A highly satisfying 2009 for BridgeCo India

I can look back at 2009 with great satisfaction w.r.t things we achieved at BridgeCo (India), now about 15months old. The year was full of excitement, we ran as fast as we could and then some more and caught most of the things that were thrown at us. I'm happy to note that BridgeCo (India) has now become the operational headquarters with S/w engg, H/w engg, QA, PMO, Supply chain mgmt, IT, Finace, Accounting and Sales backend functions, fully operational.

The year started with us taking over complete project for a globally very well known brand in Consumer Electronics space. We had hurdles in setting-up of the office and were trying to support this customer with two USB internet sticks, as the office didn't had internet and telephone connections. We started taking more and more work as the infrastructure kept improving and the team kept on ramping-up. Today, we support our top-3 customers fully (all three are BIG names in the consumer electronics space).

Our technical team, led by our chief architect, came-up with a brilliant idea on our future software platform. This platform (3rd generation), gets the best of our earlier platforms and expected to serve our needs for the next couple of years. The idea was completely conceived and delivered (phase-1) out of our Bangalore office. The ASIC and H/w teams worked continuously to reduce the BoM costs of our modules. The non-engg teams (finance, admin, IT, SCM) ramped up fast and now supports all our customers and partners. The year ended with a last minute sprint to complete our demos for the upcoming CES at Las Vegas and completing the micro-level schedules for our #2 customer for their 2010 projects.

In the middle of all these we got ISO certified, recruited a bunch of talented folks and had a lot of fun. 2010 promises to be even more exciting as the global recession recedes and as we increase our customer base.

It was sometime, perhaps since 2005, that I had such a busy time at office!!

Wish you a great 2010.

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

What Matters Now

Seth Godin presents a (free) e-book titled "What Matters Now". It is a collection of brilliant short (1-page) essays by seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year. From bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert to brilliant tech thinker Kevin Kelly, from publisher Tim O'Reilly to radio host Dave Ramsey, there are some important people riffing about important ideas here. The ebook includes Tom Peters, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried, along with Gina Trapani, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber.

I took a quick look. Usual suspects Tom Peters talks about 19 Es of Excellence, Guy Kawasaki (who else) talks about Evangelism, Micha sifry has a brilliant piece of "Nobody", Chip and Dan Heath (authors of the beautiful book "Made to Stick"), urges us to focus on "what IS working", Gina Trapani talks about "getting things done vs making things happen" and I can go on.

Please download and circulate around.

Thank you Seth!

RamP!

Will Google prevail against traditional news industry?

A fascinating fight is brewing between the emperor of the internet world, Google, and the mughals of (slowly dying, per some experts) traditional news industry.

It all started a few days ago, when Ruport Murdoch in an interview, told that they might decide to disallow search engines to index their news sites. He even went on to accuse Google, MSNs of the world that they were "stealing our stories". He is hinting towards pay-to-read kind of a model, though many people find that this business model may never take off.

Taking the cue, at the world news paper congress in Hyderabad, early this month, attacked Google and called it the digital vampire and kleptomaniac. The sudden bullishness seem to be coming in from change in the way the information is consumed - twitter for breaking news and facebook for reading content and watching video. There is some merit in the new found aggression from the traditional news industry. There are 350mn facebook users and 55mn users for Twitter and these two can be used as a counter against Google.

Google obviously is watching. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google striked back in a hard hitting article in Wall Street Journal (incidentally owned by Murdoch). He puts the ball back and said that with dwindling revenue and diminished resources, frustrated newspaper executives are looking for someone to blame. He argued that Google is a great source of promotion, in that it sends 100,000 opportunities a minute to the news industry.

Where does it leave me and you? Time will tell and as of now I'm willing to bet that except for niche content (like Harward Business  Review for example), pure news continue to be "free". What do you think?

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Reading list for Dec-09

December!! Christmas holidays at work, more importantly our customers and bosses are also having holidays, so it appears there'd be "real" holidays. This is also the time to formally review the progress since my mid year retreat, do some introspection, read some thought provoking stuff and set goals for 2010, by religiously following a process that is working well for me for several years now.

I have lined-up a set of very interesting books and a couple of re-reads, taking confidence from the fact that I'm back to my habit of reading almost one book every week, thus completing the list of books I had for Nov'09.

Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life

Any manager/leader of some substance would have had heard/read Peter Drucker's wisdom. I'm no exception. I was intimidated at first when I read Drucker - he is so precise and prescriptive, and utterly relevant. You can't argue against much of what he has written. This book is a little different though. The author, Bruce Rosenstein, has synthesized all the works of Drucker and has come out with a guide that has Druker's profound core teachings related to personal and professional transformation. This work shows readers how to apply Drucker's recommendations to lead more fulfilling and meaningful lives. The book has lot of exercises for reflection and contemplation.

Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide For Leading Change

A mentor of mine introduced me to Robert Quinn and his much celebrated book "Deep Change", which influenced me a great deal. Quinn's fundamental contribution is telling leaders how they can lead themselves. In this new book, Quinn shows how anyone can enter the fundamental state of leadership by engaging in the eight practices that center on the theme of ever-increasing integrity--reflective action, authentic engagement, appreciative inquiry, grounded vision, adaptive confidence, detached interdependence, responsible freedom, and tough love. After each chapter, Quinn challenges you to assess yourself with respect to each practice and to formulate a strategy for personal growth.

Both this book and the first one (Living in More Than one world) were hand carried by my friend from the US. Thanks M.P Srivathsa.

Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within

This is a re-read. I read this book about 8yrs ago and continue to get back to it every now and then. Quinn's new book "Building Bridges ..." that I just described above, is rooted and has lot of references to "Deep Change". I just thought of reading this book again this month.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Cialdini - the name itself invites an appreciative nod from people that are well versed in his works. This particular book, is arguably the best ever book written on the science of persuasion. I always thought influencing mostly an "art", Cialdini thinks its science and introduces you to six principles of persuasion: reciprocity, scarcity, liking, authority, social proof, and commitment/consistency.  Each principle is backed by social scientific testing. The book is also filled with interesting examples that help you to apply these six principles.

Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization

Another re-read. I'm a big fan of Peter Senge and his concept of Learning Organization, so much that I'm a founder member of a not-for-profit "SoL South Foundation", which is affiliated to Senge's global SoL (Society for Organizational Learning). In this book, Senge presents an integrated corporate framework, which is structured around "personal mastery," "mental models," "shared vision," and "team learning." Using ideas that originate in fields from science to spirituality, Senge explains why the learning organization matters, provides a summary of his management principals, offers some basic tools for practicing it, and shows what it's like to operate under this system. The book's concepts remain stimulating and relevant as ever.

What RamP's Reading (Dec'09)

December!! Christmas holidays at work, more importantly our customers and bosses are also having holidays. This is also the time to formally review the progress since my mid year retreat, do some introspection, read some thought provoking stuff and set goals for 2010, by religiously following a process that is working well for me for several years now.

I have lined-up a set of very interesting books and a couple of re-reads, taking confidence from the fact that I'm back to my habit of reading almost one book every week, thus completing the list of books I had for Nov'09.

Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life




Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide For Leading Change



Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within



Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

dsdas

Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

asasds

Nov-09: Best of blog posts

This feature had stopped as Aug-Oct was pretty crazy at work. Here's an attempt to restart. Here are a few interesting blog posts I came across in the last two months:

Seth Godin talks about 3 elements of full employment - Sales, Additive Effort and Initiation, which if practiced would always guarantee a job.

Zen Habits blog has a very interesting post that give valuable tips on How to Focus on What Truly Matters. Particularly the section on how to find time is the most practical way to go about doing things that truly matter.

Guy Kawasaki interviews Po Bronson (author of the New York Times #1 best-seller, What Should I Do with My Life?)  following the publication of his new book NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children. You would love this interview if you are a parent (though Guy feels the same principles can be applied to employees too) Po Bronson warns about the extremes - over nurturing on one hand against being too strict. Here is his summary advice to parents:  

Be truthful with kids. While it isn’t necessary to be brutally honest, before I praise a kid, I ask myself if I really believe what I’m saying. If I do, then I think it’s probably right to say. It’s better for a kid to hear parents argue and resolve the quarrel, then it is to pretend the argument never occurred because the kids usually already know about the dispute. It’s the result they’re unsure of. A lot of communication by adults is intended to manipulate kids, and they’re usually on to us. And when we are constantly trying to outsmart kids, it may work in the moment, but ultimately it can hurt our credibility. Then kids don’t believe that they can turn to us when they need some honest advice. If we expect kids to be truthful with us, we should be truthful with them.

Innovation consultant Vinay Dabholkar details the methods that Edison used for his numerous innovations. After talking to Vinay on the subject several times, I've started to believe that "systematic innovation" may after all be possible.

On Tom Peters blog, Rajesh Setty has posted a set of 9 questions as a self-assessment to see whether are not you are caring enough. As is the usual case with Raj's posts this post too would make you think. For example, second question goes like this - "Do you care for them OR do you care about their opinion of you?". Equally interesting is the section on comments where Raj himself has participated in a lively debate.

BTW, Tom is launching new book The Little Big Things: 163 ways to achieve Exellence, expected to hit the market in early 2010. Follow Tom's blog for updates, previews and some videos.

Thats all I had for November. 

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

7 Lessons From a Marketing Genius

Courtesy 800-CEO-READ, I bumped into this article by Carmine Gallo, author of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. His article details seven points about what makes Mr. Jobs such an incredible marketer; words we can certainly all learn from. (Also see Vinay Dabholkar's related post Deconstructing the curiosity flow from Steve Job's iPod launch presentation)

Steve Jobs: 7 Lessons from a Marketing Genius
By Carmine Gallo, author of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is considered one of the greatest marketers in corporate history. For more than three decades, he has delivered legendary keynote presentations, raised product launches to an art form and successfully communicated the benefits of Apple products to millions of customers. Whether you’re in sales, marketing, advertising or public relations, Steve Jobs has something to teach you about telling your brand story.

Plan in analog. Steve Jobs may have made a name for himself in the digital world, but he prepares presentations in the old world of pen and paper. He brainstorms, sketches and draws on whiteboards. Before a new iPhone, iPod or MacBook is introduced, the Apple team decides on the exact messages (aka, benefits) to communicate. Those messages are consistent across all marketing platforms: presentations, Web sites, advertisements, press releases, and even the banners than are unfurled after Jobs’ keynote.

Create Twitter-friendly headlines. Can you describe your product or service in 140 characters? Steve Jobs offers a headline, or description, for every product. Each headline can easily fit in a Twitter post. For example, when he introduced the MacBook Air in January, 2008, he said that it is simply, “The world’s thinnest notebook.” You could visit the Apple Web site for more information, but if that’s all you knew, it would tell you a lot. If your product description cannot fit in a Twitter post, keep refining.

Introduce the antagonist. In every classic story, the hero fights the villain. The same holds true for a Steve Jobs presentation. In 1984, the villain was IBM, “Big Blue.” Before he introduced the famous 1984 ad to a group of Apple salespeople, he created a dramatic story around it. “IBM wants it all,” he said. Apple would be the only company to stand in its way. It was very dramatic and the crowd went nuts. Branding expert, Martin Lindstrom, has said that great brands and religions have something in common: the idea of vanquishing a shared enemy. Creating a villain allows the audience to rally around the hero — you, your ideas and your product.

Stick to the rule of three. The human brain can only absorb three or four “chunks” of information at any one time. Neuroscientists are finding that if you give your listeners too many pieces of information to retain, they won’t remember a thing. It’s uncanny, but every Steve Jobs presentation is divided into three parts. On September 9, 2009, when Jobs returned to the world stage after a medical leave of absence, he told the audience that he had three things to discuss: iPhone, iTunes and iPods. Jobs even has fun with the rule of three. In January, 2007, he told the audience he had “three revolutionary” products to introduce — an iPod, a phone and an Internet communicator. After repeating the list several times he said, “Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. They are one device and we are calling it iPhone!”

