Last week, I had a wonderful opportunity to visit Puttaparthy after a long time. There, I heard a speech by Sri Sathya Sai Baba, which was very enlightening. After the speech, all assembled there got an apple. That reminds me of a famous proverb “An apple a day keeps a doctor away”. It is said so maybe because, apples are filled with essential vitamins.

This is what I could pick up from Baba’s speech:

An iron safe has value only because it stores and guards precious jewels. The value of the iron safe is based on the value of the jewels inside. If the iron safe is empty, it’s just a box (dummy). In the same way human beings are the iron safe and the valuable jewels in life are:

# Truth- It not only means “not speaking lies” but it is much more. It means there is unity in thoughts, words and deeds. A person can be called truthful only when they say what they really think and do exactly what they say.

# Righteousness- Doing the right thing. To be righteous is to follow the conscience and doing ‘what is good’ rather than doing ‘what is pleasant’.

# Peace- Everyone strives to have peace in their lives, which is the ultimate objective. A person may have money, fame, knowledge but if they don’t have peace, these amount to nothing.

# Love- It is the foundation of one’s life. It is the universal chain binding the whole of humanity. We love others and we also need to be loved by others. We cannot survive without love.

When I heard Baba emphasizing on these 4 values, it struck me that they are inter-related, universal and each one is a precious jewel. They are applicable not only to individuals but also in our corporate life. Every organization has to follow and institutionalize these values, the only way to build a great entity. Also, ALL the 4 values are equally important and not one of them can be compromised. I would say that these 4 values are like the 4 pillars on which the company rests.

They say ‘every thing changes, only thing constant is the change itself’. This is an exception. I don’t see any of these four values changing. They remain fundamental and the foundation in building a great company.

The apple I got that day was a special one, because it was full of values…

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…

Our life is a reflection of the suggestions that we have been receiving throughout. At some time or the other we have received them from our parents, friends, teachers, our colleagues, managers, supervisors, etc.,

Suggestions are surely one thing that has been omnipresent in shaping our life. What is very important is from whom are we getting these suggestions. The question we have to ask is whether the person is a trusted and an authority to give us the suggestion?

Suggestions play a very important role in shaping our professional life. In reality, it’s quite difficult to get one person who can give us all the good suggestions that are required because no one individual is a master of everything. This is where books play an indispensable role because they are the eternal guides for life (self-development) or for business. We can learn a lot by reading good books. Books have changed lives. My own life is an example because my professional life got shaped by a book called “Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do!” written by Dr. Robert H Schuller. I read it about 15 years ago, just before starting my professional career and it triggered in me to take some steps in life, to have and build self confidence, to take risk and to become some one…

It is important for us to find someone who can give us valuable suggestions for making decisions and that too better decisions. Not making a decision is the worst decision that one can make. Suggestions play a big role in taking better/correct decisions. Today, I can say proudly that there is a system called “Suggestica” (www.suggestica.com) which will help us in getting the best suggestions from the experts of various disciplines. You can take advantage of it to radically change your life for the better.

* For those who are yet to start a new initiative, Suggestica will be your platform to provide a good start (a good start is half done…).

* For those who have started an initiative, Suggestica is a perfect platform that will help you to learn more and trigger you to take a lead in what you do.

“Suggestion matter and so is your Decision” – Naveen Lakkur

Suggestica provides you suggestions for your life; it’s time that you make decisions…