Month: July 2010

Many things people strive for are actually byproducts of what the real goal should be. But by focusing on the byproduct instead of the goal, the desired byproduct is ever elusive.

Let’s look at a few examples:

Happiness

The real goal is finding activities you’re passionate about and consistently engaging in them.

That definition skews towards work, but consider spending time with people you enjoy being around an ‘activity’ and it can encompass romance and family time.

Becoming “Networked”

Lots of people want a big network, full of powerful influential people, but if you focus on that is the end goal it’s probably not going to work out very well and you’ll come off as very insincere.

Having a large, powerful network is the byproduct where the end goal is helping other people, building relationships or trying to make an important vision happen that others can get behind.

Making Money

Making money is a byproduct of focusing on creating value.

If you focus on making money, you might end up making a lot if you’re very driven, but if that drive was applied toward how you could create the most value, you’d make a lot more money.

The one caveat with making money is that it only captures the economic spectrum of “value”, but a lot of people are working on how we can measure other kinds of currencies and make them more fungible so that in addition to financial capital we can measure things like social capital and emotional capital.

Confidence

I can’t become more confident by saying to myself, “C’mon Max, be more confident”.

Confidence is a byproduct of being really good at something, which is only obtainable through practice and repetition.

Though often people can practice and practice and not improve. That’s why people will tell you, “practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” While that’s directionally correct, a better answer is “practice in pursuit of perfection will allow you to increasingly approach perfection and achieve excellence”

Conclusion

The list goes on and on of things that many people try to achieve directly but are actually byproducts: Enlightenment, Love, Creativity, Status, Success, etc. etc.

It’s not wrong to want byproducts, but they are not things we can get, in the capacity we want, by focusing on achieving them directly. Byproducts are the rewards we get for living our lives the right way.

And by recognizing how byproducts break down into corresponding end goals it becomes clear there are no short cuts. When we care about other people, other people care about us. When we create value for others, we are rewarded financially. When we do amazing work, we gain respect. To live a rich life where we are happy, financially abundant, surrounded by amazing people and confident in our own abilities, requires cultivating curiosity, persistence, self-reflection, self-discipline, compassion, character, drive and many other esteemed traits.There is truth in the words that our external reality is a manifestation, or a byproduct, of our internal reality.

I encourage you to look at the things you want, and figure out what’s a byproduct and what’s the actual end goal that you should authentically commit to.
—
Thanks Vikram for the link and Max Marmer

Have a nice day! :)

The line by the US commentator when the USA were seconds away from a miraculous victory over the legendary Soviet Hockey team in 1980..

If you haven’t watched the movie ‘Miracle’, I recommend you see it when you can..

3 wonderful things that struck me –

1) It’s all about conditioning. Herb Brooks (the coach) assured the team that while they may not be the best in the world, they were sure to be the most conditioned.. and they were.

2) Prepare, prepare, prepare: From day 1, the US team were assembled for just 1 mission – get conditioned enough to beat the Soviets in the Olympic games..

3) The name on the front is far more important than the name on the back: For all of us who are part of schools, companies – isn’t this a lesson for life?

:)
Have a great day! And yes, I do believe in miracles..

“Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me.

At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called “the love of your fate.”

Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need.” It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge.

If you bring love to that moment—not discouragement—you will find the strength is there. Any disaster that you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.”
–
Wow!

Good morning! :) Good week ahead everyone! :)

Two separate incidents that caught my attention –

—
I began sending book learnings to friends every weekend around August last year as a way of pushing myself to read. This soon became an initiative and when I look back, I see a marked difference my learnings now in terms of quality (in both content and delivery). Of course, that’s not to say they are amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re definitely get better.

Good old trial and error. You never know until you try..
—

The second learning is a result of many discussions. I decided not to attend my graduation as an Electrical engineer at NUS as a result of a lack of connection I felt with my course. Anyway, this has resulted in many questions from friends and family on ‘why’.. and ‘what if I regret it’ etc. While I don’t feel the need to justify why I feel so strongly against going, I did feel the need of clearly understanding my own motives and most importantly, I didn’t want to do something because I feared I would regret it 10 years from now.

