Be the Purple Cow!

Factually speaking, we have enough good people in the world. 

Good is, for me, someone who has good intentions, good principles, good morals, and thereby good actions. 

But, it’s also possible for all this good to go waste. 

Unless, you stand your ground for it.

It’s no use loving your country if you can’t do a dime about it. 

It’s no use loving your job if you can’t feel the vibe in your belly,

It’s no use loving your partner if you can’t stand up for him/her.

Henry David Thoreau once quipped, 

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

Imagine your next project, film, drawing, photograph or any piece of work being just average. Do you like that?

No one wants to be average. 

Everyone wants to be different. To be special. To be unique. To be the best.

But then, why do only few people get there?

Because, they are the ones who want it so badly. 

The rest are happy with temporary pleasures. 

A 100 likes, a 100 customers, a 100 shares, a 100 compliments, if that’s where you want to stop, please don’t even think about  being the best.

Because the best don’t stop at where the crowd becomes happy, 

they actually begin exactly there and scale upwards, endlessly. 

Average is not for you, be an outlier.  Stay out of the curve. 

I spoke to an old friend today and was quite fascinated at his passion towards his art. His energy was contagious and his enthusiasm was hair-raising.

It is quite rare that we meet such people everyday. But if you can, do meet some. Atleast one. Everyday. 

It helps you keep your optimism in stock. 

Passion is an igniting spark that can stimulate your mind.Like how you get fire when two chops of wood are rubbed against each other, when two passionate minds collide, you’ll have top class ideas. 

But what beats passion is it’s first cousin.

Something which is above passion in making a difference to the world. 

It is generosity.

Like I repeatedly mention, passion can help you make a dent in the universe, but the whole universe will forget you and your dent if you don’t care enough to spread your idea.

Give your idea the ultimate gift. You know what it is.

Freedom. 

Your Attitude. 

And you should protect it until your last breath.

If you retrospect into your past, you will clearly know when you were at your best.

At that point, putting aside your credentials, your supporters, your efforts and even your results, there was something very specific which helped you not give up in life. 

That’s attitude.

And irrespective of what you have now, the problems, the tensions, the opinions, the negativities, the retractors or your debts, it is the ONLY ONE THING that can help you bring back your best avatar.

It is the ONE suit that you were born to wear. It is the ONE suit that suits you.

The suit of attitude. Undying. Endless. Indomitable.

Wear that today. 

Most decisions in life are trivial. 

Your yes or your no  won’t affect your entire life story. 

1) Like saying yes for a blue jeans at your speech, 

2) Like saying yes to hug a woman you just met, 

3) Like saying no to an accepted custom of the people,

4) Like saying no to stop cycling after having a treatment,

But when put in a different context, these most trivial decisions transform into your characteristic persona and have the power to define you. 

Now imagine, if your speech above was a keynote lecture, would you still say yes for a blue jeans? [Steve Jobs did.]

If your hug was for a woman who was affected with leprosy, would you still say yes? [Mother Theresa did.]

If the accepted custom of people is to have slaves, being the President of the US, would you say no? [Abhraham Lincoln did.]

If the treatment you had was extensive chemotherapy for testicular cancer, would you say no to your doctors and go ahead for a championship? [Lance Armstrong did.]

Remember, it’s not about saying yes or no, it’s choosing the definition of YOU that the world should know.

Be that one.

That special one who people can trust, that special one who puts his heart out for his passion, that special one who delivers when promised, that special one who delivers even when not promised, that special one who is willing to listen, that special one who is willing to care. 

Be that special one. To everyone who matters. 

Like I said here, offer something. Of value. 

That is how eventually you will matter to everyone.

There are two ways of following your passion.

1) Doing it secretly until you get known. Once you’ve done enough stuff, wait patiently hoping someone  someday will pick you up somehow and appreciate your effort on that “something”.[your passion] 

This is a fail safe method. You will not fail, atleast in the public’s eye ‘coz no one even knew you were trying. Hence no one will ever know that you failed too.

