Posts Tagged ‘vijay peduru’

There have been lots of books written about changing behaviors like avoiding procrastination, having good relationships, eating less food but in almost all cases, these won’t work. These won’t work because the behaviors are like stems in a tree, if you cut down a stem, they will come back again after some time. Instead we have to attack the root. We humans behave differently and see the world differently by the stories we deeply believe in.  In other words, if you examine the story (root) and change it, the behaviors shifts effortlessly.

Here are a few examples

Parent-children Relationship Stories

If a parent believes the story “that kids cannot be trusted fully and will never listen to us”. Right from a young age, when the parent says something and the kids don’t listen, they shout and make sure the kids listen to them.  When the kids go to school, there will always be clashes. These clashes will continue through out the parent’s entire life till the parent moves on to the next world.

What if the parent looks at his story and says… Let me change it. Let me believe that “Kids can be trusted, if I am trustworthy to them”.  Now the scene shifts and s/he will always be open with them and s/he will make sure that the kids can trust him always with anything, now the whole 50-60 years of the parent’s life will be very rewarding.  I have personally seen examples of both kinds of parents and I am sure you have seen too. The only simple difference is both strongly believed in a story.

Entrepreneur Stories

Richard Branson and Warren buffett believed the story that “life and business should be fun” and so, they choose a profession which they loved. Steve Jobs deeply believes in Zen philosophy which shows up in all of apple’s products (simplicity).

Our life is completely governed by the stories we deeply believe. Most of the times we never know that these stories dictate our life i.e. they are hidden to us like a blind spot while driving.

So, how do we recognize our stories, whenever we are frustrated or things don’t go the way we want, we can stop and say, this is not working the way I want “because”. Whatever comes after the “because” is the story we choose to believe.

We can choose to believe in a different story.

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Tagged as: active garage, beliefs, Entrepreneurship, habits, Innovation, parents, stories, vijay peduru

4 tips for selecting the right consultant

by Brian Beedle, Aug 16, 2010

Vendor selection process can be an arduous, time consuming, and stressful task.  Receiving quotes that run the gambit of the budgetary spectrum, deciding which product will give your company the biggest bang for the buck and wondering if saving a dollar or two is really worth the frustration of finding the “right partner”.  Every Project Manager has dealt with these issues. In this article, Brian lists some key points may provide some clarity and assist with narrowing the decision-making process when seeking a value-added business partner. more…

Character and Personality #7: Courage

by Gary Monti, Aug 17, 2010

Tiger Woods’ difficulties with his swing and Mark Hurd’s (HP’s CEO) inability to fill out expense reports correctly can be traced back to complexes. In a very public way they both show how trying to succeed simply by ego has limits and the desire to be complete as Self will, when denied, erupt and wreak havoc without any regard to the consequences. more…

Working Hard – Still no progress?

by Vijay Peduru, Aug 18, 2010

According to most economic historians, the Industrial age ended about 20Yrs ago in 1989 when the Berlin wall came down and the internet came up. In the industrial age, working hard meant, using our body and working long hours i.e physical labor. The easiest way to do hard work in the post industrial age, is to love change, train ourselves to love challenges and question the status quo all by using and exerting our mind. more…

Flexible Focus #15: Karma and Connections

by William Reed, Aug 19, 2010

You reap as you sow. Therefore if we want to achieve positive results, you need to think, speak, and act positively. There is also collective Karma, which is often thought of as collective fate, but more constructively can be interpreted as collective action. Things are connected in ways that are not always obvious. Even when the connections are not obvious, it is possible to take small actions which use the butterfly effect to create good Karma. more…

A diverse workforce: The smart thing to do

by Robert Driscoll, Aug 20, 2010

Diversity in the workplace should not be limited to race, gender and age, but differences of views and personalities as well. If this diverse workforce is guided properly, they will share their unique knowledge and discuss their differences rather than what’s common between them. This will lead to generating innovative ideas that could potentially change the marketplace you are in. more…

Tagged as: active garage, brian beedle, Business Strategy, gary monti, http://activegarage.com, Leadership, possibilities, Project Management, Robert Driscoll, Strategy, technology, vijay peduru, william reed, www.activegarage.com

We all work hard but don’t seem to make much progress. In a lot of organizations, people seem to be praised high for working long and hard, but they never seem to get promoted or get noticed. Why is this. It is because the definition of “hard work” changed. A lot of people still believe in the industrial age definition that hard work is using your “body” to work hard , but if we look at our current situation, the majority of us do work sitting at a desk in front of a computer.

