Go Diamond - where your Diamondship dream is cemented...

This article was published in the January 2012 issue of The Lamplighter

Trying to promote the Go Diamond is like showing the lamp to the sun. It is a function that your upline doesn’t have to promote to you….YOU are the one who fights it tooth and nail just to be there!!!

I must tell you about my first Go Diamond to start with. Ever since I started the business, the one function I heard about all the time was THE Go Diamond. It was so heavily promoted that I travelled all the way to Orlando in the US to attend one. My flight got delayed and I was feeling so terrible because I didn’t want to miss even a minute of the function. After travelling for almost 40 hours, I just put on a jacket over my stale clothes and from the airport, directly reached the venue of the function. The first session was almost over by the time and made it and running into the venue who do I get to meet? Kanti and Lata Gala. They were stunned to see me there though they didn’t even know my name by then and I was so overwhelmed to see them that I half the function got over for me just by taking a picture with them. 

My upline had figured a way to get a seat for me right up there on row 2 and those 2 full days, I was on the edge of my seat. I had attended multiple functions and BBSs by then but this was just different. Everybody who was my hero in this business, whose CDs I had devoured day and night would walk up on the stage and give a talk which would enter straight to the heart. No introduction…. after all it was not thousands of IBOs, it was thousands of silvers+ IBOs - you would know every one of them anyways if you are there…..no sugar coating…..whether you like it or not, if you want to go Diamond, you need to do what we tell you….no “feel, felt, found” approach….no making you “feel good”….I was simply zapped!!! I liked it….straight from the hip approach...take it or leave it!! I decided to simply take it...that’s it….period!!! By the time the function was over, I had barely slept for 3-4 hours….sleep was the last thing on my mind….I was ready to Go Diamond!!!

The second Go Diamond I must tell you about was the Go Diamond which became the turning point in our life…..the Go Diamond on 15th and 16th March at the International Expo Centre in Noida!! We had 5 legs attending that Go Diamond and had no idea where the 6th leg would come from!! But that Go Diamond was just magical. We were driving down to the venue in my father-in-law’s car and as soon as we started the car, the radio started and guess what was playing on it - the Rocky Tune!!! Unbelievable….Rocky Tune on India FM channel!!! We reached the venue and when we were looking for parking, the guard somehow thought we were already Diamonds and directed us into the Diamond parking….we smiled and said….next year….and to top it all, we ran into Kanti again and the moment he saw us, he says...congratulations!!! He was breaking so many Diamonds at the time that he mistook that we were already in Diamond qualification….we told him too...Kanti….next year!! Before the function started, we were sure that this function is going to be the magical function for us!!! And what a function it was!! There are functions and then there are FUNCTIONS!!! It was the latter for us!! When Paulraj came and spoke on the stage about how he went back from the Go Diamond and took 2 of his legs from 9% to Silver….it just entered straight into our minds pierced our hearts!!! Lew Riggan came and talked about the heat of going Diamond and how you fake it till you make it and speak it till you get it!! By the time the Go Diamond was over, we knew in our hearts that we were ready…..we came back from that function and started Diamond qualification that year…

Maybe this Go Diamond is your Go Diamond….or maybe you are missing this one because you got lazy and did not do what it takes….but trust me friends….you will not go Diamond without the Go Diamond...

Wired Differently...

The way men and women are wired is very different from each other. 

As far as men are concerned, the way they think is if I get the best house and the best car and the best jewellery and the best vacation for my wife and kids, they will be happy. And that's what they focus on and work towards, assuming it should produce the desired results of approval and appreciation from the lady, which is the driving fuel for the man. This is also the man’s way of showing that he cares for his family. In the process, he ignores the fact that she wants to be noticed, heard and cared for. 

Surprisingly, the way the women see the whole equation is very different. The way they think is - if the guy does not care for me and if he doesn't love me, what's the use of the expensive house and the vacation and the jewellery and the new car? It's meaningless to run after them and work towards them if I'm not even sure that he enjoys, values and cherishes my company. 

The homes where joy resides is where at least one of the wife or husband, or better still both understand this fact and are willing to speak the others’ language....

