistically.

 Let there be light. Let there be truth. Let there be peace. Because what we have today, isn't ours. Still we fight as if we inherited them. Our country is a gift by those who sacrificed their lives.

So I pray -

Asathoma Sathgamaya - From ignorance, lead me to truth
Thamasoma jyothir gamaya - From darkness, lead me to light
Mrityorma Amritam Gamaya - From death, lead me to immortality
Om shanthi, shanti, shanti - Om peace, peace peace

The power of being different

Many successful people you may know have definitely done something differently to become successful. Examining them further, we observe that - to become someone who is capable of achieving something that is new and different, these successful people had to think differently. They had to think' themselves' to be different. They constantly kept thinking about THINKING differently. If one cant THINK DIFFERENT and BE DIFFERENT then how can he/she make a difference in this world?
Does thinking different give one any guarantee of being successful? Well nothing is guaranteed in real world is it? But it sure does sets one in the right path towards success. 

You may not believe this but - just thinking about being different alone embarks one on a remarkable journey to become a better person. Lets see how being different makes you an attractive, productive, successful and a learned person.

Accomplishments are based on actions. Accomplishments are not directly based on thoughts. Socrates said "what your mind can conceive you can achieve". This has been proven true. But thoughts are the core of taking action. Without thinking about something one would not do it.
Achievement starts with an idea, a perspective, a reason or a point of view or sometimes even just an attitude.

Many a times the easiest way to be different is to do what others are unwilling to do.
Sometimes you may not want to achieve something big and famous, yet thinking different solves the purpose of winning daily hassles that happen to ordinary people too.

Let me share a story -
When a company I knew laid off many employees, everyone were in distress, anxious about what career option to do next, and utterly worried. Among all these, there was one colleague John (name changed), whom all employees openly knew was under-paid and his salary was less compared to the rest.
John was the only happy guy in the distressed lot. He had worked in that company for 12 years, he has had a couple of promotions, used a black and white mobile phone, rode a well maintained 100CC old bike that still gave 65 KMPL mileage, was a father of two middle school going children - yet on the day of his lay off he was some how normal and not worried about loosing the job like the others or running into a financial crisis etc., at all.

It was because, John did things differently. When everyone kept spending in buying their favorite mobile phone, gadgets, automobile, clothing, as they spent on parties, clubs, travel and many other luxuries, John stuck to his principle. His principle was to save 70% of his salary no matter what.
12 years after his investments that compounded had accounted to about 1.7 Crore Rupees.
This way of doing things differently has worked wonders for me too.
Try this for quick results - Try to pick one thing other people won't do. It can be simple, low value, small. It doesn't matter. Whatever it is you think many don't do it, because they find it difficult - You do it. Instantly you'll be a little different from the rest of the pack.

Then continue and keep going. Everyday, think of one thing to do that no one else is willing to do. For example, drinking 6 bottles of water regularly or taking bus to work instead of your car or take up backpacking alone for a week to an adventurous place. etc., After a week of doing this you'll be uncommon person. After a month you are special. After a year you'll be incredible and you will definitely NOT be like anyone else. You have thus directed your thoughts towards achieving more accomplishments.

That for you - is power of being different!

How to make money when you dont have a job - The Secret of Freelancing

I wanted to share some helpful tips I learnt scaling all the way up to be ranked as no.1 freelancer on some popular freelancing websites today.

It all started about 8 or 9 years ago. I will cut that story short but I did not get into freelancing because I wanted a job. I have always been employed ever since I started working full time when I was 18. 11 years now it has been and freelancing has become a part of pride, passion, learning and fun.

Many years ago, I wanted to find ways to write, give my hobby of writing wings, write amazing things that all those who encouraged me would enjoy and motive me more. But most importantly I wanted to write and get more readers to what I write. I wrote blogs, I still do blogs and as you can see I suck at it. I only got about 18 thousand readers past year.

Imagine writing an article for someone who gets 80 thousand readers in a week? Or he publishes your writing into a book? Awesome isn't it? this is what I felt and I started writing.

I wrote to many content sites, starting cbronline.com; bloomberg (in their initial days of health and wealth mags), readersden, eblog, elanor, cathay, and numerous others.

slowly I ventured into web development, web designing, SEO, SMM and so on.

