Where do most people fail when they start out as entrepreneurs?

Because they need to make a proper #strategy, as a Business consultant, I am currently observing that many people are jumping into startups without any plan or strategy.

Company strategies are significant action plans businesses use to develop their products and understand their target consumers more efficiently.

If you're involved in the creation of your business's company #strategy, here are some #strategic questions you can ask:

1. Who is your #target customer?

2. What are the biggest challenges the #customers are facing?

3. How can you improve the same? - Action Steps

4. How will the company manage their finance?

5. Action steps for PEST (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors)  analysis…

6. What is the best way to measure your progress? - Make your Dashboard.

7. How will you engage and motivate your team?

8. How will you train and develop your team?

Apart from these reasons for failure are

Reason 1: Building an infrastructure that is not yet needed. 

Reason 2: Creating services that are not yet proven to sell.

Reason 3: Failing to realize that their biggest strength will always be their ability to sell their services.

Reason 4: Creating systems that are too complicated for an employee to easily follow

Reason 5: Believing lack of money is an excuse for lack of performance.

Reason 6: Thinking that a new business can be built without substantial effort.

Reason 7: Lacking a dashboard with clearly defined Key Performance Indicators.

Avoid these seven common mistakes and you will put yourself in a place where success is much more likely. Most importantly, remember that a startup business or a growing business is no different than a child, so it needs your constant care and attention. You can avoid the most common reasons why entrepreneurs fail and your business will thrive through any economic situation as long as you are focused on giving it your all and getting results.

How various Consumer Tech companies make money?

Glimpses into how various ConsumerTech companies make money!!


Source - InvestyWise

Personal development

 Have you done this yet?

Setting goals before the new year is important because it gives you a clear direction and motivation to work towards throughout the year. 

But setting them is not enough, you also need to write them down. 

By doing this, you make your goals more concrete and tangible.

This will help you stay focused and track your progress better.

It's also helpful to review your goals regularly to see how you're doing and make any necessary adjustments. 

So take some time to think about what you want to achieve in the coming year and put your goals in writing. 

It will pay off in the long run!

Share your top 3 goals for 2023 below 

#2023

#goal

Business Action Plan for 2023

We are In the final months of 2022, our thoughts are probably turning to 2023 and what we want to accomplish in the new year. And I’m willing to bet that most of we want 2023 to be a great year – not just a good one. we had like to put the difficulties and move your business upward and onward  So, now is the time to create an action plan for achieving greatness in 2023.  

To create your 2023 Great Business Action Plan, I suggest learning from the master of going from good to great, Jim Collins. Jim’s very first book, Beyond Entrepreneurship (co-authored with his mentor and Stanford professor Bill Lazier) provided a roadmap for entrepreneurs and leaders of SMEs who want to build great companies. 

To clarify, a great company meets four criteria:

Performance -- is self-sustaining because it generates enough cash flow (through highly profitable operations) and it consistently meets other objectives set by its leaders and owners.

Impact -- plays a significant leadership role in shaping its industry – it may not be the largest, but it has an out-sized influence.

Reputation -- is admired and respected by outsiders and is often considered a role model.

Longevity -- has staying power – it remains healthy for decades.

We are doing many things since we started the business. But according to me, there are 4 key actions for us to take in 2023 stand out:

1.     Set and Live Your Core Values

“Start with Values, Always Values.”

-- Jim Collins

According to Jim, identifying core values is one of the top priorities of a great business.

“If you define success by money, you always lose. The real scorecard in life is how well you build meaningful relationships and how well you live to your core values. This means that values come before goals, before strategy, before tactics, before products, before market choices, before financing, before business plans, before every decision.”

But having core values is only the first step – we must also live them out. Our core values should function as the “operating instructions” for the people in our organization -- they should inform, inspire, and instruct everyone every day. Remember, “Living to core values is often inconvenient, sometimes costly, and always demanding. It is indeed the hard stuff.”

So, as you set your core values, consider what it would take for your organization to take them to heart. Define specific behaviors, expectations, and standards for operationalizing them in areas such as:

1.     Hiring/firing/evaluating employees

2.     Selecting business partners such as vendors and service delivery agents

3.     Enforcing quality controls and safety measures

4.     Setting performance goals and incentives

2. Make Sure You’ve got the Right People at the right place.

“First Who”

– Jim Collins

“First in importance, above every other activity, is imperative to get the right people on the bus.” In fact, “We need the right people far more than we need the right business idea.”

