The 4th Dimension

We are in middle of March and the remaining days leading upto 23^rd March, media will keep on reminding us the historical importance of Pakistan resolution and its implications. No doubt these celebrations are essential but it is also important that along with these celebrations we come up with something concrete that can actually help prosper Pakistan. Instead of drawing room discussions it’s more appropriate to chalk out plans and take actions.

I have always dreamt that MNCs operating in Pakistan, particularly the telecom companies [since I belong to telecom J] should also pump back the amount of fortune that they earn, back to the society. This only confirms their long term plans and their commitment to the betterment of the country.

Telecom companies do have their corporate social responsibility programs but many believe that most of the initiatives under CSR umbrella are marketing gimmicks. Barring a few exceptions like the Mobilink’s contribution towards the IDP issue, recycling of billboards material and making school bags out of it and Khuddar Pakistan from Telenor are all indeed very laudable efforts.

Looking at the current situation in Pakistan, where almost daily, we have suicide bombs welcoming the dawn of a new day, where every day hopes fade against mounting adversities, ambitions are slaughtered, lousiness is vindicated and change is defied, people in the land of pure do not have much to feel happy of. Our favorite past times, Cricket and Hockey to name a few have plunged into such depths that it is miraculous to believe that events folding on those fields can stimuli change. All in all we have lost hope and have forgotten to focus on the positivity that surrounds us. We often forget that Pakistanis are number one in philanthropy; are the most hospitable people and are peaceful and want peace.

In these tough times I as an ordinary Pakistani would like to thank Telenor Pakistan for the ‘Karo Mumkin’ campaign, a campaign that promises to deliver a message of hope and optimism to the people of Pakistan. The campaign [details can be viewed here] invites people to come up with ideas and suggestions that can contribute towards the betterment and prosperity of Pakistan.

The following is the official stance on the campaign:

Everyone has an idea or a dream that they wish to transform into reality. With its products and services, Telenor Pakistan hopes to inspire hope and self-belief in the people of Pakistan. Just recently, Telenor Pakistan transformed an opportunity into an achievement by launching the country’s first real mobile banking service, easypaisa. In the same tradition, we aspire to extend this faith to everyone that any possibility can be realized if pursued with commitment, confidence and belief.

Usman Javaid,

Director Marketing Telenor Pakistan

I know that it is wishful but still if this campaign can stimulate a chain reaction that Buddha has said:

One moment can change a day… One day can change a life… One life can change the world.

Lets pray that for us Pakistanis, this campaign can be that moment J

Karo mumkin Pakistan, Zindabad Telenor!

P.S:  Disclaimer: I am neither associated with Telenor nor its affliated vendors/PR agency. The views expressed in the above blog are my own, readers reserve their rights over difference of opinion.

Success stories always fascinate me. It was for this reason I read a lot of biographies to try to find the formula of success. As every human being is unique so are their stories of success. People have achieved greatness by a combination of sheer hard work, dedication and never say never attitude. All successful individuals have one thing in common and that is their humbleness. You can name any individual that has enjoyed the pinnacle of success and you will come across him as truly humble.

I last read the story of Lee Iacocca, who is considered to be the Einstein of Motor industry and was rated as the 18th best CEO in the world by Portfolio. He started off with Ford Motors in the engineering section as industrial electronics engineer. Inside two years he figured it out that engineering was not his piece of cake so he met the general manager and requested him to transfer him in the sales department with a 50% pay cut. Joining sales department was the start of Iacocca’s success. In the sales department Iacocca was involved with the design of several successful Ford models, including the famous FORD Mustang. At the age of 50 he went on to become the president of Ford but was fired because some of his models were dismissed by the board of governors as mere utopian.

At the same time he was requested by the Reagan government to take over Chrysler which was nearing bankruptcy. After taking over he requested several banks for a loan but none of the banks were willing to bail the company out. However one bank in Europe decided to loan the company 2 billion dollars but only on the condition that American Congress will be guarantor of this deal. This condition was outrageous since this had never before in the history, However Iacocca with his brilliance, lobbied with the Reagan administration and was able to have the loan.

With this money Iacocca manufactured the models which were rejected by the Ford governing body. These models were the start of people using small cars for their daily usage. The success of these models not only helped Chrysler clearing all their loans within half of the expected time but also brought the company on the road of prosperity.

This was the story that I shared so that those who didn’t have an idea as to who Iacocca was should have a rough sketch about the brilliance of this man.

Someone asked him the reason behind his success and Iacocca responded that it was his father. He said that whenever I use to go for a meal, my father always use to handover 10$ in advance to the waiter and used to say that our meal should not get spoiled now. Since the waiter was already paid in advance for his work, he/she always use to extend top class services. Iacocca learnt from this habit that if you want to get things done you must first give each person their due share and then you will see how people will go extra mile to achieve results.

