Robin’s 73 Best Business and Success Lessons

The 73 Best Lessons I’ve Learned for Leadership Success in Business and Life 
By Robin Sharma, author of the international bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title”

Hi There,

I’m skiing in South America but have also been doing a lot of thinking. I wanted to thank you for all your kind support of my work. So I have summarized the 73 best ideas/insights/lessons I’ve learned for winning in business and life below. I hope they help you. And I hope you’ll share them with others who will benefit from them. Again, thanks for supporting my mission to help people in organizations around the world Lead Without a Title. I’m grateful. 

 
Robin

1. You can really Lead Without a Title.
2. Knowing what to do and not doing it is the same as not knowing what to do.
3. Give away what you most wish to receive.
4. The antidote to stagnation is innovation.
5. The conversations you are most resisting are the conversations you most need to be having.
6. Leadership is no longer about position – but passion. It’s no longer about image but impact. This is Leadership 2.0.
7. The bigger the dream, the more important to the team.
8. Visionaries see the “impossible” as the inevitable.
9. All great thinkers are initially ridiculed – and eventually revered.
10. The more you worry about being applauded by others and making money, the less you’ll focus on doing the great work that will generate applause. And make you money.
11. To double your net worth, double your self-worth. Because you will never exceed the height of your self-image.
12. The more messes you allow into your life, the more messes will become a normal (and acceptable) part of your life.
13. The secret to genius is not genetics but daily practice married with relentless perseverance.
14. The best leaders lift people up versus tear people down.
15. The most precious resource for businesspeople is not their time. It’s their energy. Manage it well.
16. The fears you run from run to you.
17. The most dangerous place is in your safety zone.
18. The more you go to your limits, the more your limits will expand.
19. Every moment in front of a customer is a gorgeous opportunity to live your values.
20. Be so good at what you do that no one else in the world can do what you do.
21. You’ll never go wrong in doing what is right.
22. It generally takes about 10 years to become an overnight sensation.
23. Never leave the site of a strong idea without doing something to execute around it.
24. A strong foundation at home sets you up for a strong foundation at work.
25. Never miss a moment to encourage someone you work with.
26. Saying “I’ll try” really means “I’m not really committed.”
27. The secret of passion is purpose.
28. Do a few things at mastery versus many things at mediocrity.
29. To have the rewards that very few have, do the things that very few people are willing to do.
30. Go where no one’s gone and leave a trail of excellence behind you.
31. Who you are becoming is more important than what you are accumulating.
32. Accept your teammates for what they are and inspire them to become all they can be.
33. To triple the growth of your organization, triple the growth of your people.
34. The best leaders are the most dedicated learners. Read great books daily. Investing in your self-development is the best investment you will ever make.
35. Other people’s opinions of you are none of your business.
36. Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle and best at the end.
37. Measure your success by your inner scorecard versus an outer one.
38. Understand the acute difference between the cost of something and the value of something.
39. Nothing fails like success. Because when you are at the top, it’s so easy to stop doing the very things that brought you to the top.
40. The best leaders blend courage with compassion.
41. The less you are like others, the less others will like you.
42. You’ll never go wrong in doing what’s right.
43. Excellence in one area is the beginning of excellence in every area.
44. The real reward for doing your best work is not the money you make but the leader you become.
45. Passion + production = performance.
46. The value of getting to your goals lives not in reaching the goal but what the talents/strengths/capabilities the journey reveals to you.
47. Stand for something. Or else you’ll fall for anything.
48. Say “thank you” when you’re grateful and “sorry” when you’re wrong.
49. Make the work you are doing today better than the work you did yesterday.
50. Small daily – seemingly insignificant – improvements and innovations lead to staggering achievements over time.
51. Peak performers replace depletion with inspiration on a daily basis.
52. Take care of your relationships and the sales/money will take care of itself.
53. You can’t be great if you don’t feel great. Make exceptional health your #1 priority.
54. Doing the difficult things that you’ve never done awakens the talents you never knew you had.
55. As we each express our natural genius, we all elevate our world.
56. Your daily schedule reflects your deepest values.
57. People do business with people who make them feel special.
58. All things being equal, the primary competitive advantage of your business will be your ability to grow Leaders Without Titles faster than your industry peers.
59. Treat people well on your way up and they’ll treat you well on your way down.
60. Success lies in a masterful consistency around a few fundamentals. It really is simple. Not easy. But simple.
61. The business (and person) who tries to be everything to everyone ends up being nothing to anyone.
62. One of the primary tactics for enduring winning is daily learning.
63. To have everything you want, help as many people as you can possibly find get everything they want.
64. Understand that a problem is only a problem if you choose to view it as a problem (vs. an opportunity).
65. Clarity precedes mastery. Craft clear and precise plans/goals/deliverables. And then block out all else.
66. The best in business spend far more time on learning than in leisure.
67. Lucky is where skill meets persistence.
68. The best Leaders Without a Title use their heads and listen to their hearts.
69. The things that are hardest to do are often the things that are the best to do.
70. Every single person in the world could be a genius at something, if they practiced it daily for at least ten years (as confirmed by the research of Anders Ericsson and others).
71. Daily exercise is an insurance policy against future illness. The best Leaders Without Titles are the fittest.
72. Education is the beginning of transformation. Dedicate yourself to daily learning via books/audios/seminars and coaching.
73. The quickest way to grow the sales of your business is to grow your people.