First, get the right people on the bus and then figure out where to drive it. During my consulting career, I always asked my clients if you find the right person then hire them and then create a position for them. Beginning with the right people enables you to more easily adapt to a changing world. Having the right people means “the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away.”  The right people are self-motivated to produce the best results.

To help you determine if you have the right people on your bus, then ask the following questions:

1. Are you beginning to lose other people by keeping this person in the seat? - The wrong people threaten your culture and your ability to regain the right ones. 
2. Do you have a values problem, a will problem, or a skills problem? - You can train skills and you can align values (to some extent), but you can’t do much if someone doesn’t want to change and grow – if they’ve lost the will to develop. 
3. What’s the person’s relationship to the window and the mirror? -“window-and-mirror maturity, When things go well, the right people point out the window, giving credit to factors other than themselves… and when things go awry, they don’t blame circumstances or other people for setbacks and failures; they point in the mirror.” 
4. Does the person see work as a job or a responsibility?
5. Has your confidence in the person gone up or down in the past year?
6. Do you have a bus problem or a seat problem? : The right person might be in the wrong seat – if so, can you move them or develop them? The right person might be in the wrong seat – if so, can you move them or develop them?
7. How would you feel if the person quit?

After answering these questions, you will come to know whether you have the right person or wrong person on the bus,

Secret 3: If you want to grow people, first grow yourself.

“Leadership is a responsibility, not an entitlement,”. It is “a decision, not an accident;

If you want to lead your people then grow yourself.

Secret 4: Take care of your people.

To build a great company, leaders need to create a pipeline of leaders. People reciprocate the care, belief, and trust you give them.  Always hire great people and give them great things to do. I always interreact with my clients to hire great people. If you have the budget to give them a 50k salary then don’t hire people with a 25k salary. Just invest in your people and then see the miracle.

The function of leadership --the number-one responsibility of a leader is to catalyze a clear and shared vision for the company and to secure commitment to and vigorous pursuit of that vision.” To fulfill this responsibility, leaders must practice “the art of getting people to want to do what must be done.”

This makes several key points about how to lead:

1. First, it’s your responsibility as a leader to figure out what must be done.
2. Second, leadership is not about coercing people to do what must be done – it’s about getting them to want to do it. They must believe in the purpose of the organization and they must believe they can help achieve it.
3. Finally, leadership is an art, not a science. “You have to discover and cultivate your own elements of style,”

So, there you have it – your 2023 Great Business Action Plan:

a)     Set and live your core values

b)     Make sure you’ve got the right people

c)     If you want to grow people, first grow yourself.

d)     Take care of your people.

Of course, greatness in 2023 also requires goals, strategies, and operational excellence, but building a great business must start with these actions.  And in fact, these actions are actually all about one thing: choice – the choices you make as a leader. It’s your choice to set principles and priorities; create the environment for success; take action and get better.   

Just think ......

Are you committed to having a life filled with joy, gratitude, happiness, and love?🙋

The quickest way to strip your life of it all is when you FOCUS on expectations.

EXPECTING people to be a certain way.

EXPECTING yourself to be a certain way.

Want to bring back the beauty of YOUR life? 

Change your FOCUS. 👁️

What's wrong is ALWAYS available and so is what's RIGHT. If you focus on what's right, you'll have more of it. ✨

When you focus on what doesn't work, what you can't control, it does not put you in a beautiful state.

Catch yourself going into a negative state and immediately CHANGE IT. Do that every day because there's always something to be GRATEFUL for! 🙌

So RIGHT NOW, think about what you’re grateful for in your life! ❤️

Teacher and Student

 

An old man meets a young man who asks:

“Do you remember me?”
And the old man says no. Then the young man tells him he was his student, And the teacher asks:
“What do you do, what do you do in life?”
The young man answers:
“Well, I became a teacher.”
“ah, how good, like me?” Asks the old man.
“Well, yes. In fact, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.”

The old man, curious, asks the young man at what time he decided to become a teacher. And the young man tells him the following story:
“One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new watch, and I decided I wanted it.
I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.

