Author: Suresh Dinakaran

The poet J.D. McCatchy captured this essential fact beautifully in his observation that “love is the quality of attention we pay to things.”.

As some wise man said, don’t just move, move forward.  The things that are craving for our attention is like a bottomless pit. Social media, emails, OTT, meetings, monitoring stock markets, entertaining and all of that. All of this means the direction, energy and time of our attention is all outward, external.

And because life is not a spectator sport to remain on the sidelines and react to what others are doing, accomplishing- it is for you to make your own moves.

Busy is not a benchmark to get carried away by. Though our zeitgeist will not encourage anything else. Busy people are just ticking off the tasks’ boxes one by one. The idea is to move the needle and focus your attention on what you can do to add value, create impact. Treating time and attention like an investment  wherein the impact and value you create is the biggest return you can expect.

The toss up is between spending your time or investing your time!

Imagine the amount of energy that you can have back at your disposal when attention is inward, on what you are supposed to do rather than expend it un gainfully externally, bothered about reacting to what others are doing. Please don’t be so generous with your attention and do not give it away freely. It is said that attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. So before you start your charitable work of distributing it outward, reconsider, introspect and use it for your next Guernica(Picasso). Or whatever lights up your day. Because diluted attention means you are actually dimming your inner fire, the spark.

The temptation in wanting a piece of ‘ what’s happening there ‘ is high. When you begin to internalise your attention, you get back the fuel that you have been scattering away aimlessly. Good work and great art comes from deep focus and deep work. Our ability to be prolific, create art that resonates, that strikes a chord , tug at the heartstrings and hit people in the face with a crowbar depends on our ability to focus.

This is not a rant about shutting the world out. Not in the least. But a rallying cry for being more you, more grounded, more curious about your own experience first. This is the shift that will disengage you from the ‘ autopilot ‘ mode and when you take charge, rather than being dictated by the external world. That is when you begin to lead the life that you have not been living, create the things that you so badly wanted to.

Consider for a moment the kind of mental world we can construct when we dedicate significant time and attention to our deep endeavors.

Your world is the outcome of what you pay attention to. Period. Attention is the currency of your achievement.

The world will still be there when you look up from doing what lights your fire. Till then, it can wait!

Part of the caption is with respectful attribution to Ryan Holiday‘s seminal book ” The Obstacle is the Way ”

We have two options in a crisis:

• Accept the reality and accept the crisis as a catalyst for the change that we have always wanted to make..or
• Resist the reality and accept our temporary circumstances become our permanent identity

The worst thing you can do when you are unemployed is to spend all your time looking for a job. Why? because what you are doing is spending all your focus, energy and attention on the greatest source giving the maximum anxiety in your life.

Let’s remember that an economy that once rewarded people for fitting in now rewards people for standing out. Probably a rude awakening for some of us sitting around waiting.

It’s been a while since the dreaded Corona pulverised us but that said ” have we fallen prey to Cornona Fatigue?  The new term that has been coined to describe our collective sense of exhaustion, helplessness and inertia.

That means we seem to have dropped the ball on our creative work and doing the bare minimum that needs to be done( plus Prime and Netflix of course!) . We got tired, frustrated and just waiting for better days.

Creativity is future proof. Some of the most remarkable works of art were created in dire circumstances and in response to adversity, social injustice and major uncertainty.  Here goes a few examples:

• The seminal work of Viktor Frankl(inside a Nazi concentration camp)
• The Hemingway & Steinbeck novels
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• Picasso’s Guernica

If you have read up until this part of the rant, you would discover a gap between your capabilities and what you are actually doing. Maybe you are thinking:-

I’m my own greatest obstacle

My self-doubt is an obstacle

My own motivation and focus or lack thereof is my biggest obstacle

We may feel that there could be something better and more fulfilling to do with our time and energy

Enough of (doom)scrolling, tweeting and obsessive email checking. What else can we do and what can we do and what prevents us from doing those other things?

The pandemic has made us hyper-focused on what sucks and short sighted about other things that we still have control over.

Everyone feels like a fraud. We are all making it up. There is only one difference between people who get out of their way and those who don’t. People who get out of their way, persists, even if they feel like a fraud.

You don’t have to have your shit together in order to create.

