Do not pursue single skill in today's economy

In the blog on skill combinations, i had written that in aesthetic fields, indepth skills in one field - be it playing guitar, singing, drawing -  are more useful than combining two skills, say of music and drawing. When i heard the concert of Salil Kulkarni and Sandeep Khare last Sunday at Kalidas Natyagruh, i realised that i was mistaken.

Here are two diverse personalities who have created something unique by combining two different skills: Music and Poetry. Salil Kulkarni has been a musician. He learnt music at a very young age. He has composed music for many albums. On the other hand, Sandeep Khare has been a poet. His interest in music comes from his parental background in music. He calls himself a poet who can sing.These two met each other after hearing about others work, found a common 'passion' in presenting poetry with music, and started this concert where poems are recited and sung.

No one could have imagined the success of this concert. It was 880th show when i heard it last week. But after hearing the concert now, one can easily guess the reasons of success. In my view, the concert is successful because it fuses thought and emotion. When we hear poetry alone, we use intellect to understand the brilliant expression of a beautiful and sometimes complex thought in very few words. When we hear music alone, we have to use our senses, the sense of hearing. We would not go to poetry concert until we are a poetry lover, and we would not go to music concert until we are a music lover. But because of this combination of poetry and music in one concert, many of us like to go to this concert because we can hear our own thoughts presented in a nice way. The experience of concert is more 'complete' and  'fulfilling', because we are fusing our body ( senses) and mind ( intellect) together in one whole.

In today's world, you will observe an array of interesting jobs where skill combinations are more important than deep skill in one area. In some jobs, the skill combination is done by one person, while in some jobs the skill combination has to be done by two different persons, because the specialities are too deep to be learnt by one person.

Skill combinations in one person

Here is a sample list of skill combinations that an individual can combine in his work:

• Sports Combinations - Sports coach is a combination of enough knowledge of game, say football, and how the skill of game grows in a player. Jose Mourinho is an example of a football player who became coach. If you see back end jobs in sports - like sports commentators, sport umpires, sport administrators, sport event managers - you will see that the sports field  requires people many people who have combination skills, than one dimensional skill like football
• Music engineer: In this combination, the skill of music can be combined with the skill of engineering. Please check out this link and you will be surprised to observe the numerous ways in which music can be combined with other skills. Another example of music combination is film direction. Many directors like Raj Kapoor and Subhash Ghai have succeeded because they could combine 'music' in their film very seamlessly with their 'film story'. Music field requires many professionals with skill combinations, than just a single skill of music alone.  
• Manager - is a combination of one focused skill such as engineering Plus enough 'Mind growth' (mental growth that we discussed in an earlier blog ) that is required. That is why all doers cannot become managers. That is why all players cannot become good captains. One such example is Sachin Tendulkar. Skill combination of manager or supervisor is in high demand all the time. 
• Software combinations - Practically everything in software, the fastest growing sector in any economy, requires combination of two skills. For example, ERP analyst in SAP requires understanding the underlying business process ( of sales or production) along with the 'software' skill.

If you observe the increasing specialities in today's economy, it is obvious that the growing areas of excellence in today's economy are not the areas of excellence in one speciality, but those areas that require combination of two specialities. For instance, it is not surprising to observe that fastest growth in the last two decades has been in the field of MBA, the field that requires a combination of skills, not just sales alone, or production alone, or finance alone. 

Skill combinations done by two people

Growing specialisation in today's economy also makes it imperative that, to produce something unique, one should collaborate with someone else to combine the two skills. Salil Kulkarni's collaboration with Sandeep Khare is one such example. In other words, the skill of collaboration is not just a nice-to-have skill, but it is highly useful skill that can make a huge difference in one's career. However, in our academic education, where individual performance is encouraged, this skill of collaborating with others is not learnt unconsciously by graduates. Graduates have to learn this skill consciously and deliberately.