Iacocca simply replicated this formula as leader of corporate institutes. During the start of the year he used to ask his employees how much profit did they expect the company to make and he used to give the bonus according to that (usually it’s the other way around in MNCs)  and used to urge the employees to deliver the results. This approach of him never let the company down and since employees already had their piece of cake so they use to make sure that they don’t let their company down in return.

He said that there are four principles of a corporate life which can also be related in achieving goals of one’s life:

1.) First decide what you really want to do in a given project.
2.) Hire the best people to achieve that objective.
3.) Set out your priorities.
4.) Start striving to achieve the results even if the rate of progress is very slow. If you are convinced that daily you have moved an inch to achieve your goal, you will never fail.

Ten dollars after all can make a difference.

P.S: This post has been inspired by a article written on life of Iacocca by a local journalist some 4 years back.

The dot net world is now a part and parcel of generation Y. Social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, myspace etc has taken the world by storm. Most of the people now spend more time ‘online’ than they spend with their families.

This change is not only limited to personal life but the importance of online professional profile is equally important. We have seen the advent of sites such as linkedin, jobserve, rozee.pk where people tailor their online profile in search of new career challenges.

With change being the only constant we continue to see interesting projects coming up in the online world. I recently came across a website that gives employers the convenience of only interviewing filtered candidates.

The working is pretty simple. The employer can post a job with a certain pre-requisites. The site administrators then in consultation with the employers employ certain filtering techniques. The benefit for such a system is both ways

Any candidate confident that he is matching the minimum requirement threshold can apply for the job.

Employers on other hand don’t require scanning each and every resume and then identifying the potential candidates.

Since everything has certain pros and cons therefore the same goes for this as well:

PROS

Everyone can apply provided he/she meets the minimum requirements.

Everyone is given an equal opportunity to prove his/her worth in tests.

No nepotism and favoritism as everything is transparent and online.

CONS

No check and balance in the initial screening.

A smart techie can play around with the results.

The one on one interview atmosphere cannot be replicated.

Considering both the pros and cons of such a project I would like to know the opinion of hiring managers and senior industry professionals. If you are in a hiring position will you use this technique of hiring or you will like to hire people using the conventional way.

Do share your valuable views.

Till next time…… Haris

Call it pessimism, reality, glumness or whatever word describes it best I have a firm opinion that we have a long way to go both collectively and individually as far as helping and sharing is considered.

We all are (barring a few exceptions) peeli patti (a term coined for the female aspect of the society) and raja jani (a term coined for the male aspect of the society) . Peeli Patti and Raja Jani are fictionist characters penned by local pop band Noori. These characters are happy in their utopian world and not realizing that actually whatever their acts are, it ultimately has an impact on the society they live in one way or the other.

Today we see our people in a state of self-denial. We are victims of a very myopic view of life, where the center of attention is only our own self, and a future that does not go, at best, beyond the scope and span of our own lifetime. We seek short-lived pleasures while we turn our faces away from the unpleasantness and sickness that surrounds us. We love ourselves and ourselves alone, yet we are oblivious of the harm we are causing to our mind and body. We live for the moment, as we fear our mortality; but we kill ourselves every single day!

Peeli Patti aur Raja Jani ki Gol Dunya is the story of our society in this very context. It questions the very premise on which human beings are functioning in this day and age. It pinpoints at how we have been nurturing an indifferent stance towards life, and how, in doing so, we have harmed not only our external environment, but also our inner selves. It reflects on the growing frustration around us and sheds light on our discontentment with life in general. It urges for a collective introspection. It searches for a hope that one day we will rediscover ourselves; (text in 3^rd and 4^th paragraph is courtesy of credits section of the noori album)

Try to identify peeli patti and raja jani’s around you and educate them as to how their perspective of life is harmful for the whole society. We must act now before it’s too late, before nature decides to take its toll on us. Because then, we will have no choice!

It is debatable whether Slumdog Millionaire (SDM) deserved all those accolades and we should leave this for masses to decide. The movie can best be described as fiction. However I personally felt it had one thing real and that was following and creating your Omens (There’s a highly recommended book titled ‘The Alchemist’ regarding omens) and how omens play a vital part in one’s life.

We have this language of the omens, the language of the signs. It is an alphabet that is directed to us. (Paulo Coelho)

The story is very common. A poor guy running after his dreams, liking a girl and fighting against society taboos to achieve all this. He participates in a reality show in which he knew the answers of most questions by chance, because of things that happened in his life.

