Reading List for Mar-10

All Marketers are (Liars) Story Tellers
This is one book of my favourite author Seth that I never bought, much less read. Somehow the title didn't resonate. Seth however reckons its own of his better books and managed to convince the publishers to change the name from "All Marketers are Liars" to "All Marketers are Story Tellers". He has posted more details, including the new forward here. This book is about worldviews—the biases and expectations and shortcuts we use to get through the world. In other words, many things that are true are true because you believe them. Impressed by the new foreword I decided to read this book.

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
I'm intrigued by stock market's movements. Everytime I develop sime theory goes bust within a few days of being convinced. I hired an independent consultant to manage my portfolio and it turned out to be disaster and now I invest completely in mutual funds, transferring the burden into the investment manager. However my quest to understand the stock market continues. This book by Philip Fisher is considered classic by many and written especially for a lay person. Fisher points out that the largest wealth via investing has been made in one of two ways. First, buying stocks when the markets crash and holding them until the markets recover. Secondly, with less risk and more potential return, you can also just invest in a small portfolio of companies which continue to strongly grow sales and earnings over the years. Then, if the company was correctly selected, you might never have to sell, while accruing a huge return on your initial investment. Further, Fisher explains how he selects a growth company. He lists fifteen points which a company must have to be considered a superior investment.

Reading List for Feb-10

Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey
This month I completed Capt. Gopinath's auto-biography Simply Fly. Capt. Gopinath is generally regarded as father of LCC (low cost carrier) in India. Air Deccan, though it had its share of problems did change the Indian aviation sector forever. But thats only one part of the story. Several little known things of Gopinath unfolds in the book. His struggles, never-say-die-attitude, innovations and the passion he brings in to everything he gets into is truly motivating. No wonder, Dr. Abdul Kalam recommends this book to be used as a text book on entrepreneurship in B-schools. He is a great story teller, which makes reading the book so easy to read and absorb the lessons.

On beginnings and thoughtfulness

Last two months have been very hectic at office as we worked hard for the annual CES event at Vegas and towards the release of our software for our #1 and #2 customers. Its always a big challenge to pull it off when three major releases needs to be done in the space of about 8 weeks. It was also fascinating to watch the reaction of all the stakeholders as the events unfolded. James Allen, in his classic "As a man Thinketh" said "circumstances does not make the man, it reveals him to himself". Could not have understood the meaning of this sentence better. My personal activities went almost close to zero (no blogging, no reading, no contribution to the non-profit that I'm part of and very little time for family). I want to thank folks who encouraged me to keep writing.

Hope to have a new beginning from this week as normalcy returns or seems so.

There are beginnings everywhere, mostly small ones and seemingly trivial ones and almost everything starts from small beginnings. I re-read the chapter Right Beginnings from James Allen's yet another classic titled Byways of Blessedness. James Allen stresses the need for strong and right beginnings - for example he believes in getting out the of the bed early in the morning and for some of us who are challenged on this front, asks a question - How are you to develop strength of will, mind and body if you begin everyday by yielding to weakness?

Loving, gentle, kind, unselfish and pure thoughts are right beginnings, leading to blissful results. If we accept this piece of wisdom from Allen, there are few questions to ponder:

• Have we discovered the vast importance of beginnings?
• Do we really know what is involved in a beginning?
• Do we know the number of beginnings we are continuously making and their importance?

Anyways, as I was pondering over the "beginning" this morning, a recent post (youtube video) by Tom Peters on thoughtfulness caught my attention. He says fundamental human decency towards one another is arguably the most important thing during these tough times. Thoughtfulness he argues, apart from making you a better human being, helps in retaining customers, employee satisfaction and brand perception. Its free. It speeds up things. It builds trust. It brings transparency. And the best of it "Thoughtfulness is key to your ability to look in the mirror and tell your kids about your job". I'm enamored by the word thoughtful. Thank you Tom!

Can we strive hard to have the right beginning and thoughtfulness in everything we do?


Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

Sachin the true Zen master

24-Feb-2010 is a special day for all cricket lovers across the globe. Sachin Tendulkar became the first cricketer ever to score a double century in a ODI, now has a history of about 40yrs. And as Sanjay Manjrekar said, no one deserved the record more than Tendulkar. Almost the whole country was praying that he would get past 194 and then eventually into 200 and he obliged. One would be excused for thinking that he might have unleashed a brutal attack to get to 200, but it was as elegant as it could get (the contrast was more visible with Dhoni's and Pathan's ugly hitting at the other end).

We have been fortunate enough to be in the same era as Tendulkar's. I have followed most matches of Tendulkar's starting from his debut hitting Abdul Qadir. The world stops to watch Tendulkar on song - it was the case 20yrs ago and continues to be so. Almost everything about the man is perfect, the stance, the balance, the grace whether defending or leaving or executing the straightest possible drives and the follow-thru. Who can take his eyes off the upper-cut that sails over the 3rd man boundary, or the cover drive that bisects a packed off-side field or the straight drive that travels all long the ground or the flick that he can place anywhere from mid-wicket to fine-leg. Ah! there was a time when Tendulkar was young - the booming drives and many of those used to be in air - the heart beat would stop till the ball lands safely, followed by the joy of seeing the ball cross the boundary and followed by the realization that there was no need to get anxious as Tendulkar would have anyways placed it so safely.

Over these years we have witnessed several type of innings - both in test cricket and in ODIs. Dour defensive innings, brilliant counter attacks (obviously everyone would think Warne in Sharjah) and innings of character. I remember a particular ODI guess in 2002 when Saching got a 150+ score on a low and slow track. Previous match he had hit a booming hundred and this was so different as he nudged the ball cleverly into gaps and scoring mostly in singles and twos, when everyone around found so difficult to put the bat on to the ball, let alone scoring. I always used to quote these two matches while giving gyaan to my juniors those days as to how one needs to be adaptable.

What about his bowling? I haven't seen anyone (including the the greatest ever Warne and Murali (though I feel Murali "legally" chucks) turn the ball more than Tendulkar. May be if one really sits down to measure, may be he would be bracketed along with these two. But seen anyone turn the ball both ways? No way. If he had taken bowling seriously, the amount of wickets that Warne and Murali have taken would not even be talked about.

I'm always intrigued trying to answer the question what makes him so successful? Can we imbibe a few qualities? Can we draw some "management lessons"? Agreed he is naturally gifted and so were several others who didn't last long. Three things come to my mind. His child like quality (just checkout the way he celebrates when he takes a catch or runs out someone), commitment (remember the desperate dive that saved a single in the first ODI) and the fact that he thinks he is still learning. The last one to me is a lot important.

I have read a beautiful book titled "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" by the famous Zen master Shunruyu Suzuki. The essential message of the book is that the beginner's mind is alway's empty and is open to everything. The beginner's mind has several possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few. When there is no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners and can really learn something. Its about being sincere and to make full effort.

Everytime I think of Sachin, I'm reminded of beginner's mind and in that sense, we do not have to look beyond Sachin for a Zen master - for simplicity, the single minded devotion to the task and the ability to remain so humble despite achieving so much.

My sons, both are crazy about cricket, are only 12 and 8yrs old. Wish Tendulkar can go on for another 10yrs and three generations would have seen him and most importantly would have been inspired.

Thank you very much,


RamP!
ramp.ramp@gmail.com

PS: Photo courtesy Cricinfo/Getty Images. Hope they don't mind my putting the photo without permission on a joyous occasion.