Saroj Yadavadventures of everyday life

I bought this book at San Francisco airport on my way to Utah. When I started reading it, first 50 pages were not very convincing to spend time finishing this book but I am glad I did finish it. The book is an interesting tale of a woman who goes to Rome, India and Indonesia to find some peace after having gone through a rough divorce and a rough relationship/fling. After finishing this book, I somehow had a wish that everyone I know including myself should be forced to go on a similar travel. World will be a much better place.

Below are some of my favorite lines from Elizabeth’s travel stories:

1. Love change?

“The Augusteum warns me not to get attached to any obsolete ideas about who I am, what I represent, whom I belong to, or what function I may once have intended to serve. Yesterday I might have been a glorious monument to somebody, true enough – but tomorrow I could be a fireworks depository. Even in the Eternal City, says the silent Augusteum, one must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation”

2. Your choice of compromises?

“All those that you want from your relationship, Liz? I have always wanted those things, too”. In that moment, it was as if my strong mother reached across the table, opened her fist and finally showed me the handful of bullet she’d had to bite over the decades in order to stay happily married to my father. My mother has made choices in her life, as we all must, and she is at peace with them. The benefits of her choices are massive. May be somethings were sacrificed, and my dad made his sacrifices, too – but who amongst us lives without sacrifices? And the question now for me is, What are my choices to be? What do I believe that I deserve in this life? where can I accept sacrifice, and where can I not?

3. Word of the street?

Every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there.
NYC – achieve
Vatican – power (not faith as you’d think)
Rome – sex
for San Francisco, I think it’s “Hippie” in a good way of course.
for India, it’s “Love”
What’s the word in your family/life?

4. You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not

The Yogis say that human discontentment is a simple case of mistaken identity. We’re miserable because we think that we are mere individuals, alone with our fears, flaws and resentments and mortality. We wrongly believe that our limited little egos constitute our whole entire nature. We have failed to recognize our deeper divine character. We don’t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a Supreme Self who is eternally at peace. That Supreme Self is our true identity, universal and divine. Before you realize this truth you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this line “You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not”

Yoga is the effort to experience one’s divinity personally and then to hold on to that experience forever. Yoga is about self-mastery and the dedicated effort to haul your attention away from your endless brooding over the past and your nonstop worrying about the future so that you can seek a place of eternal presence.

The resting place of the mind is the heart. The only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and argument, and all it wants is quietude. the only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart. That’s where you need to go.

5. “What have you done for me lately?” - Eddie Murphy in Raw

I met an old lady once, almost one hundred years old, and she told me, “There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through the history. How much do you love me? And who’s in charge?”
Everything else is somehow manageable. but these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief and suffering.

6. Way from hell to heaven

Even in one lifetime, it’s obvious how often we must repeat our same mistakes, banging our head against the same old addictions and compulsions, generating the same old miserable and often catastrophic consequences, until was can finally stop and fix it. This is the supreme lesson of karma (and also of western psychology, by the way) – take care of the problem now, or else you’ll just have to suffer again later when you screw everything up next time. And that repetition of suffering – that’s hell. Moving out of that endless repetition to a new level of understanding – there’s where you’ll find heaven.

This is one of my favorite books mostly because it gives a glimpse into how all big-name extraordinary companies were started by ordinary people. Below are some of my favorite founders along with their quotes which stood out to me:

Evan William, Blogger.com

Luck comes in many forms and often looks bad at first. If you have some plan and it doesn’t go that way roll with it. There is no way to know if it’s good or bad until later, if ever.

I think I was also surprised by the success of something so simple. How far you can get on a simple idea is amazing. Simplicity is powerful.

Ray ozzie, Lotus Notes

I am one of those people who believes he can  accomplish basically anything in software – it’s just a big toolbox. So if you know that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to what’s worth accomplishing

James Hong, Hot or not hot

Do it while you are young. There is no right path. There’s no plan that fits every business; you have to figure it out yourself. There is no magic formula. There is no such thing as easy entreprenuership. It’s going to be painful, it’s going to be emotionally unstable. You are going to feel insecure. if you are not already bipolar you will feel like you are.

