15 years

[Anuj Magazine]

Cant believe we completed almost 15 year s since college this year. Not sure how many of us realize we have come this far but looking back it seem like a long journey atleast for me. Best part being that we have managed to stay connected somehow during this phase. Though we can do better here :-)

Do share your thoughts here.

[vikas sarawat]

Yes, it will be 15 years this year. Looks like all of us are married at least and have a job. Considering the state of things in 1998, it's a pretty big deal. So congratulations to all of us.

With a decent start in last 15 years, we should now explore the next 15 years. What should be the focus? Does someone one want take a shot at it for themselves? I did not think about it until I started replying to this email so I need some time to think about it.

On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 8:02 PM, Anuj Magazine <anujma...@gmail.com> wrote:

Cant believe we completed almost 15 year s since college this year. Not sure how many of us realize we have come this far but looking back it seem like a long journey atleast for me. Best part being that we have managed to stay connected somehow during this phase. Though we can do better here :-)

Do share your thoughts here.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "jnecchums" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to jnecchums+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to jnec...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jnecchums?hl=en.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
 
 

[Anuj Magazine]

Thats a nice way to look into it. Unrelated to this email, i was thinking around the same. Post college didnt have any idea on how to even get a job though i guess everyone was sure that they will somehow get married :-)

Next 15 years is a big deal...Good number of us would have reached 50's. I honestly find it quite hard to plan for the future...

[Aakash Khurana]

Sarawat, I think you have asked an excellent question-- what should be the focus going forward? Like all of you, my past 15 years of journey has been very rewarding both personally and professionally but at the same time I believe past performance can not guarantee future results/outcomes. It does, however, gives you confidence, courage and aspiration to challenge yourself in order to grow further.

 

Having a focussed vision (may sound easy but very hard to find,not impossible though) and genuinely believing in it is needed to have a fulfilling career going ahead. I guess at this point  in Life, it would be naive to say we don't know what we want from ourselves in the future. We plan, implement, lead and execute complex projects for achieve specific goals for our employers on a daily basis and not having a clear set of goals with clear timeline for our own career

(self) will turn quite embarrassing when we flash back our life 20-25 years down the line.

My 2 cents!

Magazine, thanks for the initiative as usual....

 

__________________________________________________________________________

--
Aakash

[Puneet Verma]

Time just flies, 15 years gone but college memories are so fresh as it was only yesterday.
 
I am sure the next 15 - 20 years will be our past at a much quicker pace.  Not far from now (13-15 yrs.), we would be networking for college addmission for our children and one fine day Maggi will the first one to congratulate for one of us taking professional retirement. Planning for future is not an easy job but future would have lot of excitement to share.
 
Keep the connection going....
 
Cheers!
Puneet
 

 

---

From: aakash...@gmail.com
Subject: Re: 15 years
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 22:47:10 -0400
To: jnec...@googlegroups.com

[Anuj Magazine]

Cool responses to Sarawat's question. Khurana is as practical as ever in his responses and Puneet is as positive as he has always been. Sarawat- you have had a good time to think so do respond on your thoughts.

I sometimes wonder why only a few of us respond to these emails (even for birthday wishes). Any ideas why ?

[Arvind Singh]

Folks,

 

Let me respond to the mail so that I am not odd man out..

 

 

To Sarawats point about planning.. I am not convince as the history for last 19 years starting from the college till now has taught me one thing long term planning doesn't work. It is all about striking the opportunity at right time..

 

 For ex :Who would have imagined the Sardarji will go in Finance are after completing BE. Sarawat would be doing wonders in IT/Telecom after completing BE in production. Anuj would be doing testings in software..Sachin after completing chemical engineering would be working as operations manager and so on..(Sachin : Belated Happy Birthday..)

 

Good to hear from all of you for thier well being. Still some day feel like getting into the hostel and sharing the Bathroom when every one is rushing for class.. Not sure if we meet together we would be able to repeat the same..(Though no harm in thinking and dreaming about it..)

 

Enjoy..

 

Bihar

[vikas sarawat]

Arvind,

How many have you had?

I do agree with you but the focus 19 years ago was to survive. Now I think at least the focus can be moved to thrive.

One thing that comes to mind every now and then is that we have such an excellent variety of talent in this group. We should be collaborating on something bigger than what we can achieve individually. It could be as simple as collaborating on a blog. 

We should through ideas about what is that we can do together and do it remotely (at least in the beginning).

