Go, Kiss the World

I just finished reading Subroto Bagchi's "Go, Kiss the World" and it turned out to be much better than my expectations. Especially appealing are his observations related to a person's Career moves. I have noted some of the gems as below:

§ It is not necessary that everyone has wanderlust in their soul like me. But it is important to know that quite often displacement is the key to progress, and we need to develop comfort with it. My early life experiences helped me build a high degree of comfort with displacement. Water in a pool is stagnant; only when it flows is it energized. The entire universe is in constant motion; even a moment of motionless is inconceivable in the cosmic state of things. Many professionals shudder at the thought of physical displacement, yet crave rapid mobility and growth in their careers. When you are continuously displaced, you make friends easily. You have low expectations from the unfamiliar; hence you are more pleasantly surprised than frustrated when faced with life’s many ups and downs. You explore everything around you, develop curiosity – new lands, customs, food, and ways of doing things begin to draw you in. You learn to survive on the strength of who you are, just for this day, today. You build ingenuity in order to survive. You trust strangers and, hence, strangers trust you. You build intuitive capability to sniff trouble – which can tell you when leave a bar! You become an interesting person, because you have lot of stories to tell. Finally, you learn to move on.

§ … I learnt that our achievements are only as good as the value they create for others.

§ There are two futures, the future of desire and the future of fate, and man’s reason has never learnt to separate them. – J.D.Bernal

§ (Someone once said) Most men take more out life than they give to it. A few give more to life than they take out of it. The world runs because of such men.

§ Our lives are like rivers – the source seldom reveals the confluence. Does a river fret over the long journey and about its end just as it is about to spurt? It simply does not do that, caring instead to flow, to begin its journey, and on its way builds a beneficial relationship with anyone who comes in contact with her.

§ Life sometimes deals you a blank cheque. However, it pays to defer its encashment.

§ Sometimes, in our moments of conflict, we come across a sign that, in a flash, helps us reach a decision which hours of frustrating reasoning cannot achieve. Almost magically, options become clear.

§ Sometimes success is just so close, it looks unreal.

§ When people make mid-career changes, I always hear them ask for a job that impacts corporate strategy, seeking a corner room with a large window, preferably close to the CEO, examining closely the organogram of the organization and hair-splitting on the exact nature of the job. No one says, ‘give me the challenge of a tough, dirty, and strategic role that no one is willing to take, something that may be keeping the CEO awake at night’. But when the outlook changes from ‘what is good for me’ to ‘where is the organization hurting and how can I make a difference’, your professional landscape changes.

§ Only when you are 120% loaded will you be 100% effective. – Azim Premji

§ While it takes time to build perceptions, it takes even longer for perceptions to change. – Sridhar Mitta

§ (Azim Premji) wanted to me stay back. I told him that one of my reasons for leaving was that we were very different people, we thought differently. He answered: ‘That is the reason we should work together’. When we look to hire people, we invariably look for sameness. It is so much more comfortable. But progress requires intelligent friction, push back, points and healthy counterpoints. The job of leaders is to build high personal comfort with contrarians who think differently, create alternative points of view and have the power to question the state of things.