200 success tips from Robin Sharma

When I first came across this book I simply put it aside :)

You see I did not know who Robin Sharma was and had no interest in wasting my time reading everything I get in my inbox.

And then...I started noticing this guy every where, on CNN, in newspapers, the internet...

So I went back to the book and started reading it.

Boy was I glad I still had the copy.This is a great book. His tips are short but very profound.Read it but more importantly reflect on it and you WILL become a changed person.

You can get this and other books by subscribing to my newsletter at www.ebook-of-the-week.com.

Steve Chandler's book - it succeeds where other books fail

I recently read a powerful book written by Steve Chandler.

Steve has one exceptional ability. His clarity.

He completes other authors' thoughts.

Jim Rohn states "You have to work harder on yourself than on the job", Harv Ecker states "You have to live at a higher level of consciousness".

Unfortunately I am not wise enough to take it from there to implementation.

And that is where Steve Chandler is a great help.

He uses the analogy of gears on an automobile to explain how to live at a higher level of consciousness.

In order to live at a higher level of consciousness you have to be a creator and not a reactor.

Not clear? Well I am hardly a Steve Chandler, I suggest you read his book yourself.

You can get this book for free when you subscribe to my newsletter

http://www.ebook-of-the-week.com

One last parting thought ... as I was reading his book I was struck by another book that was preaching a similar concept of detachment, the Bhagvad Gita, the sacred text of Hindus.

Mr. Chandler has some powerful backing to his work.

download ebook classics for free

Hi Folks

One of the objectives when I first set up my blog was to share my passion for inspirational writing through downloads with a wider audience of like minded friends.

There was just a little hitch.

My blogging provider was not a hosting service.

Well that problem is solved now.

The last few weeks I have been busy setting up a new site.

The way it works is like this, you log on to the site and subscribe to my newsletter.

At regular intervals I send out a newsletter with a link to download an ebook.

All ebooks I recommend are ones I have read. In my email I will mention the value of each book that I am offering for download.

You can subscribe to my list by visiting either of the two websites below.

www.napoleanhill.net

www.ebook-of-the-week.com

Let me know how you like it folks.

Tips from Craig Valentine

Now Craig is one speaker I really look forward to hearing from.

While his speeches edify us it is his great sense of humor that grabs our attention and keeps us engrossed for the duration.

Many speakers brand themselves. For e.g. Darren LaCroix brands himself as a comic speaker. Personally I find Craig far more humorous than Darren at any given day. That is just my take on it.

Here are some great tips from Craig. I love these tips and want to share with you.

Reflections on the Art of Public Speaking

1. You can't affect if they don't reflect
2. Don't restate your story. Relive it and invite your
audience into your re-living room
3. When you lift yourself up, you let your audience down
4. What's loose is lost (hint: this is about content)
5. Speak to one but look to all
6. Promise something at the beginning that makes them stay
until the end
7. Too many speakers try to get across too much information
in too little time
8. Don't add humor; uncover it
9. What gets recorded gets rewarded
10. Perfection sucks

heed this

One of the challenges some speakers, atleast me, face, is to come up with a speech title.

I remember the first speech I made at ToastMasters. It was an icebreaker. I titled my speech,'sleep breaker', very imaginative:(

I was invited by the Toastmaster of the meeting to change the title to something more meaningful, I declined the offer.

It was only after I delivered the speech that I realized I could have come up with at atleast two catchy titles. One, "Everything you wanted to know about me, but were too uninterested to ask".

The speech started with a death in my family and ended with a birth, that of my son. I realized, another great title would have been "From Death To Birth". Considering that this is against the normal flow of life it would have been a real attention grabber.

Focus on the content of your speech and the title will come to you. Save time by not bothering to create a title before you create a speech.

Your speech titles are a lot like headlines. The right title can pique audience interest and get you a bigger audience.

Learning Public Speaking From Barrack Obama

One would think all politicians are great speakers. Not quite, when you hear Hillary speak for example, your Toastmaster's Ah Counter would start automatically and go on and on, counting.

Barrack Obama is an outstanding speaker, and personally, a great politician.

