Zara Sa Aur

The other day I was in the Annual Sales Conference of my esteemed client, Rupee Boss Financial Services at the invite of Walnace Dias for a bit of facilitating the program.

This is an organization which is committed to ensure the best experience in terms of customer service & satisfaction with their selfless attitude and humble approach which is visible in the behavior of their employees.

The CEO of the organization P N Shetty was the last one to address the employees. While addressing them he mentioned one thing the employee must do is to have an attitude called “Zara Sa Aur”.

What he meant was to “Go the Extra Mile.”

Going the Extra Mile makes all the difference between an ordinary and extraordinary work.

The genesis of the “Going the extra mile” is biblical and had been used by Jesus Christ where he says "Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two."

Why should one go the extra mile?

1. It makes you Feel Good

When a Supervisor stays after office to help a subordinate to complete his work, it makes him feel better. The happiness in the eyes of the subordinate makes it for going that extra mile.

“Here is the simple but powerful rule… always give people more than they expect to get.” - Nelson Boswell

2. It improves your knowledge about your Customers

When you dig deeper and make your customer realize a problem which can occur in future and support him with a solution now helps the customer’s stickiness to your organization.

3. It also helps you to Fix Your Mistakes

Going an extra mile and seeking feedback from a customer who has just given an order to competitor will definitely help you to put your house in order.

4. It Impact others and boosts your career as well.

Going an extra mile is contagious. When you work beyond your call of duty you tend to influence your team members as well and encourage them to follow your footstep.

5. There is less competition.

Most of your colleagues will call it a day when it comes to work hard, burn the midnight oil and work an extra ounce for yourself and your organization.

As said by Wayne Dyer, “It’s never crowded along the extra mile.”

So what you are waiting for?

Set a great benchmark for yourself and inspire others to aspire for more.

“One of the most important principles of success is developing the habit of going the extra mile.” - Napoleon Hill

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What's your Maturity?

In a recent training program in one of the best bank in this country I faced a situation which is not very normal to me.During a debrief after an activity on the importance of body language a participant said with a dejected tone "these are not applicable in daily life.” A normal reaction would have been to give her your piece of your mind.Though taken aback,I did not react,regained my composure and made her understand the logic behind the body language with more examples and role play.

By the end of the program she started seeking guidance on her life.

Cut to a situation four years ago when a participant behaved in rowdy manner, I was on fire and made sure nobody should not mess with me on my subject.

What made the change happen?

Why did I have new approach towards others?

While discussing these two incidents with my coach I realized a sense of maturity in my perspective.

That made me think-what is maturity?

Who is a mature person? Does maturity come with age?

Let's understand…

• When you have a difference of opinion with your father and you still respect him and behave normally and that's maturity.
• When you see your son doing something which is not as per your "values" and still you are friends with him, that's maturity.
• When you have fight with your spouse and you are looking for some alibi to talk to her, that's maturity.
• When your friend's political views are diagonally opposite to you, and you are the first to help him in times of need is maturity.
• When your neighbor follow a different route to the Almighty and still you are one to donate blood in his need is maturity.
• When you find more salt in your food and still don't react, that’s maturity.
• When you start accepting people with different opinions and views that's maturity.
• When you work hard and do not get what you expect and still you enjoy the situation that's maturity.
• When accept good and not so good situations in your life with equanimity that’s being mature.
• When you detach yourself for bad turn of events that's being mature.

Can you mature with age, not necessary? But with experience you start accepting the reality of life, that’s being mature.

Being Mature is Being Human...

What do you say?

If you have any issues which has become a mind-block, do connect with me before it's too late.

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Is the world full of Hypocrites?

When I started my journey in the corporate world, during one of the tele call with a partner my boss heard me screaming .He called me in his cabin and started giving me a piece of his mind on how to communicate with partners .

Being a greenhorn I did not like the “gyan”and came out his cabin after the customary nodding of affirmative understanding.

After sometime the entire office reverberated with a loud scream. It was coming from inside the cabin and peeping into his cabin made us aware that the choicest of words were meant for the housekeeping boy.

“Sir yeh toh roj ka hai…khud paper kidhar rakh denge and mere par chillayenge!”Retorted our Ramu.