Another skill of great premium today therefore is a great combination skill called entrepreneurial skill. An entrepreneur, to be successful, has to be a master in combining two or more skills. After understanding the market  and discovering an unsolved problem, he must possess the skill of bringing diverse skills together to 'solve' the given problem. He must have the vision of solving the bigger issue and be able to 'sell' the vision  to others to bring them together on a common platform.

In short, it is far more prudent to pursue skill-combinations in a career, either alone or with some other person, because that is far more profitable and useful in today's economy.

How are you getting prepared to survive and flourish in today's specialised economy? Is it by developing one skill? Combining two skills within yourself? Or combining two skills of two different people? 

Taming the beast of Emotion is the first step towards mental growth

Mind adopts various practices to function effectively, but while doing so, it also creates a beast that tries to takeover every situation. It therefore has to be tamed. Because, as we have discussed earlier, without mental growth, even intellectual growth stops. And without taming emotions, we cannot grow mentally. Let us understand why emotion beast has to be tamed and how.

Minds need the power of Emotions

To take quick unconscious actions or decisions, mind uses emotions. When we, for instance, wear a black pant instead of grey, we are using our 'emotion'. Or when we decide that we are not going to ask for help from a friend, because he is condescending, we are using emotions to take a decision. When we are backing our friend in the fight with another person, we are using emotions to help us take the action. When we are using our friends to clarify doubts about the subject, our emotions are helping our learning. When we are studying late night for an exam, emotions are propping us to study even when we feel sleepy.

Emotions also misguide us

Many times emotions help us take the right decisions. However, they also misguide us. When we have to ask help from a condescending professor ( not a friend), our first emotional reaction is to ignore the professor. We have to avoid the emotional cue to seek help. When we are agreeing with the friend blindly to grease hands of a traffic police, ignoring our strong beliefs of right versus wrong, we are doing damage to our belief system.

In other words, sometimes you have to heed the emotion and flow with its direction, such as when we are using it to study at night even while feeling sleepy. But sometimes, like in case of asking help from a nasty professor, we have to avoid to flow with the emotional cue and manage to find a way to ask for help from the nasty professor. If we do not tame the beast of emotion, we take wrong actions.

Taming the beast therefore is important

Without taming the beast of emotion, we either flow with the emotion at wrong times ( such as when we are mad at anyone who has brushed our motorcycle in the traffic) or refuse to go against the flow even when it is right for us ( such as when we have to ask questions to a nasty professor despite the fear of embarrassment).

Without taming the beast of emotion, we continue to take make wrong choices, ignore important information, and simply create difficulties for ourselves. Without taming the beast of emotion, we react like Pratham who left  a good job because he flowed  with his emotional cue. Without taming the beast of emotions, we justify emotions to take wrong decisions. By taming emotions, we use the emotions as inputs to take right decisions.

Steps in taming the beast of emotion

Taming emotions means taking four steps to dissolve or resolve the emotion. Each step is critical. One cannot avoid a step and jump to the next.

Step 1 is to accept the emotion as-is. We often intellectualise emotions, assuming that we should not 'feel' an emotion. For instance, when we dislike the professor for forcing us to stand in the class for not answering a question, we must feel the 'down' emotion fully and completely without any ifs and buts. Or when we feel 'down' when our parents praise our brother, we should accept the emotion first. We should not rush to explain the kind of emotion we are feeling or why we are feeling. Neither we should intellectualise it by saying that the 'teacher was 'wrong' or my parents were 'right' in praising brother for the right incident.

Most of the emotions 'dissolve' when we feel them fully. For instance, if we are stressed because of the oncoming exam, we can dissolve the stress if we sit calmly and feel the emotion of stress fully. Or when we are anxious about the friend not calling on mobile, we can dissolve anxiety if we accept the feeling of anxiety fully. Sometimes, accepting emotions fully dissolves the emotion. No more processing is needed. On the contrary, if we damn the emotion inside and do not express it, it remains inside and expresses itself without any warning. If you are angry at your mother's constant 'reminders', and cannot express it, your anger will get provoked on a completely different incident with your mother.

