Mirza Yawar Baig – Beware the C Word

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