Author: Suresh Dinakaran

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.

Though not in all cases, as brand or management consultants, the one piece of unsolicited( and sometimes solicited) advise that is given to clients is bury your head in the sand and let the good times carry you forward. This of course when you have tail winds propelling you ahead. A not so different piece of counselling offered when the chips are down is to recommend the same path viz bury your head in the sand and hope the bad times will pass away soon.

Neither of the above has anything to do with prudence, pragmatism or wisdom.

At ISD Global, we have tried with different degrees of success asking clients to go for the jugular, especially when the tough times strike. The whole market seems to be in shut down mode and the doomsday actors are having a field day. This is the time, when we advise brands and organisations to get over active and give it the kitchen sink. Because while the rest of the market is in deep slumber, whatever you do, gets noticed, which otherwise is a struggle- in other words, you get more bang for the buck, a common refrain used in our industry.

And the few occassions that lady luck is smiling on you, the sun is cheerful and bright, your industry and your organisation is having a record harvest, when your brand or project launch has gone off like a T, you have been able to pull of a coup or two, try and do something that most don’t. Write the experience down, record the feedback and the impact created, make a coffee table book- anything that you can look back upon with pride and inspiration.

Because, at a time, not so far out into the distant future, this is exactly you might want to hear, see or read, when you can dance with the demons in your head and tell them I have done it. Nothing is as calamitous as it seems.

Certain habits are useful..and this certainly is one of them!

Not everyone is blessed with the gift of the gab. Or in a position to articulate their thoughts and ideas succinctly. While some will have all the eloquence, fluency, expressiveness and way with words. It takes all kinds to make up this world.

Our tolerance for the inarticulate is minimal, close to zero. Often times therefore we miss the wood for the trees. Language conceals, as much as it reveals. What might be said could be ” I am afraid “, ” I am not sure “, ” I don’t understand “, ” I am looking for some relief ” , while what would be heard would be something that may not fit the discussion at all because the point of reference is what we already know(the easy way out), NOT what someone is unsure about.

There is a landscape that is beyond and behind the words. The landscape of emotions. If we carefully try to understand the emotions and desires that are part of those awkwardly expressed words, we create a happy two way street. Communication is as much about understanding the unspoken if the idea is to establish connection, continuity, confidence and conviction.

So the next time someone is trying to read the room, her plea is to read her emotions. That would help.

If the masses had their say, we would have been burdened with a SOS(Sea of Sameness) all around us. Because the masses decide what you should create and we willy nilly fall for the temptation of conforming and complying. In the process, you end up giving up on the art that you actually want to create. This is more the norm than the exception.

That said, thankfully there are exceptions. Creators, artists, entrepreneurs, innovators who follow what their gut and heart and tells them. The ones who follow the story in their heads and are hell bent on bringing it to fruition. Irrespective of whether that it is high brow contrarian thinking. Critical mass is the forbidden fruit that most of us want to take a bite from.

The other way to look at it is in a zeitgeist where the Long Tail exists surely, there is a MVA(Minimum Viable Audience) for what you are going to create and you have the potential to delight and inspire the innovators and the early adopters who in turn will become the advocates to onboard the late adopters, the laggards etc.

So, if Oscar winner and composer A R Rahman is tempted by mass demand to compose songs for movies in Kollywood or Bollywood, his heart might be in launching a Kenny G kind of instrumental album or a Hans Zimmerman kind of soundtrack for a mega Hollywood production or produce his own version of the Sound of Music.

The voice in the head, the calling in the heart and the throb in the gut: once we are able to address that, bring that out in the form of your work or art that you are passionate about, you are free to pander to mass appeal. It need not be a Hobson’s choice. It is better to disappoint the mass to produce or create what you crave.

Filters and make-believe are the norm. Projecting a version of yourself that conforms, fits in, blends with the rest and be floating in the SOS(Sea of Sameness) is the endeavor. Authenticity is at a premium. There is a yawning gap in the market. How and where are you positioning your personal brand?

Last month, we, at ISD Global, conducted a hugely successful Trust Conclave in collaboration with IIM Bangalore, one of the premier management institutions in the world. In the process we opened a can of worms. The intent was to push the needle from Trust as a noun to Trust as a verb. And the movement is well and truly on its way.

Here’s the lesson:

Nothing builds trust and leads to real solutions like authenticity. 

It is said that “be yourself, everyone else is already taken “- so true. In an ecosphere which expects all of us to be Type A + at all times with the ability and strength of Machiavellian and Hercules combined is a welcome aberration. No need to pretend what you are not. There are enough and more people on Instagram who are already doing that.

Don’t settle for the safety of inauthenticity. Be yourself. The right people and organisation or community will value you for it.

Soul is about authenticity. Soul is about finding the things in your life that are real and pure. Truth is a point of view, but authenticity can’t be faked.

The term win-win was first coined in the 1920s by human relations and management pioneer Mary Parker Follett.

Probably it is the most commonly used term in recent history and a compelling narrative in every negotiation where both sides claim and are trying to please each other. It seems to be an easy way to round off a discussion and demonstrate to the other side that you are thinking of them.

The truth is that ” win win ” is never a perfect world or a zero-sum game. There will always be short term losers, especially the ones who had entrenched interests and sunk costs(including emotional labour). Ideally a long standing problem solved with all stakeholders winning is the myth. If it was that easy, someone would have solved it long ago. The issue is who would bell the cat and take the hit in the short term?