Robin Sharma is the bestselling author of “The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and Life.” Buy it now.

What is Competition or what may be competition?

Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones. Reason being cameras bundled with cell phones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cell phone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sony’s and Canons are taking note.

Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours). Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel’s parent) are breathing easy you can’t be farther from truth.

Nokia confessed that they all but missed the Smartphone bus. They admit that Apple’s I phone and Google’s Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?

The “Mahabharat” (the great Indian epic battle) is about “what is tomorrow’s personal digital device”? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – “who is my competitor?”

Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says “What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?” The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won’t compete on pure audio? “Elementary Watson”. So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as “digital.”

In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question “who is my competitor for tomorrow?” The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared “internet is a fad!” and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today’s competitor. Today’s competitor is obvious. Tomorrow’s is not.

In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton’s law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC’s price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!

India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 over’s. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film’s competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour “tamasha” (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.

Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is “I don’t remember!” For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.

One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is “alarm clock.” The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called “alarms.” What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cell phone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!

On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said “Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast”! That sums it up rather neatly.

The moral of the story is be nimble on the head, on action and on the feet.

If not this then something else..but anticipate developments in the near term. There is a reason why Apple that was languishing at less then $10/share for 8-10 years suddenly took off - Steve Jobs. Honestly I hate apple products, except for their PC/Lappy. But I admire the vision, a stupid phone which does nothing right still hold millions in its grasp - courtesy Steve Jobs vision.

Very few people are like this - visionaries..
Look at MSN, well they introduced windows (copied it), but look whats happened after that.. they thought garnering 95% of market share was good enough. what they forgot was this number was for 1st world.. The future is BRIC, Far east and Latin america. Here people are not going to buy official copies of MSN - pirating and now the cheaper Linux option. So MSN didnt anticipate this and kept assuming W hemisphere is enough to drive its growth. Germany in all public office/uni is pushing for Linux. UK in Univs, lots of companies are moving towards linux based systems..

Kodak was a classic example!! and its true of Japanese culture too.. They are slow moving behemoths.. Sony, Toyota, Panasonic, Nissan etc etc..

Probably, That is one reason why Sony would be under immense pressure because of a simple fact that they did not anticipate Samsung create a ripple in people's imagination. Nokia again clearly saying they missed the bus they have to kick their back side for all the crap they have been loading into their new phones just to stay alive. Apple thought Nokia was the competition then again, by the time Motorola realized it was all over Razr came in - the only saving grace. Little did they think that a smaller or lets say an inconsequential firm - HTC would be snitching in with some of the awesomest ideas. Today they are a kick away from iPhone and which is why Apple would be under immense immense pressure to relase the products this April. Trust me, if Apple is not going to come with better versions on their iPhone or iPad - they are in some serious trouble in the market - now that Jobs is going on leave for a while again. The charisma the guy had is unparalleled

Rightly so most organizations get into the slack mode - IBM did. It was about to be made a Chinese melon, then the sensibilities prevailed and it started dismembering and started working on how to return the stock market investor that extra more for what he invested in. Fantastic thought process when diversification was getting to be the mantra in the world. IBM started dismembering. Everything out of the window, if the investor is investing on me because I am good in producing this, I will make money and return the money back. It worked like a charm and today IBM in the 100 years of existence, a 99.7 billion dollar revenue, a 18 billion dollar bottom line. FANTASTIC stuff. What IBM does, is what is followed by the rest of the world. Now where was this idea - who was the competition?

It is also about being ready to think on the run, work with many things and yet not miss on the objective. I kind of like the fact that Microsoft is challenged more, said more they were the elephants around pretty much entering the heart and soul of everyone. Then what happened? They took it easy with UNIX, tried to kill Linux Today we have a zillion OS's and the funny thing is IBM also started selling multiple OS's in their mainframe. Competition is such a funny funny word. If something is a blessing in the 21st century is the fact that the offshoring/nearshoring. Totally changing the playground big, just then people realize what is their worth for what it is in true sense.

So bottom line - keep improving - the day it is about being happy doing the same thing again and again because there is no pressure, no need to learn - stop think again - think Phillipines, think Argentina. Think competition. Think life.

60 TIPS FOR A STUNNINGLY GREAT LIFE

I want to shift gears from leadership to a pure focus on crafting an exceptional life for this blog post. Ultimately, life goes by in a blink. And too many people live the same year 80 times. To avoid getting to the end and feeling flooded regret over a live half-lived, read (and then apply) these tips:

