Opportunity Cost OR Opportunity Time – What matters to us ?

Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of mine. The conversation was about someone quitting his job and becoming an Entrepreneur.

If someone quits his job to become an Entrepreneur, he then stand to lose his salary. Let’s assume he was making $100,000 / year in his job, which he is going to forfeit. Typically Entrepreneurs work without any salary for several years, unless his business is sufficiently funded at an early stage. So, until the Entrepreneur makes $100,000 / year for himself, he is losing out on other opportunities to make that $100,000. This is my understanding of Opportunity Cost, as per Economics. We can use anything which is tangible to explain Opportunity cost, not only $$, but typically it is $$ related.

Now, lets replace ‘cost’ with ‘time’ in the above example.

Lets assume, we work 40 hrs a week, for 50 weeks in a year. ie., 2000 hrs in a year to make $ 100,000.

There are 2 parameters here:

1). Time

2). Money

Opportunity Cost, in general, talks about the 2nd parameter. What about the 1st parameter ? time… an important aspect of our life.

Ever since we were born, our biological clock is ticking. The timer is preset. It will stop one day. All human beings basically work towards adding value to each second they spend on this earth. The value could be in the form of happiness, contentment, love, sacrifice, sense of accomplishment, giving back to society, travel the world, living life to the fullest or whatever we desire. The 2nd parameter, money, is important too, but it is an enabler. It acts as a mean to add value to the limited time we got on this planet. So, shouldn’t we value ‘time’ more than ‘money’ ? And thus I came up with the term “Opportunity Time”.

If you quit your current job and spend the 2000 hrs you got in a year on something that you’ve dreamt of; that you’ve been passionate about; that you would do without someone bossing over you; that you would do without awaiting for the weekend; that you would like to do 24 x 7; that you don’t care how much money you make;  wouldn’t you want to pursue that ? I am sure, you would. If your current job is giving you all this, well and good. If you are spending 2000 hrs/year on something that you aren’t passionately engaged, for the sake for making $ 100,000 then your time is better spent elsewhere where your passion lies. And that’s “Opportunity Time”.  I’ve spoken to several Entrepreneurs all over the world. An Entrepreneur likes to make money, but also very much likes the journey of building something from scratch. And that experience is represented on a time scale.

So, are you currently living the life that YOU want ? Are you spending your ‘time on earth’ wisely ? For me, I’ve made a whole-hearted attempt to live the life that I want.

Thoughts ?

How to ‘think out of the box’ ?

Thinking out of the box is usually interpreted as creativity. Those that are good at creativity are known to be right brainers. ie., they use their right hemisphere of the brain to think as opposed to logical, analytical thinkers who use their left brain.

There has been some debate going on elsewhere that the left brainers functions which is more analytical and process heavy can be computerized sooner or later given how fast technology is evolving, and the future will be mostly ruled by the right brainers. Whatever it is, to me, right and left brainers compliment each other’s skill set and tapping it appropriately can lead to better results.

Everyone possesses creativity. No doubt about it. The degree with which they possess creativity could probably differ. And, I attribute this to the social patterns that we follow in our daily lives.

In this blog post, I wanted to share a technique with which left brainers (A.K.A logical, analytical thinkers) can build creativity. I am not trying to create a process by which you can build creativity, doing so will bring our left brain into play. That is what we are going to try to avoid. It’s a technique which doesn’t have any strict method to follow. And that’s the beauty of creativity, isn’t !.

Here is the technique: Break the rules !

Don’t get me wrong !. Or, don’t get caught by breaking the rules. I meant to say, break the social patterns that we’ve been following involuntarily. Lets take a look at a typical routine in our life:

We get up in the morning, typically at the same time (if it’s a weekday), have the morning coffee, breakfast, read the newspaper, take the normal bus/train/car route, start our work by checking mails, chat with the same bunch of colleagues, eat at any of the handful of restaurants we frequent in the afternoon with the same bunch of colleagues, return home in the evening via the same bus/train/car route, play with kids, watch TV, eat dinner, chat with our spouse and go to bed.

Do you see a monotonous pattern in our life ? Just break it !

Obviously, we cannot break it in a big bang way. Just a bit of tinkering here and there is all is needed to stir up the pot, break the routines, get a different perspective on our lives, leading to…Creativity.

How about this: If you travel to & from work by bus, alight at a couple of stops after your home bus stop and walk back; Initiate a conversation with one of your neighbor you have never spoken with; read on unrelated stuffs such as astronomy (if you are not an Astro-scientist) or grab one of your kid’s book; cook food for your spouse and kid; there is no end to experimentation here. Just break loose.

Just see, hear, smell, speak and do unrelated stuffs !

They say ‘only death and taxes are certain‘ and everything else is not. So, excluding death and taxes, we have tens of hundreds of parameters in our lives to experiment with.

I recently read a book titled ‘Applied Spirituality by Manoj Thulasidas‘ that has got nothing to do with my profession !. I enjoyed reading the book.

Have you broken any rules in the recent past ?

What I learnt from a 12 year old kid

I was recently having dinner with a friend of mine who had come to Singapore on a business visit. He is an American who had relocated to South India along with his family about 10 years ago. We had dinner together at Clarke Quay just across the Singapore river on a beautiful evening.

His son, who is about 12 years old joined us after an hour later. He was a nice young man with curly hair and was pleasant to converse with. I hinted to my friend that if he continues to live in India for the next 10 year, the chances of his son making it big in Bollywood is extremely high.

All went well. Time to pay the bill and depart. The waitress came and presented the bill. While I and my friend were arguing who is going to pay, this young man initiated a conversation with the waitress.

“Ma’m, the food was very delicious. I really loved it. Thanks for serving. Please tell this to your chef too!”