Many people are not aware that we have transitioned to an information age from an industrial age. According to most economic historians, the Industrial age ended about 20Yrs ago in 1989 when the Berlin wall came down and the internet came up.

In the industrial age, working hard meant, using our body and working long hours i.e physical labor . That is how machines worked and humans had to work similar to machines and humans were rewarded for this.

Now though, the majority of us are not working with machines, we are working with computers using our mind more instead of our body. Now hard work means emotional labor.. exerting our mind. Sure, we still work on long hours and weekends, but this is still not working hard as hard work is still translating into long hours. As Seth Godin says ” Hard work meant more work in the past. But the past doesn’t lead to the future.The future is not about time at all. The future is about work that’s really and truly hard, not time-consuming. It’s about the kind of work that requires us to push ourselves, not just punch the clock. Hard work is where our job security, our financial profit, and our future joy lie.”

A lot of successful people work the same hours or less than we work, but they are still successful.  They get ahead because they do the new “hard work” As Seth Godin says

“Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, tunnel under that barrier, drive through the other barrier. And, after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day.”

So, the easiest way to do hard work is to love change,train ourselves to love challenges and question the status quo all by using and exerting our mind.

From now on, let us start training ourselves in baby steps to do the new “Hard work” i.e “exerting emotional labor”.

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Tagged as: active garage, Change, Entrepreneurship, failure, fear of failure, hard work, risk taking, seth godin, success, vijay peduru, working hard

Can we avert failures in our life?

by Vijay Peduru, May 3, 2010

This article reminds me of one of my high school teachers. This was his famous refrain: if a rocket destined to the moon is off by a fraction of a degree, it will not reach its destination. You can change your destination only if you change your direction. Nothing happens all of a sudden. There is no overnight success. Take small steps in the right direction every day. more…

Leadership Cancers #8: Anticipation

by Gary Monti, May 4, 2010

Wow, Gary… or should I say “The sage of Active Garage”? Performing action without becoming a servant of the desired consequences has been a subject of discussion for the longest time. This is a very nuanced concept and can be easily misinterpreted out of context. But understanding and putting this single principle to practice can bring you peace of mind and take your performance to new heights you have not experienced before. more…

Are You Preventing Your House Sale?

by Guy Ralfe, May 5, 2010

One of my teachers insists on learning the art of quitting. You got to listen to this Kenny Rogers song on this topic. While quitting is an essential art, it is equally important to not shut the doors of opportunity. When you don’t give into emotions and think strategically, you can leverage every thing that comes across your way for your ultimate benefit. more…

Pillars of Success

by Robert Driscoll, May 6, 2010

Based on movies, TV and what we read in the media, we have a pre conceived notion of what a hugely successful CEO is. You cannot be more wrong. Robert has captured the essence of one CEO’s practices for success in this article. more…

Author’s Journey #20: Choosing the right incentive to build your List

by Roger Parker, May 7, 2010

One of your most important marketing and promoting decisions is choosing the right incentive to offer as a bonus to visitors who sign up for your e-mail newsletter or weekly tips. It’s not enough to offer great information delivered at consistent intervals via e-mail. In this article, Roger has listed a great array of incentives you can provide your readers. more…

Tagged as: Action, active garage, author's journey, business, Business Management, business planning, Business Strategy, Communication, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, execution, gary monti, Guy Ralfe, http://activegarage.com, Innovation, leaders, Leadership, management, possibilities, Project Management, purpose, Robert Driscoll, roger parker, vijay peduru, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com

If we analyze deeply, we postpone because we need to learn new habits and skills and accumulating these habits and skills seems harder. We keep saying to ourselves that we will learn these skills once we achieve the position or once we start the business.  Days, months and years pass by and we still do not reach where we want to reach. What can we do to stop this drift? We can start in baby steps right this moment ( ok,.you can wait till you finish reading this post!)  and keep growing gradually..

“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight”

“Failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day”.

“Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every day”.

So, if we take any area(health, money, joy)  in our life, we need to start accumulating new habits and skills now. We can start with baby steps and keep moving. A few baby steps are:

• Health: We can start doing yoga or exercise joyfully ten minutes a day starting today
• Money : We can start reading books for thirty minutes every day by entrepreneurs on how to serve people and make money starting today.
• Joy:  We can read spiritual or books on the wisdom of leading a joyful life for 10 minutes a day to learn how to be joyful starting today.