“The entire office celebrated “save paper save environment” day. Before going for a review meeting the boss had taken a print outs of a two hundred pages PowerPoint presentation!

When I started on my own learning and development business I facilitated programs on empathetic listening. The same evening I yelled at home at the drop of hat!

A father admonished his son if lies at home but he starts his office interaction with a lie when he was asked the reason for coming late.

Lot of big training organization will lecture on how compensations play an important role in motivating employees. While the same training organization would pay zilch to the trainers which are many a times less than the money paid to the DJ wale babu of the evening party!

As a nation also we pay more “respect” to our teachers than the salary!

A nation of hypocrites!

How old is this trait in human history can be understood by the following anecdote...

“In the garden of Gethsemane, Judas Iscariot went up to Jesus and “kissed him very tenderly.” This was a customary expression of warm affection. But Judas’ gesture was only a pretense to identify Jesus to those who had come in the night to arrest him. (Matthew 26:48, 49) Judas was a hypocrite—a person who pretends to be what he is not, someone who hides his bad motives behind a mask of sincerity.

Judas is still living inside us.

Not only in the corporate world but every strata of life we will find has Judas.

Hypocrisy is historic rather prehistoric!

"We are all hypocrites. We cannot see ourselves or judge ourselves the way we see and judge others" as said by José Emilio Pacheco.

This hypocrisy is creating cracks in structures called character.

How do we avoid being a hypocrite?

How can we live up to our commitment and remove the mask?

Here are the few things we can practice:

• Practice Integrity
• Avoid judging others
• Improve your moral quotient
• Understand others
• Under promise and over deliver
• Think before committing
• Be detached of personalities and beliefs

What do you say?

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How "Huborgs" can transform our lives?

In a recent talk at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said humans would have to merge with machines to avoid becoming irrelevant. Musk explained human brains are not capable of keeping up with computers which would start replacing people in certain fields of the work. 

Now the real question is, why human brain is not able to keep up its own resolutions most of the time?

Human brain knows what is good or bad for us. That’s why we human being plan many resolutions for our betterment. However the same brain ditches us when it’s the time to implement them. The human brain knows certain things like greed, lust, anger, etc. are bad for us, and still the same brain allows us to indulge in them. Also on top of it the same brain justifies the action!

Isn’t it pretty frustrating when we want to do something which is beneficial for us but we end up doing the exact opposite?

What’s the solution?

Imagine a situation when the human brain only plans and a part of it, which is machine aided brain implements it. This will eliminate the issue of procrastinating on our New Year resolutions.

Human brain knows pornography is bad, so it resolves not to indulge in it, but alas…it motivates the same human being to enjoy it! Can this task of barring the human being from its indulgence be given to a machine aided brain?

Human brain knows anger is worst, still it can’t stop a human being from getting angry. Can this act of stopping be outsourced to a machine aided brain?

How we do we do this?

Yes the combination of human brain and a machine is the key.

If human heart can be controlled by a “pacemaker” why not the human brain can controlled by a “director” which is a brain aided by a machine which I am calling as “Huborg” which can be programmed to implement things for us which we have planned. In case we don't the "Huborg" sends electrical signals which are not enjoyable, which will force us to action the plans. Anyway many lessor mortals don’t implement things unless we forced to. The "Huborg" can be a great boon such people to be far more successful.

If this happens just imagine how each human being changes and enhances his potential to achieve his dreams. As they say we humans utilize only 40% of our potential. We can bring a revolution, a transformation in the way humans behave or rather “Huborg” behave and nears cent percent potential utilization.

As of now it seems like a sci-fi, but sooner than later “Huborg” will be a reality!

What do you say? 

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Why the path towards God is so bloodied?

Last 5000 years of world history never brought a day without human beings fighting each other. All these years human being had the opportunity of being guided by one God, demigod, or son of God or at least one prophet or other.

Ever wondered why in spite of the presence of such luminaries amongst us, still we couldn’t stop fighting!

