Lucky or hardworking/smart work

There’s always a lot of discussion which takes place whether a person is lucky because of which she is successful . While I would love to say that luck has no role to play, its pure work then there would be nothing more wrong in my view.

Being born at this time in the world when the world is a much safer place than 1000 years ago, its luck. As Warren Buffet says, being born in America versus some third world country was pure luck and more than half the battle won for him in his journey towards becoming the richest man in the world.

While tricks of the trade or skills are absolutely important – if you haven’t studied medicine you can’t get to become a successful surgeon. But as Napoleon used to say he would want to have a general in his army who was lucky. So a surgeon who is lucky could definitely be more successful in his surgeries, compared to another.

Or a surgeon who was born and practises in the United States of America could be much more prosperous than one in India – being born in the USA could be the one element – assuming the skill is constant.

Is luck a constant factor – again I don’t know. But having said that , my belief is that with your Karma you can change your luck and that is why I write so much about God / Karma / Charity / Gratitude. While I try to decipher the science behind it – like how gratitude improves your mood and therefore helps you think better and therefore you can do better – I am not sure if there’s a clear answer.

To cut the size of this post without sounding too philosophical, I do believe that luck does play a role – I would say at least 51% while you could attribute the remaining to hard work, smart work etc.

Let me know your views in the comments section below.

Till next time then

Carpe Diem!!!

Karmic cycle

charity, Karma, life

I am a strong believer in God. I also believe that things happen for us , to teach us , rather than to us. The bigger thing though is that whether you believe in an entity called God or not, you do understand that the universe has a way to equalise things. I don’t know about the animal kingdom, but I have always found even in the toughest situations, in unknown locations where people didn’t know my language, I could still get help.

I don’t like the idea of talking about the ordeals I have gone through life, because I believe everyone faces tough situations in their life at some point or another.

On the other hand I do believe that if you keep doing good, even during your tough times, your pain keeps getting reduced. It could be because your brain feels good by helping someone. It could also be that the person whom you helped sends out positive waves in the universe for you.

If you do so much good in the world, there’s so much positivity about you, that tough times don’t seem so painful. The more good you do, there’s a tendency to want to do more. Due to this you feel grateful, you have grace -as Tony Robbins says or you have a feeling of abundance – as Dan Sullivan says.

This makes your mind want to find solutions to the problems that you are facing and take help from others also to figure out ways to solve problems. Most people in this world are good and they like to help. That’s why humanity has been able to last more than 30000 years.

You wouldn’t get that feeling if you were to watch the news. As per the news, the situation has never been worse than what it is right now. Inspite of this there are people working to solve big problems, they are working to help others out. If you will look at videos of Dr. Peter Diamandis or read his books, you will realise that the world has never been a better place in all its history.

Keep doing good. The universe has a way of rewarding you. You can call it by whatever name. I prefer to call it the Karmic Cycle.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

A helper’s high – 2

charity, Habits, Happiness, History, Karma

Just a few days back I wrote on this topic. When you help somebody, the universe tends to give back more than 10 times over. It’s all about Karma.

Today I happened to be reading Chanakya Neeti. A little bit about Indian history. Chanakya lived almost 2500 years ago in India and was the advisor to two generations of kings Vikramanditya clan, the kings of Patliputra (now Patna the capital of the state of Bihar in India).

Vikramanditya was among the people who stopped the movement of Alexander the Great and his army, east of the Indus River. Alexander who had been unbeaten till then from Greece to India couldn’t continue on his dream to conquer the world and eventually died at a very young age

Chanakya authored some of the most elaborate thinking related to politics ,economics and general rules for living in a society. Chanakya Neeti is about the rules for the society to live a decent life. It was written in Sanskrit. I was reading the English translation since I haven’t learnt Sanskrit.

Now in this book in the 12th chapter, 2nd stanza, Chanakya wrote that if one does charity then God rewards that person ten times over. Even two and half thousand years back, he wrote that in a civilized society people should be giving or doing charity.

It’s so good to know that an idea that you believe today was also suggested more than 2500 years back.

Till next time then get a helper’s high by helping someone.

Carpe Diem!!!

Small interventions with charity – big impact on society

charity, Karma, Leverage, prioritizing

If you follow my blog you would know I am a big fan of 80/20 – small causes which can create big impact. I am all about using leverage- in the positive sense.

I am also big into doing charity because it is good Karma.

But I think not all charity is created equal. In my opinion if you do charity to solve a problem at the grass root level then in the long run it can have a major impact on the society. Its all about prioritizing how your funds can have the biggest impact.

In India one of the big challenges we face is poverty. So poor people don’t send kids to school because they get additional hands to work, earn money and therefore feed the family.

Since the kids don’t go to school they also spend their life in poverty-stricken situations. This also leads to an increase in crime, drug abuse etc.

A simple solution that was found, was to feed kids in schools so that the kids get one good meal. Now the incentive for the parents to send the kid to the school is not educational but the lunch that the kid will get. On the other hand for the government and society the long term benefits are better, healthier citizens who may eventually come out of poverty and the crime rates will also be lower.

The challenge is how do you feed so many kids. That’s where NGOs come in. They take donations from people like us.

A lot of NGOs do good work. However I support these kind of charities because the small interventions of feeding say 25 kids for a full year, every year will ensure that 10 years from now I know there will be 25 less people who will be on the road living in poverty. The amount needed to feed one wholesome nutritious meal to say 25 kids for a year would be just USD 500 but the long term impact could be so amazing.

Mohnish Pabrai runs a similar program where he helps kids get trained for higher education and sponsors their education. The Grameen Bank founder and Nobel prize winner did a similar thing by giving micro loans to the poor people so they could do their own business.

While all charity is very good, give wherever and whenever you can, however if you can also do some focused charity it can have major long term benefits for society.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!