Step 2: Only after the emotion is accepted as-is, we should try to name the emotion in order to resolve it.

For instance, can the emotion of being 'down' ( in the above case) named as the emotion of 'hurt' or 'frustration' or 'anger'? Are we angry because our professor insulted us infront of the class friends, or are we hurt because he exposed our ignorance?Or are we frustrated with ourselves that we could not answer the question despite knowing the answer? If you have learnt to accept your emotions uncritically (which is step 1) without any defense, you will know which of the three emotion is strong?

This stage is equally critical. Being able to name the emotion helps the resolution of emotion. In odd situations, you may experience a mix of two emotions that you cannot segregate easily. 

Step 3 is unravel the underling belief of emotion by peeling layers beneath the emotion. As we said, sometimes, this step of resolution may not be necessary if the emotion dissolves.

Continuing the above case further, if you conclude that you are feeling the emotion of 'hurt' when professor asked you the question, you must examine the underlying belief that is generating the emotion of 'hurt'. Do you believe that 'being seen as ignorant is a sign of incompetency' or 'not knowing something is a sign of stupidity' ? Your belief is generating the emotion. These beliefs act like unconscious thumb rules that generate the emotion. Some of these unconcious thumb rules ( or beliefs) have long term significance. For instance when you do not want to chose 'drawing as career', because your belief is that "drawing is just a hobby', then you need to dig deeper to find if your belief is standing on the legs of 'facts' or on the legs of 'assumptions or conclusions'.

Mind uses beliefs to help it take quick decisions. Mind keeps unproven and untested facts as assumptions or conclusions in the bucket to make this quick decisions. Daniel Kahneman calls this type 1 mind. We cannot hope to re-evaluate our every belief practically. But some beliefs need to be re-evaluated if we have to keep our winning habit intact. Especially the beliefs about creating outcomes, wealth , social structures, governance and career-success have to be re-checked early in life. Rechecking, and correcting the belief is a laborious process and becomes difficult to correct it later. That is why it is important to adopt the right 'winning' beliefs at an early age. How does one verify if the belief is right? Right beliefs are the beliefs that are closer to 'as-is reality'.

Step 4: is to verify the 'fact index' of belief. If the belief is based not on 'fact' ( as determined by scientist and researchers), we have to let go that belief, even if we strongly believe in that belief.

For instance, does small class-size benefit child education or not? Surprisingly, researchers have not been able to find strong correlation between class size and child education. So, even if we like to believe that small class size facilitates child education, it is not yet true. In social arena, we hold many such beliefs, despite their lack of evidence. Unlike physical sciences, social sciences are prone to many verification errors that slowly come to light. Our mind needs to remember this if it has to preserve its capacity to process rationally. If we forget this, mind mixes facts and assumptions together. Slowly and surely, it hampers intellectual growth, because instead of seeing as-is reality, we start seeing the reality through our biased eyes !

Summary

On the one hand, emotions affect our choices, decisions and conclusions instantaneously. They help us live our life on 'auto-pilot' and leave our conscious mind ( what Daniel Kahneman calls type 2 mind) to grapple with intellectual issues. On the other hand, wrong reliance on emotions have to be guarded because they prevent our mental growth ( which in turn impacts our intellectual growth sooner or later). Emotions affect our mental growth in two ways. One, because they color our feelings ( as good or bad), our type 1 mind cannot process an event accurately. And two, by influencing our beliefs, they unknowingly impact many decisions and choices taken by type 1.

Incorrect processing of emotions are the biggest source of blunders in a student's life. Even if you can take help on the third and fourth step from a mentor or coach ( like your parents), first two steps of resolving an emotion have to be learnt and practiced by you. Otherwise, like Pratham , you will be blind to your own actions ! Instead of using coach to understand yourself better, you start using mentor or coach to justify your actions or to control the damage that is resulting from the actions.

