Aspire to Inspire Series -Chapter 2

Dears,

NEVER LOSE AN OPPORTUNITY WHICH CAN GIVE YOU SOMETHING UNFAMILIAR. Never cling to the past, and always remain open and experimental... always ready to walk on a path which you have never walked before. Who knows? – even if it proves useless, it will be an experience.

EDISON WAS WORKING ON A CERTAIN EXPERIMENT for almost three years continuously, and he failed seven hundred times! All his colleagues, his students, became completely frustrated. He would come every morning happy and bubbling with joy, and ready to start again. It was too much: SEVEN HUNDRED TIMES AND THREE YEARS WASTED! Everybody was almost certain that nothing was going to come out of it. The whole thing seemed to be useless... just a whim.

THEY ALL GATHERED TOGETHER AND SAID, 'We will become mad! This man goes on being happy and every day he comes and starts again as if he has completely forgotten that three years have been completely wasted.' They talked to Edison and told him, 'We have failed seven hundred times. Now it is a complete failure. We have not achieved anything, we have to stop.'

EDISON LAUGHED UPROARIOUSLY. He said, 'What are you talking about? Failed? We have succeeded in knowing that seven hundred methods won't be of any help. If there are one thousand possibilities, we have closed seven hundred. Now there are only three hundred there. WE ARE COMING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO TRUTH EVERY DAY! Who has told you that we have failed? We have knocked on seven hundred doors and they were not the right doors, but we have learned one thing. There was no other way to learn that they were not the right doors. If we had not knocked, we had no way of knowing. We may have been standing on the first door continuously thinking that this is the right door... but now we are certain that seven hundred doors are false. This is a great achievement!'

THIS IS THE BASIC SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE: if you can decide that something is false, you are coming closer to the truth. Truth is not available in the market so that you can go directly and order it. It is not ready-made, available; you have to experiment.

So what I suggest is, ALWAYS REMAIN EXPERIMENTATIVE. And never become smug; never think that whatsoever you are doing is perfect. It is never perfect. It is always possible to improve upon it; it is always possible to make it more perfect.

Regards
Dinesh

Aspire to Inspire Series - Chapter 1

Dears

This is one of the SADDEST stories ever told in Hollywood. His name is Sylvester Stallone. One of the BIGGEST and Most famous American Movie superstars. Back in the day, Stallone was a struggling actor in every definition. At some point, he... got so broke that he stole his wife's jewellery and sold it. Things got so bad that he even ended up homeless. Yes, he slept at the New York bus station for 3 day as Unable to pay rent or afford food. His lowest point came when he tried to sell his dog at the liquor store to any stranger. He didn’t have money to feed the dog anymore. He sold it at $25 only. He says he walked away crying.

Two weeks later, he saw a boxing match between Mohammed Ali and Chuck Wepner and that match gave him the inspiration to write the script for the famous movie, ROCKY. He wrote the script for 20 hours! He tried to sell it and got an offer for $125,000 for the script. But he had just ONE REQUEST. He wanted to STAR in the movie. He wanted to be the MAIN ACTOR. Rocky himself. But the studio said NO. They wanted a REAL STAR. They said he "Looked funny and talked funny". He left with his script. A few weeks later, the studio offered him $250,000 for the script. He refused. They even offered $350,000. He still refused. They wanted his movie, But NOT him. He said NO. He had to be IN THAT MOVIE.

After a while, the studio agreed, gave him $35,000 for the script and let him star in it! The rest is history! The movie won Best Picture, Best Directing and Best Film Editing at the prestigious Oscar Awards. He was even nominated for BEST ACTOR! The Movie ROCKY was even inducted into the American National Film Registry as one of the greatest movies ever!

And do you know the first thing he bought with the $35,000? THE DOG HE SOLD. Yes, Stallone LOVED HIS DOG SO MUCH that he stood at the liquor store for 3 days waiting for the man he sold his dog to. And on the 3rd day, he saw the man coming with the dog. Stallone explained why he sold the dog and begged for the dog back. The man refused. Stallone offered him $100. The man refused. He offered him $500. And the guy refused. Yes, he refused even $1000. And, Believe it or Not, Stallone had to pay $15,000 for the same, same dog he sold at $25 only! And he finally got his dog back!

And today, the same Stallone who slept in the streets and sold his dog JUST BECAUSE he couldn’t even feed it anymore, is one of the GREATEST Movie Stars who ever walked the Earth!

