My response to most situations that require action is to postpone them till they become inevitable.

Yesterday, while cleaning our bedroom, my wife remarked that the window ac unit is not working.  Normally I would tell her that I will attend to it and promptly forget all about it.  But yesterday was quite different in the sense that I called the AC  mechanic with whom we have an AMC and asked him to come over.  Usually that person would take a few days to respond (like his customer) but he came over almost immediately.  He opened the unit and found that the power supply to the ac unit was much below par.  He also connected the unit to another socket nearby and showed that it worked.  He threw the ball in some other court and left the scene.

Again another major opportunity for me to postpone but strangely enough I was behaving very abnormally.  I called our electrician immediately and he said he will be there in a few hours.   He did not come yesterday but since I was attending to other things, I did not follow-up.  This morning, while looking at my call logs, I realized that this electrician was due y’day but did not turn up. I then called him and asked him to come over.  He came without any of the meters to measure the voltage of current passing through the ac unit socket but felt that the circuit breaker at the socket is probably the culprit.

I asked him to replace it which he shortly did & within a few minutes the AC unit was up and running.  This itself was a major triumph for me!!  But there was one more to come!!

As the electrician was leaving I told him about our microwave oven not working despite changing a major spare part almost 2 years ago (Now do you see my ability to postpone indefinitely?).  In fact, only this morning my mother was complaining about the microwave oven not being usable despite money being spent on its repairs and so this was fresh in my mind.

He checked the plug and perhaps straightened out the inner physical mechanism and then connected it to the socket.  When I turned on the oven it was humming and that was music to my ears.  Just to be on the safe side, I filled a small microwave-safe container with water and pressed the ‘start’ button.  Within 10 seconds I stopped and felt the hot water.  It was unbelievable but true.

For want of checking and cleaning the plug, we had to go without the convenience of a microwave oven for so long!!

I realized two things from this experience;

a.  Most trivial issues become full-fledged disasters-in-waiting because of lack of prompt attention.

b.  If I do what I need to do, then most problems are as good as solved

Now what about you?

All of us know that LinkedIn is a very powerful medium for professional networking where the first step is to get connected to the people you want to network with.

It is extremely distressing to find many people failing at this initial step itself and hence not able to take advantage of this huge opportunity to network.

I assume that as a professional you would be clear about whom to network with and hence not elaborating on choosing the target audience for sending your invites.  To ensure that your networking is powerful, you need to be very focused on the kind of people you want in your network.  So spend some quality time in selecting the people.

I keep receiving requests to connect on LinkedIn and most of them are of the type of “ I’d like to add you to my professional network” followed by the sender’s name.  The senders do not even take the effort of making the invite look personalized by using my name at the beginning of the invite and hence it looks like I’m one of the many people to whom they have sent the invite. The interest level drops drastically with a plain invite without even a name.

Tip 1:  Include the person’s name, preferably with a salutation (especially if you do not know the person).  And if you are well known, it may be better to use an abbreviated name or nickname to create that connection instantly.  If you are not sure, it is safe to be formal.

Any person worth his / her salt, would receive a few invites on LinkedIn regularly and hence if you want your invite to be accepted, apply rule 1 as above but that is not sufficient.  Go through the person’s profile and find out the  areas where he / she is interested and where you can contribute.  In short, make a compelling case for that person to click on ‘Accept’.  In other words, press the buttons that would make your invite appear appealing to the recipient.

Tip 2:  Answer the ‘What’s in it for me to accept this invite?” question in a crisp way if you want a higher chance of success

A caveat to the rules 1 & 2.  Be careful in spelling the person’s name (many feathers have been ruffled because of this one seemingly trivial issue) and spell check your invite content.  I have received some invites with ghastly typos that give me an impression that the sender is not professional enough to take the efforts.

Tip 3:  Once you have crafted an appealing invite and sent it to the person, just wait.  It is very possible that the person to whom you have sent the invite to does not check his LinkedIn page often or has the messages from LinkedIn sent automatically to a folder.  LinkedIn itself sends reminders to the person on your behalf and hence it would be unwise to add to that.

Tip 4: If your invite has been accepted, do send a brief note to the person thanking him / her for the same and start a conversation to take your relationship further.