Shortly after, my friend noticed the his watch was missing and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you.
Then you addressed the class saying, ‘This student's watch was stolen during classes today. Whoever stole it, please return it.’
I didn't give it back because I didn't want to.
You closed the door and told us all to stand up and form a circle.
You were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found.
However, you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.
We did as instructed.

You went from pocket to pocket, and when you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it. You kept searching everyone's pockets, and when you were done you said ‘open your eyes. We have the watch.’
You didn't tell on me and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch either. That day you saved my dignity forever. It was the most shameful day of my life.
But this is also the day I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor did you even scold me or take me aside to give me a moral lesson.

I received your message clearly.
Thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do.
Do you remember this episode, professor?
The old professor answered, ‘Yes, I remember the situation with the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone’s pocket. I didn't remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.’

This is the essence of teaching:
If to correct you must humiliate; you don't know how to teach.”

એક સ્વપ્નપોથી તૈયાર કરો

એક શાંત બપોરે, બહાર જાવ અને ૧૦ સામયિકો ખરીદો. તે ઘણી બધી વિવિધતા ધરાવતાં હોય તેનો ખ્યાલ રાખો, એકમાં સુંદર મકાનો અને અદ્‌ભૂત ભૌતિક વસ્તુઓ હોય તો બીજું આગળ પડતા લોકો વિશે હોય, તો વળી ત્રીજું તંદુરસ્ત, આવશ્યક અને સંપૂર્ણ જીવંત લોકોની છબીઓવાળું હોય. પછી જે છબીઓ તમને સૌથી વધારે અપીલ કરે અને તમારાં લક્ષ્યો રજુ કરતી હોય તે કાપી લો. છેવટે તેમને એક બાઇન્ડર પર ચોંટાડો. દરેક છબી નીચે તે કયું લક્ષ્ય દર્શાવે છે તે, તે શા માટે તમારે માટે મહત્વની છે તે, જો તમે તેને નહીં મેળવો તો શું થશે તે અને તેની પૂર્ણતા માટેની એક ચોક્કસ સીમારેખા લખી લો. આ વ્યુહરચનાએ મારા ઘણા ગ્રાહકો માટે અદ્‌ભૂત કામ કર્યું છે.

એવાં લક્ષ્યો કેવી રીતે ગોઠવવાં જે તેમને પોતાને જ મેળવી લે 

•રોબિન શર્મા નું પુસ્તક “ફેમીલી વીઝડમ ફ્રોમ ધ મોન્ક હુ સોલ્ડ હીઝ ફરારી”માં લખ્યું છે તેમ : જે લખી લેવાઈ છે તે બાબતો એવી છે જે થઈ ગયા બરાબર છે. તમારાં લક્ષ્યોને લખી લેવાં તે તમારી ચેતનામાં પ્રજવળી ઉઠે છે અને તેમની આસપાસ તમારી જાગૃતિને ઉત્તેજે છે. 

•​તેમનું દરરોજ મુલ્યાંકન કરો. જેનું માપ નહીં લેવાય તેમાં નિપુણતા નહીં આવે. દર ત્રણ મહિને તમારાં લક્ષ્યોને ફરી જોઈ જવાં તે નિરર્થક છે. છેવટે ૫ મિનિટ પણ, તેમના પર દરરોજ ધ્યાન આપવું તે સિધ્ધ કરવાની ચાવી છે. આ રીતે, તેમનું સતતપણે મુલ્યાંકન કરી શકાશે અને તમે તેના માર્ગમાં પણ વારંવાર સુધારા કરી શકશો. હું મારાં દરેક લક્ષ્યમાં થયેલ પ્રગતિને રોજીંદા ધોરણે ૧ થી ૧૦ નો ક્રમ આપું છું. આ બાબત મને હું મારા દિવસોમાં શું યોગ્ય કરું છું અને શેમાં સુધારો કરવો જરૂરી છે તેના વિશે એકદમ સજાગ રાખે છે.

 •​તેમને અન્યો સાથે શેર કરો. માસ્ટર માઇન્ડ સહયોગીઓમાંથી, તમારાં લક્ષ્યો શેર કરવા માટે, તમારી વ્યુહરચનાઓ ચર્ચવા માટે તથા તમારી સફળતા વહેંચવા માટે દર અઠવાડિયે મળવા માટે તમારા વિશ્વાસુ હોય તેવા થોડાકની સૂચી બનાવો. 

