Catch me if you can.. A story and corporate lessons

One day when kasyap’s father woke up and came out he saw that his goat is missing. He thought that the goat might have gone out thru the gate that was open.  He is worried and he asked his neighbor ‘Hello Rao did you see my goat anywhere’ No replied Rao. Why don’t you check in the fields, it might be grazing there suggested Rao.

‘Yes I will go right now’ and he called Kasyap and said ‘Kasyap our goat is missing and why don’t you go looking in the village if you can find it. Also take your friends with you so they can help you find it quickly’

‘Ok Dad ‘said Kasyap and he goes out to meet his other friends.

‘Our goat is missing Gopal, can we all search for it?  Some thief must have stolen the goat.’  Asked kasyap.

‘Yes we should catch that thief like detectives’ said Gopal excited about catching a thief.

‘Let’s go and meet our gang and let’s do the detective work’ said kasyap.

So they went and met the remaining friends and all started going around every house.

‘Hey that one looks like our goat’ said when they saw one in some ones house. Kasyap went near the goat and the goat yelled out loadly ‘MEEEEEEEEIII’

‘Hey kids what you are doing. Are you stealing my goat?  Go away or I will hit you’ yelled the house owner.

‘No this one is not your goat Let’s go ‘ said Renu and they went looking in other house.

Meanwhile Pinki saw a goat grazing nearby. ‘Hey there is your goat I think kasyap’  Let catch it’.  They ran towards the goat and the goat jumped up and down with sudden rush of kids towards it and hit a cyclist coming on the road and ran in to the street.

“What the heck????????’ yelled the cyclist while falling down? Hey you kids why did you shout like that? Raising his hands to hit the kids he yelled.

‘Run Run before he catches us ‘yelled  charan. They ran towards the goat again. Meanwhile the goat is now under panic and just rushed into a tea stall and hit the stove where the tea owner balaraj is brewing tea.

“Mommyyyyyyyy’ he yelled in pain when the hot tea fell on his feat. The goat than ran out to wards the opposite house.

‘You idiots why are you scaring that goat like that’ who will pay for the tea ? and who will pay for the burns on my legs ‘  the tea stall owner yelling in pain ran to catch renu who was near by.

‘Hey Run ………’ yelled Govind  ‘he will hit us ………’

Everybody started running away from the tea owner and Renu was so scared that she did not see that the lady walking with a pot of milk on her head. She dashed her and the lady fell down and the pot broke with milk flowing on the street. ‘Are you nuts can’t you see me?  I lost all my milk?  Who will pay for it? I will have to go to your house to collect the money’ yelled the lady who is so upset with this. Renu is now more scared and ran faster. All the friends finally came to a junction and where grasping for breathe since they ran so fast. Meanwhile they saw the goat.

‘This stupid goat brought us this trouble’ Let’s catch it’ said Gopal.

‘No this time we should surround it and then catch it together‘said Pinki

‘Yes let’s do that’ we should silently go all around it and catch it’ said Renu. I ‘m afraid to go home now since I hit that milk lady and my father will be upset with me’ she said angrily looking at the goat.

So they slowly surround the goat and plunge together as Gopal counted 1,2 3

‘THUD……..’ the sound of kids falling on to the ground was heard. The goat is too strong for them to hold on and it just jumped out of their collective hands and ran again.

“My nose……it’s hurting now’  Said Kasyap

‘so my hand too” said Pinki…

‘My knees are hurting’      said Renu.

‘‘This stupid goat made us fall ‘we should never let her go. ‘ said Charan spitting the sand that went into his mouth when he fell down.

‘Yes see all the sand and dust went into my nose …….AAACHIIIIIIIIIII’ Sneezed Gopal.

Now all the friends are furious and they thought they should have a proper plan to catch.

‘See how the goat is looking at us. ‘Pointing her finger Pinki said.

‘Yes it is teasing us we have to catch it’ said Charan.

