I first learned about Ray Dalio’s book Principles on The Tim Ferriss Show. The title on Tim’s podcast was itself profound, Ray Dalio, The Steve Jobs of Investing.
Reading Principles’ reviews on goodreads just made me want to read the book even more. Some readers on goodreads have said that Principles is one of the best books they have ever read. I can’t wait to read it and share my thoughts.
Ray Dalio explains idea meritocracy in this Ted video.
Idea meritocracy seems like the best way to go. The best ideas should drive the company’s decisions. When you have the right talent in the right place, you need to trust their judgements and have the humility to accept that as a leader you won’t have the best ideas all the time. Embrace collective decision making.
Would you let your ego drive strategic decisions or let the best idea that came from the team discussion steer the company? Choose wisely.
All your favorite comics in one street
Approaching the pedestrians and taking flicks
The big baby cries standing on his feet
They watch with awe as he does his tricks.
A couple cozy up observing the skyscrapers above
The naked cowboy strums his guitar to the passing crowd
Billboards cover the buildings with Budlight, H&M and Dove
The upcoming rapper sells his debut CD screaming loud.
New Yorkers’ absorb the serenity and are numb to the fascination
Tourists take their iPhones and create multiple Snaps
The environment captures all your imagination
It says 42nd and 7th in everyone’s Google Maps.
I’m in Times Square observing the moment…
Travelling takes you out of your comfort zone and into new places and situations. You make adjustments, meet people and gain a new perspective on life. Exploring a new place always excites me. The excitement comes from witnessing new landscape, architecture, cultures and experiencing something different.
Back in college, I made a bold decision to study abroad in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. That decision was one of the best decisions I made. Studying abroad in Amsterdam allowed me to meet dynamic individuals from around the world, explore the amazing city of Amsterdam and travel around Europe. I picked Amsterdam because the classes at Hogeschool van Amsterdam would be taught in English, Nike’s European headquarters was close to Amsterdam (in Hilversum) and no one from my college, State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam had studied abroad in The Netherlands.
I caught the travel bug from Amsterdam and then became enthusiastic to travel to many states once I returned back to New York. So far, I have visited 25 states in the US, many parts of Nepal and have been to over 16 countries.
There is still so much to see and explore and I hope to do so in the coming days, months and years.
A few things I learned from my travels:
–Start travelling. Don’t plan too much and don’t wait for everyone’s schedule to work out.
–Enough money to travel is an illusion. If you really want to travel, you’ll find a way. Money will come but first you need to make up your mind. If something else seems to occupy your time to travel, then travel is not in your priority.
–Start small. If you have plans to travel around the world, take the first step. You’ll be on your way.
There are plenty of blogs, articles, videos on the web for you to get started on travelling around the world or in your country. Travel to live.
On the ground feedback is vital to your startup success. If you’re running a company or have an idea playing around in your head, what better way to test it than going to your intended users and getting feedback.
The easier route nowadays is to create a Facebook page, a prototypical website or mobile app and test user activity. That is good. However nothing beats talking to actual customers and see if they will pay for a service or product you are planning to launch. Because if your end users like your idea but would not pay for a service that you are offering, then you need to tweak things.
Make a product or service that makes an impact and brings the cash.
The best ideas are right in front of you. You just have to hear them out.
An idea can lead to a startup. The founder can tweak the idea overtime or change it completely. As time goes on, market changes, competition arrives, challenges amass and then you have to come up with new ideas to stay ahead in the market. There are good and bad ideas thrown at you left and right to lead the pack. Which do you choose?
In any organization, there are individuals who have good ideas or strategies that can help the company tremendously. A lot of times the voices of these individuals are systematically silent because their supervisors or leaders are too busy managing their egos, not hearing their team out or just busy watching the competition.
Create an idea funnel in your organization where the team constantly challenges the status quo, find ways to manage loss and increase increase or impact and you have the opportunity to hear many ideas before deciding on one. The outsider consultant can help but before that make sure you have fully heard from the ones that you work with everyday. They might just be waiting for their turn to speak, contribute and make an impact.
I had put I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons by Kevin Hart in my Book Bucket List in July. Now I’m just finished reading the book. I highly recommend reading this book.
Some phrases and quotes from the book that resonated with me:
Located in a few hours hike from Kathmandu are the beautiful villages of Chitlang and Markhu in Makwanpur district. Filled with abundant homestays, Nepal’s first goat cheese factory, pear farming, beautiful landscape, Chitlang contrasts the capital Kathmandu yet is so nearby. Markhu has an amazing viewpoint of the closeby hills, temples, boating facility to Kulekhani dam and fish farming. Chitlang and Markhu are both seeing a boost in internal tourism with people hiking or going there on their motorbikes, mountain bikes or bus.