The fact that you don’t have your shit together doesn’t mean that you are stupid or don’t know anything- it just shows that you are human.

We use our creativity to express our humanity and we connect with each other thanks to our common humanity.

So, let’s get out of our way to shovel a mountain of shit for our ounce of gold.

” Every act of creation is first an act of destruction “- Pablo Picasso

Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) coined the seemingly paradoxical term “creative destruction,” and generations of economists have adopted it as a shorthand description of the free market’s messy way of delivering progress.

The adoption of laissez faire and the ceaseless churning of the existing means lost jobs, ruined companies, and vanishing industries are inherent parts of the growth system. It comes with the territory.

Creative destruction-in the process of product innovation- is an old story. Voice mail comes along and sends armies of office workers looking for other lines of work. Cassettes replace vinyls and then get dis intermediated by CDs which loses out to MP3 players which become the guinea pig at the altar of streaming music. New Tide comes in and old Tide goes out. Coke begets New Coke which fizzles leading us back to the “real thing ” of Classic Coke. Sony brings a new product to market with alarming regularity, often times destroying the marketability of one of its existing products.

Back in 1776, at the dawn of industrial capitalism, Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith wrote, sadly but wisely, that it takes a ruin to build the wealth of a great nation. If we haven’t yet acclimated to that paradox, we’d better get out of business.

Look at the parallels that business and jazz music have. When we have a great conversation, we are jamming. Dancing can be very much about jamming. So is the road that an inspired product development team walks to come up with something new that compels customer’s attention. When a company walks the tightrope between analytical rigor and inspired passion, when it leaves the sheet music behind for new horizons, it is jamming. Jazz has so much to teach us about improvisation.

In jazz-and in business- the improvisational style derives its power from the way it juxtaposes certain vital human tensions or paradoxes. Here’s a partial list, in no particular order:

• The established( tradition, powers that be, status quo) in tension with the new
• The need for form in tension with the drive for openness
• Critical norms and standards in tension with the need to experiment
•  The security of the familiar in tension with the lure of the unknown
• Responsiveness(responsibility) to the group in tension with individual expressiveness
• Discipline in tension with freedom
• Power in tension with desire
• Established theory in tension with persistent experimentation
• Expertise in tension with freshness, naivete

Today’s global marketplace- turbulent, “spacey”, and endlessly demanding of the new, the experimental, the faster, the better and the cheaper- is NOT a concert-hall environment. There’s no time for business managers to look for solutions in the archives of corporate sheet music. Today’s highly competitive business world puts a premium on the skill of improvisation. All the world’s a jazz club. This is an era, in short, that calls for the inspiration of art. And discipline.

The perennial quest is to locate that sweet spot somewhere between systems and analysis on the one hand and the free-flowing creativity of the individual on the other. Jazz music and the management of business creativity are homologous: they emerge from the same sort of logic, a logic of the contemporary marketplace; what customers want, what sounds  good!

The art and practice of creativity management call for facilitating creative destruction-for jamming. We need to have a way to deal with inspiration: a way to help us determine the winners, and to assure (or terminate) their subsequent “lives” in the productive system.

Throw away your sheet music. Ready to jam?

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Earlier this year in July we at ISD Global had conceptualised and curated a Trust Conclave in collaboration with IIM Bangalore and at that meet, one of the participants came up to me( a real water cooler moment) and said that ‘ Trust is higher than Love “, and that has stayed with me ever since. So when you read quotes like ” “Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.”– President Snow; or “Hope lives in those who believe in it.” – Buddha, you reconcile to them easily.

The English vocabulary has some beautiful four letter words including ‘ love ‘, ‘ kind ‘ , ‘ feel ‘, ‘ life ‘, ‘ meet ‘ , ‘ hand ‘, ‘ nest ‘ and many ‘ more ‘, and that said, for most of humanity, ‘ hope ‘ will be right on top of the pile.

Hope brings with it the energy of reassurance, the promise of tomorrow on the premise of today, the willpower and the tenacity, the resilience to get even against all odds, the question before the answer, the reinforcement of faith, the counter to fait accompli, the move from bitter to better, the silver lining on the horizon, the springboard for moonshots…and all of these for a small four letter word, it is saying a lot.

