UNIQUENESS — how to bring it up…

This is a simple and small write up (more of a response) to a friend’s article on Uniqueness. I’m quoting her article as well, to bring about the views … something I felt we all might be thinking, and definitely might our own 2 bits to give out.

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Oindrilla’s Bit on Uniqueness …. a well composed article..

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At work our only constant companion is the need to be churn something different something unique all the time. Being unique today is truck load more difficult that what it was even half a decade ago ! The probability that what I think is a novel thought would have been used maybe minutes back by someone and my big idea would just remain a good idea already used.

When my friends in brand management talk over the phone as meeting is more rare than solar eclipse we always allocate time to discuss this problem! And yet have not come up with solution !

Thinking out of the box is easy to talk about than follow and some methodologies available makes life much more simpler but innovating all the time does take a toll on our mental health. Out performing each time, every time is no longer an option to most of us, its become a way of life. You do have option, either you are in the race or you are out. So actually speaking thinking you have an option is a mirage that some how makes you feel powerful and in control.

I started thinking why are we getting competitive at neurotic pace, why are needs so high and satisfaction levels so low ? Why does our hunger for variety never cease and stability only means stagnancy ? Why is polygamy in and monogamy boring ? Why is danger sexy and right seem so stupid ?

Well this is what I think is the cause of our plight today. Today we have 1000 things which we do not really need and have gone ahead and labeled them as necessity. We want to satisfy others, we are more tuned to strangers and yet we turn deaf ear to the call from with in. Further more we today look around us for strength, for inspiration, for thoughts, for ideas and have forgotten to look inside us. We have forgotten US .. the unique person that each one is, with a set of goods, bads, madness, thoughts, values, preferences etc. Maybe if we spend more time with ourselves, making it a conscious choice we will be able to understand the most basic human relation, the one we share with our own selves, once we reach a stage when this relationship with self turns harmonious, we will be able to transfer this uniqueness from us as a being to our job, to our way of handling problems, to evolve as better people both on and off job.

An acquaintance would always comment saying “you marketing professionals are this” and “you marketing professionals are that”. I always told him “my profession does not define my individuality.” and now to add to it, lets add individuality to our profession only if we understand ourselves better and then bring this understanding to our work. Uniqueness will follow !

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My 2 bit on it…

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Uniqueness is something that does come from within, but I guess it’s easier said than done, to have something coming out. Why does this stop, is cause we have been programmed to be delivering something that has been tested and proven. What makes it even more funny is that, its been tested and proven from a land far beyond us. Is innovating new things uniqueness. Is making a different style of presentation uniqueness. Is thinking and drawing the next big thing on a piece of paper uniqueness..

Yea sounds all weird, but that’s something I’ve gone through. I’ve been part of the big thing, that the world’s known out of India, after the curry, snake charmers and tandori chicken. We are geeks, but funny thing, is that we do not innovate. Our forefathers (read the generation, still alive in the IT industry and often been label’d as the father figures) forgot that innovation stopped with them. Its all processes and mundane lines of re-processes.

Our education system (and not something coming out of 3idiots, though which is something I strongly believe in), is complete kuku’d off (if there is a word like that and also due to my lack of vocabulary).. We do not give the students something to work with. I’m telling this from an experience of 10 yrs, where I’ve been going to colleges to hire fresh talent for our company. All I get for a response, when asked a jumbled up query is “I doubt we were taught this, do not know what it means, definitely out of the syllabus”. Am I to believe that these young and fresh mind, untouched by the corporate hulla hoop would be bringing out fresh ideas in the plate. Not that we do not get astonishingly bright folks, who change the way we think, but that’s a rare case, as rare as you getting a double large for the large drink u ordered in a club

Anyhow, the bottom line, speaking again from facts, that our grass route levels need to work. We have folks being taught in the professional institutes, by giving them “NOTES”….. we are asked questions, from the syllabus, as otherwise, we have a right to comment that it’s out of syllabus!!! We are told to read something from a particular book and a particular explanation only, else otherwise, you are seen as an overtly smart ass who is trying to prove an aged old professor wrong…

