holdyourthoughts

There are tons and tons of books on leadership and what makes a successful leader. It has spawned an industry of "leadership consultants" who help manufacture leaders! But, stripped of all fancy nomenclature, I believe leadership boils down to four key traits. Here they are: Vision All great leaders have a compelling vision of the future that they use to energize people. They can visualize something which others cannot. e.g. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela could see freedom for their people. Steve Jobs could "see" his products before even it was on the drawing board. Conviction/Passion Vision without conviction is just a dream. Great leaders have always believed in their vision and have faced numerous odds against them. e.g. Henry Ford during his initial days of Model-T when no one believed in him. Warren Buffet, when he started his investment partnerships, when his father and his mentor both warned him against it. Integrity People may follow so

From Fortune magazine: The Best Advice I Ever Got

I came across some very nice quotes on the web.  Some were really good and worth repeating. Figure out what the top five most important stuff is, focus relentlessly on that and keep iterating. Less is more. -- Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify  My personal limit is upto 3 concurrent goals. It gets much much more complicated if it grows more than that. Have 3-4-5 (whatever suits you fine) goals that are top of the list and focus on them wholeheartedly. Don’t let people tell you your ideas won’t work. If you have a hunch that something will work, go build it. Ignore the haters. -- Dennis Crowley, CEO, FourSquare  There will always be naysayers. It's more important to believe in yourself and do what you think is right. End of the day you are only answerable to yourself, and no one else. Follow your gut. it may be wrong, but you won’t regret it if you fail. You’ll regret it if you ignore your gut and fail. -- Sarah Lacy, CEO, PandoDaily  Follow your instincts, but upto a limit. The

I keep a list of things that I like doing. At the beginning of every week, I make sure I put atleast one thing from that list into my calendar. Some of the things I have on that list are: reading detective novels (preferably Agatha Christie!!),  watching a detective or thriller movie,  playing tennis,  watching tennis!!,  speaking to close friends (the good old adda ),  having a cup of self-made  darjeeling tea,  reading investment books and reports,  playing with my son, reading him stories listening to songs from Kishore Kumar the list goes on... It is important to do things that you love frequently. It refreshes and recharges you.

I came across this incredible presentation on doing the impossible. Each of the quotes is soul-inspiring. Do The IMPOSSIBLE