"The competition has taken an unexpected turn. You guys have to change your strategy. For God's sake forget about the Serious Stuff that you guys do. Please. Its the Department's reputation at stake. If you guys lose then our department will lose its popularity. So, please make your skit humorous. Impress the judges and the audience. Give them what they want and not what you want."- Your Law Professor
These were the words written by our law professor during our competition. She wanted us to sell ourselves.
I'm a manufacturer. I produce a product. I just go and communicate to others that I've made it. I don't go around shouting that I've made it. Take it or leave it.I only tell you who I am. No extra Mirch Masala.
Lets take an example: Mr A and Mr B go for an interview. The Interviewer asks both of them:
" Why do you want to join our organization? "
Mr A replies:
" Sir, I have done My MBA in so and so field. You give me salary and freedom for showing my creativity and I in turn will give you my service."
Mr B replies:
" Sir, I have done My MBA in so and so field. Right from my childhood, I dreamed of being in the this sector. I'm a people's person. I want my universe to revolve around people. Just like you sir. I have heard so many praises about you and your organization sir. The word organization is very small. The word should have been temple........"
Now 9 times out of 10, Mr B will get the cake as he has marketed and sold himself.
The above example was about selling yourself. The things that you create: Is it necessary that you sell them?
Will you make a product in spite of knowing that your product will be not accepted by the mass public?
Taare Zammen Par was a hit. It was liked by the masses and the matured section of Society which appreciates good cinema. Its one of those rare movies. But If You'll show an art movie to typical Bollywood fans then 95 percent of them will hate it..People will run to watch a Yash Chopra movie instead of watching a good Off-beat movie by a bright young director.
We face a similar situation everyday when we're preparing for our presentations. Luckily till date we were liked and appreciated by almost everyone. But will we compromise if people don't like our stuff from today? What is We fail again and again? Will the principle change its color?
Will we mould our presentations in such a way that the audience is impressed?
The Answer Is NO.
Because the items for sale increase everyday:
Today: Your presentation on sale
Profit: The trophy of course, and yeah the admiration
Tomorrow: Your individuality on sale
Profit: You fit into the society and lick their shoes
Day after tomorrow: Your values on sale..
Profit: No ethics and values..which means the bride called Success is coming soon!!
And you have totally sold yourself to them.
I don't want those type of profits. I don't mind being that Old painting which never got sold because no one understood it. Its better than someone else telling you how to draw..which colors should be used..so that the painting is liked by the public.
P.S. We tore that piece of paper that the professor gave us into pieces.
I'm a manufacturer. I produce a product. I just go and communicate to others that I've made it. I don't go around shouting that I've made it. Take it or leave it.I only tell you who I am. No extra Mirch Masala.
Lets take an example: Mr A and Mr B go for an interview. The Interviewer asks both of them:
" Why do you want to join our organization? "
Mr A replies:
" Sir, I have done My MBA in so and so field. You give me salary and freedom for showing my creativity and I in turn will give you my service."
Mr B replies:
" Sir, I have done My MBA in so and so field. Right from my childhood, I dreamed of being in the this sector. I'm a people's person. I want my universe to revolve around people. Just like you sir. I have heard so many praises about you and your organization sir. The word organization is very small. The word should have been temple........"
Now 9 times out of 10, Mr B will get the cake as he has marketed and sold himself.
The above example was about selling yourself. The things that you create: Is it necessary that you sell them?
Will you make a product in spite of knowing that your product will be not accepted by the mass public?
Taare Zammen Par was a hit. It was liked by the masses and the matured section of Society which appreciates good cinema. Its one of those rare movies. But If You'll show an art movie to typical Bollywood fans then 95 percent of them will hate it..People will run to watch a Yash Chopra movie instead of watching a good Off-beat movie by a bright young director.
We face a similar situation everyday when we're preparing for our presentations. Luckily till date we were liked and appreciated by almost everyone. But will we compromise if people don't like our stuff from today? What is We fail again and again? Will the principle change its color?
Will we mould our presentations in such a way that the audience is impressed?