While hope is great as an individual strength, it is equally vital to reflect on its collective responsibility.

Here’s hoping it is au revoir and not goodbye.

Let’s begin with what the Business Dictionary has to say about Affluenza(not to be mixed up with Influenza though the contagious capabilities are common to both):

1. A social condition that affects a society because of the elevated number of individuals striving to be wealthy. People within the society feel that the only measure of success is determined by how much money and prestige a person has.

2. A social theory claiming that individuals with very privileged and wealthy backgrounds sometimes struggle to determine the difference between right and wrong due to the nature of their upbringing. Also known as sudden-wealth syndrome.

Having done that, Stuffocation is defined by Macmillan’s Crowdsourced Open Dictionary as:

– a feeling of being oppressed by the amount of stuff you own. The problem in question is an anxiety christened stuffocation – a feeling of being oppressed by one’s ungovernable heap of belongings, acquisitions.

Affluenza( or Selfish Capitalism as author Oliver James would have called it in his book by the same name) has not just changed the world, it has also changed the way we see the world. The happy embrace of ‘ convenience ‘ and our reconciling to not being able to plan ahead is an entirely new way of thinking and over the past few decades we have built an economic system to accommodate it. A vast majority of humans(yes, us included, thankfully) would find the idea of using our scarce resources to produce things that are designed to be thrown away absolutely mad.

Consumerism(the love of buying things) can, by definition only provide a transient sense of satisfaction, the ‘ thrill of the chase ‘ or the ‘ after glow ‘ like walking down high street with your branded take away. The benefits of consumerism, as one can imagine is short lived as they are linked to the process of the purchase and not to the use of the product. Materialism(is the love of things themselves) is about owning and therefore there is a clear distinction from consumerism. Taken literally, they are polar opposites, though they are often used interchangeably.

We love things not for their material function but for the symbolic act of acquiring and possessing them.

I do believe that the word competition is over-indexed to be an external thing.

There are a couple of ways of examining it-

-What if we remove the letter ‘m‘ word from competition and leverage the energy emanating from ‘copetition ‘. The context changes completely and the narrative is all about contribution, collaboration, connection and not the hustle and pressure conventionally associated with ‘ competition ‘.

– Now, let’s look at competition wearing another lens. On reasonable introspection, the obvious take away is that we are the ones coming in our path. That said, since the obstacle is the way, what if we remain consistent and engaged on our path to exploring, making things better, showing up and shipping out, the rather counter intuitive conclusion is that we are at best in competition with ourselves and not anyone or anything external. This, irrespective of whether the external conditions or environment is in our favour or not.

The best part of competition especially when we treat it intrinsically is that through it we discover what we are capable of – and how much more we can actually do than we ever believed possible.

Hearing is a sensory efficiency. The ability to recognise or interpret a sound, whatever that might be.

Listening is a different mettle of fish. It happens when we put in the thought and effort to understand what it means. Listening comes with far greater responsibility. And if one does it with intent, focus and encounter the experience and emotion behind the words, that diligence puts a new spin. Which can be worrying or scary because the narrative might actually be throwing exactly what you have been hearing but not wanting to listen and understand.

” Hearing is listening to what is said. Listening is hearing what isn’t said “- Simon Sinek

The heart of any conversation lies in listening. One is not sure whether it is the power and flexibility of the English language or a subtle message that comes through. The letters in the world ‘listen’, also make up the word ‘silent’.

A quote from the writer David Augsburger has since proven true over and over: “Being heard is so close to being loved that, for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.”

Silence can be deafening!

It is tempting to stay with the default- search for a better method when ‘everyone is content with the standard’.

HIERARCHIES MAINTAIN THE QUO AFTER IT HAS LOST ITS STATUS- that is the reality.

There is always a better way. The tried and trusted over time becomes tired and tested. The common situation for people who produce something groundbreaking: they are surrounded by people who at best are resistant to new ideas, and at worst wilfully ignore them.

Excited about our upcoming C Suite Meet tom evening ie Friday the 13th Sept at the Four Seasons Hotel Embassy One Bangalore. A meeting of minds over a melting of thoughts. New thinking meets new possibilities.

The CEO Meet series is heart crafted by ISD Global.