Facebook

Today morning, like most mornings, as I got up, I did not get out of bed right away. I like to thank the universe for what I have and for the infinite blessings already upon us. I like to see my friends and my family and all the loved ones in my downline and upline in the mind's eye and send forth love and blessings in their direction and feel the goodness that is around us, the beauty that is around us. I like to accept from the supreme power, all the peace , all the love, all the power, purity, happiness that is showering upon us but we can't see because we are too busy worrying about the future or about what we don't have. And that is my internal Facebook account which I like to access all the time. 

I got out of bed after some time and picked the ipad to check on something and by chance Taru's mom's Facebook account was open on it.  As I just scrolled it, I could see updates from Amitabh Bachchan, from all the cousins and nieces and nephews and Narendra Modi....everybody who she likes and appreciates and cares about in the world. It was so marvellous being able to stay in touch with everybody and be able to get a peek into everybody's yester-day and yester-week and yester-month. But by the time I finished through it, the mind had lost all the peace and calm that I was experiencing right before it. 

And that has happened before too. I have 2 Facebook accounts - one for personal friends and another where people in business are added. I have noticed that every time I spend time on my facebook account, I know much more about everybody in the world, but the pictures are all one dimensional. It seems like everybody's life is perfect except mine. It looks like they are having all the fun and I'm the one doing all the work. It looks like what I have is nothing in comparison with what others have. 

I know it doesn't happen with everybody. I know it's not Facebook's problem. And I know it doesn't happen with you. But I like to access my external Facebook as little as possible and my internal Facebook as much as possible. Keeps me more at peace with myself. 

Malarvizhi

The first time I read that name and pronounced it the way a north Indian would....she laughed at it....and I learnt that it’s pronounced as “Malarvili”....meaning whose eyes are like a flower...

Alagiri and Malar used to live in a remote place in the middle of nowhere in Bhadrachalam in Andhra when we first got to know them. Alagiri was working in ITC and they used to live in the township. We started our Emerald qualification and Ramesh sponsored Alagiri in the business - they were old buddies from engineering days. Like everybody Alagiri’s life was the factory and work. But with the business, there was new hope in Malar’s life. When we were desperately fighting for PV, Malar stepped up and Taru travelled to Bhadrachalam - first time all by herself and that too to a totally unknown place - but what she saw on reaching there was impressive. Malar had put up a whiteboard in the drawing room with the names of all the potential customers in that small township and what they could be sold...so much for somebody who just got started. 

We have such fond memories of our trips to Bhadrachalam and towns around.... On one trip they prepared Mirchi Bhajji. Everybody was eating it like we eat Pakodas; we did too. But as soon as the first one went inside, smoke and water started belching out from all openings of the body....we were a sight to watch and understood for the first time what Guntur Chilli meant...

Malar was a dreamer. She is the one who wanted to build the business and pulled Alagiri along. The thing we remember most is her smile...the perpetual smile on her face...and to most questions her answer would just be a chuckle... Though she was so quiet from outside, she was a warrior on the inside. Every month end she would go all the way to Hyderabad, order and collect the products and carry them all the way back to Bhadrachalam...all alone... 

When we went to do a team meeting last month to Hyderabad, she was running high fever and still came to the meeting, just to see us. It’s so difficult to believe that we will not be able to talk to her again and see her again...thank you Malar for the fragrance you spread in our lives...

Serenity

I read this sitting in the doctor’s clinic....touched me....

Fill your bowl to the brim

and it will spill.

Keep sharpening your knife

and it will brunt.

Chase after money and security

and your heart will never unclench.

Care about people’s approval

and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back.

The only path to serenity...

Many births from one parents

Parents give birth to children only once. And then they destroy them with words that hurt their self image. They destroy them every time they compare them with other kids. When they give them negative about what they cannot do. When they pass their rotten belief-sets to them, limiting their thinking well before it would have rotten anyways. When they try to mold them into what makes the parents look good in the society.

But mine did the opposite. They never mentioned about how I look - I always believed that I was as handsome looking or better than anybody else. They always expected me to be the best I could be and not what others wanted me to be like. They never compared me to anybody else. They never said NO to what I wanted to do in a way that would reduce my confidence on myself. Whether it was going to Europe for the exchange program or choosing the girl I wanted to marry or insist on waiting for IIT and not compromising on it....