I found a nice article on his speech techniques. A really neat one. I liked it, I hope you do as well.
___________________________________________________________________________________

How to Inspire People Like Obama
By Carmine Gallo

Public speaking skills are critical to the success of every leader. Over the past several years, I have been interviewing, observing, and writing about business, academic, and political leaders who have the ability to influence their audience – leaders who fire up the rest of us. Whatever your political leanings, Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is one of them. For a look at what makes Obama’s public speaking skills so effective, I outline four techniques this Presidential hopeful has mastered and explain ways to use them in your own repertoire.

1. Hold Out Hope

Like Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama speaks in the uplifting rhetoric of hope. After his defeat in New Hampshire, Obama’s political oratory was so hopeful he sounded more like a winner than a runner–up. Obama knew a hopeful message would embolden his supporters. In a speech on Jan. 8, 2008, Obama said, “We know the battle ahead will be long. But always remember, no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change… We have been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”

You are the leader people want to believe in. Your customers and employees are bombarded by bad news – the credit crunch, a housing slump, an economic slowdown – but they are eager to hear something positive. That doesn’t mean leaders stick their heads in the sand – far from it. Inspiring leaders acknowledge the situation but also remind people of reasons to be optimistic.

2. Use Rhetorical Devices

Many observers say Obama sounds like King. This is because he uses some of the same techniques that made King an electrifying speaker.

Parallel structure. We can thank the ancient Greeks for this rhetorical tool – they called it “anaphora.” It simply means repeating the same word or expression at the beginning of successive sentences or phrases. One of the most famous examples is King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…. I have a dream that… I have a dream…” Obama uses the same device frequently. In his Iowa victory speech on Jan. 3, Obama said, “You have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do. You have done what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days. You have done what America can do in this new year.”

Anaphora’s sister technique is called “epistrophe.” It is the repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive sentences or phrases. For example, in Obama’s New Hampshire speech, the expression “Yes, we can” rallied thousands of supporters when used like this, “It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can. It was sung by immigrants as they struck out for distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can.”

Alliteration. Both Kennedy and King were fond of this device that strings together words starting with similar sounds. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote speech that brought Obama to prominence, he said, “Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?” In 2005, during a commencement speech at Knox College, Obama described America as “a place where destiny was not a destination, but a journey to be shared and shaped…” When speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in August, 2006, Obama proclaimed, “The history of America is one of tragedy turned into triumph.” In January’s New Hampshire speech, Obama used alliteration again: “We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics.”

Rich Imagery. Persuasive speakers have long understood the power of imagery to stir emotions – the creation of mental pictures through the words. In his 2004 speech, Obama described what he meant by the audacity of hope: “It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs, the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores, the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta, the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds, the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.”

3. Exude Confidence

In debates Obama appears unflappable, answering tough questions while maintaining strong eye contact. He doesn’t fidget or shake his head when listening to sharp attacks from his opponents. While seated, he leans slightly forward. People will make an impression of you after only a few seconds. Pay attention to what your body is saying. Communicate confidence, competence, and control.

4. Use Dynamic Vocal Delivery

A monotonous speaking style lulls the listener to sleep, regardless of the power of the content. Obama knows how to enhance his delivery. Consider these three aspects of his delivery.

Pacing. Obama varies the speed at which he speaks. Very few sentences are delivered at exactly the same pace.

Volume. In his victory speech after the Iowa caucuses, Obama raised the volume of his speech with each sentence in the following paragraph: “We are one nation. We are one people. And our time for change has come.”

Pauses. Nothing is as dramatic as a well–placed pause, and Obama knows it. He pauses at key moments to make a memorable impact.

Obama connects with millions of people thanks to his public speaking skills. Consider learning from him to influence your own audience.

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world's most admired brands. His book, "Fire Them Up!", contains insights from top business leaders who inspire through the language of motivation.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Top Five Inspirational Videos

That such touching and inspirational videos exist on the internet was an eye opener to me.

Here is one on enjoying life's journey and not just its final destination.



Here is one on Michael Jordan's secret of success, and it has nothing to do with the sport:



Gene Hackman delivers a motivational speech in the locker room:



Mind is important, but your body matters, equally.