Why do human beings fight each other? Are these fights for beliefs, religions, caste, language, status or for geographical hegemony? Were these fights for greed, lust, fear or survival? Were these fights for economic reasons like scarcity of resources or abundance of wealth? If you see there was not a single day in human history which was without war. However the deaths due to undeclared war is also humungous.A cursory look at human history will show how religions which were supposed to domesticate us from our wild ways is one of most prominent reason of human fights.

What is the use of religions when there is no peace in this world?

Here people misconstrue religions as God whereas religions shows the path towards achieving God. The turmoil happens when religions try to become God. The race among religious believers is so fierce that everyone wants to show their religion to be the best.

The real question is if human beings believe religion is the path towards God, then we need to answer are religions creation of God or human beings!

If God has created religions then why they are so different in their approach?Why different religions are always at loggerheads?If the basic purpose of religions are paths to reach God then why the different paths so bloodied? God being so intelligent, will he create a system like this where the very purpose of existence of religion is defeated?

Now the real question is whether God has created religion or vice-versa!!

However one thing is very clear even if God is responsible for human existence he has never told us. Just imagine a world without religion. One of the major cause of human quarrel will no more be there!

Even if religions are there, they should be allowed to be practiced indoors only i.e. either in a place called temple of in peoples home.

However God would have been happy if we lessor mortals have used more of our hearts than temples or homes!

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Don't fall in Love with....

Out of the 8 billion human being 85% are believers in one religion or other. When I ask whom do you follow they will certainly name either Ram,Krishna,Jesus,Buddha,Mahavir,Nanak,Prophet Mohammad,etc ..

Now what does following a particular God mean? Most do their Puja and many follow the traditions. Many are very staunch followers of the God they believe in.All religions or God has taught us something good for life.

How come then most of the fights among people are because of religion or in the name of God? The reason to a simple mortal like us says it’s all due to communication problem. No God has told us to do their Puja instead what's required was to follow their footstep in daily life...

We being fools started doing the easiest thing we fell in love with Gods.Everybody is in love with one God or other. And they fight each other to show their love of God.

Forget the Gods...we fall in love with politicians...there are some who love Modi and some Rahul...Same way we fall in love with Bollywood stars...Same way we fall in love with one Baba or other ..

Here lies the problem...when we are in love we become blind and can't see any wrongs of our demigods...and fight for them...

What is the way out?

Never fall in love with your demigod...for you will never see his wrong doings...and you will justify on his behalf...and fight...we also stop being objective in life.

Why can't we love the issues raised by our demigods?That is what a leader would want his followers to be doing...Now think we will appreciate the good things said by someone whom we don't even admire...and we will not follow anything bad said by someone we admire ...don't you think this will give us more mental balance and peace in life..                                                            

So don't fall in love with your demigods and leaders (except with...) ya ya you understood it...

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Pikamu decides to Kill himself….

As Pikamu completes three years of self-employment he is little happy and very disgusted.
The emotions are mixed. Pikamu is at the cross road of his life.
The happiness is because Pikamu is doing what he wanted to do and disgust because he could have done much better in the same time. When Pikamu looks at the eyes of his people he feels very sorry.Pikamu could not give them what was expected from him.Pikamu could feel the expectations coming out their eyes which could not be fulfilled. At this age also when you can’t provide for your family you get a sense of pity.From here where does Pikamu go? Does Pikamu take the same road or do something different?
Pikamu is going through dilemma since last one month and now it is at a peak and it’s unbearable emotionally.
And it reaches a stage when Pikamu decides to end his life once for all.
Suddenly a thought comes in his mind about all those whom he will see no more. Can Pikamu picture his family without his support? No …
Pikamu decides to understand why Pikamu is at such a critical situation. Reflecting back he realises what are things which he could have done better. Pat came the reply a lot more!!
Then why not start doing today.
But real reason is why did Pikamu not do it till now. The voice in his head replied, “because of fear”. What?
Yes Pikamu realises he did not attempt the most crucial and impactful things which could have changed his life, because of the fear of failure.
Pikamu decides to take help and understand the anatomy of “fear”. He realises there are two elements of the fear of failure which makes people not take action.
First the fear which is before you fail and the second is fear which can happen as consequence of failure.
Out of the two fears, the fear before failing which is more profound and seems real is actually nothing but lack of confidence and the fear after failing “may” be something real. So it means that we are fearful of something which is yet to happen to us and not take action. And we live in this condition for days together in many life changing activities and it becomes our habit. We can give it any name but at the end of the day we are the fools who may have the potential but never utilized it.
What is the solution?
Whenever we are attempting something new, don’t think of the outcome every now and then. Once decided about the outcome, forget it. Rather focus on the process of the activity. Chunking it down and enjoying each step it is more important. Complete one step and then go to the other. Suddenly we will find ourselves face to face with outcome much more confidently.
At this stage the chance of success is very high .Even if we fail, the experience will be great to write about and learn from it.
So Pikamu decides to kill myself and take rebirth with new vision of life.
Now Pikamu is ready to give 100%.
Wish Pikamu luck.