Strive for simplicity. Apple chief design architect, Jonathan Ive, said Apple’s products are easy to use because of the elimination of clutter. The same philosophy applies to Apple’s marketing and sales material. For example, there are forty words on the average PowerPoint slide. It’s difficult to find ten words in one dozen Apple slides. Most of Steve Jobs’ slides are visuals — photographs or images. When are there words, they are astonishingly sparse. For example, in January, 2008, Jobs was delivering his Macworld keynote and began the presentation by thanking his customers for making 2007 a successful year for Apple. The slide behind Jobs simply read “Thank you.” Steve Jobs tells the Apple story. The slides compliment the story.

Reveal a “Holy Smokes” moment. People will forget what you said, what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. There’s always one moment in a Steve Jobs presentation that is the water cooler moment, the one part of the presentation that everyone will be talking about. These show stoppers are completely scripted ahead of time. For example, when Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air, what do people remember? They recall that he removed the computer from an inter-office envelope. It’s the one moment from Macworld 2008 that everyone who watched it — and those who read about — seem to recall. The image of a computer sliding in an envelope was immediately unveiled in Apple ads and on the Apple website. The water cooler moment had run according to plan.

Sell dreams, not products. Great leaders cultivate a sense of mission among their employees and customers. Steve Jobs’ mission is to change the world, to put a “dent in the universe.” According to Jobs, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” True evangelists are driven by a messianic zeal to create new experiences. When he launched the iPod in 2001, Jobs said, “In our own small way we’re going to make the world a better place.” Where most people see the iPod as a music player, Jobs sees it as tool to enrich people’s lives. It’s important to have great products, of course, but passion, enthusiasm and emotion will set you apart.


Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Deadlines

After talking about "Stop the Excuses!", its only natural to talk about deadlines. I recently read an interesting post by Alyssa Royse (founder and CEO of Just Cause) on three type of deadlines. As someone who is under constant pressure to meet the deadlines set by bosses and customers and who in turn putting pressure on the team to meet those, this article stuck a chord. Here is the summary:

There are three type of deadlines:

1. Real deadlines: These are created externally and usually by market conditions. For example, right now I'm busy preparing for the largest consumer electronics show - CES 2010, to be held in Las Vegas in early January. This is really real, if you will. You miss it, then there is a serious repurcussion on the business, perhaps near death. You just can't ignore such deadlines.

2. Fuzzy deadlines: Realish, but not life and death. These are typically set by customers and other stakeholders. Your customer would have liked you to deliver something by such and such a date, the plan is there and you hit the road. Somewhere along you realize that unless you throw in additional resources and/or burn midnight oil, you can't make it, though you can comfortably deliver a quality stuff by shifting it. Chances are that the customer might understand and agree to shift, if there is credibility. Try shifting such deadlines.

3. Arbitrary deadlines: These are things most of us trying to grapple with all the time. You decided in advance a particular date for something, but with no real reason. As you approach the deadline you suddenly notice that so many things are still pending and you are not feeling well, boss (who else) has put additional work, your high school friend suddenly is in the city, ... blah.. blah. Sounds familiar? Learn to ignore such deadlines.

Interesting isn't it? You can see the complete post here.

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Stop the Excuses!!

Last month end, when I was reviewing the goals/tasks I had set for Oct and was setting goals/tasks for the month of Nov, I casually looked at all my goals/tasks for the year. I quickly realized that my "Say-Do" ratio is abysmal 50-60%. I knew it was never close to 100%, but didn't expect it to be so low either. I started contemplating the possible reasons for such a result. I realized that I've a few self-defeating patterns that are preventing me from keeping my commitments to myself. Further, I also realized I had made an "art" of explaining such patterns as a set of very believable excuses.Though I take pride in taking complete responsibility for all my actions and not blame people or circumstances, I myself had started believing some of these patterns as reality.

I was in Forum Mall a couple of weeks ago and while the kids were enjoying their pizzas, I excused myself for a 5 minute dash to Landmark bookstore. There, I accidentally noticed this book titled "Stop The Excuses: how to change lifelong thoughts". And what more, it was written by one of my favourite author - Dr. Wayne Dyer. I immediately bought and completed reading it too.

BTW, if you read books like "Law of Attraction", "Secret", "Ask and it shall be given", you are likely to believe that my noticing this particular book was not just a coincidence, but I attracted the same to my life, as the world got itslef arranged that way. May be, may not be (I've read these books). I thought of sharing the outline of the book, as most of us do have one or two thinking patterns that would be preventing us from living at the highest levels of success, happiness and health. May be this post would inspire you to read the book.

In the first part of the book, Dr. Dyer gives a lot of examples based on scientific advances that one can indeed change old habits. He talks of two minds - the conscious one (or the creative mind) and the unconscious one (or the habitual mind), which is typically blamed for several limiting habits. He urges the reader to choose rather than excuse and asserts that one can instantly reprogram and direct the life.

Next comes the most interesting part - the catalog of excuses. He has provided with a list of often heard 18 excuses (It will be difficult, It is risky, Its not my nature, I can't afford it, I'm not strong/smart enough, I'm too old/young, I'm too busy etc.,).

In the second Part, Dr. Dyer offers 7 principles to to Stop the Excuses! These principles are: Awareness, Alignment, Now, Contemplation, Willingness, Passion and Compassion. Each chapter has exercises that would help to put these principles into practice.

The third and the final part offers 7 questions and exercises thereof, which together offers a new way of looking at changing the old thinking habits. Once you have gone through the questions and possible answers it appears fairly simple to get out the habits that are limiting the growth.

Here is the brief summation of Stop the Excuses! paradigm, with a short response to each of the seven questions (taken verbatim from page 253):

1. Is it true? Probably not.
2. Where did the excuses come from? I allowed them.
3. What's the payoff? I get to avoid risks and stay the same.
4. What would my life look like if I couldn't use these excuses? I'd be free to be myself.
5. Can I create a rational reason to change? Easily.
6. Can I access universal cooperation in shedding old habits? Yes, by simply aligning with my Source of Being.
7. How can I continuously reinforce this new way on being? By being vigilant.

