Opportunity Knocks Only Once

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

Opportunities are always plenty in this vast world, but how many of us are ready to grab that in our life…? At least how many of us are aware of the opportunities we come across in our lives…?

Family and society in which we are born are a chance given to us by creation, but what we become in life is a choice left for us. Chance is something decided upon us, which is beyond our control. Choice is something that we can decide for us, which is completely in our hands to choose. Many of us think that our life is predestined and nothing can be done beyond that.

We have all said at some point of time in our life or often hear people saying:

“It’s all fate”, “Luck is not in my side”, “According to my horoscope”, “It’s bad time for me”

Yes, it is going to be really bad time until we wake up and look for opportunities in life.


Opportunity knocks our door only once. That single moment in our life comes only once and never returns. We may end up getting similar opportunities later on in time, but the one that came will never come again.

A young man wished to marry the farmer's beautiful daughter. He went to the farmer to ask his permission. The farmer looked at him and said, "Son, go stand out in that field. I'm going to release three bulls, one at a time. If you can catch the tail of any one of the three bulls, you can marry my daughter."

The young man stood in the field awaiting the first bull. The barn door opened and out came the biggest, meanest looking bull he had ever seen. He decided that one of the next bulls had to be a better choice than this one, so he ran over to the side and let the bull pass through.

The barn door opened again. He had never seen anything so big and fierce in his life. It stood pawing the ground, it eyed him. Whatever the next bull was like, it had to be a better choice than this one he thought. He ran to the fence and let the bull pass through.

The door opened a third time. A smile came across his face. This was the weakest bull he had ever seen. This one was his bull, he said to himself. As the bull came running by, he positioned himself just right and jumped at just the exact moment. He threw his hands to grab.....But alas.... The bull had no tail.

There are three kinds of people in this world: First, the ones who make things happen. Second, the ones who see things happen. Third, the ones who wonder what happened?

If we are a kind of person who is attentive to things around us, I am sure we could readily recognize that. If we are a kind of person who is keen on achieving great things in life, I am sure we would definitely make the best used of opportunities given.

An individual may possibly have number of abilities and talents, yet he or she could be a miserable failure. Unless the person is aware of her abilities and has the courage to act upon it, she is going to be a failure. Great people knew their abilities and make the best use of at least one of their talents, excel in that, reach greater heights.

Great men and women don’t wait for the right opportunity to come at their door steps; instead they act upon to create the opportunity in order to move ahead in their path of great achievements. These are the people those who make things happen. They don’t sit and wait for the opportunities to come to them; instead they desperately go in search of opportunities and put in all their efforts to make things happen.

Michael Dell says, “Don’t spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity, that you miss the right opportunity. Whether you’ve found your calling, or if you’re still searching, passion should be the fire that drives your life’s work.”

Unless you are planning suicide, there is no better time then right now to start doing what you have been thinking about doing for far too long. The key is to listen to your heart and let it carry you in the direction of your dreams. Just open your mind to different possibilities, different ways of examining an object, a problem or a challenge, and it can provide you with many inspirations and fresh ideas.

Another key point is to act diligently upon the opportunity grabbed. Many of us though get right opportunity; fail to make the best use of it. We end up doing mundane activities those are useful neither for ourselves nor for others. This is because our mind is tied up with petty little things that will give quick gratification. Basic tendency of human mind is to look for quick results at present and immediate pleasure now rather than long term satisfaction at later stage. We should constantly tame our mind to seek permanent happiness in life and not look for instant pleasure. We should constantly focus our thoughts and efforts towards vital and precious activities that will take us forward in our path of success.

With the ability to identify right opportunity, attitude to honestly work on it and sincerity to make the best use of it; making great things happen is an absolute possibility in this world.

Let’s make great things happen.

“When we wake up to the choices given to us,
smartly catch hold of them,
diligently work on them with sincere efforts,
surely we will achieve great things in this world.”

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Experience - The Best Teacher

Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

While I was travelling from my home town to Bangalore last night, numbers of thoughts were rambling in my mind due to couple of comings and goings in my life. I was thinking of my recent experiences and lessons I am taught by them…therefore got a thread for this post.

Yes, I am absolutely convinced that experience is the best teacher in our lives. First Person Experience in particular is the “Bestest” teacher. I agree that its always good learn lessons from others experience and not to burn our finger once again to learn things. Yes reading biographies, listening to experiences, seeking wisdom from our elders are all means of taking lessons for us to make our lives easier. What we learn through experience is more lasting than that acquired through reading. It is accurate, complete and permanent. It is first-hand knowledge. But, nothing can teach us as good as our own personal First Person Experience. I’ve learnt that, grueling experiences at some point of time will always be a great saviour at some later stage in life and I am sure it’s pretty much true for all of us. A child does not stop playing with fire till he burns his fingers. He learns from his own experience.

