The Pursuit of Worthiness

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Two weeks ago, after much deliberation, I decided to quit my job.

This was by no means an easy decision. For starters, as much as I hate to admit it, there is a certain level of comfort that comes with logging into your bank account every 15 days knowing that you’ve been awarded a paycheck; secondly, in spite of the many challenges that the company has faced in the last eighteen months, I am still hopeful about its prospects of achieving profitability by the end of the year; and finally, as trite as it may seem, I have become quite fond of my colleagues – many of whom have contributed immeasurably to my growth, both as a person as well as a professional.

However, if there is one thing that I promised myself when I graduated three years ago, it’s that I would never pursue a belief, an idea, or a vocation without being fully aware of and invested in my underlying motivation. Therefore, when it became clear that my reasons for staying revolved more around self-preservation (e.g. security) than self-worth, I knew I had to make wholesale changes.

Leaving was merely the first. For, as I came to realize, if you are truly committed to making difference, you must be willing to:

1) Find a Central Idea Around Which the Details Arrange Themselves – Gandhi. Einstein. Nightengale. In many ways their transcendent careers were defined by their singular focus – be it non-violent resistance, theoretical physics, or the creation of modern nursing practices.

2) Give Yourself Fully – It is not enough to simply affiliate yourself with a cause you believe in; you must be willing to dedicate yourself completely to its undertaking – even if that means sacrificing pleasures  (e.g. entertainment, material goods, sleep etc) that you’ve grown accustomed to. 

3) Become Thy Master – In order to give yourself fully, you must first gain control over your mental faculties – so that you have the discipline to avoid distraction, the fortitude to meet obstacles head on, and the flexibility to adjust as the landscape around you evolves.

4) Take the Path of Least Resistance – Part of being disciplined means avoiding the temptation to thoughtlessly “impose your will” on external circumstances regardless of the cost. Sometimes, the most effective approach is to simply let matters unfold in front of you – thereby giving yourself the opportunity to move intelligently (and more importantly, without impediment) towards your ultimate goal.

5) Find Like-Minded Individuals – Finally, seldom is a journey as meaningful alone. By “advancing with suitable allies, towards a common [ideal], everybody benefits and makes his/her bright virtue more brilliant (I Ching).”

In short, if there is anything that I have learned in the past couple of weeks, it is that as challenging as it may be: only by aspiring to be worthy do you truly become worthy of your aspirations.

The 3 Needs

Having spent the last couple of posts focusing on self-improvement, I thought I’d transition back to the business side of things for a bit.

The past 2-3 weeks a few of my friends reached out to me regarding concepts that they’re working on, and as is usually the case, it got me thinking: assuming all else is equal (e.g. a great founding team, seed capital, discipline, a bit of luck etc.), what exactly makes for a viable business idea?

If you ask me, all great companies have one essential ingredient in common: they all address three fundamental needs.

Philosophical Need: On a macro level all companies, large and small, must address an overarching “philosophical” need. For Google, it’s ensuring that search is as intuitive as possible, even as content on the web continues to proliferate; for Twitter, it’s enabling people to broadcast what they’re doing whenever they want, wherever they want; for Boeing, it’s making flight as cost-effective, and safe as possible; for Toyota, it’s manufacturing more fuel-efficient automobiles without sacrificing standards; and for Ikea it’s providing consumers with quality furniture at a discount – just to name a few.

Practical Need: Of course, addressing a macro-level need, while powerful, is not nearly enough. There are practical considerations as well.

Take Twitter for example. The social media upstart would have never become a phenomenon, if its value proposition was solely predicated on enabling users to publish status-updates (i.e. answer the question, “What am I doing right now?”); after all, what’s the point in telling people what you are doing, if nobody is there to listen?

Thus, not surprisingly, it wasn’t until Twitter addressed an even more basic need – the need to integrate with existing social media applications (e.g. Facebook, AIM, gchat etc) – that it started to realize its potential as a tool that could empower people to concurrently reach out to an audience with a megaphone while engaging  individuals  in a “coffee-shop.”

Mechanical Need: Finally, no concept can truly succeed unless it addresses the most elemental (and forgotten) need of all:  the need for a simple mechanism that will make the philosophical and practical solutions feasible.

In Twitter’s case, the mechanism is obvious: SMS technology (i.e. text-messaging). However, what about more traditional companies like Ikea or Toyota?

If you think about it, they too have distanced themselves from the competition by addressing mechanical needs. Ikea is able to provide furniture at a discount (“philosophical need”) by using material comparable to its peers (“practical need”) because it transfers the majority of its assembly costs to its consumers by selling ready-to-assemble goods (“mechanical need”).

Toyota on the other hand is able to consistently manufacture top-of-the-line fuel efficient cars (“philosophical need”) by employing some of the automobile industry’s most advanced technology (“practical need”) because of its world famous Toyota Production System (“mechanical need”).

In short, when considering an idea, ask yourself one question: how many needs does it address?

Take Your Time

Long ago,  in a speech inspired by and dedicated to my graduating high school class,  I suggested that:

Everywhere we look, every person we meet, and every second of our life is glorious; however truth be told, only children truly realize that, feel it. For, on the train of actuality only the young look intently outside the window, only the young stare wide-eyed at the trees zipping by them in a blur of green, only the young giggle as birds fly freely alongside, and only the young smile from within as they drift into innocent sleep by their mother’s side… Childhood: it is the essence of our existence and the key to our survival.

