From Loser To Blogger

Jim Rohn And His Impact On My Life

2010-02-13T10:48:00.000-08:00

Jim Rohn was one of America's foremost self help

philosophers. He was at once very profound and yet

very simple to understand. His advice was at once

simple to implement and yet almost magical in its

results. How does he do it?

I want to share with you some of his key

principles.

The first principle. Focus on 5 or 6 key things in

any area that you want to master.There really are

no more factors than these.

In other words the Pareto principle.

For example to get to a higher standard of living,

higher in all respects, Jim says we need to focus

on fundamentals such as happiness, action instead

of delusion, discipline,etc.

Another principle of his that took me a while to

grasp is that you need to work harder on yourself

than you do on the job. But when I grasped it it made

a big impact on my life as you can see by my story.

I have been a project manager for a few years or

rather I was leading teams. When things got bad

such as when someone was absent or we were in danger

of missing deadlines I just rolled up my sleeves and put in

extra time. Sometimes that helped and

sometimes it did not. When you are working

continuously till 11 PM you tend to make mistakes.

I was working hard on my job as you can see. Then

I took a certification exam in project management.

I spent 3 months preparing hard for it. I was

working on myself by improving my project management skills.

The payback, I recently completed a 10 month long

complicated project without missing the deadline

by even one day!

One of the reasons why Jim's philosophies are

simple to implement but almost magical in their

results lies in the very nature of us human beings

- what is easy to do is also easy not to do.

That is it. Jim's principles are easy. But since

when did that make them easy to implement. It is

the same with common sense is it not. How common

is it?

My personal example with this is similar to what

Jim shares, the habit of eating an apple a day.

Most days at work, I am fried by 6:00 PM. I come

home and plop. But on those days I have the

foresight to bring an apple and get to eat it in

the evening I am a different person.

To prevent what is easy to do from becoming easy

not to do make it a habit. I made physical

workouts a habit.On those days I don't workout I feel

unclean like I did not bathe or brush my teeth.

One of Jim's most powerful philosophies is that

in whatever area of life you want to succeed you

need to educate yourself in that area. This blew

my mind away because I am the classic case of

someone pursuing education for the sake of education

and not for an objective other than the vague one

of landing a great job. I got a bachelor's in

engineering and two masters in computer science

and business administration.

To become a more effective project manager I

educated myself in the art and science of project

management and of course continue to do so.

This sounds like an obvious example. But to become

a better husband you need to educate yourself. To

become a happier person you

need to educate yourself as well. You thought

happiness was a by product of some thing else such

as a big promotion etc? So did I.

As a project manager I love the next principle -

don't start the day until it is finished. What

does Jim mean by this?

Each evening write out what you want to accomplish

the next day. You could list only the most

important tasks or you could write down what you

want to do in each time slot. It is upto you.

The results are almost mystical! On those days

that I do this I accomplish far more sometimes

every thing that I listed down than my normal days

when I just drift from one fire to another. It is

not like I am trying set myself up for success

either by listing just the easy stuff. I am not

trying to prove anything here. Try it. It will

probably be the most gratifying thing you did that

day.

The last principle I wish to share is also my

favorite.

Just get started.

Tiny acts done daily compound to a remarkable level

in a very short period of time. Andy Jenkins calls

perfection the lowest level of achievement and 'doing' the

highest. Mike Litman says it is more important to

get going than to get it right.

When I wrote the book on 'True Stories of

Personal Achievement', available for free on my

website, the graphics on the cover were

amateurish, the formatting not so great. But the

content was and that was more important to me.

When I started out with my website to sell comics

I was the one who became a comic with the number

of mistakes I made. But for them I could not have

created a far better website with a far better

process. But make no mistake knowledge is

important you will end up a motivated idiot if you

have one without the other.

I shared several of Jim's philosophies that

impacted me personally with you. But don't just

follow them blindly. Try them out and if they work

make them a part of your own philosophy.

In Jim's own words if you want for example to

multiply your income by 3, 4 or more times you

can't say to the company "I need more money".

