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

A lot of people aspire to become entrepreneurs. They plan for the following:

1. Choosing the field they would like to be in
2. Conceive the business idea
3. Draw up a business model
4. Partners (Whom to build the business with)
5. Competition (if any)
6. Leadership Team
7. Promotion, Marketing and Sales/Revenue generation
8. Investments
9. Risk Management
10. Operations (Day to Day Activities)

When it comes to entrepreneurship, planning is a very important component. A good plan can only set the new venture to get a good start. But what generally happens is that people don’t start after planning, as they are caught in the perfect plan syndrome. This is not practical. Entrepreneurship is like swimming, if you want to really learn swimming, you have to get into the water.

A true entrepreneur gets into it full-time and is prepared to meet the obstacles and challenges. More importantly, entrepreneurs have the fire in the belly and are hungry for success. It’s then that they inspire others and create an organizational edifice, which becomes a part of legends.

Hari Shetty, President & CEO of iPolipo Inc., and Deepika Bajaj, President Invincibelle Inc., are among those people who are demonstrating entrepreneurship by plunging into it full time by letting off all their goodies (good job and a brand). While I wish them great success in their respective ventures, I also want to wish those of you who have recently ventured as entrepreneurs…

In life, there are two ways of looking at things-having a positive perspective or a negative one. The negative path is relatively easy but is dangerous, the positive one is relatively tough but is very rewarding in the long run. I met Joseph in Delhi during the launch of Rajesh Setty’s book “Life Beyond Code” in India. Joseph, who is an editor, related a story when we were discussing about ‘optimism and pessimism, which shows the power of thought. The story is as follows:

A man named Sam had 2 children-John and Jack, who were twins. They looked alike but their thoughts were opposite. John was an eternal optimist – a positive thinker, whatever is the situation. On the other hand, Jack was a pessimist. Sam was not very happy with the two extreme natures of his sons. It bothered him as they grew up. So he decided to balance their thoughts by resorting to an experiment on their birthday. On the night before their birthday when the kids were sleeping, Sam went to John’s room and kept horse and cow dung expecting that John will feel very bad to see dung in his room on his birthday. In Jack’s room Sam kept wonderful gifts which were the most beautiful ones that one could ever receive. He was waiting to see the reaction of both his sons. When Jack got up, he saw the wonderful gifts arranged and commented, something should be wrong as such good things landed in the room and that they were too good to be true. Sam was very unhappy with Jack’s reaction. He hoped that atleast John would show a favorable result by reacting negatively. When he went to John’s room, he saw him happily playing and juggling with the dung by making balls out of them and commented to his dad that if this dung is here then there should be a pony somewhere.

This story teaches us a very important lesson. An optimist finds a silver lining in the blackest cloud. They see the positive in the toughest of instances. John was an embodiment of positive thinking. Contrarily, Jack could never find anything good even in those wonderful gifts. Our life is shaped in the way, we react to different circumstances. If we are positive, we will enjoy our work, relationships and have a fulfilling and financially secure life. If we are negative, even God cannot save us.

You always have a choice to either think positive or negative. This thought process has a very high implication for leaders and their teams. Leaders should think positive and have clarity while communicating with their teams to produce a winning combination.