Just think of it. Many times we stop ourselves from doing something. eg. trying out new outfit, trying to learn new skills in the classes, trying to pick up conversation with strangers, going to new places etc.. the list is long. We call it as our fear. We feel its ok to tell people “I am afraid of picking conversation with new people” or ” I am afraid of going to music class”. We even say ” I don’t know if I would be able to do it”, “People will laugh at me”.

On the face of it all of these excuses look like ‘being afraid of’ syndrome.

But think little deep. Why do we have this fear. What are we afraid of?

We are actually afraid of losing our ‘position’. We think of ourselves as somebody, at some position, in some particular place in the hierarchy. We have reached that position due to our current characteristics. If we have to learn something new, try new outfit, we are looking at ourselves from our ego point of view. We bring the lenses of our position and we don’t want to disturb it. We don’t want to upset the applecart. Why?

Because we think of ourselves as ‘somebody’ at our subconscious level. ( I am not an expert in psychology, these are merely my observations).

Now bring yourself at the ground level. Think you are nobody and you are learning this new skills, trying our new thing for your benefit. You have your strengths but you don’t have to defend your position. Take out your ego and make yourself humble… all your fears would be gone. You would feel free and you will become happier.

Ego comes in way of having peace of mind. At the extreme level when we say ‘ I am afraid of height or of adventure sports, we are actually afraid of death. Why?

If coming in this world was not in our control, death is also not. We have not brought ourselves in this world, ‘someone’ else, then why cling onto the notion of ‘I’?

If we work towards removing ‘I’ from our life, I think, we would become happier.

]]> http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/ego-and-fear-two-sides-of-same-coin/feed/ 0 sachindabir http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/stop-that-innovation/ http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/stop-that-innovation/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 06:48:43 +0000 sachindabir http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/?p=340 ]]> While reading the news on Apple and MS’s results, one whacky thought came to my mind.

If these two IT companies along with IBM, HP are close to $100Billion in annual revenue each, then top 25 IT companies put together would be making $1000 billion annual revenue. There is a great race going on to growing these revenue faster. And there is a greater race for bringing ‘innovation’.

The other side of this revenue is consumers and enterprises are spending at least $1000 billion in buying these stuff made by these companies. Every year we are spending more money on these stuff. What is the primary reason for fast growing sale of Apple like products? Primarily we are buying new stuff every year. We are getting lured by so called innovation or new features.

The thought that came to my mind, if Apple, for example, does not come out with iPad3 or iPhone5 or Microsoft does not bring newer version of Windows or Oracle, IBM , CISCO all decide not bring any new features for next 2 years, what would happen?

My feeling is that they would stop growing but they would still collect $1000billion between them, but may be extra $100Billion (10% of $1000 billion) that consumers and enterprises would have spent to buy ‘innovation’ would not be spent on these products. If you take this logic further and apply to consumer electronics field, I guess we could help consumers in saving upto $500 billion from spending.

And then we create a system of channelizing this money into projects that are meant to save people’s life, make food available to each and every human being on the earth and help create more equitable place, we would be right thing.

If companies do not bring out these so called innovation in consumer IT and consumer electronics, world would not be poorer. My mobile phone, 6 years back, had made as happy as iPhone made me. So if there was no iPhone, I would still have been happy and talking to people. But today me and people like me are eagerly looking for newer version of iPhone and iPads with wallets in hand. Does it make sense? Does it make any world any better?

Please stop this innovation.

]]> http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/stop-that-innovation/feed/ 2 sachindabir http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/learning/ http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/learning/#comments Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:31:29 +0000 sachindabir http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/?p=330 ]]> “The knowledge and information that our children are getting through formal education system, is it good enough for them to face the rapid advancements in science and technology?”

“Are our kids getting ready to face the rapid changes in social structure?”

“Are our children developing the solid foundation to be successful in globalised world?”

As parents of two under-teen children, my wife and I often go over these questions. Our discussions move around the education system, type of schools, curriculum etc. The fact that we often go through these discussions shows that we have yet to get satisfactory answer.

We realised that we are trying to find the answer in wrong place. School or curriculum system’s mandate does not include getting children ready for the new world. We have nothing against the education system – it is doing its job. We have nothing against the schools – they are teaching the curriculum that is prescribed by the board of education.

However we all agree that it is not good enough. Challenges are of different kind.

When I look at their curriculum and books and compare with the advancements in every field, the gap is yawning. In the coming years what our children are learning in schools would be outdated by the time they go to college. Our children are going to find so much of gap in what they know and what they are expected to know when they go out in the real life that it is going to baffle them. Till 10/15 years back the transition from education system to real life was quite smooth.