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How the biggest of the Corporates fail to Delight the customer...

Pikamu just bought a car. It still has the fragrance of the new car. The day came for the first free service.

Pikamu took the car inside the service station and tried to park in an open space .Suddenly he found the guard asking him to park the car and leave the keys and was handed over a slip with his car registration number. There he was in front of the receiptionist.No acknowledgement no smile as if she is there to do her duty.Pikamu can actually sense a pain in her whole behaviour.She asked Pikamu to wait. He finds the waiting lounge and makes himself comfortable on a chair where three people were already waiting. 

After a minute or two he started feeling the hot air. Neither air conditioner nor fan were there for the car owners.Within five minutes a service person comes calls the registration number of the car.Pikamu felt like being called like an inmate by the jailer(billa number..). Both are there inside the car which is being inspected.Pikamu felt a stink inside his new car. Oh no it is the service person who might have forgotten to apply deodorant today.

Again back in the reception. Suddenly a person who was waiting inside the lounge starts yelling as he was made to wait for so long.The lady misplaced the details of the car owner, so the car owner was waiting and waiting and watching the often repeated movie in the lounge. Somehow the commotion is taken care.The customer failingly tries to exert his right .Before moving out Pikamu meets the Works Manager. Being very helpful he chats for a minute or two and offers him tea.

In evening Pikamu pays the bill and moves out to take the delivery of his car. The security staffs asks him whether he got the car.Pikamu felt like whacking the guy but keeps his cool. Waits for 15 minutes and someone brings him his car. Can't complain as the security guards chit chats sitting and the car owners standing near the gate waiting.Nobody is there to help him understand what has been done in the car servicing. He zooms out of the service station with a betrayed face.

Pikamu starts thinking what an opportunity loss for the car company. 

The most selling car company is still in the infant stage as far as Service Excellence is concerned. 

Service Excellence for them is in the posters and banners for the customer to see and not to experience.

Customer in India is Cust Kar Ke mar….

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The Human form of the Magical Tree of 40

The magical Tree of 40 which can bear 40 different fruits by the New York based sculptor and artist Sam Van Aken is a path breaking project started in 2008.The technique includes chip grafting where a sliver of a foreign tree including the bud is inserted into a cut in a live tree.

The final result is 40 different varieties of fruits including peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, etc.

Now imagine how this technique can germinate ideas in people’s mind.

A successful businessman in order to cut cost wanted a sample Employee who can do 40 different jobs. So one hiring gives him a Marketing head, a sales person, an account, HR man and even a security guard !!

A Director of a Zoo wants one sample Animal which can produce offspring like Tiger, Elephant, Deer, Donkey and Monkey!!

A farmer wants one sample Vegetable so that he can get Potatoes, Onions, Brinjals, Cucumbers and even Chillies!!

A Film Producer wants a sample Actor so that he can get a Hero, Heroine, Villain, Comedian and also make up man!!

Now imagine a woman desires a sample Husband so that she can be called mother by an India, a Pakistani, an African and an American and may be an Alien as well!!

Now let’s talk about money. The Tree of 40 costs $30,000 per sample and hold your breath it takes a decade to bear the fruits!!

Now imagine what may be the cost of an Employee 40, Animal 40, Vegetable 40, and Actor 40 and for that matter Husband 40!! 

