The Learning Never Ends

This month I am completing my 11th year into my professional life. I have worked across MNC, Startups and Mid-size companies. Running your own startup will give you first hand learning experience into everything. Every company and the people around I have worked with gave me a different learning throughout. Some of these points has changed the way how I view the world and still I am learning on a few of these points mentioned. The learning never ends.

• Comparison syndrome: You are better than many. And many more are better than you. So stop comparing yourself with others in terms of wealth. You are comparable only with yourself.
• Fight your own battle: It’s fine not to have an opinion on every other event that happens around you. Stay away from that. Go ahead and fight in your own battle field.
• Be that person: Be the person who do you want to work with. And follow the person who do you want to become. You are learning from everyone around and vice versa.
• It's always you: Your competition is not with your enemies. If you look deeper, it ends up with your procrastination, ego, the negative behavior you are seeding.
• Delusional asset: Renting is always a better choice. Buying house on loan is just an emotional purchase due to peer pressure/fear and not a solid investment
• Schrodinger cat exists: Work on solving the problems only if it actually exists. Don’t ever assume the customer behavior and build a product
• Digital distractions: Keep your digital space minimal. You are just a product for many endless scroll/swipe apps. Your time has more monetary value than the platforms earn because of you. Internet polarizes people knowingly or unknowingly with the kind of content they read and see. Over a period of time people become polarized and especially have a biased opinion on every other content they see. This was not the case 20 years back.
• Swipe, swipe, swipe: Try to avoid using credit cards. Use it only when you don't need it. Reward points are not worth the money you spend through credit cards
• The invisible path: Success model can never be replicated. Keep other's success path as an inspiration and don't follow the path. Everyone is on their own path. Find your hidden path.
• Sand boa mouth: People generally lie on your face about their real opinion and stick to a socially acceptable opinion. You might hear the real opinion only in private and sometime you may not hear it at all.
• Right to the point: Internet expands into everyone's hands to get quick results. Be specific on what you want to achieve. Be best on your niche. When you narrow down your focus, your potential widens.
• The age of wisdom: Coding skills doesn’t directly proportionate to the years of experience. It is same as maturity doesn’t directly proportionate to the age. You might meet a lot of immature people throughout your life.
• Timeline mirage: You will eventually achieve what you want only if you put efforts towards your goal. If you plan for 6 months, you will achieve it in 2 years
• Grow, Learn, Grow: No one can stop you when you have the interest to learn new things. You can grow only by learning whoever you are and wherever you are
• The learning medium: The learning medium changed for forever. You can learn from a teacher, read from a book, listen to a podcast, watch a video channel. Pick the play ground that works for you.
• The digital divide: The generation gap is becoming thinner with the technologies. It could be around 5-8 years right now. Technology is growing faster to reduce the gap further
• The time machine: Time is more valuable than all the other assets. Lost money can be retrieved but not the time. Sometimes you may need to get things on time and sometimes you may need to wait. Think about writing an exam and buying stocks.
• Happiness index: Do things what gives you happiness often. It may vary between people. It can be travelling, playing, smoking, drinking, etc.,
• Gall's law: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. As an individual, you can can either add complexity to it or simplify it further.
• Conflicting thoughts: People who are similar might end up fighting often. They handle issues in the similar fashion which will conflict. People who is different will have very few things to end up in a conflict.

Best learning you ever had will always be harsh and brutal. If it is not, that is not the best learning experience.

• You know nothing: Travel as much as you can. There is a lot to explore in this world. I am sure you haven’t explored even 1%.
• Its always a NO: You must need to know when to say “Yes” and when to say “No”. When you grow, you may need to say a lot of “No” than “Yes”. The best product strategy comes down to saying "NO"
• Unnecessary tags: If you are waiting for a title to lead, you will never lead. If you tie your goal to calendar, you will never start.
• Be that leader: Take ownership whenever you fail. When you succeed, celebrate it with your team. Leadership comes when you take up the difficult part.
• Wait and see: Observations are often seen as judgments. People jump into conclusions as fast as they look at something. While everyone have their opinions, you need not conclude anything without looking at both the side of the coin.
• Say it loud: Debt free person is the rich person
• The existence crisis: Don’t add any inputs in the meeting when you actually don’t have anything. You are here to add value and not to prove any point that you exist.
• Mentors are underrated: Find a mentor for yourself. A good mentor will bring down your learning curves, widen your thoughts, narrow your focus, push you in the right direction. Be sure to pick the right mentor.
• Be that ladder: As I grow in my career, the real success comes when you make other people reach success. If someone mentions your name as the reason for their success you don’t need any other gold medal than that
• The endless cycle: Every product or creation goes through a production loop that starts from idea, design, develop, roll out, feedback and again goes back to idea stage. People who identifies a faster loop with good standards on every stage will reap potential success. This production loop can be applied to any product or any creation.
• Thanks for reading: “Sorry, Please and Thank you” should be part of your everyday conversations. Use it whenever necessary

While I am still learning to understand a few of these points better, I can expand my learning and views further in the coming years. I would love to talk further if anyone is interested to discuss on these points and to learn from you.