Moreover, involving as a first person brings in all the senses of ours into the situation and our brain precisely records that experiential learning so that, it would be readily available for us in future at the right moment when needed. Before crying out “Why Me…?” we should understand that the experiences we have had all through our life is not just to test our faiths in some unknown beliefs, but only to make us as strong as what we are today. We should be thanking the experience and feel blessed for having given this wonderful opportunity to learn. There is profound meaning and purpose to everything that happens to us. May be we are not aware of the purpose right when things are happening to us, but certainly looking back we can very well understand that, its all well connected to our present:

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer said,
You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.

It’s also interesting to know that, two of us exactly experiencing a similar experience may feel entirely different based on so many factors. It may depend on our child hood, up bringing, society, family values and many more. Hence it is important to experience the experience personally in first person to get the best out of it.

Experience is the "bestest" teacher that always results in the most enduring lessons.

Thanks for visiting my page.

With love,
Anbusivam

Leadership in the Times of Crisis

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam's Blog Page.

When the entire world was glued to their television sets, watching the great mayhem of this year in Mumbai I was equally angry on our so called Leaders as any other young Indian. The 60 hours of action seemingly like a Hollywood blockbuster at last came to an end with unfortunate loss of the innocent lives.

It was very obvious, as a nation we are not even near ready for these kinds of times of crisis. Crisis is an unexpected, sudden disaster that can deeply impact the lives of the people, disrupting even their very existence in this society. Now with this Mumbai event it’s clear that not only Nations but businesses, institutions and even individuals need to be prepared to these kinds of crisis. Today’s society is more and more becoming vulnerable to these kinds of dastardly terror acts as it is easy for any one to get hold of the necessary materials, technology and expertise to make weapons of mass destructions.

In an open society where we value the freedoms of movement, we definitely can’t guarantee stopping these attacks completely. All that we can do is to make our best possible efforts in putting up all possible hurdles to carry out even a simple attack on the innocent lives around. In fact the Mumbai attacks clearly showed that, we don’t even have given a simple difficulty for those mindless animals to carry out such an outrageous act. It was just a cake for them into those high profile buildings. This is really a matter of deep concern for all the citizens of this country.

Leadership that can promptly act, make things happen quickly in the times of crisis is what we need. For all these years, we’ve allowed these problems to be part of our lives. At least this time it’s heartening to see the young Indians waking up, who don’t want to allow the problem to be part of their lives, instead wanted to deal with it strongly. We should be demanding our leaders to make things happen and make it clear to the world that we as a country will not allow these kinds of dastardly acts in our soil anymore in any form. We should firmly make it apparent that will go to any extent to address these issues right now at this moment.

Some critical points for the leadership during times of crisis I could think of are:

• Be proactive and not reactive (let’s at least have a crisis management team in place to handle such times of crisis)
• We shouldn’t even think of what to do when the moment hits us, instead we should be prepared in detail on what are the priorities in the times of crisis (faster we act, quicker we can take charge of the situation)
• Speculations and rumors are the killers in times of crisis. (we should have a one singe reliable communication channel to the people, instead of every one taking out to take political mileage out of the situation)
• We should be careful of every word spoken during crisis (especially for the media and political leaders)
• We should learn to rise to the occasion, leaving all our differences aside (religion, caste, creed, etc…)
  

As I always say, we often relate the word "Leadership" with politics, business, sports, and very few areas of our lives. Many a times I've noticed people think and talk, that Leadership is all about position. But, I strongly believe Leadership is everybody’s business. It is for men, women and children. It is for families, business and communities. It is for me and you. It is for each one of us.

Let’s take charge and make sure for a Fundamental Change in this great India. Jai Hind.

With Love.
Anbusivam

India Vision 2020:

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s Blog Page.

This morning when I was reading an article on freedom struggle, a strange thought came into my mind. I started imagining how India will be if it goes into the hands of a leadership that is really really young, strong, dynamic, energetic, ethical, truthful and, diligent with a great vision for education.

I went back to my memories of a great book by Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam along with Dr.Y.S.Rajan – "India 2020 : Vision for the new millennium".

Dr.Kalam in one of his speeches elaborated the concept:

“Transforming the nation into a developed country, five areas in combination have been identified based on India's core competence, natural resources and talented manpower for integrated action to double the growth rate of GDP and realize the Vision of Developed India.

