During a manic period last week, I attempted to excuse myself for not staying in touch by explaining to my Grandmom that I barely had time to keep anyone informed about anything.
She pointed out that I had time to write a one line email to Mom. Why not send her the note, too?
Here’s the thing – I temporarily forgot that my Grandmom has an iPad and checks her email every day! She has been doing so for a year now. But, I do not think of her as such. It’s a flawed assumption or mental image.
I guess parents experience this as their kids grow up. I remember smiling myself at a workshop when an executive asserted that this “internet” stuff didn’t work for practitioners in his industry. But, here I was.. doing exactly that.
I apologized. I realized I need to keep up with my Grandmom’s growth.. Nice life learning.
The questions – how many such outdated assumptions or mental images do we hold – of family, friends, customers and colleagues?
Are they keeping us from building better relationships?
You are the CEO of Me Inc. And you are in your current job because you contracted with the company involved as you thought it was a win-win. The moment it’s not a win-win, you have the choice to leave and find another company to contract with. You could choose not to contract with any company and ship products directly to customers.
The choices are open. The choices are yours.
You work those long hours because Me Inc. needs it’s brand to thrive. It’s brand thrives on it’s reputation and you aim to build a reputation associated with great work. That sort of reputation needs no marketing or political manoeuvring. It’s the sort of reputation which results in many wanting to work with you because you are simply too good to be ignored.
By the world’s definition, you could be a corporate employee, a start-up employee or an entrepreneur – it doesn’t matter. By the world’s definition, Disney is a corporate that makes movies and theme parks. What matters, of course, is how Disney sees itself. Disney is an artist that exists to make people happy. Simple as that.
Call yourself whatever you want – CEO, entrepreneur, artist, business man – it’s your choice.
You are not “stuck” at any place you don’t want to be. It’s your show. Run it. And, run it well.
Mr EMC Palaniappan or “Pal Uncle” as I know him has been a close family friend. My mom has been a big fan of his aesthetic taste as the families have gone on multiple holidays to his resort and service apartment properties.
As an entrepreneur, Pal Uncle made his bones in Financial Services and has since then expanded into hospitality amongst other industries. I met him at his lovely offices in Chennai while I was home this winter. I hope you enjoy the chat as much as I did.
About Pal
Palaniappan (or Pal) has completed 17 years in the Stock Broking and Financial Services business. He is the Founder Chairman and Managing Director of Chona Financial Services Limited (CHONA), a Member of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and MCX-SX, a Depository Participant and Portfolio Manager.
A bachelor in Commerce, he completed his MBA at PSG Tech, Coimbatore and then went on to the USA to do his M.A. in Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then his Masters in City and Regional Planning (MCRP) at the University of Memphis. He worked as a City Planner for two years for the State of Florida before he returned to India and entered Stock broking and Commodity broking.
He writes regularly on market related issues and is a guest on several television shows related to the markets.
Palaniappan was the All India President of the Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) in the year 2009-10 and was the Chairman of the ANMI Southern India Regional Council – Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka Chapter for four years. He was a Member of the Secondary Market Advisory Committee of SEBI in the year 2009-10.
While always involved in the Real Estate business, his recent business pursuits include Development and Operation of Resorts (The Fern Creek in Kodaikanal, and Old Kent Estates in Coorg), Sales and Charter of Luxury Motor Yachts and the launch of an e-Commerce portal for products and services in the Construction and Interior Decoration space under the name “Build Mantra”.
(00.30)
Rohan: The purpose of this initiative is to meet people and find out their stories. It would be great to find out what you do, why you do it, and what makes it work for you. So let’s start with your background story..
Pal: Where do we start (haha). I did my B.Com at Vivekananda, Chennai. I went on to complete my MBA at PSG, Coimbatore and went to the United States to study for a couple of years. 2 years became 5 years. I did a Masters in Journalism and then one in City and Regional Planning. I worked for a couple of years as a Planner. I got back to India after that. It seemed like I had a clear plan as to what to do when I was abroad, but when I got back, I did not know where to begin. There was a family business to go to, but I was not too inclined to be a part of that.
