Not Being The Permanent Doormat

I have met many who live the lives of a doormat – they allow people to walk all over them.  I can understand that we may be tolerant and considerate; especially with the ones we love and care about.  However, to have somebody run over you is a pathological condition.

India, as a country, has been invaded so often, that our culture has adopted aggression as the norm.  Our mindsets have been attuned towards respect for power.  Power displays by our elected representatives is hangover from the British era.  The lack of accountability of Indians in public service adds glamour to holding power.

These factors damage our ability to assert ourselves.  Our schools project the teacher as not someone who teaches but someone who must be revered.  This conditioning of the child during the primary years creates a non-assertive mass where the group norms of submission get programmed and validated.

Religion and religious norms are oppressive and laden with guilt.  The rites and rituals are designed to bring about conformity.  The focus on the academic performance has been made so critical to life that independence in thought and action is short of a crime.

Success lies in our ability to assert ourselves.  We may assertively choose not to assert ourselves, and that is fine too.  However, we must cross over the various cultural and religious boundaries of thought and protect our individual rights.

Here is a short story to illustrate this point –

A man slapped a Christian monk. The monk was just as a monk should be; he gave him the other cheek: according to the rule.  The man slapped the other cheek too – and hit him even harder. He thought this is a great opportunity, if the fellow offers the other cheek then why leave it?

He hit him harder. But as soon as he had hit hard he was very surprised. More surprised than when the other cheek was offered because then the monk immediately pounced on him, sat on his chest and began beating.

The man said, “Brother, you are a monk, a Christian monk, what are you doing?”

The monk said, “There is no third cheek, now I will give you a taste of fun. Jesus’ rule is fulfilled now. Now it is me against you.”

The monk was very zestful.  He gave him a good thrashing.  He said, “Jesus said offer the other cheek – I have done that.  Now I am on my own.”

If you are offering the other cheek to defeat someone then you are in the situation of this monk.  

Soon you will have to spring...

Copyright© Nitesh Kotecha

Move Beyond Personal Growth

A need for leaders in a group is to have the ability to move beyond personal growth.  What are the conditions that will not allow a person to embrace the ability to support others?

Insecurity – Insecurity can permeate any leader on any competitive point.  Insecure leaders put checks and controls on the team under clever disguises.  They complain about insubordination, prior approvals and the like.  Insecure people feel vulnerable and look inward - and this coerces them to restrict the development of the potential of his team.

Trust Issues – A leader, especially an inexperienced one, will have trust issues in a group.  The ability to foster a spirit of trust is the hallmark of a leader. Humans are naturally disposed to trust and our ability is marred by bad parenting, conditioning in schools and media related negativity.  Trust is integral to our area of influence while biases and prejudices developed from the social environment chip away at our ability to work and lead.

Commitment – The cultural messages that we get from our mythological stories stress the fact that small things done consistently carry more value than loud actions take sporadically.  The leader’s commitment to bringing out the best in the group requires consistency in thought and action.  The behavior and tone of the leader must demonstrate this commitment.

The leader has to commit to various leadership roles within an organization.  Bringing out the best in others will require a mindset that will allow, on one hand, the leader to assert his position in a group in, say, managing a subordinate’s behavior in the presence of the group while supplementing his own goals for growth and development.

Copyright © Nitesh Kotecha

Your Broker As A Cheat (Part 3)

There is a joke...

"I hear that you lost some money on Dalal Street. Were you a bull or a bear?"
"Neither, just a plain simple ass."

The whole IPO (Not “Initial Public Offer” but “Its Positively Overpriced”) business is a business about an inside job.  Let us break it down in steps and understand it.

It begins with an insincere company wanting public money.  It may have a business model in place.  The next job is to meet a venture capitalist or a private investor.  The “critical investor” will now “develop” the business model and make it more market savvy.

It is at the above the stage that the business has value or creates value.  However, the private investor or the venture capitalist would have negotiated hard and acquired shares in this company at a dirt cheap price from its promoters.

It is at this stage that big brokers and /or financial service providers take a stake in this stock.  The stock is then placed privately with them – either directly or indirectly through benami companies or other off- shore companies.  Please remember that most corporates have huge amount of benami companies that they own through some back-hand way.  It is rumored that many of our Sensex and Nifty companies have more than 25000+ benami companies that help the main company adjust their books of accounts, amongst other things.