To cut a long story short, it turns out that the big thing I’m missing is pride at my own results. Engineering has never been my thing and as a result, my results were never anywhere near standards I would expect from myself. This is nobody’s fault, it is what it is..

My mom had the best take on it after I’d explained the rationale behind my feeling this way(after some discussions with a friend), she felt it was a great learning to make sure I worked my ‘a&$e’ off when I got to B school to make sure I’m very proud of my graduation. Great learning indeed.. one for life to make sure that the standards set in whatever I choose to do are high – no excuses taken!

I like that – no questions, no judgement on my decision.. just a very deep learning. Thanks Mom! :)
—

:)

The non-optimized life

When you measure an activity, you can improve it. Computers make it easy to optimize just about every portion of your life.

Surely, you can optimize a website or a blog for traffic. You can optimize ads to make them yield more results. You can optimize your presentation style to close more sales or change more minds. You can optimize your workout to get faster and stronger. You can optimize your diet to lose weight and gain muscle. You can optimize your sleeping patterns to get more rest in less time. Cosmo even says you can optimize your sex life…

And then, at some point, you realize you’re spending your best energy on optimization, not on creation.

This is a fine line to walk, because of course you can optimize your creation time as well! You can develop habits to amplify your best thoughts and make it likely you’ll ship work that matters. I get that. But I also worry that a never-ending cycle of optimization can become a crutch, a place to hide when you really should be confronting the endless unknown, not the banal stair step of incremental optimization. While Yahoo was optimizing their home page in 2001, the guys at Google were inventing something totally new.

That’s one reason I resist the temptation to optimize this blog for traffic and yield. I’d rather force myself to improve it by having the guts to write better posts instead.

—
LOVE it! :) Here’s to better posts..

Now, that’s a big one!

I always have a flavor for the season when a new realization strikes and suddenly many things I previously felt strongly about without fully knowing why make sense. And the latest big one is curiosity..

I’ve realized that I really vibe with curious people. And I’m a curious prick.. I like to understand the ‘why‘ behind things, I don’t really mind saying ‘I have no idea what you are talking about‘ rather than potentially save face and nod along and I don’t really mind asking ‘stupid‘ questions so long as my curiosity is satiated. Now, as we grow, it’s important this is merged with tact (atleast, so I’ve heard), but I still feel inherent curiosity is a big one.

I don’t particularly like hearing the ‘that’s how things work here‘ or ‘that’s how it’s always been‘ or even a point of view that strikes me as parroted. It need not always be like that and I feel the ones who change things are the ones who keep asking ‘why‘ and ‘why not‘..

Anyway, my point is that we are all born with innate curiosity. Somewhere down the line this is quashed by some extremely insecure person who typically got annoyed – sometimes this was a teacher who stamped any questions out, or sometimes it was a relative who just asked us to shut up when we asked too many questions, and we did.. except we shut up forever.

And then, there might also have been people around us who encouraged us to ask questions all the time, kept that curiosity alive. For some, we re-discover that curiosity as we work or live with people who like that intellectual challenge that comes with asking questions rather than discuss events or other people because when we question, we invariably question opinions and ideas. An opinion or idea often has an origin in the most unlikeliest of places and that makes the journey of exploration even more rewarding because we often truly understand what shapes people we know and most importantly, what shapes ourselves.

Also because, discussing ideas and opinions and being open to those of others is just one step away from reflection and learning..

From my Harry Potter days, one of the big themes I remember from the book is that ‘the biggest mistakes adults make is that they forget what it is to be kids‘. They forget that youth, energy and most importantly, that curiosity and innate sense of adventure that enables youth to challenge the status quo..

Let’s not let that die.. We don’t need to have extremely high IQ’s or be the most brilliant analytical thinkers – we just need to get into the habit of questioning why things are the way they are, why we do what we do.. and that would be a start.. to a new journey of learning!

Here’s to that..