What I achieved out of this is a sense of confidence that I can still make money and not be dependant on job salary.

Here are some secret tips I wanted to share on freelancing.

1. Do what you know or love doing: Dont waste time buying a franchise business, instead sell a skill you know. Ramesh Raj (Name changed) a friend of mine who was laid off last year from a data analyst job found himself struggling in a hotel franchisee.
Offlate he started pitching his services to Educational institutions, financial organizations and guess what? He has landed a cool consultant gig and as a freelancer, not as an employee.


2. Spend Judiciously: Things are very costly these days. You might want to buy a Apple Mac instead of a windows 7 or windows 8. Buy Apple only if you have specific reasons to go for it, else settle for what will get the job done. Remember the key is to keep enough money in the bank as savings.
I want to start an Internet Radio. I have all the information I need. But I still need a 10 MBPS connection with a Xenon Server running Windows and a media streaming server subscription. Plus the hardware cost of a 4 channel mixer, mike, phone line, legal registrations etc., are separate.
But I know that on day 1 of my launch I will have 5000 subscribers and according to my business model I would break-even in the 3rd quarter itself. Yet I will go for second hand products where necessary and cut as much costs as possible

3. Bid with a demo:  If you are bidding on a freelance website and not getting that job is because you have done nothing better than everyone else. Its not flowery english or flattery words that win bids. Its your readiness. Sometime ago I landed a exciting job on peopleperhour.com. The job was to transcript a interview of a Doctor and a professor. It was a 40 minute interview for $80. I saw that there were already 15 bids made for it by the time I saw it. Yet, I got that job.What did I do differently? I transcribed 20 minutes of that interview and said " I have done half of your job, I will finish the other half in 30 minutes. Let me know if you are interested, pay me that 80$ you have quoted" thats all it was.
Preparation always pays.

4. Create Digital Footprints: you have to be a star. you have to be an expert. You have to be reliable. So set up your freelancing project history and your customer feedback in as many places as possible. For some, if they dont find you on google you dont exist. Some customers can become your Anchor clients and work with you for a long time. They become your Anchor clients based on your digital presence.
So write blogs, write articles, be on social media sites, showcase your work, share your masterpieces, offer help to others, do less time taking work for free, gain contacts, network with people, make an impression and thus your digital foot print will be made. It will not happen overnight, this has to be earned slowly over a period of time.

5. Integrity: Lastly, you have to be truthful. Do as committed. Under-promise and Over-deliver. dont take up things you cant finish. Dont depend on others to finish a job. Do it yourself, and do it to perfection. Do not limit yourself to one skill alone. I am sure one can do anything from repairing a laptop, being a virtual assistant, copy editing, book keeping, translating, transcribing, writing, developing, troubleshooting and tones of many more stuff that can be done on freelancing and get paid legitimately. Integrity and Consistency is KEY!
To myself I keep telling "Dont get complacent, keep working harder." this has helped too.

Hope these tips will help you well if you are on that track of freelancing


Thank you
Regards
Maddy

Chinese Cusine

For no reason, this is my first post on this blog page since december 2013. It took so long to come back here. Writing here meant the most as compared to me writing in other blogs and articles on various other pages I do as a hobby/passion. But, it has taken 6 months to make this comeback to this blog today. I was busy, I still am very busy. My close friends and family would complain that I am lost!
I have been writing a lot, but not writing here.
This blog post has been in existence for a long time now and I have always loved writing. May be because there are no rules here and I can make mistakes, get childish, playful and get more stupid at the way I think and express.

 But enough about me, I have something thought provoking to talk about. That's why I am here.

In the summer of 2012, five top super star American companies bid on a project for a demanding, famous, revenue generating client: THE CIA! (Cental Intelligence Agency) The American spy agency funded by the Government and the UNOs, was collecting too much data and information that its computers could not keep up. To deal with this massive onslaught of data, the CIAs CIOs and CTOs saw the need to scale up their infrastructure and build its own high secure private cloud data center. A second to none version of vast fleets of efficient, adaptable, reliable, redundant and secure servers that could run complex services. For the Agency the power of cloud was tempting and tantalizing.

They decided to put this open for bidding. Whoever won the bidding would get a 10 year $600Million contract and they would spend five times of that on data analytics and data security. A mouth watering deal brought many bidders.