Just few simple sentences. The waitress was simply blown away. Not sure how many such compliments she ever received in her life as a waitress, but I can imagine how many she could have received in the past by the one gazillion thanks she said to the kid.

I had no idea whether its his parent’s or teacher’s or friend’s influence but it certainly caught my attention. It caught my attention to the extent that it made me feel bad that I have all along made a simple yet serious mistake of not giving genuine appreciation. The kid was an inspiration to me. He taught me to take human to human interaction to the next level. He taught me how to express warmth and kindness in a subtle way. Many a times, we take simple things for granted. And it is with such rude awakenings , we tend to put things in perspective.

How to develop Courage ?

The answer is: You don’t have to. It builds up automatically when the outcome of an action doesn’t bother you !

While I agree there are numerous ways by which one can build courage, and in fact there are tonnes of information already out there on the Internet, however in this blog post, I want to offer an interesting perspective that has worked quite well for me.

I had a friend back in good ole school days, who had the knack of initiating a conversation with any girl instantly irrespective of the context. Many times in those instances, the girls never gave a damn to him. And it didn’t matter to him either. So, you see, the outcome of his action wasn’t bothering him. To him, this isn’t courage because it just builds up automatically, but for his friends (including me), he is the ‘most courageous guy’ (talking to girls, I mean) in the school.

Agreed, this may not apply to every situation imaginable. Examples like: when lives of tens of hundreds of people are at stake, we will bother about the outcome of our action. When lots of money is at stake, we will bother about the outcome of our action. When we have huge responsibilities on our shoulders, we will bother about the outcome of our action.

So, how to make ‘courage’ immaterial to us ? The key is to shift our focus from the ‘outcome’ to the ‘action’. For my friend above, he ‘loves’ his action and doesn’t bother about its outcome. I carefully chose the word ‘love’ here, because he simply LIKES doing the stuff which is talking to every girl in his vicinity. A Photographer who ‘loves’ his job, doesn’t bother if he will become the CEO of his Company OR if he will make boatload of money (even if so, he will anyway going to spend on expenses lenses). He loves his ‘action’ which is taking great pictures. And, in doing so, he builds competency. He grows as a photographer. And invariably, the ‘outcome’ is nothing but excellent. So, my point here is, focus on loving the ‘action’ to drive the ‘best possible outcome’.

Anyone had any interesting ‘courage-less’ moments in your lives ? Love to hear them !.

A stunning new header image !

I got a new header image for my blog. Courtesy by Pawan Pandey, a very good friend of mine and a brilliant photographer whose work can be found here. I hand-picked this image that he shot when he was holidaying in Bali, Indonesia. I have always wondered what is he doing in the IT industry instead of taking pictures of marine lives in Australia or Anacondas in the Amazon forests.

Start your new year with 360 degree feedback !

Hello Everyone !

My first blog post in 2011.

I have a habit of pondering over what has happened in my life in the past. Particularly at the start of a new year. Looking back at 2010, I’ve done a lot of stuffs. Some of my actions and words might have made some happy, some sad, and some even hurt. And I wouldn’t have observed this at all at that moment.

I’ve listed below few ‘categories’ of people who are basically part of our lives. You live and interact with them on a daily basis. You can add more to the list, if you want to, however, this pretty much completes what is called a 360 degree feedback. It’s a simple technique to see yourself from ‘others’ point of view. We all consider ourselves to be a very nice human being, but what does the world think of you ? It could be completely opposite to that of what you think. 360 degree feedback pretty much answers this question.

There are several methods out there on the Internet to get a 360 degree feedback, but I am simplifying it to the core. Just ask ‘what is that one thing that I did well last year ?’ and ‘what is that one thing that I shouldn’t have said/done’ ? – to each of below category of people. You can pick a few in each of these categories, someone whom you respect a lot and will be open in providing honest feedback. This may not apply for all categories – because you would normally have one spouse, one boss, for example.

1. Spouse

2. Kids

3. Parents (In-laws, incl)

4. Friends

5. Boss

6. Subordinates

After speaking with all categories of people, see if there is a ‘pattern’ in their responses. ie., most of them agree on certain ‘behavior of yours’. That’s something you’ll have to introspect and decide what has to be done about it.

While (1) and (2) does not apply for me, I did speak with the rest, albeit briefly. Apart from some positive feedback that I received, I have done something in the past year that has upset my mom. I apologized to her, offered an explanation and promised to handle such situations better in the future.

Hope all of you have had a great start to the new year. I hope I can make it even better for you with this blog post.

The “Other Countdown”

The new year is fast approaching. I am going to Fort Canning Park Siloso beach at Sentosa, along with my friend for the count-down. I am sure many of you are going to be part of the new year celebrations all over the world. It’s going to be great fun. We are going to step in to the second decade of the 21st century. The clock is ticking !!!.

On the new year eve, I wanted to write something on a lighter note. Anyways….I have been itching to write about the topic of extending this ‘count-down’ to our lives. Our lives has got a ‘shelf life’. It doesn’t go on forever. I came up with this math, just to stir up the pot  Sometimes we need some rude awakening !.

Let’s assume a human’s active life ends at 60 years. For some its shorter than this, and for some its longer.

If you are 40 yrs old, 60-40 = 20 x 365 = 7300 active days to live !

If you are 35 yrs old, 60-35 = 25 x 365 = 9125 active days to live !

If you are 30 yrs old, 60-30 = 30 x 365 = 10950 active days to live !

This is what I meant by the ‘other count-down’. With X days to go in our lives, “Are we living our lives the way WE want or living as per existing social patterns that doesn’t add any value to your life ?“

My answer to my own question is: No, I am not; but I’ve made a whole-hearted attempt to live the life that I want. And, it simply feels great !.

On that note,

I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year 2011. Live your life to the fullest.