You've just got to say to yourself "I need a

correction in my philosophy"

For the Youtube Video on this article click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GSPZ0NlrNY

My blog has moved to a new home

2009-04-09T04:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers

Please check out my new blog. It is hosted on Wordpress which is a fantastic platform.

Also my blog is now integrated with my website.

Here is the link my new blog:

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

Let me know how you like it. I would love to hear from you.

When I reflect

2009-03-01T04:51:00.001-08:00

The first time I came across a well argued reason to spend time on thinking was in John Maxwell's great book "Thinking for a change". He listed 11 thinking styles. Reflective thinking was one of them.

Personally to me this is the most important style to adopt.
I never realized what I was missing until I started to slowly develop the habit of reflecting.

Books that I used to read without as much as missing a beat spending time on reflecting, suddenly leapt to life.

True learning leads to behavioral change. But to effect true learning requires reflection.

When I started reflecting on, well, reflecting I realized other disciplines encouraged this as well. Being a project manager I give an example from this discipline. As part of the project management process an important step prior to closing a project is conducting a "lessons learned" exercise. All the team members gather and discuss all aspects about the project, what went right, what went wrong and what can be done better.

The reason it is so important to take time to reflect is that we live in a stimulii rich world. We are always doing something. We are working, reading, listening to the iPod, etc. I was once on a short plane ride when the guy next to me pulled out a small DVD player and spent the next 45 minutes watching a movie on it.

Maintaining a diary is a great way to practice the habit of reflection as is sitting still for 20 minutes. But the latter is so difficult especially when I have two very active toddlers.

I am still a long way from becoming a reflective thinker but I have come far enough for some observant people to remark that I am a reflective person. For me that is a great compliment.

It is from the habit of reflection that I have gained valuable nuggets of wisdom. For e.g. I think really well during unearthly hours between 11:30 PM and 3:00 AM in the night when most normal people are asleep.

Another example, I realized that to take my online business to the next level I need to divide my time across three categories: learning, thinking and doing. Learning is about picking Internet Marketing skills, thinking is about brainstorming ideas for traffic generation, content creation etc. Doing is about the mundane every day activities that I must perform to keep the lights on. I need to create a plan to ensure I perform activities across all these categories.

How valuable are these insights?

Is it worth the effort to take the time to reflect to gain such wisdom?

Reflect on this ...

Outliers - The Story of Success By Malcolm Gladwell

2009-01-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading "Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell.

This is by far better than his hippie, new age voodoo book called "Blink".

The long and short of the book:" hardwork + initiative+ ambition +(opportunity/family background) = Success."

The whole premise of the book is that the story of the bootstrapping lone ranger that single handedly overcomes life's obstacles and rises to the pinnacle of life, is well, a myth.

As I read his book I had the uncanny sensation that I was reading my own life story especially when he recounts the stories of two individuals Chris Langan and Oppenheimer.

Both these men were geniuses.

You probably heard of Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.

You may have never heard about Chris Langan and that is the whole point.

Chris Langan was born a genius. He had taught himself how to read by the age of three. He breezed through school never having to take notes or prepare for exams like us mere mortals.

He liked academia.

Where do you think he ended up.

In a bar working as a bouncer!

The difference between the two was that Chris Langan lacked practical intelligence.

Social psychologists define practical intelligence as the ability to say the right thing at the right time to the right person.

I define social intelligence as "Street Smarts".

One telling example of the lack of social intelligence in Chris Langan was an anecdote where he argues with his Calculus professor and is rebuffed by the professor who says that Chris Langan lacks the intelligence to appreciate mathematics.

In the entire conversation Chris never managed to convey to the professor how good he was at Calculus and how much he loved to engage in its discussions!

In an equally telling example there is a stroy about how Oppenheimer manages to get away with just a probation after he was caught attempting to poison his tutor in college.

But how does this story relate to the argument that the book weaves. Here is how. Oppenheimer's father was a wealthy businessman. From a young age he was exposed to the wheeling dealing and learnt much about human psychology.

Chris Langan's father was a drunkard who used to beat his kids. Chris and his siblings grew up deeply distrustful of authority.