Dr. Dyer believes in the power of affirmations and as such offer over 30 affirmations throughout the book. Overall it was an interesting read that made me think. I have started experimenting the principle to remove one of my favourite excuse. Let me see how it goes.

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Reading List for Nov-09

Aha! What a relief. The last 4-6 weeks were extremely hectic. Couple of major releases, ISO certification, Global management team meeting and BoD meetings (both in Bangalore) generated enough amount of work, even on weekends, that I just could not read anything last month. I'm reading the "branding" as a part of my PMBA journey. Here are the books for this month:

The 22 Immutable laws of Branding
This book by Al Ries and Laura Ries is considered bible for any student of branding. They start out with the importance of marketing and branding and drives home the point that "The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope". The writing is crisp, provocative and utterly delectable.







One Land, One Billion Minds: Insights on Branding in India
I was particularly interested in a book that covers these topics w.r.t the Indian context as India will soon be among the top 5 global economies. Am I glad I found this book by Sridhar Ramanujam. Sridhar is a visiting professor in several IIMs and is the CEO of brand-comm. This book appear to provide key insights on branding in a multi-layered and a multi-faceted land, apart from delving deep into the minds and behaviour of the Indian Consumer. Sridhar's blog Third Umpire on Branding too, makes a very interesting read on the same subject.




Brand You 50: Fifty ways to transform yourself
This is a re-read and happens to be one of my favourite. This book is about personal-branding. This is a manifesto for today's knowledge workers and the title says everything "50 ways to transform yourself from an Employee to a brand that shouts distinction, commitment and passion!". I came to believe, as a resulting of reading this book, I learnt that surviving means not blending-in, but standing-out, and Tom offers 50 strategies for the same. Each chapter has things to do section, that makes it easier to put theory into practice. This book too is written in trademark Tom Peters style - high energy, optimistic, utterly brilliant and in-your-face. He relentlessly lifts your hopes and revives your dreams, big dreams that is.


Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship At a Time
Building long term relationships is one of my "ongoing" goal. This book goes beyond the common "networking" and helps one to actually build true relationships. The premise of the book is that our relationships must be built on generosity, trust and integrity. There are several practical approaches that are discussed in this book that can be of help to anybody. This book offers a fresh look at networking so that we are successful in business and our personal life.

ISO certification

Closely on the heels of our first anniversary, we had planned for our ISO certification audit. We had this audit last Thu and Fri and the auditors have recommended us for the ISO certification. We didn't had any "areas of concern" or "non-conformance", though we got some very good suggestions also known as "opportunities for improvement". The goal was set in early March. We hired a highly experienced TQM consultant to guide us through the process and as usual had our task force. All these people ensured that no stone was left unturned, which resulted in the recommendation for certification. We are quality conscious and that certification is just the beginning of a never ending journey of excellence.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of certifications - ISO, CMM etc., I would rather spend my time try to influence folks to give the best they can and excel, rather than worry about audits. I have no problem with following processes, but the documentation in specific templates, book keeping, doing something just to keep auditors happy etc., are something that repels me. Before you get me wrong, let me quickly add that I've been an internal auditor for 7yrs and have taken very active role in ISO and CMM certification efforts in a few of my previous companies. Further, I also went thru PMI certification as a certified Project Management Professional. The grouse comes mostly when the people forget the "spirit" part and focus solely on the "letter" part and you get penalized and/or called to explain on things that were done so well, but auditors are not happy that some record is not in the specified template. Good number of folks, miss out on the big picture of "why certification?" and focus on conformity. Not for nothing Ralph Emerson said "Foolish consistency in the hobgoblin of small minds".

Hence, I do have mixed feelings. Glad that we were able to achieve the goal. But, now that we would be certified, just worried that conformity may take precedence over excellence. Worse, it might become an annual affair to "fix" records, just before the audits. However, we would move to metrics based management and hope to get some good metrics on all aspects of the operation.



Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

1st anniversary

Our India subsidiary was formally started this day (6-Oct) one year ago when I along with my long time colleague joined on 6-Oct-2008 and the first task was to find an office space. One year has passed so quickly thanks to the pace at which we are running. We had our fair share of joy and frustration, pride and despair, excitement and anger, that are typical of any start-up. Though there would be always scope for improvement, I'm quite proud of things we as a team have achieved in the last one year and about the fact that we are moving as per the vision we have set for ourselves.

In this one year we now are completely responsible for the entire Software part, PMO, Customer Support, QA and Build & Release. We also have several finance and administrative functions (accounting, IT etc.,) now operating out of Bangalore.

Coming year looks even more exciting as we plan to add ASIC and H/w engg, expand the team and directly serve some of the biggest names in the Consumer Electronics space. Most importantly, the stuff that we have been working on this year would be out in the market - the biggest satisfaction for anyone into product development.

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

There has to be first time for everything

Today was an interesting day as the following "firsts" happened:

1. Had my first ever meeting and presentation with a Venture Capital firm that plans to invest in our company - This meeting was the culmination of the hectic due diligence efforts we went through in all aspects of our operations.
2. For the first time I signed the "balance sheet" in my capacity as a Director on the board of our company's Indian subsidiary.
3. Gave pocket money for the first time to my 11.5yr old son. He and his friends would go to Coffee Day (atleast thats what is being told).

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Reading list for Sep-09

Was down with a bout of viral fever for the early part of the month. They are some holidays this month and hope to catch-up with the following this month:

1. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
I had read this about about 5 years ago. Thought of re-reading it after having read numerous other books which had a similar theme (economists exploring something). I remember the initial read to be enjoyable and quick.






2. Irrational Exuberance
This book is part of my PMBA economics studies. I hope to gain some insights into stock markets, their valuations and other related theories. Perhaps not the best book (in the sense of a "text book") on stock market, but I'm seeing it more as a primer. The book is hugely popular and there would be reasons for it.







3. Making it all Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life
I've benefited quite a lot by the simple yet effective process that David Allen has described in his previous best sellers - "Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress Free Productivity" and "Ready for Anything - 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life". The first one, popularly known as GTD has a powerful methodology just to deal with incoming mails and I dare say I've been using it to good effect in the last few years. In this new book, David revisits his basic premise that a complete and current inventory of commitments organized and reviewed in a systematic way can sharpen focus and allow for wiser decision making. Doesn't seem there is something new in this book, but its worth as a refresher course in GTD.