•​તમારાં મનની દૃષ્ટિ મુજબ જીવો. દર સવારે ૫ મિનિટ તમારાં ભવિષ્યની ભવ્ય કલ્પના - તમારી કલ્પનાના મુવી સ્ક્રીન પર તમારાં બધાં લક્ષ્યોનો કુલ સરવાળો - ની છબી નિહાળો. બધી બાબતો બે વખત બને છે : પ્રથમ તમારાં મનનાં ચક્ષુ સમક્ષ અને પછી વાસ્તવિકતામાં.

Source: પુસ્તક: ભાગ્ય તમારી મુઠ્ઠીમાં - રોબિન શર્મા

મહત્વપૂર્ણ દિવસ બનાવો

“એક ભવ્ય જીવન એ માળામાં પરોવાયેલ મોતીની જેમ સારી રીતે જીવાયેલ દિવસોની શ્રેણીથી વિશેષ કંઈ જ નથી. મહત્વપૂર્ણ દિવસો ઘડવા પર ધ્યાન કેન્દ્રિત કરો અને તે ચોક્કસ ભવ્ય જીવન લાવશે.” દરેક દિવસ તેજસ્વી બને તેની ખાતરી માટે અહીં છ રીતો આપી છે :

 ૧.​તમારા જીવનમાં જે ૧૦ વસ્તુઓ માટે તમારે કૃતજ્ઞ હોવું જોઈએ તે લખવાથી તમારા દિવસની શરૂઆત કરો.

 ૨.​તમારી જાતને પ્રેરિત કરવા માટે તથા તમારી દૃષ્ટિને પૂર્વવત કરવા માટે શાણપણભર્યાં સાહિત્યમાંથી વાંચન કરવા માટે ૩૦ મિનિટ કાઢો. 

૩.​તમારા દિવસનું આયોજન કરવા માટે ૫ મિનિટ કાઢો અને એ રીતે એવો મૂડ બનાવો જેમાં તમે બાકીના કલાકો તેમાંથી બહાર રહી શકો. ભલે ગમે તેવા, પરંતુ ૩ નાનાં લક્ષ્યો ગોઠવો જે તમે તે દિવસમાં સિધ્ધ કરશો. 

૪.​તમારી ટોચની અવસ્થામાં રહેવા માટે એક રમતવીર તેનાં જીવનની સૌથી મહત્વની ઘટનાની તૈયારીની તાલીમ વખતે જેવો આહાર લે તેવા પ્રકારનો બ્રેકફાસ્ટ લો અને પુષ્કળ પાણી પીઓ. 

૫.​તમારા દિવસના અંતે તમારી નોંધપોથી લખીને તમે તમારો દિવસ કેવી રીતે પસાર કર્યો તેના પર મનન કરો. તમારી ક્રિયાઓનું મુલ્યાંકન કરો અને તમારે ક્યાં સુધરવું જરૂરી છે તે ક્ષેત્રો શોધી કાઢો. 

૬.​ તમારા દિવસની “નાની ભૂલો” વિશે વિચારો કરીને તમારા દિવસનો અંત ઉચ્ચ જુસ્સા સાથે લાવો. (જેમ કે તમે પાળેલાં વચનો, તમને જે વર્કઆઉટમાં મજા આવી તે, તમે જે સંબંધ બાંધ્યા તે, તમે જે બોધપાઠ શીખ્યા તે અથવા તમારામાં જે આંતરસૂઝ હતી તે.)

Source; ભાગ્ય તમારી મુઠ્ઠીમાં - Robin Sharma

Who is Balvant Parekh?

We all know Elon Musk.

We all know Bill Gates.

We also know who was Steve Jobs. 

But do we know who is Balvant Parekh?

Try to remember the funniest and most creative TV ads which you have ever seen. Remember Fevicol? Balvant Parekh, was the founder of Fevicol. Born in 1925, when India was struggling for freedom, Mr. Parekh gave up on studies and joined the freedom movement. Later he joined college and completed his law but never started practice. He then started working as a peon to take care of his family and wife. 

In 1954, Parekh and his brother, Sushil, started trading and manufacturing dye and industrial chemicals named Parekh Dyechem Industries. 