It was Chris's upbringing that turned out to be his undoing.

Malcolm cites cutting edge research to stress the importance of practical intellience.

I cite my life lessons.

Sadly my story is more similar to Chris's than Oppenheimer's.

Be warned, a high IQ is not enough.

In fact Malcolm cites research that proves that beyond a certain level, I believe 120, IQ does not really matter.

Another environmental factor is the culture of the society we live in. Malcolm goes on to give the best explanation of how culture affects us that I had ever read anywhere in a fascinating chapter titled "The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes".

There is an account here of how often Korean Air was crashing its planes. If not for the tragic results this account is comical.The main culprit for the crashes was culture.

Korea is what is called a high PDI (Power Distance Index) culture. Because co pilots and flight engineers were so deferential to the captain, the highest authority on the plane, there was poor communication and co ordination in the cockpit.

Once this was mitigated Korean Air crashes reduced dramatically.

I am a project manager so team work and communication is very important. I can't help but think of the outcome if we were to apply a similar mitigation strategy to corporate life. How much better would the project success rate be.

Finally this is the book that explains why some Asian cultures have a very strong work ethic. You can blame it on rice paddy cultivation. This kind of farming requires intensive manual labor and sophisticated planning and co ordination. Japanese farmers and Chinese farmers in the Pearl river delta therefore developed a culture of rising early every day and putting in long and intense hours required to successfully farm the rice paddies. This culture created the work ethic that has put some Asians and Asian countries on the ascend.

Hmm! Rice is the staple crop in South India as well but the author , as is the case with many westerners, is predominantly focussed on China.

Not in career development books but in this one did I find a great formula on what makes for a satisfying career, a satisfying business and a satisfying everything .

The formula ->"Complexity, Autonomy and a Relationship between reward and effort"

Read this book to get a 50,000 ft perspective on the major revolutions in human history and how some people were well placed to benefit from it. This will sensitize us to any revolutions we are already living through.

Read this book to understand that the relationship between an individual and success in life is far more than about just the individual. It is about riding the wave of opportunistic family upbringing and being placed at the right location at the right time.

Read this book if you want to get depressed about its underlying theme of fatalism. In one chapter Malcolm claims to predict one's success based on one's birth year and family background. How depressing can that be.

Hard work, ambition and initiative are necessary but apparently not sufficient.

Malcolm does however say that hard work pays especially working really hard. The chapters that deal with the 10,000 hour rule and the rice paddy cultivation allude to this.

In the end Malcolm leaves us hanging on whether hard work by itself is enough or not. He does not really clarify that.

Key Phrases That I Like In The Book

The Matthew Effect - "For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath"

Chinese Proverb - "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich". (What a fantastic work ethic!)

The Phenomenon Called Eben Pagan

2009-01-27T17:13:00.001-08:00

Recently I attended the Guru Mastermind Content Summit in LA held by Eben Pagan.

There were about 500 of us. From all over the USA, Canada, Mexico, UK, Switzerland and Australia.

It was held on January 23 and 24 and was worth every penny of my money and every second of my time.

In fact it was worth more than that.

I first came across Eben Pagan as Eben Pagan the Internet Marketer. But quickly realized he was different from your usual Yanik Silver, Stephen Pierce and Rich Shefren type, not to demean anybody at all.

Eben believes that a stronger "You" will lead to a stronger business and therefore he focuses on a holistic approach. His "Wakeup Productive" product is one stunning example of this. He does not just teach about Internet Marketing, very substantive as that is, but also about life.

In fact we were given a very brief preview of his new product "Cool,Calm and Collected' on stress relief. I will most likely purchase this. This guy oozes talent.

His lucidity and profundity make for an almost hypnotic message.

I liked the content of the summit, it is about creating information products.

I will post the highlights of the 2 days conference to my blog soon.

But why am I going gaga over Eben Pagan and his conference?

Have I really achieved a difference?

Not yet but soon.

In one of the exercises he made us do, I had to write a pitch using one his frameworks.

I dreaded to begin, nothing seemed to flow from my mind.

