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Look beyond numbers to achieve challenging goals

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Everybody loves to achieve challenging goals, right? I love it! Gives me a kick. I have been evolving on how I approach my goals. Back in my school, I was more of a doer (without much planning); in my college, I learned how to set goals and solve problems by breaking it into smaller steps. During my corporate stint, I learned number driven problem solving where each part of the solution has its own objective metrics and targets. Being number driven not only helped me in removing my bias in creating a better solution, but it also helped me in aligning my peers and team members to my solution. I do enjoy having these tools in my arsenal to solve problems better and achieve challenging goals. But what’s next? What's next to achieve challenging goals? As I interact with many fellow entrepreneurs, I have seen them vent their frustrations with the unexpected negative consequence of relying on numbers to solve problems. I have seen two major issues - Limited numbers &am

A weekend to unwind

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Juhi and I had been bound to Delhi for a long time after two very exciting trips to Vietnam and NorthEast India. We wanted to go on a weekend getaway. TravelTriangle helped us select a great weekend package at a resort near Jim Corbett National Park. We knew that there won't be any tiger spotting due to monsoons in Jim Corbett. However, we badly needed to unwind ourselves and this place seemed close enough for the weekend. Juhi doesn't like long drives esp on bumpy roads during rains. She booked train tickets to Ramnagar, and we were all set. We took a night train to Jim Corbett on Friday night and then returned on Monday after spending 2 days at Gajraj Trails and Resorts. We slept like a log of wood for the first day in the resort and relaxed in the resort's pool. It takes us a day to come out of everyday work life context and start chilling. The second day we read a few books in the balcony overlooking the jungle and farms. We took a leisurely safari through the

Gender Equality - from a man's perspective

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In general, I think of myself as a very fair person who doesn't discriminate between genders. I guess this is how most of my friends (which are almost all male) would also think. I didn't understand the problem of gender equality and have seen 'feminism' as a distant dictionary word. When I see women shouting for their gender equal rights, I often pass them off thinking that this doesn't concern me as I am a fair person. I am assuming most of other men would do the same. This needs to stop! I was browsing on a lazy Sunday afternoon and came across a video of Emma Watson which opened up this pandora box in my mind. Is there really a gender inequality problem? What could be the reasons for this problem? Am I part of the problem? Who all are part of the problem? Does this problem affect me? Source The problem became pretty evident as I started counting for females in prominent positions in society such as in politics or in top positions in major compani

Hire for strengths and not for weaknesses

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I really like the quote from Ben Horowitz “Hire for strength, not lack of weaknesses”. Here is an instance on how I used this quote to choose between candidates for a senior position. A few days back I was in a dilemma in deciding between 4 good candidates for a senior position. Before we start interviewing for a position, we have a fair idea about the skill sets we are going to evaluate candidates on, so that we have a basis for objective comparison among candidates. Here is what we rated our candidates at the end of the interviewing process - Candidate A Candidate B Candidate C Candidate D Skill Set 1 9.5 8 6 5 Skill Set 2 6 8 9.5 9 Skill Set 3 7 8 7 7 Culture Fit 9 9 9 5 Sum Total 31.5 33 31.5 26 Some notes - We provide above table (score against skill sets) to the candidate whenever he/

Weekend trips - June 2016

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I am visiting my wife in Virginia for a month in June. We plan to keep 1 day in a week to see new places and take break from long hours of work during the week. These experiences are turning out so amazing that I want to blog them. It may inspire us to leave our homes and travel more! Check out all clicks  here in the album . I am including a few selected ones in this blog itself. First weekend visit - Airbnb at  Chincoteague Island , Virginia We booked a sea facing house and went there with 2 other couples. The highlight of the visit was the beautiful house we stayed in. It had an enormous backyard facing backwaters. I could see green land as far as my eyes could see. It was a very quite and serene neighborhood. Not only house enjoyed spectacular location, it was very beautiful from inside. French windows, amazing air circulation inside, big kitchen and a sun room made it a very comfortable and calming home. The rose garden the house was as amazing. I have never seen as m

Kill negative emotions

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After wondering on how large is our life goal  and on  how large is human race making , I haven't gone anywhere :) So till I figure out the answers of life goal, I have started working on how to lead a blissful life. This ensures I enjoy my pursuit of figuring out a genuine life goal. To get you started as well, let me ask if you relate with any of the following - I am passionate to make it large, but I am stressed currently with my work I did something wrong last week and since then it has been bothering me endlessly My neighbor got a bigger car, damn it! I just can't quit drinking even though I want to ... and so on These are all negative emotions that happen throughout the day and makes one feel miserable. Lot of these negative emotions would happen at the subtle level and one might not even notice them. Negative emotions such as jealousy, guilt, anger, stress are part of everybody's life and only take one away from a blissful life. What if they go away!