‘Success’ is fundamental to all and most of us trying to aim for success often end up on the other side, meaning not actually achieving what we initially set ourselves for!
Throughout the series I had tried to project most of the so called ‘unhealthy’ aspects of the game, as perceived by me. Many of you might disagree and could debate on the same. Actually most of the time the battle we play is between ‘me’ v/s ‘the activity’ – and the end result is determined by who wins the race ‘me’ or ‘the activity’.
There are quite a few who has asked me what does Success really mean to me. So here I like to put forth, what Success means to me
· Need to sleep well – It is ironical if I suggest ‘I live my day to sleep’ but that is the fact. I simply cannot sleep if some threads are running in the background. However I sleep like a dead wood when I put all the threads to sleep. I can sleep for any period from 4 hours to 12+ hours – there is no waking me up, and both extremes are equally sufficient for me. So if I can manage to gather peaceful sleep most of the days, then I consider it as my success.
· Earn self respect – Now this is one aspect that you cannot beg, borrow or steal – it has to come from within. When you do something really good, you sense it, you feel it – everything else is an after effect. For me to take pride, I really need to feel associated with the cause and thus the end result. One important note, my contribution must be substantial to the entire cause – everything else is part and parcel of the game. At the end of the day something from within needs to tell me – ‘Now that’s what I call a performance’. The last thing I would want is to sit back trying to figure out ‘Did I actually contribute and was it sufficient?’ –I rather not be part of that journey where I sit on the fence.
· Leave the signature behind –There is a lot of difference, though only subtle, between delivering end results and quality end results – meeting and beating expectations. To me quality end result is something that is liked by the end user or the receiving party (who ever it might be), effort desired for changes are not more than 25% of the time you took to develop the initial functionality, and I do not have to revisit the same again and again – low maintenance.
In simple words – something that gives high efficiency, low fuel consumption and zero maintenance OR High power, terrific pickup and superb control. No matter what I do, how big or small, I like to leave my signature behind.
· Measurable items achieved – producing demonstrable end results. The most important part though is trying to figure out what should be achieved, what really would make sense, it should be more than your normal capacity and finally we must stick to it. Oh, one more thing, I am talking about your plan, your lead/seniors would allocate the task list that is desired for the project any which ways – this is over and above.
I have seen people blabber, generate self-hype and finally are seen lost within themselves. My brother calls this phenomenon as ‘flavor of the month’. I am personally not against ideas but like to stick with it only when I am completely convinced or simply scrap it. Holding on to something until you find something new does not make any sense – I can only correlate this with small kids, the moment they see a new toy they throw away the old one, for kids that can be OK!
· Continuous learning – means trying to keep me out of my comfort zone. I have seen many people suggest that they are bored with the technology and crib that they are not doing anything new and like to do something different. In 18 years I have worked on almost anything that is thrown at me, and frankly speaking I have not seen constructs beyond IF – THEN – ELSE, FOR, WHILE, SWITCH (big brother of IF), TRY – CATCH – THROW. If anyone has seen anything different, please do let me know and I would be keen to make my hands dirty.
To me, fun is in solving the problem, the means I use to solve the same and how fast I can achieve the end result. I have seen so many frameworks giving birth and so many crazy people running after those, but I have not heard a single soul say: By using ABC has saved my X% of time and thus I am now able to produce Y% more – may be because they are shy. For me it is vital to have my plate full of challenges (technical or business), makes me feel very happy as I see all of these as opportunities to learn, grow, and excel.
· Last but not the least, to me all that ends well must have gone well – Bums and bruises on the way is all part and parcel – Owner’s must take the pride, Neighbors are free to envy!
The above is how I see and define ‘Success’. The word ‘Success’ can mean many things to every individual. So one needs to devise what success means to him/her – because it is very personal – It is your success!
However if you believe that ‘Success’ is only the end result, then the focus should be to avoid the ‘failures’ and one needs to constantly work towards the same –day in & day out.
Well this may not guarantee success but could atleast save you from failures!
As a closing statement, I was watching this interview of Dr. Dinesh Keskar, President of Boeing India and VP of Boeing International Trading. I was very excited to hear his funda’s of success which he associates with his core values or value system – amazing thought!
hmmmmmmmm
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