After a few hits and misses, my wife started a stock broking business. It started growing at a pace where she could no longer do it alone. So, I stepped in. Together, we brewed that business. That was the start of our story. We embraced technology and that was a major factor in our success. We developed multiple other businesses branching out from that. We continue to develop these initiatives and turn them into well-oiled machines.
(02.20)
Rohan: I have two questions. What businesses do you run? I’ve realized that there is always a back-story as to how you learnt what you learnt in entrepreneurship; what would you say is yours?
Pal: I can’t pin point to one experience or lesson and say “that is where it all came from.” Every course I took, every task at work and every experience has given me lessons. They continue to do so, even today. And I hope they will continue forever.
I guess you could say that the spirit of entrepreneurship comes from my family. I started a video games business way back in 1982. It did not go well. My father said, “It is your first business. It’s would have been great if it went well. It’s totally alright if it didn’t. Let’s move on now”. That was his attitude and it rubbed off on me as well. You have to keep trying and keep going. At one point in the US, I was doing three four jobs at the same time. All that helped. Little spark-offs came together and connected.
(04.35)
Rohan: You started off as an entrepreneur and then grew. What have been some of the defining moments in this time?
Pal:Sometimes, success comes without you realizing it. You are often constantly plugging away and working on something, and just when you wonder why you weren’t successful, it seems to come and pour down on you. You really don’t understand what you did differently. It is just that everything accumulates with time. You need to keep going on the right path and it will come.
(05.17)
Rohan: Do you think that is a product of luck or skill?
Pal:Skill is what keeps you going. Luck is what comes to you to keep you on the path. If you are not on the path, luck will never hit you. To me a lot of things depend on integrity. I value integrity and trust above all else. If you don’t let your employees and your company down, everything else will automatically follow.
(05.52)
Rohan: You run so many different businesses! What are your key strengths across the spectrum? And, what is your approach to managing these businesses?
Pal: I think one of my negative attributes is that I start looking at new opportunities every time I have free time! And that spreads you very thin. That was very difficult for me to control. The plus point of being an entrepreneur is probably a negative for me. So, the one thing that I need to focus on is to restrict myself to core areas and not spread out too much.
These have all been totally different businesses. I depend upon a lot of people in my work. I look at the person more than a role.
(07.29)
Rohan: Do match a role to a person or a person to a role?
Pal: I think it works both ways. You are continuously trying to match these two things. Sometimes, you need to take a portion out of one role and give it to another person and vice-versa. It is not a process with an ending. It continues dynamically.
(08.07)
Rohan: There are two schools of thought here, right? You decide on what you are going to do and then hire the fit for that role. The other way is to take a bunch of great people and build something around them. What do you prefer?
Pal: I think its somewhere in the middle. Often times, you could have picked the best person in the world and he may not be what you are looking for. For example, my dad is a great operations guy. He is the kind of person who will “do everything” and even work 24 hours! But, he is not a tech-savvy guy. What can you do about things like that? I just have to pull tech related responsibilities out and give it to someone else.
(09.00)
Rohan: What have your biggest learnings been?
Pal: Entrepreneurship involves great risk. You have to take risks which have to be calculated. One thing I always do is take risks in measured steps.You should know how much you could lose to take the risk. “Is this something I can afford to lose?” should be the measure by which you take the step.
Don’t take too big a step. This is the key for our portfolio management as well.
Diversification is the key. If you do that, when the entire business or industry goes down, you don’t feel the pressure. So, the principle is extensive and constant diversification in different areas. That means each step in itself will not hurt you. I apply the exact same principle in business as well.
(10.52)
Rohan:
Are there any principles/hacks by which you run your daily life?
Pal: I wish I could say it was that simple. I have a to-do list that seems to always grow and never come down (haha).
