Mirza Yawar Baig – Beware the C Word
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Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah. My
brothers and sisters, friends, this is a follow up on my earlier
podcast, which was the confusion with kindness.
I am completely and totally committed to quality. And I really
believe that there is no alternative.
So let me begin by one of my quotes. When I talk about
extraordinary goals, for example, sometimes people ask why
extraordinary?
I say why extraordinary, because good enough, never is.
As you work towards a great goal, you will become restless and
irritated and impatient and inclined to take shortcuts and cut
corners, all for the excellent reason,
or apparently excellent reason that you want to see the product
up and started as soon as possible. But in this urgency,
there will be a tendency to accept compromises.
I'm saying this to warn you of the biggest danger to success, the C
word
and that C word is compromise.
For to compromise, is to die a death without honor.
Those who have the courage to work for a great goal, understand that
possible and impossible are terms that define your own standpoint.
How you see yourself the point to who you are not to the goal at
all.
Soaring at 30,000 feet is possible for an eagle
or for a man with a flying machine.
It is not possible or impossible in itself. All it needs is for you
to ask, How can I do it? Not? Can it be done?
I repeat, all that you need to ask is How can I do it? Not? Can it be
done? Because possible and impossible.
are a factor of perspective. It depends on where you stand. That
will define the view that you see.
Change your position, the new changes.
I submit to you that differentiation creates brand.
Brand defines Identity. Identity enables influence. Influence
inspires followers and loyalty. Without differentiation, you are a
grain of rice in a sec. We're still rice, but you're wondering
in a second.
When you differentiate, you stand out, you're noticed you make a
difference.
That is the choice.
Excellence is an expression of self respect. So it's mediocrity.
We strive for excellence, not because someone is watching or
because we are playing to the gallery. But because excellence is
about us. How we see ourselves, what we think of ourselves, how we
choose to define ourselves.
We define ourselves and the world accepts that definition and treats
us accordingly.
And that is why Henry Ford famously said if you say you can
win or lose, I believe you
think before you define yourself.
Every action defines me. Every word I speak defines me. Every
decision I take defines me. Everything I choose to do or not
to do, defines me. It is my brand value. It is my character.
Actions requires sustained heroic effort. Often in the face of great
discouragement. Only those who rebel in the effort can accept the
adrenaline drives them. Paradoxically they are goal
focused, but take pleasure in the difficulty of reaching the goal.
For them the journey is the destination because the excitement
is only in the chase and ends with a catch. Mount Everest is a worthy
goal to strive.
Strive for because its dimensions are measured in height.
The same distance on Earth, which is eight kilometers on level
ground, wouldn't be worth talking about. It is the difficulty of the
ascent, which adds value to the goal.
If you think success is difficult, try failure to accept mediocrity
is to accept failure at the start. Mediocrity ensures that your
failure is permanent. that drug is called compromise. I know that
there are more mediocre people in the world and those who achieve
excellence but ask yourself who you would rather be? Who would you
like to emulate? Who do you choose as your role model?
In 1999, at the turn of the century, people were running all
kinds of surveys, one I read about was done by IBM, to see what the
percentage was of people who reach a level of excellence in their
professions.
They took the they took an Olympic gold medal as the benchmark and
they asked how many people reach an Olympic gold medal level in
their profession,
or endeavor. They started with their own industry information
technology, and then they expanded the survey to include a multitude
of professions across the spectrum. They came up with a
result that across the board, not more than 2% Not more than 2% of
people in any field or profession, reach a level of excellence 98%
remain mediocre.
That is the choice that one must make. You will have company in
both places. The question is, Which company do you prefer?
Because the truth is that you take on the color of the company you
keep who you choose, as your role model.
Who do you choose to emulate? Choose wisely? Because your choice
will change you.
That is why he was in college. He said one day in the life of a
tiger is worth more than 100 years in the life of a Jaguar ask which
life would you like to live? For in the end, both the tiger and the
jackal die
compromises to attitude what cancer is to the body. The body
doesn't fight cancer but accepts it because it doesn't recognize
the threat. It accepts cancer cells until they kill it.
Only those who hate mediocrity can excel not dislike, not be
irritated by it. Nothing mild. Only those who pathologically hate
mediocrity, who cannot target at any cost. Those who are repelled
and repulsed by it who find it disgusting, abhorrent and hateful
and do anything to get out of it can pursue excellence passionately
compromises like cancer destroys from within.
But unlike cancer, it is infectious. One mediocre person
who is willing to make compromises will infect the whole team with
mediocrity
to win, we need a totally uncompromising attitude towards
quality.
Without that, dreams will be stillborn.
Guess what?
What is the question that I need to ask and you need to ask when
you are looking at mediocrity or excellence in your teams?
What is the question?
Believe me, the question is not which of them is mediocre? The
question is, am I mediocre or not?
That is the question.
Excellence takes effort. If you make it, failures, painful, nobody
likes it. mediocrity is the narcotic, which makes destruction
seem acceptable. So people settle for less than what they can be.
They get distracted by others and make excuses for their mediocre
efforts. As if that can change reality. It can't they imagine
that if they can find others who agree with them, then mediocracy
their mediocrity will be acceptable. It will not be it will
be more mediocre person.
mediocre people will accept mediocrity, but to those focused
on X
sinners, who look not at others, but at their own potential and
beyond it. mediocrity is the speaker. No matter what this guy's
it comes in.