With four of my friends, we made our way to Markhu from Kathmandu on a bright Saturday morning. Our budget for this trip was 1500 Nrs. Here’s what our itinerary looked like:
Day 1:
Catch the bus to Thankot from Old Bus Park (around 30 minutes without traffic)
Get off at the stop for Chandragiri Hills
Take one way cable car to Chandragiri Hills (You can also hike from Tribhuvan park, Thankot)
Chandragiri Hills to Chitlang village (around 1.5hrs to 2hrs)
Lunch at Goat Cheese Home Stay
Hike to Markhu (around 1hr to 1.5hrs)
Dinner and lodging at New Pareli Guest House
Day 2:
Tour the temples and the pedestrian suspension bridge
Boating to machaghar (fish house) from Markhu lakeside (around 45 minutes)
Brunch at New Pareli Guest House
Bus ride to Kathmandu
Total Costs: Nrs. 1500 or $15
Are you an entrepreneur selling a product, a service or your skills/knowledge? Are you a employee selling your knowledge and skills and contributing to the growth of the company?
We’re all salespeople. We’re just selling different things. It’s best to embrace this role and hone your selling skills. You have to first understand the market demand, take stock of your strengths and position yourself to address the market demand with your strengths. That’s the way to go.
We’re all salespeople. Some make a living with a sales title. Others make a living selling without holding a sales title.
Opportunities are in front of us. Some see it. Some don’t.
Let’s focus on the ones that see the opportunity.
The ones who see the opportunity can do few things. See it and jump into the opportunity. See it and decide not to do it. See it and not make any decision on it. Three choices. That’s it. Many times, I choose the first one.
One such opportunity came about in the form of a toastmaster event. After researching a few Toastmaster clubs in Kathmandu, I stumbled upon Himalaya Toastmasters. They meet on Thursdays at 6pm at SAP Falcha, Babarmahal. I thought it was a great opportunity to go there to practice my public speaking skills plus take a few of my coworkers to experience Toastmasters firsthand. We got to SAP Falcha at 5:45pm and networked with other club members. You can definitely feel a different level of energy in the room. The meeting started at 6pm, continued till 7:45pm with a short networking break in the middle. Within that time frame, we heard from some fine speakers on various topics. There was a Table Topic session where guests could participate. Two guests spoke before me and I wanted to seize the opportunity to speak as well. The third topic was announced “Your younger brother or sister has just failed the exam. You need to console him or her. How would you do it?” I raised my hand and went to the stage.
I gave a short speech on the third topic and it felt great. Later on, I learned that I had won Best Table Topics Award. I was exhilarated. I credit all of this to taking chances and putting yourself out there to continuously improve. By making a decision to attend the Toastmasters event, I was presented with so many opportunities: met other professionals, met old friends, improved my public speaking skills, won a award, got inspired, shared travel stories and created many memories among others. I highly encourage young professionals in Kathmandu to join a local Toastmasters club. The benefits are endless.
Phil Hellmuth is an American professional poker player who has won a record fourteen World Series of Poker bracelets. I’m not a poker player nor have any interest in poker. However, what drew me to listen to Phil’s conversation with Tim Ferriss was this quote by Phil.
“The difference between your best and your worst? The perception of others. Block out the noise and you’ll stay on track.”
Upon researching a little bit on Phil and his accomplishments, I became more interested to listen to his story, his perspective on money management and the importance of forgiveness.
In Tim’s podcast, Phil recounts a story of forgiveness. Phil had a person who had been stealing from him (about $28,000) and for whom he had also been helping the family. When Phil got the phone call that this had happened, he was shocked. One friend that Phil talked to regarding this situation was instantaneously furious and suggested him to take harsh steps against the alleged culprit. Phil took a moment and instead of losing his cool over this matter decided to go out for a nice dinner with his wife. After the dinner, Phil decided to completely forgive the guy who had been stealing from him. Here’s the funny part. Some time later, Phil got paid back in full. Also Phil had flown to Connecticut for a poker tournament and happened to see the guy who had stolen from him. Phil shook his hand and did not say much to the person. Phil had already forgave him and was not at war with the guy. Thus, Phil was able to completely focus on the poker tournament and ironically won $280,000 in that tournament (10x the amount he had “almost” lost from a person he trusted). Phil credits all of this karma to his act of forgiveness.
Imagine someone who wanted to pursue a career in a field because of you.
Imagine someone who credited you for making them better.
Imagine someone who was inspired by you.