The Answer Is NO.
Because the items for sale increase everyday:
Today: Your presentation on sale
Profit: The trophy of course, and yeah the admiration
Tomorrow: Your individuality on sale
Profit: You fit into the society and lick their shoes
Day after tomorrow: Your values on sale..
Profit: No ethics and values..which means the bride called Success is coming soon!!
And you have totally sold yourself to them.
I don't want those type of profits. I don't mind being that Old painting which never got sold because no one understood it. Its better than someone else telling you how to draw..which colors should be used..so that the painting is liked by the public.
P.S. We tore that piece of paper that the professor gave us into pieces.
33 comments:
Welcome back!
And what a comeback!!
Awesome post. Excellent. Seriously.
Especially the way you wrote it, PostScript and all.
Yes, What you say is true. Non-Conformism isn't valued, but that's what matters the most in the long run. You should remain true to yourself. If you know what you have to give to the world and if you respect it, you would never bend to the world's wishes.
I'll keep following my principles. I won't impose them, even if I wanted to. I'll Stay true to myself. I won't get imposed, no matter what they do to me.
Surprisingly, people will get imposed by me then! :D
@ Alok
Thanks.
You know I realized that its very easy to write stuff like "I'm a Rebel, non-conformist" But when it comes to reality you are tempted.
There were two things: trophy..principles..trophy...principles..I chose the later one..
Imagine performing 'stairway to heaven' at a place where people like listening to Himesh Reshamiya!! Thats what I felt that day
hey nice blog girl....if uput so much honesty in ur blog its gonna b hard for me to impress u in life....neways good one n check my blogs
@ Reign/ Sundeep
Of course, nana nuvu gutu unavu. But you didn't even tell me that you blog!! Thats a surprise to me.
@ Sanket
Haha.. All I can say is:
" keep on trying"
And I will checkout your blog of course. Keep in touch like this as I don't have any other source.
i created my blog i think in july2007,,and i have another blog too it created around march 2004 i think accidentally i forgot the password for it and still tryin 2 retrive.,till now i have many-- alot of stuff i wanna work on,,but cant,,,lately i started workin on it suddenly college started nw no time at all,,,and orkut lo account delete chesesava????yy???cheppanu kooda cheppala,,vadilinchesukundam anukunnava nannu??but i wont,,,hahaha.
Hey, why dont you put a c-box so that we can talk...
About the post, I think, the world we live in requires us to sell ourselves more than the ideas that we might want to sell. And at some point of time it becomes impossible to differentiate between the two.
I do not know what more to add. I face the same problem in my college and hospital every day. I think, the basic idea of success is very important, as that is the function which decides what you are going to sell.
I think Coelho sells his ideas very well. I know that you are a big Coelho fan, I would like to ask you to elaborate on his concept. [which I feel is bull-shit and often wonder, how you are such taken by his ideas]
Well, I think I am mentally unfit now tio write posts, so I think I am going to repost on this.
LOLzzzzzz.. I used to read Coelho but I was never a big fan of his..
And I read him because I was a child then and I liked childish stuff..Paulo is definitely Kindergarten stuff..And I kinda agree with you...He is very smart when it comes to selling himself..he knows what works in the market i.e. there are millions of people in the world who need feel good stuff to uplift themselves and his senseless ramblings kinda mesmerize them...and he becomes rich..
A great example of how a person can sell himself..I know you mentioned him because I had mentioned his passage in one of my blogs...and I happened to be a child then :D
And about selling yourself: We already had a discussion when we were discussing about appreciation..And we both agree that we will not compromise our core idea..the essence of it..For e.g I can make my presentation a little more simpler to make the audience understand..But I wouldn't compromise the whole theme..
But about selling oneself I wouldn't do it..I will not use big words and flattery..I'll just tell them who I am and what I intend to do
@Sushmita
I'm a little taken aback by the lack of focus in your write up as well as Ramyangshu? To start with I'll give one anecdote and then after you reply me the question asked by me I'll provide the rejoinder which holds the answer to your seemingly non existent conflict.
