“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
- Confucius

We all have dreams, of what we must become in the future. When we were young, most of us wanted to be doctors or teachers and well, even rock stars. But as we grow our ambitions also change. When we dig deep and think the main reason for this shift, most probably the reason would be influence. As we grow we take to people and things based on the social circle we belong to.

When we seriously analyse this issue it has 2 facets:

• Herd mentality
• Living up to dad’s dream

Let us look into both the causes. The reasons are very common and often spoke of but rarely has anyone applied thought into it. Herd mentality is inevitable side effect of being a Social Animal. When there is a crowd in a restaurant we tend to assume that the food they offer is delicious. But the reason might as well be poor operations in the restaurant. We believe that if there are many people following something then it must be good. Well this is not always true in most cases. The same follow the crowd idea is followed in education as well. As human beings we tend to compare ourself with others and use our peers as anchors to measure our growth. In this process of running behind the crowd we lose happiness. All we dream of is being ahead, the sad fact is that the race is on a circular track and all those who are competing are just going around in circles.

Career decision is as important and at times more important than deciding on whom to wed. For in marriage we have an option of divorce but not in a career. So quit the herd mentality, go into a process of self-discovery. One must dig deep within oneself to find true love; this love will take the one who finds to great heights. The advantage of taking a profession one truly loves is, the outcome of any work will be immaterial the whole process by itself will be enchanting and satisfying. This is where intrinsic rewards come in. A man who is bad at a job he loves will be happier than a man who is the best at the job he hates.

The next big problem is making a bold career choice is influence of parents. India is a country that is strongly rooted in its family system. Children are connected to their parents irrespective of whether they are 5 or 50. This has a bad side. Parents pray and push their children to become something they are not. All children are gifted, not all can or should become lawyers, doctors and engineers. Based on one’s liking and skills profession must be chosen. Children must not try to live the life of their parents dream. We have only one life and we must follow our dream and chase it tirelessly.

Now having realized two main draw backs we have forgotten a main issue. So do all of us know what exactly our dream job is? Well sadly most of us do not have a clue of what we want. But that is ok we can learn. It’s never too late to start.

So for all those who feel that they are not happy with their career choices or those young minds’ who are pondering on what I want to be when I grow up all that I have for you are these 3 golden steps to well, I wouldn’t say success but HAPPINESS(This is a guarantee).

So here they are:

• Find out what you truly love.
• Acquire all that it takes to pursue that dream.
• Finally, enjoy running behind your true love, relish each success and failure.

For all those who need help in this process of self-discovery here are a few suggested readings:
— “To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love”: by Marsha Sinetar
— “Discover Your Passion : An Intuitive Search to Find Your Purpose in Life” Gail A. Cassidy
— “Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Though the Secrets of Personality Type” by Paul Tieger and Barbara Barron
— “The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success” by Nicholas Lore
— “What Colour is your Parachute?” by Richard N. Bolles
— “I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really want” Barbara Sher
— “I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This”: by Julie Jansen
— “Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood” by Marsha Sinatra
— “How to Find the Work You Love” by Laurence G. Boldt

Courtesy: MadhuMitha

“If you fail, learn, and move on, you’re growing.” ~ Robert Kiyosaki

Have you ever failed? If not, I would guess that you have never taken a chance on trying anything new – or else you are lying.

There is nothing wrong with failing – as long as you learn from your mistakes, modify your approach and try again. In fact the more often you fail, the sooner it will be that you finally succeed – provided that you do learn and keep trying.

You can only grow from experience and you only get experience from having a go at something. It may be more pleasant to succeed, but you can actually learn more from failing. But this is only if you are observant and take note of what you are doing and which things have worked and which haven’t. You then need to analyze what has happened, alter your direction and move on.

So go for it! Try, try again and if you don’t at first succeed . . . then try yet again. You will eventually get there – unless you stop trying.

I Was Not Born Experienced,

But,
The Hard Realities,
Deceiving Natures,
…Broken Promises,
Double Faces,
Attractive Words,
Melting Emotions,
Lovely Feelings,
Harsh Truths,
Bitter Behaviors,
Loving Attitude,
Ignoring Acts,
Multi Standards,
& False Statements.

These All Taught Me What Is Experience.

 

The mathematician called his son and asked, “What is more valuable – gold or silver?” “Gold,” said the son. “That is correct. Why is it then that the village headman makes fun of you, claims you do not know the value of gold or silver? He teases me every day. He mocks me before other village elders as a father who neglects his son. This hurts me. I feel everyone in the village is laughing behind my back because you do not know what is more valuable, gold or silver. Explain this to me, son.”

