Things Money can`t buy you..

You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy.
- Garth Brooks

• A First Kiss from Someone Special – The sweet rush of butterflies in your tummy when you kiss someone special for the very first time.
• The Realization of True Love – The warm feeling you get many years after your first kiss when you realize you married the right person.
• Beauty – Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
• True Friendship – Through thick and thin, they stood by your side.  They were there when you had nothing but them.
• Peace of Mind – It can only be acquired with an honest heart.
• Beginner’s Eyes – You’ll never see it again for the very first time.
• The Joy of Telling an Interesting True Story – One of the most enticing roles we lead in life is that of a storyteller.  There are few things more satisfying than telling a true story that others enjoy listening to.
• Happiness – True happiness is achieved by doing what you love and being involved in something you believe in.
• Success – Success is simply excelling at doing what you love.
• A Single Moment of Time – Once it’s gone, it’s gone.  Don’t miss it.
• A Baby’s Laughter – Babies don’t care about money.  They care about kindness, love, and living in the moment.
• Surprise Encounters with Long-Lost Friends – You haven’t seen them in years, and you figured you’d probably never see them again.  Then suddenly, there they are standing right in front of you.
• The Feeling of Self-Accomplishment – You set your sights on a specific goal and followed through until you achieved it.  Now that’s something to celebrate.
• The Sound of Raindrops Outside – …as you snuggle up on the couch.  Few sounds are more soothing.
• A Good, Genuine Conversation – Those moments of verbal bonding when the topic of conversation flows seamlessly and all parties involved gain as much as they put in.
• An Unexpected Compliment – It seems like just another dreary Monday afternoon, but then she walks into your office and says, “I love your shirt.  That color looks great on you.”
• The Feeling You Get When Your Idea Works – You’ve been struggling to resolve a complex problem all day, but you just can’t seem to get it right.  Filled with frustration, you decide to try one last idea before calling it a night.  You’ve had many ideas before that failed miserably… but this time it works.
• Randomly Hearing Your Favorite Song – You’re stuck in bumper to bumper rush hour traffic, so you crank on a radio station for a little distraction.  The opening notes to your favorite song instantly chime in.
• Watching a Live Blooper Unfold in Front of You – As you walk alongside a friend, she trips over her own feet, wobbles erratically, regains her balance, and then tries to play it off like nothing happened.  Hilarious!
• A Sunny Sunday Afternoon – The birds are chirping, a light breeze in blowing through your hair, and the sun’s rays are warming your cheeks.
• The Rush of Adolescent Love – Those magical moments of adolescent lust and affection that only you and one other person rightly remember.
• Being In The Right Place at The Right Time – You’re sitting in the nosebleed seats at a professional baseball game.  The home team batter cranks a monstrous, game-winning home run.  The ball bounces off another fan’s glove two seats in front of you and lands right in your lap.
• The Recollection of Great Childhood Memories – Do you remember the first time you learned to ride a bike?  What about wrestling with your dad?  Or climbing trees with your friends?
• Reminiscing About Old Times with Your Best Friend – Those crazy life experiences only the two of you lived through together.  Like that wild 24 hour road trip to Atlanta, or that drunken night on the 3rd floor balcony of your college apartment.
• Passion – True wealth comes naturally to those who follow their hearts.  You can’t pay someone to be emotionally passionate about something.  Nor can you pay them to psychologically give-up on their passions.
• Objects of Sentimental Value – Old family photos, your great grandmother’s music box, that painting your baby brother made for you… some things are priceless.
• The Comfort of an Old Familiar Smell – You just pulled into your parent’s driveway after being away for a long while.  You smell familiarity in the air, the scent of the pine tree in the neighbor’s yard.  As you head through the front door, more familiar smells consume your senses.  Gosh, it feels good to be home.
