The Last Lecture

by Randy Pausch (Author), Jeffrey Zaslow (Author)

Randy Pausch, a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon, struggling with all the physical and phychological issues related to pancreatic cancer – gives his last lecture in front of Carnegie Mellon Students and other audiences. The lecture was given last fall and; subsequently, the professor died on July 25, 2008 at the age of 47. His book has become a phenomenon.

It’s an academic tradition to giving students a last lecture, where the professors hypothesize that if this were their last lecture – what would they say to the students? For Randy Pausch, this was not a hypothetical frame work – it was all too real. He came to know about the fatality of his disease after he was invited to give this last lecture. He used up this opportunity to collect his thoughts and wisdom to pass along not only to his three kids but also to the rest of the world. The wisdom passed along from a dying intellectual is always forceful.

Reading this book has really made me think. If I knew that I would die within 6 months or so; what exactly would I write or say to my son. He is only 2-1/2 years old – What could I possibly leave behind that would tie my trajectory of life so he can use to propagate himself forward? I know its morbid and it is depressing – But face it – life is not always full of fun and frolic – and some times (more than what we would care to acknowledge) life really comes at you fast. "What would you like to see scribed on your tomb stone" is a potent motivational force - But thinking of what you would impart upon the next generation on your deathbed is a different beast altogether.

So, me personally - I would tell my kid about –

• My life’s story (history of family as far and as far out as I can remember)
• His life’s story as perceived by me
• All the life’s incidences and books that have changed my life forever.
• All the dreams and aspirations that I have for him
• A synopsis of world history, religion, and evolution of human psychology as far as I have understood them ….
• Some secrets of religion and history that I have collected over the years

But enough about my morbid thoughts…. Randy, in his book, gives a list of ideals and philosophies to live by – inspired by his life and nicely summarized in the book with stories from his own life. The take away message from his book to me was – It’s not the quantity but the quality of life that matters. Randy also gives some great pointers on work ethics, time management, and work performance optimization. “Don’t sweat over what other people think”, “Dance with the one who brung you”, “Treat the disease and not the symptoms”, and “look for the best in everyone” are some of my favorite pearls of wisdom from this book.

A definite must read for getting some really cool ideas on improving your family life, work life and spiritual life.

You can download an iTunes version of Randy’s actual last lecture from the Carnegie Melon University Website at

http://www.cmu.edu/index.shtml

A transcript of his last lecture can be found at –

www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/Randy/pauschlastlecturetranscript.pdf

As you can tell (This is my second blog on stress management), I worry about stress way too much. I stress about stress. Hence I consider myself sort of an expert at managing stress. I feel I must share my experience and tid-bits of techniques that I picked up over the years.

Being a part of the American Corporate world for a while now; I know a thing or two about stress. I have experienced and survived extreme stresses to the point where they became severe strain on my body. I’m sure those working on the Wall Street or at an Air Traffic Control Tower at JFK Airport, NY must experience way more stress than I could ever imagine. But I consider my feat to be worth mentioning. Also, I guess with the current economic and job market woes; we’ll see more and more of stress creeping up on our back. A little stress is healthy – it helps a person propel forward - but when it becomes chronic and starts affecting your life – you need to really watch out then.

Let me start with a real life story – which has made a tremendous impact on my attitude towards stress, work, and life. I thank god for letting me experience this when I was only starting my professional career. I met a distance relative of mine for the first time – he was 65 or so years of age – highly successful in life – retiree VP of a larger Pharmaceutical company – spoke proudly of using corporate jets on his whims. On the swing side, he underwent so much of work related stress, he had two heart by-pass surgeries already and his family-life showed clear evidence of a severe deterioration. He, secretly, confided into me – saying that I should dedicate more time on my family than at work (His idea of stress reduction) – He added that I should take plenty of vacations with the family (again his stress reduction technique) and spend as much time with them as possible. He mentioned all this by giving his own example. He said that at times he was so involved in his work that he thought very soon he will accomplish enough (that he set as goal) for him to take plenty of time off and take care of himself and family. That time, he said, never came. As he climbed up the corporate ladder, there was less and less time for him and family - and more and more of work related stress. He soon died of a heart attach, during one of his business trips, in a hotel room, all by himself.

I took a vow never to get so involved in my work that I forget my health and family. What does this story tell you? Stress is a monkey that once it gets on your back – it feeds on your work habits and family discord culminating into severe body injury or break-up of a family. Here are a few tips to keep this monkey off your back (or at least in check).

WHEN AT WORK –

a) Leave your work bench and take a walk out in the open air for a few minutes everyday. A walk after the afternoon meal is not just de-stressing but also reinvigorating.

b) Manage your time well – Know when to say ‘When’. This may be one of the greatest tricks or stress management.

c) Never miss a meal – No matter how busy you are. If you are that super-busy dude – a critical contributor – working on that precious proposal due by the end of the week – there is still access to some ‘healthy fast food’ (This is not an oxymoron anymore).

d) Keep an iPod with music that relaxes you; handy – listen to it when there is a few minutes of downtime.

e) Don’t sweat over things at work that are beyond your control.

