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Stories...Steve jobs

The first story is about connecting the dots.


I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?


It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.


And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.


It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:


Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.


None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.


Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.


My second story is about love and loss.


I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.


I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.


I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.


During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.


I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.


My third story is about death.


When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.


Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.


About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.


I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.


This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:


No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.


Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.


When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.


Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.


Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.


Thank you all very much.

GRE Vs Novice

A NORMAL PERSON : People who live in glass houses
should not throw stones.
GRE STUDENT : Individuals who make their abodes in
vitreous edifices would be advised to refrain from
catapulting perilous projectiles.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Twinkle, twinkle, little star
GRE STUDENT : Scintillate, scintillate, asteroid
minim.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : All that glitters is not gold.
GRE STUDENT: All articles that coruscate with
resplendence are not truly auriferous.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Beggars are not choosers
GRE STUDENT : Sorting on the part of mendicants must
be interdicted.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Dead men tell no tales
GRE STUDENT : Male cadavers are incapable of rendering
any testimony.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Beginner's luck
GRE STUDENT : Neophyte's serendipity.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : A rolling stone gathers no moss
GRE STUDENT : A revolving lithic conglomerate
accumulates no congeries of small, green, biophytic
plant.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Birds of a feather flock together
GRE STUDENT: Members of an avian species of identical
plumage tend to congregate.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Beauty is only skin deep
GRE STUDENT : Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous
profundity.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Cleanliness is godliness
GRE STUDENT : Freedom from incrustations of grime is
contiguous to rectitude.
>>****************************************************** *
NORMAL PERSON : There's no use crying over spilt milk
GRE STUDENT : It is fruitless to become lachrymose of
precipitately departed lactile fluid.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : You can't try to teach an old dog new
tricks
GRE STUDENT : It is fruitless to attempt to
indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovative
maneuvers.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Look before you leap
GRE STUDENT : Surveillance should precede saltation.
>>****************************************************** *
NORMAL PERSON : He who laughs last, laughs best
GRE STUDENT : The person presenting the ultimate
cachinnation possesses thereby the optimal
cachinnation.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : All work and no play makes Jack a dull
boy.
GRE STUDENT : Exclusive dedication to necessitous
chores without interludes of hedonistic diversion
renders Jack a hebetudinous fellow.
*******************************************************
NORMAL PERSON : Where there's smoke, there's fire!
GRE STUDENT : Where there are visible vapours having
their provenance in ignited carbonaceous materials,
there is conflagration

Emotional Intelligence

it started in 1990s when in america it was found that people
scoring high in SAT and having high IQ were not actually
successful in life. The research began with and then it was found
that there is something that it is an indication of persond
soft skills.

EI:
"emotional INtelliugence is the sum total of your reactions to the
external world and the humans therein, it emasures your sympathty,
empathy, compassion and other basic human values."


IQ = Mental age/ Physical age

A people with high IQ may not psess a lot of soft skills.

Five elements of EI:
Self Awareness
Self Regulation
Motivation
Empathy
Social Skills




eqi.org.......
"Emotional intelligence is the innate potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, remember, learn from, manage and understand emotions."

Test: http://ei.haygroup.com/resources/default_ieitest.htm

The Basics of Emotional Intelligence Include

* Knowing your feelings and using them to make life decisions you can live with.
* Being able to manage your emotional life without being hijacked by it -- not being paralyzed by depression or worry, or swept away by anger.
* Persisting in the face of setbacks and channeling your impulses in order to pursue your goals.
* Empathy -- reading other people's emotions without their having to tell you what they are feeling.
* Handling feelings in relationships with skill and harmony -- being able to articulate the unspoken pulse of a group, for example.