4. De Bono's thinking course
From the last two months, I have undertaken the task of reading some important works of Dr. Bono. This one is second in the series. The book presents practical methods and ideas to improve one's thinking skills. It would be fun doing the exercises.







5. What do you really want from your children
"Before marriage I had six theories on raising kids. Now I have six kids and no theories" - is a quote in the initial pages of this book that resonates well with most parents. Wayne Dyer is one of my favourite authors. While stressing the need for parents to be the role models and that kids learn most from observing their parents, Dr. Dyer covers topics like risk-taking, living in the present, self-reliance, and creativity. Each chapter includes strategies, negative child/parent behaviors, and the payoffs for maintaining desirable behaviors.

Creating Desired Future

Well, who doesn't want to Create a Desired Future? The answer is always yes, but preceded by another question, "but how?". SoL South Foundation (a not-for-profit society), is an affiliate member of Society for Organizational Learning (SoL - www.solonline.org) started by Dr. Peter Senge and head quartered in Boston, USA. Sol South has been founded (I'm one of the founder member) with a view to bring frontier learning opportunities to India, has just announced a 3-day workshop titled "Creating Desired Future". This workshop draws concepts from Peter Senge's Fifth Discipline, Otto Shramer's Theory U, Eastern meditations and many other behavioral concepts.

The expected outcomes include:

• Clarity of one's desired future in many facets of life
• Clarity of the meaning one is seeking and personal preferences
• Clarity about internal blocks and leverages in relation to the desired future
• A short-term prototype of the roadmap towards the desired future.

The workshop is led by Halasyam Sundaram (a sociologist and a OD consultant), Raja Chidambaram (Consultant in the areas of Change and Leadership) and Dr. Vinay Dabholkar (an Innovation consultant).

I recommend the workshop to anyone that wants to create a personal vision for themselves. I want to share my story on how I got benefited from a similar workshop twice (led by Raja Chidamabaram).

It was in early 2003, I had started feeling a little restless. I had completed 10yrs in the very first company in my professional life. Though there was no problem per se with the organization that I was working, I was feeling stuck, my own learning had gone down considerably low, was sitting pretty in a comfort zone, I was plain reacting to events every day as there were no goals to aspire and therefore no growth. Above all there was absolutely no work-life balance. It was under such circumstances my first personal vision workshop was held. The outcome changed my life for ever. First, I came-up with a tag line for myself - Contribute, Learn, Enjoy. These 3 seemingly simple words have had a major influence in my life and continues to inspire me in all facets of life. I set out with a 5-year goal to increase my capacity to contribute (at office, at home and to society). I drew up a financial management plan till 2020 (as I wanted to retire in 2020), set out goals to have vacations at regular intervals (both within India and abroad). My personal and professional lives were integrated and I can proudly say that I've been enjoying a near perfect work-life balance (though one suspects, my wife won't entirely agree).

One great thing about the discipline of setting goals is that lot of such things become a habit and gets routinized and freeing your mind to focus on bigger and better things. For example: I had a goal of taking 3 local vacations every year and having a vacation abroad once every 3 years. Now, we regularly take local vacations during kid's winter, christmas and summer holidays. We have visited Mauritius and Singapore/Malaysia by now. We have finalized a 18-day Europe travel in 2010 and thinking about a self-drive vacation in Newzealand (2013). My investments are categorized for my retirement, towards children's education, contribution to society and for major household expenses. The plan is stable and continues for the sixth year running. These two have become so mechanical - my investment plan for the entire takes about one sunday in an entire year and I have long and growing list of places to visit and just keep ticking them off.

Having stabilized basic facets of life, in 2007, I felt the need to do this exercise again. This time, I was trying to see how I can grow professionally. In this exercise, I came up with "Facilitating Impact through Innovation. Contribute. Learn. Enjoy". I really don't say this is my life purpose, but it is something very close to that. One immediate decision of this exercise was that I left my cushy job at an MNC (as I was not doing much over there) and joined a little known start-up of sorts which I thought would help me to "change the world" in some way. I also decided to advance my goal of "retire from salaried job" by 2016 and become an independent consultant. My career goals are now fairly well articulated and are in line with the theme Facilitating Impact, which incidentally is the name of this blog. When I go for my half yearly retreats, I evaluate myself on the personal vision that I have set for myself and set goals which are inline with my personal vision.

I'm a big believer in the concept of personal vision. It can be so inspiring. It can be so fulfilling. It cuts out all the crap, all the noise around as you know where you are headed. It also makes you own up your mistakes and take responsibility for your own future. All lame excuses on your manager, spouse, dog, city you live-in and other things like "you don't know how my situation is different" goes away. It liberates you from the constraints imposed by the organization and helps you chart your own course, within the boundaries, as you are always focused on what you want. It gives a great amount of clarity and you won't be influenced by the external rewards (or lack of it) as you are driven by a vision. Your own one. Created by you.

I strongly recommend this workshop to everyone wanting to lead fulfilling lives. Even for those who are doing well. I'm promoting it not because its a SoL South event, but because of the impact it has made in my life and because I know all the three trainers personally for over 10years now. I can guarantee that this could be one of the best investment that you could ever make for yourself. Vinay Dabholkar, one of the trainers, shares his experience from one of the earlier workshops here.

The event is planned on 8th, 9th and 10th of October. Its a residential program to enable participants to focus, share ideas with trainers and fellow students, and to have space for quiet reflection. The fees are Rs.15,000, 12,000 and 9,000 for corporate sponsored, self-sponsored and for folks from not-for-profit respectively. 10.3% service charges are extra. The fee covers accommodation on double occupancy basis and include vegetarian food. It would be held at Search Training Center, Koppa Village on Bannerghatta Road.

Feel free to contact me (ramp.ramp@gmail.com, mobile +91 990 190 1717) or the trainer Halasyam (halasyam.sundaram@gmail.com, mobile +91 94433 45130) directly for more details.

