Striving towards Excellence

Gratitude

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I am currently in India spending time with my parents. It was not a planned trip here and taking things as it comes and doing things as according to the needs of the day.

Couple of weeks back, I celebrated my tenth anniversary of my 28th birthday-:). It was special because I spent it with my parents here in India after 15 years.  As I am spending time here with my parents, I am thankful for lot of things God has bestowed me upon. The list is endless, but I am going to pen down whatever comes to my mind.

• I am thankful to God for giving me wonderful parents  and my brother who had poured unconditional love and affection on me. My parents did whatever they could to make our life better than what they had and sacrificed a ton to give us the best education and support more than what they could have physically afforded. They went the extra mile, sought help and did whatever needed to be done so that we can have a better lifestyle. I am permanently indebted to them for all they did and they continue to do and we really wish we can do the same for our kids.
• Along the same lines, I am thankful to God for blessing my Dad and my mom with a long life  and keeping them healthy, strong and happy and making sure all their organs are functioning properly.
• I am grateful to God for blessing me with a beautiful  (both inside and outside) wife who had been my change agent in my life. She is my best friend and completes me in all areas. She totally exemplify unconditional love and personifies womanly intuitions which have given me a totally different perspective which has helped understand different things in a better way. I am fortunate to have her as my wife and she has been always by my side and has been greatest encourager and cheerleader. I am hoping I do the same for her. 
• I am thankful for all my teachers (from Kindergarten to Graduate School) who shared their nuggets of knowledge and wisdom which has helped me to do my profession well.
• I am thankful to all friends and family (plenty to name!) who had shown the presence of God & guided me for good, and had given unconditional support at times of need and am grateful to them forever for being there during the times of adversity and really  hoping I would be there for them (in times of need).
• I am thankful to all my employers, business associates and students for giving me an opportunity to serve them.
• I am thankful to all my coaches, mentors for guiding me in the right path and showing me the light at the end of the tunnel when I had difficulty believing myself. I would like to set the right good example for everyone to follow.
• I am thankful for making each day count towards my goals so that I can lead a life of significance.
• I want to be known and remembered for having devoted myself to my family, being a good human being, creating great wealth and using that wealth to help others.

Law of the hourglass

-Karthik Gurumurthy

All of us need to be sensitive about this. It is called Law of the Hour glass.

People read about time management and talk about time management. But is that all worth it? Reading alone is not just worth it, but keeping an eye on the time and having a sense of urgency is vital. I read Todd Duncan's book (High Trust Selling) and he gives a great example which illustrates the whole point.

Take the example of a close football game. If the losing team has the ball they typically use a "two-minute" offense to help them run as many plays as possible with the remaining time. Their objective is to call the best possible plays before time runs out. If in the end they lose, you might hear, "They didn't lose the game, they just ran out of time." That might make for good consolation but the bottom line is they lost the game!

Likewise, you must manage your moves during the day so that you make more revenue. Create ways to help you make your best moves before time runs out. How can I prospect more, set more appointments, make time to study and prepare better, learn to overcome objections easier, build a better referral network or learn to go deeper with clients and referral partners?

If you don't know what's important you will make the wrong moves. Event management do the things that have the greatest ROI. You need to learn how to get first things done first. You must prioritize your events. It is important that you understand that the most important things generally require the greatest skill, the greatest motivation and have the greatest risk but these activities also provide the greatest return.

Todd believes strongly that you need to know what your hourly rate is and that you need to doing work that is commensurate with your hourly rate at least 75% of every day. You are just keeping busy if the work you are doing could be done by someone else for less than your hourly rate. You are productive when your time is spent on doing things that command your greatest talent and provide the largest return. Are you managing your business or is your business managing you?

Consider this, If you want to take your earnings from $30,000 to $60,000 you need to start doing $60,000 things while you are earning $30,000. As Todd says, "If you don't do something differently, you'll be then where you are now only later."