WHEN AT HOME –

a) Alcohol, caffeine, and TV are not your friends when it comes to stress management.

b) Exercise and family time are your best friends in stress reduction. Try Tai-Chi or Yoga – Any of those mind-body harmonizing practice will do. For example, when you are really tired when you come home from work, a simple Yoga posture such as ‘SAVASANA’ helps immensely - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savasana

c) Take regular short family outing trips in addition to the big ones that you plan for every year.

d) Never bring work home. Try to finish everything that you need to do at your work. Not even a thought of your work should cross as you step out. I know, in the age of E-mails on cell phones and Blackberries – I’m fighting a losing battle here.

e) Get hold of a good masseur or a masseuse. An occasional good massage really relaxes and rejuvenates the body. I have noticed these small kiosks of massage parlors pop up at airports and at malls. Just stay away from the massage parlors in San Francisco – They offer way more stress reliving services than I would care to employ.

f) Eat vegetarian when possible. Stay away from red meat diets (big source of stress in your body). ‘Vegetarianism’ is catching up as a source of stress reduction technique and is not for those weirdos anymore.

g) Do some community service on the weekends. In whatever form it may be …

I’ll end this blog by stating a great line of wisdom – probably from native American tribes – “God, give me courage to accept the things that I can not change; give me strength to change the things that I can, and above all – give me the wisdom to know the difference between the two.”

** Image curtsy http://5dresses.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/stress-picture-stress-relief-kit.jpg

Emotional Intelligence is a term well researched in the past but was popularized by a psychologist turned reporter, Mr. Daniel Goleman and his best seller book – Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ . Wikipedia describes Emotional Intelligence Quotient ( EQ ) as an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups . So, emotional intelligence is a measure of your zeal, determination, motivation, persistence, hope etc. It is also a measure of how well you can regulate your mood, frustration, empathy and also how well you play with others etc. There is another way of looking at it – if IQ is your measure of rational brain; EQ provides a sense of your irrational side.

There is no equivalent bench mark test to measure your EQ (Good!!! Last thing I need now is another test score to tell me how ungifted I am).

So, why bother with EI or EQ at all? How do I figure where do I stand on the EQ spectrum and could I improve my EQ? If I can improve it – How do I do that? Or is this just another technical term that psychologists use to explain why some folks with mediocre IQ excel above their more IQ-gifted peers????

It turns out – EQ is an emotional quality in you that you use most to succeed in life. A well balanced, less temperamental and stable mind is more useful to succeed in life than an unstable, temperamental, and erratic logical brilliance. Who would you rather have; a boss with calm-mind that gives you constructive criticism or a yelling maniac who is always stresses you out…

Unlike IQ where test scores, which generally do not change much after the teen years, EQ is a set of skills learned throughout life. By understanding ones current EQ individuals can begin to implement effective action plans to improve their emotional intelligence. By learning to be aware of the power and wisdom of emotions in themselves and others and achieving the balance between logical and emotional approaches, individuals can become much more effective in their roles as managers, workers or co-workers.

EQ spectrum for any individual contains a measure of the following emotions –

a) Happiness/Sadness

b) Anger/Cheerful

c) Stress

d) Gratification (Delayed or instant)

e) Empathys

f) Self awareness

g) Anxiety

h) Depression/Optimism

i) Ability to resolve conflict

j) Social skills

k) Impulse

l) Aggression etc.

So, how do I improve my EI? First trying to figure out which of the emotions mentioned above affect your performance. Which of these emotions completely and negatively overtakes your life once in a while? Then work on those using specific self help plan developed with friends, family or a therapist. For example, if anger is the one emotion that causes you mental and other social issues – Count till 10 before you say something hurtful – Deliberate long breaths for a few minutes dissipates the anger quickly – Wait for 24 hours before you send that scathing e-mail etc. are plans to help yourself manage your emotion in life and at work place.

Last thing I want to bring into these discussions is ‘Religion’ – But it turns out – Silent prayers, meditation, and contemplation plays a bigger role in improving your EQ.

OK. I’m sick of people of complaining about how dysfunctional the company that they-work-for is!!! So I’m writing this blog to at least start the thought process of what an ideal company aught to do – Yeh Yeh don’t tell me you want to work for a company like GOOGLE or the World Bank just because you heard that they have great benefits – there has to be more that what these companies do that would constitute a GREAT PLACE to work … If not, at least develop a comprehensive list of all benefits that Google offers. And don’t tell me that an ideal company is the one that makes adult toys and an ideal job is in this company’s testing department (my current boss gave me this as a response when I posed him the question on what an ideal company is?).