‘Let get a rope and tie one side as a knot and we catch the goat with her neck in the knot’ what do you say’ said Gopal.

‘Yes let’s do it’. So all friends found a big rope and they made a big knot and they together swirled it towards the goat and finally got her by the neck. But the goat is now scared and know that this kids are not leaving her alone and confused started pulling the thread and the children along with it.

‘Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh what’s going on this goat is pulling all of us’ pinki yelled.

Hold it,  hold it tight’ yelled Gopal trying to stand on his feet.

‘wooooooooooooooooo  yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  hhheeeeeeeeeeeee’ charan is now on the ground along wth Renu, Pinki and Govind. Kasyap while Gopal tried to stand and they fell down too. Together the goat started pulling them thru the streets and all the villagers are  confused whether the friends are playing or something went wrong with the goat.

‘Hey what the heck are you kids doing’ Leave the goat alone’ shouted a villager’

‘Thud   Dammaaaaaaaaaaaal            DOMMMMMMMMM, MEAWWWWWWWWWWW, BOWBOWBOW’ Dogs got scared and starting barking.

Now the Goat  is hitting the cyclists dogs and cats on the road. The traffic on the road is now running helter skelter and nobody has any clue what’s going on.

“How dare you dashed me’ yelled one villager and hit the cyclist with a stick

‘Are you mad why you hit me? You stupid fellow. The goat made me fell don’t you see that’ and he punches the other guy. The other villager falls on the pots nearby and some of the pots rolled on to the street and broke. Now the pot owner is mad at this man and hits him. They started fighting and some of the fellow people joined them and all went into a fight. Now many more villagers joined the fight and nobody has any clue why they are all fighting each other.

By now the goat has dragged the friends so much they are having injuries and having pain. They left the rope and roll over to the side of the road.

“it hurts me more now. This stupid goat  GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE’ yelled Pinki,

‘It’s all your fault with your stupid idea. Gopal’ Yelled  at Renu . Renu hits Gopal.

‘How dare you hit me’ shouted Gopal and hit Renu. Renu escapes and Charan gets the hit.

He falls down and was so furious that he jumps on Gopal and while jumping hits Kasyap.

By now everybody are hitting each other and finally they all got tired and had blood on their faces knees and hands and all have become dirty.

Meanwhile the goat is still around running here and there and everybody of the friends felt like the goat is teasing them a ‘Catch me if you can’………..

They are all slowly stated walking back home and by the time they reached Renu’s house the milk lady and other villagers are waiting for them angry and complaining on them to the parents of Renu.

“why did you all do this’ asked Renu’s father.

‘Uncle My father asked to find the missing goat so we found him and tried to catch it we did not purposely hit the tea stall owner or milk lady. The stupid goat did this. Look how we are all hurt by the goat. “ Sorry”  said kasyap.

Now the villagers know what has happened. Meanwhile Kasyap’s father came looking for him and asked where they went. Kasyap and others told him what happened.

‘But our goat is already in the house. It got lost to our neighbors house that is two houses away from our house. Whose goat are you guys trying to catch? Asked kasyap’s father now confused.

‘That goat there at the junction’ said Charan.

‘No that is not ours ‘ Anyway go home and wash up. You are all dirty and made everybody angry today.

You should all say Sorry  to all the elders’  said Renu’s father.

So the goat is still there confused why some kids are after it and still running around with a rope around its neck. Finally the villagers have to catch and give it back to the owner who is now looking for it.

Corporate Lessons.

Imagine the task of catching a Goat as a project.  Lesson no 1. Don’t rush to start working on the project individually within a team.

Lesson No 2. When Plan B is implemented of catching with a rope, spend time to understand the challenge and come up with a error proof plan otherwise it will lead to Lesson No 3.

Lesson No  3. When Plan B fails all hell breaks loose, project failure looms large and everyone in the project is upset and end up with blame game and looses peace and harmony of collaborative work. This leads to blame game and affected parties not getting a clue of why  or what is happening.