Just following these steps will give a strong boost to your LinkedIn network.

How do I know?  Because I built a network of almost 1500 contacts with a very high conversion ratio by following these simple steps.

This is a guest post by my good friend Narayan R (rnar(at)hotmail(.)com) who transformed himself from a victim of a hack to someone back in control of his Hotmail account.  I am posting this for the benefit of those who may have gone through such an attack.  Thank you Narayan.

Background: Narayan’s Hotmail account was hacked and those in his contact list received an email asking for financial assistance to extricate himself from a disaster overseas.  Interestingly enough, the hacker included his brother’s correct name to lend more authenticity for the email.

——————————————————————————————-

First,  the hacker would have created a new password, so our existing password will not work – so please enter the Hotmail webpage and you will see a prompt for “not being able to access the account”

We click that prompt and there will be 3 options one of which asks whether you think someone is using your account – if you click that you then are given a link to reset your password

Thee are a series of steps given to reset your password, I also recollect if we are stuck somewhere in following these steps then you can access some link which asks whether you are unable to reset your password – if you press this then you are mailed a link to an alternate I’d which helps you to reset the password

But resetting alone will not do -  after resetting and entering our account, we need to prevent the hacker from re-entering – for that you should delete all alternate ids which are shown in your profile (even if 1 or 2 are genuine ones it does not matter) and also reset the secret question and answer thereof

The above steps should hopefully ensure you are in safe re-possession of your account !

——————————————————————————————–

The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson faces a potential 20+ years of prison for secretly filming a group of Turkish orphans for a documentary.  The charge is ‘breach of privacy”.  We do not want to go into the details of this so-called sting operation but it is really interesting that Turkey has mustered the courage to press charges against the person married to Prince Andrew, on a relatively flimsy ground.

And let’s see what happens in India.

Alistair Anthony Pereira was sentenced to jail for three years by the Mumbai high court after it reversed the trial court’s verdict of 6 months.  And what was the crime?  Pereira drove his BMW  in a drunken state and mowing to death seven persons sleeping on a Mumbai pavement in 2006. The Supreme Court has also lamented that even this 3 years imprisonment is too lenient but it is constrained because the State Government did not appeal against the High Court’s order.

One person married into the Royal Family faces imprisonment of 20 years for filming orphans without their permission whereas a commoner (rich though) in  India walks away with an incredibly light 3 years sentence for killing 7 citizens and wounding some more.  And the State Government is ok with this sentence and hence doesn’t appeal to the apex court!!

We are lucky to be in India (if we can afford it)!!  Those 7 who were killed and others who were maimed are not worth anything because they are poor!!

I just saw that India has replaced Ashwin by Vinay and I am perplexed.  I have nothing against Vinay.

Anybody who has been watching this series will testify the fact that it is our batting that let us down.  The fabled line-up has just not performed.  And if you look at it, Ashwin was the guy who scored despite being called a bowler. He scored a 20 (out of 191)  and a 62 (out of 400) to score 82 in the recently concluded Sydney test and that is much better than any of the other players.

Gambhir scored a 0 & 83  = 83

Sehwag 30 & 4 = 34

Dravid 5 & 29 = 34

Sachin 41 & 80 = 121

Laxman 2 & 66 = 68

Dhoni 57 & 2 = 59

As you can see very clearly, only the little master scored more than Ashwin, if 1 extra run by an opener is not considered.

And this is not an isolated case:

Look at the Melbourne test

Ashwin took 3 wickets in the first innings (next only to Zaheer who took 4 wickets) and scored 31 (the fourth best after Dravid,  Sehwag and Sachin) & 30 (the second best after  Sachin who scored 32)

Look at it from another angle.  Ashwin is the only other player apart from Sachin to have crossed double figures in all the 4 innings.

Even a child would say that India lost because of its poor batting performance and now for the third test they have dropped Ashwin and further weakened the batting.

I always thought that there will be a shred of common sense and logic in the selection but I am sad to be proved wrong!!

For the fourth test, it will be only fit to drop Sachin and that will make the story complete!!

