Real successful are those who can Dream and also Do. Dreamers and Doers are like two sides of the same coin, they are inseparable twins making individuals successful.

How many times have you come across or you yourself said “he is lucky” or “its magic” when someone you knew became very successful?

If you think making a dream a reality is a dream, co-founder Mr.S.A.Chandran of Essae Chandran Institute through their Monthly Reflection series shares it could be a science.

The Magic of Three: Concept, Systems, Tools

Seeing a banyan tree in the seed is not only an imagination or dream but a vision.  Begin (seed) with the end (tree) in mind.  The seed has got the potential to become a banyan tree.    Dreams have the power to spark off this inner potential.

Dreaming big is great.  Men of achievement have begun by dreaming big.  Helen Keller said, “The most pathetic person in the world is someone, who has sight, but no vision”.  Daring to dream big is excellent and is a good starting point but is insufficient in itself.  Be it in personal, family or professional life, a dream can be translated into reality only if it is followed by systems and tools.  What starts as a concept must get its flesh and blood through systems and application of tools.  No one plans to fail but many fail to plan.  Translating the dream to reality needs a systematic approach.  Only when we make a road map will we know whether we are on track to reach the destination and if need to make any course correction.

Concept:  Most of us have got excellent concepts.  It is something like building a castle in the air.  One has to go through a pragmatic way of transforming this concept into reality.  Dreaming big is good.  Implementing the dream is better.  Realizing the dream is best.  Failure to realize the dream happens in not systemizing and not systemizing and not using right tools.  Thomas Alva Edison is known for his perseverance.  He never used to accept any experiment as a failure.  He used to learn from the failures with persistence and perseverance.  He declared:  “I have not failed.  I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”.  Having a concept is like having a seed:  it is essential but insufficient.

Systems:  Concept cannot walk.  It is like a sign post.  It will show us the directions but it will not take us to the destination.  The systems give us a mechanism to convert concept into reality.  It will also help us with milestone to measure and monitor progress.  If the seed is a concept and the goal is to have a banyan tree, then one must sow the seed in fertile soil, water it and fence it to protect it from animals and also expose to sufficient sunlight.

Tools:  Just as we need tools to nurture the planted seed, our dream needs tools to facilitate implementation.

The visionaries are those who can see the banyan tree in the seed.  Concept, systems and tools are equally important without which the concept will only be thought in the mind of its creator.  The greatest thrill in human existence is to have an idea and give life to the idea by blood (system) and bones (Tools).  A concept without systems and tools is merely a passing thought.

“Dream is a Dream if you don’t Do anything about it” – Naveen Lakkur

Everyone in this World requires help. Take any aspect of life; it operates on the principles of Help - Give and Get.

Did you know that, when you REALLY need help, you will SURELY get it! That’s the law of nature. But the usual thought process that accompanies each one of us is that – in our moments of need we always turn towards people whom we had lent a helping hand in the recent past. This fallacy clouds our judgment. They may not at all be the right people who can help us for that particular task, but we aren’t able to look beyond them. They may not be at all equipped to help us in the manner that we want and therefore no help comes from their quarters. In such a scenario we even risk losing the personal relationship built over a period of time as it’s a set of wrong expectations.

You need to have faith and work with open mind to sense the help which might be your way from a source you least expected…

If you are wondering how true this could be…Let me HELP you with the HELP of this famous poem ‘I Had a Dream’

One night I had a dream
I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets
of footprints in the sand,
one belonging to me
and the other to my Lord.
When the last scene of my life shot before me
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
There was only on set of footprints.
I realized that this was at the lowest
and saddest times in my life.
This always bothered me
and I questioned the Lord
about my dilemma.
“Lord, you told me when I decided to follow You,
You would walk and talk with me all the way.
But I’m aware that during the most troublesome
times of my life there is only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why, when I needed You most,
you leave me.”
He whispered, “My precious, precious child,
I love you and will never leave you
never, ever during your times of trial and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints
It was then that I carried you.”

- Margaret Fishback Powers

Like the above powerful analogy, we will receive help even without knowing, we are doing so. All we have to do is to keep our heart open.

Keep GIVING when others need it. You will GET it when you really need it – Naveen Lakkur

A famous Australian Coach John Buchanan says, “A good leader is one who takes the team from where they are to where they have not been”.

If you are wearing the hat of a leader, one of your major responsibilities would be to take your team to places that they have never been – scaling them to the heights that they have never reached earlier. A good team is known by its leader, they say “as the leader so the team”.

What does a leader expect from the team in order to Go Places?

* Skills
* Enthusiasm and Higher motivation levels
* Team spirit-The feeling of belongingness to the team
* A sense of sacrifice-Personal goals for team goals
* The burning desire to be the best

Combination of A Great Leader and A Great Team are like two faces of the same coin, this is what makes A Winning Team.

Want to Go Places? Be a Winner…

There is a very common adage which says “relationships are like wine, they get better with time”. Many a times, the strength of a relationship is directly proportional to the time for which the relationship exists. But then there are instances where just a single moment spent results in a life-long relationship.