To tell the truth, the mediocre ones also recognize this in the
dead of the night when they're alone with themselves. Their
efforts don't even begin to approach the boundaries of what
could have been, if only they had not compromised.
Failure is not the enemy of excellence mediocrity is failure
is painful and drives effort. Nobody willingly fails or remains
in failure. But mediocrity is emphasized failure is fatal
because the victim does nothing to counter it, because he cannot feel
the pain.
I remind myself about a basic principle that I have always
followed in my own life.
It is better to fail trying to achieve an extraordinary goal than
to settle for a compromise. Why are you struggling? Because good
enough, never is.
When you say good enough, we are looking at video of you are
looking at cancer due to it, what you will do to cancer, cut it out
or die. The choice is yours.
The important thing for us to remember is never to compromise.
No matter how difficult it seems. Remember that when you're weighing
in a balance and the weighing scale, it is only the last few
grains which tip the balance. Until then you won't see any
difference, or any change in the level of events.
And that teaches us two fundamental laws.
The first law, the balance will not tip until the last few grains
fall into the bank.
I repeat, the balance will not take until the last few grains
fall into the pack. The second law, the last few grains will
always will always tip the balance. The last few grains will
always tip the balance. Both laws are equally to
remember that if we compromise for anything less than what we dreamed
off, then in the evening of our days, we too will be forced to
look back on our lives and say, If only I had not sold my dream so
cheaply.
That is why I say that if only if only is the most tragic phrase in
any language, because it means that the opportunity has passed to
have forever.
All that remains is to shed bitter tears of regret.
I remind myself in you that a door opens in the life of every man and
woman where they have the opportunity to make a difference.
Those who succeed are those who anticipated that opening and
crossed the threshold.
I'll give you a case study I caught from MIT Technology Review.
Severe Amartya
arrived in the United States from Bangalore at age 19. Now
in his 30s he is a web gazillionaire
with his friend and co worker Jack Smith, Bhatia founded Hotmail the
first free web based email service. This concept was a
radical departure from the dial up services that required a period
account, heartbeat in contrast to be accessed via a web browser from
any computer connected to the net. The idea found a market niche may
get a cabin.
After two and a half years, Hotmail had 25 million active
email accounts. Now more than 50 million
venture capital from venture capital firm Draper Fisher
Jurvetson, invested $200,000 In Hotmail, and hotmail was launched
on July 4 1996. Just 18 months later, Microsoft bought the
company for $400 million worth of Microsoft stock
in 1996, and before the opportunity to create a web based
email service was available anywhere in the world
except that it was serving motya
went through the door.
Social change happens when a small group of dedicated people who
believe in their system, their culture, their way of life, live
it and practice it with confidence and differentiate on that basis.
They live their way assertively, not aggressively, but never
compromise or change their system to suit the majority culture.
To give you an example, the British colonized the world.
But they never wore turbans and shimmers, and eagles and visualise
and sherwanis, or any of the gorgeous and beautiful clothing of
Asia, Middle East or Africa. So the world started wearing pants
and ties and hats.
That's only one example. There are as many others as you have the
curiosity to look for. The question is, what do you want to
do?
The greatest damage to a cause is done by those who perhaps in a
well meaning way, soften stances regarding principles. When that
happens, the clarity of differentiation is lost, and the
message loses significance. There are two key things to learn in
this context. Number one, how to disagree without being
disagreeable. How to present your viewpoint in a way that it's
clear, but not necessarily confrontative or belligerent, how
to show people what's in it for them, because that is the station
that everyone listens to with great interest, and it's called W
III FM. What's in it for me.
The second key thing to understand is and learn is to live with
friction. To be comfortable with not being the most popular person
on the block.
Read the life of any great leader and without exception, you will
find that they were very unpopular, at least to start with.
In many cases, they remain unpopular with the masses. Yet
they change the world and are remembered with honor centuries,
in some cases even millennia after the passing.
That is the choice must be ask yourself, what is the legacy that
I want to leave behind.
For a leader,
the most critical thing is to understand
that he must differentiate from the REST based on their message.
Differentiate based on the message if a leader compromises his or her
message for the sake of popularity, or material gain or
followership, or anything else, the uniqueness of the message will
be lost, and it will lose its value as a clear standard on which
to model all actions. This is naturally not easy to do. As there
are a lot of societal and other pressures to confirm the existing
norms and values and customs. Chris stand out as different
especially when this means to go directly against the existing
system is not easy. But it is an essential criterion that
distinguishes the reader
for people to follow the leader, his identity, the goal that he is
leading towards and what the followers will gain because of
following that leader must all be clear, unambiguous and inspiring.
A flag is a symbol, but only when it is flying high, not when it is
drawing on a clothesline. In conclusion, I want to say to you
that it is critical for the leader not to be seduced with the promise
of followship and never to change or dilute or modify the message to
suit anyone in the desire to get Converse. The message
distinguishes the leader. If he compromises that message, then he
has lost everything. This is the biggest argument in favor of
differentiation against assimilation and losing one's
identity that I can print for you. Someone who does not have the
confidence to differentiate and is content with being one sheep in a
flock is completely unfit to be a leader. Being a leader means to
take hard decisions and getting used to being lonely.
Because remember, the tiger walks alone sheep
plenty of company
for in the end
We will not be asked what happened we will be asked what do you do
thank you