1. Once, all villagers decided to pray for rain, on the day of prayer all the People gathered but only one boy came with an umbrella…

THAT’S FAITH

2. When you throw a baby in the air, she laughs because she knows you will catch her…

THAT’S TRUST

3. Every night we go to bed, without any assurance of being alive the next Morning but still we set the alarms in our watch to wake up…

THAT’S HOPE

4. We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future or having any certainty of uncertainties…

THAT’S CONFIDENCE

5. We see the world suffering. We know there is every possibility of same or similar things happening to us. But still we get married??…

NOW THAT’S OVER CONFIDENCE!!
—
:)

Hello to all,

I thought I would write this as a way of passing it on to all future GMAT takers. I had the benefit of reading many a blog as well before taking mine and I thought I would put in my debrief as well.

So, before I begin – here is the warning. Both my scores were very disappointing – primarily because I averaged a 750+ in all official tests. That was probably the biggest learning after taking the GMAT – Between 700-750, you need a stroke of luck. And for a score of 750+, it takes a lot more preparation..

Now, my structure for this post would be –
1) Preparation Basics
2) Practice Tests
3) D-Day

1) Preparation Basics: The following are the 6 sections in the GMAT –

I. Sections

a) AWA or Analytical Writing Assessment: This was not too much of a problem for me. 6 is the maximum score and I managed 5.5 and 6 in my 2 attempts. So, trust that worked well.

It doesn’t require much either. My AWA tips for success would be –
1) Structure the arguments/essay first up.
2) Use lots of connecting words like moreover, furthermore, additionally, firstly, secondly etc to add structure and help your argument flow.

b) Problem Solving: This is the basic in the numerical section. Again, this wasn’t much of a problem. It requires pretty basic formulae. The only places which I required work was probability and permutation and combinations. This is one of the easier, more scoring sections.

c) Data Sufficiency: Here, I saw HELL! Data sufficiency requires exhaustive analysis and I tend to be careless more often than not. This is generally considered a difficult section and I would recommend lots and lots of practice. This greatly improved from my 1st test to the 2nd.

d) Sentence Correction: This section also gave me lots of trouble. However, the Kaplan guide helped me lots. More on this below.

e) Reading Comprehension: Potentially pretty tricky as it sucks a lot of time. This was probably what brought my score down during my 2nd test..

f) Critical Reasoning: This one was generally consistently fine. Can be tricky but careful elimination generally solves this fine.

Overall, sentence correction and data sufficiency are the ones I would watch out for.

II. Preparation Time
Preparation time I had for test 1 was 18 days and after my rather disappointing score, I decided to take it again. And this time, I had 30 days.. which greatly helped my Math.

I guess the general prep time would be 3-6 months. And I think that’s a great idea if you have it planned out like that! :)

As to when to take the GMAT, my mentors had the fine idea of having me take the GMAT before I started work as it would be tougher to do so once work began and I’d definitely recommend that. It meant not having too much of a vacation but I think, looking back, it was worth it.

III. Books
The books I used –

Prep 1: Official Guide
This was a big mistake in retrospect. While the official guide gives lots of GMAT problems, it is practically useless in helping you develop strategies. This was the big difference between the first and second rounds of preparation. First round was just working out lots of problems but the second round was about strategies, which generally inspires more confidence.

I would recommend my Prep 2 method over this one..

Prep 2: Kaplan and Princeton Review
Frankly, the big one here was Kaplan. It was fantastic! Very good online materials that come with the book. It greatly helped my confidence for the second one and took my Math score from 44 to 49..

IV. Test Structure
While any of the above guides explain this, the most important points to know are –

1) Quant has 37 qns to be solved in 75 mins while Verbal has 41
2) Getting the first 8 questions right matters more to your score than any other as the GMAT decides the range(500-600, 600-700 etc) of your score. The latter questions are used to home in to the exact score..
3) There are dummy questions on the GMAT that aren’t scored. So, while the test is designed to get tougher as you get questions right, there could be a dummy question. These questions are put in so the test makers get a chance to assess their difficulty level based on how many students get it right..

