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Author: Nirmal Thapa

Rules for Deep Work

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Cal Newport’s Deep Work Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World is nicely summarized by Productivity Game.

Three rules for doing Deep Work are:

1. Schedule distractions – Schedule the time that you will allow yourself to check email/social media/chat etc. Write it down as a Distraction break and hold your focus until then.

2. Deep Work ritual – Create a rhythmic flow of doing deep work typically in the early mornings. The point is to create simple regular habit. Adhoc deep work sessions typically are not productive.

3. Evening shutdown ritual – Getting adequate sleep is important. Make a plan of the unfinished tasks and their action plan for the following day. After the plan is complete, the goal is to shutdown completely and go to sleep.

Best time to start a business in Nepal

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Now.

Root of innovation

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Competition breeds innovation. It’s a survival thing. If you’re not innovating when the competition is coming at you, then you’re gone.

There are thousands of websites (around 140,000 per day) that pop up on the internet. However, our daily visits are on a particular few websites where we spend most of our times. Why is that? One reason is that those few websites offer what we need. They have got our attention, time and it’s where we’ll most likely to spend our hard earned money. That’s the same trend that follows for all the physical stores from the momo shops to the coffee shops out there.

It’s unlikely that your idea is the first ever in the market. Even if you have first mover advantage, someone or many will come chasing to take a share of your pie. That’s when you have to continue to get better, faster and do everything with care. Competition will help you innovate and you’ll thank it when you keep getting stronger.

Purpose (Volunteering at KAT Centre)

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Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.- Muhammad Ali

The dogs were surrounding us as we fed them some biscuits. They were completely overjoyed. This particular Sunday, I was very happy that we decided to volunteer at KAT Centre in Budhanilkantha even for a few hours.

The volunteering experience at KAT was amazing. Besides providing dogs water and food, we also walked the dogs. I think this was my first time walking a dog. I was a little nervous but that nervousness quickly went away as “Ryan” led the way. He was a friendly and strong dog. I also walked another dog. Although I am more fond of cats, the KAT experience has made me like dogs more than before.

Volunteering at KAT with friends presented us with a great opportunity to learn more about each other, our pets and do something good collectively in the society. I believe volunteering has so many benefits that we can’t fully understand it until we really do it. Giving our time to volunteer anywhere gives life more meaning, more appreciation and more happiness in my opinion. Volunteering is the way to go.

Kul Chandra Gautam’s Global Citizen from Gulmi

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I’m looking forward to reading Kul Chandra Gautam’s Global Citizen from Gulmi.

Launched in Kathmandu, Nepal in early August 2018, the book chronicles the life of Kul Chandra Gautam’s from the hills of Gulmi to the halls of the United Nations. It has received a lot of coverage and praise over social media, online and print mediums. The book was also beautifully reviewed in the Nepali Times. A paragraph from the review by Kunda Dixit:

Kul Chandra Gautam’s life is an inspirational story of how a school boy in one of the poorest and remotest districts in Nepal went on to become the senior most Nepali in the United Nations. He achieved this by a lot of hard work, extraordinary perseverance, and never losing sight of his duty to help those in underserved parts of the world, like where he grew up as a boy.

I can’t wait to read Global Citizen from Gulmi.

 

Helping others to succeed

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“I’ve always had this theory that, if you help enough people get what they want, you’ll always get what you want.” — George Raveling

Coach George Raveling’s theory is more of a fact in my opinion. When you help others to become successful, you are creating value. When you create enough value for others, you increase your own worth. That’s how the magic happens.

In the workplace, you have ample opportunities to make a difference, daily. You have tasks and responsibilities yet when you go above and beyond to create more value, that’s when you become indispensable. Wouldn’t you want to become indispensable?

 

Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books…

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That’s what the headmaster of a local school told John Wood, a Microsoft executive in 1998 after he had just completed the eighteen day, two-hundred mile trek of Nepal’s Annapurna mountain range. John did return to Nepal with books and started Room to Read. Today over 20,000 communities in 15 countries have Room to Read libraries.

