Own your communication

I wanna take to through an interesting conversation which I (over) heard recently, I little thought for food I must say. This was a conversation between a new manager (an expat) and his smart developer.

Mgr: Tom, Bangalore weather sux.
Tom: How do you know?

[Lol, I could see some stars flying above Mgr's head! - When you make a statement be careful]

Mgr: Well Tom, it's kinda you know - everyone knows it and I have my own experience too!

[Wow, I expected that answer coz every time you wanna beat around bush you call these 2 friends 1> Common knowledge 2> My past experience]

Tom: Oh, but will you mind sharing your experience with me? let me not make any assumptions here. I will be interested in knowing what made you to come to such a statement.
[Boy Tom you are asking for your manager to own his communication with supporting data]

I saw this manager looking at his watch, hinting Tom as he is in a hurry. But I am sure he just wanted to get out of the mess he created a while ago.

Take away:

• Manager would have said "Tom, I feel Bangalore weather sux". Now that's okie, here you are not making a statement but sharing your thought and asking the other persons opinion.
• Your 2 cents remains 2 cents unless it is backed by 2 billion worth supporting data / information.
• Prefixing an 'I feel' or 'I think' in your communication will help you owning it.

GooTube!!

• A popular, free video sharing portal.
• Very young, founded in Feb 2005
• Initial investment, 3.5 million
• More investment, 8 million in April 2006
• User base, 100 million clips are view daily + 65K clips are uploaded every day
• One of the popular in www, ranked 10th most popular site.

Now that’s YouTube.com, acquired by Google in 1.65 billion in October 2006! Can someone tell me what Larry and Sergey is up-to? Anyways this is what I think (and heard). From the above data I like YouTube, a potential company to be added into neatly laid acquisition plan. Still these factors are little scary for me:

- 1.65 billion (sorry that’s not all, what about lawsuits on copyrights which gonna come by)
- What will exist? Google videos or YouTube? As both has got different copyrights J
- Read Mark Cuban’s weblog moronic and lawsuites

I love google as a technology company but that’s not all! Coz I’ve seen Amazon looking more towards technology and others taking over them in business, I’ve seen Google coming with Orkut as a promise to social engineering but the society turning against them (shhhh try googling “orkut issues” and see the fun).

Well I forget to mention, yesterday I was reading about GFS (they call it Google File System) …

Significance of this moment...

I am not gonna talk about Asimov's fictious novels or Stephen Hawking's scientific theories. It's about the kind of time travel you and I do everyday. It's about us spending most of our life with our future!

A pleasant Monday morning, the weather looked awesome. Hold on how do I know! I never peeped out the window nor did I go out to say a 'good morning' to my early dawn. I woke up thinking about my 10am meeting. I finished my morning routines thinking about slide #1, #2 and #3 of my presentation. At the time for breakfast, I did not know what I ate, I was thinking about slides #4, #5 and #6... Presentation time! Now I am thinking about my boss's reaction (other director's reaction! or rather the whole world's reaction). Will it be a wow? Followed by a promotion? Excellent!. How I will be performing in my new position?... I think, in 10 minutes I even become a CEO and planned (dreamed?) how differently I will be functioning.

What did I miss in this whole process? Was it my present? Or rather so called 'this moment?' I don't know so let me ask Mr. Goldfinche (my favorite teacher). And this is what he said:
"Boy answer to these questions and you will get the answer for what you asked me". Wow I never knew answer to a question can be another question.

Q: How was the weather today morning?
A: Huh! It was kinda.. you know.. , Hey Mr Goldfinche I have no clue I think I never noticed :(

Q: Did you like yourself in front of the mirror today?
A: I don't know I never noticed! Am sorry I don’t even know whether I went in front of that mirror today!

Q: I am sure you forgot to even smile at those folks who wished you ‘morning’ at office
A: Eh! Did some one wish me?

Mr. Goldfinche, enough! I think I know your rest of the questions too and I think I got my answer already.

I think now I need to rewind my today! I woke up again, I looked out the window I could not resist myself going out and telling a ‘Hi’ to the dawn who is blushing at me. The wind, the red – blue sky, the misty green leaves, sounds of Pipits… I felt the world is welcoming me!Breakfast table, I could feel the heavenly smell coming from kitchen, Idli and Sambar and that’s my favorite. ‘Mom I am hungry!’ I knew that one word can make her day.

At office, huh! How could I miss the beautiful smile and good morning which comes from Miss. xxx who sits in the reception. At the presentation I was sure I was keeping my 100% there. Everyone loved my energy, my charm, the way I was getting into the depth of questions the audience asked, the way I could give my 100% to everyone’s questions.

I loved what Mr. Goldfinche taught me, but let me also hear from you, is it worth focusing a little more on our ‘this moment’?