Hope when the moment comes you say “I did it all, I swear I lived” – One Republic #MondayMorningWakeUpCall
The song says it all.
I lived.
Leave a reply
Monthly Archives: March 2015
Busy does not equal important
The idea is not to become a busy bee. The idea is to just be #MondayMorningWakeUpCall
“Busy does not equal important” – Seth Godin
I often see people priding themselves with having to skip lunch because they were so busy solving world hunger problems. Flashing the number of missed calls because they tuned out ‘just’ for an hour for some peace of mind. Not being able to take out 2 minutes to breathe because lo behold, the spinning of the world depends on them.
But then “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare” – W.H. Davies
Equally important I wonder, if this ‘busyness’ is a facade to appear important or an inability to plan and manage time or even worse, a desire to fulfill insatiable greed. The answers we will know only if we ask ourselves the questions.
And if we do try and answer in all honesty then I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to find 14mins a week to share some doughnuts 🙂
Which road should I take?
“Sometimes the road less travelled is less travelled for a reason” – Seinfeld #MondayMorningWakeUpCall
This was a joke Seinfeld cracked in one of his episodes when he could not make it for a performance due to a blizzard. Little would he have ever imagined that he would have to cancel a performance because the organizers couldn’t make arrangements for parking.
I don’t know any of the inside details but whether it was reasons related to the organizer’s incompetence or the bureaucracy and the corruption of the authorities in power is moot. These kind of incidents, excuses and practices do no good to attract explorers to roads less tread upon. If anywhere, they end up leading to the opposite direction of progress.
For our part.. I hope we continue to take more less travelled roads despite *%$@ trying to ruin the scenery by adding man-made obstacles.
True Colours
Our true colours, however chaotic, are far more pleasing than 50 shades of grey. Be yourself #MondayMorningWakeUpCall
True colours vs 50 shades of grey. Which do you prefer?
I love colours. I suspect most of us do. Yes, once in a while the odd picture or the noir movie looks classier in black and white, but I’d be hard pressed to imagine us (and a world) in grey once we’ve seen the rainbow.
Yet we are often tempted (sometimes even prefer) to live in the grey and hide our true colours. We are embarrassed by what others will think of us, seek glory even though we ‘break bad’, are wary of being judged.
Apparently the Gods were also not immune to this. One of the stories around the origin of Holi is about Krishna’s insecurities of the colour of his skin.
The story goes…In his youth Krishna used to worry whether fair skinned Radha and other Gopikas would like him because of his skin colour (he was blue). His mother, tired of his incessant cry for self-approval, asked him to approach Radha and colour her face any colour he wanted. This he did. Radha and Krishna became a couple. And we continue to celebrate the festival of colours.
I wonder if Krishna formulated this story into his life as a lesson for us, so that we at least once a year we use artificial colours to let our true colours come out and remind ourselves of the joy it can bring.
Be your true colours… even if they are 50 shades of grey.
Offer me some wine before you offer to opine
We are oh so eager to offer our opinions, It helps us nought save make our breath reek like onions. Especially when we speak on subjects we know of none, To be satisfied with only shallow minds won. “Of course there should be a #beefban” “BBC news! I’m no longer a fan!” “Did you see the crass roast show from AIB?” “No, but I am all for never allowing those jerks to pee!” Thinking ones with the strongest opinions are hailed wise, We force ourselves to take stands that are nothing but true lies. For we forget the maxim so pure, That “Only the stupid are cocksure” I say, “There is no harm in sitting on a fence And having a hearty laugh at all this nonsense.”
That’s my opinion on opinions.
Need vs Greed
Don’t let NEED become Greed #MondayMorningWakeUpCall
Whether you have a Maruti or a BMW, the road still remains the same. Whether you travel economy class or business class the, your destination does not change. Whether you have a Titan or a Rolex, the time is the same. Whether you have Apple or Samsung, the people who call you remains the same. There is nothing wrong in dreaming a luxurious life. What needs to be taken care of is to not let the NEED become GREED. Because needs can always be met, but greed can never be fulfilled.
– Rajnikanth (while this has been doing its rounds on the net attributed to Thalaiva, I suspect this may have been first posted by a Prof. K.K.Patel – https://kkpatel7.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/thought-of-the-day-do-not-let-the-need-become- greed/
I couldn’t have said this better so I took the liberty of re-posting. I’m super lucky to have a team that understands this, at least in the bootstrapping context of our startup. Thank you guys for switching off the lights when no one is in the room, not cribbing about using old laptops or handsets, selecting the least priced products, exploring free software tools and platforms and a bunch of other stuff that I’m sure I end up missing.
I also want to add that greed is often mistakenly just solely attributed to the ‘Material Girl’. I don’t think it ends there. It creeps into our relationships (expectation from others), our pseudo thirst for knowledge (it becomes a chip on our shoulder), our achievements (they become pride in the name of glory). Even an altruistic greed to serve others could result in an unattainable horizon chase.
There’s a thin red line between need and greed. Let’s watch out for it.
Arbit Musings 