This is the part where the game is set.  The financial service providers or brokers have a team that markets this stock heavily.  Your broker will be a part of this racket.

The retail investor now subscribes to this IPO.  Newspapers and the news channels join this game and create a perception for the retail investor.  Your broker will sing a song to you about how great this stock and its future are.  He will talk about valuations, long term growth, value investing, Peter Lynch and Warren Buffet – basically any nonsense through which he can increase his own credibility with you and persuade you.

You and your money are soon toast.

Read more of this in the way “critical investors” exited Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines stock immediately after an IPO.  You will know more.

Beware of the broker who asks you subscribe to an IPO.  Ask him why you should subscribe to the IPO and he will tell you that he has got news about it from "the smartest guys" in Mumbai.  He will succeed on you because of your greed.

If you like IPOs, make your own choices.  Junk your broker.  He is a humbug who is more interested in the turnover in his account than your money.

The current financial environment sucks.  So, why are there no IPOs?  Are there not many companies out there that honestly need the public money to grow and take part in the India story?  Are there no good companies that are riddled with debt and could do with some equity to get rid of it?


The problem is that the private investor / the financial services company will not get the 500%+ return that they are expecting on their money as the retail investor is currently not participating in the markets.

The last year, Indian investors lost over INR 10,640,000,000 (USD 221,666,667) PER HOUR OF TRADING.  Are you guessing where the money went?


Well, it’s the private investor, the venture capitalist, the financial service providers, the bank.

And your broker.

Happy Investing !!!

Copyright © Nitesh Kotecha

Prosperity Quote # 1

A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity 'til he has tasted adversity.

Sa'Di

When You Have Got God, Why Would You Want Anything Else?

Our most typical agenda for prayers is a demand for a wish or a desire that is unfulfilled.  The other reason for prayers is a state – the state of fear. If I leave aside conformism and parental conditioning, the above two reasons – a menu or a fearful state - are the most typical motivators for prayers.

God does not run errands.  He is not somebody who takes orders.  In fact, God appreciates the fact that there is no demand (representing absence of desire) and no fear (representing karma consciousness).  In fact, the pearly gates of heaven are open to those who want God for God’s sake.

Below is a short anecdote by Osho.

A person died. He had spent his whole life praying. He went to the synagogue and shouted his prayers out loudly. When he went to bed at night he would again shout out his prayers. If his sleep was broken, again he would shout his prayers –“Listen God!”

In front of him lived an atheist, who never prayed and never went to the temple. The person thought in his heart – he was religious – he thought, “Child, enjoy your two or four more days of fun and then you will fall into hell, then the score will be settled.” And he was happy that, “I will be in heaven. I have done so many prayers, I have earned so much virtue. You will fall into hell. Now enjoy your four days pleasure and delights. Enjoy playing on your flute. But after these four days of moonlight come dark nights.”

Thus he thought to himself, doing his prayers more and more loudly. In his prayers he asked heaven for himself and in addition asked hell for his atheist neighbor. By coincidence they both died the same day. The angels came to take them. They took the religious man off towards hell. He screamed loudly, what are you doing?

And they took the unreligious man towards heaven. The man said, ”This is unfair. My whole life it was unfair and now injustice again. I was suffering then, but I kept patient in every way, assuring myself, ’It is nothing, endure it. Just four days of suffering, then heaven.’ And you are taking this sensualist off to heaven? Certainly there has been some mistake. You must be carrying orders to deliver me to heaven, look at your letter. Take him instead, you have made a mistake.”

But they said, “There is no mistake. If you are too upset we will take you both to meet god.” He said, “Take us. Certainly. It can be decided there.”

Coming in front of god he shouted again, it was his old habit. God said, “I am in front of you, now why are you shouting? What do you want?”

He said, “Some mistake has happened; they were supposed to take me to heaven and took this knave. He is a sensualist, and he spent his whole life doing wrong things. He has never prayed. I was always praying, why was I being taken off to hell?”

God said, “Because of your prayers. You have been eating my brains. Should I invite you to stay in heaven now and put my life in danger, in this harassment? This is the fruit of your prayers. This fellow I am inviting because he plays flute, he lives in music and melody. He will bring a little gaiety to heaven. Your staying would not add gaiety, what little gaiety there is here would disappear.”