1. Exercise daily.

2. Get serious about gratitude.

3. See your work as a craft.

4. Expect the best and prepare for the worst.

5. Keep a journal.

6. Read “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”.

7. Plan a schedule for your week.

8. Know the 5 highest priorities of your life.

9. Say no to distractions.

10. Drink a lot of water.

11. Improve your work every single day.

12. Get a mentor.

13. Hire a coach.

14. Get up at 5 am each day.

15. Eat less food.

16. Find more heroes.

17. Be a hero to someone.

18. Smile at strangers.

19. Be the most ethical person you know.

20. Don’t settle for anything less than excellence.

21. Savor life’s simplest pleasures.

22. Save 10% of your income each month.

23. Spend time at art galleries.

24. Walk in the woods.

25. Write thank you letters to those who’ve helped you.

26. Forgive those who’ve wronged you.

27. Remember that leadership is about influence and impact, not title and accolades.

28. Create unforgettable moments with those you love.

29. Have 5 great friends.

30. Become stunningly polite.

31. Unplug your TV.

32. Sell your TV.

33. Read daily.

34. Avoid the news.

35. Be content with what you have.

36. Pursue your dreams.

37. Be authentic.

38. Be passionate.

39. Say sorry when you know you should.

40. Never miss a moment to celebrate another.

41. Have a vision for your life.

42. Know your strengths.

43. Focus your mind on the good versus the lack.

44. Be patient.

45. Don’t give up.

46. Clean up your messes.

47. Use impeccable words.

48. Travel more.

49. Read “As You Think”.

50. Honor your parents.

51. Tip taxi drivers well.

52. Be a great teammate.

53. Give no energy to critics.

54. Spent time in the mountains.

55. Know your top 5 values.

56. Shift from being busy to achieving results.

57. Innovate and iterate.

58. Speak less. Listen more.

59. Be the best person you know.

60. Make your life matter.

Show me the money but how to get to my kwan?

Oh well well, before you start riding that imaginary thought, I am talking about the new era of Indian sports, that is new to the sportsman, the citizens, the critics, the failing-to-accept-retired sportsman and so on. The new version of Indian sports (or should I say the only sport India follows), is what the money can get you. Yea, finally it has caught up with the people in the East as well how sportsman get auctioned like some objects for money they would not never thought they would be earning for a short tenure. Welcome to the new age, welcome to new India, the mullahs sure know how to show the player the "kwan" [Rod Tidwell says in Jerry Magquire]. Kwan is the package - the money, the respect, the family, the community, the everything that makes the person complete.

So what has this new age "Show me the money" done to industries beyond the intellectual one or the labor centric one is to keep pushing their luck against the 'more the better' adage. I mean, if a random player gets signed for a contract for 2.4 million dollars for 3 years and each year they play for 40 days, this contract sure is a very sweet deal after all. Rod Tidwell was the one who always worried about what his worth in totality be when the contract was to be renewed, Jerry tells him, "You should learn to play the game with your heart and not for money". This is a very powerful statement.in principle, can be something that can be applied to many things outside the game as well. Sometimes, be it the CEO or a VP of an organization or a president or a sportsman, it does not matter what they can perform unless they got their worth valued significantly better regardless of the circumstance. Show them the money, they will show you what they got.

Picture this, every person who works in a thought centric industry such as IT, thinks their command or the net worth will increase not linearly but exponentially every year without making that extra effort to improve their on the job competitiveness. Now the Karma centric decision makers a.k.a the franchise owners in an auction system (reason I say Karma is because they let you know immediately what is your worth , the old Bengal horse got peanuts for a reason after all) when they choose their team can relate to them boundary riders in the field. Their presence is their but it is still OK if they don't exist. They are going to be needed in the selection to make the numbers. They are the paper weight to many whose presence is nothing worthy after all. Now the person, who has the ability to upskill himself or herself and start to become worthy of more money directly or indirectly - though after a while money doesn't matter as your lifestyle cannot change any more dramatically. Sometimes, talent alone does not work, it is all about how well you market yourself that people will know your worth. Relating this episode, Wassim Jaffer a surviving cricketer, once made a remark why another cricketer be getting more money during the initial IPL series than him despite the fact that he scored heavily , the guy forgot what is called "entertaining" the crowd. That is one element of winning the attention. Even the gladiator won his life not by surviving the attack in the arena but purely by entertaining the crowd that directly influenced the decision of the king whether to give him his "kwan" - freedom.

That said, above and beyond, did you find your kwan yet? If not, the simple principles of life, continuing education, the sensibilities, marketing your self to know your worth, that will get you the money you need. But beyond that it is the passion with which you operate will get you to the kwan. Go find your Kwan - today.

What am I going to achieve in 2011? - Accountability note

My things to do for 2011

1. I want to transform my inner self to accept everyone for who they are
2. increase my tolerance especially with my old parents and grand parents
3. Lose 10 KG of weight, avoid procrastination
4. Accomplish certain incomplete education certifications
5. Not to leave things in the middle
6. Put my health in front of everything else I think is important
7. Get a better job role.
8. Plan my finances better
9. 3 overseas vacation
10. Read 100 new book titles (given I read a bit but lost the reading habit because of putting undue importance on other things)
11. Learn to share more of what I like the most
12. Express myself to people who love me. .
13. Learn Guitar
14. Attend and participate in a live concert
15. Reduce alcohol intake to once a quarter.
16. Expertise my swimming techniques
17. Learn a new language

I have this in my TO-DO's for the year. I will come back and say what I did by the end of the year :-] This is going to be my accountability tracker to see how responsible I am with my supposed accomplishments.

