Educated Being

One of the readers of Educated Being, Sarang, emailed this to me:
——
People from our floor at the company were celebrating Profit Sharing day and part of it was the dart game. Each of us had two chances to burst a balloon a dart. Some selective balloons had attractive prizes in them. I was aiming at the balloon shown in the photo (photo was taken after it had burst out). In my first throw the dart kissed the balloon but didn’t do any good. In the next throw, the balloon was pinned by the dart on one end while the tail end was pinned by the thumb pin. But it didn’t burst and was still full with air. I called it perfection to console myself from feeling miserable and cursing my luck.

Finally, I gave up hope. But as soon as I turned around, the room got louder as the balloon started losing its pressure and soon all the air escaped through a small hole. I won a prize, a $5.00 Subway coupon. What an achievement right? Not as big as the joy of bursting the target in atmost 2 chances.

Moral of the story that I learnt is “Don’t ever give up. Even a small impact at the right place might win you an award“. I will have this picture in my memory for ever.
——

This reminds me of a female who lost her voice in an accident when she was 18 but suddenly started speaking again after 20 years. Though the two incidences cannot be compared but both have a common thread of hope. It is easy to give up after initial setbacks. But hope and faith keep us moving forward. Believe in yourself and keep trying.

Be a Eveready bunny. Never say die.

Filed in: Motivation | 1 Comment

No. Here we are not talking about the dilemma you face when a beggar approaches you for money or when you see a beggar with a sign saying “Homeless. Need $$.” There are many kind people who have expressed their concerns and thoughts about it earlier.

OK. Back to the topic. Why I say that beggars are choosers? For that, you have to understand that there are two kinds of beggars - those who beg by choice, and those who are forced to beg because of inconvenient circumstances.

Beggars by choice

This kind of people have made begging their profession. They just love it. They don’t want to do any other kind of work. They earn enough from begging and are happy with that. These are the people who choose to be beggars.

Beggars by circumstances

This kind of people are those who if given opportunities would change their ‘profession’ willingly. These are the people who need help. Unfortunately, I don’t see them doing anything different to differentiate themselves from the beggars of the first kind. They also ask for money same as the beggars of the first kind. Why don’t they have a sign saying “Homeless. Will work for $$.“? I am sure with this sign, they will get more donors and it’s also possible that someone might arrange a job for them. But they choose to ask for money.

So, what’s the point? Attitude. Second kind of beggars need to change their attitude. And so do we. We are all begging in one way or another. What’s important is to know whether we are committed to provide value in return of what we ask for. No one likes the beggars of the first kind. They are not providing any value to the society directly or indirectly. Don’t be one. Everyone has a choice to make. What is yours?

Be the change that you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

Filed in: Personal Development | No Comments

How do some people become great achievers?

How David Beckham is able to bend football so much? Watch this video that demonstrates his talent. Did you see the turn football makes before entering the goal post? People still wonder how he did what he did.

Some researchers studied Beckham’s game and came up with this explanation,

The wind tunnel technique we’ve developed at the University of Sheffield enabled us to analyse in detail, for example, David Beckham’s sensational goal against Greece in the World Cup qualifiers. We know that the shot left his foot at 80mph from 27 metres out, moved laterally over two metres during its flight due to the amount of spin applied and during the last half of its flight suddenly slowed to 42mph, dipping into the top corner of the goal.

This does explain the physics but doesn’t really tell how Beckham managed to pull it. He didn’t study physics to compute the acceleration, projectile motion, or wind effect for his kicks. But his brain was surely computing such factors based on his experiences, practice and instincts.

How Tiger Woods is able to swing the golf ball into the pocket? Watch this video that shows his master shot. What was he exactly thinking before playing his shot?

Was he computing all the physics factor with his brain? Well, yes in a sense. He was using his experience, practice and instincts to figure out the best way to play this shot.

Why more than 1 billion people are die-hard fans of Sachin Tendulkar ? Watch the master blaster in action in this video. How he is able to play such classy shots with such ease?

If you look into their past, you’ll be surprised to find how much hard work they put in to become the best of the best. As reported in a Fortune article,

Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work.

It is evident that only those people who have worked hard for thousands of hours with proper mindset achieve greatness. Every great person has failed number of times in his life, but it is after such learning experiences they beat the odds and shine. But most of us are so blinded by their shine that we only see their present and fail to remember their past. What differentiate an average from a great are dedication and persistence.

However, we should not forget that any two persons working equally hard might not reap the same fruit of their labor. This can be attributed to their different mindset. Attitude plays a key role in one’s success. If you want to get out of your comfort zone and become an expert in something that you enjoy doing then you are in right mindset. And long hours won’t bother you. All great achievers like Beckham, Woods, and Tendulkar enjoy what they do. That’s why they can put in so many hours of practice without any complaints. But they are not practicing same shot again and again. Instead they keep trying new and difficult shots. They take one step forward with each moment and become comfortable with uncomfortable drives.