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Jul - 09: Best of Blog Posts

Can't believe I skipped this section for the last 3 months. Travel to Europe and Japan and high pressure at work has thrown my blogging out of the gear and I'm crawling back to keep the habit intact. Here are some posts that I found remarkable, in the last 3 months.

Tom Peters continues to urge to keep Excellence Always (If not Excellence, what else? If not NOW, when? - he keeps asking). In this post Excellence? Always? Yes!, he remembers the following from Martin Luther King:
"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

Beautiful isn't it? He also thinks the most important job of the boss is to develop his people. Read The ONE Thing ....

Seth Godin reminds us that You Matter. In another interesting post he talks about The Risk/Reward Confusion.

Guy Kawasaki hardly blogs these days and his blog posts are typically some promo stuff on his company alltop.com (not that I have a problem with that) or his review of some cool car that he got a chance to drive for a week or so (I do envy him on this). He does interview (I love this) some cool folks though in OpenForum.com. Here are some interviews you might like:

• The Inside Scoop on Design - Interview with Harmut Esslinger (Macintosh Designer)
• How to Escape Mundanity - In this interview Pamela Slim explains how to escape the mundanity of corporate cubicle life
• In Pursuit of Elegance - Interview with Mathew E May where he offers 12 indispensable tips for embracing Elegance.

Rajesh Setty cautions on chasing wrong milestones. He talks about The Only Milestone that Matters. Review your milestones. NOW. Check how many of them is helping you to increase your capacity to contribute.

Vinay Dabholkar is studying the roles and influence of CTOs these days. He shares Two Excellent Articles on the Role of CTO (first one talks about the roles and responsibilities of the CTO and the second one talks about 5 dominant patterns amongst CTOs in the US).

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Reading list for Aug'09

Last month was a complete washout w.r.t my reading, as I had a fairly tough set of books. Just could not get enough time as there were too many things to cope with on both professional and personal front. The priority therefore would be to clear the pending stuff and therefore plan to read only book this month.


The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
I'm hooked on to Tim Harford's writing (author of The Undercover Economist) as it deals with couple of my favourite subjects - economics and psychology of human behavior. In this new book, Harford provides an entertaining and provocative ("why is your boss paid higher than you", "is divorce overrated?" etc.,) look behind the seemingly irrational. He uses Von Neumann's game theory concepts and applies it to several arenas like racism, work place, Las Vegas gambling and even work place. He shows that individual rational behavior doesn't always lead to socially desired outcomes and concludes by showing how rational behavior shapes cities, politics and the entire history of human civilization.

Upbeat: An Interview with Rajesh Setty

A few years ago, I accidentally ran into Rajesh Setty’s blog, from the Cool Friends section of TomPeters.com and since then it is in my personal Top 10 blogs that I follow on a regular basis. The big concept that I got benefited from his work is on Personal Branding for Technology Professionals (get your copy of the free ebook here). At about the same time, Rajesh published his beautiful book Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps. I’ve lost count of the number of copies of this book, that I gifted to people around me. Its amazing the way Rajesh produces blog posts that are of high value, week by week and now for several years. If you have still not subscribed to his blog, do it NOW and you’d be happy that you did.

Rajesh has published a new book Upbeat: Cultivating the Right Attitude to Thrive in Tough Times. In this book he offers simple yet profound nuggets to help one thrive during the challenging times that we all are subjected to right now. The book is divided into 5 segments “The Trap”, “The Discipline”, “The Network”, “The Strategy” and “The Action”. What more, it also has a D-I-Y section that makes it easier for the reader to implement the ideas.

For quite some time, I have been thinking about interviewing eminent people that are making an “impact” on the society. I’m glad to start this series with an interview of Rajesh Setty. This interview is a part of the second wave (first wave here) of the blog tour of Rajesh’s new book Upbeat.

Here we go:

Dear Rajesh, first of all, greetings from Bangalore and many thanks for your time. I’m always fascinated by the valuable, thought provoking posts that keeps flowing from you so effortlessly. How do you do this and What is the prime motivation behind this?

RamP, that is very kind of you. Thanks.

You have two questions here:

1. How do I do what I do?

2. What is my motivation to do this?

First I want to say that I am more of a student than a teacher. I have great teachers and mentors and I have had them by my side for over two decades.

On your first question there, the first thought that comes to my mind is that I have LOT of help. By GOD’s grace, I have more help than I can use. If I am slipping behind on something it’s mostly because of me and not because I don’t have the help. With good help, you have more capacity to do fun and interesting things.

The second thought I have on that is that by nature I think “very long term.” I don’t start any project until I am convinced the five years from now, I will still have fun continuing to do that project. Since there is no short-term thinking I have all the time to slowly build on whatever I have started.

On your second question, my motivation is to continue to contribute and build my own capacity to contribute more. The more I give, the more I learn to give more. It is a great joy when I know that I have touched, moved and/or inspired someone somewhere in the world.

Out of several concepts I have learnt from following your posts, the one that has influenced me the most is the concept of “gradually, but suddenly”. Can you please briefly explain this for my readers and are there any methods by which one can start observing that they are falling into this trap?

I wrote an article for TomPeters.com on this topic. Here is an excerpt of the article:

In the book The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway paints a scenario where one of the key characters, Mike Campbell, is asked, "How did you go bankrupt?" His response is "Gradually ... then suddenly." This is so very applicable to a recession scenario. Actually, it is applicable to all our lives—you don't fail suddenly; you fail gradually through a series of small failures everyday. The day you fail is just a culmination of all the small failures you have had.

Yes, you can get away with "no progress during a recession" by blaming the recession, but really, if things are not going well, you should blame yourself for the way you behaved leading up to the recession.

"Gradually ... then suddenly" is the phenomenon that will explain a lot of mess we are in today. We are trying to find instant solutions to problems that we have created over years.

And the link to the article in its entirety:
TomPeters.com: Gradually… then suddenly

You talk about “setting higher standards”. However, this needs a realistic assessment of oneself. I have encountered two sets of people – the first set hype-up their moderate achievements and actually believe that they have set high standards for themselves and the other set would have set impossibly higher goals/standards and driving everyone crazy around them. How do you think one can go about accurately seeing the current reality?