Last night, a good friend had come home and the talk took a turn when we discussed about the shortcomings of a mutual friend. Both of us got really animated and by the time we were through with it (temporarily, of course), we realized that it was close to midnight. We were so deeply engrossed in criticizing the other person that we did not notice the passage of time.

After the person left, I was feeling very tired and heavy. It was not on account of the untimely hour but because the negative talk had drained my energy totally.

I have observed that when there is an exciting idea being discussed too, there is no inkling of the time spent but at the end I have felt very alive and vital.

I realized the impact of the saying “Discuss Ideas is most empowering, followed by discussing events but the least energizing is discussing about people”

The person in this picture is John Doerr, a legendary venture capitalist, who was responsible for funding such icons like Google, Amazon, Intuit, Sun Microsystems to name a few.  Jeff Bezos says, “Doerr (and Kleiner) is the center of gravity in the Internet.”

Despite having such an illustrious pedigree, John is known to support the entrepreneurs all the way in addition to the money he has invested. And when I read about this particular incident as chronicled in the book “The New New Thing” by Michael Lewis, I was astounded and that is the reason for this post.

This book is about the way Jim Clark, the charismatic founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape went on to create a third enterprise called Healtheon with an ambitious objective of turning the US Health care system on its head.

This venture was partly funded by Kleiner Parkins (the venture firm of which John Doerr is a partner) and hence Healtheon became John’s baby.  When it was clear that this venture needed a Serious American Executive as its CEO, John stepped in and identified Mike Long as the right candidate.  Mike had built a computer services business called Continuum which he sold to Computer Sciences Corporation for $1.7 Billion.

We now come to the meat of this post.

Quote Michael Lewis (the book’s author)  ”It did not occur to Mike Long that he wanted to work in Silicon Valley until John Doerr put it to him.  Over six months Doerr called Long ‘more than a hundred times‘ and talked him into leaving his stable, successful compnay called Computer Sciences and joining the internet revolution” Unquote. (The emphasis in bold is  mine)

It was not John’s brief to find the CEO but not only did he take it up on himself, he identified the right candidate and went after him in a ruthless manner hounding him over a period of 6 months so that he would capitulate and become the CEO of the venture that John backed.  That’s almost once in two days over a 180 day period and the best part of all this is that he didn’t have to do it at all.  John was by then a celebrated VC and very well known in the software industry.  That he did this kind of hounding is truly amazing!!

Here’s the contrast.  When we want something for ourselves and need the help of another person, we contact him/her and make the pitch.  We will followup once or twice or thrice but if the person is not willing to listen, we would give up and look at another way to solve the problem.  Not John!!

No wonder is he considered as  “one of Google’s best board members.” by Eric Schmidt, Chairman, Google Inc

John reminded me of Shri Nagi Reddy about whom I had written an  earlier post titled Inspiring Perseverance

I’m truly inspired by John’s doggedness and ‘never say die’ attitude!! What about you?

It was really a great surprise when Clarke declared the Australian first innings when his personal score was at 329, just 5 short of the highest scores by an Australian that included the legendary Don Bradman.  Anyone who had come this far (this is Clarke’s first double hundred leave alone a triple) was akin to coming a few feet away from the Everest peak but choosing not to take that few steps to immortal glory calls for lot of guts.  His decision to declare and put pressure on India paid dividends with 2 early wickets down already but that is another matter altogether.  We would never know why he chose to declare when great milestones were within his grasp!!

That he waited till Hussey reached his 150 is a great gesture especially when we have seen some of our own captains behaving in a petty manner when it comes to their personal glories or their team mates’.

It will not be out-of-place to recall Saurav Ganguly’s declaration in the same SCG in 2004 when Rahul Dravid was at 91, as if those 15 to 30 minutes were absolutely crucial for the outcome of the match and hence could not wait for those 9 runs to be scored by  Dravid.  That match incidentally ended in a draw.

It is also painful to remember the manner in which Sunil Gavaskar engineered the break of Kapil’s consecutive test appearances by dropping him from the Calcutta test in 1984 against the English team on the flimsy pretext that his shot which cost him his wicket in the previous match was unbecoming of a team player.

