Experience of Failure

In my last post, I missed on thanking one of the important person in my life, my boss - Ravi. Thank you so much Ravi for your trust, support and love.

We had some interesting and motivating interactions in this week. He inspired us to assume a bigger leadership role in the company. He gave few important tips on hiring and interviewing people. One of the tip was to hire people with Experience of Failure. As managers we are more concerned about escaping the consequences of failures rather than leading our teams to success. We tend to be too self protective to seize a business opportunity. I think, one's track record of dealing with failures is a key indicator of his performance in an unpredictable future, his character and value system. Satya mentioned the same in his SMS today :

"Sometimes....Hurt is Needed to Make u Grow, Failure's Needed to Make u know, Loss is Needed to Make u Gain, coz sum lessons r best when learnt thru pain"

One of the thing I intend to learn is shorten the decision making process because it is better to make a decision and fail than to habitually wait until I am absolutely sure. I go to office to work and survive. Maybe I can narrow my perspective to survival. My job is to run the company and thats what I need to think about. I can focus on the day and organize moment by moment. I can become less heroic, less philosophical and just be in action with focus on the present.

On a different note, I am reading how Israeli executives, managers and business owners survive in crisis. How they run business under the shadow of terrorism.

From the book - There are more Israeli companies listed on the NASDAQ than from any other country. Israelis have very short memory - They bounce back from every situation and they plan for the worst. They are ready to alter the most thought through business plans very next day. Almost all the employees have a military background and each male employee serve the country for 1 month in a year for 30 years of their life. Investors and shareholders of Israeli companies does not believe in the long-term business plans, they believe in the leader, the manager - the person and his experience of running the business under crisis.

I am hooked on to this book...maybe I am identifying a lot of Israeli attitude with myself....