Be Happy where you are

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Two friends met in the street.  One looked so sad and almost on the verge of tears.  The other man said, "Hey, how come you look like the whole world caved in?"

The sad fellow said, "Let me tell you.  Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me two hundred thousand dollars."

"That's not bad." Said his friend trying to console him.

"Hold on, I'm just getting started.  Two weeks ago, a cousin I never knew had an accident, died and he left me five hundred dollars tax free."

"I'd like that. But I can’t understand why you’re not happy"

And the sad fellow said, "Last week my grandfather passed away.  I inherited almost two million $."
"The how come you look so glum?"

And with sadness the friend said, "Of course I’m sad. Look. This week – nothing. Nobody died!"
Some people will never be happy because all they ever wanted is more. Being Ambitious and wanting to succeed is good but connecting that with Happiness is not good. 

This is an old story but worth its weight in gold to serve as a reminder for life lessons learning.

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad.

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah," said the son.

"So, tell me, what you learned from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

"Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

"We have servants, who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

 We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

A Chinese proverb says: “He who is content can never be ruined.” Content doesn't mean a lackadaisical approach to life. 
 
Some people complain all the time.

“They’re not paying me enough…”“The benefits here are lousy…”“I never liked my job…”But wait till a chilling message begins to creep through the corporate grapevine.

“There’s news that the company has been brought by another and there will be a massive layoff. 30,000 layoffs in Bank of America”“Many jobs will be cut and many positions will be declared redundant…”Suddenly, the tune of the music changes drastically.

Discontent turns into fear. Grumbling turns into prayers. And why do we have to allow things like these to happen?

We never appreciate the value of something until that thing is taken away from us.
And why is this so?

Because it is so hard for us to learn and understand contentment.

Without contentment, there will always be contention.

Here is the key. Shoot for the best. Excel in whatever field you are in. Dream big dreams but learn to enjoy life’s small pleasures along the way. Being grateful for what we have is the first step. When we are faithful in what we do, skilled in the doing and excellent in the things done, the small pleasures turn into opportunities for bigger ones. Enjoy them all.

I heard this Anon. says which sums it all. “To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to the stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is  a good way to live a wonderful life.

What are you chained to?

-Karthik Gurumurthy

When I was a kid I loved the circus. I was fascinated by the fact how wild animals which are supposed to be dangerous in general were tamed to perform different feats entertaining  the audience. 

I came across a discovery about elephant tricks in circus.  Have you ever wondered why the elephants—the strongest and largest animals in the circus—don’t simply walk away?

The trainers have discovered a way to make them helpless.

When an elephant is born, it only takes about two weeks for him to get strong enough to break his chains, but his trainers use this time to their advantage. The baby elephant, chained to a tree, will make many attempts to break free before giving up, but once he has given up, that’s it. Although he grows larger physically, in his mind, the chain is still stronger than he is. In effect, he imprisons himself.

The chain therefore is a constant reminder that they are helpless.

A lot of us live our lives the same way. People have mastered the art and science of learned helplessness.

Rather than becoming the stars of the show, these helpless people in the work place have self-designed themselves into being clowns. They have made decisions either constantly or unwittingly that have led people to laugh at them. This is so sad because this does not have to be.

At the core of this problem lies the person’s inability to determine the difference between what are facts and what are stories. The stories they have heard may have come from the people they love.

Stories come in forms like:
“You’re not as good as your brother /sister….”“You’ve brought bad luck to the family….”“You’ll never make it…..”“You’re just like your dad/mom, you’re a loser….”These are stories not facts but somehow they imprison, they form chains.
 
Here are some other examples of what stories sounds like and they mostly come from your primary story teller and that is YOU!:
“I shouldn’t have to do this—it’s not part of my job description.”“Other people should be more dedicated and motivated. Nothing would get done around here if it weren’t for me.”“There’s not enough time to get it all done.”“Our department is always having to clean up after others’ mistakes.”“The boss just doesn’t get it.”“He is always undermining me.”My coworkers don’t appreciate me.”“Management only cares about the bottom line.”“I’m underpaid for what I do here.”“It would be finished if they’d stop interrupting me with last-minute changes.”These are stories. These are not facts.