Happy New Year world

Wish you all a great, happy, prosperous new year that is going to give you and your family lots of peace,happiness, pride, pleasure, success,wealth, health and importantly peace of mind. I am going throw my weight around in my blog this year to make my presence felt more than last year for unknown reason.

2010, has been a year with lot of things that happened. Lot of emotional changes, relationships and job, fun and finally begin the life to live by myself again after a brief halt in my parents since I got back to India. Not that I can complain but yea it is a different experience all together.

Another eventful thing of this year was the fact that I finally decided after pursuing and never stopping in the middle thinking whether I will ever the Mr Right for someone. Again in that sense this year was momentous, for I met many interesting women and who have become great friends of mine but some I don't even want to think further. I realized at the end of it all, it is about meeting the person and you say and feel - yes, this is where I want to park my car, and I did find that spot. So in that sense 2010 would be a very special year. Finally, getting hitched for real unlike the relationships in the past. And you go on to say after you meet the person

Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you
Why can't I speak whenever I talk about you
It's inevitable, it's a fact that we're gonna get down to it
So tell me
Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you

So thank you god for making me believe that I was in for something good.

The free world

I don't mean to write about Pakistan terrorists or any mullahs who hold the world at ransom by their random acts of stupidity. I am talking about how much the mindset of India as a collective unit worked. Now, the 'patriotic' creatures settle down. I am not against the country. I am in favor of Democracy and the Democracy in itself is a sham; it is like defining 'goodness' - you have 1001 random acts that can get classified. I am certainly not going there.

What I am rather going to speak out is how India remains in it's own sense without knowing the demands or what happens outside the spectra. I mean since time immemorial India has always been callous in it's behavior. Perhaps it would be rude to say callous, let's say indifferent thought as it never fell in the scheme of things.

Sample this, any country pillaged 11 times or so back to back - that is indifference, well you can say we were separated them happy in provinces rather than the country as a whole. But that is the indifference I am talking about. Since then till now nothing much has changed but for the late awakening but are we late to wake up or did we wake up at the right time or are we scrambling around?

India for time immemorial has been an agricultural land. Quality rice produced here is not for the Indians now, the best of the breed has "Basmati" but India went without an international stamp or approval. India never approved of any standard sitting else where to approve of the use. Some country, US I think, patented this and the product of India was never for use in India. It was a classic case of not having a vision, perhaps India was never led by a good leader. Someone back in the times suggested to rule a country you don't need educated person to lead you from the front. Perhaps the times then required someone, anyone like that to lead but we have lost more because of such actions. Obviously, that is for the next time not in this moment.

Our inspiration has always been from the west for everything. In the modern age, we have always looked at buying arms from the west, and they usually hand over the old, outdated stuff and the military spending on this runs into several billions. That aside, if you look at Yoga as a practice, today most around the world look for this from a therapeutic value. It started way back then in the land of "snake charmers", yet we did not take it quite seriously as a possession that is worth all pride. But now India woke up to the grim realities when some Chinese firm was going towards patenting some of the methods. India filed for "Original" creators tag. In a competitive world we seem to live in we continue to abdicate the real reason for methods that will help you own the heritage. We have lost many and yet we seem to have learnt only few. Perhaps it is the attention to detail that seems to miss.

Subsequent to this, the Ayurvedic healing which is also called the non-medicine healing, the massages that encompasses this as a package, seems to have lot enough attention. Picture this when you hear Martial arts you don't associate Sri Lanka or London to it. Why? Not to say China practiced any successful methods to preserve it but what they did was they chose to market it well . They used movies as a method and at that time no one ever sold an art as well as they did. Even now. We talk about Kung Fu and you have a Chinese sitting in our head instructing how this is to do done. You talk Yoga and who do you get in your head? You talk Ayurveda (call it in a different way), we don't have India alone coming into the head. We have lot of monks too so it is getting crowded. That unique identity of self preservation is lost. We somehow don't seem to like the idea of owning something that started here. We don't somehow to protect what belongs to us. Even till date, we have not patented the breads (like your naan and whatever) but now it is out of control or rather too late to react to them being called Indian.

But in this era, we have learnt a lesson or two from the west, particularly, from the US. Now look at this we had to go westwards to find a name for cinema in one state. And it works too coz that is the only thing India is famous for right now because the marketing that goes into the product. Nothing sells bigger and larger than this. Everything indigenous produce of the country gets noticed only when you market it good and with marketing the product, comes the responsibility about owing it and marking a territory on it. That is where we as a collective soul have not been able to own the produce of the country to sell it good. Also, when the Rupees representation was not owned we had 6 countries sell their produce using the same representation. It took India 60 years to identify how to put the country's currency apart from the crowd. This product owning is the biggest problem with India so far.

So what are we doing wrong going into the Sixty years of independence, failure to Market and knowing what to sell as a produce and how to collectively own the produce. With time India seems to slowly change the mindset and behavior patterns on what they own. Time will tell.

I am back.

Guess what, I am back in this world and I am going to write back again. Why was I away? Well, usually when people hit a milestone they go and rest. And it happened to me also. No, I did not get married or whatever, I hit a milestone of 200 posts last year in October and that put me to rest for almost a year. Many things changed and lot of positives and few negatives. Life is good.