The challenges are not going to be only in education, they are going to be in social life as well. The contours of social circle have already changed. When we grew up we and our parents had an idea of the social structure we would be entering in and we were groomed accordingly. With the virtual societies and online social networking we do not know how the societies are going to be shaped by the internet world.

Also in the professional field our children would be working in a globalised environment. They would need different skills to excel in such environments.

To help our children prepare to handle such situations, we need to help them acquire skills. Following is my list :

Ability to learn “how to learn” :
Today’s learning process has a structure which is made up of class room learning and books. And there is an assessment process at the end of it. Most often the learning is guided by the assessment process. As the information and knowledge are changing so rapidly, kids would have to look at many sources of information beyond books and class room. There might not be formal assessment process in place.

Usually our mind processes new information based on what it has learnt, it tries to find the context with the available information. In the coming days, the new information that children would be coming across would be far away from the context of what they have learnt, very often the information would be contradicting what the mind already knows. This information would not be fitting in the mind’s frame of reference.

In such cases I would like my children to develop ability to understand new sources, process such information and learn from it. I would like my children to go through the skills development system that would help them face entirely new scenarios and face them confidently.

Collaborate :
While the education and school systems teaches student to be competitive and zero sum game, its not going to be the only trait that would see them through in the coming age. I would like children to learn how to collaborate and become stronger . The personal growth and learning are going to happen more through collaboration and understanding of communities than being just a competitive person.

Work in virtual teams :
Our children learn how to deal with their friends and people around them on a daily basis. But in the new world we increasingly find ourselves working with the people whom we don’t meet in person. We deal with problems by working with the team members through electronic and digital communications. Very often our decisions are based on our knowledge of our friend or colleague’s background. That is not going to be the case in virtual world where children would have to deal with people and their culture about which they have no idea. I would like my children to learn the skills of dealing with virtual teams.

Leadership through influence :
Today children are learning leadership skills that are oriented towards ‘command and control’ approach. In the new world it is the influence that would matter to become a leader. Also in the coming times, while working in different communities the role of a person would keep changing. The real leadership would come through influence and not through titles. I would like my children to understand the importance of being team player, influencer and a leader.

The conventional education system can not instill these skills due to paucity of time and often due to lack of quantification criterion. But we all know that these skills are important and in coming times these would be the skills for basic survival. I strongly believe that we as parents would have to come forward and create communities to help our children learn these skills along with their regular education system. If you know any such community which is trying to do so, please share here.

I would think twice about meeting even if these words come from the God. I smell tremendous attitude in these words and I don’t think it does any good when it comes from the democratically elected PM of a nation. Somehow I felt these words lack humbleness and give a picture of a person who wants to show his position of leadership.

When I read the enclosed news, the first thing that struck me was how leaders forget that they are leaders because of people and followers, they have not come from the sky.  When you are the elected PM of the democratic nation you need to avoid the language that connotes that people are the subject and you are (whatever you think you are).

My intention is not to critise the person or the PM per se or the initiative mentioned in the news item. Actually it is a good initiative and nice way of leveraging social media. However to me it is a lesson as to how leaders need to be careful in their communication. and avoid unpleasant language. I would have drafted these lines as “ I would like to have an opportunity to meet you all”…

One of the key issues why open source software has not taken roots in Singapore is the mismatch in messaging and perception in what open source offers. Though innovation is the key message as the benefit of open source software, the more dominant message that persist in the country regarding OSS is cost saving. In the society and nation like Singapore where there is abundance of economic wealth and which is more interested in banking on the big brands, why should they care about saving cost and working with smaller companies? The common perception related with cost savings is not positive aspect but of compromise with quality or functionality. Why would a nation which can afford to spend money adopt the products with such messaging.

Though open source software is not just meant for cost saving and it has more positive messages and benefits associated with it, it needs to be communicated.

So what are those key benefits that nations and societies like Singapore should look for in open source software.

Lets us first look at the reasons and benefits the biggest economy of the world – America derived from adopting open source. America and some developed economies adopted open source software to address many challenges that these nations have to address. Even if you have economic wealth the key engine for growth and leadership lies in innovation, pace of development and giving tools in the hands of people to drive growth. As a leader, it is not enough to be in sync with developments, but it is important to set the pace and create tool-kits for innovation.

With the traditional model of software development you can’t do this, in general.

Open source software development model presented America and all those who are aspiring to address various challenges of society and nation with the model that allowed them to drive innovation in a ubiquitous manner. Open source software has enabled collaborative development leading to faster pace. It enabled the enterprises to remove vendor lock-in and set its own (often faster) pace leading to more business. Open source software has fueled the competitive environment challenging the inefficient monopolies which are impediments.

In the same way Singapore should embrace open source software development model to inculcate the habit of innovation, to help drive competitive environment and remove the inefficiencies caused due to proprietary development models in software industry.