Basically, don’t worry about the standard of the questions as you’re taking the test. Just go 1 question at a time..

V. Prep Style
Greatly helps designing 4 hour work sessions as the GMAT is eventually roughly 4 hours long with the breaks etc incorporated. I had trouble keeping my concentration pretty often. Eventually, with good preparation, it is generally a question of how well we can keep focus..

I had the luxury of holidays versus those who are working and have to squeeze in prep over the weekends. However, I stuck to 4-5 hours (Generally, a test and review) a day as the test drew closer to keep my mind fresh, which I think mattered a lot.

2) Practice Tests:

The following 2 links are useful for

1) Click here to see all the practice tests in the market
2) Click here to see a rough estimate of how much a score in a certain test means

I used the following tests during the course of my preparation:

i) Manhattan GMAT Tests: Very good math section and an average english section. I averaged around 670-700 on MGMAT Tests.

ii) 800-score: Good for practice, nothing else really. The quant section has way too many geometry questions while the verbal is decent. Scoring is very harsh.. (Don’t remember)

iii) Kaplan: Most challenging test with balanced sections. I averaged around a 700 on Kaplan tests.

iv) Princeton Review: So-so.. Averaged around 650

v) Powerprep (Free): Very good as these are standard questions by the test makers. However, if you have worked out the Official Guide, then most questions are repeated.
Averaged around 740.

vi) GMAT Prep (Free): The best of the lot. Averaged around 740.

I’d suggest taking the tests with the AWA section even if you don’t need the essay practice as eventually, the test does play on your concentration levels and the best way to build it to be able to concentrate for 4 hours is to keep practicing.

As you can see the averages in the standard were better than the real tests, so I would advise you to take the scores with a pinch of salt. What matters more is that every test is reviewed right after so you know where you are making mistakes and why.. And also, it’s important never to get down on a bad score. It happens..

3. D-Day: My 2 D-Day experiences are –

1) Test 1 – 700: 90 percentile with a quant score of 44 and a verbal of 41. I knew my quant had gone bad and it showed, didn’t it.. :)

2) Test 2 – 720: 94 percentile with a quant score of 49 and a verbal of 40. I knew I screwed up my verbal because my verbal generally went down when my concentration fell and this meant I rushed through the questions. So, deciding to take it VERY slowly, I fell behind schedule half way through and had to rush through anyway.

Both tests were definitely not my best days and that matters a lot on the GMAT. So, I hope your preparation makes sure your you are mentally prepared for it on the day and are at your best. It does require a bit of luck, but here’s hoping! :)

Few other things that I did that greatly helped:

1) Registered for the test as soon as I knew I wanted to take it. Once I spent USD 250, I began studying..
2) Reported daily preparation to a mentor and also to a couple of friends. So, I hated having goofed off.
3) Shared my test scores with a bunch of friends as it motivated me to do better..
4) Said ‘Carrot’ right before every data sufficiency problem to switch on (Thanks KD)
5) Drank Gatorade before the test. Glucose works better than water for concentration.
6) (2nd test) Took a break right before I finished my AWA2 (2nd essay). I had 10 mins of time left and took some time to walk around before I got back in, took another official timed break of 8 mins as per center rules. Helped get myself set for my Quant..
7) Went to the center the day before to just get a sense of the place..
8) Took my final test at the same time as the real one.

Other things I would have liked to have done better:
1) Paced myself better in my verbal – I was overly cautious..
2) Started with the Kaplan guide instead of the Official Guide
3) Done my verbal 2 better.. :(.. haha

Overall, it’s done. As a couple of mentors put it, it’s not about being smartest but being smart enough so if you haven’t got the score you wanted, don’t fret. The highest of B school median scores is 720 (Stanford GSB) which means half their students get a score below 720 on the GMAT. So, we have hope.. I hope.. :)

I’m not sure if I have covered everything that helped but this is not all, if you do have any questions – please do just write in with your questions to rohan@rohanrajiv.com and I’d be happy to help. :)

Thank you to all those who helped! And for all those who are going to take their tests and are reading this, I wish you all the best!