You and I need to stop arguing with reality. The reality is that God does not invent junk. Humans do it to themselves. We imprison ourselves with the chains formed by the stories we hear or the stories we invent ourselves.

We have the free will to choose. We can choose to rise up above our adversities, ignore the attacks of the envious, labor and learn and accept challenges and retain humility as success comes or we can choose to stay with our stories and ignore the facts.

Samuel Clemens says it well a long time ago when he said, “The problem with most people is not that they set their goals too high and fail to achieve it but that they set their goals too low and they attain it.”

God has given us a head to think, a heart to feel, hands to labor and feet to move towards our goals with the purpose of adding value to the world and never for the sole aim of personal glory or aggrandizement. Starting tomorrow as you go to the work place, stick to the facts and drop those stories. Let go of all the shackles which is holding you back.

Do it now

-Karthik Gurumurthy

"Knowledge is only useful when put into action. You can't just sit there and wait for your ship to come in . . . you've got to swim out to it before the pier rots.  We can learn a lot about action by looking at insects. Consider the bee. It will make visits to 125 clover heads to make one gram of honey. That comes to about 25,000 hips for bees to make only one pound of honey. Ants are admirable creatures as well. They're not concerned about their stature but go about their diligent, tireless work of storing up food for their colony.”-

Harvey MacKay (HM)

Lillian Vernon, friend of HM was a 24-year-old newlywed seeking some extra income for her family when she spent $2,000 of her wedding money on an advertisement in Seventeen magazine, promoting monogrammed handbags and belts. The orders came, business grew, and today her mail-order catalog company, Lillian Vernon Corporation, has annual sales of $240 million and ships 50,000 orders daily during its peak holiday season. 

Ted and Dorothy Hustead likewise had a dream in 1931: to open a drug store in a town with a good school, a Catholic church, and a doctor. They chose Wall, South Dakota, a middle-of-nowhere town situated between the Badlands and the Black Hills. Alter a long dusty year in which few visitors stopped at their drug store, they were forced to do some serious soul searching.  They came up with an idea to lure parched visitors to their establishment and acted on it, posting FREE ICE WATER AT WALL DRUG signs all over the area. The signs soon became a novelty and were placed further and further away. Today, Wall Drug signs can be seen all over the world. During peak season, four to six thousand people visit daily. The fact is that you don't have to be famous or the CEO of a large corporation to have an idea and act on it.

Will Rogers once said, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."  And here's a scenario you might recognize at your workplace: There once were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. An important job had to be done, and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it and that Somebody would do it. But Nobody realized that Everybody thought Somebody would do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Sounds confusing? You’ve got the point. This is what happens when nobody wants to pick up the tab and take responsibility. Everything turns out confusing.  Why not be somebody who makes things happen.  But how? In the words of a popular shoe and sportswear commercial, the slogan says: "Just do it."

Harvey Mackay says: “Ideas without action are like being all dressed up with no place to go.”  Nothing happens when you sit around waiting for things to happen.

And then there are only 3 kinds of people in this world. 
1. Those who make things happen. 
2. Those who watch things happen. 
3. And the last and the lost who wonders: “What happened?”

Don’t waste precious time. Do not delay. Do it now.

 

Accept Opportunities

-Karthik Gurumurthy

When I moved to US several years back, I learned two things on the first day of landing here. First one being " Whats up"? It took me sometime to figure that one out. My immediate response was "sky":) The second thing being " America is land of opportunities." Ok that is nice to hear, where is it? 

Despite the doom and gloom in the media about AAA plus downgrade., double dip,  depression and recession, I still think that there are possibilities for us literally everywhere.