Quality Relationship is an outcome of Quality Time spent with Quality People. This applies to life and to business/work.

‘When to spend how much time and with whom?’ is the question that haunts each one of us. Luckily we can answer that. The below points would help you in doing so -

* Selection of people with whom the time is spent is the most critical. (Anthony Robins says, ‘what you become is based on whom you spend time with’).
* Being honest to oneself while spending the time with a particular person.
* Adding value to the other parties life/work (Helping the person achieve what they desire in a shorter time and/or in a better way)
* Building a win-win situation anytime and every-time when time spent with other person (‘Give and Take’ is a sustainable model. ‘Take and Take’ or ‘Give and Give’ are not sustainable ones).
* And lastly taking action in achieving the above (My colleague Ramesh Rajamani reminds me of the quote ‘Time and Tide wait for none’ which also highlights the fact that having great intentions and doing nothing about it would mean nothing)

The greatest and most expensive gift that you can give others is your time. Because you are giving away a part of your life which you will never get back. And with time being the most scarce resource in today’s hectic world, time management, spells success or otherwise for each one of us.

This was precisely the thought that drove the recent launch of www.ipolipo.com (a patent pending web based application which is easy for everyone to share their free time to meet friends or to schedule a business meeting or to get an appointment by following few simple steps and reduced time cycles).

“If Destination is the Relationship, Vehicle is the Time. So, start driving. Journey will be your Reward.” – Naveen Lakkur

Knowledge Management is a buzzword in today’s corporate scenario. Companies have instituted special programs wherein their employees can acquire knowledge from newer avenues. But in the midst of all this, we forget what is also equally important - the application. I have seen many people who have excellent knowledge, they have acquired so much of information which is available at their fingertips but when it comes to practical application they are nowhere. Knowledge when not applied is of no use as it does not produce any results and just rots in the mind. The culmination of knowledge occurs when it is put into use and benefits everybody. Knowledge and Application are like 2 sides of the same coin, one along with the other makes life more valuable.

I have tried to create a knowledge-application chart as given below. This chart will help us classify ourselves and others among the listed 4 categories:

1. Dummies: They score very low on both the fronts and they are yet to begin the journey. No point talking about them.

2. Sinners: This category of people have lot of knowledge but they do not apply that knowledge. According to me having knowledge and not applying for the benefit of growth is a sin.

3. Survivors: These are a unique group of people, who apply almost everything they know. The ability to apply makes these individuals survivors.

4. Achievers: These are the people who should be looked up to. They score high on both the parameters. They achieve a lot and become somebody because they are busy applying the knowledge which they continuously acquire.

The idea is not just to plot individuals in the chart, but what is more important is to realize that it’s not the end-of-the road. We can move up the matrix by having a higher knowledge-application ratio and also help others to move. That’s the way to go….

We say ‘Journey is the reward’. My reward during a recent travel was a wonderful question asked to me by SriLekha. She wanted to know which among the 2 was important
1. Doing Different Things or
2. Doing Things Differently.
It was an interesting question and majority of the people think ‘doing things differently’ is important for them in their life.
Let us decide what is important after setting a context to this. If we set entrepreneurship as the context, then ‘doing different things’ and ‘doing things differently’ become 2 sides of the same coin and both become important.
1. Entrepreneurs are trend setters, not followers! They do different things. They take the road less taken or they even take the roads that are never taken. This is a leadership act. ‘Doing Different Things’ should lead to innovation and trend setting business.
2. It is also important to do things differently to make the new business trend more efficient.  ‘Doing Things Differently’ is a measure for productivity and should translate into better results.
‘Doing Different Things’ should help an entrepreneur to get a good Start. It’s also important to Lead; so adapt to ‘Doing Things Differently’ also.

One common refrain we hear in the modern times from people is that they are very busy. Everyone has one thing in common, that is 24 hours a day. How each individual uses the same number of hours is what matters.

Hard work is not an option to achieve something in life, but smart work is!

Smart work is when we work very hard and we are able to accomplish more work, in lesser time, with better results, and with optimized use of available resources. If Hard Work and Smart Work are the two sides of the same coin, Prioritization is the strong metal holding either sides together.

Once there was a demonstration by a teacher in a university. The teacher had a big glass beaker and filled it with large stones and asked the students, ‘If the beaker was full?’ The class responded immediately with a ‘YES’. The teacher then picked some small pebbles and added to the beaker and it could take it. The teacher again asked the class, ‘If the beaker was full’? The class again responded with a ‘yes’. The teacher picked a packet full of sand and poured into the beaker and the beaker could accommodate it. Teacher again asked the class, ‘If the beaker was full’? This time students were hesitant to say yes and they were right…Teacher pulled up a water bottle and poured water into the beaker. It was not a surprise that the whole bottle of water could fill into the beaker. The teacher then asked the students, ‘What did you learn from this?’.