But once I started I ended up with some of my best content. I will be creating a pitch page out of that exercise that will take my landing page development to the next level.

I am really excited about that.

Keep in mind that it is tough to get his attention. I was rebuffed three times at the conference when I attempted to ask him a question. Women have a better chance of getting his attention!

It is only going to get worse. It appears that at subsequent summits there will be more guest speakers and so we will see less of him on the stage.

Also we had to resort to extreme note taking. No handouts or reading material for the attendees!

Nevertheless watch out for this young man. He seems to read everything and know all the wise guys (both the serious and the fun ones). This guy is super smart and is only going to get bigger... much bigger.

What I learned at Disney World, Orlando, Florida

2009-01-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

We visited the park in the last week of December 2008.

The flight tickets were expensive, the rental car was expensive, the park tickets…exorbitant, the lines long!

We learnt an expensive lesson that you can all benefit from. After all why be the fool when I am one already!

Immediately obvious were the huge crowds everywhere. You had to stand in line for 25 minutes just to grab a vegetable roll at a food stand!

But there was something more subtle that I noticed, Disney runs an efficient organization. I noticed a lot of Disney employees picking up trash and keeping the park spick and span despite the huge crowds.

Also impressive was how everything kept humming. Once you go on the various rides and attend the various shows you begin to appreciate the enormous number of moving parts in the form of toys and other gadgets. However not one of them was malfunctioning. Keep in mind that the parks operate long hours sometimes up to 1 AM into the morning and then reopen at 8 AM .There is very little recovery time for the moving parts.

Crowd control was another great Disney trait. We had to wait 2.5 hours for some of the rides, but the wait was bearable because the line kept moving, in myriad serpentine forms. The movement created an illusion of progress and helped us keep our sanity. We had two kids in tow, one 3 years and the other 2 and they lasted the entire length of the queue. For one of the attractions, the fireworks show called ‘Fantasmic’ the crowds were so large, it was a 6000 people stadium, and we were so far back in the queue that we never expected to make it to the show in time. But turns out not only did we make it, we got to park our strollers in the designated spot and find good seats all before the show started.

But please try to minimize your interaction with Disney employees if you can. I had an encounter with a rude employee at the City Hall in Magic Kingdom that ruined a part of our park experience.

Aah...Disney world…great operations but rude people. Why can’t they just fire the rude ones? Are they in business for their employees or for the customers?

Do not visit Disney in the week between Christmas and New Years. It is not worth the hype about special holiday decorations. And do not bring kids around the age of 3 to the park. Of the four days that we visited the various parks the most fun my 3 year old son had was when he played with my friend’s son at their house!Kids that age just do not get it. They miss out most of the fun. And the long lines mean we the parents do not have a chance either.

Do not plan 4 consecutive days at the parks. You end up spending atleast 8 to 10 hours daily at the park. While the rush will keep you going it will eventually make for a very tiring vacation. Plan a break between the park visits. There are many great beaches not too far from Orlando which will make for a nice departure.

If you only to plan to visit the Disney parks in the Orlando area then consider booking into a hotel with free shuttle services to the parks. The car rentals plus the 12 dollar daily parking fee quickly add up to a tidy sum.

Of all the parks Magic Kingdom was the best, it was truly magical. Of course this is a purely personal and subjective assessment. Animal Kingdom was more like a zoo plus it closes early because the animals chose not stay up late for our convenience. So plan on getting there early if you still wish to visit it. Disney studios is not bad but it is more for bigger kids and adults.

Also if this is your first visit with the family and if you are there only for a few days then it is not worth spending 50 dollars more for the ‘hopper’ option. You have enough to keep yourself more than busy in each park.

200 success tips from Robin Sharma

2008-12-19T09:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

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

2008-09-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-11T11:20:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-15T05:09:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-01T04:23:00.000-07:00

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.

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Why god made them so cute...

2008-04-18T03:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-08T04:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-03-03T07:35:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-17T06:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-13T18:50:00.001-08:00

...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

2008-01-11T04:36:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-09T05:04:00.000-08:00

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.