Who was the boss ??!!!

Scientists at the Rocket launching station in Thumba, were in the habit of working for nearly 12 to 18 hours a day. There were about Seventy such scientists working on a project. All the scientists were really frustrated due to the pressure of work and the demands of their boss but everyone was loyal to him and did not think of quitting the job.

One day, one scientist came to his boss and told him - Sir, I have promised to my children that I will take them to the exhibition going on in our township. So I want to leave the office at 5 30 pm.

His boss replied - O K, , You are permitted to leave the office early today.

The Scientist started working. He continued his work after lunch. As usual he got involved to such an extent that he looked at his watch when he felt he was close to completion.The time was 8.30 p.m

Suddenly he remembered of the promise he had given to his children. He looked for his boss,,He was not there. Having told him in the morning itself, he closed everything and left for home.

Deep within himself, he was feeling guilty for having disappointed his children.

He reached home. Children were not there.His wife alone was sitting in the hall and reading magazines. The situation was explosive, any talk would boomerang on him.

His wife asked him - Would you like to have coffee or shall I straight away serve dinner if you are hungry.

The man replied - If you would like to have coffee, i too will have but what about Children???

Wife replied- You don't know - Your manager came at 5 15 p.m and has taken the children to the exhibition.

What had really happened was

The boss who granted him permission was observing him working seriously at 5.00 p.m. He thought to himself, this person will not leave the work, but if he has promised his children they should enjoy the visit to exhibition.
So he took the lead in taking them to exhibition

The boss does not have to do it everytime. But once it is done, loyalty is established.

That is why all the scientists at Thumba continued to work under their boss eventhough the stress was tremendous.

The boss was A P J Abdul Kalam.

Bill Gates says!!!!!!

Love him or hate him, Bill Gates sure hits the nail on the head with this!
He recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault; so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You won't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Rickshaw or Ferrari ??

I was to go to Indore to attend a family function recently. I had booked my ticket in a train to Bhopal. On the day, I left at general shift completion time from office with my friend when it was raining.
Somehow we had ankle deep and somewhere knee deep water opn roads. Traffic jam wasn't unprecedented.
Nothing was bizarre.
We had our dinner and left from there keeping 1 hour's time in hands knowing the well known and well tried average time of 20 mins to reach the nampalli station.
Strangely, rickshaws were scarce and those to be seen had pasengers. I requested a gal who was travelling to accomodate me so that I was to take it ahead of her point and go to the station.
We had nice chit chat in the 1 hour long journey (because of the heavy traffic jam). She hoped and prayed my reaching in time and sacrificed her actual 'U' turn point.
Thanks to her! However the real essence of the story begins here.
I could not reach the station in time and as I rushed in, the train was gone. It went crawling and speeding up infront of my eyes.
Feeling sad, I came out to give the other station Secunderabad a try.
An autorickshaw driver approached me saying he will drop me to secunderabad and I will be able to catch my train. He had a deal " if you catch the train- I get 100 Bucks. If not, I will take nothing. "

When time is of essence, money doesn't matter.


I agreed.


And here started the ferrari driver.
He took me there real fast. Roads were slippery but empty. It was thirilling to travel in that thinking "if I lose the train, all efforts go in vain."

many left and many right turs and eventually he cried out "saab- there goes your train over that bridge reaching the station and as it reaches there, we are surely gonna be there." That was true !!!!!!!

He got his 100 bucks. I got my train.
Time = money.

While travelling it reminded me of Amitesh who used to say to Riskshawwalas " Kya bhaiyaaaa!! rickshaw chala rahe hain ki ferrari chala rahe hain ?"

Aggression !! Is it the key to success ?

The seven habits as described by S R Covey don't mention aggression as the key ! However I do !

I have seen my bosses in my first job. They are aggressive ! They know the meaning of execution !
When it comes to projects, the result comes when you erect a plant, successfully commission it.

Designing is simple- though complicated. Thing of importance is that you need to think ! Your show is your performance.

Execution is difficult- It is getting the things done from others- vendors, contractors, workers, etc etc

Your show is other's performance.

It kills you when you see the things moving out of your hands, when there is no control on time
that passes and quality that suffers !

There is lot of doing and redoing !

Things simply cant be done rightly in the first place !

To have control on all these things- what you require is called aggression.

Good read is execution by By Regine Azurin

You’ve got the bright ideas and the smart people, and the market is just ready for you. But why hasn’t your business taken off as you predicted? Maybe the problem is in your execution. What does it really take to get a business going? You need the right people combined with realistic strategies to create effective operating procedures. Let Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan tell you how.
A business leader’s most important job is the execution of plans, the “detail work,” making sure that the staff is getting results. This is the sort of responsibility that cannot be delegated. It is the leader’s primary duty to see that every member of the team is carrying out his part of the big plan to ensure the whole company’s success. There are no excuses for failure: the market will always be tough. What spells the difference between successes and failures is the ability to execute plans.
Too often, too much intellectualizing and philosophy occurs at the planning level. The leaders are busy with their dreams and plans for success but there is little focus on implementation, thus the promised result is not delivered. The emphasis on execution as an integral part of the business process has not received enough attention in terms of accumulated knowledge and literature.
The Building Blocks of Execution
The Leader’s Seven Essential Behaviors
1. Know Your People and Your Business.
2. Insist on Realism.
3. Set Clear Goals and Priorities.
4. Follow Through.
5. Reward the Doers.
6. Expand People’s Capabilities through Coaching.
7. Know Yourself.