One day, Mr. Parekh saw how carpenters were using animal fat to join wood. There wasn't any adhesive in the country and thats when he decided to come up with an idea of adhesive. 

Fate happened and Balvant had to visit Germany for a month. He started buying more stocks of a German firm, Fedco, with which he had a fifty per cent partnership. He made a glue named Favicol. The suffix -col is a German word which means anything which bonds two things. In 1959, firm was renamed to Pidilite Industries and manufacturing just a single product, Fevicol.

From just a single product, Pidilite now manufactures products across verticals such as art materials and stationery; food and fabric care; car products, adhesives, and sealants; and speciality industrial products like adhesives, pigments; textile resins, leather chemicals, and construction chemicals. With a fortune of $1.36 billion, Balvant featured at Number 45 on Forbes Asia’s India Rich List 2013.

He passed away in January 2013. He was 88. From just one office in Mumbai, Balvant's Pidilite now has 14 overseas subsidiaries. The company has factories in the US, Thailand, Dubai, Egypt and Bangladesh. They also have a research center in Singapore.

What an inspiring story. Yet!! We want to look at west if we want to find business minds. 

(Excerpts taken from ScoopWhoop)

Book Review: The Magic by Rhonda Byrne

The Magic by Rhonda Byrne. I picked this book up a few days ago and it immediately captured my ‘Mind’ as it arrived just when I needed it. While its author, Rhonda Byrne, is best known for her first book, the global phenomenon, The Secret, I can honestly say that I think this book is much better. It not only drills deeper, but has many excellent exercises one can do to improve their life and mental well-being.

Under the Cover

Here are just a few of the things you’ll discover in the pages of the book, The Magic:

The power of counting your blessings and not your problems

How to achieve magical relationships and employ forgiveness

Simple, yet effective ways to set goals and get started on them right away

How to attract better people, situations and opportunities into your life

Why positive thinking and gratitude are the magic combination to greater happiness

Effective ways to deal with setbacks in life and how to keep moving forward

Quotable

Here’s a great quote from the book on page 15:

“Gratitude can magically turn your relationships into joyful and meaningful relationships, no matter what state they are in now.” 

                                     – Rhonda Byrne

The Face Behind the Mask

 

"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are there". ~ Yasutani Roshi

Very few of us can take off the “mask” we wear. We have worn it for so long we do not recognize it as a “mask” anymore. 

 

The Book in Three Sentences

1.     An atomic habit is a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do but is also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.

2.     Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.

3.     Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.

The Five Big Ideas

1.     Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.

2.     If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.

3.     The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become.

4.     The Four Laws of Behavior Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying.

5.     Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.              

Atomic Habits Summary

 

Chapter 1: The Surprising Power of Tiny Habits

 

“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”

“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.”

“Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.”

“Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.”

“Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.”          

“If you want to predict where you’ll end up in life, all you have to do is follow the curve of tiny gains or tiny losses, and see how your daily choices will compound ten or twenty years down the line.”

“Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change.”               

If you find yourself struggling to build a good habit or break a bad one, it is not because you have lost your ability to improve. It is often because you have not yet crossed what James calls, “Plateau of Latent Potential.”

 

The Plateau of Latent Potential

“When you finally break through the Plateau of Latent Potential, people will call it an overnight success.”               

“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement.”

 

“Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.”               

 

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”

“Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long-run.”

 

 

 

 

1% Better Every Day

“Habits are a double-edged sword. They can work for you or against you, which is why understanding the details is essential.”

 

“Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.”

 

“An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.”

 

“If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.”

 

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”               

 

Chep 2 I will upload at earliest.

Note: Please understand the fact that reading a book summary is not a replacement for reading the book. This is just my version of understanding the book. By making this summary, I want to encourage you to read this book.

You can grab a copy of it from here:

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/1847941834/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=3638&creative=24630&creativeASIN=1847941834&linkCode=as2&tag=mywebsit074cb-21&linkId=7a23a0f295b02e53f7a9c0051621881b 

 

 

 

What is the true story behind Gudi Padwa?

Gudi Padwa: History, Significance, Rituals and More!