Top 10 Tough Laws in the World

Ignorance is no defense – especially when it comes to ignorance of the laws in countries you plan to visit. While it may seem natural to study some of the general customs and laws in major foreign countries you might not expect, for example, to have to look for strange law changes in somewhere like Florida. Most places in the world are relatively easy to get along in. Some strange laws are nothing more than folklore. Every once in a while, though, you’re going to run into something a bit off the wall and it’s important for you to be prepared in advance.

10. DON’T FEED THE PIGEONS (ITALY)

In Italy it is illegal to feed the pigeons. Ok, that’s a bit of a blanket statement. The rule actually has the potential to change from city to city. Make sure you leave the pigeons alone while you’re in Venice, though – the locals are tired of cleaning up pigeon poop. You’ll also want to avoid jumping into fountains, walking around without your shirt on (would you DO that as a tourist), and sitting on the sidewalk to eat your lunch. Fines range from a warning to monetary infractions anywhere from $50 to $600.

9. EATING IN PUBLIC (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES)

Before you leave for the United Arab Emirates you’ll want to make sure you aren’t visiting during Ramadan. During that time you are not allowed to eat or drink in public during fasting hours (ie. daylight hours) at all. Think we’re kidding? Tourists have been fined up to $275 for drinking juice in public. Avoid public displays of affection as well unless you want to spend a few months in jail.

8. DON’T PAY IN CHANGE (CANADA)

Ever have the urge to empty your piggy bank of quarters and run down to the corner store? Don’t do it in Canada. The Currency Act of 1985 prohibits consumers from using unreasonable amounts of coins to pay for purchases. This means you can’t pay for an item in all coins (especially if it’s over $10). Even the use of dollar-coins is limited. The shop owner has the right to choose whether or not he wants to take your coins but doesn’t have to.

7. WASH YOUR CAR (MOSCOW)

In the beautiful city of Moscow it is illegal to drive a dirty car. The definition of dirty, however, is up in the air. Is a dirty car one on which you can draw pictures in the dust? Does it hide the license plate? Does it make the driver invisible? We suppose you’ll find out if the police poll you over but the fines tend to be whatever the police decide to charge you – unless, of course, you offer him a bit of cash.

6. LEAVE YOUR HEADLIGHTS ON (DENMARK)

Studies in Denmark have shown that vehicles with their headlights on are more noticeable by other drivers than those who have their headlights off. You’d think this law would apply to night driving but it doesn’t. Drivers here are required to leave their headlights on during the day as well or may face a fine of up to $100.

5. DON’T STOP ON THE AUTOBAHN (GERMANY)

You’ve heard of the Autobahn, right? The notorious German road where there are no speed limits? Make sure you fill your gas tank BEFORE you get on this daunting road. It’s illegal to pull over on the side of this road for any reason and, if you do, it’s illegal to get out and walk. You are, after all, endangering the lives of the people who are still driving at warp speeds.

4. PUT YOUR SHIRT ON (THAILAND)

In Thailand it is illegal to drive a car or motorcycle without a shirt on – regardless of how hot it is that day. Punishments range from verbal warnings to tickets costing about $10. This is no joke – the local police will pull you over.

3. DON’T KISS YOUR LOVER GOODBYE (FRANCE AND ENGLAND)

Love died a little bit on April 5th of 1910. Lovers spend so much time kissing each other goodbye at train stations that trains were actually running late. The law is relatively old, though, and really isn’t enforced today – in France, that is. In Warrington Bank Quay in England, however, you’ll be asked to move your goodbyes to the “kissing zone.”

2. WEAR A COVER UP (GRENADA)

The folks at Grenada really do have a point. Cruisers visiting the beaches for day excursions have taken to strolling city streets in nothing but their bathing suits. In order to reign in a sense of decency, the city has instituted a fine for those who aren’t wearing decent clothing off of the beaches. Fines can reach up to $270 but the local tourist boards would like you to believe that the law is not enforced. Perhaps its best to simply cover up rather than trying to find out for yourself.

1. NO GUM CHEWING (SINGAPORE)

Those with gum chewing habits may want to call it quits before heading to Singapore. The government really wants to keep the city clean and will fine you for chewing gum, feeding the birds (it causes poop) and forgetting to flush a public toilet. The only legal gum you can chew is Nicorette but you have to get it from a doctor and they will give your name to government officials to confirm you’re allowed to have a wad in your mouth. These aren’t the only strange laws around the world but they’re certainly worth noting. Make sure you do your research before leaving on your next trip. Better safe than sorry!

And the drum rolls...

Well just so we know what the occasion is, this is my 'supposed' 200th post. So long ! And also speaking of which just shows how as humans we expect some weird adulation for every small thing that happens around us. Kill a spring buck, oh not that, kill a squirrel at an age of 5 makes you a hero and some followers hang around, join a super cool school, college, get a girl friend, get a swanky car, get an amazing gadget, get a job, that cool pay hike, more pay hike, trip to some exotic land far far away etc etc... now don't know if all this stems out of insecurity or what, but I reckon, men (along with women that is and domesticated creatures (that have been living closely with men)) expect such adulation and not the wild creatures. Wonder why?