I believe management-by-crisis is not the best way to manage things. However, you end up managing a lot of crisis on a day-to-day basis. One way I have managed to keep a portion of the management at production (versus crisis) is through delegation. When you find the right people you trust, you get to focus on the core areas of the businesses.
(12.08)
Rohan: Both you and your wife are working parents. I know you have three kids. So when there is trouble, how do you guys manage?
Pal: It is one of the biggest challenges we faced. Our kids always say that business has taken a prominent place in our lives. We try our best to be around for them. We make sure one of us is always available. Our office and home are next door. We planned it that way so we get to maximize our resources (even if it costs us a lot more, financially!). We also plan getaways from work to be with them and get the family time.
(13.41)
Rohan: Has there been a big evolution with your world so far with respect to your role as a leader? Have you seen your principles change over time or have you just altered minor bits?
Pal: I would love to say that I knew what I was doing all along. But no, it is a dynamic thing. It continues to change till this day. I think learning never stops. There are a lot of things I never do, and there are things I have picked up over time.
(14.23)
Rohan: So where does your learning come from? Is it books, people or how?
Pal: I work with my wife and she is a huge source of my learning. I talk to a lot of people, watch a lot of television, and read a lot of books. There are multiple sources of information in that case. I would attribute value to a lot of things I have discussed with people. When you discuss, you often stumble on insights that seem to come out of the blue.
(15.30)
Rohan: What are some of the things you have learnt that you would like to share?
Pal:Hard work – there is no substitute for that. Take risks and innovate. Don’t bother about failure.
My dad used to say that there was a very thin line between a fool and a genius, “Don’t be afraid to be called a fool, otherwise you’ll never get a chance to become a genius.”
Success is not your decision. It is a product. You have to choose your methods, policies and business. The rest will follow.
—
I also casually asked him off-the-record as to the role routines played in his life. And, I learnt that he played 90 minutes of tennis every morning to keep himself fit. For someone struggling to get to 30 minutes of exercise in every day, that was really inspiring!
Thank you, Pal Uncle for that inspiring interview!
This week’s book learning is from Quiet by Susan Cain and is part of a series on “Brainstorming and Peer Pressure”. (Part 1)
In 1963, researcher Marvin Dunnette brought together 48 research scientists and 48 advertising executives from 3M for solitary and group brainstorming sessions.
For the “group” case – They were each divided into 12 groups each and given 4 different problems to brainstorm. For the “solitary” case – In order to compare apples with apples, Dunnette also combined 4 individuals in the solitary case to make it a “virtual” group. He then independently ensured the quality of ideas could be rated, too.
The results..
– Men in 23 out of 24 groups produced more ideas working alone than in a group – The results were exactly the same for the typically introverted research scientists and the more extroverted advertising executives
Shocking, isn’t it? 40 years of research has repeatedly demonstrated that our performance gets worse when group size increases. So, if you have talented or motivated people, encourage them to work alone.
Is there any benefit to group brainstorming then? The only positive result from group brainstorming is that it helps people feel “connected” – a worthy goal, so long as we understand that social connectivity is what we achieve, and not creativity.
Sketch by EB
The only exception is online brainstorming where large groups have shown to produce better work – of course, that means we have folks expressing their view without social pressure. The same has been found for virtual collaboration between professors.
So, how important a factor is social pressure in our performance? Coming soon to an inbox near you..
Here’s to ensuring we “brainstorm” only when necessary this week!
The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin is full of interesting ideas. One of them that has stuck with me is
“Art is not a gene or special talent. Art is an attitude, culturally driven and available to everyone who chooses to adopt it. Art isn’t something sold in a gallery or performed on a stage. Art is the unique work of a human being, work that touches another. Most painters, it turns out, aren’t artists after all – they are safety seeking copycats.
Art isn’t something that’s made by artists. Artists are people who make art.”