• The Hilarity of an Inside Joke – You’ll never get it unless you were there at its inception.
• Amazing Talents You Are Born With – Like the mind of a genius or the voice of an angel.
• The Excitement of Making Someone Else Smile – Because her smile makes you smile back.
• Exercising Your 5 Senses – Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.  Each provides a gateway to rewarding personal experiences.
• Sharing a Good Laugh with Friends and Family – Some of the most memorable moments in your life will be moments spent in laughter.
• The Warm Coziness of Your Own Bed – No bed is more comfortable than your own.
• Watching Wild Animals in Nature – Like a hawk gracefully soaring above the tree line, or a deer prancing across a grassy field.
• A Home – Money can buy a house, but not a home.  Because home is where the heart is.
• Waking Up to the Smell of a Home Cooked Meal – You were still asleep, but someone special knew you’d be hungry soon.
• The Peaceful Sound of Absolute Silence – Shhhhh…
• Streams of Consciousness and Clarity – You’re ‘in the zone!’  Act while your mind is hot.
• The Sound of a Light Breeze Through the Trees – It’s the sound of Mother Nature all around you.
• The Captivating Experience of People Watching – The interesting (and sometimes foolish) things people do never ceases to please.  You can’t buy this quality of entertainment.
• Watching the Sunrise and Sunset with Your Beloved – Make time for this.  It’s worth it.
• The Sound and Sight of Ocean Waves – Another phenomenal act of Mother Nature.
• The ‘Pump’ After a Great Workout – You feel like you can conquer the world.
• The Blissful Act of Daydreaming – Just being… and thinking… and dreaming.
• When She Says “I Love You” - …and you know she means it because you can read the sincerity in her eyes.
• When an Unlikely Someone Remembers Your Birthday – A friend you haven’t seen in over a month calls you at 9AM on your birthday just to say “happy birthday.”
• Finding Something You Thought You’d Lost Forever – You searched for it for days and finally gave up.  Now, six months later, it basically appears right in front of you.
• The Inspiration Behind Creative Works of Art – Every piece of art is priceless in the eyes of someone who can relate to it.  The creative inspiration behind these works of art is no different.
• When Your Pet Snuggles Up Next to You – It’s just soooo cute.
• A Moment of Eye Contact with an Attractive Stranger – You’ve never seen them before, and you may never see them again.  But a moment was shared.
• A Long Hug from a Loved One – Those deep, warm hugs you wish you could nestle in forever.
• Happily Singing at The Top of Your Lungs – Well… You know you make me wanna shout! Kick my heels up and shout! Throw my hands up and shout! Throw my head back and shout! Come on now… Shout!
• Seeing Your Breath on a Chilly Night – A simple phenomenon that has entertained children since the beginning of mankind.
• The Feeling of Acceptance – You’re now a part of something greater… and it feels good.
• Watching the Clouds Form Cool Shapes – Never the same show twice.
• Cuddling a Newborn Baby – Precious… simply precious.
• When You Know You Can Trust Someone – You can see it in their eyes and you can feel it in your heart.  They have no ulterior motive.
• Sitting Around a Bonfire with Your Friends – One of the greatest settings for reminiscing and storytelling with those your care about.
• Seeing Two Elderly Folks Who are Madly in Love – It’s a sight of love that has surpassed the tests of time.
• The Beauty of a Moonlit Sky – Few simple pleasures are more satisfying than gazing up into a starry, moonlit sky.
• The Awesomeness of Skipping Rocks Across Water – It doesn’t matter how old you get, this one never gets old.
• Watching Lightning in the Distance – Peaceful and powerful at the same time.
• Slow Dancing in Your Living Room - Dancing is like dreaming with your feet. -Constanze
• Knowing She’ll Be There When You Get Back – Yes.  There is stability in your life.  And she’s a big part of it.
• Watching Her Sleep – Just being with her and breathing with her.
• The Colors of Fall – It’s Mother Nature’s artwork.
• People Who Make You Smile Just by Thinking of Them – Wherever I am, no matter what I’m doing, just thinking of her makes me smile.
• The Warm Touch of Your Beloved – It’s the touch no one else has.
• When You Realize People Are Reading What You Write – Words can’t explain it.  Thank you.
• The Excitement of a New Comment on Your Blog – We love these.  