Let me be honest; I have not yet worked for a company that I would label as good (let alone the best) company in the world – but I travel a lot and have met a lot of people from different companies and have visited several companies that perform diverse functions – from behemoth’s such as Boeing, Lockheed martin, and Northrop Grumman to a small business that perform innovative research and system development; all the way down to a company of 2.

And on these travel and visits to different companies, I have observed or you can say sensed a certain energy that pretty much gave away, in advance, how the company’s performance is going to be – Then I have confirmed this “initial gut feeling” by noticing the quality of work performed by the company. So, I picked up on a few things that a GOOD company does and what mistakes some of the bad ones make.

OK here the disclaimer - Once I have most of these benefits and their feasibility solidified in my head – who knows – I may start a company with these basic principals – I’m currently struggling with my own demons that restrain me to implement these ideas in the form of a company.

OK, with all these caveats – lets start – what would be a good company do and why? Here are some BROAD BRUSH ideas (that fall under Profit Sharing, Employee Empowerment, Management Optimization, and Enhanced benefits) –

• EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP – An ownership of the company by the employees will get the best employee friendly policies to be implemented. Ownership reduces the resource wastage within a company and motivates people to do more for their benefit.
• IDEAL MEDICAL COVERAGE AND RETIREMENT PACKAGES – Like I said – we are all working so we can keep ourselves healthy, happy and then eventually retire peacefully. By establishing an employee body, the company can ensure that the employees are getting the best as far as the medical coverage are concerned and also are hiring the right investment company to take care of their retirement – 401(k).
• HIRE THE BEST – A company that actively tracks talent while they are studying in college and then entices them to join the company once they finish studies will guarantee the best of the lot coming and working for you. A constant touch with the educational instituted that produce talents for your field of work will ensure an easier transition. A constant research funding to these professors will guarantee that the talents will come across your company’s need before they graduate. This way, there would not be any need for internship etc. If you are looking for experienced talent – then entice them from your competitors with better benefits.
• FOSTERS INNOVATION – How does one company does this? Check out the web link http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2008/how-to-foster-innovation/ for some ideas.
• RETAIN THE BEST AND LET THEM GO IF NECESSARY – When you hire a talent, go through their plans in life in detail. If they have not responded your question of “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” during the interview – let them sit and ponder that question for a while. Ask them to chock out a plan for their life for the next 5 years and then make them follow that plan. Make them take the STRENGTH FINDER test that I mentioned in an earlier blog titled “know thyself”. This way the manager and the person hired would know exactly what his/her strengths are and how to properly utilize them for mutual benefit.
• ENCOURAGE TELECOMMUTING – For those who can – for those who have well defined tasking and due dates, and do not require customer interfacing, mentoring, or other employee interactions – must be allowed to telecommute as much as possible. As a matter of fact, in general, for all employees, the work day should be task-driven rather than clock-driven.
• HAVE A SINGLE MINDED GOAL OF THE COPANY – A company that has a well defined goal usually succeeds since they create a cult like following in the company to achieve success. A quantifiable measure of company performance (Other than the revenue coming in) and making it available to the employees on a regular basis also helps.
• SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE – an ideal company would have to comply with this, if applicable. This is a no brainer. More on this in a later blog.
• PROVIDE DESIGNATED MENTORS FOR THE NEW HIRES – Every time a new hire joins a company, have a mentor assigned who not only provide day-to-day tasking but also provides help achieve the short and long-term goals established for the employee.
• OTHER BENEFITS – Provide them additional benefits such as money and recognition for publishing – sabbaticals after certain time of employment in the company. Free time for creative thinking and ideas persuals (Approved by the managers, of course).
• ON SITE DAY CARE – There is so much of lost productivity due to folks concerned about their kids – Having kids on site will not only provide them with peace of mind but also make them more productive.
• GIVE THEM TOOLS TO BE SUCCESSFUL – Hardware such as Laptops, BlackBerry’s etc. and not to forget – ‘regular training’ to keep them upto speed with the advancements in your field.
• FIND AND ELIMINATE FAVORATISM WHENEVER AND WHEREVER POSSIBLE – Self explanatory. There is no escaping this but energy must be spent minimizing this.
• RESTRICT ETHERNET ACCESS – BUT PROVIDE HALF AN HOUR A DAY OF SURIFNG ON THE COMPANY TIME IN AN OPEN INERNET AREA – Internet is not only a source of distraction but also provides a great arena to waste the company time away. Taking uninhibited Ethernet access away (by publishing hours spent ‘non work related’ surfing to each employee); and providing them with internet access for half an hour to check their personal e-mails or to order the books from Amazon does not hurt.
• OUTTA BOY – An Occasional praise for the employees gives great confidence boost – Team outta boys also work.
• MONTHLY LUNCH HOUR WITH THE COMPANY EXPERTS – Have experts in your company provide brief primer on the new breakthroughs that they are working on or issues that they are tackling. Who knows which team member would have the right answer for them?
• OPEN ACCESS TO COMPANY DIGITAL LIBRARY – This is the brain of the company – everything that an employee produces (be it report, presentation, paper, analysis, patent, ideas, code etc.) must be properly organized and must be accessible to all.
• GIVE THEM STARBUCKS AT WORK (FOR GOD SAKES) – You know, I have seen too many talented folks wasting their precious time and energy going to Starbucks nearby – give them the best of coffee (Yes, including an espresso machine) right there in the company kitchen area. This will save time and enhance productivity.
• HAVE A FAIR YEARLY EVALUATION – I have no idea how to conduct fair yearly evaluation – Still trying to find the best. All that I have seen so far are so dysfunctional – everyone has lost faith in those. Someone need to find a good way to do this – If you have any ideas, pass along.
• ENCOURAGE SAVING – Some ideas currently being implemented in some companies is – to give additional yearly raises to folks who pledge it all to their 401(k).
• HAVE A SIGNIFICANT INTERNAL R&D – Those companies that reinvest significant chunk of their profit into investigating newer and better ways to do business succeeds in the long run.

