Even if we come across the person below, hardly ever an eyebrow is raised, but…

… when we see him, something crosses our mind. Why is that? Because it’s some form of impairment?

Then why don’t similar thought cross our minds when we see this form of impairment?

Maybe because visual disability is so common, we have gotten used to it? In which case, should these be replaced…

… with something like this?

One thing to bear in mind, that hearing impairment will become common place as well, with everything around us getting louder, this is bound to happen. So get used to seeing more people with hearing aids on.

When we visit a new place, we take no time to dismiss their taste in food, clothing and lifestyle. Why do we yearn for a Indian food, abroad? Do people abroad not eat, or they have no taste for good food? Why not try local cuisine? It is not about imitating others or trying to blend in. It is about putting yourself in the other person’s shoes to understand and appreciate their culture and the generations of refinement that has gone into their way of life as well.

Food was an easy one to pick on, but I can go on about several other things. We never seem to stop and think why are things the way they are. Just because they are not the same as we are used to, they are bad or stupid.

On the flip side, when we visit India, we do not blend in there as well. We will criticize the traffic, the life style, the nosy neighbors etc. etc. We will not even drink the same water that others do. Are they so beneath us?

So instead of feeling at home, we are foreigner or might I say aliens, at home and abroad. What a cursed life to live.

Being Green

Everyone talks about being green, buying green. We participate in new fads like the ‘Earth day’. Personally, I think that not buying at all is even better.  Do you really need to buy a new mobile phone each year? What about the music player, the laptop, the car…?

Whether I look at children or young employed adults, I see a clear trend. Everyone wants the biggest; latest; best, gadgets; phones; bikes… etc. This is one American cultural influence I am not very comfortable with. Americans are known for their massive debt powered consumption. But imagine, with India’s population and her growing appetite what could happen to this planet?

What is causing this shift? Why are we becoming a consumerist society? I can think of a few factors.

Identity crisis

peer pressure and societal acceptance / one-upmanship causes a lot of purchases. I refuse to let any latest fad or technology, define me. So I am neither a PC nor a Mac. I am me. I do not have an identity crisis, and do not seek to have peer acceptance. Consumption driven social status is not cool for me. If you think not having the latest gadget makes you a social outcast, may be you need a new set of friends.

Teaching the value of money

Could this change from a saving society to a consuming society be because parents are not teaching their children the value of money? I see several parents pampering their kids not end and fulfilling every request.

And even if they were not pampered, the newly employed youth would rather blow its pay check on the latest fashion or fancy restaurants rather than building a savings base.

An article in ‘get rich slowly’ shows the lack of training from parents. Wish there was a similar survey done on Indians. I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers were equally bad, if not worse.

“Did your parents prepare you well for financial independence?”

Over 1000 GRS readers responded:

• 17% of you said, “Yes, they did a great job in preparing me.”
• 17% said, “They did well — I learned the basics.”
• 18% said, “It was okay, but they missed some key areas.”
• 48% said, “What preparation for Financial Independence?”

I too made some initial missteps, like buying a Rs. 1 lac (~2000$) PC at the age of 15. Although I can rationalise that it was that purchase that enabled the career I have today, the fact remains that a custom built (assembled) PC in the range Rs. 50,000 – Rs. 60,000 (~1000$) would have had the same effect.

All articles and reviews in PC World and PC Quest made me believe that the ‘multimedia computer’ was the thing to buy and comparing the offerings of HP, Compaq, IBM, HCL etc. I was convinced I made a good choice. But when I understood, that the same 1 lac could have bought a Maruti 800 at that time, I was able to put things in the right perspective. I learnt my lesson.

When I have to decide between an iPhone and an Android, I ask myself, ‘Do I even need a phone’? What else the 2000€ I will pay over 2 years for an iPhone can be used for? 2000€ is what I spent on my MBA, and invested wisely can pay my daughters college fees. So when the decision is between Apple, Android or my daughter’s college, I think the answer is easy. Which is why I don’t even carry a mobile. I don’t need one, I am away from a fixed phone for 1 hr a day, no more than 20 minutes at a time and never far from a pay phone. A few people will say, ‘What if there is an emergency’? Which brings me to…

Fear mongering

Fear, and guilt, are heavily used these days to manufacture demand. Whether it is for baby food, or bottled water or the latest educational concept, each marketer uses fear to make us part with our hard earned money. They play on our primal fears and blow things out of proportions. Only a few sane voices out there put things in perspective. But no one talks about the fear I care about, the fear of financial dependence. I deeply care about my financial independence, and which is the reason I never fear losing my job. In fact, I have secured the financial future of my family. If I want to, I can quit my job any day. Which I have already done once to launch a start-up.