TEst2: http://www.queendom.com/cgi-bin/tests/transfer.cgi

GD Insights

General insights
~ Remain calm and confident
Don't let anyone dominate you. This does not mean you try to hog all the airtime; that will work against you. Assurance, not arrogance, is the mantra.
~ Body language
Seem interested in the discussion, without intruding into others' space. Never point fingers at anyone, or stare at the moderators. Sit with your back erect and face alert. There are limits, however, to how much you can do it without seeming artificial. When in doubt, be yourself.

~ Starting the GD
This usually conveys a positive impression, but make sure you do it only if you have understood the topic properly. If you start the GD despite having only a fuzzy idea of the topic, you risk taking the whole discussion along an incoherent or irrelevant path. This will be seen negatively by the selection panel.
It's usually safe to be the second or third speaker. The key benefit of starting is low competition, since usually upto two or three people attempt to start the GD.
In later stages, when everyone wants to put forth their points, you have to fight to be listened to. It generally works well to define the topic first, before starting to interpret it.

Analyse the topic
Analyse it from various angles. Some mnemonics that help in getting creative ideas:
~ SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
This applies especially for case studies.
~ STEP: Social, Technical, Economic, Political
~ W5H: What, Why, When, Where, Who, How
Who is the protagonist?
Why did she or he do whatever has occurred?
Could it have happened at some other time?
Why exactly this moment?
Such questions will get you thinking and generate a lot of ideas.

Time and space
Usually people tend to place the events only in the current socio-economic milieu. Break out of that mould.
Think five years back, 50 years, medieval times or even antiquity. Don't stick to a particular country (such as India). Think in terms of what would be the case had we been in the US, or Africa, or the Middle East, or South East Asia. Good historical examples, if coherently related to the topic, guarantee visibility and airtime.
I know a person who recited a Gita Shloka in a GD and got selected in an elite B-School. In the interview, the panel would be more interested in a person who made a memorable point in the GD, as compared to somebody who stayed silent.
For example, if the topic is 'The role of media in our daily lives,' don't just talk of the Page 3 culture or the trivialisation of news channels.
Think in terms of other countries: The Truman Show, the current controversy over Prophet Mohammed's cartoons published in a Danish newspaper or the impact the Tiananmen Square massacre photographs had in galvanising world opinion against China.
Talk about how the first Gulf War's coverage on CNN made the American public treat it almost like a video game, and the effect powerful images such as those of the Vietnam War, or the Iraq prisoner-of-war abuse can have on the home citizens' psyche.
Think of the very definition of 'media' itself.
It's the plural of medium, the means of exchanging information. Media is not just newspapers, magazines or television. Think of emerging media, like blogs, online radios and PodCasts.
Even a T-Shirt with a catchy slogan is media, since it gets you noticed, evokes certain emotions in the mind of the reader and affects the way she or he relates to you, behaves with you.
Classic advertisements and their jingles that were part of our childhood are media, since they too evoke specific emotions in a large section of society.
Countries like Malaysia have built positive auras around themselves through the effective use of the advertising media.
In offline media, even a neighbourhood chaiwala is a medium, since through him you get to learn about local happenings and rumours.
Wikipedia (a free encyclopedia) is a powerful and democratic emerging medium of information.

Marry imagination with knowledge
As evident in the media example above, the main thing is to let your imagination flow freely in the one or two minutes you get for thinking about the topic. Jot down ideas as they crowd your brain.
In the last few seconds of the above time, form a coherent opening line in your mind, which would get attention and start directing the discussion. This opener is usually a definition, or a quote ('Perception is reality,' for example). However, you can't just leave a quote hanging in the air, so talk about how media is the most critical source of information, through which our perceptions form.
If you know a bit of history, you can talk about Hearst, who is considered the father of yellow journalism (sensationalising news reporting) and the first person to trivialise newspapers.
Having a good knowledge of history and current affairs undoubtedly helps in GDs, interviews and, for that matter, in any social interactio

11 REASONS FOR REJECTION IN THE INTERVIEW

11 REASONS FOR REJECTION IN THE INTERVIEW

1. Poor attitude. Many candidates come across as arrogant. While employers can afford to be self-centered, candidates cannot.

