Dr. Sanduk Ruit is an ophthalmologist on a mission to restore sight to Nepal’s blind. He is the executive director of the nonprofit Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu, Nepal, and has operated on more than 130,000 patients. He has adopted innovative surgical techniques for cataracts and often travels to perform operations, walking up to seven days hauling surgical equipment to reach patients who live in Nepal’s most remote villages. Why does Dr. Ruit do this? He lost family to treatable diseases and knows what it’s like not to have access to healthcare.
Author: Nirmal Thapa
Action is your competitive advantage
The internet has created an almost level playing field for individuals, companies, and countries. We can access information, get insights and find just about anything we are looking for with internet access. The competitive advantage now is not just information but taking action on that information.
You could be living in Silicon Valley, California, US with a billion dollar idea but if the motivation and action is not there, nothing happens. On the other hand you could be living in Hattisar, Kathmandu, Nepal and if you are extremely hungry to make a global impact, things happen. Yes, certain types of financial and networking access comes with being at the right place at the right time. However, the competitive advantage now is in the action.
Actions speak louder than locations.
Podcasting is the new blogging
I love Seth Godin’s thoughts on podcasting so I’m sharing it right here.
A podcast helps us think hard about what’s next, about how we describe what’s now, about what’s worth sharing.
A podcast is a great chance to find your voice, and a marvelous excuse to reach out to people and have important conversations.
Not as a way to make big dollars (blogging didn’t do that either). But as a way to share your ideas, to lead your community, to earn trust.
Podcasting is a proven technology that is still in its infancy. It’s an open mic, a chance for people with something to say to find a few people (or perhaps more than a few people) who’d like to hear them say it.
And podcasting is the generous act of showing up, earning trust and authority because you care enough to raise your hand and speak up.
I took The Podcast Fellowship last fall and loved it. I recommend you look into it if you are interested. Visit Podcasting is the new blogging
Fundamentals of success
Success is followed by the application of key fundamentals. For me, the fundamentals are hard work, vision, execution, focus, humility, commitment, team work, fun, and some luck. Hard working people get lucky. Success can mean different things to different people. However, the fundamentals of becoming successful are mostly the same.
Asking good questions
Asking good questions is both an art and a science.
Found a good resource on Wabisabi learning on THE 5 KEY STEPS FOR HELPING YOU ASK GOOD QUESTIONS [INFOGRAPHIC]
Why startups succeed?
Startups succeed for a variety of reasons. It could be the idea itself, the team, or the business model.
Bill Gross of Idealab shared The single biggest reason why start-ups succeed in a Ted talk. Besides the idea, team, business model or funding, there was an even more revealing reason why some startups take off based on Bill’s research and experience.
It’s the people
Once upon a time, I read somewhere “Most tourists come to Nepal for the first time to see the mountains, they return for the people.”
People are what makes Nepal a country that tourists want to come back (again and again). If you talk to tourists who have traveled to Nepal, most of them talk highly about the Nepalese hospitality, humility and the human experience. As we plan to make Visit Nepal Year 2020 successful, we need to highlight those human experiences to the incoming travelers. The memories, moments, and experiences are what the tourists will cherish most from their visit to Nepal.
Building the Nepali startup ecosystem
Since 2011, we have seen a lot of interest in young entrepreneurs to execute their idea and build their startup in Nepal. Now we are slowly seeing a few startups (Fusemachines, Grepsr, SastoDeal) that have scaled in that time period. There are obviously others who may be doing equally good or even better.
To build our Nepali startup ecosystem, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. A good write up by Dipta Shah of 54i Ventures on How to address the funding gap and enable Nepali startups published on The Kathmandu Post.
Rising above the machines
There’s a lot of hype about AI and automation these days. The hype is real. It is reshaping companies, industries, communities, and even countries. Yes, countries as well. An opinion article on the Financial Times talks about China battles the US in the artificial intelligence arms race
Understanding what AI is and how automation will affect us will be the first step. Once we know the facts over the noise, it’s important to see the benefits of AI and automation in our work/company/industry. Getting educated about AI through courses like AI for Everyone will help us understand the basics of what AI can do and cannot do among other things. We also have to understand our human strengths and where machines won’t add value (at least in the near future) and leverage on them. Creativity, empathy, critical thinking, ethics, feelings (emotion) are areas where humans are far better at than machines. Let’s embrace the potential of this new technology, understand where it fits in our business or community or personal lives, and be prepared to stay ahead of the machines.