They have given birth many times over. They trusted on what I thought about something more than they trusted themselves. They were open to learning from my perspective rather than imposing theirs on me....

And they led me and inspired me to search for the eternal truth of life; to experiment with the unknown; to reach beyond the known....

They gave me many rebirths - for each of the former is a virtual death of the human potential......and each of the latter a certain rebirth of our potential.....

I pray and wish that I can be the parent that they have been to me....

Chasing Liberty

There is a basic difference between an employee mindset and a business owner mindset. The employee mindset works on the minimum mentality while the business owner mindset works on the “whatever it takes” mindset.

A lot of people tell me in the business that they are feeling lost because nobody is fixing plans for them or demos for them and so on. The business owner doesn’t wait for work...that’s employee mentality. Instead they create work....

When you have the ownership mentality, you go hunting for things to do. In our business we have to ‘create’ work most of the time - we will meet people and try to understand where they are stuck, we will initiate a cover dish, a cashflow game, a training, a movie - anything that will lead us to the next level of relationship which will lead to the next level of activity with our people.

We will have to “chase” work to book our calendars. We cannot wait for our business to chase us with work to do. Whether it means being out for contacting or making a list of people we want to meet so we can figure out what we can do with them or making a to-do list every night or drawing the group every night so it tell us where we can work - somehow be able to keep our calendar booked choc-a-bloc....

If we want...liberty.....we will have to chase liberty by chasing work....it will not tiptoe into our homes while we are sleeping....

Newton's law or God's law

The only way the universe keeps a balance and stays stable is through the law of action and reaction. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What you shall sow, so shall you reap….

If something is an action, it is thought. It is the most pertinent action in this creation, the most persistent, the most far reaching, undying, traveling forever in time. 

And every thought we create is an action which will attract a reaction from the universe and it's constituents. 

Everything happening "to us" is a reaction of a past action. Every feeling we are feeling, thus is a reaction of the past actions. We can't control what is happening to us because we can't stop the reaction once the action is done. What we can control though, is the action to react to that reaction that we are facing. What will that be?

When we forget the law, we also forget that we are in a cycle which nothing in this creation can break. It is a law. It has to be. The only thing we can do is to live by it and use it to our benefit.

And thus, we have to be careful….very careful. For we are creating at every moment a deposit which will have to be withdrawn, and often with interest; sometimes for and sometimes against our deposit.

If I understand that my feeling of dislike for somebody is a reaction to a past action, I would immediately like to do an action of love and peace so that the future reaction would change. If I do not understand this, I can as easily create a new action of dislike which will keep creating for the infinite future the same and more of it.

Once this enters your heart, any people skills book will simply pale away…

It's Showtime

We just came back from the FED circuit in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and a lot of people tell us how much they liked seeing us on the stage and how they would like to be there as well.

A lot of people think that the speakers just come on the stage, get inspired and do a talk that makes an impact on not just the thousands of people sitting in the stadium but the millions who hear the talk on a CD for years after that. 

Success in anything in life is a planned event. It doesn't happen by chance. When any Emerald or Diamond delivers a world class talk it has come from deep inside that speaker’s heart through searching and introspection. For a 45 minute talk, a speaker usually prepares for at least 20-30 hours. And that is when a talk of 45 minutes becomes something to cherish and remember and stirs the soul. 

A talk is not just a talk. It is a transfer of faith and belief and energy from one person to 10,000 people sitting there. And it usually drains the speaker. 

When you go to show the plan to somebody it's no different than being a mini FED. For the desired result to happen, the same passion and focus and energy transfer needs to happen. It is your 45 minutes of show time. Because that's the business we are in!!!

Unfortunately, God did not put a meter on our heads which measures and displays the excitement within. Instead he gave us eyes and voice and hands and a face to be able to express and convey our emotions and the passion and the fire within. A lot of us need to learn to use them for the purpose they were meant to. 

And only then can we "sponsor" the people that we want to and get them excited about their own life and their own dreams!!

So, go out and perform folks!! It's your showtime!!! And its these successful events that will propel you to be able to stand on the FED stage one day and tell your success story. 

Attitude of Gratitude

I was at Manipal hospital just the other day to see a friend - they had a baby boy. Everybody was very happy.