2. Appearance. Many candidates do not consider their appearance as much as they should. First impressions are quickly made in the first three to five minutes.

3. Lack of research. It's obvious when candidates haven't learned about the job, company or industry prior to the interview. Visit the library or use the Internet to research the company, then talk with friends, peers and other professionals about the opportunity before each meeting.

4. Not having questions to ask. Asking questions shows your interest in the company and the position. Prepare a list of intelligent questions in advance.

5. Not readily knowing the answers to interviewers' questions. Anticipate and rehearse answers to tough questions about your background, such as recent termination or an employment gap. Practicing with your spouse or a friend before the interview will help you to frame intelligent responses.


6. Relying too much on resumes. Employees hire people, not paper. Although a resume can list qualifications and skills, it's the interview dialogue that will portray you as a committed, responsive team player.

7. Too much humility. Being conditioned not to brag, candidates are sometimes reluctant to describe their accomplishments.


8. Not relating skills to employers' needs. A list of sterling accomplishments means little if you can't relate them to a company's requirements. Reiterate your skills and convince the employer that you can "do the same for them".

9. Handling salary issues ineptly. Candidates often ask about salary and benefit packages too early. If they believe an employer is interested, they may demand inappropriate amounts and price themselves out of the jobs. Candidates who ask for too little undervalue themselves or appear desperate.

10. Lack of career direction. Job hunters who aren't clear about their career goals often can't spot or commit to appropriate opportunities. Not knowing what you want wastes everybody's time.

11. Job shopping. Some applicants, particularly those in certain high-tech, sales and marketing fields, will admit they're just "shopping" for opportunities and have little intention of changing jobs. This wastes time and leaves a bad impression with employers they may need to contact in the future.