Can you think of anything else money can’t buy?  Leave us a comment and let us know about it.

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"Satyagraha," "Swaraj" and "Swadeshi"- the three pillars of Gandhian philosophy

According to author Sudheendra Kulkarni who elaborates the thought in his new book Kulkarni has tried to wed Gandhi's philosophies with the power of the worldwide web and dared readers to strive via the Internet for development of life as a whole in his book "Music of the Spinning Wheel: Mahatma Gandhi's Manifesto for the Internet Age".

Kulkarni says he has been inspired by the life of Mahatma Gandhi and the simultaneous study of the Internet has led the author to coin the term "Internet Satyagrahis" in the book brought out by Amaryllis publications.

"It is a call to all those readers, who believe even to some extent in the power of the Internet on the one hand and also in the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, to become Internet Satyagrahis," Kulkarni told in an interview. "The Spinning Wheel (charkha) of Mahatma was not merely just a tool but life transformative machine to propagate ideas and ideals - namely non-violence, justice, respect for nature, equitable and sustainable socio-economic development - and my study of the Internet has made me realise that it has united the world into a single community living in a Global Village," says Kulkarni.

The author says "Satyagraha," "Swaraj" and "Swadeshi"- the three pillars of Gandhian philosophy if superimposed on the Internet can benefit the earth in entirety and also keep perils at bay.

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Project Managers - Don'T Press, Just Impress

You get a genuine prospect, you ask for requirements, tend to believe that you have understood the requirements since you would like to close the deal, you prepare a set of documents under the different names of design plan, development plan, resource plan, timelines plan, implementation plan, deployment plan, testing plan etc; and then you jump into working for the customer.

Few days pass and then the customer starts pushing to add in more features/functionalities as his maturity towards the system enhances. You tend to be polite and accept to incorporate small features that would take about 2-3 hours. Then he requests few more features and then you would assume that it is hopefully not repetitive and then accommodate in order to avoid clashes. When it continues, you start letting customer that it would be difficult to accept new requirements midway. You realize that customer delays the payment so that you would consider including his desired new features. That is when you tend to press the customer to avoid unnecessary changes, add in imaginary features and to make the payments on time. All above scenarios are very common and I guess, are applicable for all projects; regardless of whether you are building the product or providing services, the requirements of which have been hastily agreed to kick-start the project.

There is a scene in one of my favorite movies ‘Rocket Singh – Salesman of the year’. The newly graduated friends would be having late party when the DJ threatens to leave. When everybody gives up convincing him, Ranvir Kapoor walks up to him, talks for couple of mins and does the trick. “Thodisi conversation, thodisi persuasion, thodisi negotiation”. Below are few suggestions for project managers, especially for start-up organizations as they tend to give into the pressure of doing more for small payments –

• Freeze the requirements document: I understand that this is easy said than done; however, you can clearly mention that you would leverage Time and Material costing model if the requirements continue to change. Once the customer understands that he will have to pay for the delay, he will attempt to freeze the requirements.

• Document of Understanding: I agree that it is difficult to get a commitment from the customer as it is very likely that although the requirements are frozen, the customer can always interpret a requirement differently and ask you to deliver more than agreed with either the same or lower cost. Prepare a Document of Understanding and get a sign-off that your understanding of requirements is at par with them. This is one of the most crucial steps. Use your communication skills and convince its importance to the customer how it would avoid last minute unpleasant surprises and costs as well.

• List of deliverables: Ensure that everybody is clear in terms of deliverables and additional deliverables will cost timelines, resources and hence additional payments. Put down the expectations in terms of contents of document.

• Expectations Management: Usually, most of the managers do a good job of expectations management to ensure that customer’s expectations are met. However, good leaders also put down their expectations in terms of payments on time. Let’s accept it that there is no free meal in the world and someone has to pay when work is done. One needs to make it clear that the work would be stopped and resources would be allocated to different projects, if the payments are not done on time. If you do a good job of completing the deliverables as expected, you are entitled to ask for the payments on time.

• Meet decision makers: Often, the deals are lost since you spend all your energy in impressing folks who are not decision makers. Ensure that a budget is available and that decision makers are involved in discussions. Even if you don’t get decision makers to attend meeting in the first place, schedule a meeting to talk to them and explain about your expertise and services. They are the ones who sponsor the projects and approve the payments. The rest of the folks usually work on it to showcase the details for their appraisals or merely because they have been asked to get it done.

• Budget constraints: Sometimes, you get to talk to decision makers and realize that they have genuine constraints on budgets. I would suggest not hanging your boots so soon. Visit them again, check out the reasons, validate their rationale on budget and if you are able to implement it although with smaller margins but having a good long term relationship, I would recommend going with it. It takes a while to know that business is not only about money although it is an important fuel for startups as well as all organizations.

I understand that most of the people would like to make their presence felt, get recognition for their efforts and perhaps it is a human tendency. Sure, Go ahead and impress; however, by doing a great job, not by shining apples for your bosses/customers; by working sincerely and delivering the projects on time, not by stepping on your colleague’s toes; by following ethics, not by stealing somebody’s due recognition.

You’ll have different pressures at different times to deliver the job. The above pointers may help you decide whether to get pressed or leave the bosses/customers impressed.

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