Jeffrey Pfeffer (Stanford University, Author of “Knowing Doing Gap”) says – “You have to be reasonably competent to find out your level of incompetence on a topic.”

I like the statement because it applies to all of us in many different ways almost daily. We don’t know what we don’t know – so we have an “awareness problem” on most topics. We won’t know that we don’t know something until someone brings that into our awareness. So unless you are “open” to learning from MANY sources, chances are that you are blindsided.

So, that’s the first step right there – to be aware of what is really in play.

Once you know that, the next step is to make an honest assessment of market standards. What is an acceptable level of competence, what are considered “high standards” in the marketplace etc.

Next, you can make a determination of “delta” between the currently accepted “high standards” in the marketplace and your own standards on that topic.

Lastly, you set the bar higher than the currently accepted “high standards” and display “proof” to show that you are not just saying but you are actually living it.

One way to check whether you have set “higher standards” is to see what “premium” are you getting for what you are producing. That is not an absolute measure but it can give you reasonable feedback on where you stand.

Moving on to the next topic of “networking” - I have seen examples where people need help, and there are people willing to give help, but one hesitates to seek help. This is clearly not the case of being “extra baggage” or not being “grateful” as you have beautifully explained. Unless you ask, network can’t help, as it won’t even know that someone needs help. Why do you think such a thing happens and how the network can proactively help?

RamP, Networking and Relationship Building are so important to life and business that I am surprised why they are not taught in school. People think they know how to build relationships because they know how to communicate. That is far from the truth.

Relationship building is a life-long process. The best analogy I have is that of planting a tree. You have to nurture it for years before it bears fruits.

When you build strong relationships over time, both parties will know the concerns of each other and both parties want to help take care of each others’ concerns as much as possible. When you have that kind of relationship, asking is easy. But it takes time to build that kind of relationship. So people try to take the shortcut.

You are right – people can’t read other people’s mind so you might have to “ask” explicitly. However, the step before (the act of giving) has to be done before you go around “asking” to make this effective.

You talk about “cultivating the attitude of flexibility, while retaining the focus”. I can understand it at an intellectual level, but have difficulty articulating what it really means. Can you please elaborate?

Of course RamP – here below I have elaborated on the concept.

There are many ways to reach a goal. When you start you may think of one path to reach a goal and get emotionally attached to the path. In that path, there is a series of intermediate goals that you reach before you reach your ultimate goal. Every time you reach an intermediate goal, you feel that you have made progress. However, at some point in time, you might get stuck in the process of reaching the next intermediate goal (or milestone.) Here is where you need to watch out for the breakdown. Your intermediate goal becomes your obsession and you start focusing on it as if that is your ultimate goal rather than trying to find other ways of reaching your ultimate goal.

The “focus” has to be on the ultimate goal while you keep your “flexibility” to rearrange intermediate goals to reach your ultimate.

How do you think that lot of ideas you have offered in the last chapter “The Action” could be applied by people who are in middle management layers in large organizations?

The big thing that middle management people can do is to increase the capacity of the people that they are managing. If their team as a whole is increasing their capacity, their capacity to perform and produce results will go up.

Think about these questions:

1. What specific actions have you taken in the last week to increase the capacity of your team members?

2. What specific actions have you taken in the last quarter to increase the capacity of your team members?

3. What specific actions have you planned next quarter to increase the capacity of your team members?

Most often, we are busy “managing” rather than helping people grow. When people grow, their capacity to produce results goes up and they need less of your “management” to perform.

There are times where one has done everything seemingly right – this person is not in any trap, has a good network, disciplined, has plans and is action oriented. Still things just won’t turn up OK. In such unfortunate cases, its easy to slide in to negative spiral, making it very difficult to be Upbeat. How can such people retain hope and what is your message?

The short answer is – it’s not easy.

Yes, it is difficult to stay upbeat in these situations but it is also not easy to stay and continue suffering either. You really have to get sick and tired of getting sick and tired and start taking some action. The key decision to make here is whether you want to live in the past or you want to live towards the future.

You said it right in your question RamP – “, its easy to slide in to negative spiral, making it very difficult to be Upbeat.” The keyword here is “easy” as you can see. It is easy to feel bad or victimized and blame everyone and our surroundings and NOT do anything. Because of what has happened, one can also get a LOT of sympathy and attention – a form of license for inaction.

The result of continuing to suffer is clear – one would continue to suffer.

Life is too precious to squander this way. I am not saying that “staying Upbeat” will solve their problems – it is a great way to begin the first day of the rest of your life.

The best way to explain this is to watch this short clip from the movie “Rocky Balboa.” The message there is very simple –

“It is not how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward...”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1tXhJniSEc



You always emphasize the need of having good teachers and mentors. Their roles are now even more crucial. Any suggestions for the mentors?

Mentors for me are a gift from God. They not only teach but they also hold me accountable for me to learn and apply those teachings.

I have written extensively about the reasons one should have mentors and I guess your question is more about – “OK, I have bought into that concept – now how do I go about finding good mentors?”

I wish I could say – “that’s easy.” Unfortunately it’s not. Good ones are usually taken and since like all of us, they have limited time, you have to compete and prove to them that you are “worth their time” to get their attention.

Please look around and I am sure you will notice people that can increase your “capacity to contribute” for the rest of your life. Once you find them, you have to go on a quest to recruit them as your mentor – meaning you have to sell yourself to show that you are a “positive possibility” in their lives. Yes, you can pay them money for their time, energy and insights but that alone will rarely attract them. They are lending their brand and they want to know that you are worth it.

Finally a rather selfish question. When is the book being launched in India? Are there plans of speaking gigs similar to the one when you launched Life Beyond Code?

First of all, it is not a selfish question – it is very kind of you to ask that. I am in discussions with several people to make that happen. But I really don’t have any dates finalized. Will keep you posted on this RamP.

Rajesh, thanks again for taking time to patiently answer my questions. Wish "Upbeat" a great success.


