It's been a rather busy month. I was feeling that I had time on hand before, but things have just come in on my lap that requires focused work. In spite of trying to update my blog at least once every two weeks - I've not been successful. Mainly because, I've rarely spent time at the office, travel has taken my time - all work-related.
So, this brings me to something fundamentally important. Who do you spend your time with? This is "the most important thing" that determines what you think, do, or feel.
Improving the quality of people you deal with daily - automatically raises your bar. It's an interesting quality I've observed now. If you set a high enough bar - you'll deal with less noise, but the interactions that happen will add much more value.
Anyway, it's important to spend a lot of time - reading and thinking. Having time on hand to think is necessary. Moving away from a "corporate job" immediately afforded me this luxury. However, I found a lacuna, as my interactions with high-quality people reduced. In a corporate job - you automatically come across both high-quality and low-quality people.
It's difficult to cut out all the crap, but you do have a portion of interactions that make you feel that you've learned something, added a new skill, or in general, developed a connection with someone who has a refreshing point of view. This network - that uplifts your spirits is very valuable. The high-quality social interaction makes you slightly wiser.
Saying "no" to things:
I started saying no to a few things in my life. I've written about this many times before and it never ceases to amuse me. Here are a few:
1) Saying no to opportunities that do not excite me, motivate me, or improve me. Saying no to something purely for money - when time is more valuable
2) Saying no to pure networking events. Business card swapping events. I had no business card until recently. Had to print some for consulting work (will write about this sometime, it's an interesting story)
3) Saying no to negativity or gossip
4) Saying no to over-working (it's an act of diminishing returns). To meetings. Do something, instead of nothing sort of work
5) Saying no to ass licking. People pleasing
The sad part is, by doing that I cut out 80-90% of my interactions socially. This dramatically reduced my ability to learn from good people.
Saying "yes" when all reasons to say "no" are not present:
I had to rediscover social networks. Build dramatically new networks which will bring me "value" and "learning" in areas I planned to focus on.
The funny thing is, you do get some high-quality people, and high-quality ideas; though rarely, and then; the cycle of learning increases back again.
I am in that phase currently. Some of these are purely lucky breaks - being in the right place at the right time, with the right skill sets. But, who cares how they come in.
Suddenly, I'm involved in two separate companies now which are both interesting - one, an old-world company and another, which I'm starting. More importantly, the quality of people involved in both these companies is excellent.
This is apart from my PMS venture which has taken a pause until I find the right partner there.
The partner search is still "on" for PMS, but I've got enough on hand to learn and grow in the meantime. If you happen to read my blog accidentally, I am super interested if you are or know someone who might be the right partner to start an exciting PMS house. Just email me to start a conversation.