Ok...ok you don't have to be dead serious or mournful to partake of life's lessons. Here is a wickedly funny gag. It does have a message though: great things can be achieved if we work together.

Why god made them so cute...

A few weeks ago my blogging venture suffered a setback.

My toddler son ripped apart half my computer keyboard. So thorough was his job that I could not simply press the eviscerated keys back into the key pad. I had to glue each one of them individually. Once I did that however my keys lost their springs and I ended up pressing each of them hard in order to type. It was terrible, not only did it slow down my typing but surprisingly it affected my flow of thoughts.

And before that he emptied a full bottle of oil on my bed...

And before that he stuffed 20 toys down the heating vent...

And before that...well ..you get the idea.

But what did he get for all this. A few timeouts at the most.

Why, because he is so darned cute and his tears tug at your heart.

Now I understand why god made them so cute....they could not survive into adulthood otherwise.

Losing But Still Coming Out A Winner

Those of you who read one of my earlier posts the message will know that I had been preparing for an area level contest of Toastmasters.

Well, I competed and ...lost.

I was disappointed for sure, but also very gratified by my performance.

You see the only person I was comparing to ... was myself. And I had beaten me.

This was my best performance to date. I hope soon to host the videos of my first speech, the Ice Breaker I delivered in August 2007 to the latest speech that I delivered in April 2008.

The difference is obvious.

As Darren LaCroix, one of the Toastmaster world champions of public speaking often states...it is stage time, stage time, stage time.

Your Fraternal Twin

The following is the text of a speech I delivered at the Area level contest of Toastmasters.

It is one from my heart. Not only do I start with a personal incident, the whole speech is based on my personal belief of the importance of public perceptions. One that I believe with every fibre of my existence.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Way back in my 8th grade I transferred to a new school. I was the only new kid in the class. Everyone else knew one another from grade 1.

Being shy and reserved only made it worse for me. I tried to become invisible, meld into the walls and the desks.

I never answered any questions let alone raise questions. You would not hear a single word escape from my mouth.

Because I kept to myself I was perceived as not too bright up here....until an event took place with far reaching consequences.

It was the first term exams. I performed so well my teachers were amazed. My Economics teacher commented that she was pleasantly surprised by my performance while my Physics teacher asked if I had cheated on the exam!!

And just like the caterpillar that transforms into a beautiful butterfly my image was magically transformed from that of the class dunce to one of its whiz kids.

Think of your perceived image , your brand as your fraternal twin. Why...because it is a lot like you but not exactly like you.

And therein lies the whole problem. Our public perceptions rerely reflect our true inner worth.

We all have a fraternal twin. One that gladly interferes in our affairs and wreaks havoc if unmanaged.

And people may cling to your twin not because they dislike you but because it is so much more convenient.

Now an 8th grader's story may not convince you about the ease with which people form mis perceptions but a Harvard University study just might...

The study involved 2 groups of students. One group watched a lecture given by a professor of Statistics and the other group a lecture given by a professor of Humanities. The Statistics professor was perceived as being cold and distant. The Humanities professor warm and caring.

Now here is the rub, they were both the same person!!!

What we do for a living greatly influences how others perceive us.

My 8th grader story had a happy ending. My test scores made all the difference. All misperceptions were cleared away.

However when it comes to your career your fraternal twin assumes an entirely new level of significance.

It is your fraternal twin that is responsible for your salary and career advancements.

You could do all the right things. Work hard, take on additional responsibilities, go the extra mile and hope you get promoted into management. But your evil twin just might be working against you.

As a result, when your bosses meet they might say " You know ....I just don't think he is management material" ... end of discussion!

It is human nature to form quick impressions of others. Unfortunately rarely do people go beyond first impressions.

Laws of Human Nature

1) People make emotional decisions and then rationalize it with facts and logic

2) If someone likes you they may see you as entirely good and omit your failings.This is called the Halo effect. The converse of this is called the 'Horn' effect.

You cannot fight such a deep rooted systemic prejudice. We are not just victims we are perpetrators ourselves.

Instead we can flow with it by doing a few things.

First make friends with your fraternal twin , get to know him. As bright as I was academicaly I was not aware of the damage my public perception was inflicting on me. Do not let that remain a blind spot for you.