"In the wee hours of a freezing winter morning, a furnace repairman was awakened out of a cozy, restful sleep by a family whose furnace had suddenly stopped working.
A half hour later he was in the family’s basement with the family huddled around watching, shivering and miserable.
The man studied the heater intently for about two minutes, then took a wrench in hand, positioned it carefully over a spot down low and near the back of the furnace, and then tapped twice. Immediately, the basement was flooded with wonderful, warming heat.
“That’ll be a hundred dollars,” said the repairman.
“What!” the man of the house demanded angrily. “A hundred bucks?! Just for tapping twice on the furnace? That’s outrageous!”
“Actually,” replied the repairman, “the tapping was free of charge. The hundred dollars is for the years it took to learn exactly where to tap.”
What lesson did you get from the above anecdote Sush? I'll watch this space and when I've read our answer, I'll write more.
@ June
"Don't sell yourself short"
If the man has put in efforts to learn the trick then why not sell it?
Demand your price..
Is that what you are trying to say?
Love You Sush,
You are paid, and deserve to be paid, a fee. You never need to justify a healthy fee — providing that you’re providing an equal or greater value than the fee you are receiving.
If you want to make a lot of money, don’t make money your goal. Money is only the reward for hitting your target. In his 1910 classic, The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace D. Wattles writes: “Give every person more in use value than the cash value you take from them. This way, you’re adding to the life of the world with every business transaction.”
Lesson??
Goodwill of people is also a currency which brings in money but not compromising your stance.Many of us live with the assumption that there is a fundamental contradiction between self-interest and thinking of those around us; between ourselves and others. You may be acting for others’ benefit, or for your own — but not both at once.
Letting go of that sense of conflict is an important step on the path to accomplishing great things in the world — because it is only by embracing the fact that good deeds enrich the doer that you will be able to create the kind of success you seek.
@June
No contradictions with what you said...
I was talking about selling yourself in a cheap manner that some people do..The Peter Keating way that is
Of course I'm going to tell the person who is employing me what my strengths are.No modesty there.
And about selling the product I was only saying that I will not compromise the main theme and essence of it...small things can be altered..If I'm a director and I know that most of the audience members will not understand my cinema then I will make my cinema little simple for a common layman to understand...but here we were asked to compromise the whole concept..which I'm totally against..
@Sushmita
A quality blog this was.
Btw, Coelho is a Mystic of first order definitely but he did a fair value exchange with his kind of people.He didn't force anyone to buy his books.The like minded mystic loving juntas bought his books.So he got what he deserved.Evidently he did a good business with the teeming millions.He fed them with what they wanted.So he never compromised or pandered.Pathetically, he happens to be a Mystic.But yet he conformed to the code of Trade.That is his secret to success.So,there's lesson to be learnt from him as well.:)
Let there be many more such good blogs here.
thunderous post, sush!u show it up, girl..that u have it in you!well..bravo..!
My school's latest contention is that 'no more education of facts merely; education of values too.'
a smart brain can get even the value to be 'sold' like other things. sometimes i think there can be.
Tare Zameen Pe shows us the way. Lets not connote that Values is all about some boring stuff.We re-phrase them into more interesting and acceptable forms.
like the way u made their imporatance in life look to be!:-)
Well written. Extremely well written. That is all I can say at the moment.
You know, Sushmita, this 'sell yourself' thing gets to one in more personal ways. And then the disgust sets in pretty deep!
@ Mannu and Deepti
Thank you :)
June, I think we have talked about it once in the last topic that you posted in Atlantis. And still, I do not agree with you.
You wrote here,
"If you want to make a lot of money, don’t make money your goal. Money is only the reward for hitting your target."
I do not think this is the right idea at al. Money is not the reward and money can never be the reward. Reward is satisfaction on completion, reward is satisfaction in doing something great, reward is buying those things that you want with the money that you earn. Money is only the freedom to trade.
Money is the goal of every trade because, only and only money gives you freedom, and goodwill only gives you security.