Little did I know those words would take on renewed meaning years later, when just a few days ago, jelly-legged from a jog down to the beach, I collapsed on a park bench overlooking the Puget Sound. Panting, hunched over, and head sunk, my eyes glossed over a small bronze plaque resting calmly between my feet, that read simply, “Take your time…”

Too tired to object (and too lazy to argue), I leaned back against the weathered planks, slid down into a groove, stretched my arms out on either side of me, and just sat there taking it all in.

The waves. The breeze. The sun-drenched sky.

For the first time in months, the inescapable burden and suffocating urgency of post-college life (e.g. unemployment, family  obligations, life goals, etc) gave way to a larger, more profound truth: to rush forward is to fall short of one’s potential.

To succeed then, I realized we must invariably:

1) Take Interest – Taking interest, particularly when you yourself are trying desperately to get noticed, seems like a waste of time (and a surefire way to be left feeling vulnerable). However I assure you, it was only when I started focusing on select companies, reaching out to specific individuals, and offering my services for free that I began to forge the kind of lasting reciprocal relationships that are synonymous with long-term success.

2) Engage in Dialogue – Real (wo)men are not afraid to ask for directions! If only someone had told me that 5 months ago, I wouldn’t have spent countless hours applying to jobs that had little intrinsic value, and more time talking to and learning from individuals that I admired. But hey, better late than never right?

3) Act Consistently – A senior executive at Hewlett Packard, and a fellow Wharton alum, told me something I will not soon forget. He said, “[Akash] remember that you should manage yourself like you manage a brand. First identify your unique selling proposition (e.g. hard worker, attention to detail etc). Then ensure that everything you do reinforces that brand. Even if it gets frustrating  you [must] keep that energy up.”

Like it or not you see, there is only one certainty on the train of actuality: you cannot choose where we get off,  but you can always choose how you spend your time on board.

Lemonade Anyone?

The other day I happened to come across a clip of Richard St. John’s well-known talk at the 2005 TED conference entitled: “Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes.” Needless to say (though I’ll say it anyways), I was thoroughly impressed after just 2 words, 1 minute.

In fact, I was so inspired by Richard’s life-lecture that I decided to examine my own experiences to see what eight words I might retrospectively come up with. However, as fate would have it (and in my case it usually does), something very peculiar happened when I unlocked the dilapidated filing cabinet otherwise known as my head, and opened the drawer labeled “Akash’s Kick-Ass Pearls of Wisdom.” Rather than pull out the two most obvious, relevant and comprehensive binders – the ones chronicling my recent experiences as both a business owner and a business controller – I was compelled,  for reasons unbeknownst to me, to reach all the way into the back and pick out a solitary, dusty, beaten folder from my youth.

Twelve years ago, you see, I decided to do what most kids do when they’re bored senseless in the middle of July and looking for an extra little cash: wake up every morning for four weeks straight, set up a little table, little chair, little sign, and little cooler on the corner of busiest intersection in my neighborhood, and holler until I no longer sounded like a prepubescent – all in an effort to sell lemonade.

Little did I know however, that over a decade later those dog days of summer would hold the keys to a lifetime’s worth of success:

1) Purpose – In order to succeed, you must first find a purpose. Back then of course, mine was to buy a pool table, but as I’ve gotten older those kind of things have become less and less consequential; and I’ve come to realize that nowadays more often than not I’m at my best when I “hitch my wagon to something greater than myself (Obama).”

2) Reputation – Reputation is everything. Even today, folks from the neighborhood still come up to me and tell me that the only reason they bought lemonade from me in the first place was because I shouted so loud (so consistently) they figured if they gave me money, I’d shut up! But hey, I must have done something right because they all kept coming back.

3) Flexibility – To succeed you must be open to and willing to change. Had I not constantly tweaked my signage, slogans, and offerings (e.g. I started selling popsicles and pink lemonade) to meet the demands of my target audience I’m not sure I would have achieved my goal as quickly as I ultimately did. 

4) Friendship – Success is not a solitary endeavor; on the contrary, the degree to which we succeed is directly proportional to the number and quality of people we connect with. Many of my customers for example, ended up being regulars not because I sold “the best lemonade ever” (even though that’s what I advertised), but because I developed genuine friendships with them – friendships that in many ways helped shape my views on life, love, and growing up.

5) Persistence – Success ain’t easy. I still wonder why, even when things didn’t go well (and trust me, there were more than a few occasions when they didn’t), I refused to quit. Part of me thinks it’s because I had nothing better to do with my time; part of me thinks it’s because I really wanted that pool table; but deep down I think it’s mostly because I was and always have been one determined S.O.B.

6) Joy – You must enjoy what you do. I can’t tell you how excited I was to jump out of bed every morning, scarf down my breakfast, gather my things, run outside, and set up shop; for in my mind, another day meant another chance to: inch one step closer to my goal, run my own establishment, feel like a “grown-up,” and chat with the regulars.

7) Journey – Oftentimes the journey is just as meaningful, if not more so, than the “result” itself. Case in point: even though I never got that pool table (um, thanks Dad!), the primary reason I am able to look back on those days fondly, is because they yielded something far more valuable: perspective.

8) Love – Finally, in order to succeed we need a little love. I’ll never forget my Mom coming out to give me words of encouragement, my Dad driving me to the grocery store specifically to buy lemonade and popsicles, or my best friend and neighbor helping me out for hours at a time even though I didn’t give him a dime; if that’s not love I don’t know what is.

Thoughts?