Tim Brady, Yahoo (first employee)

Do all the thinking upfront: why I am getting in, when do I leave, if I leave then why am I doing it, what gets me up in the morning, what would happen that could make me stop getting up in the morning. I’ve seen lot of people got so emotional coz they start something on whim; they are doing this thinking while they are doing business and when things don’t go well, you don’t act normally. There’s lot to it. It can get really emotional because you get tired and there’s a lot of work and you are vested in it.

Caterina Fake, Flickr

“Women have to be twice as prepared as men”. it takes lots of nerve for women to face up to this assumption and that assumption is everywhere, even in some of the most surprising places – that they don’t measure up, that they are not good enough. Twice as much will be expected of them”

Craig Newmark, Craigslist

The biggest entreprenuerial lesson I have leaned has been that you really do need to follow your instincts. I truedted some poeple who my insticnts were telling me were untrustworthy, and in some cases they proved to be untrustworthy.

Mena Troff, Six Apart

Since it never occurred to us that we can do it, it also did not occur to us that we could not do it. The lack of experience made us think “why can’t this just be done”. There were all these little things you had no clue about. It was incredibly overwhelming. But if you think about it too much, then you don’t do it. You almost have to not know what you are getting into to actually do it.

David Heinemeier, 37 Signals

If turns out that when you build only software that you absolutely need, you don’t get more software than you’ll actually use.

If we took the same people and put them in an enviornment where they had all the money & time even we can’t make Basecamp again.

During my early days at Supercool School, one day Steli entered our newly leased office with 2 books and asked me which one I’d like to read. More than the books, I was impressed by his gesture and I picked  “Ask & it’s given”. He said I would like it.

The book is based on a central theme called “law of attraction” which essentially says that your  thoughts &  emotions have a certain vibration and that similar vibrations attract each other.

“You are a vibrational transmitter, and you are broadcasting your signal in every moment of your existence. Your feelings are representative of your guidance system – the way you feel is true indicator of your alignment with your source & of your alignment with your intentions. Your powerful beliefs were once gentle thoughts. The longer you think thoughts, the stronger the become. With your practiced attention to any subject, the law of attraction delivers circumstances, conditions, experiences, people and all manner of things that match your habitual dominant vibration. And as things begin to manifest around you that match the thoughts you have been holding, you now develop stronger and stronger vibrational habits. And so, your once small & insignificant thought has now evolved into a powerful belief – and your powerful belief will always be played out in your experience.”

“Journey – a path full of optimism, positive expectations and joy no matter what your goal is because that source of energy flows through you all the time. You are the source.”

The “Source of energy” concept is very similar to “Aham Brahma Asmi ” (meaning I am the creator)  in Bhagavad Gita. However I always interpreted Gita in the sense that we create our lives through our actions. Definitely having a plan which glues these actions in long term is critical. However this book adds another dimesion to planning and acting. It talks about  thinking & dreaming about your goals and it says if you do that you will get situations/people/things which will take you closer to your final goal.  Thinking & dreaming seems to be ranked higher than acting towards those goals.

There are certain things suggested to put you in “right vibration” e.g. don’t be conflicted within yourself; if you are in a negative emotion don’t try to hide it by acting out positive; think about your goal, how it would feel when you reach that goal etc. It even talks about gathering pictures, texts about your dream and put it in front of you so that you have “positive vibrations”.

Even though I agree about clarity of thoughts & goals , I would still like to believe that my actions will help me more towards reaching those goals than dreaming about it. Though would be nice if I can just sit & dream and things will come to me – I’d start by dreaming about an apt by the bay,  lots of romance,  a chef, a fitter body and of course million dollars  :)

“Only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about“- says Richard Branson, the one who is very often talked about.