Second help your fraternal twin make friends with others. By this I mean that once you are happy with the kind of perception you want to project make sure others get it,. People cling to old perceptions..you have to work to change them.

Over 2 centuries ago George Berkely, an Irish Philosopher proclaimed , "To Be is to be Perceived."

Remember...don't let your twin win.

Rags To Riches - A True Life Example

Listening to a self help guru talk is generally motivational and educational.

However I personally get more inspired by a real life example.Even better if it is one reported in the media. For me that carries more credibility.

Here is one such story reported by Yahoo.

Toll Booth To Screenwriter

Public Speaking - My Biggest Obstacle

Time and again my Toastmaster's evaluators commented on the pace of my speeches. They liked many things about my speeches but found my speaking style too fast for comfort.

This is a problem with Indians in general.

Check out an earlier post on the world champion of public speaking who has similar advice

I continued to ignore and never acted on their advice...till one day when it really hurt.

I was delivering a speech that had a bit too much content to fit the 7 minute slot. Rather than chopping off some of the content I decided to just speak fast!!!

Needless to say I totally missed connecting to my audiences. This was my worst performance never mind that there were no stumbles, stutters etc. I was too fast for their comprehension. I lost my audience completely.

For the next speech I had the forethought to tape a practice session. I was taken aback by how fast I was speaking. I could not understand parts of my own speech!

Smarting from my poor performance the previous time and chastened by the visual feedback of my performance I managed to speak slowly and more deliberately for my speech project #7.

The result was spectacular. The impact on my audience between this and my previous speech was like the difference between day and night.

I received very positive feedback. In fact a Toastmaster who had witnessed both my speeches later left a voicemail commenting that my speech was ten times better than the previous one!

Perhaps you have a stumbling block in your own speeches as well. It could be that you are not projecting your voice, not moving around and so on.

Being aware of your weaknesses is not worth much until you act on it.

The payback is terrific. Trust me on that.

The Power of Planning

Today I learnt first hand the power of planning.

As a project manager I was tasked to reduce the duration of a project from 6 months to a shorter time frame.

I had with me a long list of tasks the developer had outlined with estimates for each task.

Making it more complicated was the inclusion of tasks to be performed by another developer and the overlapping between these two.

In a single meeting lasting less than an hour we were able to reduce the duration from 6 to 4 months!!

I used two planning aids common to the project management profession of which I am a rabid practitioner.

The first is called WBS and stands for Work Breakdown Structure. Any project has to deliver something. You take this 'something' and break it down into smaller and smaller pieces.

The next tool is called a network diagram. Here you take activities that you have obtained as a result of performing WBS and chart out the dependencies among them.

I try to practice planning in all aspects of my life.

I was not like this before. I read somewhere that events will not turn out exactly as planned but then if you do not plan your work then you are planning to fail.

Brian Tracy talks about the 6Ps of planning. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

Incidents like the one I just illustrated has made me a believer in planning.

Autistic Kid or Super Kid

Sometimes we just can't tell.

Watch this video and decide for yourself.

A powerful story that left my jaded and cynical eyes moist

The world's second oldest profession

Dear Readers

How many of you are in sales?

A year ago I would have stood up and said proudly I am not in sales, I am not in sales.

For years I worked a lonely life. I was buried in my work away in a solitary cube. I worked hard and long. I put my customers on a pedestal and treated them like gods. When I was given more work than I could accomplish by the deadline I worked late into the weeknights and happily on the weekends. When I faced a problem I resolved it by research or by asking more experienced people.

I never fussed and never brought my troubles to my boss.

I expected the all knowing, all loving, benevolent one, I am not talking about god but my boss, to one day come to my cube, and have this conversation " Naveen, you work hard and accomplish many things that I have no clue about so I am happy to give you the promotion that you believe you deserve but never ever even hinted at that to me."

Unfortunately that never happened.

If you think your work will speak for yourself then I can guess who your best friends are "Dorothy,Toto, the wicked witch and other such characters". You are living in fantasy.

We are all in sales.