Source: Nathaniel Branden: Disowning Self and Daniel Kahneman: Thinking slow and fast

Winning lessons from Andy Murray's triumph

Andy Murray won the first Grand Slam title after losing four Grand Slam finals. Like he said in his interview " I knew it would happen. But i was wondering when?". 

Murray's US open final match against Djokovic is a classic example of how achieving desired results is more of a battle against oneself than a battle against a competitor. In 2010, Murray cried when he lost the Australian Open final to Federer and he sobbed again when he lost the Wimbledon final to Federer in July 2012. But if you have seen his US open match on Monday night 1.30 am IST, you will understand the three principles of achievement that were described earlier.

1. Achieving desired results is about making multiple choices to develop your strength 

Andy Murray is a defensive player, but Ivan Lendl, who became his coach 7 months back focused on developing his forehand aggressively. Boris Becker credited this aggressive forehand as a significant factor in the win( Please refer to his TImes of India article ). It is important to focus efforts on one/two areas because one cannot dissipate energy in too may directions. 

Developing one strength takes lot of time,practice and lot of micro decisions over a long period of time. Observe what Ivan Lendl, his coach, said about his practice over a period of 7 months. As Ivan lendl, his coach said, "Both Andy and I were saying, 'Give us six to nine months'," the 52 year-old said. "Do the maths. You can help somebody, clearly, in a very short period of time. "However, it takes longer than that to help more, for the progress to set in. You cannot do that in one week, you cannot do it in one month."

Lessons for graduate students: What strength areas have you focused during your graduation? Out of the various subjects, which subjects have you focused on? If you are graduating as IT Engineer, are you focusing on Systems design or C language development? Or requirement analysis? or Security aspects? Given the extensive syllabus, one cannot give equal time to all the subjects. In order to reach 1000 feet depth in a subject, it is necessary to chose certain subjects to focus. What have you focused on? And more importantly, you have to make many micro decisions to remain focused on your strength.

2. Achieving desired result is about using the forced situations ( good or bad)differently 

The second aspect of achievement is about utilising different events that one does not choose, but one is forced into. Observe how Ivan Lendl helped Murray used the loss of Australian open 2012 to Djokovic. "To me, one of the most important matches of Andy's year was his loss to Novak in the Australian Open semi-final, because that was a war just like this one. It gave him the belief that he could hang in with these guys.  It showed him what it took to win." 

"Ever since he partnered with Ivan Lendl, Murray has been a better player, most importantly with his attitude and his approach in difficult situations", said Boris Becker. 

Lessons for graduate students: How are you using the forced situations in your life to grow ? As we have seen,  mental growth is more important. For instance, if your lecturer of C Programming likes to discourage students, how are you using this forced situation? Are you for instance using the discouragement to prove his worth? Or are you using free online websites to learn C programming?

How are you reacting to forced situations to enhance your learning? More than your ability to weather tough situations,this ability to use force situations will help you develop a 'i-can' mindset instead of 'i-am-a-victim' mindset. This winning attitude will go a long way in helping you win in your life.

3. Achieving results is about winning the battle with your mind's demons 

"In the past, we all accused him of losing big matches because of his state of mind, not necessarily because of his tennis". Boris Becker said in his above interview about Murray. In Murray's case, therefore it was clear that he was fighting a big battle with his mind's demons. 

Because of losing four Grand Slam finals, he had to keep away the 'self doubt' and somehow find a way to believe that he can still win the Grand Slam. Murray did not assume that this demon will somehow be reigned;  but like a winner he took one concrete step in reigning this demon. He hired Lendl (who had not coached before) as a coach ? By hiring Lendl as his coach, who also had lost four Grand Slam Finals before winning his first Grand Slam final, Murray took a big step in controlling this demon. 

 From the US open final match statistics, one can safely infer that Murray managed to reign his mind's demons.His 9 breaks of serve and 56 unforced errors clearly showed that the match was not played to his best ability. Despite this, Murray managed to keep his composure. Despite losing two set lead, he managed to check his demons in time and still manage to produce 'just good enough' performance in the fifth test and win. 