HeartBreak

Have you, at any point in your life, suffered a broken heart? Those waves of intense grief, emptiness, sadness, anger, confusion, heaviness and low self-esteem? Depending on the kind of person you are and the situation, break-ups can be traumatic enough to affect your emotional and physical health. "They may say that no one ever died of a broken heart, but when you're suffering from one, it sure doesn't feel that way, at least initially," says Sanjeev Sharma, 29, a software engineer who felt let down immensely when his four-year relationship with his girlfriend ended in 2005. Rishi Gupta, 29, a manager in a telecom company says his best friend Amit Sharma* was so emotionally traumatised by his heartbreak that he had heart palpitations and other health-related problems. "Most people will tell you that you'll get over it or you'll meet someone else, but it seems easier said than done," observes Pankaj Sharma, 28, an executive in a recruitment consultancy in Delhi, who experienced heartache when he broke up with his first girlfriend. There are strategies that can lessen the pain. Here are 20 steps that can help: Be aware of your real intentions Do you want to move past the break-up. Or do you harbour hopes of getting back with your ex? Define your emotional goal. You can't move on until you've truly accepted that the relationship is over. Make a clean break Don't do the 'on-again-off-again' routine. It will only prolong the inevitable. Also, resist the urge to call your ex. How do you know if you are over your ex? That's the million-dollar question. "A good indication is when you no longer want to get back together with the person. Additionally, when the thought of your ex having a relationship with someone else doesn't affect you. Although you might not necessarily be 'happy' for him/her, but if you have gotten over your ex, you won't care either way," says Pankaj. Don't get self-destructive Getting angry (or desperate), trying to hurt yourself or someone else, drinking or taking drugs to become numb and feel better, or locking yourself up in a dark room are not going to do anything to help your situation. "These things don't actually deal with the pain, they only mask it, which only prolongs the sadness," says Shalini Nigam, 24, a senior executive with an MNC in Delhi. Share your feelings It could be with a friend or family member. Talking is a great way to cleanse your soul and ease your tension. Cry it out Getting some of those raw emotions out can be a big help, so it's okay to cry as much as needed, irrespective of whether you are a a guy or a girl. Give your heart time to heal It takes time for sadness to go away. This depends on what caused your heartbreak, how you deal with loss, and how quickly you tend to bounce back from things. "Getting over a break-up can take a couple of days to many weeks -- and sometimes even months," says Pankaj. Keep yourself busy This can be difficult when you're coping with sadness and grief, but it really helps. Just make sure you busy yourself with positive activities like doing projects around the house, going on a trip, exercising, friend-time and focusing on studies or work. "Don't get self destructive and at all costs avoid excesses of any kind," says Sanjeev. Watch a movie To distract yourself, choose a comedy that has cheered you up before. Or watch one that's guaranteed to make you sob -- you might be surprised how good that makes you feel. Take a holiday/vacation or weekend off Visit an old friend or go back home to your roots. A change of environment does wonders for the spirit. "It recharges your batteries. It also gives you some time to think and find closure in a different setting," says Pankaj. Surround yourself with friends Interacting with others will help you in resuming a normal life balance. It may open up opportunities for new friendships too. "Consider dating other people, but be wary of rebound relationships," advises Sanjeev. Remind yourself of your good qualities Often people with broken hearts blame themselves for what happened. Getting your self-esteem back on track is the key to your recovery. Focus on yourself "You're going through a tough time, so do the things that make you feel good again," says Shalini.Pamper yourself. Get a new hairstyle, have a spa day, dance, or go shopping. Get lots of sleep, eat healthy foods, and exercise regularly to minimise stress and depression. Improve yourself This is an opportunity to make a journey into self-discovery. Discover what you want from life and go after it. Get rid of the memories "Do your mourning and then put everything that reminds you of your ex in a box and seal it. Return it to them, throw it away, donate it to charity or ask a friend to hold on to it indefinitely. Get rid of anything that keeps you in the past, if it hurts," advises Rishi. Learn from the break-up Take the positives from it, and even more importantly, learn from the negatives. "There's nothing worse than dragging your negative habits along with you to future relationships, because you'll just end up with the same result until you learn from your mistakes," says Sanjeev. Get out Force yourself to go out even if you are feeling depressed. Go for a cup of coffee or a long walk. Move on People who are dealing with a break up tend to play over past events in their head ad nauseum. This behaviour is normal in the early days of a break up but it can quickly become a dangerous and defeatist coping strategy. Remember that the end is just the beginning. Visualise your future, block out the past. Pick up the pieces and go after the kind of life and relationship you deserve. Don't punish your next partner Judge future relationships on their own merits. Don't let paranoia from the past enter the present. If you live in the past too much, you aren't ready to be in another relationship yet. Learn to trust again. Don't let a bad experience keep you from living your life to the fullest. Consider getting professional help Sometimes the sadness is so deep -- or lasts so long -- that one may need extra support. For a person who isn't starting to feel better after a few weeks or who continues to feel depressed, talking to a psychologist or counsellor or psychiatrist can be very helpful. Take charge Find the courage to pull yourself out of this rut. "Take charge of yourself and you will find that there actually is life after 'What's-His-Name' or 'What's-Her-Name'! You just need to make the decision so you can move on," says Shalini. Take tiny steps each day and you will be amazed that you are starting to feel better. Lean on your friends and family, and remember, time will heal all wounds.

Generate Ideas.