Anyway, I should be more often able to frequent this space. I am getting this writers sickness. Have lot of things to write but it just does not flow south to the pen. Sadly.

Later

Sad state of affairs.

"Red light zone" in India is such an apathy. You don't remain stone hearted when you know get to know the stories. How much of a trick people play - parents, siblings, husband, wife and other external sources - call it poverty, income issue where you don't know how to bring the food on the table.

I was appalled not by the other known issues that do the round within India (poverty etc), but to see that the heartless and senseless people end up having small infants next to them when they get forced into this act. Children look around and it is their brain that gets so influenced that eventually the parent will not be able to correct them or whatever coz the child when they hit the Teens will surely turn around and call their parent a 'slut'. So eventually, the child is either going to take into the profession much earlier than they should - thanks to the ever increasing orgies of men and women around us !Some of the women there would definitely would like to touch that emotional chord by saying they were forced into the profession. Some could actually be telling 'true tales' but whatever it is the pictures indicate a sad story to a mighty big extend. Why can't we fucking leaglize sex just for all this sad things to happen and operate outside the homes? Atleast we are not hurting the future generation, that's the least we can do. Why can't Indian government sell sex toys to a good extend to Indians? That way they would know who to pick and certainly not a lactating women. Come on for christ sake....

Come to think of it, can Dowry in form of 100-150 soverigns of gold, car, home, land etc that come along with the girl when people get married, will that make them a slut or are we free to make a different classification because it happens in a different league? Perhaps they would call it punctilio of the family! It all started in Europe,yea Dowry started off from there. But Asians have come to understand the nitty-gritty of how to get a maximum mileage out of this concept. That is one reason why this has come to stay like that black spider in Spiderman :-)

We all end up thinking and beating ourselves for all the wrong doing. I guess as long as we have that punctiliously defined out right - we are following our actions defined by our lineage, culture and every one is happy. So long my friend....

Eventful day

Today is when I bought my own car... Woo hoo. I will add pictures of the beauty that I own but it is yet to sink in much. I keep reminiscing about what LP sang when I get into this zone.

Yea, I own Maruti Suzuki Swift VXI with ABS - silver grey with all cool wheel upgrade. Awesome. I am waiting to get my hands on the Stereo once that happens I would be very excited. It is right now a check between JVC and Pioneer.... Life with options at every stage in life, isn't it :-) Oh I am not married yet, just if you thought I got the car by something as cheap as a Dowry !!! Moralistic man, respect.

Podcast me,oh the trend!

Thought about the funny evolution the world is going through - change (read it with all caps). Be it education, structure or execution of anything there is a whole lot of perception changes, the paradigm shift I would like to call.

Ages back the way project was executed (read it as anything) was not derived or based on a particular way of standards. Top corporations seem to be catching up with lost time purely by adapting to the difficult approach that is outsourcing and offshoring (still not many know the difference between the two!). But my note here is not about either of them. Instead it is about another change that has simply swept everyone off their feet - podcasts. This rather simple - apple owned, term is amazing to believe how much it has become the rule-of-life for any knowledge sharing or best practises.

Hard to believe that Apple claims it has 1,00,000 podcasts in its stores. Hard isn't it? To again retrospect and feel that in such a short span of time since its evolution to have got a ground like this is a fantastic achievement as such. Four years back no one knew about this, now every a college going teen knowns what this is and how to use it in the optimal way. I am always a big fan of technology and improvements, to me this is a massive way forward. As we move ahead, we have ensured that we don't leave breadcrumbs behind to know where we started from. This is change is going to stay and for all my money will improve a zillion times with time.

(Isn't this the same way an USB port started coming in desktops to begin with and with time it is so exclusive that no computer is accepted as a computer without an USB!).

Magic of change. BTW, there is a podcast for change too :-]

Oh morals wherefore art thou?

I was itching to write up an article soon after 'officially' it was announced that Indians are targeted in Australia and slowly it caught up the imagination of people and became the breakfast-lunch-dinner news for days and into weeks. Are we right with our cutthroat analysis and the 'sensationalizing' attitude to petty information? Now, don't get me wrong I called it 'petty'.

Let me list what my take is on this whole tamasha. Now, in any country there are certain places you should not go to - no matter alone or in a group esp when you don't specialize in violence at any point of time in your life (and FYI, specializing on violence is not about like beating up your brother or some animals and emerging a victor!) . A group is no power when people retards are tagged in one side in the other side. Well, in the US, the downtowns are the most dreaded spots where the black form a group and harass people. I was called up at one time from the back and I did not react to that call from them and my friend and I walked (my friend wanted to respond to the call by going to them!) It still chills my spine wondering what would have happened if we had reacted. But the simple fact is "losers" are part of any society. It is about how you are sensible enough to avoid them. So people who don't exercise this will eventually get mugged. That happens in India too. Isn't it?

Common sense is not common as they say is the more important reason for what happened and how it happened in Australia. Indians for some reason seemed to have larger interest on residentship and all that which stopped them from lodging a complaint to the cops. This just makes me smile on how gullible people become and eventually blinded by this whole 'interest'. Isn't protecting yourself foremost important than coming to India with one eye or one hand and say 'mate I am an Australian'? I always believed in one thing - 'Action - consequence' chain and what happened to most of the gullible people is the consequence to the action they chose.