IBM was one of two finalists. But Amazon won the deal.

The pioneer ecommerce company hard butted a century old IBM out of competition from a dream deal.
Today Amazon has successfully met CIAs requirements, but there is an important lesson for the rest of the world.

As quoted in Bloomberg "No single deal encapsulates a 103-year-old company with a market capitalization of $185 billion. But the CIA butt kicking is a microcosm of larger problems IBM is having as it struggles to adapt to the cloud era, in which clients large and small rent technology cheaply over the Internet instead of buying costly fixed arrays. Under Rometty’s leadership, revenue has declined for eight consecutive quarters, a period when most of corporate America has flourished. In January, after a year in which IBM was the only company in the Dow Jones industrial average whose shares lost value, Rometty and her top executives turned down their annual bonuses, worth in her case as much as $8 million. (Rometty, 56, who goes by Ginni, declined to be interviewed for this article.)"

1. IBM is not able to cope up with technology?
2. Top executives turned down their bonuses and saved 8 million dollars! WTF?
3. Rometty doesnt want to comment? 8 consecutive quarters Revenue has declined!
4. Cloud taking over what was once physically present on earth!

What did Amazon have that IBM did not? Chinese developers and American Management.  Indians are customer support nothing beyond that. So this means Amazon, a American company has Chinese products for the American CIA.

Lesson: Tides are changing. Everything is changing. WE have to change too!
There are many such examples. These companies are like humans too. Like they acquire other companies, we have to keep on acquiring new stuff. Like they have a strategy, vision, goal, mission statement, we need to have one too and keep on evolving it on a timely basis. We all have stakeholders, we have customers called friends and family, we have investors whom we call bosses and managers. we are answerable and this we have to keep on improving. 

Let me quickly tell you something else thats a bit deviating. Another comparo of whats happening somewhere else that looks like it has nothing to do with us or our lives and yet, how its directly proportional and related to us and our future.
Last weekend about 10 million Chinese students took the National University Entrance Exam known as Gaoko. In comparison, 1.5 Million students taking SAT or 1.2 million taking IIT JEE exam in India.

Thats right. China is that big. They can beat a country like India by sheer numbers.

You know how many kids make their own mobile phones? Think of those Chinese mobile phones, guess where they come from? who makes them? Chinese kids! ofcourse! There is more than that. They make every product that possibly exists in China and most importantly THEY SELL IT outside of China. Funny eh? Plus they know Kung Fu by birth! (joke)
And you thought only Jackie chan's and Bruce Lees are awesome!

China is way ahead from India in every measure. I am not talking out of thin air here. I can support this statement with data in every field. China is big, everything they do is bigger.

For the 3 or 4 messaging apps like hike, whatsapp and others we use in India, there are 150+ messaging apps and over 50 of them have more than 2 to 3 million users. They have their own facebook like social networking sites, their own twitter and their own video sharing platform. Unlike India, we only have shaadi.com and nothing more than that. China have everything Chinese, it makes a sort of an Encryption for people outside china to know whats going on in China! They can do anything and get away with it, google translator struggles to translate and its only 65% accurate. Fertilizers to machinery, automobile, education, breweries, agriculture, tools, their own coca cola too and everything else, they have their own brands, their own way of doing it. Thats where their economy is sturdy and stronger unlike our country's swarm of foreign brands.

If I were a startup I would look for China for innovation and startup ideas.
Anyway, the reason I brought China and IBM is because somewhere we are stalling behind unless we do something about all this.

I was talking about Change. We all have to change. And change cant be overnight.

All we have to do is three things
First let our kids know the value of our culture, heritage and history.
Second the next generation should not chase materialistic things instead they should be chasing entrepreneurial dreams of contributing something to this world and becoming an expert in their area of interest.
Lastly, as current generation, we have to leave behind better footprints to follow for the next gen kids so its important we see clearly why it is not good to violate traffic rules, why its bad to dirty our roads, why its important to recycle, why its good to wear seat belts and many trillions of such small things that are overlooked but are very important.

Else, get ready for China to take over the jobs and while India will remain a under developed country! No Modi can do nothing if we cant change from within! 

Just something top of mind I thought I will share. Not that I woke up to wipe off some creative dust. Hope you got some food for thought :)

Leave your comments below.
thank you