Tag: failure

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Find your inner Pichai

When I was at Kodak, I remember my Sensei saying to me –

“Bal, you must first understand – then to be understood”.

Mark Chamberlain

Reflecting – absolutely true. How can you relay a message or work on something if you don’t fully get it. I’ve kept that close to my heart. Yes – the world is a fast moving place, but I always try to understand, break it down and then to share that in simple ways.

There’s so much I don’t know. But then on the other hand – there is so much I’m learning.

And recently – I read an article about the Google CEO Sundar Pichai, on how he was interviewed for a VP position in Google back in 2004.

Basically, Pichai said the interviewers asked him what he thought of Gmail. There was just one problem: Google had just announced the email service that very same day, on April 1st. “I thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke.”

He responded by saying he couldn’t answer the question because he hadn’t been able to use the product. “It was only in the fourth interview when someone asked, ‘Have you seen Gmail?’ I said no. So he actually showed it to me. And then the fifth interviewer asked, ‘What do you think of Gmail?’ And I was able to start answering it then,” 

So why am I sharing this – well… couple of reasons,

  1. If you don’t know – you don’t know. Be honest. Just tell people, if you don’t know something – you don’t know it. And why you don’t know it.
  2. Don’t make things up -don’t try to bullsh*t your way through. You’ll eventually get caught at some point.
  3. Show intellectual honesty – it’s not about scoring points. It’s about being honest. And showing that you’re open to learn and make decisions.
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Throwback Thursday… to my First Car!

Ah… my first car.. my first love… how I miss it.

Bal, what’s your first car got to do with technology, innovation or anything remotely digital?

Not much if I’m honest. It’s just, I do a Throwback Thursday, on every first Thursday of the month – and thought, why not ‘throw back’ to my first car.

So, we often talk about failure. And how we learn from failure…. here’s a story about my first car and failure.

Like any young lad… I wanted to have some really good speakers in my car. So out I went (we didn’t really have internet shopping at the time) and I bought some Kenwood 6×9 speakers. These were to be installed on the rear parcel shelf of my hatchback VW Golf.

I took the speakers out of the box. And there were some instructions. A paper. With the speakers outlined. You were meant to cut out the paper, and use that as a template, to cut out from the parcel shelf and then install the speakers.

Understood.

Cut the paper. Put it on the actual parcel shelf. Drew around it. Marked it well. Got the jigsaw. Cut out the holes for my 6×9’s. And was super excited.

Took the speakers out of the box. Slowly placed them within the newly cut hole… and guess what… they fell straight through!

What?! – I’d only gone and cut the hole  – the same size as the speaker! – on the paper, was a dotted line… I was meant to cut to the inner hole… so the speaker could rest on the shelf and I could screw it in!

Couple of lessons….

  1. Read the instructions carefully – and then read them again to make sure
  2. If it’s the first time – practice on something else, other than the original parcel shelf (in this case)
  3. Take your time – excitement is good… but control it.
  4. Don’t rush… measure twice, cut once.

Believe you me – I’ve definitely learnt from that experience!

Therefore… it’s okay to fail. As long as you learn from it.

And if you don’t want to hear from me… but an A-list Hollywood star… here you go… Will Smith,

https://youtu.be/wFf6rhcYkXw

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Are you Failing or a Failure?

 

Last week, I was listening to some great people talk about ‘mindset’. How important it is…. to have the right mindset.

Our brains are programmed in such a way, it can be difficult… or take time to re-programme them. Because our influences… years of thinking in such a way… programme the brain in such a way.

But if you can realise you’re programmed in such a way… you can re-programme. Just like a computer. Just like how you update your mobile phone. You need to update your thinking.

I saw this, and thought it was very powerful…

So what is the difference between failing and being a failure? It comes down to you mindset.

You have to think differently when you are failing.

Easier said than done.

You’ll go through the change curve. However, it’s how you understand the problem. Understand the failure…. let it be clear it’s an event… one moment in time, most importantly… an opportunity to learn from.

I’ve done plenty of things in my life – at the time, my mind said… i’m a failure. But quickly… as time passes… I realise, it was just a moment.