The coach
All managers should, in part, be coaches.
This is from the Picking up the Bill article on The Economist (May 25th 2019). Gallup, a polling organization cites research showing that when managers involved employees in setting their own work goals, the latter are four times more likely to report feeling engaged. Managers are responsible for 70% of the variance in how engaged employees were. (The Economist)
The same article talks about the book “Trillion Dollar Coach” written by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle in praise of their mentor, Bill Campbell.
The omnipresent school
The class is in session. We’ve gone from cave settings to our current access from anywhere online class settings. Schools, colleges and universities meant physical structures with classrooms, playing areas, and facilities designed to engage the students. Now the places to get education are omnipresent. The web has literally transformed how we gain, use, and acquire new knowledge and skills.
Are you in class now? What are you learning? What’s next?
Once upon a time…
Stories are powerful. Evolution has wired our brains for storytelling. We all love a great story.
For over 27,000 years, since the first cave paintings were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods (Source). Stories help us connect with each other and are an important part of our existence. We feel more emotionally connected when we hear a good story, when we could relate our own experience(s) with the person sharing his or her story and when we experience a certain feeling (happy, angry, sad etc). Stories are amazing.
Good read on The Irresistible Power of Storytelling as a Strategic Business Tool
apples to oranges to mangoes
The road to success is different for each individual. No one success story follows the same track. The fundamentals of becoming successful can be more similar. Hard work, focus, dedication, creativity, sacrifice, team work, vision and so many other components can be the ingredients of success.
Comparing one individual’s success to another is like comparing apples to oranges and mangoes. They’re going to be different. Don’t compare your journey to someone else’s.
First mover disadvantage
We’ve heard of first mover advantage where the first company to venture into the market benefits from an early entry, building a brand, creating customer loyalty and so forth.
Is there also a first mover disadvantage? I believe so. Some markets are as adaptive as other markets and the factors could be culture, consumer lifestyle, lack of awareness, risk factor, technology adoption, access to technology among others. Take for example, a market like Nepal. Nepal leapfrogged from having most of the population with no phones to having smartphones to majority of the population. Yet many new tech innovations or products fail to get traction once they launch. Consumers are not as embracing as it might seem. A company will spend lots of money on marketing to sell its products/services. Yet most of the marketing budget will be spent on just creating awareness and their funds will run dry soon. The next company with similar product/service comes around having benefited from the first company’s marketing spend. Another company comes around who can leverage from the earlier two companies’ experience. We don’t know when the tipping point comes and the product/service catches fire but it can be said that first mover advantages don’t always benefit the initiator.
Yes, most times it’s best to be the first one to penetrate the market. Sometimes it’s best to wait a bit to put your best work forward.
Tools of happiness
Here are some ways that can make you happy.
-Do things you love (even if you don’t get paid for them)
-Spend time with your loved ones (family, friends, relatives)
-Volunteer to a cause that you absolutely feel strongly about
-Travel (does not have to be international, just travel to where you can)
-Read books (any book)
-Spend more time with people than online (technology is just a tool)
LinkedIn Speaker Series: Andre Iguodala
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner sits down with Andre Iguodala, three-time NBA champion to discuss insights from Iguodala’s new book, The Sixth Man.
Disconnect in weekends
Talent retention
Retaining the best talent in your company takes work-a lot of work. A competitive salary is just one part of the compensation package to keep the best talent within the company. Having a great company culture, a clear company mission and vision, challenging projects, mentorship culture, learning culture, making a social impact are some of the things that not only attract talent to the company but also keep the current employees engaged within.
What’s your talent retention strategy?
Why The New York Knicks Are So Expensive
This Business Insider video provides insights on why The New York Knicks Are So Expensive ( valued at $3.6 billion) given that they have had a very poor performance on the basketball court in many years. Plus, the video also talks about the different NBA markets, TV deals, and TV market sizes etc.
Entrepreneurial
The entrepreneurial journey is not everyone’s cup of tea. A few individuals love the adventure, risk and everything else that comes with entrepreneurship yet most love what they do and live happily also. Each is a life choice we make.
Yet entrepreneurial skills are something we can all strive to have. I believe you don’t have to be an entrepreneur only to develop entrepreneurial skills. Entrepreneurial skills include: a getting shit done attitude, being resourceful, leveraging your network, delivering on your responsibilities, being ethical, making an impact among many others. We can choose to be entrepreneurial everyday.