Rajeev Vaid

Vivek Mittal with Shah Rukh

Vivek and I went to the same college i.e. YMCAIE Faridabad of course different years. He is so very young, intelligent and so very fluent with words and ideas as only today’s generation can be. So while experimenting with Gmails Video Chat he and I were talking about enterpreneurship and then the talk veered towards best brains in business which took the conversation to Marwaris - that Indian caste which has contributed to India business brains like Birlas and Ambanis besides million, if not zillions, of others.

And that is when Vivek said that I too am an Marwari. So I ensured that I learn a money related trick or two from him before hanging up and that is when he told me this story that in many ways has shaped his attitude. So I invited him, an authentic Marwari, to write this Marwari story titled Rules to Win on my blog . And while you may read it on his blog as well remember it appeared here first.

Thanks Vivek for writing here. I am still fishing around and trying to find how do you show the author’s name next to the title and the moment that happens your name should show there next to your title.

…96, 97, 98, 99 and 100… my dad completed counting the pack of 100 rupee notes while I was eagerly waiting for my doubts to be cleared which came into my mind as I watched him counting them. Doubts were very simple and kind of obvious to be there for a kid like me (I was 12 at that time), but I never knew that the answer which I am going to get will become the guideline for my life.

When he was counting those notes, I saw him turning and flipping a few notes in between and stacking them in the same order as other notes in his hands… finally having all notes with each note’s GandhiJi facing in the same direction. Why, even at the cost of that slight delay in the counting, is he interested in keeping them in order, was the doubt which clearly crept in my mind during that counting process. But having an idea and experience of the fact that counting hundred notes again can be a tiresome job, I did not interrupt him till he finished counting. And now it was my turn to speak which I utilized by asking this doubt. The answer bestowed on me was this:

“Money, Power and Knowledge are very important three things which have their own rules to be kept. If you don’t follow their rules, you won’t be able to enjoy these things for long. One of the rules is ‘keep these things in proper order and they will serve you’. And when you say ‘proper order’ with respect to money, it covers the order of keeping, stacking, counting, spending, investing and doing everything with money. And I was not consciously putting in any extra effort to set a pattern while counting these notes, it was out of my habit that I was putting things, notes in this case, in proper order.”

Today after 13 years of my this question-answer session with my dad, I really feel myself lucky that this incidence happened at that time. Whenever I succeed in any project of my life, on reviewing it back I always find that I had followed the ‘rules’. Whether it’s the rule of putting things in order from the beginning, or honesty, or working without anxiety for the result, or not showing off your wealth and power or any other such ‘guru mantra’, it has to be there behind every success.

-Vivek Mittal

Why are some people more successful than others? Why do some people make more money, live happier lives and accomplish much more in the same number of years than the great majority?

I started out in life with few advantages. I did not graduate from high school. I worked at menial jobs. I had limited education, limited skills and a limited future.

And then I began asking, “Why are some people more successful than others?” This question changed my life.

Over the years, I have read thousands of books and articles on the subjects of success and achievement. It seems that the reasons for these accomplishments have been discussed and written about for more than two thousand years, in every conceivable way. One quality that most philosophers, teachers and experts agree on is the importance of self-discipline. As Al Tomsik summarized it years ago, “Success is tons of discipline.”

Some years ago, I attended a conference in Washington. It was the lunch break and I was eating at a nearby food fair. The area was crowded and I sat down at the last open table by myself, even though it was a table for four.

A few minutes later, an older gentleman and a younger woman who was his assistant came along carrying trays of food, obviously looking for a place to sit.

With plenty of room at my table, I immediately arose and invited the older gentleman to join me. He was hesitant, but I insisted. Finally, thanking me as he sat down, we began to chat over lunch.

It turned out that his name was Kop Kopmeyer. As it happened, I immediately knew who he was. He was a legend in the field of success and achievement. Kop Kopmeyer had written four large books, each of which contained 250 success principles that he had derived from more than fifty years of research and study. I had read all four books from cover to cover, more than once.

After we had chatted for awhile, I asked him the question that many people in this situation would ask, “Of all the one thousand success principles that you have discovered, which do you think is the most important?”

He smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye, as if he had been asked this question many times, and replied, without hesitating, “The most important success principle of all was stated by Thomas Huxley many years ago. He said, ‘Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.’”

He went on to say, “There are 999 other success principles that I have found in my reading and experience, but without self-discipline, none of them work.”

Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you, and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity.