Here are some useful links:

1. www.rajeshsetty.com/about/
2. www.lifebeyondcode.com
3. www.twitter.com/UpbeatNow
4. www.thinksulting.com


Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Reading list for Jul'09

I was able to catch up with last month's books primarily because of the retreat I took during the last week of Jun. Moving on with my Personal MBA studies, the focus for the next half of the year would be on finance and accounting. I've also decided to learn to "think" and therefore have lined up several books by Dr. Edward De Bono.

Finance Sense - Dr. Prasanna Chandra
Dr. Prasanna Chandra (aka PC) was a faculty at IIM-B and very early in my career as a manager, I got a chance to attend to his 3 day workshop on "Finance for non-finance professionals", which broadened my perspective on money matters and I started appreciating the need of strict financial goals even at a project level. I've decided to begin the finance and accounting part of the PMBA, with this book, which is simple and elegant.

Lateral Thinking
This is one of the most famous books of Dr. De Bono. In a nut shell this book is supposed to teach better, different and efficient ways of thinking. The book offers lot of techniques and exercises to drive home the point. Be warned, next time when you meet me, I might be thinking very differently!!






The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents around the world are inspiring greatness, one child at a time
This is a book by Stephen Covey. Dr. Covey talks about how A B Combs Elementary School in North Carolina, is using 7-Habits concepts to teach young children principles-based leadership. Dr. Covey's works, especially the 7-Habits have had a tremondous influence on me. I have always wondered whether there is a way one can teach 7-Habits for can be taught to kids. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this book in Bangalore Airport and bought it immediately, though the unfriendly Lufthansa people had told me that my hand-bag is over weight. Much of the book is on how the school has implemented the principles and there is one chapter on how it could be done at home too. Though Dr. Covey recommends 7-Habits of highly effective families as a better book for practicising 7-Habits at home, I reckon that this book is perhaps not for traditional Indian families.

How Full is Your Bucket: Positive Strategies for Work and Life
In this brief book, the authors, a grandfather-grandson team, explore how using positive psychology in everyday interactions can dramatically change our lives. Clifton (coauthor of Now, Discover Your Strengths) and Rath suggest that we all have a bucket within us that needs to be filled with positive experiences, such as recognition or praise. When we're negative toward others, we use a dipper to remove from their buckets and diminish their positive outlook. When we treat others in a positive manner, we fill not only their buckets but ours as well.

Mid year retreat

I just returned from a 4 day trip to my village (the pic shows 120+ year old house of my (maternal) ancestors). Every time around this year, I make this trip to slow down, read some thought provoking stuff and review my progress vis-a-vis hierarchy of goals (quarterly, yearly and long-term) that I have set for myself. The process this time too was very similar to the one I had in early Jan this year.



I particularly like this time of the year. The weather is just about perfect - neither hot nor cold, skies filled mostly with small pieces of moving clouds, occasional drizzle, great breeze (the sound of which is particularly soothing) and birds chirping away to glory, dominated though by koyals. This time is also the season for Jack-Fruits and one can also catch up with the last batch of Mangoes. All these factors relaxes me to the fullest and helps me objectively assess my progress in the last 6 months and set ambitious goals for the next period.


I normally sit in the coconut-grove next to the house, in the old-fashioned "easy chair". This time I started by reviewing my strengths as discovered by the tool StrengthsFinder 2.0. Its important that the vision and the goals that are planned to realize the vision are rooted in strengths. BTW, my strengths (top 5 strength themes as they call it) are Discipline, Relator, Learner, Arranger and Responsibility. As I reflected back on the last 6 months, couple of things have gone pretty well, especially the booting-up of our Bangalore center. On the personal front too my reading, especially on the PMBA topics were on track and had a pretty balanced life, though one suspects my family may not agree citing the Europe and Japan trips. Major disappointment include unable to help our customer, one of the biggest global brand, to launch their music player that is powered by our chipset. Its a deja-vu time. 99.9% is done and there is one deeeeep bug that is delaying the launch. I could also not start learning music as was planned.

I concluded the exercise doing a SWOT analysis and making several changes to my calendar to increase effectiveness. The summary of the exercise will make the goals list that needs to be pursued. This time, I have classified the goals under the 4 categories - To live, To love, To learn and To leave a legacy, inspired by the teaching of Stephen Covey, as articulated in his book First Things First. Overall it was a very satisfying 4 days. I returned energized to the normal world. The key to success is to stick to the plan every day, week and month.

I'm intrigued by two recurring themes that keep coming back w.r.t where I want to be 3-4years from now (its different from what I'm doing now). These two themes are kind of opposite in the body of knowledge they embed. Next few days I'd be reviewing these and the goals with my support group and mentors. Next retreat is planned during last week of December. Same place.

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Inside iPhone 3GS

Here's the BoM of iPhone 3GS from iSuppli's analysis.



You can get total iPhone news coverage here.

Reading List for Jun'09

After hectic business trips to Europe and to Japan in the last 6weeks, life is back to normal. Here are the books I plan to read this month. I tried putting out a summary of learning from each book and frankly failed. Reading is the easiest thing, summarizing requires lot more patience and skill. Here is the list for this month:

Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges
A mentor of mine asked me to read this book. This book has been rated very high in management/leadership and organization development circles. In this book, the author Otto Scharmer proposes a new model for learning and understanding and leading profound change. Instead of analyzing the past to learn, the focus is on learning from and bringing into life the best of all future possibilities. The author argues that behind our blind spots lies the possibilities to understand what we may be and what kind of a future we can create -using our Full Potential - a process the author calls Presencing. I badly needed this book for a workshop that I'd be co-facilitating, under the aegis of SoL South Foundation and a cousin of mine was kind enough to bring this fat book from the US. Thank you Sushma.


The Secret
Addition of this book for this month's reading is an afterthought. I've been hearing/reading a lot on the "law of attraction" and some variants of the same theme ("ask and it shall be given", "power of deliberate intent", for example). I picked up this book out of sheer curiosity. You are expected to learn the secrets of almost everything in life - money, health, relationships, happiness. Why not learn the secrets?





Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com