Money in no way is the goal/purpose of creation though where the satisfaction/necessity to create are the prime cause.
There is no contradiction between self-interest and thinking of those around us, rather it is impossible to do both at once. You help yourself thinking that this will inturn help all around, or you help others thiking that in turn your interest will be taken care of. But, in no way, you can think benifitting both. Creators, as I have seen, create for themselves, and people like what they have created, and for sustaining life to be able to create more, the creator sellls his creations. No contradictions/ helping others involved here.
you said,
"it is only by embracing the fact that good deeds enrich the doer that you will be able to create the kind of success you seek."
Yes, like I can not enrich myself. This is second hand enrichment, if I might say so. And I do not think it is something very important in life to be enriched in such a manner.
I think, only the enriched people are able to create, and they can create because they are enriched. period.
Why I do not like Coelho-
Coelho is a loser himself, and he keeps on feeding everyone with "You can win" agenda. He has nothing to offer from his side other than what his loser fans wants to hear. And he does a wonderful job of making every loser a winner. It is not universe conspiring to give you lifts that makes you successful, rather it is having a mind which is sharper than the chickens around you which makes you a winner.
Lesson to learn from Coelho
Feed opium to those who want, and give LSD to those who are in need. If you have no idea how are you going to do it, then just close your eyes and stand still, because universe is conspiring. If you have a dream, you have it.
Shit.
I would like you to answer this. This is not a challenge I pose. This is just what I felt reading the posts. :D
P.S. I mentioned Coelho here because he mentions favour banks in one of his books, and I think though in a very different way,you are speaking about the same thing.
P.P.S. If you feel it is all shit, you can ignore it, as you will :D
@Ramyangshu,
After reading your post, I realized that you have said so much with out saying anything.
To start with I ave also emphasised upon the point that Coelho is nothing but Mystic of first order which implies he has nothing to offer to the people who uphold reason.But for the people who find themselves enamoured by his writing can safely vouch for his creations.Surely I am not amongst the latter and hence I stressed that Coelho is empty and just exhaustive words.:D
Secondly coming to the Money factor.Yes, we had a discussion on this in Atlantis as well and there you were left with no logic to counteract me and I categorically explained how there are more currency than Money.
But above all, when I create something, I do not create how much I will reap benifit from it money wise.Money will trickle in as a natural consequence to it.When a scientist invents something or when a Compoaer makes some music, if he has his mind that how much he'll be paid for his job can never at all on the first place create a unique thing.
Now this is not my theory but if you have time then read, Mathew Arnold and his great work on "Culture and Anarchy" sometimes.There he has proven that how a creator can never be rich and a rich man can never be a real creator.A rich man can at the most patronise work of arts or science.Like wise a Scientist can never create welath because the time he'll pursuit in making money can not allow him to create or invent other things.My strong suggestions, do read.
Anyhow, What I said that Money is a or one of the reward apart from satisfaction holds true to me.The driving force is the unique creation itself.
More of it later.
Me likes the post. It is honest.
But then I have come to realize that the "selling yourself" depends largely on the persons nature. I am pretty expressive, so people tend to tag me, some even come and confess that they are jealous of me..Its all ok.
I believe its more important to be yourself. Thats what makes your post exceptional :)
BRAVO
So, the Roarks and Galts are going to be poor people, so much reward for their creation. Money is made by a simple desire, and by lots of ability. Money does not follow creations, it is the creators wish to sell it, that makes it.
Yes, I do not agree to the idea of rich man and creator that whoever put. It is a straitjacket created to keep the real worthy people away from money.
I would ask that man, who did the rich man become rich? Selling bananas?
And Like Coelho, other transactions exists, yes, but the only point worth mentioning here is whether you recognize it or not.
Who cares?
whoa,
a good post to read.
But to practice even difficult than your imagination. When i started writing the comment i just went through your earlier comments or so called explanations and well you have successfully explained it. But well if you are bothered about my take on the post and thought ideated, i think you were not able to put up your idea pretty well or simple, which you are talking about... keeping simple to be understand by layman ... I think what you want to say is that there should be limit to selling or marketing yourself.. it should not be compromised with ones self respect and the paradigm you used about Mr A and Mr B was also pretty delusive because may be when it would come to self respect or in your words licking bosses shoes i think he might not have done it..
