Let it go!

The famous phrase of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith "Let it go!" has major significance in marketing, How long we stick to some products rather than letting it go..

There are very few products in Automobile Industry in India, which failed in the initial launch and then went on to become a successful product in relaunch. There could be many reasons and one could be the stigma attached to a failed product where brand image plays a major role. But when 9 out of 10 products go this way why people stick to their failed products rather than letting it go! There could be huge loss associated with it, it may not be possible for a sudden exit but one should be prepared for a phased exit otherwise the opportunity loss of not letting it go will be on the higher side.

There are lot of products which are nowhere near that of competition and still try to fix the issues by leaps and bounds and by the time they fix those issues the competition is way ahead and we settle down for a meager market share. If that is what you are looking for, fair enough, but if it is not, Let it go!..

   

Curiousity

Recently read a book of Brian Grazer "A Curious Mind", it talks about how he used his curiosity in having conversation with great people, learning from those conversations and becoming a successful movie producer. 

He is not a researcher and one can write one more book on the same subject covering a broader outlook.. Curiosity is not patented only by those who are intelligent or who asks great questions, in fact everyone in this world is curious (the strong desire to learn) about something. For some it could be thinking & writing, for someone else it could be playing football, meeting people, travelling, cooking, singing etc. we are curious about something which gives us the satisfaction of doing the very same thing rather than the outcome of it. For some writing a blog gives the utmost satisfaction rather than the outcome, same is true with one curious about playing football.. Its important one understands his curiosity and make use of the same in his area of interest. Ask this question, what are you curious about and do more of it.. 

How many times you have failed..

How many times we have failed, write it down and read it again, behind every failure there was a big aspiration & dream without which we wouldn't have failed, without which we wouldn't have come to this level.. So if you are so successful for long time, ask yourself, something wrong with what you have aspired for..

And every time you fail, pat your back, failure is a relative term, its warped with your aspirations & dreams and be happy that your aspirations are as high as to make you fail. Keep moving, you are in the right direction, after all we have seen so many failures in the past..

 

The moral dilemma

It's about Karna & Vibhishana, there are few articles written about who has taken the right stand and one of the blogger has given this perfect topic but there is no convincing answer. My views..

Those who know about these two great characters can skip the next two paragraphs.. Karna, the great warrior in Mahabharat, stood by his friend Duryodhana in the war against pandava. Knowing very well, that it is against Dharma* and would be killed, Karna sacrificed his life in the war and been credited for his loyalty for friendship.

Vibhishana, a character in Ramayana, didn't support his Brother Ravana who kidnapped the wife of Rama, joined Rama and helped him in defeating & killing Ravana. Later he became the king of Ravana's kingdom..

We sometimes get caught in such circumstances, what is the stand do we take?

Let's explore the options available for Karna..

# Convince duryodhana not to fight with pandava and avoid the war

# If not able to convince move out of duryodhana and stay neutral

# Stay with duryodhana but don't participate in the war

# Fight for duryodhana for the support he got and sacrifice his life
# Join pandava and fight for dharma against duryodhana

The fourth one is what Karna did and the last one is what vibhishana did, which one you do?

If you are a person of principles, stay away from working against Dharma but the best is to fight for Dharma, favors that you receive in the past or future should be irrelevant.. Even sacrifice of one's own life doesn't justify working against Dharma, so the stand of Vibhishana is the right one and history has proved that the person who followed Adharma got killed and the one who followed Dharma got the kingdom..

Notes:

* Dharma Meaning: (In Indian religion) the eternal law of the cosmos, inherent in the very nature of things. Antonym is Adharma.

In Hinduism, dharma is seen as the cosmic law both upheld by the gods and expressed in right behaviour by humans, including adherence to the social order.

Status quo

Decision has three answers yes, no, status quo.. We sometimes confuse "No" with status quo, when we say "No" to a decision, the decision is taken, status quo is when a decision is not taken.. If we are maintaining status quo for very Long time, this is how it looks! If you are maintaining status quo for Long time, say yes or no quickly, the graph & life will be much better than this one!!

Nothing is better than something!

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith says "if someone gives you a feedback, say Thank you".. Its very difficult to judge/assess ourselves completely and feedback is one of the best way to understand oneself and make course corrections..

And one more thing, never give unsolicited feedback to anyone, Although the intention is to help the other individual, it will not be taken at all and conceived in a wrong way.. Sometimes nothing is better than something..

Folding a Paper

Folding of paper teaches us a lot, lets explore and try to make a simple theory..