But everytime I go to Manipal or St John’s hospital - which is quite frequent, by the way - I make it a point to walk past the Emergency room and go and stand outside the Emergency entrance for a few minutes. And almost every single time I’ve been there, I’ve seen somebody being wheeled in. Somebody in not so great a condition. And somebody with them really worried about what will happen. Somebody whose only wish at that time is that their loved one just be fine - and they don’t want anything else from life anymore. 

And each such time, the experience humbles me to my core. It reminds me of my impermanence, the fleeting nature of life and the futility of things we worry about most of the time. I just come out with infinite gratitude.

Interacting with the thousands of people that we work with, as we reach this level in this business; and not just working with them like other professions, but being a part of their most intimate thoughts and their intricate lives; everytime I meet somebody depressed and frustrated over some silly issue, everytime I meet a couple fighting with each other like cats and dogs over why he or she said something in front of somebody or for somebody....and countless other trivial matters....all I feel like is to take them and place them in front of that Emergency room for just 10 minutes. And I am sure, they will feel like they are majoring on the minors. That they have everything they could have wished for and more already. 

Isn’t just the mere fact that we can walk on our feet and eat with our mouths and see with our eyes and understand what somebody is saying and laugh with our babies and rest our shoulders against our loved ones not enough to be thankful for? Imagine going Crown Ambassador and not having any one of the above.....

Breaking Away...

The most difficult time for any parent I realized is 2 instances in life. One is when the kid mentally and physically moves out of the dependence of the parents. Mentally when he enters adolescence and physically when he leaves home to study/work/explore the world. We fulfill our need to be needed (perhaps the greatest need of a human being) through our children. And thus they give us more than we give them (though we always pretend that it’s the other way round).

And the second is when they get married - now the third dependence - the emotional dependence is also gone. And this is one of the most difficult to endure. 

A wise parent is somebody who knows how to deal with this gracefully. But the funny thing is - so is with an upline for a downline as well. 

Initially they are physically/mentally dependent on you - they just keep hanging around you for everything all the time. You “take” them with you to functions, to contacting, to plans. But soon they grow out of it. You like it to some extent too - because it gives you the freedom - they think on their own how to do PV and sponsoring and do 10000PV each month. Just like a parent who gets his freedom back to visit friends and do what they want to do. 

But as a downline goes further into higher qualifications, his emotional dependence will reduce too. And that should not hurt. you have to trust that the deposits you made in the earlier years and the foundation you gave them will sustain them and your relationship. And that they will behave as responsible adults who you’ll be proud of for the years to come. 

I also learned as I’m growing myself that I need to show my appreciation/respect to my parents on a continual basis - that's the only thing they really need from us.

Gyroscope

The day I decided that it's my dream to lead a life of financial freedom, residual income and all that comes with being at a Diamond level, the most important thing that became clear is that Manipal Reddy and Deepak Choudhary had to be 2 gyroscopes for my business life. A gyroscope is what keeps your course in the journey, no matter how you toss and turn and wobble. Your brain will become confused about your orientation, your direction, but the gyroscope will keep pointing in the direction that you set it for at the beginning of the journey. The ultimate gyroscope for this journey is Bill Britt and the thing I know for sure is Deepak is connected to Manipal, Manipal to Kanti and Kanti to Bill. The day that connection breaks, I might not be sure of where I'm going either.

I have needed innumerable course corrections over the course of my business. The only thing needed was for me to tell Deepak and Manipal what I was seeing around me - they needed to know what I was seeing around me to locate where I was in the vast space. The less I tell them what I see around me, the less accurately they can estimate my position and direction to destination CAM in this business.

I also had to give them the space to tell me that I was on the wrong path. You might have the gyroscopic upline but never really know whether you're on the right path or not, unless you give them the space to tell you. There have been so many times when I have not copied Deepak and Manipal on the emails I was writing to my group, never discussed things I was teaching to my organization, just because I was afraid they will tell me I was wrong. It's only God's infinite blessing on me that I've always come back without going so far that it's difficult to return back. Sadly, I know many people who have gone too far and said too much to return back or to take back their words. I also thank the Almighty that my gyroscopes of life and gyroscopes of business are both pointing in the same direction. It is only my good fortune and nothing else.....

