The Art of Letting Go

              
“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.”

Getting back in here after ages. There are suddenly so many thoughts crossing my mind.One way to look at it is those many things happened in my life over last few months..all good fortunately.But there comes a time when you also have to let go good things for a bigger calling. At times you wish things just remained the same..but the truth is it never will.The universe around you is changing all the time and so are you. Just because something was right for you in the past doesn't mean that it's going to hold true forever. But understanding this is a very slow and painful process as you go down the path of self discovery shaking every fundamental belief you have had. You learn more about yourself and what you want out of life. Then you decide to make some changes in your life and take some bold decisions. You are happy and excited that you could take that call, but there comes the awkward part. You have to let go a lot of things that defined you for a while. You feel like you are being stripped off your identity and try to hold on to as much possible and as long possible. But holding on is like believing there is only past. If you attempt to relive that past, then you are missing out on the fun of new things, the promise of endless possibilities that in the first place drove your decision. There is no point in denying that things are different now or being apprehensive about the challenge that lays ahead. Life moves only in one way- forward. The challenge is your chance to let go the old and make way for the new.

So taking up the challenge, learning the art of letting go.

Have been always the fan of this quote by Jon Acuff in his book "Quitter"

It’s always better to be struggling at something you love than succeeding diligently at something you despise.

Control Vs Influence

Wish you all a very happy new year..Sorry again for the hiatus.. Was terribly busy at work for last few months to the extent of not coming back home for days together..But no complaints..Last three months have been  probably most exciting and fulfilling times in my whole 10 years of professional career..If you are wondering what kept me so busy, you have the answer if you shopped online during 10-12th December :) It was the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) , one of the most complicated campaigns I executed ever. Now when I look back and think of the reasons why it became such a complex one: was it because there were 450 external entities/companies involved, was it because there were lot of first time innovations that made the execution difficult or was it because of a platform that had to built ground up within weeks that was expected to support millions and millions of users ,what amazon.in probably gets over a month, within just 3 days.. Actually it was none of the above.The complexity is never from systems or processes, no matter how difficult or logically intricate they are, the complexity is always from people who it has to be executed through. The more number of people involved in a project, the more difficult it becomes to execute, especially when there are more people involved who you have to work with are in circle of influence/concern, but not in the circle of control.

While in b-school we were told the definition of management as
"Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal".
We were always taught to find the right leverage points to control by analysis of data, balance sheets, trends, market intelligence etc. The mark strat simulation we all did so enthusiastically always made us believe that there are frameworks like 4Ps/5Cs and multiple parameters which you can control or change to be a market leader. But very less we were told that the most important framework you need to understand and navigate is "people around you" to do anything. The biggest learning for me over this campaign was to handle more than 100 people across functions with different objectives, incentives,goals and most of them falling beyond my circle of control. I have made some very good friends at work, burnt bridges with many senior folks in the system, bonded with my own team like never before. It was a roller coaster ride for me with so many emotional highs and lows every single day. But through out I kept telling myself and my team not be bogged down by the number of problems we face every single day, but feel happy about the fact that we are able to solve so many problems every day. The biggest pillar of support for me was my team who held together through these stressful times delivering their best keeping personal interests aside. I would never dare to take credit for this as a manager, because I know how lucky I am to get such wonderful individuals in the team.