Being a leader and being led are concurrent practices. Though myth would have it otherwise. That you are either a leader or being led.

Self respect and dignity is everyone’s preserve. It has nothing to do with the hierarchy you hold in an organisation or anywhere else. Everyone has a voice that needs to be heard. Anyone should be able to put their hand up and speak out. And be vocal about their apprehensions and fears. Ask questions. Know the why.

Magic words like please, thank you, sorry and excuse me are assets. Be lavish and generous in using them. And mean it. Keep your commitment, deliver on time. If you are being vocal about anyone else, make sure she or he is in the room and within earshot. Be in the perennial quest to make things better. Do your homework. Write. Refer. Crosscheck. Show your work. Be generous with your words.

Enthusiasm and energy are always in demand. Offer it by the bagful. Don’t let ego come in the way if you need to ask for help. And don’t be under confident when you know you can go solo. Be proactive in taking responsibility. Give credit. Be the same while collaborating and contributing on a team. Pull out all stops. Get into what you are into.

Courtesy doesn’t cost anything. And there isn’t anything wrong in expecting it to be a two way street. Get stubborn when you are expected to compromise on what is right and better. Be accommodating- that is NOT the equivalent of being bullied. Back your team to the hilt. And expect it to be reciprocated. Have your ear to the ground and to the person who needs your ear. Clarify when needed. Amplify when it matters. Be mature enough to be childish.

“It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.”
― Colleen Hoover

Without meaning to sound morbid or gruesome, here’s a quote that is worth reading again and again and again.

“Most humans, in varying degrees, are already dead. In one way or another they have lost their dreams, their ambitions, their desire for a better life. They have surrendered their fight for self-esteem and they have compromised their great potential. They have settled for a life of mediocrity, days of despair and nights of tears. They are no more than living deaths confined to cemeteries of their choice. Yet they need not remain in that state. They can be resurrected from their sorry condition. They can each perform the greatest miracle in the world. They can each come back from the dead…”
― Og Mandino, The Greatest Miracle in World

It is time for some purposeful provocation. Time to stand naked in your own truth. About not being apologetic when you set lofty goals. About pursuing your passion with vigor and confidence. And going out and shipping your best work or art.

When the preferable is not available, the available becomes preferable. Take the easy way out. Go with the herd(Not to be heard again). Beware of that. And all of it’s always been done that way syndrome. If you are Quadrant Biking through life, this would come in Concourse 1 where there is high possibility and high enrollment. Because thats where the masses are headed. Happy to be in the SOS(Sea of Sameness) space. More on this at https://shorturl.at/R9iHV

“It’s lonely at the top. 99% of people are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most competitive.”

–Tim Ferriss

Ironical isn’t it that we are knowingly ultra competitive when we are striving for mediocrity. And, ironically, the fiercest competition is for the second-class prizes. And we still don’t get it!

It’s a long never ending tirade. Justifications that are shallow, hollow and mere escapism. I am referring to the reasons why we endorse and end up doing mediocre work. Let’s look at the usual suspects..

The brief was lousy..

I hardly had any time..

The customer does not value quality..

We never get the right price..

It’s a one way street, we are always the one being short changed..

Does it really matter? As nobody ever notices..

You are always critical..

This market never appreciates high quality..

The management will never understand..

I have always done it this way..

My boss is a jerk..

I don’t want to fail..I rather play safe..

They are all sad facades, masking the real issue. The outcome where sub optimal emotional labour is committed will always reflect a huge gap between what could have been and what is.

If you want to grow into an extraordinary version of yourself, you must be willing to fail — a lot.

If we can prepare ourselves to be as indistractable as possible, zero in on distilling the vital few from the trivial many( the practice of “Essentialism“), and be prepared to look in the ugly mirror, we can stop running on the treadmill of mediocrity. Not just that. With high focus, extreme prioritization and unflappable emotional labour, we can all get to producing our ‘ One Picasso for the day .’

What do you uniquely do that matters the most? After all, you can only do one thing really well at a time. SIP by SIP. Engage in some Mutual Fun!

So, time to offer a serenade to life, in all its terrifying and transcendent uncertainty, sung in ink, watercolor, and wonder.

Where’s your paint brush? The canvas and the easel awaits. And your version of the Guernica.