Till I form my own company with these values – enjoy your work – stop complaining – do something about it … If you have more ideas – do pass them along. I’ll keep working on the list ….

While I was struggling with this point (always resident somewhere in the corner of my brain) I noticed another phenomenon – all of the my friends who I consider financially savvy (some of whom I consider investing geniuses) began reporting that the market has become more and more erratic and that it is becoming more and more difficult to make any money on the stock market. One of them said that the days of “buy low – hold – and then sell high” are way gone. He then mentioned a new investment strategy surfacing recently – that the only way to make money in this market is to “PLAY THE MARKET MOMENTUM”. In summary – buy a stock that has the positive momentum to go up (I’ll outline details this philosophy in detail in a later blog) – and then sell after a few days when the “steam” or the “momentum“ is gone. He said that the conventional way of investing (by looking at the health of a company by their market capitalization, Profit/Earning ratio and other financial indicators) are a thing of the past – He added that most companies are “playing” the stock market by posting profits generated not by true sales but by clever accounting. He ended his argument to support his philosophy by saying that “all of them are a bunch of crooks.”

Then two things happened – The sub-prime mortgage collapse and George Soros published his latest book to describe a new paradigm in the financial markets. And putting two and two together by looking-at the stock market through ‘George Soros lens’ – things started to make sense to me …

George Soros, a legendary investment banker who made gazillions on the stock market as a Hedge Fund Manager and independent investor – in this book on the philosophy of boom and bust – is summarizing his life-long and deeply-held beliefs on THOERY OF REFLEXIVITY. Being a Hungarian immigrant to the west (from Nazi oppression) and then making it big in the free world by using his piercing insight on the subject of “impact of human behavior on the financial markets”. He, by the way, commands a cult following in the investment world – While reading this book, I got the feeling that this (probably) octogenarian would like the world to remember him as a philosopher rather than a “money hungry” hedge fund manager who made it big by “playing the system”.

In this book, Mr. Soros takes on the recent debacle in the political arena and on the financial markets – and validates his theory over the conventional theories of economics (that are based on the assumption of Perfect Knowledge and Perfect Competition). Mr. Soros contests that the humans are irrational by nature and thus the conventional laws of economics (That assume rational behavior on the participants and independence of supply and demand) are flawed by extension. These flaws in the conventional economic theories fail to explain the booms and the busts that we have observed in the past decades (Some more painfully than the others). Be it the DOT COM boom and bust, be it the housing market boom or bust, be it the financial market boom or bust, be it currency market and commodity market boom (hopefully with a bust) – Mr. Soros says that these phenomenons are prime examples of Theory of Reflexivity. His theory is not applicable for only the financial markets but applies to any scenario where human interaction takes place (He calls the irrational human behavior as the manipulative function).

He adds that the he has used the stock markets as the example to validate his theory because in this case quantifiable artifacts are readily available. Reflexivity develops and can be controlled by regulations – but when the human irrationality or the biases go out of hand (without proper or any regulations) – reflexivity takes the form of a boom following by a bust. Hence, this manipulative function on part of participants of the system to the causes the erratic behavior of the system. So, going back on the fact of why the wall street giants attracting experts in fields other than finance – the investment bankers have realized that the classical economic theories are all false and they are actively hiring the Sociologists and the quantum physicists to explain the way things are goings, develop a model based on a new theory and try to predict the stock market behavior.

I’ll be eagerly waiting for someone to publish details on a new theory (based on Mr. Soro’s philosophy) so I can FINALLY start making money on the market.

A DEFINITE MUST READ for those who seek the truth…….