A rather democratic practice is where it is a win-lose but where most people with something at stake end up benefitting. Being all things to all people is a fallacy and leadership certainly is not the ability to make everyone happy but an enabling mechanism where most of the people on the journey are glad to be going where they are being taken.

Win-win is a belief in the Third Alternative. It’s not your way or my way; it’s a better way, a higher way – Stephen Covey

Difference of opinion and divergent interests have a three point resolution: domination, compromise or integration. Needless to articulate, domination is a pure play one way street and compromise is never going to make either side comfortable. Integration is the middle path where both sides may end up getting what they wish.

I was never even mediocre at either math or arithmetic. Hence, if this fails to add up, I am completely at home with it.

” So the writer who breeds more words than she needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads ” – so said Dr. Seuss.

Every year at the Oscars, the award for Best Picture gets all the fanfare( a couple of years ago, of course Will Smith had other ideas). That may be stating the obvious. What might be not so obvious is in contrast, the award for film editing flies under the radar. But you may be surprised by the correlation between these two awards.

Since 1981, only three films have won “Best Picture” without also being nominated for “Best Film Editing”.

Why is editing so crucial in filmmaking?

A good film editor removes distractions by eliminating trivial or irrelevant things. She uses deliberate subtraction to add life to the ideas, setting, plot, and characters.

The best films are exceptional NOT because of what we see but because of what we don’t see.

We can draw parallels here. And use the same principles to edit our own lives. We might be from Mars or Venus but on Mother Earth our never ending to-do list need not be a perennial match for our Herculean, Machiavellian competence and calibre that we seem to have been willy nilly blessed(cursed?) with. Probably there is a space to begin by ‘ separating the vital few from the trivial many ‘.

The over ignored practice of essentialism.

Organisations(especially the big ones) revel in herd mentality thinking. That birds of the same feather must flock together. Swayed by the wisdom of the crowds. Or collective bias? If ain’t broke, why mend it? They stick their neck out to maintain the status quo. Their obsessive love affair is with the state of impasse.

The SOS( Sea of Sameness) is a derivative of the increasingly commoditised world we inhabit.

But, if we are leading a project or leading a company, especially a large one, part of our core responsibility is rewrite the default. To rock the boat. To hoover away the legacy mindsets and bring new perspectives and fresh ideas in.

Leaders and entrepreneurs face two vastly different kinds of risks. One is that their organisation took a moonshot, braved the odds and made a bold move. In the process, the project bombs or in other words , they sink the ship. The other kind of risk is that their organization could have taken a risk and reaped handsome rewards, but they let the opportunity pass. In another sense, they miss the boat.

Needless to say, the most remarkable ideas are counter intuitive. They go against the flow. Forget Blue Ocean, they are actually Green Swans. Or Purple Cows. Playing it safe is fraught with the highest risk.

As Michelangelo famously said, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

In a very real sense, the first job of leadership is to identify and overcome the costs of complacency.We don’t want to indulge in a trade off- where one sacrifices the remarkable parts of an idea in exchange for the comfort of a smoother ride.

High time to think higher, better. New thinking brings in new possibilities.

In the culture that we operate in, it’s more famous cousin gets to be in the spotlight all the time- I am referring to absenteeism. Some call it the ” bottom-line killer “. Managers and bosses are in perennial strife addressing issues caused by absenteeism.

Amidst all the din and chaos created by absenteeism, what definitely goes under the radar is it’s rather upwardly mobile cousin: presenteeism. Presenteeism is the act of being present at work without being productive, normally because of poor physical or mental health. Most of us would be wondering why is presenteeism is getting the flak- because it is considered a serious hidden productivity killer and we need to be paying serious attention to it.

We all have observed the over diligent, the over committed team member- who works far longer hours than necessary, shows up at work even she is sick. What does not get measured is not only the loss in performance and productivity but the serious consequences it can have on physical and mental health. If you’ve ever popped a few paracetamols and dragged yourself to work with a splitting headache, you’ve been involved in it yourself.

Research has shown up many reasons for presenteeism– including but not restricted to:-

• lack of job security- triggering the need to show up, all the time
• being a workaholic( they enjoy the lowest level of happiness and highest burnout)
• The Damocles Sword of deadlines and lack of support to meet them
• The Type A personality whose self-esteem gets a boost if they are continuously going beyond
• Work that involves welfare and doing good- like social work, teaching etc, where it becomes a mission

Remember, presenteeism, like burnout is not a badge of honor. So the next time you find yourself working longer hours than necessary or showing up to work when you’re sick, remember to do a pause and review and examine whether you’re falling into the trap of presenteeism. Your health and your business will thank you in the long run.

It isn’t uncommon to see emails we receive with URGENT in bold caps in the subject line, screaming for attention. In a zeitgeist tailored to deliver and expect the instant, with tolerance levels and patience in high scarcity, not much thought is attributed to these attention grabbing manipulations. The video on this link attempts to distinguish one from the other aka urgent Vs important.

Most of the effort is in putting out the fires. Life is a perennial state of emergency where time, effort and resources are constantly ploughed in, leaving very little time for the far more important work that we need to do.

Distraction is omnipresent and no bigger than what is bandied about as urgent. As someone said ” Don’t watch the clock, do what it does “. Perhaps we should resist trading the important work for the urgent distraction of right now.

ASAP( As soon As Possible) is a trap: if the focus is more on soon than possible.