I was in need of some great music yesterday. I was listening to “Love Story meets Viva la Vida” – a tune that brings back wonderful memories. And that’s about when I saw some other videos from “The Piano Guys.”
I listened to a few other videos before I clicked through on this video.
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At 3:10, I had a tear rolling down my eyes. I finally understood art. This work touched me.
I guess I finally realized why this blog is “my art.” It’s a collection of my learnings and thoughts put together in the hope that it touches you, just like it touched me.
And, just for today, let’s bow to art made by “The Piano Guys” and thank them for touching us..
There is a slide up on the screen describing an idea. There are a couple of obvious typos and a couple of funny font size differences.
What do you see first? The typos or the ideas?
If you are like me, the typos and the funny font sizes will probably irk you. I often feel like stopping the discussion and saying “Give me 2 minutes to fix this slide first.”
The point here is that fixing a typo or changing a font size will not change the world. But, the idea.. that’s a different matter.
Seth puts it nicely in his new book – “Most people have been brainwashed to believe that their job is to copy edit the world, not to design it.”
The difference between an ordinary marathon runner and an elite marathon runner is the focus inward. The ordinary marathon runner runs the race trying hard to forget the pain by focusing on the world outside. He thinks about the food and sleep waiting for him once he finishes the game.
The elite marathon runner, on the other hand, focuses intensely on herself. She measures the number of paces, observes her breathing, mentally notes down times during the race she feels tired, etc..
It sounds counter intuitive, but the best performers spend a lot of time looking inward. It’s this ability to observe oneself that translates into an ability to observe the world, and take a shot at making it better. How we do one thing is how we do everything after all.
Besides, how can we expect to make a difference in the world if we cannot make a difference in ourselves?
Nobody likes non positive feedback. I have seen forums and posts that talk about learning to be “immune to feedback.” I tend to take the opposite approach – don’t be immune to feedback. It generally stings, and that’s okay. Take it personally, and work on getting better. The only thing to remember is that we aren’t the perfect article. We get better every day, and feedback is vital to that learning process.
Now, if you are working in a team of normal human beings, your team mates will definitely have feedback for you. Don’t wait for them to give you feedback. Ask for it proactively. Schedule feedback sessions 1, 3 and 6 months into a new project or job with your boss. Some bosses don’t like such candor and may not give you any useful feedback the first couple of times, but you will get there eventually.
Most of the feedback may not be really useful or actionable or new depending on your own self awareness, but the odds are that you will find a couple of gems each time.
And, whatever you do, make sure feedback sessions aren’t just about weaknesses – remember to spend a LOT of time on strengths. It’s amazing how much we learn about our strengths from people around us. Each one of my feedback sessions has been a treasure trove of learnings about myself..
Apprenticeship has been called many things over time and across civilizations. The ancient Greeks practiced it by studying philosophy under teachers like Aristotle and Socrates. The ancient Indians called it the “Gurukula” system wherein students spent 12 years or more at the home of a teacher. Apprenticeship passed down from family to family in Europe and most parts of the world (it was the source of anglo-saxon names like Cook, Baker, etc.). Recent sci-fi geeks have, of course, re-discovered the system thanks to Star Wars.
The principle here is simple – Apprenticeship is the best education model. The 1:1 student-teacher ratio is probably at the heart of it’s success. But, I wouldn’t discount the effect of true character building that such a model entails, born out of constant close proximity to the teacher or jedi master.
Now, the problem with apprenticeship is simple – it doesn’t scale. It is simply not possible to provide 1:1 education to all of humanity. The industrial education model makes sense, as a result.
But, if excellence is our goal, there’s only one way out – seek out apprenticeship opportunities. Apprenticeship is what has made the greats great. For every Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, there has been a Mike Markula and Bill Gates (Sr).
And, if the thought of seeking out apprenticeship sounds daunting to you, here’s an interesting truth I’ve learned over the years – there are more willing teachers out there than apprentices.
A Learning a Day 