--Vikas

[Anuj Magazine]

I agree with Arvind things cant be be planned and i do think going with the flow to be a better approach in leading life (atleast based on my personal experience). Things rarely turn out as one plans. I personally dont think too much about next 15 years as based on how things turn out- i may be better or i may not be better but i have to have one goal in mind that would be to remain as fit as possible myself to be better able to respond to things. May be naive goal but one of the very few things mostly in our own control.

But good discussion....never knew till date that Bihari fantasizes about all of us in bathroom :-)....hmmm

(Where in world are you, Arvind....called you couple of times in last few weeks).

[Anuj Magazine]

What could we do together, Vikas ? May be everyone can contribute with one thought, starting with you of course :-)

[Aakash]

Right opportunity at the right time is only sustainable long term when you know what is the end goal. That opportunity must fit to your plan/focus/vision else its charm will be short-lived. Planning that didn't work in past 19 years doesn't mean planning won't work in next 19 +years especially with all real life experiences your execution approach should be different going forward.

Sent from my iPhone

[vikas sarawat]

A blog that we all contribute to. Magazine leads and identifies sections for each of us to contribute to.

A philanthropic commitment we make collectively.

What about politics? We can do more collectively than alone.

An enterprise that we all own and work for (part time - since I am not ready to quit my job).

Thoughts on education and up bringing of our kids

etc...

[Anuj Magazine]

Interesting thought. But one question- how can one blog change the world ?

(dont want to be sounding like discouraging the idea by questioning but just using this question to understand the deeper "why")

[vikas sarawat]

I don't know if I am planning to change the world with a blog. I want to research and write about topics such as:

History of various industries in India, who controls them and what are some of the inefficiencies and are there innovative approaches to solve them. At a minimum having more people know about these problems should help in the long run.

there are many other interesting topics: philanthropy in India, education system in India and western world, etc 

Some we write ourselves. For others, we can also pool money to outsource the research.

[vikas sarawat]

Now even publishing books is easy:

http://www.dailywireless.org/2013/04/09/barnes-noble-revamps-self-publishing-platform/

[Manpreet Wason]

Sarawat, When this conversation started its surely had all of us travelled back in times. More or so the conversation did somehow challenged the status quo individually relative to professional achievement we had in past 15 years. While I see that the professional life has lot of semblance with Sensex. While it poses uncertainty all the time still it gives us all opportunity to earn like our salary and when it hits bull , one should not look back but grab all what is coming just like our promotions and grades. Every professional life treads the path of sensex with the sine wave life cycle of 4-5 years , so one has to deal with the good and bad time and it's all uncertain. One can't plan at all. 

My apologies that I contributed a bit late in this discussion but was really enjoying having gone through your thoughts iteration. 

Bihari seems recollected his thoughts of bathroom and mesmerising prachi bambo jumbo..

Sarawat, starting a blog or some joint initiative is really a good idea..it will keep us all well knitted for the rest of our lives and at the same time it gives one the opportunity to distil our thought process with such intellect in our group.

Would like to appeal the remaining group to contribute also.. Still to hear from Danish, Katyal, shammi. 

Sent from my iPad

[vikas sarawat]

Sardarji,

I agree with the sinusoidal wave part. I also agree with the uncertainty part.

At the same time I think that we the people of Indian subcontinent leave a lot more to uncertainty than maybe we should. 

We need to choose one simple, easy to understand goal for the year and then execute on it. I threw some ideas, we can pick one from that list. I would prefer if other folks threw their ideas and then we pick one to work on for this year.

stay involved,

Vikas

[Aakash]

First step should be to get everyone together. I don't see all Tulja bhawani boys participating in these emails (at least not responding). Start with a monthly conference call, identify the topics we want discuss and have an open discussion on those focused topics. I think that will help us get connected at many levels. This will only work if done in a very disciplined and structured manner.

I apply the same approach with my team spread all over the world and it really works great to stay connected, understand others point of view, learn from each others experiences(benchmarking) etc.

Sent from my iPhone

[vikas sarawat]

Thanks Khurana. 

That works for me.

Should I setup a call then? Do you guys want to use skype for the call?

We can have the first call just to chat and take things from there.

--Vikas

[Aakash]

Wow, just got off from a 2 hour long flight and saw quite a few responses.

US Saturday night or Sunday morning works good with me.

Sent from my iPhone

[Aakash]

Let's take a poll first to know everyone's interest. Everyone please respond back by his Friday along with your topics of interest ( or at least give it a thought so we can discuss this during our first call).

Look forward to everyone's participation.

Sent from my iPhone

[Manish Katyal]

My friends - 

Good to see response from so many thought leaders. I am late as usual but don't want to be the last one. Can't imagine time elapses so fast. I wonder why people say live your life to the best, enjoy every moment, you never know when it be your last day..