Lesson No 4.  Don’t always plan for complex solutions and end up with huge expenditure, miscommunication, conflicts and lost opportunities. Make sure to pause and cross check the viability of the plan by referring back to what problem you are solving.   Kids plans lead to quarrels and raised tempers in the villagers.

Lesson No 5. “Silence is the Worst kind of feed back” that leads to fruitless efforts and project disasters. Kasyap’s father remained Silent and never informed Kasyap that their Goat is already found.

PAY ATTENTION –My story

Let me tell you how I chanced upon entering the exciting field of software. One day I was walking on the street and overheard a conversation by two persons just walking ahead of me. They were discussing about a free Computer software training program that is conducted at ECIL (electronic corporation of India Ltd Hyderabad, India) at their software unit. I was then looking for jobs and felt I should use my free time to learn something instead of just staying at home and wasting my time. So I approached my neighbor who happened to be one of the managers in the software division and he was kind enough to get me a entry into ECIL training’s. That is one event that turned my life forever. What I did was I just paid attention to a opportunity (conversation of the two gentlemen on the road). Opportunities can come as surprise from any source but you need to PAY ATTENTION.

While I was learning COBOL(common business oriented language a software language) at ECIL somebody mentioned that there are software programmer jobs at NFC(Nuclear fuel complex A Govt. Of India enterprise) that was nearby and I happened to apply and was able to get a job as scientific assistant (software). This is the second chance in my life. What you learn from this?   Listen carefully to others suggestions and grab the opportunity.

Then I paid attention to my work and improved my soft skills and other organizational skills and got promoted rapidly to become a scientific officer and this was possible because of sheer hard work ,  curiosity to learn on the job  and encouragement I received from my boss and many of my colleagues. What you can learn is that hard and smart work will always be recognized at some point of time. So pay attention to do your job well.

I have the habit of staying productive everyday by trying to do something new or learn something new. So I decided to spend my evenings after coming back from office at reading news papers to improve my General knowledge and being in software field I kept up to date on what’s going on in technology world. Even now I keep myself busy trying to catch up with the rapid changes that are happening in world  and it’s influence on everything we do on daily basis.

One day while I was reading newspapers I came across job opportunities in USA and I applied to a position based on my experience and interviewed by American company and the phone interview was in the midnight (Day time in US and night time in India). My constant reading of news papers  gave command on  English and experience in good communication skills due to , giving  tuition  in the evening to students  and day time job helped me get a job at the American company. So I resigned my job at NFC and flew to USA for a new and very exciting and great opportunity of my life time.  Many of my friends and family members discouraged me since i settled well in NFC as Scientific officer and will get more promotions and pension when i retire,  but I took the US offer boldly and today I am so happy that I took that bold step to leave a comfortable Government job and become much better professionally and personally. So what you learn from this?  Success comes to those who have guts to take the risk and work hard to reach higher goals

In this world of multi-tasking, watching movies, chatting,  voice mail, Internet browsing, email, text messages, instant messaging, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Cable TV, 24-News stations, streaming music, video on demand, billboards, advertisements,   iPhone’s, web sites, Xbox, PlayStation and mobile games, it is easy to get so caught up in all the these things that we lose focus and unfortunately, possibly aren’t paying attention when an opportunity presents itself.  So please do pay attention and always look for opportunities.

I believe that  dedication, focus, listening, reading  paying attention to minute details, hard work will lead to opportunities.

Perseverance, endurance, facing the odds with guts , support and encouragement from your well wishers are stepping stones to  succeed.

It is not a cake walk reaching great heights in life so you need to have dedication, focus and mental strength to fight against all odds and that needs you to have good health and peaceful mind.  Stay healthy with “better life with best practices”.

So don’t forget to PAY ATTENTION and  stay focused. Good luck and hope my real life story helps you feel inspired.