Once you get your first job, MEETINGS becomes an integral part of your working life. I personally have been in working environment where meetings pretty much took 25% of my working time. Many a folks have to deal with more, they travel 25% of their working time and then attend more meetings to update the team on their travel. No matter how much – meetings are important and can be effective when conducted effetively. Now there are several types of meetings –

• Stand up meeting

• Weekly Status meeting

• Monthly Status Meeting

• Quarterly ‘State of the company’ meeting

• Technical Meetings

• Program Status Meeting

• Proposal Related (Red, blue, orange Team) Meeting

• Other smaller Team Meeting

• Brainstorming Session

• Working Meeting

• ‘Just two guys shooting the breeze’ Meeting

• And so on .. and so on ….

And just like real life, where your popularity is based on your personality and your personal traits – getting an invitation to attend a meeting signifies your social and work stature. There are some meeting that you would like to attend and won’t get invitation and there are some where you’ll be invited to one – and you would rather be in a ‘Tin Chewing Contest’ than to attend those meetings. It’s a fine art of balancing your network to be a part of just the meetings that you would like to attend.

The intent of a meeting is to gather the whole team or a part of the team to either –

a) Keeping your team upto speed on the program/project

b) Setting weekly/monthly priority

c) Update everyone on the progress

d) Check on the status

e) Get some critical activity addressed immediately

f) Show who is in charge

Just to outline one worst case scenario – I have been to some meetings where the meeting was the only place where that particular work got done – When we left the meeting no one followed through their actions and then we were called for another meeting just to force us to finish the task. And then there were other meetings where some of the key members of the team – who were not on the talking terms (Yes this is real not fiction) – and a team meeting was the only place to get them to communicate with each other and the team (Talk about team dysfunction).

On the positive side, I have been to meetings where some of the critical issues were resolved only because right folks were present to discuss and provide their expertise (But these were few and far between).

Here are a few signs of a meeting which may be worth attending –

a) Has a lead identified

b) Has a clear goal/objective

c) Posts a clear agenda

d) Agenda is posted well in advance

e) Post time frame (in chunks) for agenda item discussions

f) Clearly identifies ‘must attendees’

g) Identifies the key discussion points (Meeting minutes) and action item list from previous meeting

            a. If a first meeting – then provides all relevant information

h) Span of less than 2 hour – If more then has plenty of breaks.

Also some of the key ingredients that makes a good meeting –

a) No one is restricted from speaking their mind

b) Someone takes the meeting minutes and action items and follows them though

c) Circulate an attendees list that identifies who were in attendance

d) At the end of the meeting, go through the action items so every one has a clear understanding of them

e) Clearly identify the next date/venue and tentative agenda for the next meeting (if it is a recurring meeting).

I have heard of cases where; to limit time wasted in meetings – the chairs posted notional $/min of the companies money spent at that meeting (based on the attendees of the meeting). This kept folks motivated to finish the meeting on time.

I’m personally in favor of a weekly team meeting to gather information from all and to provide priority for the week to all. In addition to this, a quarterly ‘Company Wide’ meeting to provide status of the company is a useful one. Besides those, most of the other working meeting must be kept at a smaller level and should include only those who need to be involved.

I must make a point here to the new comers, you may have to impose yourself onto some of these meetings – This is perhaps the only way to get invited to some ‘important’ meetings’. There is a good chance that you may be asked to perform minutia during it – But, some of the meetings are great learning experience on company’s character and the dynamics of the folks within the company.

Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making

by David Rothkopf (Author)

You know, when did I first start thinking about the possibility of a small group of individuals pretty much running the whole world? It was during the time when I (along with a lot of my friends) lost a significant chunk of our hard earned earning betting on the hyped up stocks on the Wall Street. We wanted someone to blame for our losses and we, rather than blaming our greed, conveniently blamed it all on the bubble and then subsequently to Allan Greenspan for bursting that bubble. We collectively blamed a single guy for evaporating trillions of dollars from the market, our pockets and the economy – “Could a single guy posses such power?” We wondered. And if this is true – who controls such person and “could the decisions made by such person be modified based on political and personal objectives?” Then came Greenspan’s book and him telling of how the current White House (2004-2008) was the most intrusive when it came to deciding the fed market policies. Wow .. I wondered, so the power is concentrated with a few and the political elites do use or abuse it for furthering their own agendas … I don’t claim to be naive here – I had an inkling – I don’t wear any idealistic glasses when I look at the real world – but this is hard fact, as told by one of “those” (in the know). And then came this book – writing about this phenomenon in black and white. Now, after reading this book, when I think of the past events and read current news, I can now almost find artifacts to substantiate the above theory all over the news articles.

Now lets come to the stock market these days (June 2008) – How could it be? that the stock market keeps doing the roller-coater ride for the past 8 years and all the reporting in the news paper and in the financial magazine is that – its because the “job market lost jobs” or “consumer spending is low” or “consumer sentiments are low” or “the price of oil is a bit higher”. I agree that these factors do play a role on the market but how could the “consumer sentiments” be low one day and a big Markey hurray the next – Something is not right – The market is moving too fact and all the financial reports are left with is the weaker argument of all the quotes above. These can’t be freak accidents, because freak accidents do not happen on a daily basis – like the ones reported lately. There are a group of individuals – not conspiring, but acting in their own interest and using their enormous influence fulfill their goals (The oil companies, or the oil future’s traders). Meanwhile, us, the middle class, is left hanging watching the stock market like a dog following the tennis ball on the court while paying $4 a gallon for gasoline.

