June 30, 2020 – An Aura of Fleeting Thoughts

Whether it is your silence or your words or your action, make each of them count and market themselves well! This is the way to connect in the times we live in! Join me as we explore this interesting aspect and learn how this matters not only to help you connect well externally but how each of these facets goes a long way in creating a better version of yourself! So here we go!

Marketeers have been smart, nothing to take away that credit from them, they have been successful for the more than 70 years now creating labels for humanity!– Sure enough the labels started with an intent to know what drives human behavior and humans interact and engage with each other in the rapidly evolving industrialized world- needless to say- marketeers used this lever to go ahead and forge permanent labels across societies based on various attributes of the demography to entrap, convince or if noting else worked, confuse and sell products and services to “consumers” and that saw the dawn of a consumer centric society and birth of consumerism- well no one is complaining! There have been gains and losses like with anything else and round about now, even this aspect of consumerism is almost coming a full circle of karma- As your input quality degrades- the output will suffer! Plain and simple- philosophical stuff which has stood the test of time through eternity! The important aspect to learn around this chaos is the essence of “communication” and the power of the communicated message through words, music and visuals! If you were to ever catch up with a veteran of the golden age of the communication industry- they will go all day long speaking about the depth of research, new understanding that they came across as to how people used or abused a service or products- how that led to either further development or withdrawal of the product or service- how they altered the words- calibrated the words- and intertwined it with some catchy music and peppy visuals- all with a single focus that – the content and the message has to stick and lead to action- read- business! There is perhaps nothing more powerful than this (except the pleading and begging that goes around with the God that you believe- especially to uplift your life- as it keeps hitting rock bottom or keeps heading into areas where you never intended to be!).

Next, is the essence of silence, whether it was the horrendous atrocities committed by the colonial rulers across the world on the native population or the theaters of the World Wars I and II, history is replete the world over with examples where, deafening silence of the majority has caused more harm than the vocal resistance by a few- which has always brokered relief from torment- albeit for shorter duration’s- infrequently until the equilibrium shifted to the majority being vocal and a revolution taking hold to overthrow a fascist regime! Well all religions have preached in their way about, “Silence being Golden”, well it certainly is, for the time that you are contextual sitting around angels, visiting heaven or whatever place of your religious bliss is and you are next to GOD , if none of these scenarios are being played out in your life, trust me your silence or the silence by the group or the society that you represent will come back haunting with and equally magnified force and that time the noise created by that disruption will be been more deafening than the silence that you hold now! Choose a page from history of your choice and see how the genesis of revolutions, changes in society and challenges to society have occurred the world over- these all have been instances which started with deep silence, reflection, agitation, restlessness, anger and eventual outburst! The point that I want to make is simple, don’t have to wait to take this long painful route all the time and certainly not for an office setting! If calibrated words and measured phrases do wonders on a copy or a one minute ad film or a radio jungle, trust me releasing your silence and making your voice heard and count, in an equally measured manner will be more emphatic and effective then your silence!

Once you have learnt the nuances of silence and the power of communication, you need to embrace the holy grail of action! This is very tricky and it gets lot more complicated as your responsibilities rise! As long as the action impacts and effects you alone- doesn’t matter- no one really cares- hence even when you kept skidding and falling as you learnt to walk- your parent knew you won’t kill yourself and if you are reading right now, well you have survived and mastered the art to execute the act of walking and running- it’s a different story that you would have fallen later, broken bones and also had implants with a vision to become a dummy cyborg! But If you lead a team or a big corporation, (you know the shit that I am talking about)- the stock prices will rise and fall every time you take a kerchief to wipe your brow during an AGM or you come out sweating from a board meeting and the media gets a hint about it! At times when you have to take that leap of faith and you just do it and sometime hit the jackpot and at times miss it- well you know how Newton’s third law then paid you a visit! Either ways you become a historic figure- for the right or the wrong reasons- but the choice of your Action and Inaction makes it count in equal measure and that is power and essence of calibrated or reckless action! So what is with the silence, communication and the action bit you may ask me! Well here we go!

Make it count! I read this in a famous book, about starting each day with a credit balance of the number of seconds that are there in your day and now if you were a banker or a business person or anybody for that matter and told that these 86,400 seconds for the day are actually worth 86,400 USD how would you spend it? Now once you know each of your second is worth it’s weight in USD or how about calibrating it to 1 mg of Gold-24 Carat gold- just see the difference that comes about in the way that you begin to deal with yourself to begin with and with that magic will happen! Once you become wise enough to make it count- Make every second of your day count- every action/inaction, word, message, communication and silence to work and count for you- others and everyone around will have no other choice bit to comply and fall inline to replicate and imbibe the same because if this is not done things will simply not work – neither for them nor for you- as long as you stay firm on the principle to make it count!

In the time when we are bombarded with information (not knowledge) most of which is unverified, the constant social compulsion to express pour views, comment, bitch and talk- irrespective of the fact that reckless banter doesn’t make even a microscopic impact anywhere on the societal framework, it is but only wise to make your existence count and make it worthy enough of the time spent in whatever you choose to do! There is a difference between creating, developing and sharing an opinion and being dismissive, or displaying prejudice; there is a difference between being strong and vocal and being able to connect through the words with the audience in mind; there is a difference between being an action freak going about doing your work like a wreaking ball and being an organised and visionary builder of the future- To live, relish and know these nuances- you need to start at the very beginning by making it count- by making your 86,400 seconds of each day count and that alone is the key to excel and create a better version of yourself each day- not for the world but for yourself!

