Think Neutral

I remember this workshop from the 2008 NetIP conference called - the Laughing Club. It was led by a Boston based Entrepreneur Sushil Bhatia. I remember one of the things he emphasized - called 'Think Neutral.'

The reason that I remembered that was because of a book that I am reading called 'Happiness at Work: Be Resilient, Motivated, and Successful - No Matter What' by Srikumar Rao, who teaches the Personal Mastery course at Columbia Business School. Dr. Rao first talks about the pitfalls of conventional wisdom i.e. positive thinking. We are always taught that we must think positive, and then the positive things will happen to us. But this pressure to think positive adds stress to our lives. Every time we have to force ourselves to look at a negative thing with a positive perspective, which is stressful, and uses our mental energy.

Dr. Rao presents an alternative - just stop using the label bad and good, or positive and negative. It is actually very hard to judge whether something is positive or negative until much further in the future. For example, let's say you are an entrepreneur and an investor decided not to fund your startup. It could be negative, because you don't have the funds you want. But it might be positive for several reasons; one it might give you a chance to fix the reasons why you are not getting funded. Or this investor wasn't the right one for your startup. Or you figure out how to make things work for now and three months later get funded at a much higher valuation.

The point is, we don't really know if its positive or negative. So let's stop using these labels, and instead, think neutral.Observe what happens to you but do not get emotionally swayed. Don't lose your sense of peace. Harder said than done, but let's atleast try.

Decision making

"Mistakes can usually be corrected later; the time that is lost in not making a decision can never be retrieved." -Jan Carlson

Photos for $9.95 a piece

One of the best ways to make money is to target a market that you could hold captive; a market that has no alternative. Pricing decisions then don't take into account competition, but instead, take into account alternatives. In fact, if you come across a product that is priced much higher than what you would expect, then it is likelihood a captive market. I recently came across several interesting examples of these:

1. Textbooks - how useful are most of the textbooks prescribed in courses? Not that much. Most of the knowledge can be gained through coursepacks, class discussions etc. Then why are they priced that high? Because they can, because the instructor decides the textbook often without consideration of the price, as the students have to bear the price.

2. Graduation pictures - I recently graduated from Kellogg, and an official photographer took 3 pictures of me - a close up, a ceremony potrait and a handshake with the dean. These are the only pictures that exist of this crucial moment of my life. So guess what the photographer can charge me for the pictures? A LOT. one 5 x 7 photo is for $9.95. Yes, the same picture that can be printed at CVS for 50 cents is for $9.95. Gross margin? Don't even ask. And this is the lowest priced product - most others are $100 plus.

3. Cinema popcorn and soda - what $4 for a soda that costs the movie theater 10 cents to make? Yes, captive market indeed.

An open offer

I am working on a startup idea and currently building a beta version of the site to test the concept. Rails is such a great platform to code on, yet it has taking me a lot more time than I expected. I need help, and I have an offer. I know several readers of this blog are applying to Business School, and have a technology background. So here is my proposal.

You are a B School applicant with a technology background, and are proficient in ruby on rails coding. You can me in building my site by taking on responsibility of some of the coding, and help me with my code when I get stuck.

I am a Kellogg graduate, and have substantial experience in both applying to B School and reviewing applications of other candidates. I will help you with your application, without doing anything unethical. What does that means? I will help you build a strategy for your application, review your essays and offer my comments, and help you present your skills and experiences positively. What I will not do: tell you what to write, create a story for you, tell you what I wrote in my applications, or anything that will give you an unfair advantage.


So we both are able to use our talents, and help each other. Interested? Email me at shobhitchugh at gmail dot com.

So much has changed

So much has changed since I last wrote a blog post. Here are some quick updates - more to come about each of these

1. I graduated from Kellogg! Woohoo

2. I went to London and Paris for a holiday with my family. It was amazing fun!

3. Now I am back and getting ready to move to Boston, start a new job etc.

4. I got an iPad - as a gift from my family for graduation. Woohoo!

So stay tunes for thoughts on each of these in the next few weeks! Thanks for reading.

The Best TED Talks

Google Doc here

This blog post is dedicated to cute cat videos

Seriously!


Cute Cat Can't Get Any Sleep - Watch more Funny Videos


EMBED-Cat Hugs Baby Kitten Having Nightmare - Watch more free videos

Seth Sternberg on business co-founders

"My Job As A Pre-Launch Startup CEO Was To Buy Sandwiches"

Amazing Article, must read. We need more honest, down to earth MBA entrepreneurs like that.

Kellogg Class Gift 2011

I am working on the Kellogg Class Gift team for the class of the 2011. The class Gift is a pledge that the graduating class makes for monetary contribution. The actual payments are made over a period of two years.

Why am I working for this cause? There are several reasons:

1. I hate the fact that I am graduating. I would rather stay in school for another 2 years. But given the fact that I am going to become an alum, I would rather take the first step in giving back and contribute towards the class gift.

2. I feel passionately about Kellogg - it has blessed me with great friendships, awesome knowledge, and helped me develop personally and professionally.

3. The class gift makes it easy to give back. One can decide the payment schedule, so I am giving a minimal amount this year, and more next year, when I will actually have money

4. I benefited greatly from alumni who have contributed in the past, and I feel that it is my responsibility to give back to the incoming classes.


So dear classmates, please do make your pledge now. We are counting on you.

Nota Bene II

Kellogg is hosting the Nota Bene series for graduating second years.Last week we had the second event in the series called 'Nota Bene II: Applying MBA Lessons to Your Life.' It featured some amazing Kellogg professors, Professors Tim Calkins, Daniel Diermeier, Kathleen Hagerty, Victoria Medvec, Derek Rucker and Florian Zettelmeyer. The panel was moderated by Professor Adam Galinsky. The event was amazing; particularly for some comments from Professors that I cannot post on this blog. However there were some great quotations that I noted down. All quotations have to do with failures that professors have experienced in their lives:

"Sometimes you have to fail on purpose, in order to progress further." - Derek Rucker, on having a terrible meeting with his colleagues on his way to establishing a center for marketing practice at Kellogg

"Over time, the things that you regret most are your inactions. You hardly ever regret your failures" - Victoria Medvec, on not negotiating enough when it counted, even though she loves to negotiate always (e.g., at the grocery store)

"Go back to the basics. Even negotiations professors fail at negotiations when they mess up the basics" - Adam Galinsky, on messing up a negotiation for his twin brother (an example he mentioned in class as well)

"Management by analogy is dangerous. Extract commonalities, but remember to understand what's different in the situation" - Florian Zettelmeyer, on overestimating market potential, when he ignored the fact that people, after a certain age, tend to die with increasing probability

"In your first post-MBA job, stay till you get promoted. This way, no one looking at your resume will be in doubt that you were fired" - Tim Calkins

"I like the professor, but not as much as the professor likes himself" - quote from TCEs that Professor Galinsky got from the class of 2011. He realized he talked a lot about his successes, and not much about his failures.

"First, I want to be as nice as possible. Second, I like to be straight with whoever I am negotiating with " - Kathleen Hagerty, on hiring some of Kellogg's brightest faculty as Associate Dean

"I love talking about depressing things." - Daniel Diermeier

"I love Stata" - Florian Zettelmeyer, on Stata

"You will be fine at McKinsey" - Florian Zettelmeyer
"I am not going to McKinsey" - 2nd year student
"Oh crap (not said, but implied)" - Florian Zettelmeyer