Getting back to the book – here is a book that we can all relate with. A book, finally, that dares to expose the big elephant in the room. The emperor REALLY is not wearing any clothes … Long a favorite subject pushed along by conspiracy theorists; here is a well researched book right from the middle of this class that not only does exist but pretty much runs the whole world (The author speculates about 6000 of them around the world) … Reading this book was equivalent of someone giving me a code to see the world differently. And seeing the world, now, decoded, it does look different. Specifically, the book first outlines the fact that this class does exist, they do meet on a regular basis (be at DAVOS, or trilateral commission or other Asian or European Elite clubs) and divide up the pie conveniently between them. The underlying assertion here is that this group pretty much looks after their own need and greed and cares a little for the rest of us (Apparently 10% of the folks on top control 90% of the wealth). The book also mentions that the Superclass is a close community but a dynamic one – You may become a part of it if you control the lives of “many” human beings. The book gives laws for being a part of the superclass – and they are no means politically correct – Some of them include – “You have to be a man”, “You have to me Anglo Saxon” “You should attend Harvard, Stanford or University of Chicago” and “You have to be lucky” among others. A nicely written book and a real eye opener – Verbalizes every aspects of the social structure that you sort of perceive and assume conspiracy theories around it – and at the same time provides a good understanding of the superclass elite; their strengths – their weaknesses – etc.

A DEFINITE MUST READ. The book also asserts that the world has become a different place after the “globalization” phenomenon has reached its peak. As a result of this, the national boundaries do not matter anymore – And the whole world has to comply by the rules set by a few multinationals and a few political elites in the top tear of the countries around the world. These developments, the author mentions has reduced the size of the middle class around the word. As we all know, a larger middle class in the society is good for democracy – The larger the gap between the “haves” and “have wanna be” – the more autocratic society gets and at the end of the day a mass of people suffer which inevitably leads to revolutions. It is Mary Antoinette’s “If you don’t have bread to eat – then eat cake” scenario approaching closer day by day.

As I read this book, I felt like this world has evolved into an equivalent of an Indian CASTE system – If you are born poor or a middle class – there is a high probability that the “system” would try to keep you that way … And vice versa if you are born rich. So, rather than being classified (casted) based on what you do – you are currently being casted based on what you possess. I got a first hand feel of this when I walked in posh clothing shop in Beverly Hills (in my Jeans and T’s) and the looks on the girls behind the counter pretty much gave it away – Now I know how a low caste person entering a higher caste temple in India felt like …

At the end of the day – I drew the same conclusion that I drew on multiple occasions when I pondered similar questions about the fate of our world – It is really up to us, the people, to come together and collectively make the right decision about our lives. Decision made under fear (for example another terrorist attack or gasoline prices) often leads to wrong people in the positions that make the highest impact in the world. This country of ours offers great opportunity for folks to appropriately use their vote and chose the right people in the political office to do the right thing – if we don’t use it wisely, then collectively, we deserve what coming to us … God Bless us all …

Fairly recently, I got introduced to a phenomenon (outlined in a series of books) that is primarily based on improving your professional life based on exploitation of your dominant personality strengths ( I must thank my Friend Rajiv Roy for introducing me to this complex mess …) . The author of these (series of) books, Marcus Buckingham, is from Gallop organization and has published three books on the subject (a couple with other folks as co-authors).

The first one, published in 1999 was titled - ‘First, break all the rules’ which was a survey and a study of bunch of managers and their issues on finding the right people, retaining them, and keeping them satisfied with respect to the kind of work that they would love to do. The synopsis of that book came out to be – “don't try to put in what was left out; instead draw out what was left in”. You must hire for talent, and hone that talent into outstanding performance. Work your people’s strengths rather than forcing them to improve upon their weaknesses.

Then came his second book – “Now, Discover your strengths”. This was the book where Marcus introduced a concept of Strength Finder – An online tool (NOT FREE – but when you buy a book it lets you take the test once) that asks you a (whole) bunch of questions in rapid succession and records your answers based on your first instinct (it pushes you to answer promptly – the first thing that comes to your mind). The questions have a very short duration and so you don’t have much time to think before answering. These questions vary in terms of “what ifs scenario” and what would your reaction to a particular scenario be … etc. This tool then identifies your top 5 strengths (out of 34 outlined below - Each of these strengths is described in details in the book ).