Averting failures, however unattainable and insurmountable it might sounds, is a simple art of going in the right direction, in a disciplined manner.

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Tagged as: active garage, direction, discipline, drift, Entrepreneurship, failures, habits, Jim Rohn, skills, successes, vijay peduru, well being

Business Intelligence or lack thereof?

by Brian Beedle, Mar 29, 2010

In these tough economic times, it is imperative that organizations make strategic changes rapidly. Traditionally, business leaders are focused on the profitability and the lower rungs don’t have the business intelligence to make serious impact. The answer lies in implementing a performance management system. Brian discusses some key factors you need to be cognizant of before you take the plunge. more…

Leadership Cancers #3: The myth of peak performance

by Gary Monti, by Mar 30, 2010

You know the story of Apollo 13. The entire ground team worked round the clock for several days to bring the astronauts back. The team performed at the peak level. Realistically, you cannot expect this team or any team to perform at that level continuously. There is a normal performance level and we need to strive to improve the normal performance level. But striving for peak performance all the time will burn people out and will setup the team and the organization for failure. more…

Timing the Flood

by Guy Ralfe, Mar 31, 2010

Timing is everything. It involves being at the right place at the right time and then evaluating the offer’s risk vs. opportunity. Guy’s current situation has put him in the right place for offers to be made. And he is evaluating the offers within his current capability. more…

How to handle any situation

by Vijay Peduru, Apr 1, 2010

Life is nothing but a series of situations. How we handle them determines how our life shapes up. We can approach situation will resignation or anger. But these are not powerful moves and will not enhance your life. Deal with situations in a mood of possibility and see a new and wonderful world open up for you. more…

Author’s Journey #15 – Crafting the perfect book proposal

by Roger Parker, Apr 2, 2010

Your book proposal for your first book is among the most important documents you’ll ever prepare. The purpose is two fold: 1) Sales pitch 2) Marketing plan. A typical proposal has seven sections described in this article. Think of your book proposal as an investment. more…

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Tagged as: active garage, brian beedle, business, business planning, Business Strategy, Communication, entrepreneur, gary monti, Innovation, Leadership, management, possibilities, Return on Investment, roger parker, vijay peduru, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com

Our lives are made up of a series of situations.  How we handle each situation determines how our lives shape up. If we handle each situation well, our lives seem fulfilling, if we don’t, we end up living lives that we usually define with words like stressed or dull. Well… Imagine how you would define your life if you had answers to all situations that occur in your life? Wouldn’t that be simply phenomenal!

I was watching the brilliant,  multi-talented Ben Zander’s video and he talks about how to handle any situation. Per Mr. Zander, there are 3 ways of going about it:

1. Resignation

2. Anger

3. Possibility

An example he gave in his speech went as follows:

Let us say you went to a restaurant and you witness a kid’s birthday party.  Everyone in the party starts singing the “happy birthday” song like a chore..dull and boring.  You look at the situation and can do 3 things

1. Resignation : You think people don’t change, that’s the way the world works

2. Angry: You say..These dull, boring people, can’t they know how to sing?

3. Possibility: You go to the party and take charge, Be the conductor of the orchestra.  I am sure, the birthday kid won’t forget this experience and the others too would have experienced a little liveliness in them.

Now, imagine applying this to your business or the work you do… well! that’s a situation, isn’t it?

Do you go to your work in resignation, anger or do you show up as a possibility. That is… do you show up as a possibility for leadership, a possibility for being the conductor of you being productive? If you do… your boss, your employer or your customers will be like the birthday kid who won’t forget the experience… and of course, the others around you will experience a little liveliness, too!

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Tagged as: active garage, anger, Ben Zander, Leadership, possibilities, possibility, resignation, situation, vijay peduru

Everything is so amazing and nobody is happy

by Vijay Peduru, Mar 22, 2010

Have you taken a moment to reflect how amazing it is to be living this time and age? There are so many gadgets and tools that increase our capacity phenomenally, but we often end up complaining about trivial things about them. Watch a short humorous video in this post and that will help you realize that we are very lucky indeed! more…

Leadership Cancers #2: The insanity of multitasking

by Gary Monti, Mar 23, 2010

The human brain is similar to a single core microprocessor. Multitasking in either case involves context switching which is expensive. But is it effective? Multitasking should not be confused with some tasks we can perform simultaneously, like chewing gum and walking. In this post, Gary argues that high value tasks or tasks that have high impact when something goes wrong, are not conducive to multitasking. Don’t agree? Well, have you read about the impact of texting and driving? Or next time you go to a meeting, try working on your laptop and listening to the conversation at the same time.