Being a Toastmaster I am familiar with Ed Tate the 2000 TM world champion of public speaking. Here is the advice he gave to prospective professional speakers. Did he ask them to practice more, or get more coaching. These are all important but that is not what he said. His exact words

"Take a sales class. This is a business first and you get to speak second. If you get the order confused, you don't get to speak at all! Learn how to market and sell your value. "

Ladies and gentlemen ...we are all in sales.

I read Mahan Khalsa's Mahan Khalsa's definition of sales sometime back and was so struck by his words that I remember them months after I read it and have made it the title of my speech.


"sales is the world's second oldest profession often confused with the oldest"

It strikes at you like the pungent smell of rotten eggs. It wakes you up with a kick. He packs a lot of meaning into this. Sales as a profession existed long long before IT or even law became a profession. Yet it was never regarded very highly especially in Asian cultures where if you completed a professional education (read non sales) you were like Edmund Hillary that climbed the top of Mt. Everest..never mind if you can't even afford the clothes you are wearing.

So I hope by now I convinced you about the importance of sales.

But what is sales. This is too vast a subject to be covered in a week let alone in a few minutes. So I will leave you with a golden rule and two thoughts on this subject.

The very essence of sales, the golden rule of sales,which if you ignore you will never succeed no matter how hard you try, is this

"Nobody likes to be sold but everyone likes to buy."

Thought #1

Which one is more likely to make a sale.

a. "The best oranges anywhere."
b. "Quench your thirst right now with this organic and satisfying source of vitamin C."

Option b spells out the benefits of drinking Orange juice more clearly than option a and hence more likely to succeed in selling.

Talk in terms of the solutions and benefits your product offers.

Thought #2

Here is another important concept of selling. This time from Garl Halbert, a noted marketing expert.

Imagine that you are setting up a hot dog stand. I will give you everything that you want to get set up, the world's finest hot dogs, a great location on the beach, money to advertise, great looking models....anything you want.

But I just ask for one thing. With that one thing I will beat you hands down no matter what else you have.

Have you guessed what I am talking about...

The one thing I want is a load of starving people.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will continue to ingore you ...

Build something that people need, are hungry for, have an unmet need...

So dear readers I repeat the question I asked at the beginning of the post ..How many of you are in sales?

Break through this barrier and you are guaranteed to grow

Our 2 year old son kicked, screamed, cried and raised hell when his loving but harassed parents successfully weaned him away from drinking milk in bottles to sippy cups. He took a big step on his journey to growth.

He will eventually transition from diapers to potties, from simply walking to cycling and so on.

He will be helped every step of the way by his loving parents who will never give up on him.

But what about us, normal adults. Who will coach us, cajole us and push us to new behaviors that while very uncomfortable initially will greatly help us become more, learn more, do more and achieve more in life.

Friends we all have a barrier in life that we need to break through. It is funny that some people call it the glass ceiling, bamboo ceiling and so on and so forth.

It is very comforting to assign blame to someone else.

The ceiling we really need to break through is the comfort ceiling.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

To take new actions you need to break through your comfortable mental and physical routines a.k.a your comfort zone.

A while ago I learnt a powerful lesson of why we should do this consistently.

For more than a year I was running a website (now defunct) called www.indianbabystuff.com.

In that time I made about 4 sales and was more than 500 dollars in the hole.

I cancelled the website but was still left with an inventry of Indian comics, DVDs and audio CDs ( I still am in case you are interested in buying).

I then learnt about a ethnic fair aimed at Indians where I could rent a stand and sell my inventory.

I was very very uncomfortable doing this. I was brought up in a culture that devalued the sales profession. While I understood intellectually the importance of sales I just could not get myself to participate as a vendor. I was worried about how my friends would perceive my actions, I was worried about how I could approach total strangers with a sales pitch. I was wracked by all sorts of worries.

At about this time, I was reading the Emotional Intelligence quickbook by authors Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves( you can read my free abstract of the book at EQ QuickBook Book Summary). This book stressed the importance of crashing through your comfort zone.

I got caught up with one phrase in particular "Lean into your discomfort". I kept repeating this phrase like a mantra. So despite my acute discomfort I leaned into it and went ahead with the fair.

I opened up a stand.

On that one day I made more sales than what I did for a whole year through my website!!

And I had no problems at all making a sales pitch to anyone visiting my stand.