Being broke is BAD. Really BAD. Have you ever had a dream? A wonderful dream? But you are too broke to implement it? Too tiny to do it? Too small to accomplish it? Damn! I've been there too many times!

Life is tough. Opportunities will pass you by, just because you are a NOBODY. People will want your products but NOT YOU. It’s a tough world. If you ain’t already famous, or rich or "connected”, you will find it rough. Doors will be shut on You. People will steal your glory and crash your hopes. You will push and push. And yet NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.

And then your hopes will be crashed. You will be broke. Damn broke. You will do odd jobs for survival. You will be unable to feed yourself. And yes, you may end up sleeping in the streets.
It happens. Yes, it does.

BUT NEVER LET THEM CRUSH THAT DREAM. Whatever happens to You, Keep Dreaming. Even when they crush your hopes, Keep Dreaming. Even when they turn you away, Keep Dreaming. Even when they shut you down, Keep Dreaming.

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF EXCEPT YOURSELF! People will judge you by HOW you look. And by WHAT you have. But please, Fight on! Fight for Your place in history. Fight for your glory. NEVER EVER GIVE UP!
Even if it means selling all your clothes and sleeping with the dogs, IT’S OKAY! But AS LONG AS YOU ARE STILL ALIVE, Your STORY IS NOT OVER. TRUST ME.

Keep Up the Fight. Keep your dreams and hope alive. Go get it. 

What Inspires Us ?

Dears,

Inspiration is about the people who will stop at nothing to make a positive difference to other people’s lives, they inspire us. As Steve Jobs famously said: “The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” There are lots of these crazy ones at work today trying to make the world a better place, but there is always room for more.

We get major inspiration hits when we are expressing ourselves, becoming more self-aware and pushing ourselves to achieve new levels of capability. This is why two of the top five most inspiration rich industries are fine art and sports. Both require a ton of self-expression, self-awareness and growth to succeed. It is also achieved through enabling others to grow. The remaining top three industries where professionals express a high frequency of inspiration are religious institutions, non-profit management and professional training & coaching. All of these industries are about helping others realize their potential.

I am inspired by one of the  leaders who dare to dream and have the grit, resilience and determination to see those dreams through, regardless of the many times they fall down along the way. Dr Venkataswamy founded the amazing Aravind Eye Hospital when he was 58 years old, a successful eye surgeon despite being crippled from rheumatoid arthritis, a former physician in the Indian Army. His mission was audacious: to eradicate unnecessary blindness. His start was humble: a tiny “hospital” with just eleven beds. Nearly 40 years later, Aravind has treated more than 32 million people performing more than 4 million surgeries. Called Dr V by most, he would say, “Intelligence and capability are not enough. There must be the joy of doing something beautiful.” You cannot help but feel the spirituality expressed by the best of the human heart and mind in the halls of this most extraordinary dream, made real simple by starting and then doing.

To do good work, we often reach for a vague thing we call inspiration. It’s hard to pin it down, but you know it when you see it. Inspiration adds joy and meaning to the process of creation, whether you’re writing a piece of code or preparing PowerPoint presentation. So why is it that some of us are visited by only rare and fleeting spurts of inspiration, while others seem permanently driven by a grand sense of purpose? The reason is we don’t see a purpose of our work and we see it as a burden to complete every day. The purpose of our work is a source of our inspiration. However the little you think you do is making a big difference to a person in other corner of this world.

As you are reading this post about inspiration keep in mind that you need to identify your own personal source of inspiration. Go into it with an open mind, it might be something unexpected or it might be a more nuanced combination of factors that are hard to cover in one blog post. Once you do, I can’t promise the road will be easy, but I can guarantee that you will surprise yourself with the energy and passion that you bring to bear on your work. For me, however, inspiration comes from solving meaningful problems with people I admire and love to work with. Deep, far-reaching challenges that keep me thinking, engaged, and ultimately energized. Looking back, I can see time and again I was most inspired and did my best work when I was trying to solve meaningful problems with people whom I love to work with.

If there has been one lesson I’ve learned in my career it is to forget the external pressures you may have, and just focus on one thing: doing what you love. Hone your skills. Each one of you has hopefully through your experience found a passion, and now your future is about continuing to learn and polish your skills. The skill without inspiration is a Job and skill with inspiration is a passion @ work.