I like the second method better.It’s risky though.

2) Doing it openly, loudly and clearly. Tell everyone you meet that you are doing that “something” and create ruckus about it. Focused Ruckus but Not spam.

Do what you love with vigor and enthusiasm, serve a small tribe of people who are ready to listen, and give them the power to share it within their circles.

This is an absolutely risk for your social image. If you do bad at your passion, people will hate you. Even if you do well, people might hate you.[this time, may be because you didn’t do how they would have done it.]

This method will fail your energies, fail your social interactions, fail your reach, fail your interest on your passion and eventually fail you. Publicly, loudly and clearly. 

But I believe that is how you learn. 

Now, it’s upon “you” to come back at it strongly again, or just perish. 

Hans Zimmer, the legendary film musician, when asked what music meant for him, said, It’s not just a job, it’s not just a hobby. It’s why I get up in the morning everyday.

Pancreatic cancer is a bitch. So is liver cancer. TB. Aids. Heart failure. Infact, any possible way to die is impossible for us to accept. But, unfortunately, we don’t get to choose.

So was a Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. 

Randy Pausch.

In 2007, he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and his doctors gave him 3-6 months time before he took his last breath.

He then decided to give a lecture, the most important LECTURE in his entire lifetime. It was not the lesson on his death. It was the lesson on his dreams.

It was also aptly titled, “the last lecture” and was a sensational hit, where in he speaks about achieving our childhood dreams. 

Though he is on the brink of death, it is one of the most enthusiastic and cheerful talks I’ve ever seen. 

He’s lucky he knew his expiration date. Meanwhile, we’re sulking how our bosses are not picking us, our loved ones are not calling us, our goals are not meeting us, our society is not helping us etc. 

We’re very busy doing a million trivial things leaving our dreams behind.

While Randy, in his short life, ran his race. What about you? 

Stephen King wrote in a movie, “Hope is a good thing. Infact, the best of all things.”

But in real life, hope is a rarity. Especially among people, it is the scarcest thing you can find. 

Walk down your memory lane and recall how many people said you CAN’T do a certain thing. Though you moved on in life, many of them are still in that same place, telling every person they meet, that it WON’T happen.

How is that even possible? How can people trust hopelessness so strongly?

Because it is easy. And because it makes sense. To their rational mind.

People take facts a little too seriously. Factually speaking, I must not be here doing what I’m doing now, living the life I’d dreamt. I must go back and get better grades, better salary hike, better IQ and a better eye-sight.

But actually facts don’t matter. Life is a miracle. If you wish something, and wish it hard enough, it will actually be possible.

Rather, you can make it possible. And life will conspire, not against, but in favor of your hope. Eventually.

The last word is important, “eventually”. So, you have to wait. Wait longer than any one with a rational mind. 

The young writers, artists, marketers, fashion designers, film-makers, engineers, musicians, entrepreneurs, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your parents, your best friends, and you. Imagine if all lived in hope.

Once Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon Corporation said, 

In the factory we make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope!

Hope, I say again, is a good thing.

No matter how much you don’t want to discuss it, our time is limited.

This is worse, especially, if you have unfulfilled dreams, unfulfilled promises, untreaded paths. 

If your status quo looks “okay” to you, that is when you are in trouble.

All through my writings, I’ve emphasized on getting that  idea out of the mind, shipping that  product into the street, turning that  desire into an action.

Seth Godin always wrote, If you don’t get it built, the work doesn’t matter.

The greatest thing about the greatest thing in life is actually doing it.

Your mind is capable of bringing out ideas you had never imagined. Your energy is capable of driving you insanely obsessed to make them happen. Your focus is capable of putting you on the path to success.

When your ideas, energy and focus are united by one, you become divided by zero, Mathematically they call it, THE INFINITE! 

Be that!

Most people take  money seriously. More than even life. 

True, money is an important thing but not the only thing, like I wrote here. It should serve your needs.Not shackle your deeds. 