What a powerful lesson on the benefits of breaking through your comfort zone.

Remember you cannot grow and still expect to be the same.

Interview with the world champion of public speaking

The world champion Vikas Jhingran is to my right
How often does one get a chance to meet and converse with a world champion and for free at that.

Public speaking is a passion with me. I am a member of Toastmaster's International.

In 2007 the world championship of public speaking was won by Vikas Jhingran. He is of Indian descent like me and a role model and inspiration to me.

Recently I had a chance to listen to some of his speeches and meet him in person at a District conference.

He repeated the speeches he made at the District and Regional level. The final award winning speech was screened.

In between and before the speeches he talked briefly about how he utilized his unique background to his immense advantage. For e.g. he fully exploited his Indian heritage by using speech topics that his rivals would not have had the opportunity to live and retell,thereby ensuring he stood out. All the three speeches in the world championship contest featured incidents from his life experiences in India.

His message to every one in the room was this. Reflect on what makes you unique, value your differences and exploit them to your advantage. Be yourself. Do not simply copy other person's style.

Know yourself - was a key theme he stressed throughout his presentation.

He shared some world championship secrets with us much to our privilege.

Vikas used the lessons he learned from turning around his academic career from an average student to an A lister who got into the MIT in creating a system that continues to serve him well in academia.

After he made many mistakes and attempted to copy other speakers' styles in his initial stint with Toastmaster's he replicated the model that he had used in academia in his speeches with tremenduous success.

The model is this. He found out that the reason he fared poorly in exams was that he was not cut out for all night cramming the day before the exam like others in his circle were. He discovered his strengths and weaknesses and used it to his advantage.

In his speaking engagements he does not listen to the two speeches made immediately before his. He also goes into a contest never focussing on the win.

I was bowled over by it. Not only is he an entertaining speaker with a great message but as was evident he is also the message.

He is a celebrity and it was no surprise to see him literally mobbed.

Still I was able to get a few minutes to interview him.

Q) How did you discover your passion for public speaking?

Vikas) It was not immediately apparent that I had a passion for it. I was working as a junior engineer and on one occasion badly wanted to make a client presentation. I was told I could not as I did not have good presentation skills. I enrolled in Toastmaster's and discovered within a few months that my self confidence and self image had grown a lot. In conversations with my colleagues I created more favorable impressions.

Seeing tangible benefits in Toastmasters motivated me to continue participating in Toastmasters. It lead to a virtuous cycle of self improvement.

Q) How did you go about preparing for the world championship?

Vikas) Mentoring is very important. You cannot go it alone.

I watched the sppeches of all the participants in world championship finals over the past 10 years.

I received mentoring support from previous world champions such as Darren LaCroix.

It is important to keep in mind that I did not blindly copy their styles.

I had my own style and picked and choose only those strategies that helped fine tune my style. In all I would say I discarded 90% of what the experts had to say.

But the remaining 10% was extremely valuable.

I also choose mentors who possessed qualities that I admired and which I wanted to emulate directly.

I worked with Mary Mallowney who is a tremenduously talented writer. Writing is my strength and I wish to improve it.

I also worked with Dave Safacone who besides being a great writer is also a speaker that was a world championship runner up.

Finally a tremenduous amount of hardwork. I must have practised my world championship winning speech at least 30 times.

Q) How has you life changed after winning the world championship

Vikas) I receive lot more requests to speak. I appreciate the speaking opportunities and meeting new people.

I am also more well known at MIT.

My advisor appreciates my achievement tremenduously.

MIT has a reputation for engineering. This achievemnt of mine underscores the fact that engineers can be great communicators too.

Q) What is your muse that gets you the great content for your speeches?
Vikas) I am a creative writer and poet. I used some of the material from my poetry for my speeches.

I also reflect on life experiences.

Draw on experiences that leave an emotional impact on you.

Beginning speakers are afraid to use emotions in their speeches. Great speakers use emotions to make a connection with the audiences.

In a speech I once made, a girl sitting in the front row was so moved by what I said she started crying. I later walked up to her and thanked her.

It is tremenduously motivating to see you make an emotional connection with your audiences.

Q) Any other words of advice for aspiring world champions?