But after the talks, I felt thousand times grateful to SMU-IIE for organising it and bowed million times  to the speaker for such a wonderful insight. So let me share with you what I learned.

Firstly about the speaker. Dr. Bala S. Manian has been an entrepreneurial innovator, investor and a mentor in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial community for the last three decades. You can read his bio at the above link. What makes him special is the fact that he has been on the entrepreneurial scene for long, much before it was fashionable. Has seen through 7 ventures successfully.

Now what I learned :

The one bit of advice which set me thinking most and which I liked was :

There are pieces of information with many people, someone who can organise it and present it gives knowledge but one who brings this knowledge with real life experiences is bringing wisdom.

My take on this bit is that, many of us know what is right thing to do. We know a lot about various subjects through reading. For example, by reading internet and books one can give good lecture on entrepreneurship, but when it comes from the person who has been there and seen it, it has weight, it makes more sense. Does this means we should spend time in listening to such people – no.. very clearly this means we should spend time in “doing” it, practising it, then we can preach.

On various other pieces of wisdom that he shared, that is important for the entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship are :

“It is not about state of mind, but ability to execute what is in your mind”

“Ability to read people, gives you ability to lead people”

“You need to be a good communicator, but more important is the ability to listen”

“Need to have passion bordering on addiction” and “Self confidence bordering on arrogance” But should also know the borders.

“Will to succeed is more important than desire to succeed”

” You go to school only to learn to how to learn”

“Risk taking is important, but more important is the ability to deal with and manage uncertainties”

Some interesting thoughts on business plans :

You need a business plan but the purpose of the business plan is “to show your analytical thinking ability, it is not a roadmap”. Another piece of wisdom was so important ” You should not believe in your own B**Sh**”. This was in the context of the what we communicate externally. While is good to be bullish and come across as a confident person, we should know the reality.

He also talked about VCs, about exit strategies, about pace of advancements in technology, about the importance of mentors.

On a particular question regarding pace of change and a narrow window of go to market, how should entrepreneurs look at it, his advice was very helpful. He said, ” if you find you are little late in coming to market with a particular product, you can re-purpose it for next problem to solve. You would be the first one with ready answer”. In this context he also mentioned that don’t get hung up on a particular product per se, focus on the opportunity. If you know the opportunity well, you can find different technologies to solve the problem. In the same context he said ” the answer we get depends on how we frame a question”.

He also talked about India’s strategic place in this context. His advice was India offers an opportunity to entrepreneurs to fail inexpensively and hence is a good place to leverage.

For me this was a great learning. I am sure most others who attended would have found it too.

Note : This is an attempt to share my learnings. This not a transcription of the talks. The words in ” ” are very close to what he said in exact words.

Having worked for 9 years in OS layer of open source, it is personally a very important step for me and Ashnik to bring more value to the customers in the form of leading open source database. Through Red Hat Enterprise Linux Ashnik continues to bring open source OS, virtualization and Cloud services for its customers. But the database market is far bigger than OS market.

Total database market is estimated to be around $21Billion for 2010 and growing at 6-8% per annum. To me, this shows that enterprises continue to pay a huge amount of license fees to the proprietary databases – as the numbers show that top 3 vendors Oracle, IBM, Microsoft garner almost 3/4th of the market share. In my discussions with enterprises almost every time I have heard that CIOs are not happy with the returns they get from the license fee they pay for these proprietary database vendors. Most CIOs have been voicing a need for strong alternatives.

While open source databases have been around for many years – PostgreSQL and MySQL being the leading names, with recent acquisition of Sun (and in turn MySQL) by Oracle, there have been doubts in the minds of enterprises about MySQL’s ability to remain independent and thriving open source organisations. On the other hand I found that EnterpriseDB has been silently strengthening its commitment to make PostgreSQL commercially successful. Even industry has responded very positively not just by adopting PostgreSQL but by investing in EnterpriseDB. The big names such as NTT, Kore Telecom, Intel, Red Hat, IBM have invested and are partnering. The $50 million that EnterpriseDB has been able to raise so far signifies the importance industry is attaching to the success of EnterpriseDB.

On the technology front PostgreSQL was always considered as true relational database and with EntepriseDB’s involvement it has been able to offer good user acceptance, ease of installation etc. EnterpriseDB has successfully positioned it as replacement for Oracle Database in the enterprises.

At Ashnik we see this as an opportunity to bring more value to customers, partners and ISVs in the region. Ashnik would be working with EnterpriseDB to develop the customer base and partner eco system to grow this market collectively.

More than the opportunities it brings for Ashnik and EnhanxIT, it is a good news for the software solutions providers who are looking to grow in Asian and European territories.