So, basically to achieve greatness,

• we need to have a suitable mental attitude to be able to enjoy the things we do.
• we should be willing to put long hours with dedication and persistence.
• we should be willing to overcome the barriers and take one step at a time towards the unknown.

In conclusion, I would like to quote what Kathy pointed out from the book The New Brain:

For the superior performer the goal isn’t just repeating the same thing again and again but achieving higher levels of control over every aspect of their performance. That’s why they don’t find practice boring. Each practice session they are working on doing something better than they did the last time.

Read also: Bend it like Beckham. But how? Part 2.

Filed in: Personal Development, Motivation | 10 Comments

Last week I was having a discussion with a very close friend about our past, present and future. When I asked him what he wants to do in life, his reply was, “Earn millions of dollars”. I believed that he had something specific in his mind so I asked him, “For what?”. And he had no answers. He didn’t even say ‘to live lavishly’ because he is not that kind of guy. He does not know what he want to do with that money. But then why he wants to earn so much? I couldn’t really understand. That set me thinking that earning money cannot be a goal.

Money serves a purpose, it is a means to a goal. What if somehow 10 million dollars appeared in my account? It doesn’t matter how - I inherited it, someone just gave it to me, I earned it, or I won a lottery. But what matters is that what would I do with it? I thought a lot about it but it seemed like my mind had gone just blank. There are many things a person can do - buy house, cars, travel, and blah blah. I couldn’t comeup with a to-do list that would make some sense to me. Finally, I narrowed down to the following options to discuss with you:

Use it for upliftment of poor children - Every once in a while I browse through the websites of the non-profit organizations working towards betterment of poor children and providing them education. Although many non-profit organizations (not all) are working hard towards upliftment of poor children, their efforts alone are not enough. They need more hands to share the load, more minds with right attitude, and more financial sources for the cause. As Annie puts it (35 million, 12 paise),

That’s right. Thirty-five million. These millions are, what the government of India collectively calls, ‘children in need of protection‘. Defined by the ministry of social justice and empowerment as children in ‘extremely difficult circumstances’, they include children in conflict with the law, victims of crime or natural disasters, orphaned, abandoned or runaway children, rescued child labourers, trafficked children, amongst others.

I do donate in small amounts whenever I can but I am not able to contribute significantly since even a small amount is infact a large percentage of my student stipend. However, what I really want to do is to sponsor complete education of atleast one child if possible. But that’s not possible yet on my student stipend.

If I had 10 million dollars, I could sponsor education for many more children. For that I need to find the right people and the question that arises is which organization I can donate to? Which one to trust with such a huge amount of money? How would I know that the money is being used for the right purpose and reaching the deserving ones? Or instead of just donating the money, can I use it for the same purpose in some other way? I have never thought about it. This means I am not ready to have so much money yet for this purpose. I am not prepared for it. Forget 10 million dollars, I have no idea how I am going to help towards the betterment of poor children once I graduate and start earning.

Start a company - Couple of times I had discussions with friends about starting my own company. I want my ‘company’ to have a good purpose, something useful to society, and not just profit-making. Paul Graham suggests to have right people, right products and right spending plan to start a company. With 10 million dollars in my pocket, I won’t have to worry for the funds (atleast for a while). But the problem is that I don’t know what I will produce and which customers I will target. I don’t know yet. I am not ready to have so much money for this purpose. I am an introvert person so networking, for me, is a nightmare. Rob listed excellent suggestions on how to network for introvert people like me. But I have not started working on it. It requires lot of efforts on my part. But If I won’t then how am I suppose to find right people when I’ll need them. Seems like I am just not prepared yet. When will I start preparing for it?

Make investments - Among other options, this seems to be a wise call. But I don’t know the ABC of how and where to invest. I read Ramit’s blog regularly but have never given enough time to research on his suggestions on how to start investing wisely and act on them. What stops me is the thinking barrier that I don’t earn ‘enough’ money right now. But that’s not the problem. I can start taking small steps like open a savings account (ING, HSBC, EMIGRANT). But I am too lazy to do it. The problem is my attitude and overthinking. I need to change my thinking to prepare myself to handle such a huge sum of money.

Spend it lavishly - Well, I won’t be able to do it without feeling guilty so this option doesn’t count for me. Been a student for so long, that I have learned to live within my means.

In summary, I have not prepared myself to do any of the above even to my capacity as of now. I can tell you that it is not the lack of money that is stopping me but my laziness and overthinking. People who are serious about doing something, just do it. Money matters don’t stop them. What’s needed is the DOer attitude, which makes every difficult-to-do and/or seem-to-be-impossible thing possible, be it starting Room to Read by John Wood or SUBWAY by Fred and Peter.

What would you do if you had 10 million dollars? What are you doing right now? Do you really think that lack of money is stopping you?

Filed in: Planning & Action, Getting Things Done, Meaning | No Comments