Vikas) Compete in as many contests as you can.

Find your own style and then look to experts to refine it. Do not simply copy other speakers' styles.

Find out what works for you and what does not.

Experiment.

For the world championship speech I used a question to conclude my speech. All others elaborated on what point the audiences should take home in their conclusions.

Q) Any peculiarly Indian challenges?

Vikas)My pronunciation. For e.g. between using the V and W letters.

Slow down. Many Indians tend to speak way too fast. Slow down.

There is more to diapers than just poop

Have you ever had a desire.

I bet you did. In fact it is likely you have an unmet desire right now.

Like you I had a desire too...of doing extremely well in my career and advancing to the very top.

But there was a simple problem I had to first overcome. The question of HOW.

How do I go about achieving my desire. Obviously it was not just about burying myself in my work and doing a great job of delivering results. For this was just what I was doing for many years and it was obviously not working.

Little did I realize the answer was right under my nose..my two little kids. One a 2 year old boy and the other a 1 year old girl.

I loved my kids but had conflicting emotions about them. Sometimes they were my number one priority and sometimes they played second fiddle to my priority for career advancement.

I loved the tender moments when my son looked at me cried..Daddy and ran into my arms or the welcome dance I recieved upon returning home from work.

But there were also times when I plumbed the depths of frustration by his acts like emptying a full bottle of oil on the bed or stuffing the heating vents with diapers.

...and the never ending ritual of changing diapers...

I looked at taking care of my kids as... well ... taking care of kids. No more no less. It was an important part of my life, but only a part of my life tucked away in its own corner.

I was always thinking about my career and getting frustrated that it was going nowhere.

Then one day I got struck by a simple but profound insight.

To get more in life I had to become the person worthy of attracting my desires into my life.

In my case that meant working on my anger and becoming more even tempered and much more patient. I was not exactly a raving lunatic but it hardly takes more than a careless email written in the heat of the moment to undo years of good will.

I used to will myself to keep calm but this was not working.

I realized I had created an artificial compartment between home and work. I expected myself to behave a certain way at work but let my guard (and anger) at home.

What happens at home does not stay at home. As the saying goes "Your character is what you do when nobody is watching you". In this case it meant when no colleague was watching what I do at home.

What better way to become a better person by trying to become a better parent. You are tested as a leader. Your buttons are pushed at all times.

Your stress levels go through the roof when you manage a kid running a high fever, a runny nose or a fussy eater.

Parenting, I realized was a far more challenging job than anything I did at work.

This was a test life was posing to me. And little did I realize that.

From that day I looked on at changing diapers, feeding my children and other parenting tasks as having a valuable benefit far beyond what the actual tasks entailed.

I finally got the big picture.

If I could keep my cool as a parent I would succeed in overcoming my biggest stumbling block at work .

I am working hard at it

Instead of testing I was trusting

I am talking about making assumptions. It is very sneaky.You can get blindsided by it.

Unless I am of a different species from the homo sapiens, making assumptions is a common fallacy for many others. Worse we make it automatically and unconsciously and suffer a lower quality of life as a result.

This point was driven home to me recently.

The weather pundits forecast a heavy overnight snow shower of about 10 inches.

True enough when I got up in the morning I was worried to see the whole ground, including my driveway, covered in snow. I got more worried as the clock ticked by and my snow plower did not show up. I left two voicemails for him and finally got him on the 3rd attempt.

He was surprised to hear my request for plowing my driveway.

There was not that much snowfall actually!. Not even enough to warrant my contractor to leave his house to plow his customers' driveways.

He was certainly an honest gentleman.

I could have found this out for myself by just walking out and stepping on the ground. I would have realized instantly that it was not much. Certainly not enough to prevent me from driving my car over it.

Instead of testing I was trusting... ( of the weather man yes the weather man. See how naive I can be).

I was too lazy mentally to think critically for myself.

Fortunately my staying home did not lead to a crisis at work. I am not that critical to my employer any way..not yet.

But this was an eye opener to a lazy mental habit of making assumptions.

As the US Army says...If you assume ...you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'.

Got it?

You can learn from the movies and have a great time while at it

...but not often though.

Most of the time I come out feeling quite empty.

