Greatest Pleasure

The greatest pleasure I’ve had is to try to do something that people said would never be done              - Mr.Ratan Tata

courtesy: NYT

Creative Confidence

Creative confidence busts the myth that only few people can be creative and others are not creative. Most people under-utilize the creative talent. Creative confidence helps us reclaim our creativity, passion and fun. True potential of our brain is unknown and it is not limited by what we’ve done before. The Process of Guided Mastery will help to overcome fear and help people believe that they can change the situation and accomplish what they had set to do in the world. To be creative, we need to fail more. Experiment with experiences; embrace continuous learning and start designing your own life. Life is a creative innovation lab. Life is full of side hobbies and experiments. Try doing experiments, do it creatively.

Be a fly on the wall in your customer world, understand his pain points, try your own service, talk with unexpected experts. The best way to gain creative confidence is through action – taken one step at a time.. Doug Diez at GE with scan machine, Embrace infant warmers, Pulse news creators, etc and many more examples.

References/Quotes:

Failure sucks, but instructs – IDEO

Job.Career. Calling – People’s relation to their work Amy Wrzseniewski (Curse of competence. (Actively unhappy about work)

How can we ‘Improving video conference’ to how can we provide viable alternative to air travel – John Chambers Cisco (reframing challenges)

Knowing – Doing gap : HBR  how to turn knowledge to action

How to draw anything (Napkin academy)

Kelley brothers – David and Tom Kelley, Albert Bandura, SirKen Robinson, Claudia Kotchka (P&G)

Toolkits : Dschool.stanford.edu | OpenIDEO |

Key methods (writing this so that I keep track for my future use):

1. Mind maps – for convergent + divergent thinking
2. Note down list of all ideas you get in a day
3. SAY – Think – Do – Feel (all need to be aligned to successful)
4. Empathy maps
5. I Like / I wish Constructive and effective feedback (My favorite!)
6. Speed dating 
7. - how would your family members describe you
   - If you had $100000000000,..
   - You wish your parents told..
8. Nick names in a group event
9. Journey maps
10. Dream/Gripe. Convert Dream/Dripe into  Problems to works – How might we..?

Another review of the book in yourstory

Everyone has stories

We live in a world where we have the option to choose the information we want to read/listen. One like, One subscribe button is all that It takes. But this provides a lopsided view of arguments and doesn't empower us to have balanced opinions or connect divergent things.

Every time we travel, we listen to songs, sleep, read books, check latest news, update status messages on Facebook/twitter, talk over phone or reply mails. When was the last time you struck a conversation with a stranger and listened to his stories or opinions. Everyone has stories. But we choose to move out of comfort zone, try knowing someone/something new. We like to play within the box that we have created with the info we have subscribed to. Technology has just enabled us to fall back on easier choice than doing something difficult.

Some people by nature are extroverts. For the rest of them, this becomes a habit when we sustain this for months. And we tend to think that social and interpersonal skills are not their cup of tea. The biggest challenge comes when they’re evaluated based on their social skills. (Say during college admissions, job interviews). This is not the only criteria, but a factor that might play a crucial role in the future.

Next time you travel in bus, train, flights or even walk, listen. Everyone has stories. Problems of other people can be solved by your solutions and breakthrough ideas. After all, it is not a bad skill to have and develop.

Rohit Sharma's 264 is meh!

Rohit Sharma scores 264 against Sri Lanka in ODI match. I repeat it is a 50 over One Day International. To be far to Rohit, he just capitalized on the toothless Sri Lankan attack without any quality international bowler in the league of Malingas or Vaas. 3 drop catches and the opportunity to play 50 overs is not something most batsman can dream, given each spot in the cricketing teams have become highly competitive.

It is only fitting that Rohit plays this blinder as a tribute to all the talk about his talent and prowess.  No one in the Indian cricket has got opportunities for 7 years on the trot to prove one’s mettle. Just that Rohit was born in the right age and the right time where the fab four of Indian cricket vacated their batting spots (Amol Mazumdar and S.Badrinath will be kicking themselves)

O Boy! What a knock. Is Rohit Sharma the greatest batsman of Indian cricket? No. Will this record stay forever? No. I remember when SaeedAnwar scored 194 at Chepauk, it remained a magical number etched in people’s minds. Only when something is unachievable for years and someone yearns for something (Ask Sachin on worldcup win), these joys and moments in the game extra special, both for players and viewers.

Superior willows, smaller grounds, ODI fielding restrictions and belter wickets have made the game heavily skewed in favour of the batsmen.  The aggressive T20 mindset from the batsmen has truly made ODI cricket high scoring lopsided games. This generation of Kohlis, ABDs, Amlas,etc. scoring runs at ease and at will. It has made the records look insignificant, not symbolizing anything as their previous generation records did. That Anwar 194, Sachin100s, Afridi 37 ball hundred and Jayasuriya’s 17 ball fifty are all meaningless to the next generation.

People save monthly salary to buy iPhone5s, only to realize that Apple has already launched iPhone6 and their phone is not in vogue anymore. Likewise Rohit can be a proud owner, till someone breaks his record.

PS: Even Sir Jadeja has three 300s in first class and is in the same league as Don Bradman, Walter Hammond, Mike Hussey, etc. Records are just numbers. It doesn’t signify quality or talent in this era.