Coming back to the main point, Is India a racial free country? We take extreme measure to go and tap everyone's table whenever we think they are doing something. Yea, what the Indian government did by intervening is good but it is like the 'top selling hypocrisy' that will surely rock the best sellers table ! We, in India, have a religion wise divide, linginuistic divide, region wise divide, skin color divide. We beat up the deep lower middle class people and make them get into sewers and mind you these jobs are only for these people. We call ourselves 'non racial' and to me it is beyond any doubt that we are trying to do a political puppet show to satiate the people who voted them to the position. And irony is that the 'developed' countries will never be in a position to counter react when they are classified as 'racial'. Funny thing is it is like that killer blow, it is like the this - a lean guy can call a person 'ugly fat' guy but when the fat guy calls a person a 'lean' guy, it is offensive :-]

Haven't we done horrendous acts of crime to the foriegn nationals when they are in India? The political heavy weights get involved and bury the case because there was a same religion tag team that worked that time.

People beat the shit of students and many others just like the losers in Australia, did that make India a racist economy? When Indians burned down trains when some petty same 'religion' motto was compromised, did that make India a racist economy? When youngsters get beaten/women burnt by junkies as a result of ragging or for non compliance of some practices from the past, did that make India a racist economy? When we sent 'certain' sect of people only into 'live, smelly' sewer pipes, did that make India a racist economy? When we have the classification and Or is it that the nomenclature - rascism is defined and practiced when it is appropriate or needed?


We all feel it is an opportune moment to send in a hard punch to Australia by calling it 'racist economy'. Are we right? Perhaps vindicated for some things that happened in the past ... Might be.

Yo mayte ! if you did not like what I wrote, me thinks you are a racist !!

so long so long...

When did I last visit this place? Ah... six months back. That is some time and I cannot imagine how time flies. Lot of things happened in that period. I wanted to write but I did not have the urge to go on. New found hobbies, attacks, more attacks, elections, recession, more recession and then into 2009 and it has just hit the ground running. I am still to come to terms with the very fact that 4 months have gone by so soon.

Now there is a psyche attached to people who want to vent their feelings or perhaps say what they want to, that they don't get a medium to say things. Interestingly the lull follows soon after. I was caught up with this lull and now am wanting to write, the thoughts desert me.

Having made the attempt I will however write more often. So long ....

They say - What goes around comes back around !!

Well this is not any grudge message or anything. Just a fair remainder on how certain things existed in the past, perhaps 80-100 years ago in imperial India when Banks were truly existential for the westerners who were ruling us then. The 'aam-admi' (read common man) then could not right royally walk into any bank and do their regular deposits or withdrawals. Now, with time things evolved to a state that now every bank be it whatever nature - Investment or Captive or Corporate, they want a piece from the developing country. No where in the world Banks make that much purely from the collections perspective as they would do in India.

In the US, the security number and the credit history would ensure whether you get a 2 or 3 or 5% interest, in India you have a standard 11% on Bank loans or 23% on credit cards or 15% on personal loans. Kinda kinky isn't it? That beside the point of my claim, going back to times when our grand parents called the shots, they would have had something like Suruku Pai(read as an affordable purse! This was a traditional purse for the Indian women some 100-150 years before Guccis or Vuittons came India's way) or a piggy bank where the initial savings used to be kept. With the current blow up operation where we see that our hard earned money which we think is safe in an investing bank just goes right out of the window into an 'abyss'. No one has a clue on what happens to them in trying times as these. Now this brings us back to a very important question we have to ask ourselves, Are banks actually safe with our money or do we go back to Suruku Pai times and hope to have a good night sleep atleast knowing that money is right next to me? Am I over reacting to this situation? Yes and a No to this. Can you imagine a bank which is 350 years old, which survived the 1920 depression and now claims bankruptcy? What happens to the money in the bank? I was told that any account that had more than 70,000$ would be frozen and would not be available for the people? Can anyone beat that statement? It is after all the person who is living in the county, who is owing the money. Many banks and investment banks have just brought it upon themselves just because of the greed and competition to make more money added to total disregard to the investors money.

So why did the global financial meltdown begin? Who is responsible to this nerve wrecking piece of work? To me, it begins in the US and ends in the US. I honestly believe that the greed rests in US which prompts other greedy dorks around the world to look greedy. Now imagine the Subprime situation in the US? Who brought that up? If you did not know what it means, it is just that NINJA loans [‘No Income, No Jobs and No Assets’] that led to this. A person who did not have ability to repay loans were given write offs obscene loans to an extent like 1,00,000 $. The bubble was being created there, then and it led to the greed among everyone to make it big. More loans, more offenders,no liability to the money they all took - the bubble was so big by now that it was time the burst was evident. And rightfully after the burst, the money was just gone, houses came back to the Banks because of defaulters.

Now, the million dollar question, why is my money is in danger? I am not even in US, I could be a farmer in Japan or Finland but still my money is under threat. How? how the banks were tied to the defaulters? Read this article here to get an idea how the whole laundering act took place. This would give a very good idea on the global melt down.