In the book, Purpose, Incorporated: Turning Cause Into Your Competitive Advantage, John and Amalia McGibbon delve into the origins of Room to Read, lessons from running the non profit as a business and the many conversations they had with business leaders trying to infuse purpose into their companies. John states in the book that “these business leaders saw purpose not as a nice thing to do but as a must-do-a key competitive advantage that could enhance enterprise value.” 

Purpose is becoming more and more an integral part of a company’s strategic focus. Once an afterthought at most companies, now purpose is an important discussion taking place in the halls and boardrooms of startups to multinationals. According to THE 2015 MILLENNIAL IMPACT REPORT, 44% of millennial employees said they were more likely to volunteer if their supervisor participated and 65% were more likely to volunteer if their coworkers participated. We expect companies to do more good in the communities they operate in. We as employees want our companies to contribute more to the society. With great power does come greater responsibility.

How to get started with purposeful initiatives at your company?

  1. Learn what your employees are most passionate about. Listen to their conversations, interests and things they do on weekends. Some love helping out in schools, others are excited about going to orphanages and elderly homes. You can start from there.
  2. Research on things that will make the most impact at any given time and take up that cause. If there has been a recent flood or landslides, you can mobilize your coworkers to collect basic necessities and arrange to transport them to those in need.
  3. Track your company’s social impact and share the results with the team. When you track the initiatives and the impact made, team members will become more motivated, inspired and excited to contribute to a bigger mission.

 

 

The market

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Binod Chaudhary shared a famous story of the two salesmen going to the same market to Kitty Pong Sri (owner of Thai Preserved Foods) who was visiting Nepal. He said when the two salesmen went to the market; one came back with the report that since nobody eats there is no market, and the other came back with a completely opposite story – since nobody eats, this is the market! That’s how Wai Wai was born. – Taken from Binod Chaudhary’s autobiography My Story From the streets of Kathmandu to a billion dollar empire.

the process

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“For me, the beauty is all in the process. It’s all in the journey. It’s all in building something. That’s the most fun for me” – Kobe Bryant.

Kobe’s been known to talk about the importance of “the process” in countless interviews. He loves the grind, the hustle and the discipline it takes to become great at something. He stated in a recent interview that this generation is much more concerned with the final outcome rather than understanding the journey of what it takes to get there. We don’t dive deep enough to understand what makes a particular person successful but resort to catchy headlines and conventional generalizations. It’s really important to understand the person from all angles to identify his/her strengths and weaknesses and how that lead them to success and failure. You have to absolutely love and enjoy the journey towards achieving your goals and dreams.

I would love to understand Kobe’s process of getting ready for the NBA season, for the playoffs and for the Finals. I would love to understand Seth Godin’s process of writing daily blogs. I would love to know Tim Ferriss’ process of selecting topics/people for his podcast. The process, indeed is the most beautiful thing.

 

E-commerce in Nepal heats up

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Sasto Deal. Daraz Nepal. UG Bazaar. Muncha. Now eSewaPasal. There’s more ecommerce companies in Nepal and I’ve only mentioned the ones that I regularly hear of.

It’s exciting to witness the growth of ecommerce in Nepal in the last 5-7 years. Alibaba Group acquired the entire share capital of Daraz, the Pakistan-based e-commerce company that has been running online marketplace services in a number of South Asian countries including Nepal (May 2018). Dolma Impact Fund, the first international private equity fund dedicated to Nepal made investment in SastoDeal (June 2018). Dolma was impressed with SastoDeal’s 233% growth just in the last quarter.