You don’t age up in life just to grow up your savings. Cut your rat race in hoarding piles of money for your most awesome vacation, the big fat wedding, the suave classic jewelry, or the rolls royce car. Mad chase of money is wasting life. 

You are not a walking bank statement. Or a talking price tag. You are more than what your numbers say. 

In your life, you are on a treasure hunt. And you will know when you find it, that the real treasure is YOU!

Remember, the diamonds may be forever. But you?

A story isn’t complete if the hero cannot fail.

Hero should be vulnerable enough to get hurt. Yet brave enough to take the challenge on. That is when he’s called a hero.

Because he has a purpose. A greater purpose than most mortals we meet.

And that is what exactly you need in your life to be a hero. 

Purpose. The why you do it. 

Once you know it, and believe in it, the how will appear somehow, like I wrote here. 

Understandably, you might have so many fears. Fear about rejection. Fear about failure. Fear about isolation. Fear about loss of identity. Fear of perishing in this fast paced world. Yes, they were there yesterday, today and will be in your tomorrow too if you don’t act now. 

The hero has to rise. Rise over his excuses. 

The hero has to win. Win over his fears.

I know a best way of doing it.

By facing them.

Every creative person, when about to begin, every creative project has the same problem.

If you have ever written a blog, or drew a cartoon, made a short film, designed a website, or have been in a band, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Audience. 

You cannot ignore them. You cannot deny them. You cannot escape from them.

It’s never a “show” without audience. It’s just practice.

But honestly, you cannot predict their response or simulate their tastes before hand. You have no clue how that guy in the 4th seat of the 3rd row in the Berlin theater is going to take you?

That’s why there is a trick here. Target the 1%. 

The 1% who immediately connect to you, look at you with wide eyes, give you feedback, and are quite fascinated by what you are doing. This is because they are like YOU. Change-seekers.

These are the worthy followers you can bank. These are the healthy supporters you can trust. They laud your work no-matter-what.

Write for them, draw for them, sing for them, design for them. 

Because they are not just audience, they are your laudience.

Common flu is a commonly known disease. What’s equally common but not actually known that much, is the disease of the inability to take a decision when one’s life is at cross roads.

Most people spend their childhood, teenage, youth, adulthood, and even old age deciding  whether they should decide or not. About every important thing in life. Politics, religion, economy, education, their passions and even their life partners.

You can’t peek into the future, so you can never ever know if you are going to be right or wrong. All you know is that the result, no-matter-what, is a toss. A gamble. A game.

And like any game, you can’t win until you begin. 

So Begin somewhere. Trust something. Meet someone. And then somehow, everything will fall in place. 

Like Ralph Waldo Emerson says, Decide what you want really badly, and the whole universe will conspire to help you achieve it. 

Take a while, but hell, take a side.  

Because I feel being wrong is better than being uncertain.

Go, make a decision, today!

A friend recently emailed me asking to comment upon natural “talent” vs “acquired talent”. I honestly find it hard to differentiate. 

It’s tough to distillate your abilities into natural ones and acquired ones.

Vincent Van Gogh is a terrific painter, but he couldn’t identify this himself until almost 30. When asked about whether his skill was natural, he always said, he was never natural and had to toil a lot. Lot in the grandest sense. 

In his letters he wrote to his brother Theo, he constantly mentioned how difficult he would find just drawing and sketching. Forget about colors.

Yet, 10 years later, and now a century later, his paintings are one of the costliest art pieces ever sold in the history of mankind. His seven paintings in this list alone were sold for over 700 million current dollars.

On the contrary, I know an Indian batsman who is considered the God of Cricket. Sachin Tendulkar. He was a child prodigy. At 16, he was the youngest Indian ever to debut a Test match in cricket. Over time, now, he has the highest runs ever made by any person playing cricket in all formats together.

Vincent’s talent appears to be an acquired one and Sachin’s appears natural. Just appears. But it isn’t so. And even if it is, it doesn’t matter much.