The message is loud and clear from this experiment that, in our day to day activity, there would be many tasks. The smartness is in putting the big stones first, in other words prioritizing and attending to important ones first and then life can accommodate many more things by still being efficient. On the other hand, if the beaker was filled with water first, even an addition of a small pebble would end up with overflow of water.

First Things First, that’s the way to get smarter…

This reminds me of a wonderful book ‘First Things First’ by Stephen R Covey and his quote “Effective Leadership is putting First Things First. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out”.

“Efficiency” and “Effectiveness” are the two common words/terms which are used in daily work life. If you observe they are interchangeable in a speech and it still make sense. But they are not exactly the same.

I once heard a speech and the orator explained the difference between these two terms in a very simple and interesting way. He said that efficiency is “doing the work right” and effectiveness is “doing the right work“.

Isn’t that very simple? They look almost the same and it’s just the interchange 2 words, but there is a big difference…

Everyone has to be efficient. There is no option for other than everyone to do their work right. Effectiveness is an action by a leader. It is important for a leader to be effective.

Let me illustrate with an example. Let’s consider sports as in the game of soccer, all the 10 players have to be efficient but the captain has to be effective. The captain should decide who should play and in which position should each player play. The captain should plan the strategies by being aware of the strengths of their own team and the weakness of the opponents.

The point to be noted here is that both efficiency and effectiveness are indispensable and none of them can be compromised. They are inseparable like the two sides of the same coin.

The EFFECTIVENESS of an individual can be judged by how EFFICIENTLY they manage the resources that are available to them.

Leaders, go ahead and Efficiently check your Effectiveness!

This is my first post on a new series called ‘The Inseparable Twins’ These posts would focus on the subjects which are like 2 different sides of one single coin.

The first inseparable twins are ‘Idea and Execution’. Thoughts come from a beautiful mind and your IDEA is a part of creativity. A good IDEA will give you a good start. You can lead (succeed) only if you can EXECUTE the idea well. Execution of good ideas is one of the critical factors that determine the success of a start-up and it is no different to an established corporate.

I met Prem Kumar recently. Prem is my school time friend. He shared an amazing experience of his. Let me narrate this story to illustrate my 3 cents of my first ‘Inseparable Twins’.

One of the problems in the company was that many people were coming late to work. So, the think-tank in the company (management team in this case) came up with an idea that they will have a new rule for people who report late at work. The new rule was that every late-comer had to drop $0.50 in a small piggy-bank like box which will be kept at the reception. The idea was to make people who come late feel guilty and solve the problem. Also the decision was that the collected money will be used for a good/useful cause end of the year.

Is this not a beautiful idea? What do you think would have happened when this idea was executed?

It was only found few months later that, even people who use to be on-time also starting coming late. All of them promptly dropped $0.50 into the box, if they were late. They were buying out their guilt by dropping in money in the box. Overall, the problem only became bigger…

Here are my 3 cents:

Cent #1: Idea generation and execution are like the two sides of a coin, they are two complementary and inseparable processes. If an idea is good but it is executed badly, its purpose is killed. The vice-versa is equally true as there cannot be a perfect execution without a worthy idea.

Cent #2: Punishment is not always the best solution to the problem. We must look at intelligent ways to drive home the point, which should inspire and induce people to become part of the solution itself.

“If the given punishment is not painful enough, it will back fire only to be very painful to you.” – Naveen Lakkur.

Cent #3: You should learn from the mistakes. You should also learn from others mistake as you don’t have time to commit all by yourself. Same way it’s important to learn from others experience (includes success stories).

Thank You! Prem for sharing a very useful experience with me…

What keeps the leaders going?
It’s the motivation. Motivation is another distinguishing quality of an emotionally intelligent person. Motivation is like a coin with two sides; the two sides co-exist and act as fuel which drives life.

Side 1 - Self-Motivation: Motivating oneself all the time, especially during times when the going is not good. In sports this is called “pumping up” oneself.

Side 2 - Motivating Others: Every action of ours has the potential of inspiring others and making them following us. We know how even a smile can lighten up one’s day.

It’s hard to motivate others if self is not motivated. The book “Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do!” by Robert H Schuller helped me pump up when the going was tough.

Let us list down the traits required to fit into these two sides of motivatoin.

SELF-MOTIVATION:
* Always having a feeling that ‘I am good, I am special’ and action following the feeling.
* Self-motivated people have a goal in life. They know which path to take to achieve the goal and also know by when they can reach their goal.
* A high level of enthusiasm in a person shows that they are self-motivated.

MOTIVATING OTHERS:
* Appreciating people’s actions, however small it may be? Even a small pat can make a big difference to a person.
* Helping people to achieve their goals in a way that it will help them reach faster and in a more effective way.
* Sharing the joy of others during their good times and being the source of support to others during their bad times.

There is no “one recipe” for motivation and it is up to us to find out what motivates us and others. The above list is a partial list. If this post has added some fuel to your life, I invite you to join the club by adding your points on “What motivates self and others” in the form of your comments.