One of our readers Avi commented that multitasking is related to picking up tasks in a “wait” state. While it is true that this enables efficient use of time, it does not mean that you can do multiple tasks at the same time. If task A takes 40 hours, you cannot expect task B to be fit in at the same time. If task A hits a roadblock and cannot progress, task B gets worked on. Do read Gary’s response too. more…

Past is NO way to the Future

by Guy Ralfe, Mar 23, 2010

Ever dealt with a financial advisor or read an investment brochure? Their standard disclaimer is that past performance is not an indication of future performance. While knowledge of the past definitely is valuable, we should be aware that the future will not mimic the past. Now, apply this to your life and your actions; don’t let the past hinder your future performance. more…

CAPEX-Free IT: How to refresh your technology, deliver stellar IT, and keep your CFO happy

by Marc Watley, Mar 25, 2010

Money is tight everywhere. According to most surveys and reports, CAPEX spending in IT is going to increase slightly this year at best, if not remain flat. Resources are down to 2005 levels. So, how do you do more with less.  With the advent of virtualization and cloud computing, there are numerous options to pay as you go. When implementing this strategy, do it the Kaizen way. more…

Author’s Journey #14: How to get others to help you write your book

by Roger Parker, Mar 26, 2010

In this post Roger describes three basic approaches to getting others to help you write your book. They are:

1. Paying for Help
2. The Network Approach
3. Social Media Approach

Read the post to understand what they are and how to leverage existing tools. As always, your choice should be determined by your goals and your resources. more…

Tagged as: Action, active garage, Business Management, Business Strategy, execution, gary monti, Guy Ralfe, http://activegarage.com, Leadership, management, marc watley, possibilities, purpose, Roger paker, roger parker, Strategy, technology, vijay peduru, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com

• We get impatient if our flight gets late… can you imagine getting from one place to another without the invention of airplanes?
• We get upset when our computer does not respond within 10 seconds…. can you imagine how productive it would be without one?
• We get annoyed when the elevator is too slow… can you imagine how slow (and not to mention tiring!) it would be to climb those 45 stories?

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Tagged as: active garage, amazing, business, computer, happiness, iphone, patient, technology, vijay peduru, youtube

What’s your ante?

by Himanshu Jhamb, Mar 1, 2010

Poker is about making wagers. You need to pay up to get in the game and which table you play depends upon how much you want to ante up. Life and business are no different. Evaluate what table you are sitting at. If the potential payout is not going to help you reach your goal, you need to quit that table you are at and move to a table where the payout is large enough. Quitting is easy to do, but make sure you have the required skills to play at a high stakes table. more…

Change Management #6 – Processes: Two tips for refereeing business rule changes

by Gary Monti, Mar 2, 2010

To say that bringing change to an organization will be challenging is a gross understatement. You may feel like Sisyphus rolling the huge rock uphill only to see it roll back down again. Your success at this is predicated on two components: What to do and How to do it. more…

Are you moving forward or drifting in your life?

by Vijay Peduru, Mar 3, 2010

If you examine your life, you may find areas which are not the way you want them to be. For instance, you may be stuck at the same position in your career. If you analyze why, you will find out that you are simply reacting to situations and not producing the situations you want to be in. You can rectify this if you learn how to be the “cause in the matter”. more…

Social Media and making a $1 Billion movie: Avatar

by Deepika Bajaj, Mar 4. 2010

Avatar is a phenomenal movie and it is setting a new standard for movie makers. Nevertheless, Social Media had a role to play in its box office success. Avatar, through its own Facebook and Twitter pages spread the word all over the web. The red carpet premier was broadcast live to web audience. These were capped by the interview the movie director, producer and the lead actors gave on MTV.com in which they took questions from internet fans. That is Social Media for you! more…

Do you have the tools you need to write a book?

by Roger Parker, Mar 5, 2010

Writing is a craft and yes, writers need the right tools too. Apart from a variety of low-tech tools you can get at office supply stores, writers need some high-tech tools like Mind mapping tools, Keystroke substitution software and speech recognition software. You also need to gain mastery of the word processing program you use. Read the article and take a free online evaluation to test your knowledge. more…

Tagged as: active garage, business, Business Management, Business Strategy, Change Management, deepika bajaj, gary monti, himanshu jhamb, http://activegarage.com, Magesh Tarala, roger parker, Social Media, vijay peduru, Writing for Business