Visiting India in the months of March-April can be a very exciting and interesting experience. In these months, you will see a varied range of festivities and will get to witness rituals and traditions which will be different from each other. India is not only an amalgamation of 29 states and 7 union territories but also of cultures and traditions which are distinct and sometimes contrasting. One such festival in the Hindu Vedic Calendar is the first day of the Chaitra month. The day marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year. This new year day has a list of names all over India. In Maharashtra, it’s called Gudi Padwa.

image source:  Lokmat.com

Marathi New Year Day is also known as Gudi Padwa

It is a synthesis of two Marathi words, ‘Gudi’ means flag’ and ‘Padwa’ that means ‘the first day’.

In fact, it falls on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada. Pratipada means the first day. It refers to the first day of the Shukla Paksha, or bright fortnight, also known as the waxing moon phase. On this day, three-fourth of the moon remains in the shadow.

Rangoli and Lamps On Gudi Padwa festival

Legends

The festival’s history leads to a number of legends attached to this festival. There is one legend which states that Lord Ram defeated King Bali on this day. With the end of Bali, the people of Bali were freed from his curse.

Following which, in the honour of the victorious Rama, people of Ayodhaya hoisted victory flags from their homes. Therefore, it is a celebration of victory.

Another legend talks about lord Brahma and the creation of the universe. Hence, Maharashtrians worship Lord Brahma, the creator, for good crops and prosperity in wealth and health.

History

Gudi Padwa history says that Sivaji Maharaja, the most powerful king of Marathas, defeated his enemy in a battle on this day. On his return, his people were waving the Maratha flag from their doors and windows. Therefore, it’s now a ritual to place a flag outside their house on this day.

Gudi Padwa Festival

A Gudi during the Gudi Padwa festival

To make a Gudi you take a long stick, equal to the size of the entrance door, cover it with a golden bordered silk cloth. Put a garland of marigold flowers on it and cover it with a copper pot.

Make a Swastika on the pot using turmeric and vermillion powder. The swastika is an important symbol in Hindu festivals. Gudi is placed on the right side of the main door or on the window.

It is a belief that drinking water from a copper jug helps in digestion and keeps your body cool. Hence, Maharashtrians drink water from thecopper pot the next day.

Toran

Hanging a Toran on the day of Gudi Padwa

You will see decorations of marigold and mango leaves on all doors and windows of the house. This is called the toran.

Rangoli

Gudi Padwa Decoration: Rangoli

The lady of the house wakes up early in the morning to make beautiful rangolis with different coloured powders. You can make a Rangoli either on the porch or in the courtyard of the house. As a matter of fact, Rangoli is a beautiful motif full of dry colour powder.

In fact, Toran, Rangoli and placing the Gudi are symbols used to invite God in the house. Lezim dance is performed by women during the procession. The order of rituals are sacred to Maharashtrians, hence there should be a complete dedication to rules. These rules are:

1) Oil bathing in the morning.

2) Placing the Gudi

3) Worshipping Gudi within 8 to 10          minutes of sunrise

4) Making Rangoli

5) Decorating entrance door and windows with Toran

Dress & Food

Shrikhand Gudi Padwa

Additionally, you will see men and women wearing their traditional dresses. Men wear white Kurta and Pyjama while women wear dark or bright coloured 9 feet long sarees. Moreover, you will find them tying this saree in a unique fashion. Konkani women do not wear their saree in the normal skirt style. They pull their saree up between their knees in the form of pants.

Konkani and Maharashtrian women lay a delicious meal on the day of the festival. They make Puran Poli or sweet bread. In addition, Neem, Jaggery, and Imli are three important ingredients of their meal on Padwa. These three helps in purifying the blood. The traditional delicacies are Shrikhand( dessert), together with Puran Poli, Kheer, and Sabudana vada.

Puran Poli Gudi Padwa

Significance

The significance of this festival are:

1) It marks the end of winter and the start of spring.

2) Ending of the winter crop season.

3) Its is New Year of Maharashtrians.

4) Flag hoisting is a sign of good luck and victory.

તમારાં જીવનમાં સમતોલન પુનઃસ્થાપિત કરવાની ૮ રીતો

 ૧.​દરેક દિવસની શરૂઆતમાં ૬૦ મિનિટનો “પવિત્ર કલાક” રાખો અને તમારાં મન, શરીર, લાગણીઓ તથા આત્માને પોષણ આપો. 

૨.​દર અઠવાડિયે થોડોક સમય કુદરતમાં ગાળો. 

૩.​જેમની પ્રશંસા કરવી જરૂરી હોય તેમને “પ્રેમ પત્રો” લખો. 