Also your idea of making things as simple as they can be understood by layman is arguable.. Coz you have putted in a lot of effort to create a furor while presentation and then when its the showtime it comes out to be viewed or understood by the layman .. at this particular time you actually tend to loose the competitive edge .. so keep your creations understandable but not at the cost of competition..
And please stop discussing Cohelo coz.. he has not sold himself but his ideas and he has sold them very well..
You are an adept blog writer and and your thinking is great.. I liked the way you discussed your ideas and they need to be explained by many standpoints so as to get the fair picture..
Best regards.
@ Big Omi
Yes, Maybe you are right.Every reader doesn't understand what I'm talking about here.
"Coz you have putted in a lot of effort to create a furor while presentation and then when its the showtime it comes out to be viewed or understood by the layman .. at this particular time you actually tend to loose the competitive edge .. so keep your creations understandable but not at the cost of competition.. "
I don't compete with others...and I don't require people's approval to know whether my presentation was good or not ..I think that explains everything..Its ok if my efforts are not appreciated
Dear,
If what you have explained is your answer then its appreciated from my end. But really speaking we do compete. We compete :
At home with siblings
At school with our classmates for being teachers favourite.
At college with similar sexites..
At work with our colleagues..
And sometimes we compete with ourself , old you and new you..
A world without competition = A world full of laymans.. coz its the competition which makes the difference
Best regards,
Omi
@ Omi
I said what I said because that is what I follow in my real life. I don't write anything unless I really follow it. Yes sometimes I may not follow but I acknowledge that afterwards. So, I still hold that I only compete with myself. But yes I agree with one point of yours: I compete with my older self. Isn't that competing with yourself?
I do not agree with the other points you mentioned....I never compete to be the teacher's favorite and the other ones...I judge my creation not others..They have a right to voice their opinion and my ears are open to their valuable criticism..but my ears are closed when they just blabber just because they got a chance to trash me
And coming to the main point about competing: To get appreciation and to show our competitors that we rock
You don't need appreciation to live your life....I will go on and create what I can create with or without it (I'm fully in my senses when I'm saying this)..
about your competitors: I don't believe in competition here..I believe in learning from them..We can learn from their mistakes and their good points (learn not copy) ...if your competitor has done something which is better than you..then you should stand up and applaud..
And who judges these competitors? WE and NOT THE BOSSES, PROFESSORS Etc
The points that you mentioned are true as 99 percent of the people compete for those things. But I don't fall in that category.
oh btw, I tagged u..
its abs ur choice whether u wanna do it or no.. :-)
Cheerz
Sigh !!
I thought only its me who thinks like that.. Welcome to the club..
u said,that earlier people liked u,but what if they don't now..
they have changed,and u don't want to change??
if that's the thinking procedure,society won't have changed,and humans won't have evolved..
individuality is a change without a change,it's not being constant..!
a starting price of 60L will do.
aah...what a lovely post sushmita..ya its true its a dog-eat-dog world out there and you've got to market yourself properly if you want to reach somewhere..having said that..our virtues are what we are truly made of..so no compromises there.
Sometimes the only difference between 'trying hard' and 'reaching there' is succumbing to the pressure of compromising..I have not done it when it would have mattered ...felt stupid for a while ..but in the longer run i think we gradually forget it..on the contrary if you do something that you do not wish to..you repent it for a very long time..
liked those lines.. "i would be the painting that was not sold cos it was never understood"
post more often..btw why did you leave orkut??
Hi Rakesh!
I don't know what to add to compromising and marketing. I'm totally numb right now.
I left orkut because I want to concentrate on my studies at the moment. Maybe I'll be back one day. I hope I don't feel the necessity to come back!
Take Care
you are taking things ( rather the ideas ) too seriously.
chuck em all.
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