What’s phenomenal is that they believed in just 3 things.

1) Identify what you love

2) Do it passionately until you succeed.

And sorry, though you might be tempted to know, but there was never a third option. 

How do they do that? 

The risk-takers. How do they manage taking such huge risks in life? Aren’t they afraid?

Turns out, they too are afraid. But not of what happens to them later,  but of what’s happening to them now and within.

Most of us have a burning desire that scorches our soul to do something we love to do. Again, not about trying a new iPhone case or dating that hot chick in your gym.

Desire. Soul. Burning. I’m talking about something that’s on a different level compared to anything else. That desire can move you, shake you and throw you out of your comfort zone. Develop such a desire. One that doesn’t fear risk.

Like William Arthur Ward wrote once,

Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Only a person who risks is free.

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; and the realist adjusts the sails. Begin your voyage.

Trust your guts, and remember it’s all about the journey, not the destination.

To finish my title, No one jumps off a cliff, to experience landing, 

But to experience flying. 

I read about two women who stood by themselves and are well remembered in the American history though for totally different reasons.

One has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is recognized as the world’s top-selling female recording artist of all time by Guinness World Records.

The other was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. But the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Now, who’s more famous? Obviously the first. Especially because she was a music artist.

But fame isn’t everything. It comes and goes. Like thin air or a huge storm.

Don’t confuse fame  with inspiration. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

Look at Helen’s picture here. Have you ever seen her before in real life?

It is sad that you couldn’t see such an important person in history.

What’s even more sad? She couldn’t see herself too.

April 25th, I promised myself that I’ll blog for atleast 50 days and email personally all my subscribers every day. Non Stop.

And the day has come.  This post marks the 50th day of this amazing adventure I took up in April. 

Haters gonna hate. Lovers gonna love. I’ve blogged every single day for 50 days.

Every. Single. Day. For. 50 Days.

In this 50 days period, I’ve missed going to work a couple of times, missed lunches, missed breakfasts, missed bathing, missed facebooking and even at times missed people, but I have not missed blogging.

Whoa, what a feeling I have today! Sheer joy. 

Writing is my teenage crush. Partly, because, as a kid, I wasn’t expressive enough. I felt as if I had a lot of say, but something/someone choked me from within.

And today I feel liberated. Like a waving flag, like a flying bird. 

My blog. This is where I could write about my passions. Share something of Value.

Creativity, Business, Inspiration, Leadership and Art. 

Thank you all for reading and giving me wonderful feedback all the way. You wrote some amazing letters to me that I’ll cherish for a long long time.

This is very special to me. 

Most importantly, this is the biggest promise I lived up in my life, so far!  And may be that is because I challenged the most important person in my life.

Myself.

PS: For a fresh re-look at why I value blogging, read this.

I was a very timid child. Especially in trying new things. 

When I was 14, one friend came home and accidentally taught me how to “balance” the bicycle. 

I was extremely excited that I could, for the first time in my life,  ride a bicycle. 

I had thought it was impossible until then. He taught me how to hold the grip, how to steer the handle, and how to pedal without de-linking the chain. 

And then, he asked me to just do it. I went a healthy 100 yards. And then I fell.

As I look back, it taught me one important lesson. 

To do anything new/adventurous in life,

First, you should be excited about it.

Second, you should find out how successful people do it.

Third, Replicate.

Fourth, which he didn’t tell, is that you will fall. Definitely. Somehow.

Yeah, I fell off the bike some 10-15 times. At one point, my ankles were ripped out too. But I had that little “otaku” to get up and try just once more.

And it made all the difference.

Falling down isn’t the problem. Staying there is.

PS: Now, replace bicycling with something that excites you today. Just do it.

I recently started following an old friend from Chennai on his twitter. 

Curious on what he’s doing these days, I ran through his tweets, and among which I found a gem of a book.

“Eat that frog”, by Brian Tracy. 

Brain Tracy is a very simple author with simple beliefs on life. 