But yes, I also agree that one can change immediately, after s/he has joined professional services (or otherwise). In my career and especially, after starting my kicking coaching training program, I’ve had the opportunity to sweat it out with folks from different career streams and understood their working style. But the common point, I’ve seen is that mostly, everyone is curbed with processes and points, that needs to be adhered. This has also made me realise that one can change into the spectrum by learning from the folks around u. This is something I’ve learnt. To be unique, I need to learn from all the elements around me, including the human element. And after dwelling in my mind with all this, I can then make something unique out of it… how ever, would be a byproduct of all the learning I’ve done. So is that uniqueness? Well I tend to think so, cause atleast I’m listening

Anyhow, the point being brought here, after all the rubbish being put across and you having to endure this long paras of utter nonsense, uniqueness can’t just come… one has to figure within him/herself and unlearn those things taught in the school/ college, about having to go through mundane acts like notes and stuff and spoon feeding. Maybe then, uniqueness will value out…

Could be absolutely wrong, but hey, wouldn’t hurt letting out my 2 bit, eh!!

- kNiGhTrIdEr

Can a PIZZA DELIVERY Person become an IT GURU

It has been a speculation that a DEGREE can get you places. Studying in big colleges and the best of the education institute can give you best of the jobs around the world. But are we trying to say that a person coming from a lesser-known institute or a smaller degree isn’t smart enough?

To find out answers to these questions, we need to go back a few decades, where you have the best of the industrialists and inventors, coming from lesser known educational institutes and backgrounds. They have made it big and doing the best in their industry.

What made them successful? Was it their big degrees and best institute? Did they do well in schools? Did the best of inventors, were excelling in their schoolwork? From our history, we have learnt that they have all failed in their educational institute or have dropped out from their studies. But the fact is that, they had the brains and intentions to make the things better in life.

So what makes anyone, getting good grades in their school and having x amount of percentage in their college smatter enough to go and work in their premier companies of the country. It would unwise for me to name the companies, but it’s well known that you need a certain amount of marks to get into these companies. The worst part is that these companies do not see their talent, but only their marks.

Coming to more a more serious note, these same companies demand the same sort of marks and percentages, even if the candidate has an experience outside. So are we trying to tell that all the experience gained in the industry is worthless?

Why is the topic ganged around a Pizza Delivery Person? Most of us have gone to pizza restaurants and have seen these young boys and girls, who would speak very good English (that being the only basis of knowing whether a person is educated), and friendly enough. They take our orders and deliver the pizza in time and make sure that we are looked after well. Have we tried to figure out where they come from? Most of them are either new to the city, searching for their better job, or coming from smaller and lesser-known engineering colleges and trying to do a course, which would secure them good jobs later on. They would work hard and study harder. If you speak to them, one would find that their smartness level isn’t below our high marks students. They are also street smart, as they know what it takes to survive. They are equally good in their “Coding” as that’s what is required to work in the IT Company, especially in the big premier companies.

If you ask these pizza boys and girls to sit in the same entrance test for the company, chances are that they would also score the same marks, if not more as these big companies deal mostly on aptitude, and who better to score on these, than a person who has seen the hardship and different walks in life. But the fact is that they are never given a chance to even come to close to the vicinity of sitting for these tests. Their resumes are sent in the garbage bin of the computer, because they do not match the stipulated marks in their school?

I had the opportunity of meeting and working with some of the finest minds in the industry and I can safely say that they were the best brains and have gone a long way in the industry. I had the chance of working with a M-Tech from the US and an Ex Bell Labs employee, I had the chance to sit and work with a Botany graduate, a science graduate, an Arts graduate and I can safely say that they have been able to bring in loads of business to the company we were working for and have excelled in what ever they have endeavored.

But they all did without a formal educational background, barring one. In the same lines, I have had the opportunity of working with the engineering graduates, coming from premier institute and having a big degree in their hand. But their formal training in the labs and the seats of those schools and colleges, has just given them enough information to talk endlessly, but when the goods have to be delivered, they have not been able to, in the same manner as these “lesser-fortunate” employees have been.

Am I saying that education is nothing? No, I do not believe that. I am a firm believer that education is the foundation of the person, but then it should not be used as a basis of telling someone that s/he is better of than the other person, who got less marks. How about just giving a chance to them and seeing them excel.

