Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Thankful to spend last few days with the coolest people...Thank you Susi family, Baji family for taking time out of your schedule to spend time with us. We are thankful and Blessed! 

-Karthik Gurumurthy

-Karthik Gurumurthy

We just got back from a trip to Chandler, AZ. 

The older I get, the more convinced I am that there is something to positive and negative energy.  When I wake up every morning, before I get out of bed, I remind myself of what I'm grateful for. It starts my day off right  and makes me feel good about what's in front of me. I think about my son and our close family and all the love I have in my life. However hard we try to surround ourselves with people who are good and who care about us, though, there will always be those who, for some reason, have negative energy. They can be hurtful and cause you sadness or pain.

My grandmother  (Chitti Patti) used to say, " Immerse them with kindness".  Another strategy is: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." There is a lot of wisdom in these two old sayings. Instead of trying to get revenge, take the high road. Let it go. Instead of trying to get back at someone because he/  she has hurt you, think of one nice thing about that person and put that out into the universe instead. If you don't let it go, that person's negativity will stay inside you, and that is exactly where you don't want that energy to be. 

So the next time you're hurt by someone, wish that person well in your heart and tell your brain  to move on and think about something else that matters.  You will be amazed at how it releases your negative energy. People can't control you if you won't let them. 

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I am fortunate to work with young adults in helping them in Prep for SAT/ACT / MCAT tests.  I am also work with organizations in their Agile transformation efforts as an Enterprise Agile Coach. Even though the work involved is totally different, I see a parallel in both the roles.

Sometimes when the results are different from what's expected, we pause and find out what is the root cause of the issue?

Why don’t people perform? It is almost always for one of these reasons:

1. They don’t know what to do.

2. They don’t know how to do it.

3. They don’t want to do it.

4. They can’t do it.

Expectation without proper education equals frustration. Good leaders have the ability to assess abilities. An effective leader knows both what a person is capable of and what training and the education they need to succeed.

But training and development aren’t a panacea. If you’ve got the right person in the wrong role they won’t succeed.

Specifically, it is a matter of fit. The person fits the role. It isn’t an exact science, an either/or. However, when someone who is conscientious struggles performing even after they’ve receive the necessary training, it is likely a fit problem.

Are the right students in the right classrooms and even in the right seats? Are you assuming a student is a poor performer when in reality, her or she is just in the wrong classroom?

Willingness and ability aren’t the same thing. Understanding the nuances of people and performance are an important skill for leaders.

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Before the game of life is over,  I want to know I have done someting truly great, that I have made a positive impact of people who worked with me. I do not aspire to become as wealthy as Jeff Bezos, as famous as Napoleon and conquer many nations, but I do want above all else, to feel that I have been an addition to this world of ours. I should like the world, or at least my native land, to be proud of me and to sit up and take notice when my name is pronounced and say, "There is a man who had done a great thing." I do not want to have passed through life as just another speck of humanity, just another cog in this amazing world. I want to be something greater, far greater, than that. My desire is not so much for immortality as for distinction while I am alive. When I I leave this world, I want to know that my life has not been in vain, but that I have, in the course of my existence, done something of which I am rightfully proud. Success to me is how many people are better off because I lived (quoting Bill Britt).

Before the game is over, I want to know that during my life I have brought great happiness to others. Friendship is one of the best things to the world, and I want to have many friends. But I could never die fully contented unless I knew that those with whom I had been intimate had gained real happiness from their friendship with me.  We all want much happiness in our lives, and giving it to others is one of the surest ways to achieve it for ourselves.

Before the game is over I want to have visited a large portion of the globe and to have actually lived with several foreign races in their own environment. By traveling in countries other than my own I hope to broaden and improve my outlook on life so that I can get a deeper and more complete satisfaction from living. 

Before the game is over, I would like to live life to the fullest giving my best everyday.

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Whenever we meet friends or family, we make it a point to meet one family at a time. We try our best not to meet many families at the same time.Sometimes due to time constraints we might have done it but we try not to do that anymore. We seldom invite anyone for the sake of meeting them but we always wanted to give them undivided attention.

There’s nothing quite like it to unburden yourself. To know that you are being listened to. To feel that you are special. Many a memory is made up of meaningful conversations with significant others.Everyone has a special story to tell and I have learned a lot from the 1:1 conversations as opposed to having many extroverts completely take over the conversation and you never get to hear from the quieter people who wanted to share a useful nugget or a funny situation.

It is at these times that we learn to still ourselves to listen to the other. To give him/ her the gift of our undivided attention. It is when we learn how our lives can make a difference to other lives.

If we pay more attention to others, someday, in the future, someone will tell us how our attention and words made a difference.

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Good win, Ashwin!