I leave your here with these thoughts, grab that coffee and start timing your seconds, I have used up some of them already- hope you invest them back wisely!

Ciao for now, will catch up soon with another piece! Stay Blessed and Stay Wise!

This is the story of these three invaluable elements, Knowledge, Experience and Intelligence, how they help and harm to shape our lives and end up making who we are to the moment that we are breathing in! There is nothing right and wrong about them, by themselves; but once understood, these very elements can empower you from within so you know for sure which of these elements you want to use more or less , often or occasionally to ensure you keep moving down the chosen path with minimal disruption! So here we go!

Knowledge is the foundation- something that has been there and will be there. If you ask me what is good and not so good about Knowledge- well- Knowledge is what it is- it’s indifferent- human lives get altered or impacted with the way in which Knowledge is used and applied- this is the domain of every shifting human intelligence!Intelligence is what makes Knowledge come alive- Intelligence is what helps us to get Knowledge in action! The only real challenge with Intelligence is that unlike Knowledge, Intelligence can be driven to meet and achieve a specific purpose- a driven agenda and this is the fundamental space where things start to either get created and built or they start to crumble and disintegrate!

Every crisis that humanity has witnessed- whether it was wars , natural disasters, economic melt downs, social unrest’s etc. or every development that humanity has ever collectively witnessed- having humans on the moon, in the space, creating marvels of technology and enhancing quality of human life- through modern technology and scientific developments- all of these have one thing in the common the role of human Intelligence- at times- the brilliance of an individuals mind and many other times- a result of collective intelligence- working in teams, partnerships, communities, governments– Either ways there is no doubt that all our blessings and curses that we live by are but a byproduct of the Human Intelligence- I call this as the byproduct- because the real product of these modern societal frameworks more often than not ends up being human greed and selfish propaganda which begins at an individual level and at times dangerously manifests into state or national policy attributes with disastrous results!

This “double-edged sword” like attribute of intelligence makes it very uncomfortable to others, especially when the other person that you are engaging with either has less of it or has more than enough of it! Hence you will find- normally that a group of content individuals – friends- colleagues etc will always be a collection of intelligence which averages out to their level of comforts, you add one eccentrically dumb or brilliant person to that group and within no time you will have mini groups formed or a complete new restructuring or disbanding of the group! So what makes Intelligence so much in-the-face and uncomfortable? Well here’s the thing- unlike Knowledge which cannot be challenged, Intelligence- which is to do “something” with the “knowledge” can always be questioned and debated on the approach taken and who is taking it and the “why” of these two aspects! Add to this the layer of human insecurity- which comes because of either been thrown among more intelligent people or having to deal day-in and out with astonishingly dumb people around- less intelligent- the whole approach of dealing with knowledge and putting it to effective use to create something meaningful for humanity takes a whole new dimension and that is what the real essence of live’s struggle is! It is about dealing with differential levels of intelligence to ensure the available knowledge is harnessed effectively to serve the greater good of humanity, however the elements of greed and societal confirmation takeover & override intelligence which is the reason why we end up seeing our societies and individuals within and around us the way they are! Think about it!

Speaking about Experience, well it is certainly a subset of Knowledge but at the same time is limited by the availability or unavailability of individual and collective intelligence! You will find “Experience” as the buzz word among office corridors; “we have an experienced senior management”, “we have a rich experience to address consumer problems”, engineers, doctors, scientists, teacher’s manager’s everyone that you would have heard of or spoken to will always tell you stories about how rich the “experience” is!- Wherever they work or study! Well sorry to disappoint you, but the fact is “Experience is perhaps the biggest fallacy of our times!” The problem with experience is that it is based on a contextual setting of a time or event which has already occurred and possibly noted and documented- then the situation or event would have been dealt with in a particular manner- but as times change – our responses need to and better change! Consider this, say you develop symptoms of fever- how would have your doctor approached you say- 25 years back and now? Got the difference- well that’s what the long and short of experience is! When Experience is not weighed against the future and not checked for streaks of brilliance or competence which will stay strong in the times ahead, rest assured you will end up having white elephants within your organisation, who would have had a glorious past, a miserable present and a fast arriving disastrous future! When it comes to decoding and understanding our present and future- experience is no guarantee of success- never by itself! So what is the way ahead with Knowledge, Experience and Intelligence with regards to the times that we live in!

If you ask me, this is what I think (not necessary you may also think the same way- as I say- each one can carve out his own heaven or hell as they may please!); The secret for being in-step and possibly being a fraction ahead of the times that we live about – lies in the space of ensuring that Knowledge is continually harnessed by applying intelligence to the new discoveries made and found; one needs to tweak and correct their “experiences” and have them updated and refined! This process is the key and is a dynamic one which goes on continually and is the trump card to ensure that we are able to harness and optimize the power of Knowledge , Intelligence and Experience on an ongoing basis!

Experience is not about repeating the same tasks/over and over again through the months and years- it is about getting smarter and accurate with repetitive tasks and being able to create differentiation/innovative solutions for addressing recurring challenges and subsequently moving ahead to embrace new challenges- This can be achieved only when Intelligence is applied to Knowledge by adapting the contextual settings on an ongoing basis! This is the space where magic happens and a dynamic equilibrium is reached between Knowledge- Experience- Intelligence to serve the greater good!

I will leave you here, do reflect your encounters with intelligence- knowledge and experience! You will be able to appreciate the depth of experience, agility of your intelligence and the vastness of your knowledge!Once you know this, you can trim the flight of your ambitions for the journey ahead!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article!