Steve Blank: Launching a start-up and having a family life

It is a hard balance that many of us need to struggle with. Working in a start-up and having a good family life seem to be poles apart. One of my favorite business school professors, Steve Blank published this piece today on VentureBeat. The permalink seems to be broken so I am repeating some of [...]

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Get to know yourself

What a moment for America! Obama is the 44th president of the USA. A great inaugural speech by Obama which touches everyone on this planet.
One of the readers of Andrew Sullivan’s blog writes about the difficulty that the comedians have in mocking Obama. Interesting read particularly this line – “Obama has the realness that comes [...]

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Spreading Smiles at Stanford

Amidst the financial crisis that this world is going through, it was a great feeling to go out and spread some smiles at Stanford. Here are some stories from this exercise that we carried out at Stanford as a part of the 3rd Annual Giving Marketplace conference. It was a lot of fun and in [...]

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We Win or We Perish

This is an interesting short-story that gives a perspective for entrepreneurs’ risk taking abilities. 
A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to make a decision which insured his success on the battlefield. He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe, whose men outnumbered his [...]

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Interview with Bill George (Author of “True North”)

I interviewed Bill George, author of best-seller books “Authentic Leadership” and “True North”. Bill is not just a great author and a leader himself, he is a wonderful coach and a teacher too. Here are the excerpts of this brief interview -
Hitesh: What is “True North” and how does it apply in the context of a business student or [...]

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The MONK and the MONKey

I read Randy Komisar’s “The Monk and the Riddle“. I just could not stop when I started reading it. By the time I finished reading it, the clock struck 4 AM. I think it was a night well spent.
Randy Komisar is a Venture Capitalist with Kleiner Perkins. This book tells Randy’s evolution (thus the word [...]

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Gates and Jobs: Great Show

Gates and Jobs shared a stage and it was quite a show (better than a Bollywood thriller).

One thing that is quickly evident from this – Jobs comes across as a person who still has a lot to prove while Gates looks deeply satisfied like a Sadhu. While Gates looks like entering Sanyas , Jobs is [...]

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My Creative Journey: Part 3

Here is the third post in my series of sketches. The first one was the view from my patio and the second one was Baby Hanuman. This one is a flower vase that I sketched just before it was broken by accident. It was good that I captured it in some form before we lost [...]

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My Evolution As A Sketcher – Part 2

Here is the next sketch that I tried. This is the second one in my series of posted sketches – first one was a view from my patio. This one is a Baby Hauman sketch based on Indian animation film Hanuman. Pardon some of the shade which is because of scanner issues. More sketches to [...]

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Happiness: How To Find It?

HAPPINESS – It is the single most important goal of human life. All our actions could be traced to “seeking happiness”. While happiness is so important and sought after, it is not properly understood. There is a huge element of subjectivity involved and that makes it hard to define, measure, monitor and fix.
 Uncertain Future: Our [...]

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Harmony in Decision Making and Happiness

We make so many decisions everyday, ranging from as simple as which brand of coffee to drink to as significant decisions as whether to use nuclear weapons against Japan.
How do we make these decisions? What is our personal compass that we use to navigate through this web of decisions? And, Is that compass directing us [...]

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Khosla’s Pursuit of HappYness

I met and listened to Vinod Khosla, a renowned Venture Capitalist, at a US-India Venture Capital Association meeting. His speech gave a glimpse inside his mind. It was a very personal speech unlike his previous speeches. Khosla talked about some of the decisions he made in life and why he made those decisions.

Move to India [...]

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Speed: Is fast good?

When we make music we don’t do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the [...]

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How to put time on your side?

A good question – “Now that we can be in touch with anyone at any time, do we risk being out of touch with ourselves?”
Read Here …

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Silence …

A man’s silence is wonderful to listen to.

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How green is my purchase?

When we ask this question about “How green is this purchase of mine?” – Remember this -
There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.

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What’s going on?

Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.

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Discipline fosters creativity

Popular Belief: Discipline hinders creativity.
Reverse: Discipline fosters creativity.

The most prevalent way to depict creativity is Einstein’s photo with his shabby hairstyle and chaotic looks. Creativity does not always come packaged as this confused picture. The other well-behaved gentleman shown above is C.V. Raman – another physics Nobel Prize winner. It is a different face of [...]

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Presentation Zen – Simplicity and Complexity

How to make a presentation simple yet powerful in message?

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Kindness & Competitiveness

Another contradiction – It is just too tough to be competitive and kind – both at the same time.
From David Copperfield -
I believe in kindness.
But it’s hard to be kind. We’re not trained for it. Kindness is for sissies; we learn that early. “Nice guys finish last.” If they even get invited to the race. [...]

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Contradiction between simplicity and more features

How to keep feature rich products but still keep them simple.
From FastCompany -
http://pf.fastcompany.com/magazine/100/beauty-of-simplicity.html

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Dave’s Next Move

Dave Duffield (PeopleSoft founder) has come back to business world with his next move.
http://www.davesnextmove.com
Rightly said -
Today’s enterprise applications are no longer meeting the needs of their customers.
These applications
• Are too expensive to deploy and maintain.
• Are complicated and difficult to use.
The challenge is to balance the two contradictory facets of enterprise applications – ease of [...]

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Stocks That Dwell Below 50-Day Tend To Warn Of Sell-Off Ahead

Stocks That Dwell Below 50-Day Tend To Warn Of Sell-Off Ahead
Friday January 28, 7:00 pm ET David Saito-Chung
When a good stock plunges below its 50-day moving average on huge volume, generally the stock should be sold and profits should be logged.
Not all sell signals are that obvious, though.
You might come across a stock that slips [...]

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Happy going to doctor

There is a point in life when a husband is happy going to a doctor – when his wife is pregnant . One of the most exhilirating moments to visit a doctor.

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Private Corners of the Brain

Once you realize God knows everything, you’re free. I had been through many years of psychoanalysis and still I had managed to keep private places in my head – I wouldn’t say they were big, labeled categories, but they were certain attitudes or feelings that were still very private. And suddenly I realized that he [...]

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Managing the Bad Boss

Are you in control of a “bad manager”? You need to read http://www.badbossology.com/.

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Maharajji’s Contradictions about Truth

Maharajji said -
Christ died for truth.
Total truth is necessary. You must live by what you say.
Truth is the most difficult tapasya. Men will hate you for telling the truth. They will call you names. They may even kill you, but must tell the truth. If you live in truth, God will always stand with you.
When [...]

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Best Buy’s Unwanted Customers

Today’s Wall Street Journal has this article about Best Buy trying to separate the “angels” among his 1.5 million daily customers from the “devils.”
What a contradiction? Do you know that businesses have unwanted customers? Best Buy is trying to shy away the bargain hunters. They will analyze customers and decide who are “not welcome”.
Best Buy [...]

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You can not go to heaven …

To go to heaven you have to die yourself! I love seeking knowledge. BUT, it is so hard to acquire. Financial Accounting is so much fun (truly) and so is Marketing Management. BUT, It requires so much effort to master these subjects. I know I will eventually nail them.

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Thinking outside the box …

BUT, how do we define the box? It is a cliche to say we should think outside the box. Nobody knows how to limit the box. Remember Einstein’s theory of relativity (http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/relativity.html). I am trying to redefine my box my new frame of reference.

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Contra-Dictions

You are happy : You are sad. You are rich : You are poor. You are entertaining : You are boring. Everywhere on earth we see contradictions. Actually, outside earth too. My life is full of many such contradictions too. This is an effort to capture some of them.
Contradictions are a major part of my [...]

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