My first campus interview in a college was my most memorable one. Why? Well we had not put a cap on their marks and education qualification. All we said was, make sure you have cleared your 10^th and 12^th and clear your college when you come to join us. We do not care if you got 40% or 80%. Yes, you have to clear my written test and my interview and what do you know, we got the finest brains, and the privilege of working with them. These same minds are now working elsewhere and have formed a solid foundation for their companies. But the funny part is, if they still approach those “premier” companies, they are respective e denied even an interview, as their marks wasn’t good, even though they could be the best suited for the job posting.

I think in this age of information science, we have to stop being naïve and stop judging the book by its cover. We have to start looking at the fresh minds, the lesser known faces, because who knows, we get the next best thing from them.

And yes, I firmly believe, we can make an IT Guru out of a Pizza Delivery person, because the same person has what it takes to work hard and make it big. Let’s just give them a chance and see how it goes.

- kNiGhTrIdEr

PEN DOWN – has it become only an expression

“Hey, can you pen down some of your thoughts to me regarding this issue?” This been one of the most widely used words around the world. Pen-down your thoughts, or just writing them and sharing it with everyone.

Look at me for instance, I was planning to write an earlier article on a subject and told my friend, I am going to pen-down my thoughts. But quickly realized I shall be using what Apple and Microsoft Corporation have provided, a iMAC book and MS Word. So where’s that pen-down coming from? Shouldn’t it have been, Type-Down?

Then I started to recall, when was the last time I written down something big, by actually penning down my thoughts. Yes I do use a lot of paper and pencil, as I firmly believe that there’s nothing better than those 2 little things, to get our minds working and making our designs the best. In fact, when my wife and I moved into a new apartment, we had to design the whole décor. We had to buy everything new. But we got it done, with the minute details, on a piece of paper, a pen and our imagination and I can safely say that it has come out excellent.

But its true, in today’s “COMPUTER” world, we are loosing the oldest art of human, “Writing”. We have become so dependent on the computer. Even my colleagues in the office would use the computer to get their ideas out. They would not indulge into the paper-pen concept, but rather use the computer to think about their design. The only time the paper-pen is used, when they have come to come in the meetings and seminars, where a computer does not become handy.

Haven’t we also lost the art of sending hand-written letters? Haven’t we stopped sending greeting cards, with our hand-written thoughts and words in the card? It’s the age of Email and E-greetings, where everything is either typed or clicked. Even some colleges are making their students get their laptops, so that they can type what ever the lecturer speaks about, rather than making notes on their notebooks. Where are our pens? Have they become only style statements? Are they being used only to sign documents? Or do we wait for digital signature to take precedence and we loose that art of signature as well?

I was watching a documentary on how the e-governance has changed the shape of the country and schools are making use of computer for the students. The students are now submitting their home works on email and writing, or should I say, typing their home-works on their home computers. Isn’t that a bit ironical, as a couple of decades ago, my teachers told me to use Ink Pens, as they would be better for my handwriting. So what are the teachers saying now? Use the computer, because your typing would be better?

When I was finishing college, we all had our memory books being signed by all our friends. I used to write pages for my friends and like-wise from their end. What are the students doing now? Writing Blogs and Testimonials about their friend’s on their home page?

When I was seeing my wife, well those days, the girl I was hoping, who would overlook my eccentrics and marry me, I would write long hand-written letters. She would love them. I had once tried to type in a letter, got it printed and gave it to her, and she had only a disappointing look on her face. Most ironically, that same letter was one of my best pieces to her, but it lost all its charms because it was not my handwriting.

There are companies, which value a person’s handwriting, because they are into creativity. So are we telling that handwritten materials are only meant for those hoardings across the city or those movie banners, which are sprawling around the city walls? Is it only meant for a painter now, and has lost its value for a “Computer” Savvy person?

Let’s keep this art of writing alive. Who knows, sometimes we would get our ideas across, just because it is handwritten, I mean after all, I didn’t get good points for my typed and printed version of that love letter, it was the handwritten one, which won me my wife

- kNiGhTrIdEr