Imagine someone who looked up to you.
Imagine someone who was so happy just to see you.
You’re making a very powerful choice everyday. Become the best version of you. Everyday. Someone is counting on you.
Maria Sharapova (@MariaSharapova) is one of the best tennis players in the world. She is the winner of five Grand Slam titles (two at the French Open and one each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) and an Olympic silver medalist.
I visited Tim Ferris’s website and really enjoyed listening to his interview with Maria Sharapova. I highly recommend listening to this podcast to understand who Maria Sharapova is besides just being a tennis player. I have a new found respect and admiration for her now after listening to the podcast. I’m now interested to read her book Unstoppable: My Life So Far.
Recently, I started a list of tech companies making an impact in Nepal based on the growth of the company in the last 5 years, innovative product or service of the company, local buzz around the company, company culture etc. In the first blog of this series, I talked about Fusemachines.
2. Grepsr
Started in 2012, Grepsr has been quietly making a big impact in the tech scene from Naxal, Kathmandu. Grepsr is a startup focused on simplifying the way businesses discover, track and analyse B2B data through a simple, collaborative and managed data extraction platform. Grepsr, as stated in their website is building a better future where access to better B2B data is much simpler, non-disturbing, and sometimes hidden for the good of businesses everywhere.
The 15+ Grepsr team is led by Amit Chaudhary and Subrat Basnet. They have amassed a noteworthy client list including Twitter, Bain & Company, Target, Groupon and GE Capital to name a few. They are also proud to share that they are based out of the beautiful of Kathmandu (Careers page).
The company has a chrome extension, Grepsr which helps to scrape data from the web. With close to 4500 users, the chrome extension has received rave reviews on the Chrome Web Store. I installed it and found the tool very useful. It’s very simple to use and has an intuitive dashboard. There are a few minor things that needs to be tweaked with the extension but overall its a fantastic tool for scraping data.
If you are interested in working at Grepsr, write in the comments below or send an email to [email protected] with subject line “Grepsr.”
The other 3 technology companies making an impact in Nepal will be featured in upcoming blogs. Stay tuned.
What type of seagull are you? Are you like Jonathan Livington seagull or a regular seagull?
I listened to the beautifully narrated audio version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach on YouTube. The 45 minute audio recording tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull who yearns to fly and not stay content with the daily activity of finding food like the other gulls. He is passionate about flying so much that he is removed from his flock. Independently he keeps flying and learning different ways to control his flight and speed. He is unconventional, driven and has a bigger purpose to live for.
Having now listened to the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I could understand why Kobe Bryant recommended the book when speaking to the LA Chargers, football team based in the Greater Los Angeles Area. Kobe has been obsessed with greatness and focused on achieving his goals no matter the cost. At times, his teammates probably did not understand his obsession to perfecting his craft, the sacrifices he made to become the best that he could be. Kobe identified himself as Jonathan Livingston Seagull who wanted to be the perfect craftsman and went above and beyond to become who he is.
A highly recommended read. The book starts with To the real Jonathan Seagull, who lives within us all.
Being a huge fan of Kobe Bryant, the now retired NBA player, I have read tons of articles, blogs and watched a lot of videos on him. He is quite the athlete with plenty of videos and blogs talking about his obsession with greatness, relentless work ethic and winning mentality.
Recently, I watched a video of Kobe delivering a welcome speech to the LA Chargers. In that video, he mentions a book Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach and discusses the content from it. I have started reading the book to figure out why Kobe recommended it.
College is a great learning experience. From choosing a major and balancing your academics to making new friends and managing your time, it’s an experience that shapes the rest of your life.
After college graduation, I worked and then again went back to do my MBA. I realize now that those experiences laid a great foundation for my career. However, the real education began when I started working full time. Education for me is a lifelong goal. You don’t have to go to school to be “educated”, the meaning of education is far beyond the confines of a classroom. In the field, in front of your laptop/mobile watching a speech, observing a mentor, reading a book, listening to a subject expert etc are all examples of education.
Don’t let school limit your education. Let school propel you to be a lifelong student.
The Kathmandu Post Venture Talk with Anil Keshary Shah on “Building a Personal Brand” is taking place today at Nepal Tourism Board, Pradarshani Marg, Kathmandu from 5pm-7pm.
I have attended several programs that featured Anil Shah as a speaker or a panelist so I highly recommend attending this Venture Talk if you are interested in learning how to build and leverage your personal brand. I recently attended the Venture Talk with Biswas Dhakal at NEXT Launchpad (below) and recommend participating in these events. You will get insights, hear from the entrepreneurs and pioneers and learn a lot in a short span of time.
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