In his book, he writes that we should do the ugliest yet most important thing first in our day. Or at least with utmost priority in our day.

Unfortunately, we are wired to do exactly the opposite. I always start my day with trivial things like replying emails, organizing my desk, or a nice little conversation with my friends.

He argues brutally that this is a suicide. A suicide of your peak energy. 

Facebook, email and even your friends can wait, gulp the frog first. 

After all, not everyone can do that. 

Coz, like I said here, procrastination is a bitch. Need an epic example?

Around 1904, there was a Nobel scientist in Russia who was famous for his experiments and his dogs. Ivan Pavlov.

Pavlov’s dogs were perhaps the only dogs in Russia that weren’t ordinary. They were, in my lingo, the purple cows dogs.

It was said that when every other dog salivated when they saw food, Pavlov’s dogs would salivate when they heard a bell ringing. [even when there was no food around].

It’s not that they were born like that. Or not that they wanted to eat the bells.

It’s because Pavlov, over the course of years, always had served them food only after the bell rang. So naturally, the dog’s minds were faked to believe that the bell sound magically brings them food. 

What Pavlov did here quite successfully is that he formed a habit.  A routine for the dogs.  Every single day, every single time. And that changed everything. 

A good habit has the power to transform you completely.

Imagine writing a blog. 

Now, imagine writing a blog, 4000 times. 

PS: I know someone who did that. Seth Godin. No wonder he is what he is today. 

There was once a time when humans lived in the caves like cavemen. All they had was chunky big rocks to work around with. Remember Flintstones.

But we have come a long way from that but most things have still remained old, big, chunky and archaic. Also aesthetically ugly.

No one actually bothers about the design. Most people are okay with just average products doing average things. The design is always an added decoration.

But Steve Jobs always said, ” Design is how it works, not just how it looks”.

There are a myriad of things around us in daily life that are aesthetically not well designed. 

Most of us don’t even realize that. You take it for granted. You need to have a designer’s eye to think otherwise.

One such example is a thermostat.  All of us have a basic working thermostat at home that merely keeps us warm or cool depending on our input.

But is that it? Can’t it do a little more than that?

Nest proved that it can. They added artificial intelligence to the regular thermostat and redesigned  our entire experience with thermostats.

10 years ago, cell phone did just two things. 1) Replaced a home telephone. 2) Was mobile and hence carry-able.

Only Steve Jobs thought cell phones could do a million other things, and he added an awesome user interface.They became iPhones.

I don’t complain that the earlier folks in the cellular business were bad. They were just good.

And like I always say, just good isn’t enough. You gotta be great.

Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Charlie Chaplin, Ansel Adams, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs. These are all in the infamously famous list of high school/college drop-outs.

A lot of people are psyched into a perception that going to school/college is the best way to become successful and make it big in life.

Then how could the above list of crazy people survive succeed in a ridiculously big way?

Because there’s a thin life of difference between “art” and “skill”.

Art is creating something. Original. Expressive. Remarkable.

Skill is building something. Knowledgedly. And perhaps effectively. 

School teaches you skills  to become expert at your field, gives you enough tools and helps you gain the required knowledge. Skill is a good thing to have. 

But the better thing to have is “art”. To have the ability to poke at the conventional. To stray away from the ordinary. To creatively tinker with an idea.

That is what these people have done in their lives. It’s very simple  but not easy. 

Yes, you guessed it right, tons and tons of sweat goes into the art. 

But, somehow, they always valued a chance to change the world more than a cool school degree.

Unfortunately, THEY WERE RIGHT!

It’s just a means to reach a higher goal. 

In a similar context, Howard Roark (a young independent architect in Fountain Head) quips, 

“I don’t intend to build in order to have clients; I intend to have clients in order to build.”

Your end goal should define your truest passion. No one should be able to buy it from you. 

But most people squat down when they hit a decent patch in life. The first car, the first house, the first wife, you think your life is complete.

Only 30 years later you realize, instead of the secured life you’ve had, you could have had a sensational one.

