Hard Work and Stress - Just Not The Same Thing

Hard Work and Stress.... often times considered synonymous 

Passionate about work and Getting carried away.....again often considered synonymous 

                            

With folks who have chosen what they do for the sheer love of what they do, hard work and passion are part of daily life. They carry neither 'stress', nor are they 'carried away' as they will often be told by others.

It's the conditioning of the mind which forces those terms into the same lens.

And I can talk from my own example, and I will because I've learnt this at an experiential level, in fact at a whole new level in my current job with SELCO. Not that I didn't enjoy my earlier jobs, I loved what I did at my first teaching job, then at IDBI and of course at Google, all from different perspectives. But what I do now, is at a whole new level. It's a connect from the heart.

I've always put my all into whatever I've taken up, yet I know in terms of hard work this kind of tops it...... and a lot of friends are like, slow down, you're taking on too much stress, even physically your body won't take it.

And then I get surprised, because I'm also feeling the least stressed out today, in fact never more invigorated or energized.  It actually puts you in really good space. 

Above that, I realized that stress comes from other sources.......sources or happenings or expectations that take you away from being what you are, be it at home or at work. 

A friend, long back at Google, once asked what enables happiness, joy, enthusiasm, and I remember telling him. Don't go searching for those. They are yours by default. Watch for what takes you away from them. If you can identify those and either move away or deal with them, that's your key.

Then I said it.....today I know it.

Think Twice

An interesting talk by Michael Mauboussin, on his book by the same name, Think Twice.

The snippet attached reads:

No one intentionally makes bad decisions. Yet we make them all the time. In fact, some of the worst disasters in recent history--the collapse of major investment banks, the global financial meltdown--were the result of seemingly reasonable decisions made by a lot of smart people. How does this happen?

If you've watched, don't bother reading further.....

He shows how bad decisions can come of certain thinking fallacies that we all typically fall victim to. How a lot of decisions are intuition based, but how there's a context in which intuition works best, and ones in which it won't. But the mind is conditioned and trained to work in a particular manner, and it's only awareness that can enable the discernment. 

I love the math problem that he starts with as instance of how we are vulnerable to those fallacies.

He brings out three points in the context of better decision making:

• Smart people do dumb things....what matters is your rationality quotient
• Recognize when you need to think twice
• It's about opportunity

It's hard to put a synopsis; this attempt is to egg you on to watch if you haven't already :)

And I love the two tools he recommends to enable a higher level of awareness, a journal and a checklist....I'm addicted to both, so feels good....but kidding apart, I do believe they've both been huge  huge enablers.

He says, when you use a checklist you'll find that there is this huge increase in outcome, without an increase in underlying skill; you can increase efficiency of an existing team with no increase in input or skill, and this I completely vouch for. I'm so hooked, I often times do checklists even for chores at home, like optimizing my sundays :)

Annie Hall

I totally get why it's one of Woody Allen's most popular movies, this is one movie you'd like even if you weren't a Woody Allen fan.

While it's got all his usual quirks and complexities in relationships, it still feels like a fresh breeze; maybe the pace, maybe the acting, maybe the chemistry....it feels more like a voyeuristic experience, like watching someone you know go through the pains and joys of an intense relationship.

It's sheer dexterity of conversation backed by gut honesty. Not conversation in the normal sense....he uses so many parallel modes. There's him talking to the audience, then the thoughts brought out through sub titles or animations or parallel talk, and then there's narratives through past and present. It's kind of psychedelic.

The story itself;  a passionate relationship between Singer and Annie, two highly emotional and spontaneous people, with their need for each other and their questions, doubts and wanings of interest through the process. There's a couple of scenes which bring out the different perspectives and needs so visually well; one where in the middle of making love you see her ghost or mind or whatever get up and go sit on a chair, and his saying it felt like making love to a corpse.  Another where they are both talking to their respective shrinks in the same frame about the same thing but giving diametrically opposing perspectives. It's about the flow of a volatile relationship searching for spaces to meander through.

It's funny and it's heartbreaking, witty and intelligent....... the very same lines can make you laugh and also feel sad. It's so about the attractions, mysteries and quirks of love, that you can laugh at it and call it absurd, or you can identify and feel the poignancy, or likely do both.

Strong recommendation, in fact I'm definitely doing a re watch soon. 

Worlds Craziest Runways

16 of the Craziest Airport Runways !!!!!

1. Gisborne Airport, New Zealand

This North Island airport is one of the few in the world that has a railway line running through its runway. Both the railway and the airport are active, so lets hope they are precise about their scheduling.

2. Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport, Saba Island

Blink and you might miss it. With only 400m in length, this Caribbean island has the shortest commercial air strip on the planet. Obviously, this tiny runway is only suitable for small aircraft.

3. Courchevel Altiport, France

This airfield high in the French Alps is a convenient yet treacherous drop-off point for wealthy skiers at the chi-chi Courchevel slopes.  Frequent fog, snow, ice and low clouds make it even more extreme. 

4. Don Mueang Airport, Thailand

There aren’t many airports in the world that have an 18 hole golf course right amongst the runways. 

5. Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Nepal

If you’re planning on trekking to Mount Everest, chances are you’ll arrive via this small Nepalese airport in Lukla. It has a short runway with a 9,334 feet (2900 meter) drop off the edge. Not for the faint of heart.

6. Agatti Aerodrome, Lakshadweep, India

This 4000 feet long island runway doesn’t leave much margin for error. A few more inches, and passengers are going to be swimming sooner than they bargained for.

7. Barra International Airport, Scotland

Barra International Airport, on a remote northern island in Scotland, has the only beach runway for scheduled flights in the world. At high tide, some of the runways are underwater.