Role of women in prospecting

This article was published in the December 2010 issue of The Lamplighter

The secret of a huge business is to stay in the creative zone all the time. I consider myself as the Vice President of my business and am constantly thinking about what I can do today to take my business forward.

One of the decisions I made long back was to purposely step out of the house every day to meet 3-5 new ladies. Sometimes it happens in my everyday routine of grocery shopping, dropping and picking up Adi from school or finishing work at the bank. And at other times, I create opportunities to meet them during a walk, at the doctors’ clinic, in a park and so on. The key is to speak to somebody every day who I’ve never met before. 

We ladies have been blessed with some unique gifts. We have a great observation, we can open up very quickly and have a heart to heart conversation with another lady, we are vocal about our wants and don’t wants and we are good at connecting with people and building relationships. We can very well use these strengths to grow our businesses. 

When I meet ladies, my goal is to first identify whether she can be a client or a business partner. If I feel that she can use something in skincare/health/home I would introduce myself as a beauty or health and wellness advisor and make her a client. Else, if she is somebody who is independent, ambitious and looking to do something from home, I would propose the business directly to her. 

If I want to attract quality people in my business or make high PV customers, I need to look like somebody they would love to meet. I make an extra effort to look very presentable during prospecting because we get only a few seconds to project the image of a successful businesswoman. I make sure I am well dressed and am wearing my own Artistry and Attitude makeup and colors, my own deo or perfume and surely an attractive smile. I like to keep my own business cards and give them away during prospecting. 

Remember, it’s not just about what you do but also about what you want duplicated in your organization long term as well. So, have fun prospecting!!!

Taru..

To Do or To Be...

There are two parts of living - the “to do” part and the “to be” part. We all assume that the “to be” part is what is decided by our destiny - I am a certain way - I have a certain personality - a certain belief system - and that it’s handed over either by my parents or by the environment or by God - I get angry - anger is in me, I get frustrated - it’s a part of me. 

And it’s the “to do” part where we have control, what to do, what to buy, where we work and so on. 

It might just be the opposite way. It’s the “to do” part which is destined for the most part - my going to IIT, my going to Europe, my joining Synopsys or this business etc. But it’s the “to be” part that I control through my conscious awareness. So the entire plan of life has to be a let go attitude for the “to do” aspects of life and a “take charge” attitude for the “to be” part of life.  And that’s why we are called Human Beings and not Human Doings...

Footprints in the sand

My favorite poem which I think about every time I feel proud of having accomplished something in life. It applies to my upline in my business, my parents and to our super upline in life...the force we call God 

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,

other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed

that during the low periods of my life,

when I was suffering from

anguish, sorrow or defeat,

I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,

"You promised me Lord,

that if I followed you,

you would walk with me always.

But I have noticed that during

the most trying periods of my life

there have only been one

set of footprints in the sand.

Why, when I needed you most,

you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,

"The times when you have

seen only one set of footprints,

is when I carried you."

Mary Stevenson

Self made man...

Every time I hear somebody being praised with “...so and so is a self made man....” I feel like laughing at the ignorance of the person who thinks like that. And if one thinks that about himself, I must call him plain ignorant...or if he’s really proud of it then i will want to call him an ignoramus which is another word for stupid.

How on earth is it possible that you can be “self made” unless you are so blinded by your ego that you can just not observe the millions of people around you who are a reason for where you are today. The people who became stepping stones and signposts and mediums to help you reach where you are today. 

The school teachers who encouraged and built me up and taught me things which we think we were born with. The schoolmate who challenged me that I can’t beat him to the no 1 position. Mr Nagda who kept the inspiration alive in me to get into IIT and not give up on the dream and worked the physics problems with me despite being a successful industrialist. The friends who got my grade from a flunk to a D in Microelectronics fighting with the prof though I was already in Europe. Preeti who convinced me to join Synopsys instead of TI when I came to Bangalore on the industrial visit in 7th semester. My aunt who laughed at me and my business. Take one of these people out from life and today could not have been what it is. Who knows what it would have been...

People skulls from people skills

How we read people skill books most of us - thinking that we’ll get the magic technique that will bring the charisma in us and attract people to us. There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ve learned tremendously from “How to win friends and influence people” and “How to have power and confidence in dealing with people”. But that said, I must say that the secret to building huge organizations is not in learning people skills alone.

