Fear

The curve balls that life throws at us

Character, ego, Energy, Fear, Human Brain

Life has a queer way of throwing curve balls (sudden challenges) at us, when we least expect it. That’s why curve balls or googlies (as they are called in the game of cricket) are so effective in getting the person “out”.

Life throws these curve balls to see how prepared we are to handle them and then navigate them and come out a winner. And no one will ever live a life without getting their fare share of curve balls. The type and duration of the challenge may change from person to person but everyone will get them.

Its how people navigate these challenges is what builds character of the person. The bigger the challenges that a person has encountered and successfully managed , more humility the person generally has. Most of the so called “great” people are also some of the most down to earth because of this reason. They recognise the fact that nothing in life is permanent and you never know when things can change within a matter of minutes. That is also one of the reason why, when we are younger we tend to be brash with a lot of ego, but as we grow older, we become more modesthuman

I used to think of the major challenges that life had sent my way and would wonder the typical response “why me”. Then over the years I have read hundreds of books, auto-biographies etc. and one common element in most of them has been the fact that all these people had as many or even more challenges than me.

That’s when I realised the significance of what Tony Robbins says “life happens for me not to me”. I need to build the capabilities to handle the “curve” balls. As I build the capabilities, I will become more successful.

Here I will tie it in with what I wrote in my post yesterday. Fearing the curve ball is a game which your brain plays on you. Most curve balls are not life threatening, but your brain makes you feel scared , because it wants to conserve energy , to use the energy when your survival is at stake.

If you can tame your brain to handle these situations and build capabilities, you can move forward at a much faster and higher level. As they say – a plane will not be able to take -off if it does not get resistance from air. It uses the resistance to get the lift -off.

Till next time then – build your capabilities and love to play the curve balls.

Carpe Diem!!!

Fear – your brain could be playing games

Brain size, Energy, Fear, Human Brain, Worry

A few posts back I had written about how we tend to procrastinate because our brain does not want to expend energy.

Based on what I have been reading, I have a feeling that even fear could be your brain playing games on you. The whole premise below is my own deduction without any scientific evidence to the effect.

As a kid, I used to be scared of everything. Some of that changed as I became around 7-8 years old. I had a friend named Jaimee who used to stay in the apartment above us. My father had bought one small cycle for me. He used to prod me to keep cycling in spite of the fact that I would keep falling.

Once I became proficient in riding my small cycle he pushed me to ride a bigger cycle which we would bring on rent. As I developed the ability to ride bigger bikes, I also got more confidence in myself.

After reading so many books on the research on brain activity, I have been reviewing from my memory a lot of the episodes in my life where I was scared.

Most of the places where I feared something, I have realized, I was not confident of handling the situation because I had not been in it before. Whenever there was someone who gave me the support I would be able to do things without any issue. But whenever there was no one, my brain would show me all the terrible consequences I would face.

Now I realize that brain eats so much energy, even though its so small in size. So the brain’s first objective is to save energy to ensure survival. So whenever it feels you intend to make it do work, the brain throws ideas to make you feel scared. This fear then stops you in your tracks and you back away and the brain feels happy because it did not have to spend the energy.

Now obviously in case someone is pointing a knife at you, then there’s actual danger to you and you need to be careful, but most other times my feeling is that the brain is trying to save energy.

Think about it.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Just Ask ….you never know – Part 4

ego, Fear, Marketing, Product Management, Questions

This topic has, I think been one of the longest, I have pondered on.

Yesterday I wrote about why it was critical for the marketing / product management / sales folks to be asking questions and how it impacts the ability to succeed in the market.

So why don’t most of the sales / marketing / product management folks do it. One of course is vanity / ego….we know all the reasons why someone does not buy, after all we have been doing this for “xxx” years. The other bigger one is fear because most of us are not prepared to listen to the truth, we don’t know how the prospect will react, we may realise we are the actual cause of the problem.

We would rather end up being busy sending emails, doing “busy” work, attend a lot of internal meetings, rather than go out into the market. These are things we know to do so we do them rather than go and check out the unknown.

Ozan Varol in his book – Think Like a Rocket Scientist has a very nice story – and I paraphrasing it here to get the point out – of your boss asking you to get a monkey to stand on a pedestal and recite from Shakespeare. You break down the problem into different stages – building a pedestal, identifying a monkey and making it learn Shakespeare. What would you do first here.

Most people would first think of building the pedestal first – why because that’s the easiest to do and you will be able to show progress to your boss. If you were to first go to identify a monkey which can speak English, you will never be able to show progress to your boss.

Similarly its easier to show that you have done some activity by telling your boss that you sent a mail, than it is to get to identifying why some one is not buying your product.

This is one of the biggest frustrations I face in trying to get my teams to figure out why people are not buying something from us. If you can master this art of just asking – you can’t imagine what all you will learn.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Just Ask …. you never know – Part 3

differentiation, education, ego, Fear, Marketing, Product Management, single target market

Today we will come down to the exact reason, why this idea is critical for anyone in marketing, product management or sales. This quality is absolutely critical to know and understand why someone is not buying from you, or why someone is not referring customers to you etc.

Marketing and product management teams have to ensure that their product / service sells in the market. That there’s a demand for their product or service on a continuous basis.

If the product is not moving then it becomes imperative to check out the prospects on why they aren’t buying from you. Is the category itself not moving or only your product within the category.

A lot of time guys in the field assume it’s price. That’s the first statement you will always hear if your product is not moving with respect to the competition in the same category. It’s very rare that people get out, in the field to ask questions to the prospects.

Like I mentioned in the first two posts , most of the times, it is our ego and our fear , which stops us from asking the questions. Asking the right questions in the market is key to getting your marketing right. If inspite of all the systematic planning you do, with identifying the single target market and identifying the differentiators and also educating your prospects, then its critical that you get down into the market and systematically ask a large cross section of the market, on what is the hinderance in wanting to buy your product.

A lot of times its just the perception, that is causing people to resist what you have to sell. Sometimes its lack of knowledge. But you will not be able to address these things if you don’t ask. Curiosity is not always a bad thing. And curiosity to know why the product that you are selling is not moving is absolutely essential for your business.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!