When you have got God, why would you want anything else?

Copyright © Nitesh Kotecha

Do You Collaborate?

Most of us, by nature do not collaborate.  However, I would like to qualify this assertion.

What is the probability of a group of people collaborating with each other on a train journey?  Or on a trip?  I would say that there is a good probability for a conspicuous amount of collaboration.  However, the collaboration that we normally exhibit in such situations takes a back seat in an organization.

Why is our employment in an organization not a journey?  Why do we not think of it as one?  Answers like organizational structure and dynamics are antique.  The change in the situation from a relatively riskless (and a fixed time frame) one to an ongoing and challenging one alters our behavior and approach.

The Bhagvad Gita extols steady wisdom in the Sankhya yoga.  Collaboration stems from a determination to work together towards a goal.  The determination to work together is rooted in the ability to remain steadfast.

Here are certain strategies that may be employed in order to enhance our collaborative nature:

1)       It is suggested that one be trained in the RIGHT skills.  Collaboration would entail reasonable command over people skills and the ability to manage your own behavior.

2)      Conflict can never be personal.  Every organization or every decision making hierarchical order may have at least one certified ignoramus who may have a personal or a hidden agenda.  The ability to steer the communication away from such agendas and refocusing on the issue at hand is a prerequisite for collaborative teams.

3)      The leader must assist the members in getting to know each other so that a deep collective determination develops as a part of the work environment.  People who know each other collaborate more.  The leader must invest time in social events and other forms of networking for his team.

4)      The leader must have the vision to manage and reinterpret the rewards that the team may receive.  This is the most vulnerable moment for any team.  Promises await those teams who can successfully handle success.

5)      Communication in the team must be purposeful.  Gossip and other trivial discussions create perceptions and these perceptions may interfere with our ability to know and relate to other people in the group.

6)      Mahatma Gandhi suggested that“be the change you want to see in the world”.  The leader must demonstrate his ability to collaborate and model that behavior across situations.

Copyright © Nitesh Kotecha

Creativity In Schools - A Speech To Remember

I am currently reading this book called “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson.  This book is about the trials and struggles that a teenage girl faces in a “typical” school in United States.  The book mentions her Art Teachers Welcome Speech on the first day of her art class.

I was bowled over and I thought of sharing this with you all.  Below is the speech, partially modified in terms of sentence structure in order to maintain continuity and flow.

“Welcome to the only class that will teach you how to survive.  Welcome to Art.”

“Soul – this is where you can find your soul, if you dare.  Where you can touch that part of you that you have never dared to look at before.  Do not come here to ask me to show you how to draw a face.  Ask me to help you find the wind.”

“You will graduate knowing how to read and write because you will spend a million hours learning how to read and write.  Why not spend that time on art:  painting, sculpting, charcoal, pastel, oils?  Are words and numbers more important than images?  Who decided this? Does Algebra move you?  Can the plural possessive express the feelings in your heart?  If you don’t learn art now, you will never learn how to breathe!!!”

“Here is an old broken globe that I used to let my daughters use as a football and kick around the studio when it was too wet to play outside.  One day Jenny put her foot right through Texas and United States crumbled in to sea.  

Voila! An idea!  This broken ball could be used to express powerful visions – you could paint a picture of it with people feeling from the hole – the opportunities are endless…”

“ You will each pick a piece of paper out of the globe.”  On the paper, you will find one word – the name of an object.  I hope you will like it.  You will spend the rest of the year learning how to turn that object into a piece of art.  You will sculpt it.  You will sketch it, carve it or use the computer lab for computer aided designs.  But there is a catch – by the end of the year, you must figure out how to make your object say something, express an emotion; speak to every person who looks at it.”

“Welcome to the Journey!”

I have been dreaming and hoping all my life to see Boards and Schools that allow teachers to work with this kind of latitude.  I know there are some that come close to allowing this kind of creative expression – but like I said, there are only some.

The above speech related mostly to art, but I am sure such kind of work can be for social studies, environmental science, and science, including the most agonizing of all subjects – Mathematics.

Here is to wishful thinking.

Copyright© Nitesh Kotecha