And how can we forget Sunil Gavaskar’s doggedness in Pakistan when he dragged his opening partner Chetan Chauhan out of the ground because he (Sunil) was wrongly (in his mind) adjudged out?

I really want to congratulate Clarke for his momentous innings and for giving up his personal accolades for the sake of his team!! May his tribe become larger in the days to come!!

Why do we

1. Drive in the wrong way in an one-way street with impunity?
2. Smoke a pack a day despite a mountain of evidence on the harmful effects of smoking?
3. Drink and then drive although we know it could be dangerous?
4. Pile up a lot of sweets on our plate regardless of our health condition?
5. Refusing to go for that walk despite the large collection of adipose tissue (read ‘fat’) around our waist?
6. Regularly keep consuming gallons of coffee to stay all up night to finish a work that was due yesterday?

I could go on and on. The only reason why we keep doing things even though we know it could be harmful to us, is that we think “Nothing will happen to me”.

A concern would surface when we see a colleague of our age just drop dead out of sheer exhaustion or gross abuse of his/her health but that would be temporary in nature and after a while life will be as usual.

And this is not new!!

Even in Mahabharata times, this delusion was common place .  After Yudishtra answered a barrage of questions from a Yaksha to save his brothers, he was faced with a googly question “What is the greatest wonder  in this world?”. Pat came the reply.  ”Day after day countless people die. Yet the living wish to live forever. O Lord, what can be a greater wonder?”

Can we take a minute off from being very busy and reflect on what we are doing and why we are doing what we are doing?

Many of us know about the story of Soorpanaka, the sister of the Lankan King Ravana.  When she saw Rama in the forests for the first time, she fell in love with him instantly and wanted to be his life partner.  Assuming the form of a very attractive damsel, she approached him and asked him to marry her.  And then Sita appeared in the scene and Rama promptly introduced her to Soorpanaka as his wife and told her about his vow to be an eka-patni viradhan (a lifetime vow to be a partner of only one wife).  Seeing Sita as her rival and an obstruction to her ambitions, Soorpanaka tried to kill Sita but Lakshmanan stepped in and chopped her ears and nose with a sharp knife and she fled from there.

You might wonder why I am narrating this well-known story and the connection between this and the opening sentence.  I request you to bear with me for a few minutes.

The angry Soorpanaka vowed to take revenge on Rama, Lakshmana and Sita.  Towards this, she induced her cousins Kara and Dooshana to war on the grounds that these humans were occupying that forest in defiance of their (Demons’) authority.  She did not tell them that she tried to kill Sita to get to Rama and hence was disfigured because that would not have inflamed them into action.  So she pressed the imaginary button of the trio usurping the demons’ authority.  Then Kara and Dooshana went to war against Rama with their full might and got destroyed within a very short time.

Seeing that her initial ploy backfired, Soorpanaka turned to her illustrious brother Ravana and here too she pressed a button knowing her sibling so well.

When she rushed into his court with her disfigured face, she got his attention but it was when she pressed the button that made all the difference.  When Ravana enquired about her dismembered nose and ears, she gave a totally different version of the event as if she tried to abduct Sita whom she described as the epitome of beauty and fit only to be in Ravana’s palace.  She suddenly became the victim than the aggressor that she really was and she suffered the injuries because she claimed she acted in the best interests of her brother.  She did this because she knew that Ravana’s lust and she hit bull’s-eye with her story.

What happened afterwards has been recounted so many times and does not require a re-mention.

Although she unwittingly played the role that catalyzed the slaying of Ravana, the purpose of Rama avatar, Soorpanaka did it with a finesse and panache that most salesmen would give an arm or leg to acquire!!

It would  not be out-of-place to recall the other person who successfully pressed the right button in Ramayana!! That was Mandira (not the Bedi!!) the hunch-backed maid servant of Queen Kaikeyi who successfully transformed a loving mother into a spiteful step mother by telling her that if Rama becomes the King, then Kausalya will be the Queen Mother and that she (Kaikeyi) will be relegated to the background!!  Look at the shrewd button press and its impact!!

Although all the events mentioned in this post are examples of ‘manipulation’, there are many other instances that are positive in nature.  Will share them in subsequent posts.