'365 Exciting Ways to Live!' Excitement # 110 : Necessity—the Mother of Not Only Invention, but also Speed

'Men try to run life according to their wishes; life runs itself according to necessity"

Jean Toomer

When we have to, we will and that is the beauty of the human nature. Like an iceberg, what remains hidden inside us is much more than what is seen outside. Unless and until we want, we will not improve our productivity. At the same time, life is not just speed and pace of work.

The only question is: do we want to be faster and even more effective? Couple of years ago, I was a part of an Indian delegation to the Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo, Japan to attend a seminar on Motivation for Productivity. We went to a pet food company, called Shin Nippon Pet Food Company. There I noticed the symbol for quality circles as “S”. Normally companies use the letter “Q” as the symbol to refer to their quality improvement drives. Interested to know why this company used the letter “S”, I asked the Managing Director of the company. He said that the letter “S” represents “Survival” and he said that the survival of the company depends on the quality of the product and services and hence the symbol “S”!

I was quite impressed with the logic!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 106. You Will, When You Have To!

You Will, When You Have To

In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.

Charles Darwin

We have to enhance our productivity, and not our working hours! This means that we should work less and produce more results in less time. This is the only way we can get excited in living. Many of us think that if we have to enjoy living, we have to work very hard. Nothing can be far from truth. Increasing the pace of work is different from increasing the work load. We have to find out how we can do this. We may have to use technology, motivate and empower people, think differently, learn new skills etc. All these things are difficult to practice. But the alternative is to work more and enjoy less. We will have no leisure, we will have more stress, no social life etc.

But we have to enjoy the process of productivity improvement.  

I recall a story. There was a rabbit which was chased by a cheetah. The rabbit outran the cheetah and the cheetah gave up. But before giving up, the cheetah asked the rabbit how he was able to run faster than the cheetah, which was supposed to be the fastest animal. The rabbit said it was simple: `you run for food, and I run for my life!'

You will work faster, if you want to and you will like that speed!

(From my book '365 Excitement to Live')

NC Sridharan
www.thetimefoundation.com
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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 107. Time, technology & money connection

Time, technology & money connection

 There are no speed limits on the road to excellence.

Unknown

Time is not everything and money is not everything. But the combination of time and money makes many things! We are judged by our performance and performance has to be a time bound result. Since time is a scarce resource, anything that saves time will be a marketable commodity. If we understand this simple common sense point, we would have understood a universal marketing strategy – convince your client that your product or service will save his time and you will have his order!

If you think for a while why do we need technology, you will realise that technology saves time. That is the difference between an automobile and a bullock cart. A product or service is judged how they enrich the quality of your time and thus your life style. The more a product improves the quality of your life, the more the product is valued. That's why we pay more for an air ticket than a bus ticket!

The other day, I was in a road side car mechanic shed and I was thinking about the mechanics that form the pit crew in a Formula One or Indy Car race.

I have something to share with you on this. Wait…

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 108. Seconds count when it comes to international sports!

Seconds count when it comes to international sports!

But to be fair, if you take players from my era to now, the game has changed and the players have many more shots. They use them differently than we did.

The speed of the game has changed.
- Ivan Lendl

Speed is the cutting edge for succeeding globally.

In car racing, a car may meet with some problem like a flat tyre. Depending on the type of racing, the size of the pit crew will differ.  In Formula One Series, 19 trained mechanics will make the pit crew working as a team with perfect delegation of responsibilities.

Each tyre will be attended by three mechanics – one to use the pneumatic wrench to remove the wheel's lug; one to take off the used tyre; and the third to reinstall the new tyre. Two mechanics will be lifting the car, one in the front and the other at the rear. One mechanic will function as the starter man and another as the fuel man. While these mechanics are allotted specific and precise jobs, a `lollipop man' will be guiding the driver to slow down, to brake, to stop etc. The balance mechanics will be deployed with very specific responsibilities to save every millisecond of the tyre changing and the refueling process!

You've heard the proverb `too many cooks spoil the broth'? Not when they are trained well as to what and how to do their jobs!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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