1. This is known fact, If you fold a paper 100 times, the thickness of the paper will almost cover the entire observable universe..

Folding a paper 100 times, the thickness is T (100) = t * 2^100 = t * 1.268 * 10^30
                                                                               =0.05 mm * 1.268* 10^30
                                                                               = 6.34 * 10^22 kms
t is the thickness of the paper which is 0.05 mm
and T is thickness of paper after 100 folds

Observable Universe Diameter is 91 billion light years
Diameter in Kms = 91 billion * 9.461* 10^12 kms = 8.61* 10^23 kms

2. You cant fold a normal paper beyond 7/8 times, because the ratio of length to thickness will become less than two and further folding is difficult.. So what should be the optimum length of a paper to fold as many times as possible? There are formula available, here is a simple formula..

Assumptions,
# Folding of a paper is limited to normal human ability
# Folding can only be done in breath and length -wise, it cannot be done on the thickness side, because it will cause damage to the paper itself
# Paper can be comfortably folded when the length to thickness ratio is more than than two.. Optimum length of a paper required to fold should have a length to thickness ratio of 2:1

Folding only on the length of the paper:

Optimal Length for folding n times L(n) = t * 2^n * 2^(n-1)

So if a paper need to be folded 13 times the paper length should be, L(13) = t * 2^13 * 2^12

Assuming paper thickness of 0.05 mm, the optimum length required to fold a paper 13 times on its length is L (13) = 0.05 *  2^13 * 2^12 = 1677 metres = 1.67 kms long Paper!!!

And the thickness of the paper after 13 folds is T (13) = t * 2^13 = 0.05 * 2^13 = 0.409 metres

Folding on Breadth and Length:

Assuming folding on breading first and then on length,

B (n) = t * 2^n * 2^(n-1)
Where t thickness, n is no. of folds done breath-wise

L (n) = T * 2^n * 2^(n-1)
where T is the thickness after the n folds Breadth-wise which is t*2^n and n is the no. of folds done length-wise

The Turning point

What is your Turning point in life.. We can always relate this with the games and in biography of great leaders, ask again what is that point in your life, we had few in the past but the game is long way to go, what is the turning point that you look forward in future and what are we doing about it..

Combo offers

How often did we get confused with the multiple combo offers and still grudge on not having the right combo.. What should be the objective of a combo offer? 

# To provide right combination of products and make it easy to choose for the customers. At times, the customers are not aware of the right combinations and will be delighted when they see a good one

# provide good value for money when customers buy multiple things, could be of the same product

The first one can be achieved by understanding the customer insights and not by just picking few combination of products for the sake of it and the second one by providing value discount on the right combination. But this doesn't satisfy all the customers, for those who still grudge on the right combinations, you don't need to worry on the right combination, give them satisfaction of value for money, they will choose their right combination. Say, choose any three and get a 5% discount!!

There are lot of companies try to make an ineffective combo by clubbing non moving products and try to show better value for money, those combo's are selling in spite of the bad combinations and not because of those combinations..

Thinking in Graphs and Pictures

When Is the last time we took a pen & paper/ ipad notes and try to draw something.. The effects are surprising, we are able to think better in graphs & pictures rather than words and its brings multidimensional ideas.. So next time you are free, just take a pen & a paper, you could be Creative however elementary it is.. You can try in three/ four axis, a picture, a flow chart, I am sure it would be surprising.. I just tried and this came up.. 

What's your contribution to this world, forget the past, what can you do for the rest of your life.. The first one represents significant contribution and it goes well beyond one's life, the second one is the typical life that most of us live in this world.. However evident this looks like, still we choose the second one, because the first one looks risky, tough, uncertain and needs sacrifices.. Worth it, give it a try, after all it's just one life..

What's your take on Age Vs Learning, Learning Vs Contribution to the world, Is your contribution starts from the day you start doing things or when it's known to the world, what if Charles Darwin who hidden his thesis for years, was hidden for ever..  For an artist being hidden is the Creative freedom, nevertheless the contribution to the world starts from the day he starts doing things.. Remember Vincent Van Gogh, his painting is known to the world only 10 years after his death and still inspires so many even after 100 years..

Creativity and Procrastination

Creativity is born out of love of things and procrastination allows the creative person to love those things which he truly enjoys.. Its so natural.. So next time you procrastinate some thing for love of things, don't worry you could be creative and this blog is a proof for that..

Now i am done, let me do the important thing that i have procrastinated for quite sometime!..