So the son of the mathematician told his father the reason why the village headman carried this iMpression. “Every day on my way to school, the village headman calls me to his house. There, in front of all village elders, he holds out a silver coin in one hand and a gold coin in other. He asks me to pick up the more valuable coin. I pick the silver coin. He laughs, the elders jeer, everyone makes fun of me. And then I go to school. This happens every day. That is why they tell you I do not know the value of gold or silver.”

The father was confused. His son knew the value of gold and silver, and yet when asked to choose between a gold coin and silver coin always picked the silver coin. “Why don’t you pick up the gold coin?” he asked. In response, the son took the father to his room and showed him a box. In the box were at least a hundred silver coins. Turning to his father, the mathematician’s son said, “The day I pick up the gold coin the game will stop. They will stop having fun and I will stop making money.”

Moral:

Sometimes in life, we have to play the fool because our seniors and our peers, and sometimes even our juniors like it. That does not mean we lose in the game of life. It just means allowing others to win in one arena of the game, while we win in the other arena of the game. We have to choose which arena matters to us and which arenas do not.

It all started when I uploaded a bunch of pictures while consuming toddy…. Immediately I started getting advice from my friends to delete it or to make it visible only to certain friends…. Though they advised me as a well wisher…. I didn’t want to follow what they said…

So what are the effects of posting such a picture?

• My image as a entrepreneur gets a beating…
• My marriage could get affected because of this…

But if I start thinking about what people will think of me…. I’ll start leading a false life & over a point I might loose my Identity…. For me I want to me as open as possible…. Though I paid heavy prices for this openness I don’t want to change because of some bad experiences….

Though there might be certain hiccups initially once I become big acceptance will get bigger…. Some great personalities are;

• Vijay Mallaya
• Richard Branson

These people have shown me path for leading a life as we like and never bother about society or succumb to pressure it gives….

So what is Being AnandNataraj?

• Someone who doesn’t bother about society and lives life for himself is Being AnandNataraj….
• Someone who give damn for Privacy is Being AnandNataraj…
• Someone who has the guts & fire on the a$$ is Being AnandNataraj….
• Someone who thinks RISK & failure is a part of life is Being AnandNataraj….
• Someone who is a Decision maker even it is right or wrong is Being AnandNataraj….
• Someone who agrees his failures / mistakes / embarrassments is Being AnandNataraj….

Though it is hard for common people to accept me and my acts…. I’m happy Being AnandNataraj thought my actions leads to criticism, embarrassment etc.

Nokia holds a strategy and financial briefing in London on Friday, two weeks after it reported a 21 percent slump in fourth quarter earnings and Elop promised: “The industry’s changed and now it’s time for Nokia to change faster.”

Engadget has reprinted a copy of the text from an internal Nokia memo from the CEO Elop to the company’s employees. Here’s over to the letter which several analysts have termed ‘brutually honest’.

Hello there,

There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames.

Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform’s edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.

As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a “burning platform,” and he needed to make a choice.

He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a “burning platform” caused a radical change in his behaviour.

We too, are standing on a “burning platform” and we must decide how we are. going to change our behaviour.

Over the past few months, I’ve shared with you what I’ve heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I’m going to share what I’ve learned and what have come to believe.

I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.

And, we have more than one explosion – we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.

For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.

In 2008, Apple’s market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.

And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers.

Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry’s innovation to its core.

Let’s not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally – taking share from us in emerging markets.

While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.

The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.

We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.

At the midrange, we have Symbian. It has proven to be non-competitive in leading markets like North America. Additionally, Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements, leading to slowness in product development and also creating a disadvantage when we seek to take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead.

At the lower-end price range, Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest, “the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation.” They are fast, they are cheap, and they are challenging us.

And the truly perplexing aspect is that we’re not even fighting with the right weapons. We are still too often trying to approach each price range on a device-to-device basis.

The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.

This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we’ve lost market share, we’ve lost mind share and we’ve lost time.

On Tuesday, Standard & Poor’s informed that they will put our A long term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a similar rating action to the one that Moody’s took last week. Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit
rating downgrade. Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes?

Because they are concerned about our competitiveness.

Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands. It’s also down in the other markets, which are traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany, Indonesia, UAE, and on and on and on.

How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world around us evolved?

This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven’t been delivering innovation fast enough. We’re not collaborating internally.

Nokia, our platform is burning.

We are working on a path forward — a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.

The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great opportunity to do the same.

Stephen.