Reaching There

I have always wondered what makes people successful in their lives. Although most of us relate success with only our professional lives. But our lives are a mixture of personal and professional achievements as well as failures. Both of these aspects are so interrelated that it is impossible to prioritize one over the other. There is always a need to see and continuously evaluate an holistic views of our lives.  All around us are people that we admire for their success. The success is not limited to monetary amounts but includes all possible roles we play during our lifetime. Success is about being a caring parent, an eager student, a loving son, a doting husband, a courteous clerk, a helpful manager, a great dancer, a passionate artist, a hard worker or just about anything we do in our lives. In all of these roles there a few similarities that stand out among other that all these "successful" people share. So what do all of the successful people share among themselves?...

Inside an Actors Studio: Steven Speilberg I recently watched Steven Speilberg's interview on James Lipton's Inside the Actors Studio (on youtube!). One of the biggest piece of adivce was his answer to how he direct child actors in his movies. There are quite a few movies in which his story was told from a point of view of a child (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Empire of the Sun). He answered "I don't treat them like children I treat them like my peers". He further added that the moment he begins treating them like children he would become the overbearing adult. This gave me an indirect lesson on how manager or a team leader should treat his team members. He should treat them like individuals who have their own individuality, personality, aspirations and emotions. He should respect their existence in the team and listen to their opinion with a "porous" mind. The reason I used "porous" mind because such a listener gives the oppor...

Revenue Management (Source: www.wikipedia.org) Please donate to Wikipedia.org. Yield management , also known as revenue management , is the process of understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, perishable resource (such as airline seats or hotel room reservations). It is a method of price discrimination wherein a firm charges different customers different prices for goods or services which are otherwise identical. A typical example is airline tickets. For three different seats in the same row different passengers would have paid different amount depending on conditions like their seat preference, time of booking etc. An interesting article was published in NY Times recently about how airlines are charging more for "that extra leg room". It is another innovative way to understand the consumer behavior and improve revenue for the airlines. Here is the link for that article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/...

God has blessed us with an remarkable instrument which is responsible for our actions. Mind is described as the seat of the faculty of reason. Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj says "Mind alone is the cause of both bondage and liberation". Kripaluji Maharaj further says "It is the inherent nature of the mind that it cannot remain still even for a fraction of a second/ And the consequence of our devotion depends on the attachment of mind/ It's our mind that has to devotion not our physical senses". Even Albert Einstein said "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift". This leads me to my question "Why is mind considered so important?" Before we even try to understand the importance of mind we have to define it in simple words. An uncomplicated definition can take us farthest in our quest. Mind is comprised of intellect, memory, im...

Recently I read two articles which have given me a unique insight into two different things but essentially they point to the same ability. I'll just quote a portion from them one by one and in-between add my own thoughts. 1. http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/07/why-you-need-to-fail.html In this blog at www.harvardbusiness.org the author, Peter Bregman talks about having a growth mindset. He says "If you have a growth mindset, then you use your failures to improve. If you have a fixed mindset, you may never fail, but neither do you learn or grow. " He adds further, "A growth mindset is the secret to maximizing potential". The "growth mindset" is the ability to take risks and if that risk ends in a failure learn from it. He talks about settings goals that will enhance your performance. These goals at first sight don't look easily achievable. To someone else your goals may even look foolhardy. But a reason behind setting these goals is ...

When Hamlet said "To sleep: perchance to dream:—ay there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come", he was referring to the pains an afterlife might bring. There was no way he could be sure whether there would be a relief from the sufferings he is in now. However he was sure that "To be, or not to be: that is the question". Now what is the purpose of bringing up probably the most famous soliloquy ever written in English literature? The reason is simple it portrays two emotions which we all go through in our lives at some stage or even throughout our lives. The first emotion is the desire to bring a change in our lives and second the indecision that follows it afterwards. So what can we learn from Hamlet's soliloquy? The answer lies in his thought process. We can learn something from his thought process and use it in our daily lives. For Hamlet it was a question of life or death. For us it may not be so severe but the effects of our decisions ...

This would be my theme picture for my blog header. It is about a man standing next to a door, looking into the vastness of nature in front of him. The question is what is he thinking? Or is he waiting for something? Or he is just simply enjoying the stillness of beauty in front of him? These and other questions alike keep us haunting in our minds continuously. The mind is like a fly inside a jar it is continuously buzzing around probably unable to understand what is it should do. So it is time we slowdown and relax a bit. Try and watch the beauty and marvel of simple things around us. Then perhaps when we are able to enjoy small thing we may enjoy bigger thing even better. Take a deep breath and for a moment try and feel the happiness inside your mind.