Dharma

Basic principles :

1. Forbearance:- It is the quality to remain calm and composed in all circumstances.

2. Control of mind:- One should exercise full control over the mind which is always restless and changing.

3. Kshama (Forgiveness):- It is virtue of those who are physically and morally strong. However, it is not desirable to forgive a habitual wrong doer.

4. Non Stealing:- One should not steal or take away or acquire anything which belongs to others, without paying its proper price and without permission of the rightful owner

5. Shauch (Cleanliness):- One should keep the body, mind and physical environment clean and pure.

6. Wisdom:- One should always try to gain wisdom through study, self experience and wise company.

7. Control of Senses:- One should keep one's sense (of action and knowledge) under control and become their master. There are five senses of Knowledge and five sense of action.

8. Knowledge:- One should acquire knowledge both of physical and spiritual domain from all possible sources

9. Truth:- One should practice truth in thought, words and deed

10. Non Anger:- One should try to remain calm and balanced even in the face of provocation.

Achieving Personal Excellence

   While I was reading Brian Tracy’s book, “No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline” I came across an interesting section, which in summary stated that if you want to join ”The Top 20 Percent” in a given field or profession then you need to achieve personal excellence in the specific skills required for that field or profession. You need to identify the key leaders or dominant players in the given field or profession and emulate their skills and behaviours. Brian Tracy also mentions that if you want to be successful identify a successful person and find out what they do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. You need to know what they do when they wake up in the morning, their exercise program, what they eat and drink, their daily routine, what they read and write, what they are thinking, and what they do in the evening before they go to sleep.

For example, to become a football (soccer) superstar you need to identify the skills and behaviours of the leading players and develop those skills and behaviours through learning and significant practice to achieve personal excellence in the game. If we take the example of the football star then the key skills required to achieve excellence include: fitness/endurance, ball skills (passing, receiving, dribbling, defensive, attacking, kicking, finishing), running speed, awareness and anticipation (position), decision-making, and most importantly, discipline, attitude and mindset.

The same approach applies to business and personal life. If you truly desire to be the best in your given field or profession (that is, the top 20 percent) you need to identify the skills and behaviours of the top performers, and develop and practice those skills and behaviours. For example, in my current role as General Manager, what I need to do is focus on leadership skills. As a summary from a previous blog, “A New Profile for Future Leaders“, the key skills and attributes of a future leader include:

·         Key leadership skills

·         Ability to create and articulate a vision for the future

·         Define and establish clear goals and objectives

·         Mentor and develop staff

·         Team dynamics

·         Ability to solve problems

·         Ability to generate new ideas and identify new opportunities

·         A high level of written and verbal communication skills

·         Negotiation and persuasive selling skills

·         Operational and project management skills

·         Financial management

·         Change management

Once you have identified these specific skills you then need to evaluate your level of competency for each skill by developing a Personal Skills Matrix. A skills matrix consists of a list of the required skills for your field or profession and a rating for each skill against the level of competency required.  The skills matrix will determine the gaps that exist and this will provide the basis for your personal development action plan that will encourage you to focus on the specific skills required for your development

Characteristics of an Entrepreneur: Do you have what it takes?

Entrepreneurship is defined as the process by which a new venture is created when an entrepreneur identifies a new opportunity in the market to create economic products and services. An entrepreneur is therefore someone who is willing and able to convert a new idea or invention into a successful innovation in the market. The innovation could be in the form of a product, a service, or a novel business concept or model.

The typical characteristics of an entrepreneur include:

1.   An enthusiastic person with a vision

2.   The ability to identify new opportunities

3.   Calculated risk-taking

4.   Responsible in decision-making

5.   Overwhelming urge to succeed

6.   Discipline and persistence

7.   Confident and persuasive communicators

8.   Driven by the sense of accomplishment

9.   The ability to coordinate and manage scarce resources (time, money and people)

Studies according to Arthur Cole (1959) have identified four types of entrepreneurs:

1.   The innovator

2.   The calculating inventor

3.   The over optimistic promoter

4.   The organisation builder

Entrepreneurship is a very difficult undertaking, where many new businesses fail. Only a very small percentage (approximately 1%) of people who go into business succeed. Entrepreneurial activities range from solo businesses, many now being created online, to establishing large businesses, such as mining, employing large numbers of people. Entrepreneurs can also exist within existing organisations who identify new opportunities able to grow the existing organisation or alternatively are involved in spinning out new businesses. These entrepreneurs are referred to as intrapreneurs. An innovative high performing organisation should nurture and support the development of intrapreneurs as this activity can create significant growth for the organisation, either through the internal development and commercialisation of new ideas or through the creation of subsidiary businesses. If organisations do not identify, nurture and support intrapreneurs then many will leave the organisation and create their own businesses.

Entrepreneurship has been identified by many economists, including Joseph Shumpeter, as a driving factor that creates value in the economy through the following benefits:

·         Creating new jobs

·         Expanding new markets

·         New products and services

·         Satisfying domestic consumption

·         Developing new and existing industries

·         Income generation and economic growth

·         Healthy competition creating higher quality products

·         Supporting the existence of government and their budgets