Good Quotes from Different sources

“I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”  -Michael Jordan      “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.”
Ten rupees from hard work of one month of tuition. I decided I won’t be like that anymore.
“A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.”
“We are approaching a new age of synthesis. Knowledge cannot be merely a degree or a skill… it demands a broader vision, capabilities in critical thinking and logical deduction without which we cannot have constructive progress.” — Financial Expert Witness Communication: A Practical Guide to Reporting and Testimony, 2014.
“Be quiet so that life may speak.”
“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”
“Your value will be not what you know; it will be what you share.” — Council on Foreign Relations event, 2013.
“In the end, you’re measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.” — Trump : The Art of the Deal, 1987.
“Competition makes you better, always, always makes you better, even if the competitor wins.” — “Questions and Answers,” Carlosslim.com, 2007.
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” — Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul, 2007.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
“If you can dream it, you can do it.” “The first step is you have to say that you can.”
“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” — Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, 2014.
“A vision without the ability to execute is probably a hallucination.” — Business Week, 2001.
“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”
“A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there.” — Quoted in Walt Disney, Magician of the Movies, 1966.
“Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one’s sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence.” — Jack: Straight from the Gut, 2001
“Just because you are CEO, don’t think you have landed. You must continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you approach the organization. I’ve never forgotten that.”
– Book: No Fear of Failure: Real Stories of How Leaders Deal with Risk and Change
“Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.”
“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” — Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul, 2007.
“Competition makes you better, always, always makes you better, even if the competitor wins.” — “Questions and Answers,” Carlosslim.com, 2007.
“Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.” — Interview with Rebecca Fannin, 2006.
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” — The uncommon wisdom of Oprah Winfrey: a portrait in her own words, 1996.
“I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.” — Mark Zuckerberg: Ten Lessons in Leadership, 2012.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Stanford Commencement address, 2005.
“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.”
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” — The Road Ahead, 1995.
“Success is having to worry about everything in the world, except money.”
“Trying to do it all and expecting that it all can be done exactly right is a recipe for disappointment. Perfection is the enemy.” — Lean In, 2013.
“Never go into business purely to get money. If that’s the motive, you’re better off doing nothing.”
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.”
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” — The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership, 2014.
“Be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”
“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” — Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett by Andrew Kilpatrick, 2007.
“Respect, recognition, and reward flow out of performance.” — Entrepreneur of the New Millennium N.R. Narayana Murthy: Life and Times of N.R. Narayana Murthy, 2003.
“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.”
? Against All Odds: A Story Of Courage, Perseverance And Hope
“There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.”
“Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.”
“I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.”

“I have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” Mother Teresa

Failure is not final

During the year of 2006-2007 I was working on some great projects for companies such as Rolls Royce in Sweden and Companies in US travelling between these countries and to India where my family moved. I was so involved in the projects that I did not see the Recession trends that are happening in US economy and did not realize that it will impact our work. 2007 year was worst in US corporate history with many employees laid off. That was tension filled days and every day there were news about employees laid off or company’s closing down. Nortel telecommunication is one such company that closed its operations and many brilliant people are laid off. The people who lost jobs are some of the most brilliant and have potential to start their own enterprises.

Me and one of my good friends had an idea of bringing these laid off people to a single platform and allow them to share ideas so that it can translate to new opportunities for them and new companies can evolve.  So we started a website and outsourced website development work to an Indian company. We did not bother to check the credentials of the company and the company did not give us a good site to start with and we failed badly to start our company in the right way.  We failed to capture that opportunity of starting our own company in US

I know “trying” is more important than “failing”. And when I do make mistakes, I use them as learning experiences, asking, “What did I do wrong, and how can I do it better next time?”

In our life we fail many times. We hear many failure stories of people around us. Some are love failures. Some fail to get jobs, Some failed to learn Languages, Some fail in their jobs and some failed to have good health and some failed in running a start-up company well.  If you look back into history there are so many who failed but have risen to high levels of success.  Apple computer Steve Jobs is one such person.