1. Achiever

2. Activator

3. Adaptability

4. Analytical

5. Arranger

6. Belief

7. Command

8. Communication

9. Competition

10. Connectedness

11. Context

12. Deliberative

13. Developer

14. Discipline

15. Empathy

16. Fairness

17. Focus

18. Futuristic

19. Harmony

20. Ideation

21. Inclusiveness

22. Individualization

23. Input

24. Intellection

25. Learner

26. Maximizer

27. Positivity

28. Relator

29. Responsibility

30. Restorative

31. Self-assurance

32. Significance

33. Strategic

34. Woo

Once I finished taking this test, I was surprised who I really was or what my predominant strengths were – and these were completely different from what I had previously assumed. After this test, I really am looking at the world and my actions very differently.

Now, here comes the third one – Go Put Your Strengths To Work – This is probably the last in this a series of personal development books that, from book to book, have moved from being guidance for managers to guidance for any professional. This is the book that tries to trains you, the individual professionals, in terms of how to manage your strengths, how to manage your weaknesses, and how to put your strengths to work for a more fulfilling personal and professional life. And this book offers 6 steps to do this –

Step 1: Bust The Myths

Step 2: Get Clear

Step 3: Free Your Strengths

Step 4: Stop Your Weaknesses

Step 5: Speak Up

Step 6: Build Strong Habits

The book suggests adopting five regular habits in your life:

• Every day, look over your strength statements and your three weakness statements. This keeps them fresh in your mind.

• Every week, complete a “strong week” plan. Basically, identify two ways you’ll maximize your strengths in the coming week - at the same time, identify two ways to minimize your weaknesses in the coming week.

• Every quarter, close the book on your strengths. Schedule a meeting with your boss and go over ways you maximized your strengths in the previous three months.

• Every six months, go over your strengths in detail. Make sure you understand what they really mean and how you’re applying them.

• Every year, toss out your strengths and start over. You can use your old ones as a starting point, but there will likely be some clarifications as your understanding of your strengths and your weaknesses grow.

Authors also discusses the myths that holds us back and provides the truth as he sees it. The myths that he tries to bust are –

Myth 1: As you grow, your personality changes
Myth 2: You will grow the most in your areas of greatest weakness
Myth 3: A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team

I would definitely RECOMMEND this book to anyone who feels that their professional career has stagnated or is in desperate need of a kick start. The book gets a little preachy time to time and is repetitive at times.

Now getting back to ‘Knowing Thyself’, there are yet another series of (personality or career) tests that you may take which, results in identification of your personality traits. These tests also suggests the most suitable career paths for you. Some of them are free and some will set you back $80 - $100 per person.

Some of the career evaluation tests evaluate you (based on the questions that you answer online) for the following 6 personality categories. Based on the predominance of one over the other, it offers careers that would most suit your personality.

• Realistic—the doers

• Investigative—the thinkers

• Artistic—the creators

• Social—the helpers

• Enterprising—the persuaders

• Conventional—the organizers

And then (last but not least) – there is ‘Myers Briggs personality test’ – You can take a free test at www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm. The result will classify you using four classifications.

• Extroverted ( E ) or Introverted (I)

• Sensing ( S ) or Intuitive (N)

• Thinking ( T ) or Feeling (F)

• Judging ( J ) or Perceiving (P)

So in the end you could be ENTJ or ISFP etc. These can then be used to indentify the most suitable career paths for you.

More details on these in Part II of ‘Knowing Thyself’.

Further Read - http://jobsearch.about.com/od/careertests/a/careertests.htm

I think a new comer to the global work force must understand the soul of a company before defining a career path for himself/herself. So, what is the soul of the company and its corresponding characteristics of different layers of definitions? Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) – A company can be thought of a living, breathing entity and the people who define it are the people who work for it. It is the collected souls of the individuals and there collective wisdom, weaknesses, and all other human attributes – define a company. And just like the human body, where each part of its physical and psychological constitution define the whole human personality – a company has the same distinguishing attributes that makes it whole.

So lets begin understanding how a companies are laid out these days – how they aught to be laid out and how you can maximize your contribution and your potential while making a mark. Based on your education and capability, the levels described below will be applicable for all parts (departments) of the company – Sales, marketing, purchasing, human resources, design, production, finance, travel, business –development etc. I must make another point that when you join a smaller company, these responsibilities described below will be more apparent and utilized – the bigger corporation loose sight of these and the folks stay locked into one level without much exposure.

GROUND ZERO – Level 1 – YOU ARRIVE AND YOU ARE HERE – Junior Level – At the bottom of this enterprise. A new comer, ready to make your mark in this world. This is where all the grunt work gets done. You want to work and you will be assigned a lot of it. Initially not a whole lot will be expected of you but sooner or later you will be expected to produce. All the knowledge that you have gathered from your teachers and professors from your school are now ready to be used. There is a big disconnect here – what you do and how you do it in the school will not be applicable here. Depending on the company that your join – there will be a lot of learning expected from you – to come up to speed on how the business gets done there – open yourself to learning and embrace all its culture and idiosyncrasies. It is good to realize the importance of ‘practical training’ during your education – because the intent of it is to get you a head-start in learning exactly this ….

