Why Don't You Write?

`Why don’t you write these days? It has been a while since you wrote something.`

He did not have a response. He knew he was guilty. Guilty to her and guilty to himself. There were thousands of stories within him, hundreds of poems bubbling, waiting to be leashed out and a string of words that came into his dreams every night, but yet there was something that was stopping him. Was it the famous writer’s block? Was it inertia and laziness? Was it distractions that gave him instant gratification without much effort in comparison to writing which took its own time and effort and the gratification wasn’t even guaranteed?

Yet, whenever she would ask him innocently on why he wasn’t writing these days, he felt as if he owed it to her to sit down and write something. It was even ironic that while he himself was struggling to write, he kept pushing her to write every now and then and she would oblige by coming up with the most beautiful stories that were recognizable and relatable to all, stories that resonated with its readers, stories that stripped the outer layer of human emotions that were all made up and went deeper. It was as if she had access to the realms of people that they themselves weren’t aware of, but yet, every time they would read what she had written, it would leave them with a pang of pain, a sense of moral dilemma or deep pathos that made them sit back and reflect.

He was her biggest critic as well as her biggest admirer. He would read lines and words in her story that would make him wonder in awe on how she thinks, what brings to the surface such deep lines and how she surprises him by going one step further in her craft than what he would think is her limit.  Oddly, he would feel proud that she belonged to him and loved him, that she had the purest heart which got reflected in her stories, that she wrote on his insistence every time and yet his writer mind would also feel a tinge of jealousy. He would happily tell the world that she writes and would urge others to read what she wrote and yet he would wish that someday his craft would get sharper enough to stand next to hers. He knew there was some distance to be covered, he knew that her writing was the spark that he needed every now and then to improve his writing but what he kept forgetting was that to even come close to her, he had to write first.

Why don’t you write these days was a question that she asked him innocently but she didn’t know that it started the rusting machinery once again. 

Swimming in the Shark Tank for Lessons

“Television is an idiot box” was a term that was coined decades back, but this is so far from truth today than it could ever be. Today, television informs, educates, inspires, trains and does so much more.

They say that if you want to swim with the sharks, then you better be a good swimmer and a good communicator because sharks are not the gentle and docile creatures that dolphins are, and one wrong step can turn out to be fatal. This brings me to one of the shows that I am hooked onto – Shark Tank.

Before you read any further, if you have not seen Shark Tank, then click on the links below and have a look at a few of these episodes:

Shark Tank: Season 8, Episode 15 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IromI9Nyfuc

Shark Tank: Season 8, Episode 17: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipyc0-V0kR0

This show is in its 8^th Season and it is only growing bigger with more sharks coming into the show. As you would have seen, this show is all about dreams. One person dreams, comes to the show to sell his/her dreams and the sharks then invest in his/her business if they see merit and value in his/her dream.

I believe that there are lessons in this show for everyone, whether you are a businessman, a venture capitalist, a startup entrepreneur , a corporate employee, a marketer, or a student.

I have tried to put together a list of lessons that I think anyone and everyone can get from watching Shark Tank:

1. Presentation: One of the key lessons that you learn from watching Shark Tank is the different styles and ways of presenting your idea. Some present their ideas the way they would in a serious corporate Board Room, whereas some others go over the top and present their ideas with complete playacting, costume and voice modulation. Some others use their props in a smart manner and make it a part of their presentation like this person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N4v17aWzjs

The lesson here is that there is no right or wrong way of presentation as long as you are able to tell your story to the audience and make them feel involved.

2. Negotiation: In life, irrespective of what you do, you come across situations where you have to negotiate with someone else. The amount of negotiation may be big or small, but if you do not want to be shortchanged, it is important that you know proper negotiation skills that involve knowing when to draw the line, when the other person is pulling a bluff on you and when the person will take your bait or leave it. Shark Tank will teach you amazing skills in negotiation not only from the sharks who are experts at this, but also from people who have come to sell their ideas. The best parts in the show are when either of the two parties are raising or dropping the bait to see who falls first. It gives you a good insight into human psychology and how desperation makes people do stupid things or how false bravado makes them miss their deals.

3. Innovation: The entire premise of this show is built around innovation. The sharks are not interested in investing in your business if you bring them run of the mill stuff which does not have a competitive advantage or where the barriers of business are too low. This show opens your mind to the world of innovation and the kind of ideas that people are coming up with. It changes your perspective on categories and makes you think on a different dimension.

4. Consumer Insight: The most creative and innovative idea is a waste if it is not built on a strong consumer insight. Every idea should solve a problem/cater to the need in the consumers’ life, even if the consumer is aware or not aware of that problem or need at that point of time. The kind of ideas that people come up with in this show and the genesis behind the creation of those ideas gives a fantastic lesson on how consumer insight can be mined or formed. Sometimes, the insight that the presenter presents on a category seems like an Aha moment because it is so obvious and yet it never struck you or any other company so far.

5. Vision and Valuation: It is important in life to know your worth and for others to be able to see your worth. Shark Tank is a great place to see how people are able to carve out a vision, value themselves and their vision and then ask for the sharks to invest in their vision. Sometimes the sharks agree with the vision and valuation and sometimes they do not and they give advice to the presenters on what the right value should be. Some of them agree whereas some of them take this on their chin with a clear agenda to prove the sharks wrong.  

6. Marketing: There are people on Shark Tank who come with sales figures already running in millions and it is a delight to hear their marketing approach on achieving these figures and reaching out to their audience. If you are smart, you can easily take some of those marketing ideas and adapt it to your own job or category.