Coz’ both bring you to death anyway.

Every industry you ever heard of is going to be disrupted.

The classic brick and mortar stores are gone. The once-super-successful record labels are gone. The joyous drive-in theaters are gone. The opera, the publishing, the telecom, all the industries have flipped a 180.

And the one industry that endlessly advertised about the above, the classic advertising, even that has been whitewashed with the advent of online advertising.

Change takes turns to hit you. But surely it will meet you. Your job. Your career. 

Why let it haunt you? Don’t escape from it. Run towards it. 

Fish for it. Find it. Embrace it. 

Write an ebook, create an online advertising company, start a hangout on air session and host a talk show, record a dubstep, create a facebook newspaper or make an ecommerce handicrafts store. Put a step into the future.

I’m not saying these are the right answers.

But I’m saying we are all used to asking the wrong questions. 

Remember, only one thing can battle change, 

Only CHANGE.

PS: If you have an idea and are struggling to realize it, throw a message at me, I’d love to be an encouraging hand, and yes, I’ll chip in whatever little creative resources I bring to the table.

You, Yes You!

I know you are all not JK Rowlings, Ayn Rands, Tolstoys, Karl Marxs, or Stephen Kings. And I surely know you can’t write anywhere closer to their standards.

But if,

if,

if,

if you ever had an itch, a yearning, a slight otaku, a fire in your belly to write something, I say, the time is now!

Heck with the world! Who cares if what you write isn’t getting a Booker Prize?

Not every child picks up crayons to become a Picasso. 

He draws because he has a wish in his tender mind. A wish to express. To emote. To let the world get a feel of him.

And here we are, the rational  adults struggling within our own minds to pick up our pens. Or Not.

I just saw in a lovely blog a lovey quote, “Every book ever written is just a different combination of 26 letters.”

Your 26 letters are waiting for you.

1.In your school you did that.

2.In your college you did that. 

3.In your job you did/are doing that.

4.Among friends, cousins, peers, colleagues, everywhere you did that. 

Rat Race.

Stop now. Stop running among others. Start running into yourself.  Tickle your deepest desires. Not bodily pleasures. Desires of your soul. 

Take winning/losing out of the equation.Doing “what you truly want” is the mantra.

May be you never had a choice about 1,2,3,4. But don’t make 5 a rat race too.

5= Life.

That girl you saw in the coffee shop won’t notice you.

That agent you met in the literary club won’t remember you.

That dealer at the book publishing company won’t even consider you.

For most people in the world, you don’t even exist if you don’t announce your arrival. And the best way to announce you arrival is by action.

Average people can be classified into two categories, largely, a) Reactive

and very rarely b) Active.

And then there is the rarest type. The Proactive.

Let your actions be proactive. That’s what heroes are made of.

Don’t wait for opportunities to appear. Instead, you appear to them.

You have an inner spark waiting to be ignited. 

I say, fire it up. Keep firing. And very soon you’ll spread like a wild fire. 

And suddenly, the girl at the coffee shop, the agent at the art gallery, the dealer of the publishing company, they’ll start to recognize you.

Don’t kid yourself. No one is going to pick you.  

Like Seth Godin says, Pick Yourself.

Very Often. From things I don’t like.

Most people can’t do that. And I pride myself for having done it always.

I quit from sick habits, rotten thoughts, endless gossip, low-confidence, pointless relationships and recently even my first job.

Though sometimes it shook my entire family and sometimes it pleased them all, these decisions were not easy.

Especially when you have people with expectations on you to deliver. It becomes an invisible promise.

But the biggest promise you have is to yourself. You have to answer the person of tomorrow. You. What will you tell him?

Is he living with hope to make a dent in the universe or living with despair like a cog in the wheel?

In this epic Steve Jobs’ talk at Stanfard, he says,

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.

Yes. Create a life you dont want to escape from!  

PS: This advice is given to me as much as it is to you. At times when I get clogged on purposeless pursuits, I’ll come back here and re-read this.