Failure is not final. It is an awkward, uncomfortable, anxiety-filled portion of your life; it is not your whole life. It isn’t who you are, it’s what happened to you, and once you get that distinction, then you realize, “I can change that. I can come back. I can do again.”

Don’t try to hide your mistakes. Admit them, and then learn and grow from them. When our attitudes are right, failure actually helps and improves us. It gives us a chance to correct our mistakes and sometimes makes us Humble.

Looking back on our experiences allows us to integrate them into our present time, allowing us to act with a little more wisdom .

So when you come across the fortune of failure don’t think that it is fatal or final. It is just one positive step in the direction of successful path that lay ahead to you my friend.. Keep trying and do your best. Let your quality work decide your fate

Here are some Quotes / stories to inspire you

Abraham Lincoln said “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” And he was a man who knew defeat. He was born into poverty. The only education he received he acquired himself. He failed in business, and he was defeated numerous times before becoming president of US

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” –Chinese quote

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston churchill

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”  Jim Rohn

William A. Ward said, “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead-end street.”

Successful leaders don’t avoid failure. They “handle” it –successfully.

The bottom line is that “failing to try” is the greatest failure anyone can experience. If we don’t make the attempt, we cannot succeed.

Hare and Tortoise Story

Credits for this blog: Smt. Padmasree M USA

Most of us have read a beautiful story about a Hare and a tortoise having a race.During the race Hare takes rest by going to sleep while the Tortoise wins the Race.

The moral of the story is that sincere, hard working , determined and steady paced people will eventually overtake the fast but complacent or careless people.

But the story does not end because both the Hare and Tortoise are still there seeing each other every day. The hare realized that he was over confident, complacent and took things too easily. He decided to have a re-match with the tortoise and made him agree. This time the Hare ran as fast as it could and crossed the winning line within no time and Tortoise lost the race.

The moral of the story ?  Determined to win  rapidly with consistency will always beat the slow and steady .
The story did not stop there. Now Tortoise wants to have a Race with the Hare. It realized that it is hard to beat the Hare in a normal course. This time Tortoise wants a different route to race and the Hare agreed for the race feeling surprised and thinking how tortoise can beat it in spite knowing that it can run faster.  The race started and Hare ran swiftly until it came to a bank of a river. Now Hare don’t know how to cross the river. There is no bridge, no one to help it to cross the river. Tortoise meanwhile caught up with the Hare jumped into the river and reached the goal winning the race.

The moral of the story? Know your strengths and take on your competitors(or work)  in areas of your core competency.

You thought the story ended there. No way. Let’s continue what they did now.

After some time they become good friends and decided to race against others. On the land the Hare carried the Tortoise on its back and in the river the tortoise carried the Hare. By helping each other with their complementary skills they were able to beat other teams easily and win the race.

 Moral of the story? It is good to have individual skills to succeed to a certain level but by collaborating with others who has complimentary skills will result in more success

You can become phenomenally successful as a team if you can work together with others.

Imagine how long it takes for Hare to learn swimming if it want to go alone. Same happens with Tortoise. It cannot run fast even if it tries for years. Teamwork is mainly about situational  leadership, letting the person who is good to lead the team as required by the situation.  Being supportive team members the whole team can bring wonders to whatever they want to do.
There are more lessons on teamwork to be learned from this story. Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could, but was not doing as well as he wished.
In modern day competition and global work environment we should be in a position to work with anyone without any bias and within the team to make sure all succeed.
It is the same in life, if we can collaborate with people who are experts in certain areas that we are not familiar with, we should allow them to lead and we get a chance to learn many life skills from them.

Students are you listening?  Next time you want to conduct a seminar or host a show think about this story.

Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges

Motivation is of two types “motivated from an inner urge or an outside push.”

