Sehwag’s 219 and life lessons….

Yesterday Virendra Sehwag hit an incredible 219 in 47 overs that he was there on the crease. The way he was going, if he had stayed till 50^th over, who knows he might have crossed 250. 


An outstanding effort!!!

What makes it more significant is that it took few decades (since the debut of ODIs) for arguably the world’s best batsman Sachin to score the first ever 200 in an ODI. And within 2 years Sehwag went past it. I am sure very soon someone else will also score a 200 in ODI and then someone else…..

All the world needs is someone to do it first time and show that it is possible. A spark…..

How many times have we seen a company to come up with innovative, pioneering products after decades of research and then within 2-3 years some other company not only comes up with a better product, but becomes market leader, leaving the pioneer much behind? The corporate history is full of such stories.

Those who have read about Sehwag know that his approach to the game is very uncomplicated and unassuming. Very rarely do we see him trying to adapt to the situation. He sticks to what he calls is his natural instinct. So many times he has been ridiculed and even dropped from team for seemingly irresponsible approach and not playing in team’s interest, but his response has been “This is the only way I know how to play, if a ball is there to be hit for six, I will hit it irrespective whether it is the first ball of the match or last, India is at 50/ 8 or 200/0.” Due to this approach, he has got out first ball trying to play “ambitious shots”, lost matches when he was expected to lead the fight back.

But this is the same guy who has completed a 300 in a test match in a day. He is the only human to complete two 300s in test and one 200 in ODIs. He has set up so many victories for his team. His style is in contrast to the greats, the absolutely committed Sachin and Dravid. But his impact on the game and his team’s fortunes is the same if nor more than these greats. He is an equally important part of the team’s strategies.

Yesterday a commentator called him a Saint, completely oblivious to what goes around him, just immersed in his own world creating magic with his own distinct style and skill.

Reminds me of one of my "Rubaru" moment with my friend and senior Subbu (My boss at Hitachi Data Systems) in 2007. He said “You may have thousands weaknesses and only 5 strengths. You can either spend your entire life trying to improve those weaknesses and change your life 5-10% or you make those 5 strengths so strong that the weaknesses will get overshadowed and you will make significant changes to your life”. 

What an amazing advice!!!

Since that day, I have just been consolidating my life around those 5-6 strengths that I have and it has worked wonders for me…. It helps you achieve what you want and in a manner that is natural to you. (I still try and find time to improve on my weaknesses thoughJ)

Thanks Subbu for teaching me this lesson and thanks Sehwag for proving it so right…. 

Passion & Work Life Balance

Passion is what passion does

Passion is a very dangerous word if not used appropriately. Subroto Bagchi has very beautifully spoken about this in his books (Go- kiss the word, High Performance Entrepreneur and The Professional). Don’t we hear people saying that they are extremely passionate about cricket, so much so that they leave everything to watch world cup or whatever is on? Or guys who are so passionate about the state of affairs/ prevalent corruption in our country that they can go debating “passionately” for hours about what should be done but when they get caught while driving and talking on mobile, they quickly offer a bribe to policeman to get out of the situation.

Is this passion? Really? Funny!!!

Mr. Bagchi says “Passion is what passion does”. He is right. He is so wonderfully right. Even passion has to walk the talk. Thanks for this priceless wisdom, Mr. Bagchi.

I love Stephan Covey’s theory on Circle of Influence and Circle of Control. I recommend every passionate person to read this theory. It certainly helped me keep my passion “real, practical and constructive”.  :-)

My current professional passion is to be a change agent, a serial intrapreneur/ entrepreneur, build / help start ups, take them to a certain maturity level and handover to a capable team to run it and then build the next one. To do that, sometimes you have to take very difficult lifestyle decisions, work long hours and sacrifice a lot of personal time.

And then arises another pertinent question: Real, practical and constructive Passion is good but what about work life balance?

Work Life Balance

Passion sometimes becomes blind, so much so, that we start moving fast in life and we forget the importance of seemingly unimportant things. We forget that surprises come in small packages and these small things makes life more beautiful. We forget to relax. We stop listening to what our heart says. We forget to sit and review the past and preview the future so that we can rest for a while and slowly pave our way for a better tomorrow.

About year and a half back, when I had just started my current project, I met Vikrant, my colleague and friend from Hitachi Data Systems days. I was so engrossed in my thoughts about building Astaro India business that during our two hours dinner meeting, I spoke about nothing else. He asked me why I was letting this idea consume me completely and I said “This is the time; it has to be done now”.

He said “The time to go to gym is also now, the time to learn guitar is also now, the time to go on a holiday with family is also now. The only time for everything is now”.

Fantastic!!!

Thank you, Vikrant.  Reminds me of  a  story . 

Two old acquaintances, which hadn't seen each other for years, were walking down the street together, renewing old times. "Just a minute," said one, "I think I hear something," and turning a loose paving stone over, he liberated a cricket which was chirping merrily away.

"Why, that's astounding. Of all the people on the street at this hour, hurrying from work, you alone hear the cricket above all the traffic noises."

"My friend," said the first. "I learned a long time ago that people hear in life only what they want to hear. Now, the noise of traffic has neither increased nor decreased in the past few moments, but watch."

And as he finished speaking he let a silver half dollar fall from his pocket to the sidewalk. Everyone within an amazingly large hearing distance stopped and looked around.

The funny thing about life is; it gives you what you really want. If you want only silver coins, it will give you that, if you want to hear the cricket’s sound, it will give you that and you know what….

If you want both, life will still oblige… :-)

My "Rubaru" moment : When you are successful and happy, you would want to have someone dear to share that success and happiness with you…..