7.  Selling: I began my lessons by talking about presentation but Shark Tank will also teach you that while a great presentation is helpful, you can still sell your idea or your business if you are a great salesperson. While a good presentation is normally a prerequisite, but even if that is not your forte, as long as you know your business and your passion and you are able to serve the fusion of this business acumen and passion to the sharks on a platter, their money is for yours to grab. “I’m Out” is one of the statements that no person presenting to the sharks ever wants to hear and only a good salesperson can avoid that.

I am confident that these are not the only lessons that Shark Tank teaches you and am sure that you would have your own lessons from this show. I would be glad to know what those lessons are so please let me know what lessons have you learnt from Shark Tank.

One thing that surprises me is that how come, India being a country of so many start-ups doesn’t have a show like this yet, or is it that a show like this exists and I am not aware of it. Do you guys know of any such show?

Respect - What It Means

Respect. It may seem like a simple seven letter word, but it is powerful enough to be seen as a complete sentence as well. Respect condenses within itself the power to sustain many relationships, it contains within itself the ability to show other people your emotions about how you feel about them, about a situation or even about someone you may not know personally. 

Let me explain myself a bit. One of the foundations of any relationship is the presence of respect in that relationship. Right from our childhood, we are taught that we need to respect our parents, our teachers and our elders and those are the building blocks of our relationship with them. Respect is the adjective that you use when you want to address people from stage. It could be “Respected Guests” or “Respected Judges” and that is the badge value of respect. 

Go deep into the healthy relationships of any couple and they will tell you that the reason our relationship is so strong is that we respect each other. Many broken relationships occur because one of the partners did not respect the other. 

In a professional set up, respect as a value comes into play once again and people like to work for organizations and bosses that respect them.

The beauty of respect is that it does not differentiate between strangers and familiarity or between gender or hierarchy. You could respect someone you do not know as much as how much you would respect people you know. When you react to a video of a friend who has done something that is admirable, you show respect for that. Similarly, when a soldier of your country shows an act of valour to protect you and your borders, you show respect for that as well, even though you may not know the soldier personally.

Respect is something that needs to be earned and one has to work hard for it. Often, our heroes earn our respect because of their acts and deeds, and sometimes they earn this respect at different stages of their lives. No one knew Malala Yousafazai when she was a young student until the time she got shot by the Taliban and then became a Pakistani activist at a young age. The world started respecting her from then on. Nelson Mandela become a worldwide respected personality only after he was sentenced to life imprisonment at the age of 44. 

              Respect is for those who deserve it and not for those who demand it.

While it is difficult to earn respect, it is extremely easy to lose respect. We see this many times when our heroes and our idols fail us and our first reaction is “I have lost all respect for him or her.” World famous cyclist Lance Armstrong lost lot of respect of his fans when he confessed taking drugs to improve his performance.  

They say that knowledge is power but it is respect that defines your character. A true character of a person gets reflected when he speaks ‘respectfully’ not only to his seniors or people who are higher than him in the economic society but also to his juniors and to people who are lower than him in society. So you may be very successful in life and maybe earning a lot of money but if you do not have the respect of others and if you do not show respect to others, then you are still very poor.

Another aspect of respect is that it is not only outward driven, but it is also inward created. That is what self-respect is – the respect that you give to yourself as an individual and that is a sacred wall that no one can trample on, because when people trample on that, it causes lot of hurt.

As the saying goes:

               Respect is earned. Trust is gained. Honesty is appreciated. Loyalty is returned.

While you may be a trustworthy person, a loyal person, an honest person but you would never call yourself self-good, self-loyal or self-honest but you wouldn’t shy away from calling yourself a self-respecting individual. That is the power of ‘Respect.’

The Power of Non-Verbal Acknowledgement

Have you ever been in a situation on the road, where you have left someone else pass the road ahead of you and the person has acknowledged your act through thumbs up sign?

Alternatively, a scenario where the road ahead was too narrow and you have reversed your car to let the car on the other side to come across before you went ahead on that road, and the other car driver has held out his hand to acknowledge and thank you for your act.

On the other hand, what about a situation where you were presenting something to a room full of people and you said something that you wanted validation for, you gave a quick glance to your boss and she/he gave a slight nod of validation and acknowledgement that what you said is absolutely fine.

How about a romantic scenario where your spouse or your partner is sitting a little away from you in a party and you both look at each other and blink and smile to say that I hope you are enjoying the party.

Moreover, how can we forget the many non-verbal acknowledgements that we give and receive on a daily basis on social media in the form of likes, retweets, hearts, etc.

There could have been many other situations like where the person inside the elevator held the door for you as you made a rush towards it and you just smiled in a thanking way, or you stopped on seeing a pedestrian as he crossed the road and he held up his hands to thank you and acknowledge your act. These are just a few examples but I am sure that you may recollect many such situations where there wasn’t any conversation through words but yet there was an exchange that took place through non-verbal acknowledgement.

The beauty of an acknowledgement is that you do not need to know the person, it does not come with the inhibitions of a conversation where an icebreaker is needed and it is a universal language that is understood by all, even though the receiver and the giver may speak completely different languages.

It is an extremely powerful non-verbal tool, which doesn’t have a fixed way and each and every non-verbal cue is acceptable – be it a thumbs up, a nod of the head, a smile, blinking of eyes or any other non-verbal movement as long as the people involved in the exchange of this understand it. It is a small act but it makes both the receiver and the giver feel positive, where the person who is acknowledging appreciates the act of the other and the person who is being acknowledged feels nice that his act has been noticed.

Quite often, in our busy lives, we forget the power of such non-verbal cues, but it is one of the simplest, purest and easiest forms of communication that any two individuals can participate it. It doesn’t take much of an effort but the positive feeling that it leaves you with can suddenly uplift your mood, improve your day, energize you and make you feel thankful for the beautiful life around. Next time, pay attention when you get acknowledged or take the effort to acknowledge someone and you will see the power of this universal language.