If you’re working hard because of your own desire for excellence that will actually lead to greater satisfaction, psychological health ,success in life and career.

But if you’re pursuing goals because of pressure from others — parents, teachers, bosses, peers — that’s likely to take you down the path of dissatisfaction and reduced well-being.

So motivating yourselves to learn things that help you in succeeding in career and life should be considered as your most important goal.

As you learn new skills you can use the following guidelines.

Monitor your performance. Note areas in which you excel and areas you need improvement.

 

Learn Communication skills by reading  , listening and watching great speakers.

Realize that failures and mistakes are just one step on the road to success.

Recognize that being aware of the impact that your behavior has on other people is a critical leadership skill and it will influence your success or failure in getting what you want.

Remember that when criticism is difficult to accept, there is probably some truth to it and you should start thinking of correcting the faults

And, finally, learn to give yourself and others credit for improving.

Learning skills  takes time and your interest to put some effort. 

Why you need to fail?

“Success is a lousy teacher”. Bill Gates   the richest man on the planet said once.

Success does not teach you so much as failure; in moments of success there is celebration, whereas in moments of failure there is learning,

Once upon a time in a village there was a wrestler with strong body. He feels happy and proud whenever the villagers praise him for his muscles and that made him to go into comfort zone and he stopped practicing regularly. He always expected every passerby to acknowledge his strength.  One day a guru was passing thru the village and he did not notice this wrestler and the wrestler was upset. He stopped the guru in his tracks and caught him by the hand trying to push the guru to ground. In a shift reaction the guru was able to twist the arm of the wrestler and pushed him down.  Suddenly the wrestler felt weak and came down to his knees and asked the guru what is wrong with him. The guru replied that he did not fail till now and he avoided refining his wrestling skills since he went into a comfort zone. “Without sweating and fighting fit to improve new skills every day you possibly won’t learn anything new except what you already know”  said the guru. 

What is the lesson we can learn from this? Most of us put a tremendous effort trying to avoid the possibility of failure by not even trying once.

According to Dr. Carol Dweck, professor at Stanford University, we have a mindset problem. Dweck has done a tremendous amount of research to understand what makes someone give up in the face of adversity (difficulty) versus strive to overcome it.

It turns out the answer is deceptively simple. It’s all in your head.

If you believe that you cannot do a thing then you won’t even try.  If you believe that your talents are fixed, then you will try to avoid failure at all costs because failure is proof of your limitation. We all go thru a routine that we are used to everyday and never challenge or use our brains to improve upon some of the things we do on  daily basis. Just try a different routine today and learn what is the new results you got.

Students with fixed mindsets would rather not learn new language such as English and adjust to low life or jobs that come their way.   

Some company owners or heads of some institutes with fixed mindsets will surround themselves with people who agree with them. They feel smart when they get it right. It reinforces their sense of competence and they feel comfortable that way.
But if you believe your talent grows with persistence and effort, then you seek failure as an opportunity to improve. People with a growth mindset feel smart when they’re learning, not when they’re flawless.
Ask any national or international sports person or any successful person how he reached that levels. You will surely get to know that they failed several times before succeeding but they kept learning from the failures so they can do better next time.
A growth mindset is the secret to maximizing potential. At skills nest trainings I give my students tasks above their ability to bring them out of the comfort zone and make them learn things that enable them to adjust to corporate world.

Want to increase your own performance? Set high goals where you have a 50-70% chance of success.. Then, when you fail half the time, figure out what you should do differently and try again. That’s practice. And according to recent studies, 10,000 hours of that kind of practice will make you an expert in anything. No matter where you start.

I set a goal of transforming the mind set of students in Godavari districts and bring them at par to national and later international competency levels.  That is a high goal for me now. I’m realizing the pain of the inefficient systems/resource crunch surrounding the students and how that is not allowing them to learn new things.   Hey, but I’m trying out methods to overcome the problems for my students. Are you with me? Let me know your thoughts.