We invite opportunities and set the stage for action by our choices, our study, our concentration and commitment. But sometimes, no matter how prepared we are, no matter how much we want something, no matter how much we recognize that this could be our big break, we fail to accept the responsibility before  us, perhaps because we are afraid of rejection or failure.

If you want to make a career as an actor, you cannot get the part if you never audition. Through interaction with really successful people as well as reading their works, I feel that successful people lead a life of no regrets. One of the saddest things that can happen when you are done with our lives and when God gives the DVD of what we have done, we should not give any chance for us to say "Wish I had risked more, loved more, cared more and so forth". It is sad to think what might have been. We must always open doors knowing that there will be great possibilities awaiting us when we do. All experiences deeply lived, no matter how much we struggle, are opportunities to learn. The greatest loss occurs when we don't expose ourselves to opportunities because we may be afraid of failure. Somehow we find inner strength when we persevere courageously. When we don't try, or give up too easily, we're turning our backs on the door that only we can open. I don't believe many of us really know how great we are in potential. We should expect more from ourselves. When we do, we bring out more from the vast reservoir of possibility that is in us all the time.

Our great task as human beings is to grow into fully expressing our powers and capacities. There is always so much more we can draw out of ourselves. There is a tendency among many of us to busy ourselves with  "this and that," to fill our calendar with obligations, and to commit to responsibilities that are not of our choosing that make us believe something, better and more extraordinary is not possible.

I have learned from Shobana to leave time every day to do what you want to do to prepare yourself for great opportunities. Don't hold back, reticent, waiting for extraordinary opportunities. Watch for the little opportunities right now at hand.

 

Once you start doing little more than Average Joe, you are likely to face disappointments and failures, but you can always be proud that you accepted an opportunity. Take whatever comes to you and make the best, the most good of it. You are accepting the challenge to be all you can be.

"In the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity"- Albert Einstein

Reaching out and accepting opportunities is what we're meant to do in order to live well. Accept the gift of opportunity when you find it because opportunities are fleeting and life is short.

Don't say "never"

-Karthik Gurumurthy

One thing is for sure. I will never say never again. Every time I have said never, I've been wrong.

The classic example was few years back when a good friend of mine asked me before I left to US about my future career endeavors. I told him with a straight face, "I am passionate about science and research and I will never do anything in any other fields." Little did I know  few years from that time,  I changed my area of specialization. Nothing wrong about being focussed in a field or expertise. But when I was born, God did not make an invisible tattoo over my forehead saying "This guy is meant to be Research Scientist..That is it period." Nothing like that.

None of us can ever be sure of anything. Keep an open mind. Different circumstances require different choices. Never is forever and leaves no flexibility, no wiggle room, no balance. One French writer said,  " I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love of truth, and truth rewarded me." Try not to say you will outgrow certain beliefs because saying so will close your mind, when you are obviously searching for guidance and direction. There are many roads to truth, and some of them are not the best paved or marked; they are stumbled upon unexpectedly.

Around the corner of every moment is the fascination of the unknown. Because we never know, we should feel the freedom that comes from acceptance. We step into the unknown, accepting what comes, and letting go of what goes. Choose to change your mind when circumstances change and when you have evolved to greater depth and understanding.

Have dignity

by Karthik Gurumurthy

 I have spent years watching successful people, and I don't just mean successful as in having lots of money or a big-shot career.  These were all people who had within themselves- happiness, peace and contentment.

Almost all successful people have a sense of their own dignity. What do I mean by this? Well, they are all pretty solid in themselves, they have worked out who they are and what they are about. They don't need to show off, brag about what they have or who they are. Their self esteem is not derived from their Profession. They don't need to draw attention to themselves because they aren't particularly interested in what we think- they are too busy getting on with things in their own lives. They maintain decorum not because they are frightened of making of themselves or falling flat on their face but because they simply are not affected with attention-seeking stuff.