This is where SDM correlates with reality. 90% of the eventualities that we face in our lives are created by us alone. It is those decisions that we have taken in our past that end up coming to us as event/s in the future. Since it is we who control those events therefore we are to blame for them being good or bad to us.

“Actions are the seed of fate and deeds that grow into destiny.”

People will call it miracle, luck, chance, fluke etc if this happens in your favour, not realizing the fact how hard you must have tried for that ‘eventuality’ to work for you.

You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to these miracles. If for some reason you never gave attention as to how it’s you that end up creating all those eventualities it is never too late. It is failure that guides us towards the path of success.

I never failed once. Discovering how to make a light bulb just happened to be a 2000 step process. (Thomas Alva Edison)

As someone so rightly said It’s choice–not chance–that determines your destiny.

And

Destiny: It is written (with you being its writer)

I have always tried to figure out what keeps people to continue to stretch themselves in such a demanding profession called telecom. When most individuals are returning home after a fixed routine, telecom professionals are usually gearing themselves to trouble shoot a cell site.

And guess what? I found an answer to that. The thing that keeps them moving through thick and thin is their love for what they do. If they would not have loved their profession there was no point in stretching themselves from nine to none. I call this the love factor.

The following by Steve Jobs gives an interesting read:

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And 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. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle”.

In our lives we come across different people who have been forced into a profession. Be it is their family’s traditional way of earning or the choice enforced by their mom and dad, in this scenario they cant do much except to find something that will keep them moving, and i can bet on it that its not easy. Remember that life is too short for the wrong job.

So what if you are doing that doesn’t excites you any more or it was something that you had to choose because you were job less for may be 8 months or so? There can be numerous answers to it. But if i would have been in your situation i would have acknowledged myself for figuring it out that yes i need to get out of this. You have taken the first major step of reaching towards your goal. It is not easy. You may have to leave your 25k job to go for a non paid internship for 3-6 months leading to a permanent slot. But isn’t this worth it? After all you will end up in something that you always wanted to be. You just have to believe in yourself and that’s it.

I take a lot of strength from these lines that Abraham Lincoln wrote to his son’s teacher.

“Teach to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him he is wrong… Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone’s getting on the bandwagon… Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness… Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidder, but never to put a price on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob and stand and fight if he thinks he is right”.

And just to sum it off i again quote Steve Jobs:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”.

Keep helping others and keep looking for your love factor.

As someone so rightly said “Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have - so spend it wisely”

Until next time.

Haris

On a personal note, to see my blog amongst so many senior pro’s was no less then imitating, it just gave me that extra bit of self motivation that I too can achieve as great as all of the blog contributing professionals at Zumbeel.

Many thanks for all the views and comments. I will sure try to accommodate the requests in future posts.

N.B: I am open to all sorts of professional networking invitations. I can be reached at syedharith@yahoo.com

My initial response on being asked to pen down some lines for Zumbeel was nothing sort of a surprise. I was not even thinking let alone expecting this, but as they say that the best things in life are not scripted they are just bound to happen.

I would like to start this process about sharing about my participation in a recent workshop conducted by Mr. Farhad of Navitus.

The workshop was all about doing the basics right for achieving any thing in life. We were asked to go through different exercises and each time when we were stuck some where the main theme of the workshop was re-enforced, making us realize that everything is possible. On many occassions I along with my team was stuck in akward situations but were still able to cope out of it.

The whole workshop revolved around how our attitude matters more then anything else. A simple example was given in which our attitude was related to that of a TV antenna. When the TV antenna is in the right position it gives you the best quality signal and you enjoy your time watching television, but if the antenna is moved slightly from its position then not only TV reception becomes poor but also ones mood changes if he/she was interested in watching a particular favourite program.

Our attitude is also similar to that of an antenna. If our attitude is right then our focus is right which leads to us being running on a right track. Doing things with the right attitude not only help us achieve excellence in what we do but also we tend to enjoy our work. This wont be the case if our antenna (read attitude) being in the wrong position. Remember that most of the battles are won through the mind rest fighting on the field in many cases becomes secondary.

Steve Waugh ex captain of the modern day invincible Aussies attributes his success to the approach and attitude of his team.In the 1999 world cup when his team had to win 6 straight games to enter the semi final, it was this attitude and never say die approach that led them to new hieghts in the world of cricket.

Bottom line is that if ones approach and attitude is correct then no doubt that person is destined to excel in his life. Take any success story and you will see that he/she also went through very tough and in most of the cases torrid times early on in their career, but it was their never say never, can do approach and having the antenna in the right direction that helped them achieve their goals against all odds.

So the next time you find yourself in any demanding situation then just focus and position your antenna in the right direction, i promise that you come out of it with flying colours.

Remember that when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

Happy Zumbeeling !