Summing up

In conclusion, all I can say is think before you spend. Ask yourself:

• Do you have financial goals? Are you on track?
• Do you really need it? Not want, need.
• Put things in perspective. What else could that money do? How much will it take for you to earn it?
• Can you afford it? Will it cost you, your financial independence?
• Are you doing it to show off, or gain social acceptance?

Be wise, be green, be financially independent.

I hope there is more discussion on this topic, but in the gadget-crazy world I live in, my voice might not be heard at all. But at least I will try, and if no one else, I am sure, my daughters will appreciate and care about financial independence as much as I do.

What would it be?

An empire building game that needs to balance technology, way of life and climate to achieve sustainable conditions. The players will need to move from stone age to iron age to industrial age to knowledge age. All this is well covered by games in the Civilisation series. The difference is, to advance in the technology tree, they will need to consume resources and they need to understand that resources are limited and that consuming them is not without consequences.

Learning

A game that will show the interdependence of several factors like:

• Exploitation of natural resources (wood, coal, oil, gold, diamonds, animals, fishes etc)  for technical progress and their costs in terms of environmental impact
• The long term implication of the such impact
• Investing in technology to achieve sustainable development
• Also the flip side of not consuming natural resources and it impact on growth and empire building
• The need to consume resources to ‘unlock’ next levels of technical innovation
• Trading of resources amongst empires which have surplus of something
• I would probably underplay the option of war and more of foreign trade as a means to acquire scarce resources.

What next?

I am not a game developer so wouldn’t know how to get about doing it. But may be some like minded people will come together and look at it. Maybe Freeciv can provide a starting point. Maybe it even becomes successful and makes some money for the creators.

Sharing a few pictures taken on the day of her birth.

30 tasks, to-do, project, collaboration, goals management tools

* All paid services have a free version of some type.

If there is any correction to be made, please leave a comment. I have deliberately left out comparing or reviewing them since it might be like comparing oranges to lemons

Toodledo has another list comparing features of the popular ones: http://www.toodledo.com/info/compare.php

If only there was a site that does the things for you!

• Spouse-centred
• Friends / Enemy-centred
• Family-centred
• Money-centred
• Work-centred
• Possession – centred
• Pleasure-centred
• Church-centred
• Self-centred

In other words, these are the glasses we see the world through. All decision making is coloured by your bias towards one or more of these. But none of these are worth centring ones life around, they all blur the view. So he suggests taking off these glasses and seeing the world in the light of the principles that you value. If one has a mission statement and knows the principles he values most, then making decisions is easier.

I have been under a lot of mental and emotional stress lately, and did not know the reason. But with a lot of introspection and a couple of very good reads, I was able to find the root cause of this and am in a much better state of mind. Ask my wife I will like to share this to spread the good words that helped me.

So, what was wrong?

Personal Mission Statement

When I entered formal work life, my HR helped me frame my personal mission statement, or in fact how would I like to be remembered when I leave the world. It came naturally to me: “The Guy who made a difference.” and I try to live my life towards this goal – “Make a difference in every role I play”

Let’s first speak of the roles we play in life. Typically one plays several roles in life. A few play more, a few play less.

• Individual
• Family person – Child, Spouse, Parent, Relative
• Learning – Student, Teacher
• Working – Sub-ordinate, Co-worker, Boss, Mentor
• Society – Friends, Community member, Citizen

And the challenge is to maintain a balance between the roles; otherwise one of the roles dominates the others. This is called the ‘Work Life Balance’, which according to me is a misnomer. It is about balancing the importance you accord to each role.

The reason for discontent was that I was doing a good job at work and had been struggling to think of way to make a difference in the community. I was trying to increase my circle of influence and was having a difficult time doing so. But more importantly, I was neglecting my other roles in pursuit of this singular role, especially the roles which got added after I started my career. I was not making a difference as a husband and later as a father. This caused a lot of internal turmoil and stress but I did not realise the root cause. Which in hindsight is obvious, I was not fulfilling my mission statement, my goal, and my reason for existence. When I realised this and also realised the many things under by control that I can do to make a real difference to my family, I was suddenly at peace.

I now have renewed energy, a renewed sense of purpose and actively looking at ways to justify my role as a family member.

Community will come next; meanwhile I am working at growing my circle of influence to get to a position to be able to make a difference to the community.

So let me ask you this:

• What roles do you play?
• Are you justifying all the roles or is one role far bigger than the rest?
• Would you like to be remembered as?
  • A great worker
  • A great spouse
  • A great parent
  • A great child
  • All of the above – and above all, a great person
• Are you spending your time to achieve the above?

Related Read:

This article greatly inspired me: http://steveblank.com/2009/06/18/epitaph-for-an-entrepreneur/

Though the number of posts under this category would be less, it just means there is more to life than I would like to share on a public medium.

Here’s to life…