For example… I was at Kodak, and I was on a project. We had to bring a new manufacturing line, that wrapped boxes from Bologna, Italy. My job was to ship some samples over to the factory to make sure we could test it in Italy, before it got shipped over.

So, I did as I was told… got some samples, shipped them over, with the correct address, marked for my attention. I even rang the factory, told them these samples are coming and to leave them to one side… they said sure (in Italian).

We got there… and this was my first work trip abroad.

Got to the factory… all excited… my boss asks, where’s the samples? – i’ll get them. I ask the factory manager, bring the samples over. He says, what samples?

At that moment… time stood still.

“The ones I told you about.. that were arriving”….. he stood there looking at me. “Oh, we didn’t receive any”. To my amazement… “what?! – and you didn’t tell me?!”

So at this point, i’m stood, in Italy, with my boss, on my first work trip, first major project… and I’ve failed. I’m a Failure.

I explained it to my boss… he was a really nice guy. He said, let’s figure this out… let’s trace them and where they could be.

Which we did, they were held at the local postal sorting office… needed a signature. So we sent someone, got it signed and in the afternoon, the samples were with us.

I learnt a couple of valuable lessons.

Believe you me… never have I let that same mistake occur again.

 

So.. remember about your mindset. How you’re thinking…

We’ll always make mistakes. But the key thing is to learn from them. It’s a temporary moment in life.

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How many sacrifices have you made?

I was talking to a start-up, last week… whom shared with me, that one of the core team members was giving up his job at Ikea to concentrate on the start-up.

That’s great news! – I said.

Then we had a discussion about… what is needed, to be successful.

There’s various elements – but it comes down to a few things. Which i’m not going to discuss here, but we did establish – being totally honest, there’s a minimum cost of living that’s required. A minimum amount of money they’ll need to make to survive. And they’ll make the necessary changes to their lifestyle to reflect that…

And, you know what… I believe them.

Now, not everything is going to be easy. I’ve known these guys for a year or two… and it’s not been easy. There’s been some ups… and some downs.

Bit like sport… some you win, some you don’t.

But the key thing is you learn.

People can teach you – but until it happens to you, until you actually experience it… then you’ll really appreciate it.

Now, i’m going to be honest. A little sad he’s leaving Ikea, was hoping to get a discount on a new home office desk I was looking at for some time.

But anyhow… it’s great that they’re focussing. And that’s the key thing here. Focus.

If you know what you want…. then you’ll most probably do anything, you can… to achieve it.

Take Elon Musk…. and this infographic… (did you know, he showered at YMCA and slept in his office!)

Sacrifices. That’s what it comes down to. What are you willing to give up… what are you willing to do… to achieve that dream of yours.

Now, i’m not suggesting you all start sleeping in the office… and showering at the local YMCA. But what I am suggesting is, look at the luxuries in your life… or look at the things in your life, that you’re willing to give up or do without for a short period of time, just so you can focus.

Focus and sacrifice. That’s what it comes down to. Ambition and passion.

I know this start-up will make it. Make it big. Because they’re a) very intelligent, b) have a great work ethic and c) have some really good ideas.

It’s to that point c… they’ll really achieve success. Because when you have an idea… you need time. You need time to develop, work and build on it.

If you’ve got various commitments, you can’t spend the time required. You can’t focus. You can’t win.

I’ve had a number of great ideas in the past. Some really good ideas. Some of them I put into action… and did really well. Some I put into action and… didn’t do so well. Some, I’ve written down… and waiting for the right time.

The right time for me? – well, when I can focus and spend quality time on the idea. Don’t want to rush it, don’t want to waste the opportunity. Will make a few sacrifices to work on them… but when i’m ready.

And that’s the last point I wanted to make. This start-up, have made all their decisions themselves. Amongst them, they’ve decided to reduce the numbers of the core team. They themselves have decided what they want to do… and how they want to do it.

So, do you have an idea? Want to work on it? – look around and think, what are you willing to sacrifice, in order to have time & money to spend on it.