And like the Tree of 40 if the Employee,Animal,Vegetable....takes 10 years to deliver...do we have the patience of maintaining them without output!!

Thank God its our imagination not reality!

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Who is an Eunuch?

A small news item on a leading national daily caught my eye.

It was titled “Doon eunuchs refuse center’s funds offer”. I am not going into the merit of their decision to reject the schemes like pension scheme, education scheme and skill development.

How on earth any Indian can reject such an offer of something for free?

It’s very unindian!!

When most of us are dependent on some dole or other, right from birth to death how can eunuchs reject them?

We have generations being funded for their education and jobs and now such system have become their birth right. When you get everything if you belong to a particular community,why would anyone toil to achieve their goals? Somebody is getting the benefit through reservation and someone through subsidy. Someone gets some freebies for pilgrimage and someone because their forefathers stayed in jungles. Today even the Parliamentarians get subsidy.

Why not make India a Welfare state and give education and everything else free to all. If that is too much to do why not give freebies to all the economically lower strata.

Oh no then how can our political class survive without caste, religion, etc.!!And whom we Indians vote for without allegiance to caste and religion.

Can anyone stop this freebie culture to economically forward people irrespective for their caste and religion?

Anyway India got freedom in 1947 and India is Free today!!

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My Experiments with Soul!

So many Gurus so many Babas and everybody giving Gyan either to Live Life or Leave Life. I am really confused whether I should prepare myself for Living or Leaving.                              

Yaha Rahne ka thikana nahi waha Jane ki soch rahe hai.

Then there are Corporate Babas who will tell how to become the CEO in your organization.                          

Aaj ka target pura nahi hota CEO huh.

Then there are TV Channel Latkan baba, lucky aunties of the world who tell you how can you make your tomorrow better. 

Aaj ka jugaad hoga toh kal ka sochunga na.   

                                          

Now this made me think what should I do? Shall I make tomorrow better, start aspiring to become a CEO or start preparing myself for my next life? I am more confused now.

To hell with becoming something, let me be atleast a good human being. Being a good human needs what I feel is Purity of Soul.

How can I Purify my Soul, when I am full of anger, full of jealousy, full of contempt, full of revenge, full of desires, full of hatred? 

Boy this is easier said than done. Being a good human is not at all very human like.Now even if I wanted to be one, whom am I competing with, the Buddhas,the Mahavirs,the Jesuses,the Nanaks of the world.

Oh My God if I really do so will I still be good Human or  will I be good God like ..even the thought of becoming one makes my heart beat faster...am I getting a heart attack!!

I realized one thing my heart is at the Right place...

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SOP

What do you make out when you hear SOP i.e. Standard Operating Procedures or as per military it is Standing Operating Procedures?

Any normal Joe will think that SOP is just term to be used in corporate scenarios.

Think harder. Most of the problems in our lives is because of non-adherence of SOPs.

Let’s take today’s incident where a traffic cop is hitting a lady with a brick or the Uber cab case in Delhi.

In the first case the traffic cop did not bother to follow the SOP of dealing with a citizen and also the citizen did not follow the SOP of dealing with a corrupt cop and the in second case the traffic department did not bother to do the due diligence before issuing the permit and also taking care of the issue of woman safety.

In both the cases there is a SOP to be followed which was not,which led to the incident.

What is SOP? These are directives defining the actions to be taken upon the occurrence of specific events. It is a set of rule written or otherwise which needs to be followed in our daily lives.

Now let’s see what is our attitude towards SOP like a safety fire drill in offices. Most of the time we do it grudgingly. If someone is asked what we will do in case of fire break, we will be caught unawares.

A simple a case of eating ice cream beyond limit is again an act of non-adherence of SOP which leads to the throat problem and may cause loss of opportunities.

A blatant non-adherence of SOP of speaking on mobile phone while driving which is being done by the illiterates as well the uber class.

One more much abused case of non-adherence of SOP is smoking which causes cancer still we hardly think before lighting the next one.

Rather than trying to change the entire world if each one of just follows the SOPs in our lives it will be certainly a better place to live in.

Shall I call SOP as Save Our Planet?

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