Don’t Flinch and Don’t Sit on a Laurel

No matter how debilitating your current circumstance, you cannot afford to give up hope. A life without hope is one lived without a vision, a blueprint for a better tomorrow. Every vision is costly if it has to be transformed into a mission and ultimately becomes mission accomplished.

Former President Nelson Mandela epitomized patience and tenacity; he could have missed it if he had given up hope of freedom. He pressed on for many years with no end in sight. At the end he moved from jail house to state house. We salute you Madiba! A secret that he mastered was never to flinch in the face of adversity even one that sought to obliterate his very existence. He was willing to sacrifice for the greater good. It is never easy to rise for your convictions. There seem to be someone, somewhere and somehow think there are more noble ideas than your ideals. They are many purveyors of interposition. Don’t flinch in their face.

No matter how good your accomplishments are, don’t stop there. Use your success as a launching pad; expend knowledge learned from the previous victory for bigger and even greater challenges. Most people sit on laurels because they think it took them so long to be where they only dreamed of. A constant look for greater challenges and better achievements should be etched out in your mind and spirit.

Greatness surrounds us all the time and just merely waiting our recognition or embrace. One such person who was a super achiever yet did not rest on his laurels was Jesus of the Bible. He could have bragged about turning dirty dish washing water into the best wine ever at a wedding, raising Lazarus from the dead, healing a woman from an issue of blood or opening the eyes of a few blind people. But he kept on pushing forward because he knew the best is yet to come. To him receiving the kingdom was more important than anything else.

Words Matter

Words are the raw materials of thoughts. When spoken or read, the mind automatically converts words or phrases into mind pictures. When you write or speak, in a sense you are a projector showing movies in the minds of others. Therefore, the words we speak or write are very important. Suppose you say “we face a problem”. By this statement, you create in the minds of others of something difficult and unpleasant to solve. If instead you say “we face a challenge”, you create a mind picture of fun, sport, something pleasant to do.

People have jobs because they spoke the right words during the interview. Relationships are the same, you’re in it because you spoke words or words were spoken to you and you responded positively. Unfortunately, words also have a negative force, such as starting wars or fights. Most wars or fights are started not because someone fired a shot, but because someone spoke words that rubbed off on someone the wrong way. What is required is to harness the power of words for positive outcomes.

Many organizations have known the truth about the power of words and that is why they choose words very carefully to project themselves. A point in case is Nike “Just Do It”; US Army “Be all you can be”; McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it”. Others use phrases like “You can go anyway from here”; “Some people just know how to fly”; “Where others have scratched the surface, we dig deeper”; “Go on, after all you’re a tiger”. Ross Perot, the famed billionaire said “one good idea can enable a man to live like a king the rest of his life”. Ideas are expressed through words. Begin to use words and phrases which produce big, positive mental images, you will be surprised by the level of success.

From Three Wheeler to Tata Nano

Tata Motors, a part of a fledgling Indian Tata Group announced today that they will make available for purchase next month throughout India, their ground breaking and revolutionary vehicle called Tata Nano. Tata Nano is approximately 3 m (10 feet) long and quite a charm to behold. As I listened to a BBC reporter this morning, I could not help myself think that my village could use this new mode of transportation. On the other hand, I thought of the pot holes that define a road leading to my village and was saddened by the fact that a car of this size might be buried alive in one of those pot holes. May be the first step is to repair or build a better road to benefit from this “milestone” technology.

What is more impressive about the Tata Nano is its affordability. It will go on the market to millions of Indians at $1, 979. Indeed, it is the world’s cheapest car yet. Tata Nano has inevitably put India once again on the world map. Nano comes at a time when the three big ones in the US (GMC, Chrysler and to a lesser extent Ford) have been taking their begging bowls to Capitol Hill for alms from Congress. Worldwide, the car industry is reeling from slumping demand, but not so for the Nano. Mr. Ratan Tata, owner of Tata Group is no stranger to going against currency. He takes calculated risks and in the past, he has been rewarded handsomely. I see no difference with their new product, the Tata Nano.

When others are worried about potential carbon increase due to fossil fuel, for millions of Indians who have been stuck with three wheelers or motorcycles, it’s a far cry to deny them the same technology that has been available elsewhere for so long. I agree that the environment matters, but any consideration should be done with other things on the table. Why can’t we develop technologies in tandem that both achieve modernization and at the same time protect the environment?
Tata Nano is not without competition, this is what a few had to say; “I should thank you, this is really fantastic. This is what we should try and achieve. We must acknowledge the great work done by you. However, we will compete with you.” Carlos Ghosn, CEO of RENAULT-NISSAN. “ I congratulate you for three things; (i) a modern and contemporary car design, (ii) sufficient internal volume, (iii)designed and developed entirely on your own” Luca Cordero diMontezemolo, Chairman, FIAT. Tata Nano won the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award in 2008 in the transportation category for a ground breaking innovation that demonstrates measurable impact. What are your thoughts about Tata Nano?

There is room for more

When Coca-Cola came up with a formula for carbonated drink, they patented it and moved on to create other drinks from this prototype. They did not sit on a laurel, they used the original to come up with "what if" scenario. Henry Ford did not come up with the first automobile, but he revolutionized the industry by creating assembly lines for mass production. You may not need to come up with an original prototype, but to tweak what is there for efficiency, etc,.

McDonald's did not come up with the first idea for a hamburger, but they created a uniform franchise system and sold franchises to willing entrepreneurs. Other fast food chains started mushrooming--Taco Bells, Burger King, Subway to mention a few. All these alternatives to McDonald's could have cried foul because someone else has started a fast food chain , therefore there is nothing left for us. A little ingenuity of the same product packaged differently or cooked slightly differently, offered variable appetite choices to go by. There is room for more ingenuity.

Defeat is not an option

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience. Successful persons have had setbacks at one time or another. What we hear or read about great persons, is a revised resume that deliberately leaves out some lows/downturns experienced on the road to success.

The bible attests to the fact that a righteous man falls seven times, but the Lord picks him up. Defeat is a state of mind, and successful people are good at salvaging something from every setback.

Thomas Edison, a famous Bostonian inventor of electricity said this about his several attempts at coming up with a light bulb, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that wont't work". He had this attitude that "if we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves". Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do, doesn't mean it's useless. In fact some inventions came about as an accident.

Fast Lane

I'm joining the fast lane. I'm not technology averse. I see what it can do for me. I wish I had larched on it several years back. What matters now, is I am in the fast lane. It's a new life and is very exciting to be able to get over the hump.