8. Gibraltar International Airport

Winston Churchill Avenue, a major thoroughfare, intersects the airport runway in Gibraltar. This is one red light you don’t want to run.

9. Gustaf III Airport, Saint-Barthélemy

This runway is so tiny, only planes with a maximum of 20 people can land here. That helps keep St. Barts an exclusive upscale Caribbean haven for the rich and famous.

10. Kansai International Airport, Japan

With land at a premium in Japan, they decided to build this major airport on an artificial island offshore in Osaka Bay. If its ocean setting doesn’t give you chills, its also regularly subjected to earthquakes, typhoons and storm surges. Oh, and the island is also sinking. This airport’s construction and constant reinforcement makes it the most expensive civil works project in modern history.

11. Madeira Airport, Portugal

The previous airport on this Portuguese archipelago was notoriously challenging due to its short runway surrounded by high mountains and the ocean. So, they extended it with an impressive – yet frightening – platform supported by 180 columns off the edge of the land.

12. Narsarsuaq Airport, Greenland

This runway is short and sweet whether you’re coming or going. It is considered one of the world’s most challenging approaches. Pilots have to fly up a fjord known for its turbulence and wind gusts.

13. Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport

A pair of grave makers are embedded into Runway 10 at this airport, in remembrance to the Dotson Family who use to own the land. One of the graves dates back to 1857. The law states that next of kin need to authorize the moving of family graves, and when they couldn’t be located, the airport engineers let them be.

14. Wellington Airport, New Zealand

This airport in New Zealand’s capital city has a short runway, so only smaller aircraft can land there. It’s known for turbulent landings due to the channeling effect of the Cook Strait creating gusty winds. 

15. Princess Juliana International Airport, Sint Maarten

This beachside airport on the Dutch side of Saint Martin is right across the street from Maho Beach. It is known for its extremely low-altitude flyover landing approach, and tourists flock here to experience the rush of the planes overhead. Definitely one of the craziest airport runways; you got to see to believe.

16. Ice Camp Barneo, North Pole

This snowy strip not far from the North Pole is open for just 4 weeks per year. Built on a drifting ice base, it’s a fully functional runway suitable for cargo planes like the Antonov AN-74. Perhaps Santa Claus uses it too.

Sujata's Work - Round 2

A visit to Hubli last week, so another round of Sujata's latest paintings:

I just fell for the horses, enough to want to buy the blue one, but stopping short only due to not finding the right wall space in my house :)

I thought the landscape had amazing color and also perspective 

The ones below are small paintings, little larger than A4 size I'd think

This last one of the woman walking up, was what an author had asked for his book cover, but it's still with Sujata, as he hasn't completed writing his book.

From last times post, one painting got sold, and that felt good. Offer's out again. Anyone want any, do let me know. 

@Sujata, once again.....the horses are simply stunning !! 

Diksha and Bruce

Diksha and I did our second drive from Hyd to Bangalore. And what's more, she drove all the way, like all... all the way, and she's like...circle of life ma.

While I started in the morning telling her she's not experienced enough for the highway, and lets see how she feels, and does and stuff, I found she's an amazingly good driver; years of scooter on our roads gives you that feel for the road I guess, and she just has this natural deep bond with her car too, sorry...Bruce.

Diksha and Bruce

Guess it's the countryside, the fresh air, the open sky, whatever, it does seem to drop off some stuckupness from within too........ there's a free er flow of energy, conversation, togetherness.

It's like that Google hiring test of 'would you like this person next to you on a long flight'. I love that about drives, it just enables that connect at a one notch more level, a CANI of sorts. ( the constant and never ending improvement thingy, remember?)

These mountains have a clear and distinct line of black boulders ( small boulders, big stones) as a line across the top, through the peaks of the mountains, right through to the last one. It's as clear as drawn with a sketch pen. I'm hoping to get an explanation from my father....he's a geologist, and a darn good one too.

I was trying to catch a herd on camera but missed all those, and caught one single cow :)

On our break for lunch. She's picture averse, so each one caught unawares :)

Threatening cumulo nimbus clouds on the way, but the rain held out till we reached Bangalore; we had brilliant cloudy weather all the way.

Thanks Diksha and Bruce...for a wonderful drive !!

Entrepreneur Training

Yesterday I was at Dharwad for a training program we did for the micro entrepreneurs under the Entrepreneur Fund. Our micro entrepreneurs are again from the under served demographic, with some of them being first time entrepreneurs or ones who run really small enterprises like bandi vegetable sellers,  single machine tailors, road side petty shops and the like.

It started off as an experiment, because we knew that it was extremely difficult to get these entrepreneurs to take a day off work, as it meant one day less of earning, and it took all that effort from us to make it happen.

While the theme I picked for the kick off talk was 'Take Ownership', I did exactly the same for the training itself. And it really worked. We had a target of twelve when we started and had a participation of twenty :).

Sudhir, Prasanna and Dixit, with me in an animated moment

Our content trainer was Sudhir Kulkarni, a veteran at SELCO, and I'd heard it said that when he trains, people won't forget for life. It was ofcourse all in Kannada, as this was an entirely non English speaking audience.

Sudhir intently listening to a question from a woman participant. We actually had four women participants, and I was extra happy for that

It was really interesting to see their level of interest, their participation, their questions. Sudhir sure lived up to his reputation; he was good not just in content but also in how he was able to engage the audience.  

He had three clear concepts; Opportunity, Relationship Building and Investment, in terms of Energy and Effort, and I know that each of them went away with something learnt. This was a pilot, and I now know it's the first of many to come.