15 years have gone by, but still cherish the moments we all had together, we all are doing great in our professional as well as personal life but the college time is the best experience we had, lived the life with free mind, every day was new experience, it shaped us as a better individual.

Magazine you are heart beat of this group, thanks for leading and ensuring we all are in sync. 

cheers,

Manish

[Anuj Magazine]

Manpreet- Liked your analogy of Sensex. You are a Management Guru in the making :-)
What you said make a lot of sense and i do think on those lines. I got one advice (through my reading ) that in today's times whenever you do Career planning, do factor in 5-6 recessions in a career span of 30-35 years. As the time passes, i am more convinced that 5-6 recessions are less for a career time. We might to deal one every 2-3 years if i am not sound overly pessimistic (but practical i think). Dealing with uncertainty is more a mandatory skill now than it was may be when our parents were in prime of their work lives.

Sharing a small presentation i did on the same topic-
http://www.slideshare.net/amagazine/career-planning-15140109

[Aakash]

Agree with Stock market vs. career planning analogy too. However, 

Sent from my iPhone

[Aakash]

Agree with sensex vs. career planning analogy too. However, if we decide to go with too much risk averse approach(i.e. planning too much on uncertainty part , which is inherent part of human life) the results will be like return on bonds. Without taking certain level of calculated risk, we  just give up without even trying. A balanced approach (not too optimistic and not too pessimistic) is needed to optimize the risk part and improvise the career success part at this stage, I think.

Sent from my iPhone

[Anuj Magazine]

Agreed on the taking risk part.

On that topic, just wanted to ask everyone- in the last 15 years what was the biggest risk you took professionally ? I am keen to know so do share.

[vikas sarawat]

I am chicken. I did not take any risks. I just work(ed) hard, I think.

It's possible that the biggest risk I am taking now is that I am not taking any risks.

If you guys have read the book "animal farm", I tend to think of my self as a horse. While I should be focusing on being a pig.

[Aakash]

Quite a few actually and looking back don't regret any:

1. Changing my engineering major from    Electronics to Chem E. in second year of college. Sounds trivial but I think that paved the way for future.

2. Leaving Vam Organics job and getting myself ready to move to the US.

3. Deciding to do MS in food process engineering when everyone said thats stupid. Best ROI would be to MS in Computer Science.

4. Leaving a very secure & well paid job in Nestlé, a 110 billion+ dollar company and considered as one of the best one in consumer packaged goods arena to join $8 billion dollar Campbell Soup company at a much elevated & stressful technical management role (typically requires minimum of 20+ years of food industry experience to get there).My Nestlé coworkers genuinely asked, do you really want to do this at this stage?

5. Planning on my next one. Don't know how it will turn out, as I said earlier,past performance can't guarantee future outcomes like a stock market.

 I don't want to regret 20+ years down the line for not doing something that I wanted to do. May not be a practical/sensible approach but this is what defines who I am (personality) and what I want from myself(ambition).Besides this,of course, there are many other factors that play a big role in person' s decision making process. Hence, one size does not fit all.

Silent readers please get out from hibernation mode and share your experiences, thoughts etc. Understand everyone is busy and summarizing your life experiences in an email is not easy and comfortable at times but I guess this will help us stay connected mentally and emotionally.

Sent from my iPhone

[Vikas Sarawat]

Nicely done. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Anuj Magazine]

Yes very nicely done.

Everyone- please do share your perspective too. Looking at the past and writing these things help clear our thinking too apart from benefiting the group.

I guess all of us took some risks during our journey in last 15 years including you, Sarawat. The risk proportions may be different, i guess.

Do share.

[Arvind Singh]

Anuj,

I was in Perth for last few weeks and heading to India today. Will call you on Saturday for sure..

I am in for the conference call. I don't use Skye however is their any call in number then I can join the call. Saturday evening works for me.

Will write more on weekend.

Thanks,

Bihar

[SYSTEM TECH]

GHANTA GOAL.
Saala do din tak soocha kya likhu, par iske alava kuch samaj nahi aaya.

Ankur

Get your own FREE website and domain with business email solutions, click here

[Arvind Singh]

Ankur,

 

Good one..

 

Bihar

[sachin malhotra]

Hi there,

i am ready with soap and towel and the music player placed in the bathroom, whose joining me there!!!

On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 9:28 PM, Arvind Singh <arvinds...@gmail.com> wrote:

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (arvinds...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

[Anuj Magazine]

Ankur- i bet you have a lot to share here. You went entrepreneur way quite early in the career and would have seen good ups and downs and ups. You got to open up :-)