In fact I met somebody a few days back and was telling them that if you focus too much on people skills, you’ll only end up with more “people skulls” instead. This person was asking me how to attract the group to him and how to keep the team together?

I think people skills is a transactional skill. What we need to be looking for in our life are transformational interactions instead of transactional interactions. We can be infinitely good at making people feel good with false praise or not showing what we really think about them but we underestimate the power of human instinct. Once we understand that “thoughts are things” and everything in the universe is just energy and nothing else, our approach will change. 

Unless we can really find the good in somebody and start focussing on that instead of what we don’t like or appreciate in somebody; unless we can really accept them for who they are and stop thinking about how we can make them into what we want them to be, there is no transformation that will begin. We need to understand that people have the same instinct that we have in us - they get the energy we transmit towards them through our feelings much more than they trust the words we say to them.

CPU vs Internet

When I sit on my Mac and connect the internet, I can see a small icon showing when data is being sent to the internet and being received from the internet. It’s a small arrow showing up and down switching very rapidly. And every once in a while, it just stops showing up at all. And I hear this whirring sound of the hard disk - that’s the time when the CPU is busy interacting with the hard disk or processing the data.

Our brains are no different. The CPU/hard disk combo is like our conscious mind and the internet is like the subconscious mind. What is in the CPU/HD is tons of memory Terrabytes of Terrabytes, huge processing power - the ability to do trillions of calculations per second, almost stunning and unbelievable. But most of it is stale, old information. It can only keep reprocessing the old information over and over again. 

The subconscious mind is like the internet. It is connected to seemingly infinite data available from every thought emitted from every mind in the universe, has the capability to not just download the needed information at will, but also has the ability to create what never existed before. It’s beautiful and it’s creative. 

The only catch is that both cannot work at the same time. At one time, only one of them can work - only when you can stall the CPU/HD activity can the internet start working at full speed. And the only way it is possible is through meditation. The only way I’ve been able to work the business and work my life till now is by stalling the CPU/HD for at least a few moments. 

The day I can switch them for as long as I want, life will be bliss.....

Once upon a time...

There was a time even I can remember when people used to live in homes with lawns and trees in them. When they could hear the birds chirp in the morning. When they used to water plants in the morning and evening and remove dead leaves from the plants. When they used to work 8 hours a day and then spend time with their wife and kids and go for a walk and talk to their children. When they had the time to pursue their hobbies of music, of learning something new, of reading and growing by learning. When they were not thinking of making money all the time. When there was lesser stress and no commute times to work and back and no getting stuck for hours every day in traffic jams. When the day used to begin with “Vande Mataram” on All India Radio. When they could lie down on the terrace and see the infinite sky with twinkling stars in them...

We are able to live that life today........and are thankful to God for every bit of it. And we know that there will be many more people who will be able to do the same thing in the near future....

No Today

We were in Australia for the Diamond Club and I wanted to replace my walking Florsheim shoes. After some searching, we landed up at this store in Pacific Fair Mall called “Athlete’s Foot” run by a husband and wife well into their 50s. The wife - her name was Pam - was an excellent salesperson as well as very knowledgeable on shoes. But more so, she was a wonderful person. The moment she saw Adi and got to know that he’s 5 years old, the first thing that came out of her mouth was “....make sure you enjoy this time...for it will never come again...My son is 20 now and he’s so busy with his girlfriends, with his job, with travelling, with his life that he has no time for us anymore. And it feels like yesterday, seeing your son, that my son was the same age too...”

Most realisations about the futility of the things that we do, happen only when it’s too late to do anything about them. Even though we read in countless books, watch in countless movies and hear personally from countless well meaning elders...we see them as being on the other side of the table...not realising that we can really learn something from it all and do something about it. Instead of living in a “No Today”, we can live in a “Know Today” life.

And that is one thing Taru and I are trying to do on a daily basis for quite some time now. Yes, Diamond Plus and EDC and Double and Triple and Crown will happen. But only if the journey is enjoyed every moment will the destination be really worth it. Otherwise, we’ll be either looking forwards or backwards...forever.