Success at work is often a result of combining knowledge, skills and the ability to inject your work environment with fresh and breakthrough ideas. While conventional wisdom teaches us to learn skills, and enhance our knowledge for the job, we often forget that we need to keep coming up with new ideas that will help the organisation succeed and also keep our jobs secure in today's competitive landscape. We offer a few tips towards helping you break out of a routine thought process and generate breakthrough ideas. Exercise your mind Your mind, like your body, needs exercise and can get it through challenges and problem-solving. A good way to feed your mind is to read a lot and study the success stories of other businesses and entrepreneurs. Read case studies related to your industry or biographies of successful people. This will not only stimulate your grey cells but also provide you a dose of inspiration. Learn how other successful people generate breakthrough ideas. Capture your thoughts When the brilliant spells do come, make sure you capture them. Don't rely on mental notes, you'll surely forget them. Have a notepad, PDA or voice recorder ready at all times, even next to your bed at night (who knows, you may suddenly strike gold at 2 am). Once you've recorded your idea, use it as soon as you can. I read an advertisement for IT company Accenture, which said: "An idea is like a cup of coffee, it's not going to stay hot forever." So remember that ideas are best when they're fresh. "I always carry a voice recorder with me and tape my thoughts. Listening to them later in the day ensures that I don't deprive myself of the brilliant phases that we all have during the day," says G Rajaraman, a senior sports correspondent with Outlook magazine. Change your setting Your mind reacts to its surroundings and has an uncanny ability to generate new ideas when the physical setting changes. You may be thinking in a very linear and academic way while you are at your workstation, so take your laptop/PDA and sit by in your office garden/park or cafeteria and you may see some fresh perspectives. Take a walk or hit the gym. The mind is agile when the body is indulging in a disciplined and rhythmic physical activity like a jog or workout. For all you know, a change of setting may bring you the inspiration you need. "I am at my best when I am out in the open with my laptop and listening to my favourite music during a lunch break," says Shelly Jain, a Delhi based consultant with NIIT. You could even take a notepad and jot down your ideas and thoughts and later organise them when you get to your workstation. The time spent thinking would be worthwhile as you will be away from the usual workplace distractions. Go out of your way to help others Step out of your job description once in a while and help others with their tasks. Do this without having to be asked. Saying, "Need a hand there?" has a two-fold effect. First, you encourage others to give of themselves, creating a more positive workplace. Second, you buy yourself a future favour, since kindness always comes back. The people you have helped will become soundboards for your ideas and will be able to give you new ideas and suggestions that may get you thinking on a new track. "A response such as 'This is not my area of work. Find out from the person concerned', shows that the individual is responding from his own frame of reference, an attitude detrimental for both employee and organisation," says Anil Bhatnagar, a management consultant. Help people whenever they need your expertise. Offer your support to new emloyees as they usually have the ability to come out with bright ideas. Their minds are fresh and have not been conditioned to think in a linear fashion like most tenured employees, so they may springboard some fresh perspectives. Know your organisation's and customers' needs You must know if what you have to offer is in high demand at work. Find out the direction in which your company is headed and the areas in which it needs maximum improvement. This will ensure that you ideas have a business impact and act as a catalyst in your growth within the organisation. There's much strength to be derived from knowing how a company operates as a whole. Tailor your ideas to meet the organisational objectives and you will be in a position to add maximum benefit to your organisation. Did you ever think that companies would be selling fairness cream for men? Emami, a Kolkata-based company with interests in personal and healthcare business realised the need and launched 'Fair and Handsome', a fairness cream for men in April 2006. The executives at Emami realised that in the age of metrosexual men, who go for manicures and pedicures, a fairness cream, if positioned well, could be a winner in the personal care market for men. Understand your work environment In today's teamwork-oriented work environments, no man is an island. You are always a part of the bigger picture that the organisation has in mind. Expose yourself to different realities. If you are a marketing person, go and spend some time with the finance team or the product management team and ask them questions about their nature of work. Learn to see things from their perspective. The best ideas sometimes come from looking outside the familiar and that is what "thinking out of the box" means. Google.com founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were batchmates at Stanford when the thought of empowering people by creating an easy search mechanism hit them. The Naukri.com advertisement depicting Hari Sadu as the monster boss is a good example of out-of-the-box thinking, because it mixes humour with a message. So keep your eyes and ears open and indulge in some idea generation activities.