In the pages ahead I will describe seven areas of your life where the practice of self-discipline will be key to your success. These areas include goals, character, time management, personal health, money, courage and responsibility. It is my hope that you’ll find a few “nuggets” that will help make your dreams come true.

The article above was excerpted from the book The Power of Discipline by Brian Tracy. It is reprinted here with permission. You may share this story as long as you do not edit the content.

So I went and saw the movie called Dasvidaniya. Vinay Pathak of Bheja Fry does an Anand act. And he is such a good actor that you do not even feel that he is doing the Anand version 2. The whole story is about this character who comes to know that he is going to die in a few months due to Big C and how he decides to live it up and makes an and achieves his ‘To Do’ list. Restrained music and great editing ensures that you stay tuned in to the a rather slow story telling movie. Must see. And I must say that Vinay Pathak is one guy who is ensuring that his movie are not to be missed in future. He is a thinking actor with his own brand of humor and will go a long way in making us smile.

My YMCAIE MOBsters Deepak Sharma (2004), Karun Saraswat, Sumit Arora and Karan Arora (all 2006) completed the 21 km Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on 9th November. This was Deepak’s forth half-marathon and he completed this one under 2 hours.

Next Year I will be there.

Sumit Arora (MOB 2006) completed the 21 km Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on 9th November

Karun Saraswat, Arora (MOB 2006) completed the 21 km Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on 9th November

Deepak Sharma (2004) completed the 21 km Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on 9th November

Karan Arora (MOB 2006) completed the 21 km Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on 9th November

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin is one of the best books I read on planning your enterprise’s Advertising and Marketing plan. And then I went and attendend a show organised by Hindustan Times called Printworks.

Printworks is the most economical advertising opportunity if your market is within Delhi and NCR and the rates are as low as Rs. 5000.00 per week.

Why Printworks? Because Permission Marketing says that you whould start something which you can sustain and printworks has tarrif that you can sustain.

The Printworks show is happeing again and if you plan to be there and also advertise talk to me and we can make it more attractively priced by cooperating on this one. BTW the movie that they show at the Printworks had Shammi Narang as the star.

If you run your own enterprise and already advertise or want to start now send me an email at rajeev dot vaid at gmail dot com and we can plan to attend the Printworks together sometime this week.

Recently there was an outbreak of major medical hazards caused due to the Chinese and Taiwanese Milk produce. Tests found contamination in regular milk as well as baby formula. Liquid milk from China’s dairies was tainted with melamine. Melamine is an industrial chemical normally used in plastics, and is banned from food stuffs. China’s ability to police its food production industries has long been under question. Health scares and fatalities in recent years have ranged from the contamination of seafood to toothpaste and, last year, to pet food exported to the US.

My friend Deepak Khanna sent me information on how to detect that you are not consuming the Chinese or Taiwanese milk produce.

The whole world is scared of China made “black hearted goods”

Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China? Let me tell! u … the first 3 digits of barcode 690.691.692 is made in CHINA. Do not ever buy it for your own health.

471 is Made in Taiwan

This is a human right to know, but the government and related department never educate the public, therefore we have to rescue ourselves. Remember. 

With more and more milk products from China and Taiwan having problem. We really got to check where the things are produced. Here is a way to differentiate Taiwan made products and China made products : by looking at first three digits of its Bar Code.

If the 1st 3 digits are 690, 691 or 692 - China made
If the 1st 3 digits are 471 – Taiwan made

So please spread the words to everyone…… 

Nowadays, China businessmen know the consumers do not prefer products “made in china”, so they won’t show made from which country.
However, you may now refer to the barcodes, if the first 3 digits is 690-692 then it is made in China.
 

BSNL My fave ISP

I got a call from BSNL today and they offered me IPTV for free for three months. I have accepted and they will be visiting next week and checking the parameters and then I will get the IPTV. And this happens exactly when I wanted to get myself a TV connection ‘cos my father, who lives with me now,wants his share of cricket and soap and Ramayana and Mahabharat.

Millions of bloggers were using http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com/ and then on October 31 2008 peopleconnectionblog ran out of money or spirit and with following two short sentences said closed their website. 

We’re sorry to inform you that as of Oct. 31, 2008, AOL® Hometown was shut down permanently. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

And millions of bloggers were left high and dry.

All these large corporation types can go under just like Lehman or some of those other ‘can never go down’ corporations. And that is exactly the reason you should never blog on anyone else’s blog site.

For just Rs. 350 you can have your own domain name and for another 400 you can have web space to set up a free software from wordpress and that is it. You have your own blog site. And if you need help on this leave me a note and I will help you set it up.