However there was one movie that I watched (with some trepidation actually) that touched me to the very core.

It is a Hindi movie starring Amir Khan called "Taare Zameen Par".

Now I am the kind of person that would be the first to watch sci-fi action movies such as "I am Legend" Starring Will Smith.

But even to a philistine like me the movie "Taare Zameem Par" made a deep impact. It is a story about an 8 year old boy that suffers from Dyslexia and as a result fares poorly at studies and sports. He is ridiculed by his friends and scorned by his father. He leads a lonely life only to see it take a course to the worse when he is packed off to a boarding school.

Redemption comes in the form of a school teacher played by Aamir Khan.

This movie brought tears to my eyes.

I hugged and kissed my two year old son. I love him more than anything else in the world. But he keeps testing my patience....

I will henceforth be more understanding of him.

I would hate for him to suffer the way the protagonist in the movie did from his well intentioned but ignorant parents.

A very uplifting movie. Not the sort that I normally watch but I am glad I did.

Check out this movie.

And if you are not an Indian then all the more reason why you should try out something different especially one as uplifting and edifying a movie as this.

Letting Go

Recently I was reading a book (now, one thing you will learn about me soon is that I am passionate about reading) titled Discovering the laws of life. This book was compiled by John Marks Templeton the founder of the very large Templeton mutual fund.



On page 132 there was a passage whose message really struck home. It quotes the texts of Taoism in saying that what is softest and most yielding is also the strongest force. For e.g. water and wind. They can wear down even the mightiest mountain to pebbles in time.



In order to apply this principle we must believe in a higher power or god or whatever you may want to call it and surrender to it. If you have a problem in your life (who does not) you must do whatever you can without resistance or struggle and then turn your attention to a higher power and surrender to it. Sort of "doing your best and leaving the rest to god".



While I understand it at one level I do not think I get it.



I did have a few experiences a notable one being when I was working on my laptop and its battery was almost dead. I was working on something important and needed to submit the work before it died. I could not. The laptop died before I could complete my task.



But instead of indulging in my normal emotional reaction. I let go. I had searched for and could not find the charger. So I just shrugged it off without creating an emotional storm.



Next day morning when I was waking up I was struck by a thought about where the charger could possibly. When I searched there, I found it.



Read the Discovering the laws of life if you can find it. It is an exceptional collection of the universal laws of life some of them with interesting anecdotes as well.

The best school in the world

I had a friend in Engineering school back in India who to speak frankly appeared to be out of place in the university. He was not much into academics nor into taking exams.

He used to cheat his way through the exams while I studied hard and never cheated on the exams.

Many ..many...years later...I heard he was doing very well for himself running two businesses.

Now I do not begrudge him his success. In fact I respect and admire what he did for himself.

As for me. I am comfortably settled in an IT job in the USA. But not very successfully.

I have been in the same post for more than 7.5 years. I have not received a single promotion!!!

You need to know one thing about me. I have an impeccable academic pedigree.

I scored 99 percentile on the GMAT, reached the final (interview) round at the prestigious IIMs, aced very competitive engineering and management entrance exams.

I have an MBA from a top business school in India, I have a Master's in Computer science from Rensselaer ranked the 18th best computer school in the USA.

And I have been working in IT for 7.5 years without a single promotion.

Is something wrong with me.

It sure is. I am responsible for my own mess.

However the point I wish to make especially for us Indians to whom education seems to be the be all and end all is this.

Go easy.

Do not waste your precious time on earth collecting academic degrees.

They do not matter. Not even for much in your first job.

For all the benefit I got from my Computer Science degree I might have as well been watching movies.

I admit that on occasion academic degrees do help in your day to day to jobs especially in technical professions such as IT and research. But they will not take you forward!.

I wish in addition to learning about relationships between datasets in Maths I learnt about relationships between and among people.

Having the right relationships is the single biggest success factor in life.

I wish instead of just stopping at learning how to calculate Compound Interest in mathematics I learnt how it could truly impact your financial life.

The magic of compounding is the single biggest success factor in your financial life.

It takes more to succeed in life than getting good grades and having good academic credentials.

In fact you do not even get started in life when you complete your formal education.