It is vital to show poise, be different from the herd, have good manners, be polite and considerate to be someone others might look up to. You don't have to be all aloof and standoffish, serious and grown-up. You can still have fun, relax and take it easy.

No fear, No surprise, No hesitation, No Doubt

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Where does this come from? It's from a seventeenth-century Samurai warrior. This was his four point key to successful living- and swordsmanship.

• No Fear

There should be nothing in this life that you are afraid of. if there is, you might need to do some work on overcoming that fear. Here I have to confess to a certain fear of rollercoasters. I avoid theme parks if I can. Few years back, I did go once considering the fact that I was in close connection with God that I uttered all the prayers and repented all the sins until I got out of that place. Whatever your fear, face it head on and defeat it.

• No surprise

Life seems to be full of them doesn't it? You're going along and bam! how did that happen? But if you look carefully, there were clues all along the way that it was going to happen. No surprise there then. Whatever your situation, it is going to change. No surprises there. So why does life to surprise us then? Because we are asleep half the time nestled in the comfort zone. Wake up and nothing can sneak up on you.

• No hesitation

Weigh up the odds and then just get on with it. If you hang back, the opportunity will have passed. If you spend too long thinking, you'll never make a move. Once we have looked at the options, we make a choice, a decision and then go for it. That's the secret. No hesitation means not waiting  around for other people to help out or make up our minds for us. No hesitation means if there is certain inevitability about a situation then just throw yourself in the head first and enjoy the ride. If there is nothing to be done then waiting doesn't help.

• No Doubt

Once you have made up your mind about something, don't go over it again and again. Stop thinking and enjoy-relax and let go. Stop worrying. Tomorrow will come along as certainly as it can. There is no doubt about life. Be sure of yourself. Once you have committed yourself to a set course, a path, a plan, then follow it through. Have no doubt was the right think to do and have no questions that you will succeed. Get on with it and trust your judgement completely.

Gratitude

-by Karthik Gurumurthy

 
 

It has been quite a while since I blogged. There has been lot of things happening which was keeping me busy. From time to time all of us catch ourselves being in a rut so much that we do not pause and reflect about the things that we need to thankful for.

With the blessings of my parents and good wishes from friends and family, I actually got the "outstanding award for excellence in teaching this fiscal year. I attribute this to my parents who has always blessed me and given unconditional support all the way, my wife Shobana who did everything in her side to let me go out and perform and my brother Aravind who has always been a backbone to all my successes, and my miracle baby Ashwin for showering luck on us.

I also like to take this opportunity to all my good and bad teachers from Kindergarten to Grad School.( Sankara School, Vivekananda College, Anna University, IIT Madras, Tulane University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Johns Hopkins University, Univ of California Irvine). Good teachers taught me how to break down a complex subject to simple language in which students can enjoy and appreciate the subject so that they can apply it in day-to-day life. Bad teachers has shown through their example what pitfalls I need to eschew so that I can learn from them.

I would like to make a special mention about my good friend from Kindergarten "Susi" aka Sudarsanam who literally took me under his wings and pushed me to level of excellence when I was frittering away my time during IX grade. This was the time I really had no idea what I was doing and what I was capable of. I was promoted from IX grade to X grade with warning( I barely scored 35% in my annual exam). This was probably one of the low points in life which helped me to reflect and bounce back. Thanks to the association with Susi who really pushed me to excel and that is the time I started to dream big and I know I can outperform anyone and achieve anything if I set my mind to it. Thanks to all my cousins and relatives who set a high bar of excellence for all of us to follow.

I am thankful to my research mentor Dr. K. S. Viswanathan from IGCAR who showed through his example how to really learn and master any subject by putting in the effort through relentless passion. I thank all my business coaches for teaching me how to communicate clearly from heart than from the mind.  I am using this award as the springboard to help more students achieve their dreams and goals in academics as well as more business associates reach their financial goals through my business opportunity.