However more interesting to me are his stories which are less talked about. His college stories, pre virgin stories are quite inspiring and amusing at the same time. He is one man who set himself huge, apparently unachievable challenges & tried to rise above them. He proved that passion & hard work are the primary factors. Everything else like education, background, culture are secondary and most of the time immaterial.
“The goal is to become better & better everyday while still being same passionate, risk taker in everyday life”

Richard was unbelievable adventurous & daring man. Stories about his boat trip, hot balloon adventure just took my breath away. After reading his adventures, I felt ashamed that I get scared in bumpy plane rides. He had a humanitarian side to him as well. I could not believe he actually made a trip to Iraq to save women & kids. His efforts prove that people should act in whatever capacity. Action is any day better than silence.

During one of his adventures when he was almost near death, he had a “spiritual” moment.
“I don’t believe in God but, as I sat there in the damaged capsule, hopelessly vulnerable to the slightest shift in the weather or mechanical fault, I could not believe my eyes. It was as if a spirit had entered the capsule and was helping us along“. I am sure all of us have experienced such moments one time or other when an invisible power made things right for us.

Something specifically I want to learn from Richard is to forget about the past. It just takes too much energy to remember it.
“I hate living in the past. I particularly did not want to think about the lost friendships“.

And of course, there is no secret to success other than lots of hard work and some good luck ;)
“You can not clearly define our business success & then bottle it as you would a perfume. It’s not that simple: to be successful, you have to be out there, you have to hit the ground running; and if you have a good team around you and more than fair share of luck you might make something happen. But you certainly can’t guarantee it just by following someone else’s formula”

In essence a great book about an entrepreneur’s journey of trying again & again and succeeding.
Here are some of my favorite lines from the book:

“If we had not invented ourselves we would have gone bust. There was no choice”

“It may have been up a dark, narrow flight of stairs above a shop and have consisted merely of some shelves and a shabby sofa but in its own way it taught us all we now know about retailing”

“It’s just a matter of scale but first you have to believe you can make it happen”

“I may be a business man in that I set up and run companies for profit but when I try to plan ahead & dream up new products & new companies I am an idealist”

“I am too informal, too restless and I like to move on”

“By the nature I am curious about life, and this extends to my business. That curiosity had led me down many unexpected paths & introduced me to many extra ordinary people. Virgin is a collection of such people & its success rests on them“

It’s a story of a simple man who lead millions by his strong character and great leadership.

Though I have to be honest that some of the characteristics of Gandhi; like his experiments with home medicine; are kind of hard to swallow. His small seemingly craziness however is instantly forgotten when you read his adventures esp the ones before he was well known. He was a definitely a shrewd man who knew the value of networking with key people in the society – he was very well connected with both the Indian leaders and British officials at his time.

However none of his adventures would have been so successful if they were not backed by Gandhi’s strong character and genuine love for people & most importantly his belief in the righteousness of his work. “disinterested service of the people in any sphere ultimately helps the country politically”

If he did not get something one way, he tried another way and yet another way till he got what he wanted. In spite of his strong perseverance, he was a simple man with a simple life. “Truth is like a vast tree which yields more & more fruit, the more you nurture it. The deeper the search in the mine of truth the richer the discovery of gems buried there in the shape of openings for an ever greater variety of service”

Like every great leader, he always led people by example. First time when he attended Indian Congress annual event, he was shocked to see how dirty toilets were at the event so he started cleaning them. This is just one of many examples when he did things with out worrying about how people would judge him. He was always guided by his own principles.

He loved everyone the same regardless of nationality, religion, gender. “What barrier is that love can not break” He had this extra ordinary ability to see people/situation in a positive & forgiving light. “God can never be realized by one who is not pure of heart. Self purification therefore must mean purification in all walks of life. Any purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one’s surroundings“. “But the path of self purification is hard & steep. To attain to perfect purity one has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech & action; to rise above the opposing currents of love & hatred, attachment & repulsion.”

He was a disciplined person who had complete control over his mind, body & soul. “No matter what amount of work one has, one should always find sometime for exercise, just as one does for one’s meals“. “How heavy is the toll of sins & wrongs that wealth, power & prestige exact from man!” “civility does not mean the mere outward gentleness of speech cultivated for the occasion, but an inborn desire & gentleness to do the opponent good”

And of course, he believed in non violence. After reading this book you can see how one man can actually change the world and people around him with out using any weapons. We need many more like him in today’s world.