Although ecommerce is probably not the first option for many consumers in Nepal, it is certainly becoming much popular and a very good alternative shopping option. Why is ecommerce heating up in Nepal or specifically Kathmandu, the capital? Here’s a few reasons I can surmise:

  1. Many Internet Service Providers are offering higher bandwidth at cheaper prices.
  2. Internet penetration and mobile penetration is increasing.
  3. Cash on delivery is still the most used mode of payment so it’s easier for consumers to try the service.
  4. A growing number of consumers are preferring the convenience and choices available in ecommerce sites.
  5. A young and tech savvy population is growing up shopping online.

What’s next for ecommerce in Nepal? What would happen in the next 3-5 years in Nepal’s ecommerce scene?

My assumptions:

  1. Ecommerce will continue to see rapid growth fueled by increased consumer connectivity, easier/better online payment gateways and overall competition.
  2. Retailers will have to offer much better customer service/experience, prices and faster delivery turnaround to match or beat increased online competition.
  3. A replication of Amazon Prime membership model can come into play and the first ecommerce company to leverage this opportunity will win consumers, higher margins and platform loyalty.
  4. More investment will come in domestically/internationally to take the ecommerce platforms outside of Kathmandu and build a nation wide network. Acquisitions are likely as competition increases.
  5. Government will take more interest in ecommerce due to the growing ecommerce market, inflow of investment and as more transactions happen over the web/internet.

What do you think? Looking forward to hearing from you whether you are an online shopper, retailer or someone working at an ecommerce company. Please comment below.

 

Internal leadership

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Each company has a culture. Some cultures are lead by senior management, others lead by the employees and some lead equally by the management and employees. In any company, I believe there are a few people who aspire to lead, want to do new things and make a bigger impact in the company/society. Some company cultures give those people the platform to lead while in other companies the ideas stay with the employees and never sees the light of day.

If you want to lead an initiative within your company, you have to start with a simple mindset. Telling yourself “you are the right person to lead this initiative.” When you have the confidence and feel the responsibility to lead, then things fall in place. Picking the right time to launch the idea is equally important. The name of the initiative has to be catchy so everyone can easily understand what the group or initiative is all about. Catchy names are usually between 1 to 3 words.

In the beginning days of launching the initiative, you have to proactively engage with the audience. Overtime, it should be your audience putting up content, leading the initiative and engaging other members. That’s when you know it has become a success-when the group members lead and take it to newer heights. The initiative/platform needs to be constantly monitored so that non relevant content or activities that go against the group’s values/ethics is not shared or encouraged.

The gift of words

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Words are powerful.

When used at the right moment with the right person, the right words can move mountains. Words come so easy to us that perhaps we use it so casually that sometimes we don’t realize its full impact on the person we’re speaking to. As machines become better than us in doing most of the “regular/boring/sophisticated” work, we will cherish the human moments more than ever in our workplaces and homes. Words with emotion will become our biggest gift to share with others. When you say, I love you or I’m proud of you or I’m right behind you, you can literally change someone’s life.

Words are our biggest asset. Let’s use them to inspire, motivate and engage with others.

 

Soft skills matter

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Soft skills matter more than ever. In this age of automation, machines are becoming more efficient doing the mundane tasks. We are then left to handle the ever more important human part. In the 2018 Workplace Learning Report published by LinkedIn, it mentioned that the #1 priority for talent development in 2018 is training for soft skills. Individuals with excellent soft skills and sound technical skills will be hard to replace in this new economy. Hone your soft skills and you’ll be highly sought after. There’s no replacing empathy, compassion, love, care, humor, being present, listening, interacting (at least for now).

 

France wins the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia

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France beat Croatia 4-2 in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia to lift the coveted FIFA World Cup.

France exuded brilliant team work, near perfect execution and solid composure to beat Croatia. Analysis of France’s dominance are abound after their victory. According to ESPN’s Stats & Information Group, with an average age of 25.4 years (weighted by minutes played), this was the youngest World Cup-winning team since at least 1966. What a feat. Many records have been broken in this World Cup and it has been an electric month of football matches.

France earned its rightful place in World Cup history with a phenomenal showcase of football excellence. Kudos to the French team. The World Cup is yours and you are the champions for the next 4 years. Cheers.