Lessons for graduate students: What are you doing to conquer your mind's demons? Are you getting stressed that you will not get a job after graduation, or are you using that stress to study the job industry in advance and get your desired job? Are you getting overwhelmed by the college studies, are you still managing to put your best in studying those subjects? Have you allowed your difficult teachers to raise your self-doubt, or are you still nurturing your 'can-do' mindset and finding someone else to teach you?

Summary

Most importantly, achieving results is not about winning a match, even it is a Grand slam final.  As Andy Murray nicely said in his interview "I am happy to be a part of this era in tennis. I always said that maybe if i played in another era maybe i would have won more, but wouldn't have been as good a tennis player'. That is a prayer of a top class Achiever. Winning is not the end, it is just a means to an end. It is about stretching oneself to one's fullest potential. It is about rewriting the meaning of achievement. It is about finding God on this earth. 

Are you nurturing the three practices of Achievement consistently?  

To sustain achievement, mind training is more important

Mind training versus intellectual training

When we go through life, we have to train ourselves. We train in two ways: intellectually and mentally. Intellectual training is learning new concepts ( such as marketing strategy, Java or Cancer treatment) and applying them in real  world. Mind training is about learning to see the as-is situation/event ( reality) without getting biased by one's feeling or interpretation. 

Although both are different, they are also related. Mind training definitely stops intellectual learning. For instance, after attending a period, of say maths or chemistry, when we accept that we cannot understand the chapter, we can do something to correct our situation. But if we distort the reality and refuse to accept that we have not understood the chapter of maths, we are stuck up. When we can see as-is reality without distortion, we can respond to the situation with far more options. Without mind training intellectual learning gets hampered sooner or later.

What is mind training?

In real life reality is not as one-dimensional like 'not understanding a chapter in mathematics'. When we are interacting with a friend, for instance, situation ( or reality) has multiple perspectives or views. For instance, in an argument with our friend, multiple perspectives exist of the same reality. Did the friend insult me because i hurt my friend first? Or did he insult me because he misunderstood me? In such a situation, seeing multiple perspectives of the same reality from different angles is critical, because seeing only one partial perspective of a situation will drastically reduce our options. In multi-dimensional reality, trained Mind is important to increase our options.  

Training Mind is difficult, because it is very easy to see only one perspective (view) and stick to it. We avoid seeing different perspectives of same reality due to our biases. Such as Likability bias. For instance, if we do not like our friend, we avoid to see his view of reality. Or the confirmation bias. If we have already concluded that we are right, we will refuse to see any other view of reality. Or availability bias. We will search only for that information which is available to us, refusing to consider any other information. Or recency bias. We will use only recent information that will confirm our view, instead of using distant information of past ( like what happened a week before with our friend).

Because of the way we grow, we inherit many biases from our cultural, social, religious beliefs which make it more difficult to see multiple perspectives of a situation.Because of the above difficulties, training our Mind is not as straightforward and assured as intellectual training. It can slip any time. It takes conscious and deliberate effort from our side to train our Mind. Unlike Intellectual training, training our mind is a solitary activity and involves understanding how our emotions, stress, beliefs and willpower interact together and with the environment outside to create its own dynamic.

On the other hand, intellectual learning also helps trained mind, when it reduces our beliefs ( biases). For instance, by intellectually understanding that efforts can produce only outputs ( and not outcomes), we can avoid to hold a belief that ' Results depend on God'. Avoiding these kind of beliefs increases our options of finding ways to 'influence' results, if not control them.

Conclusion

More importantly, we must understand that both growths - intellectual and mind - are different. It is necessary to understand the principles of mind growth and consciously practice them. If we practice them consciously, our mind gets trained. If we do not practice it deliberately and consciously, we may not 'read the situation' irrespective of the experience and age. And please remember that if our mind growth stops, it also stops intellectual growth sooner or later.

In other words, we do not have any choice. If we have to grow intellectually, we have to grow mentally. Training Mind is not a choice, it is a necessity for all of us, because it helps us achieve our monetary and career goals far more easily and gracefully. It helps us make a better society to live in. And above all, it helps us find satisfaction in our today's life.