૪.​દરરોજ ઓછામાં ઓછી દસ મિનિટ સુધી મૌન, એકાંત તથા નીરવતાનો અનુભવ કરો. 

૫.​જે વસ્તુઓએ તમને બાળક તરીકે ખુશી આપી હોય તે કરો. 

૬.​કસરત કરવા વિશે ગંભીર બનો કારણ કે તમારાં આરોગ્ય કરતાં વધુ મહત્વનું કંઈ જ નથી. 

૭.​તમારા વિચારોની સ્પષ્ટતા વધારવા તથા તમારી આંતરદૃષ્ટિને વધુ ગહન કરવા માટે નોંધપોથીમં લખો. 

૮.​તમારી જાત કરતાં વધુ મોટો ઉદ્દેશ શોધો અને અન્યોને પાછું આપો.

નોંધનીય પ્રશ્નો 

૧.​તમે ઇચ્છો છો તેવું જીવન બનાવવાથી તમને રોકતાં હોય તેવા સૌથી મોટા ત્રણ અવરોધો કયા છે ?

૨.​એવી કઈ ૩ મુખ્ય વસ્તુઓ છે જે તમારી ઊર્જા નીચેવી લે છે અને તમને તમારું શ્રેષ્ઠ જીવન જીવતાં અટકાવે છે ? 

૩.​એવાં કયાં ૩ જોખમો છે જે તમારે લેવાં જરૂરી છે, પરંતુ તમે જેને ટાળો છો ? 

૪.​એ કઈ ૫ સૌથી મહત્વની બાબતો છે જે તમે વીતેલાં વર્ષ પાસેથી શીખ્યા ? 

૫.​તમે તમારાં જીવનને જેવું બનાવવા માંગો છો તેને માટેના ૫ શબ્દો કયા છે ?

પરિણામ બદલવું હોય, તો પદ્ધતિ બદલવી પડે.

એક ભાઈએ ગેસ સ્ટવ ઉપર તપેલી મુકી. તેમાં દૂધ નાંખ્યું. ચાની પત્તી નાંખી, ખાંડ નાખી, ગેસ ચાલુ કર્યો. ઉભરો આવ્યો એટલે તપેલી ઉતારી, ગળણીથી ગાળીને કપ ભર્યો. કપ મોંએ માંડ્યો. ઘુંટડો ભર્યો. તરત જ મોં બગાડીને બોલી ઉઠ્યા, “અરે રે .... આ તો ‘ચા’ છે. મારે તો કોફી પીવી હતી.”

 ઊભા થઈને બીજી તપેલી લીધી. દૂધ નાંખ્યું. ચાની પત્તી નાંખી, ખાંડ નાંખી, ઉકાળ્યું. ફરીથી કપ ભરી મોંએ માંડ્યો અને વળી પાછા બોલી ઉઠ્યા, “ઓહ નો !! આ તો ચા જ છે. મારે તો કોફી પીવી હતી.” 

આવું ચાર વખત કર્યું, છતાં કોફી ન બની. ‘ચા’ જ બની. શું આ રીતે કોફી બને ? ના, ન બને. 

કોફી બનાવવી હોય તો શું કરવું પડે ? ચાની પત્તીના બદલે કોફી નાંખવી પડે. 

સીધી સાદી અને હસવું આવે તેવી વાત છે. પણ એનો મર્મ ઊંડો છે. મર્મ એ છે કે *- ‘પરિણામ બદલવું હોય, તો પદ્ધતિ બદલવી પડે.’*

તમે જે રીતે કામ કરતા આવ્યા છો, એ જ રીતે કામ કર્યા કરશો તો એ જ પરિણામ મળશે કે જે હંમેશાં મળતું આવ્યું છે.

Source:book : NLP BY રાજીવ ભલાણી

9 Business Books That Will Change Your Life

9 Business Books That Will Change Your Life

 Great leaders learn every day, and reading great books is the one of the best ways to learn. I've been fortunate enough to read some excellent books over the last fifteen years - books that have inspired me to change the way I see the world, my business, and the opportunities in front of me. In the order in which I've read them, here is a list of nine books which have changed my life. May they change yours as well:

1) What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career Seekers by Richard Bolles

I read this book when I was 21 years old and didn't know what to do with the rest of my life. It helped me go from a Crunch n Munch vendor at the ballpark to a top salesperson at Radio Disney. Ffifteen years later, I have given at least 40 copies away to interns, staff and friends who are searching for their career purpose. It's difficult work - because not only will you read the book, but you'll have to do a lot of exercises and soul searching throughout - but whether you're 21 or 61, you'll emerge with a clearer vision of what you want to do next and where you'll want to work.

2) Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends & Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin

No author has influenced me more as a marketer, business person and writer than Seth Godin. I could have easily included 9 books just by Godin - Purple Cow, Tribes, Linchpin, Poke the Box & his latest, Icarus Deception are all amongst my favorites. But Permission Marketing described social media marketing before it existed. Seth understood push-vs-pull marketing long before others, and this book, published in 1999, is still a must read for anyone in marketing today.

3) The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

This classic, one of three by Gladwell (Blink & Outliers are the others), demonstrates how successful products are launched, how ideas spread and how a trend can take off. It's influenced me a great deal, as a word of mouth and social media marketer. And it's an essential read, whether you're in marketing or sales, or just want to become better at getting your ideas to spread.

4) Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap - and Others Don't by Jim Collins

Collins is scientist of great companies - and this is his best work - chock full of case studies and simple yet profound principles like Level 5 Leadership. Even though I read this book when my company was only a handful of employees, it inspired me to want to build something great, and enduring. Whether you work at a large company that has the potential itself to become great and enduring, or you have a vision of a company you'd like to one day build, this is a must-read.

5) Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase The Value of Your Growing Firm by Verne Harnish

It's hard to believe I even had a business before I read this book by the founder of my favorite business group, Entrepreneurs Organization. Verne's 1-page strategic plan is now used by both companies I've founded, and thousands of other companies. And our management teams use much of the methodology from this book. What's great is that it's both inspirational and quite practical - an excellent read for any entrepreneur or manager at a small business.

6) The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work, and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber

This is a must read for any small business owner - especially "technical" owners such as lawyers, accountants, florists, restaurateurs, consultants and dentists. Gerber inspires the small business owner to get out of his/her own way, and to build systems and processes that scale and allow the business owner to work "on" the business and not "in" the business.

7) Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrilow

Make no mistake - if you are an owner or leader at a business - this is a great, super valuable read, even if you or your owners have no intention or ever selling the business. The idea isn't to create a business in order to sell it - it's to create a business that has sustaining value beyond you and without you. Warrilow's book is a short, easy story - with powerful, unforgettable lessons - so much so, that after my business partner and I read it, we gave copies to the entire Likeable team to read.

8) Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

No matter what you do, this easy read will change the way you think about your work. It is so simply written, with small words and big pictures - and yet contains profound wisdom about how to be more productive and successful without being a workaholic or sacrificing anything. I read it in an hour on a plane, and have since shared it with two dozen colleagues, and referred back to it myself at least a dozen times.

9) The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable About Restoring Sanity to The Most Important Organization in Your Life by Patrick Lencioni

Along with Seth Godin, Patrick Lencioni is my favorite business author. I've read and love The Advantage, Getting Naked, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and The Five Tempations of a CEO. But the reason I've selected this one as my favorite, is that, as I've written before here, our ultimate legacy isn't our career, but our family. In this book, Lencioni applies his management consulting methodology and brilliant storytelling ability to the running of a family. It's amazing how little strategy most of us parents apply to the most important organization we've got, our families, and this book helps change all that. Six months after my wife and I read this book, I'm proud to report that our family now has a strategic plan, complete with a mission statement, quarterly objectives, and weekly 10-minute meetings. And it's going GREAT.

Those are my nine favorites- though I've read dozens more I've loved. I've also written a couple of books that I hope have changed a few lives - Likeable Social Media, about the role of social media in today's society and how organizations can best leverage it, and, recently, Likeable Business, about how to leverage 11 simple principles of customer-centric, staff-centric leadership to succeed in today's social-business world.

Now, I'd love to know YOUR favorites. Which of these books have you read? What other business books have changed YOUR lives? What books have inspired YOU to become a better business person, leader and human being? Let me know in the comments here - and happy reading!

Dave Kerpen

CEO, Likeable Local, NY Times Best-Selling Author & Keynote speaker