Boosting the striatum

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“It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice.”

What a beautiful quote. Being nice is the gift we all can give to someone. It’s not expensive to be nice to people; in fact it takes more work to be an asshole. We all have enough to give, no one has more or less of “niceness.” We have the same amount and can choose to use it properly, not properly or not use it at all.

In fact, deciding to be generous or cooperating with others activates an area of the brain called the striatum.The feel-good emotion from helping has been termed “warm glow” and the activity we see in the striatum is the likely biological basis of that feeling (The Conversation). Be nice to others and you are on your way to living a healthier and meaningful life. A wonderful read on kindness: Five reasons why being kind makes you feel good – according to science. Another Cosmopolitan article cited that being a nice person boosts your physical and mental health.

 

Lifelong student

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Things change. Technology is speeding up the change. We are all students in one form or another.

Graduating from college or a university is not enough. The goal now more than ever is to be a lifelong student. The drive to be better than yesterday has to be there every single day. The competition is not out there but inside you. You are competing with yourself to become relevant, updated and ready to put your best foot forward. A college or university cannot promise you anything after graduation. You have to make it happen and there is plenty more certificates and accolades to get along the way.

Attending a college or a university should only propel you to stay hungry, driven and optimistic about the future.

The World Cup

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I love the World Cup. I strongly believe that no other sport brings so much of the world together as the World Cup does. It was noted on FIFA’s website that “The in-home television coverage of the competition reached over 3.2 billion people around the world, or 46.4 per cent of the global population, based on viewers watching a minimum of over one minute of coverage. This represents an eight per cent rise on the number of viewers recorded during the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™.”

Football is such a beautiful sport that brings viewers from every corner of the world. “When you consider the increasingly fragmented media environment, where people face ever more choice in terms of the platform, place and time of their viewing selection, these results show that the FIFA World Cup remains a compelling spectacle for viewers around the world,” said Jérôme Valcke, FIFA Secretary General.

France, Belgium, Croatia and England remain in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. We’ll find out on July 15 of the ultimate winner of the World Cup. It has been a wonderful month of world wide celebrations (Jun 14, 2018 – Jul 15, 2018) and it definitely got us talking football everywhere we went. Until the next World Cup, let us enjoy the Semi-finals (July 10-11), Third place playoff (July 14) and Finals game (July 15).

What’s next?

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What’s your next goal?

What are you most excited about in your next adventure?

What’s your next challenge?

What’s the next thing that’s keeping you going everyday?

Have you found your next thrill?

MakerBot in Ocean’s 8

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It was summer 2010. I was in Brooklyn. That summer I spent time writing blogs and participating in exhibitions to get our company, MakerBot’s flagship product, 3D printer into the hands of consumers. That was one of my most exciting summers as I saw a worldwide movement take place. The desktop 3D printing revolution was starting from Brooklyn and the world was getting more aware and excited about it. 3D printers were becoming more accessible during that period.

I saw MakerBot Replicator Z18 debut in the Ocean’s 8 movie and was thrilled to see it as a central part of the plot. Having been part of MakerBot in its earliest days, I couldn’t have been more proud to see how far it had come through.

Talking about MakerBot’s placement in movies, Josh Snider, a Public Relations Manager at MakerBot told Sarah Anderson Goehrke in an article that “MakerBot gets approached by TV and movie studios all the time looking to add an element of futurism to their set or looking to characterize the story’s tech-guru or hacker. In most cases, the printer just glows quietly in the background, adding little more than its space-age LED hue.” Josh added that “The most exciting opportunities are when a production team actually wants to portray the printer in action or as a central plot point.” It’s a lifetime opportunity to work in a company such as MakerBot and be proud to see its success grow and have a profound impact in the world.

Image source: 3Dprint.com

 

Best commercials of FIFA World Cup Russia 2018

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We saw many advertisements during the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. Some of the ones that I really liked are:

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