Are you training your mind consciously in your life? 

Inadequate preparation during graduation leads to bigger difficulties in unfolding one's potential

See the case of Puneet:

Puneet passed out as a E&TC Engineer in first class from a town in Maharashtra in 2012. He wants to remain in his core field of Electronics. His interest in core electronics is so strong, that he refused to apply for software jobs. He made few attempts to get a job in Electronics field but , as he says, they wanted 'experience'. When he was offered job in 'Sales domain' in Electronics company, he refused, because he considers it as 'waste of time'. His statement was 'After having studied 4 years in Electronics, what is the point in working in Sales?' Instead he preferred to work part time in some core area of Electronics and prepare for a post graduation next year. 

Have you met graduates like Puneet? I feel very moved and concerned when i meet such students like Puneet. On the one hand, they show extraordinary resolve and courage to avoid the herd of 'software jobs' and stick to their core interest. They have very high confidence in their intellectual abilities and are willing to stick to their path even when the world is going the other way. ( Like Puneet, all the engineers who want to work in their core field, be it Mechanical, Civil or Electrical, will face the same challenge.)  

On the other hand, they are naive and ignorant about some critical areas that impact their unfolding of potential. Because of their inadequate preparedness, they unwittingly create difficulties in unfolding their potential. They make three 'silly-looking' mistakes and create bigger problems in their lives:

1. They misunderstand Data> knowledge conversion: We generate knowledge when we use our learnt information to achieve some end. Until one uses the technical data to solve real-life problems, one cannot develop any useful knowledge. It is therefore important to work in technical field and solve 'real technical problems' to apply what one has learnt in graduation. Without this real-life engagement, one is not sure of what 'potential' one has in any field. Even in Electronics, one has to find the sub-fields which one should start exploring: Embedded electronics, VLSI, Mechatronics or even areas like PLC. Without experience, they find it difficult to choose the sub-field where they should unfold their potential. They falter in the first step of CTS cycle. 

Instead of choosing the potential from available options, they choose the first option that seems right to them: Do a Post graduation in technology. On the other hand, if they prepare well and understand the industry requirements, approach the right companies, prepare a right resume, gear up to give a powerful interview, they are more than likely to get a job they desire.

2. They misunderstand the domain of sales and avoid it to unfold their potential: Like Puneet, many technically intelligent students avoid sales because they do not understand the use of sales domain and how it helps in potential unfolding. Please go to this hyperlink to understand more about sales function.

For instance, Sales domains in a sales electronics firm helps one to understand the interconnections of different sub-fields in electronics, know the companies working in these fields and therefore connects them to engineers working in these sub fields, and determine the scope of these sub-fields. More importantly, because an electronic firm typically sells its products to another company ( who is the customer), one has to learn the technologies of the customer and understand how 'the supplier's technology' fits with the 'customer's technology'. This knowledge of interconnection of technologies broadens the narrow perspective of an engineer and changes the options of an Engineer like Puneet to a more realistic basis. 

And like we saw in the case of Angad, working in sales would have offered Puneet a marketable skill that is very useful in unfolding the next potential. One need not stick to sales domain beyond a point. One can always leave the 'sales domain' path and rejoin another potential-unfolding path later. But creating a solid foundation of one marketable skill increases the freedom and offers better options in the future. 

3. They refuse to seek and take help from others: Paradoxically, the confidence they derive from their intellectual capacity also stops them from seeking the help from around their world. They become too independent. Asking help from others is a sign of 'weakness' for them. Instead of understanding the benefits of interdependence, they withdraw in their own shell and refuse to 'listen to the views of others'. Their own strength ( in understanding technical domain) becomes the source of this weakness !