From my personal experience dealing with many ISVs, I always got a message from ISVs that they were looking for a platform that would be trustworthy, professionally competent and would understand the ISVs needs while helping them to go to market. ISVs always voiced concerned about the opportunistic approach of the so called “consultants”.

Drawing upon these learnings, Ashnik set out to provide a platform for the solutions providers who want to enter the Asian market in a serious way. For non-serious players there are many other resellers whom they can tap. While we certainly understand the challenges of tight budgets and need for quick wins, we also try to help solutions providers understand the local market dynamics and opportunities.

Entering the new markets has certain learning curve. When solutions providers show some understanding this process, we see a synergistic approach and things work out in a better way.

This collaboration is a step in this direction. EnhanxIT has a very professional and experienced team and we look forward to work with them to help bring European solutions providers to Asian markets and vice versa.

You are alone when it matters most : Even if you may have found support and encouragement from your professional network while making the plans, when it comes to execution you are alone and it becomes your sole responsibility. You can not count on any one else whatever they would have promised. People like to join you only after you are successful.

No amount of prior work experience is good enough : Even after spending 20 years in work, the situation and circumstances that you face are totally unique and you come to know about it only after you have taken the plunge. So if you get a chance to take the plunge earlier, don’t stop yourself.

Be prepared to avoid ” I have arrived” feeling : I am not sure if this happens with everyone, but I guess must be true particularly for those like me who start after long years in job. You are given feeling of special person, person who has shown courage by the people around you. While this is a good thing, very helpful in the beginning, but it might give you a feeling of ” I have arrived” and take you away from rational and practicality of the entrepreneurship. It might give you sense of accomplishment and slow down your hunger for real success. Just taking a plunge is not enough, succeeding is more important.

One thing I would like to share that happened with me.  I realised, pretty late,  that I made a classic mistake of not building enough pipeline even after running sales for so many years.  Every lead that I generated, I thought would convert into business. When I look back today and ask myself, what could be the reason for getting  into such complacency ? I realised that it might be because of the feeling of “I have arrived”, ” I could do no wrong” sense that might have been developed. Hence wanted to share this story.

Many possibilities, many avenues takes you nowhere : This again may be because of long years in the job. You tend to think – I know so many things, I have network in so many areas, I can do so many things and you get proposals for many business ideas. In the initial stages, it may sound good, it may satisfy your ego, it may give you feeling of being busy, but soon you would find, it has not taken you anywhere. This may happen despite you having a good business plan.

Sounding board : When you start as one man army, it is very important to have someone around you who is well wisher, aware of the market conditions and who can be your sounding board. At least I found it very difficult to keep talking to myself or keep coming out with ideas without someone around. It helps tremendously when you hear yourself talking. You immediately realise the wrong and right.

I have gone through many more personal learnings. It has been very enriching experience from that point of view. At the same time it has been challenging times. Things have not gone as per the plans. Lot of things have fallen through at the last moment bringing me back to square one etc.

Family support : I think if there is one thing that you absolutely need is family support. Entrepreneurship is as much a an emotional journey as a commercial venture. When you feel alone it is only your family that you can reach out to. That is the only support system you can count on. I am fortunate that I can count on such.

Now I think I am much more grounded to reality. Looking forward to next year.

]]> http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/2010/09/04/first-year-of-entrepreneurship/feed/ 5 sachindabir Ashnik http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/personal-recognition/ http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/personal-recognition/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:27:13 +0000 sachindabir http://sachindabir.wordpress.com/?p=281 ]]> I recently read an article “Don’t wait for rewards, pat your own back” in The Economic Times. I really liked the subject and reminded me of how many times I have been telling people about the same in many different ways. I liked the way the author Priya Kumar elaborated the subject.

As a human nature, we all crave for recognition.  In fact it is a basic necessity of mind to feel good about oneself. Besides that, some forms of recognition act as a big motivator. Recognition need not be in the form of promotion or payhike. Simple words of appreciation, a small note either in front of your peer group or in private helps people to feel good. But in many organisations managers simply don’t realise it

But when this does not happen – your managers don’t recognise your efforts, your hardwork – what do you do? Do you get frustrated, do you stop working, does quality of your work get affected? Do you start doubting importance of your work? Do you feel lowly about your capabilities?

I have seen people going through some or many and at times all of the above feelings. This is not good and not correct. If someone else is not recognising your work, does not mean it is not worth recognition. We must make ourselves feel good by patting on our own back. We must make sure that we realise the importance and impact of the work that we do. As Priya Kumar has mentioned, we must reward ourselves, however small it is.

In the world where increasingly people are going to work from home, from remote places connected by internet, they would not be physically in same place. In such cases it would be even more important that we create own system of recognising ourselves regularly and keep positive feeling about ourselves.

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