Man, for one, will combat terror, fight in unimaginable altitudes to save the country, will work 23 hours in a day to satisfy himself, does all he could to woo women of any kind and vice versa but when it comes to money loss, it shatters the complete desire to exist. Money has grown to have such a strong writing in our psyche.No money, no nothing. We now have come to an stage where we just cannot trust anyone for anything they would say. Your money is under threat, you are under threat. So do we retreat back to the old days where we would keep our money in a piggy and imagine the good ol' pal is taking care of your money. Will our ego let us come down to that state? Will our greed to quadrapole or hexapole the money allow us to do this? Will we be safe in this world? Has our old, dirty past come back alive from the grave to bite us in our back? Karma..... the piggies are no longer the forgotten creatures, they seem to have come around and now I see the smiling piggy in my desk, it tears me to bits !!

And the award night...

Well, Aarti, just threw an award away towards my direction, just threw it all away I think :-). So here are the trumpets glaringly loud, the drums rolling, the people anxious, the award goes to - Dudleybouy.

Animals and Men

Ever realized that man can be compared to any one animal at any point of time. When he gets dirty, compare him with a pig (on the hindsight, Pigs are quite clean), when he loyal, compare him with a dog and so on so forth. But ever wondered there is one innate characteristic of a person that cannot be compared with any animal and that would be using others for his own personal benefit. Read this is not about comparing with Grasshoppers where the female actually starts eating the male's head when they mate, the stupid male dies without knowing. It is part of their existence, that is the deal Grasshoppers got when they came to Earth. That is how they procreate so there is no escaping that fact. So let's not go there.

So people with this characteristic (insecure, haplessly pathetic) who think they are always right and think they should control other person's life all the time should seriously get help. An Idiot disguised as a Friend (thank god I knew the true colors now !!) went on a advise spree as to what I should write and post in the Blog world and say what I should do to change my thinking. And fundamentally his problem was that he thinks it is unethical to write this and that. LOL, sad part of this is that the jerk did not know what "Ethic" actually is. The idiot if ever will read this paragraph will know who I am talking about. But such is the experiences life offer us and it is all about how much we learn from it. I always wondered how animals did not exhibit such traits - the back stabbing. Or may be I don't know if they existed.

Anyway, that beyond the point, he is worth nothing anymore but I was thinking how easy it is in the Animal kingdom to draw an analogy to every human action. In your experience have you ever encountered some human acts that cannot be compared to the any animal extinct.

Funny ones

I was random surfing the internet when I chanced upon some real 'funny' pictures from here. Go on be my guest to see what this is all about - when logo's go absolutely wrong.

doughboys - pizza - salad - panini … and something extra?

Kudawara - What kind of pharmacy is this?

Megaflicks - Not the best font for this word

Dirty dirty... This is a Lamp :-) :-)


This one is terribly wrong. Really. I can't help laugh everytime I see this :-)
Arlington Pediatric Center - Loving the kids a little too much

A-Style - Realy classy



Definitely Chinese.

Dental clinic - This seems to be popular

Yo! What's with this attitude?

Well I was meaning to write this yesterday but thanks to the media hogging the time sphere with there relentless show casing of the blasts in Delhi and what they think of the situation, I chose to wait for a bit. I was a bit sad at what is transpiring in this country.

To get the stats right, it seems there has been 20 terror strikes in 2 years time in India. And worst still there has been seven strikes this year (leaving the Jammu bombings, it is a normal affair there!). So what has the country/county done to avert the situation?!? In the US it happened and we know Bush is F'ing mad at Iraq for some reason, It happened in UK and there was some action taken.. But even after the seven serial blasts, the terrorists seem to be at large. Earlier they used to bomb and run the shit out of the place, now with technological advancement they communicate to the government about the bombing, place which is going to blow off and they bomb at will.

Here we are sitting and dealing with lot of stressful conditions like working our ass off, pay taxes in time, deal with the stupid x factor - inflation sitting at 12.04%(No other sensible country has this sort of a percentage going. My prev blog notes talk about this percentages in countries and you would find hopelessly pathetic countries taking the hit!), struggle to get any remotely girl like thing, we don't need bombings to make our already sorrow life to even remorsefully bad.

But that beside the point, in most of the attacks this year, particularly, I found a pattern. That is the day after the bombings - don't matter the magnitude, the people (read the survivors) got out to the open and started going to work as though nothing happened. The news channels and the ministers took a hint out of it and started calling it "The Spirit of the City" is what you see.

Is it really the spirit of the city that is making these people go to their respective jobs [OR] is it the indifferent feeling that people would have deep down? I wish I had known what this reaction meant. I will not be able to say or feel what it is unless we experienced any such bomb attacks. I am sure how this government would react to the people who would be running around like headless chicken ! They would issue notices to the smart still elusive terrorist group that 'we will catch you and whip your candy ass'.

And so the terrorists would continue to do what they do, the government would continue to do what they do, the headless chickens read the people would do what they do - In between all this, there would be this feeling sticking out in some people - Is this indifference or is this spirit of the city or is this people's response to their fate hanging lose or is it all the Y Factor - Karma?

I don't know, I don't feel anything, anymore. The more hate and anger towards the country, may be. Tomorrow I would become a headless chicken hanging loose - who knows, who knows...?