I have seen many technically brilliant individuals like Puneet, who live in their own world, and refuse to use the interconnections of the world around themselves. They get trapped in their own view of 'what is right for them' and refuse to see any other contrary view. They suffer and go through pain, but they steadfastly refuse to see any other point of view. Because of their intellectual brilliance, accepting other's views is a sign of 'weakness' for them. Inability to use the rich interconnections of life becomes a bigger bottleneck in identifying and tapping their potential.

We have seen three consequences of missing the first stage of development, this is perhaps the fourth consequence. We could call it creation of Over Independent and Naive intelligent student. 

Conclusion

As we have seen above, it is important for Puneet to prepare adequately for unfolding his potential and not take decisions out of ignorance. If he prepares in advance, he can even get a good job in his chosen core field after graduation. He can spot and grab opportunities that come his way. And if he develops the three skills in time, he can learn to use his confidence, not in refusing to listen others, but by seeking help from others.

Impact of missing the first stage growth of 15

If a higher secondary student fails to grow during his first stage of development on all the three axis, he moves to the graduation stage and faces several difficulties and challenges. But, at least,he has second chance to correct the growth if he knows early enough.

In his pre-final or final year of graduation, he will display one or more of the traits of these three type of students : either he becomes an Academically Intelligent student, Smart Outgoing student, or Bored Confused student.

Here is a brief description of each type and what they can do to 'restart' the process of their growth.

Academically Intelligent student ( 50-60%) - over-development on the axis of IQ Management

These students grow only on one axis of IQ management, because they believe that academic education is the most important facet of career development. Either their IQ is on the higher side, or they are blessed with the right teachers and guidance. They enjoy the learning and pride themselves in their knowledge.

However, their growth is one dimensional. As these students do not learn to 'Regulate Self', they always seem unsure of themselves. They talk the least in a group of strangers. Their body language displays lack of confidence. They dither and vacillate over every decision. They get distracted easily by what others say and think. Because they understand little about their mind, they are confused about what to do next and typically follow their friends.

Because they do not understand 'interdependence' and its use in their life, they withdraw in their shell. They become part of one group and stick to it. If this group is stable and helpful to each other, they are at least lucky to have developed a skill of working together. 

For these students, the first challenge is to learn the interdependence of skill markets so that they can get the desired job and get the playground to practice their skills. If they do not learn the interdependence of markets and domains, they will constantly struggle to find their playground. They must also learn to Understand Self, to decide what to do next and not get sucked up in following others. More importantly, if they do not learn to see the invisible path of unfolding of their potential, they will never get what their higher marks and intelligence promised them.

Smart Outgoing student ( 10-20%) - Over-development on the axis of Understand and Exploit Interdependence 

Students who grow on this axis are the one's who at least understand the interdependence of people ( if not markets and domains) and become the extrovert types. They understand the benefit of interacting with different students and learn to present themselves in the best light. They take active part in cultural and other events of college. They become action-oriented. In the process of interacting with students, they learn one important skill : the skill of relating with people. This helps them considerably in the next phase of working career.

If they are smart, they learn to score good marks without studying in depth. Such students win the awards of best student of the year. However, if they do not get high marks, they may lack the assurance, but carry themselves well due to their outgoing nature. Because of their ability to present themselves, they generally get their Practice ground( the job )they want.

For this student, the first challenge is to utilise his 'confidence' to develop in-depth knowledge of a specific subject or a specific area. This focus is necessary for him to guide his IQ in the development of in-depth knowledge. He also must learn to curb his instinct of action (Regulate his Self ) so that he can perform meaningful work. If he does not regulate his Self, he constantly feels dissatisfied with his job.  

Bored and confused student ( 30-40%)- Underdevelopment on all three axis 

This student does not grow enough on either of three axis: neither on intelligence, interdependence, or his self.  Because he is unable to use his intelligence, he is bored and demotivated. Because the student is unable to make sense of the interdependent environment around him, he is confused.  And because he is unable to regulate his Self, he looks like a person waiting to be rescued. 