Level 2 – Senior Member – This is the second layer that sits on top of the junior folks – Theoretically, their task is to perform detailed work that may require experience to support clients. Some responsibility of this layer includes mentoring of the junior folks and also provide guidance to them – at the same time – use the folks at level 1 and utilize them to the best of their ability. Now to get to this level from level takes time and dedication – and that’s it. Senior associates, senior members, senior engineers are some of the designations that you see at this level.

Level 3 – Senior Management – These is the layer of the company that can be very aptly called “Middle Management” and most of the ambitions find their resting place at this level. Most folks showing up at this level are either long-term company veterans, acquaintances of the levels above or hot shot MBA’s. Product lead, senor financial analyst, Chief Engineer, program managers, Brach chief etc. are the designations that you may see at this level.

Level 4 – Vice Presidents – vice-Chief Executives and other CXX’s. These are the guys and gals that ensure the fact that the policies set by the President and the CEO are properly executed. They are CEO’s most trusted bunch and offer suggestions and recommendations on policies. They are also the ones that run the company while the CEO battles the political crisis or takes the credit for all the success. Chief Financial Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Information Officer etc. are the designations at this level.

Level 5 – The big cheese – The President – and usually the Chief Executive Officer. All the VPs and other COO’s report to this person. Usually the company founders or the choice of the board of directors decides the appointee. Based on the size of the company, these are the ones that see most of the lime light, get to meet the decision makers from other companies and also do the company public relations to the investors (banks and corporate investors). The CEO pretty much sets the tone and the culture for the company. His or her policies are the ones that gets implemented in due course and set the long term vision for any given company. The skill sets required for this job are very succinctly summarized by Lee Iacocca in his latest book on leadership – Please refer to my February book review to see the 9 C’s of leadership that he mentions in this book.

Level 6- The Board of Directors – The board of directors are usually formed by choosing the appropriate . The appointment comes from the investors or the fellow board members themselves. The Board of directors are the final authority on approving the CEO plans and the tone for the company. Depending on the company, the board of directors are the usually the luminaries such as the ex-government officials etc.

Now that you know the layout of a typical company – you, when starting at the bottom, need to know the traits required for each level – Know who you are (Refer to Uday's previous blog on “Knowing Thyself”) and finding the right place where you’ll be most productive at the same time would meet your career ambitions.

These forces are –

1. Consumer Spending

2. Consumer Confidence

3. Short term interest rate set by the Federal Reserve

4. Price of Crude Oil

5. Inflation

6. US Government’s financial (US Treasury) and other policies (White House)

7. Whims of the large fund managers (yes WHIMS) – ‘Whims’ as far as we are considered – though they may be well intentioned for their financial gains

8. Prevailing biases among individual investors (aka HERD mentality)

Note that some of these forces feed on information from each other – so it’s a complex labyrinth of interconnected financial mesh. Hence they say, timing the market (optimizing time of your stock (or security) purchase and selling to maximize your financial gain) is tough if not impossible.

Anyway, let me proceed with my thought here – Key to making money on the Wall Street is –

• To understand different sectors (Mentioned in Part I of this article) that make up the market

• Know the best performers in each of these sectors (using their financial disclosures)

• Figuring out which sectors are bound to make money given any changes in the forces that rattle the markets

And then, ONLY THEN, putting your hard earned money on the market. You think Iraq is the bloody war zone, just study the portfolio massacre happening on the Wall Street every day.

And once you put your hard earned money on the market – watch it like a hawk – Change the investments based on changes in the political balance (a new President or a new chairman of the Federal Reserve etc.) or changes in the world politics (War in Iraq etc.).

Let me finish with an example – With ex-oil company executives in the highest offices of the government year 2000, the oil industry (Exxon Mobil etc.) and the military industrial complex (Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman etc.) were the best investments in 2000 time frame.

Please refer to my book review for April 2008 “The Coming Economic Collapse” and review suggestions made by the author for investments during the aggressive descent of US economy into recession.

Last month’s Business Week  and Fortune  gave a list of the best performers on the market (in the form of Businessweek’s top 50 and Fortunes star performers of 2008). “Noteworthy news” posting on Kazira.com has links to direct you to some of these sites that have lists of top stock performers. These are good list of start, know who the leaders are, study them closely (trust no one’s analysis but your own), trust no analysis that is being offered for free or by business books and periodicals, and become a long term stake holder. As one of my cousins says – and I think he was quoting Warren Buffett – “A person who invests without understanding the overall market behavior and specific stock; deserves to loose all of the money.” The point is that, for example, don’t go buying Apple stock just because your neighbor says so and just because you see Steve Jobs on various financial periodicals.

Here are a few books that may help you with understanding of the Wall Street and the intricacies of the capitalist financial markets.

1. The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel by Stephen Leeb and Glen Strathy

2. Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country by William Greider

3. The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy by William Greider

4. The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan

More to follow in my future blog postings – Here’s wishing you a Happy & Safe Investing season!