These are:

• Agriculture and food processing -- with a target of doubling the present production of food and agricultural products by 2020. Agro food processing industry would lead to the prosperity of rural people, food security and speed up the economic growth;
  

• Infrastructure with reliable and quality electric power including solar farming for all parts of the country, providing urban amenities in rural areas and interlinking of rivers;
  

• Education and Healthcare: To provide social security and eradication of illiteracy and health for all;
  

• Information and Communication Technology: This is one of our core competencies and wealth generator. ICT can be used for tele-education, tele-medicine and e-governance to promote education in remote areas, healthcare and also transparency in the administration; and
  

• Critical technologies and strategic industries witnessed the growth in nuclear technology, space technology and defence technology”.
  

I am sure imaginations and dreams are alwaysthe stepping stones of a greater achievements. Yes, it sounds extremely exciting and inspiring, but these great men had given us the wonderful requirements and great national goals to be achieved. Now, we the younger generations have all the responsibilities to bring this true.

Let's strive to bring this India Vision 2020, a reality much ahead of the year 2020.

With Love,
Anbsivam

Great Leaders Wallpapers.

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

Came across some nice wall papers from www.leadershipnow.com.

"What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we have gone." - Winston Churchill

"No man is good enough to govern another man, without that others consent." - Abraham Lincoln

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Find here the Great Leaders Series

Thanks for visiting my page.

With Love
Anbusivam

NextGenWomen's "Women 2.0 Summit"

Hello Friends.

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

Starting from my beloved mother, dearest sister, admirable maths teacher till my current project leader, there were lot of women who made and are making my life wonderful. I take this great opportunity to express my thanks and gratitude to all those women out there.

Happy Women's Day to all you wonderful women out there!!!

The SmartTechie is organizing "Women 2.0 Summit" on March 10, 2008. International Women's Day celebrates the progress women have made economically, socially and politically. This unique one-day Summit is organized in the honour of International Women's day. Women 2.0 Summit provides a platform for like-minded women to learn, develop, connect, and network so that you can harness your inner qualities and bring out the best in you as an effective and authentic leader.

At this summit, nearly 1000 women technology professionals will come together to celebrate the great strides women are making in their companies and in the business world. It's obvious that diversity has an enormous, tangible meaning. Highly successful professional women from the technology industry will share their knowledge, experiences and insights to help empower more women to achieve their goals. At the Summit, there would be four panel discussions on: Ascending the Corporate Ladder, The Lady Entrepreneur, The NextGen Developers, The Intrapreneurs. This exciting summit will consist of lectures, skill building exercises, and group discussions. Highly interactive and engaging, we assure you that the one-day summit will be useful, insightful and lots of fun too.

When:
March 10, 2008
9.00AM to 6.00PM

Where:
Ambedkar Bhavan
Millers Road
Bangalore 560 001
Karnataka, India

Register Here:
NextGenWomen's "Women 2.0 Summit"

Speakers Include:
Anagha Gadgil, Technical Manager, Avaya India

Aparna Pujar, Director - Media Products, Yahoo! India

Bharati Jacob, Managing Partner, Seedfund

C Mahalingam (Mali), EVP & Chief People Officer, Symphony Services

Dr. Ramanujan Kashi, Senior Research Scientist, Avaya India

Jessie Paul, Chief Marketing Officer, Wipro Technologies

Mangala Gowri, Research Scientist - India Research Labs, IBM

Mrinalini Ingram,Senior Director, Finance, Globalization Center East, Cisco

Pamela Kumar, Director - India STG Engineering Labs, IBM

Sapna Maheswari,Developer, ThoughtWorks Technologies

Sharada Satrasala, Director, Strategic Supplier Management, TI

Vani Kola, Managing Director, India, NEA-IndoUS Ventures

Vasantha Erraguntla, Senior Engineering Manager, Intel

At this summit, nearly 1000 women technology professionals will come together to celebrate the great strides women are making in their companies and in the business world. An excellent opportunity especially for Women. Don't miss it.

With Love,
Anbusivam

Producing Next Generation Leaders

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Anbusivam’s blog page.

We often relate the word "Leadership" with politics, business, sports, and very few areas of our lives. Many a times I've noticed people think and talk, that Leadership is all about position. But, I strongly believe Leadership is everybody’s business. It is for men, women and children. It is for families, business and communities. It is for me and you. It is for each one of us.

Now, I’ll take a back seat and want you to add in your cents here as comments. I really would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

As a country are we producing moral leaders?
Are our schools and educational institutions teaching some life skills too?
Are the present generation bureaucrats’ ethical leaders?
Where are we failing in producing great inspiring leaders?
What could be done to get on ethical, inspiring leaders as our decision makers?

Eagerly awaiting for your thoughts..!!!

With Love,
Anbusivam