This student feels like a fish out of water and blames everything and everyone. He is already looking for other options of post graduation. For instance, you will find many IIT Engineers in third year already planning to do MBAs. I know of a CA student who left his CA work to go in Film making. If this student can afford, he exits from his chosen education path immediately after graduation. In his situation, this is a better alternative!


Professors and teachers blame these students because they seem to lack any initiative. They are also blamed for not finishing anything that is given to them.  These students often blame wrong choice of their career path for their current state. They lack any anchor, and seem to be killing time. Because of lack of good teachers and the ever increasing complexity of interconnected systems, this category of students are increasing day by day. 

Their biggest challenge to restart their growth cycle is to find some 'area or work' ( a practice ground) where they can find their feet, gain back their confidence, and find a new target. They need lot of hand-holding initially to navigate and learn something. Without this help, their career growth stalls. As these students may have got good marks in the 10th and 12th class, they blame their luck for having missed the boat of career growth!

In which category do you fall? And what are you doing about it? 

To grow, skill- combinations are more important than single skills

In Aesthetic and Sports fields, deep skills in one field - guitar, singing, writing, cricket or hockey - are more important than the combination of skills to grow. In this field, one has to mix one's skills with one's mind set (temperament) and personality preferences to find the right 'zone' for expressing oneself.

In contrast, in knowledge work, the combination of skills is more important for growth. For instance, if one is good in sales, one has to combine it with other field - say marketing, delivery, or even strategy - if one has to grow further. This is not just for vertical growth ( growing in vertical hierarchy), but also horizontal growth (growing across functions and domains). Horizontal growth is more important for doers than for managers.

For example, let us see this field of Data Analytics, which we talked in earlier blog.

According to Mckinsey, in US alone requires about 4.90 Lakh data scientist by 2018 with a probable deficit of about 1.90 Lakh. In India alone, it is estimated that there will be a deficit of about 1 lakh data scientists in the next couple of years.

Why is the deficit to be estimated so high? Because Data analytics requires a combination of skills - statisticians, behavioural psychologists, business analysts and technologists - which are difficult to find. How does this process work?

Statisticians are required to make sense of the huge data in the databases. They will use their knowledge of statistics to find  strange correlations between two seemingly unrelated sets of data. For instance, the risk profile of a single adult is higher than rhe risk profile of married adult, for say giving , automobile loans or housing loans. This can be discovered from the available data in banks by statisticians. However behavioural psychologist is required to confirm that this data is not mere correlated data. It has got underlying causes to justify this. So he needs to find the causative factors and confirm the hypothesis that 'risk profile of single adult is infact higher due to xyz factors'.

Once this is established, business analysts converts this 'information' into useful 'knowledge' by finding business figures: single adult customers, married customers, returns from both customers, the growth of these customer population in last three years and so on. He makes a business case and converts this 'knowledge of single adult behaviour' into 'business strategy'. Technologists then comes into the picture to ensure that 'all the different applications' which are sitting in different technologies ( ERP, BI and front end softwares) are integrated to produce the desired result.

Of course, this process does not happen in the above sequence only. The process can be initiated by anyone, while others have to pick up from that place. The dependency between the four skills is however very very high.And that is what makes it difficult for companies to find 'good data scientist'.

So who are data scientists? Are they statisticians, psychologists, business analysts or technologist? Because the dependency between these four skills is very high, if you start as a business analysts, you have to learn a lot about 'statistics' to converse intelligently with 'statisticians'; a lot about 'technologies' to understand the limitations and benefits of different technologies and a bit about behaviour psychology (something one reads now in the books of Friedman) to understand what 'needs' to be understood. In other words, a business analysts must have 'sufficient' depth in the other three areas to become a data scientists (to make the process between the four skills seamless and transperant). If you are a technologist, you must acquire sufficient depth in the other three areas, and so on.

So technically speaking, each of these skilled professionals can potentially become a data scientist. But more than often, professionals do not approach their career with any 'plan'. They happen to become data scientists, because they 'fall' in the 'right place' at 'right time'. Do you want to shape your career or do you want to let the career happen to you? The choice is yours.