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.

Best and worst jobs of 2012

A website ranked 200 odd jobs based on physical demands, work environment, stress, income and future outlook.

Can you guess which job emerged in the best job list? You guessed it right. It is software engineer. Other jobs in the decreasing ranking are Actuary, HR Manager, Dental Hygienist, Financial planner. Mathematician is the 10th in the rank.

In the ten worst jobs, most of the jobs are physical-oriented jobs like waiter and dishwasher. Surprising inclusion in the list is the job of reporter and soldier.

The website also displays a list of highly stressful jobs, which is a more relevant list for us. Airline Pilot, a highly paid job, is also a third most stressful job. That Police officer is the most stressful job is not at all surprising.  Event Coordinator is perhaps the stressful job, because there are too many 'dependencies' in the job. Job of PR Executive, which is supposed to be a glamorous job in India, is stressful because it is a job which keeps the incumbent in constant 'glare'. A small mistake gets 'highlighted' in a big way!

Did you notice one very interesting feature in the list of stressful jobs? There is no physical-oriented menial job in this list. Are you surprised? On the one hand, Menial jobs are low paid because supply is more than demand. On the other hand, they are also of low stress because one can do one's part without worrying about the dependencies. And because of the 'physical nature', one can go home and sleep without any 'worry'.

This also explains why Senior corporate executive is the 8th most stressful job in the list. Senior corporate executive, which is generally high paid, is one job where accountability is high without the requisite authority. In Senior corporate executive jobs, resources are not in one's 'control', they are only under one's influence. People who have not worked in companies, or who have not worked as senior executives, often find this very surprising.

Psychologist call his hot-cold empathy gap. It is the inability, during the cool rational peaceful moment to appreciate how one will behave ( or experience) during the heat of moment. When we are driving in a car, for instance, we cannot appreciate how we will behave as a pedestrian who crossed our car in a hurry and almost collided with our car!

Similarly, when we see the job of senior executive, we only see the perks and frills of the job such as big office, big power, large car, secretary to work, flying in airplanes, attending meetings and conferences, giving orders. We do not see the anxiety of not meeting the target because one of the subordinates was sick during the final week. We do not see the stress of 'daily choices' that an executive has to exercise in the course of job. We do not experience the helplessness of not being able to fire someone because that person compromised the function in order to fulfill the more important duties given by other boss. We cannot experience the executive's loss of face of losing an order which was guaranteed to come ! We cannot be in the shoes of the senior corporate executive and imagine the 'stress' that he or she goes through every day. Not for nothing, incumbents of these jobs are the ones who suffer most from all the chronic ailments: high blood pressure, cardiac trouble, diabetes, back pain, insomnia, and others.

I know graduates strive for senior executives job, not knowing what they are getting into. So when they get 'what they want', they are shocked. Very few are equipped with the right tool kit to deal with this stress! They are simply caught in the winch. Neither they can give up the job, nor can they deal with the situation! Do you want to be one of them?  

Use programs like Google internship to develop your knowledge

Read this news in TOI of 25 April 2012

Seventeen students have been selected by Google for the internship with its program called ' Google summer of code ( GSoC). GSoC program was initiated in 2005 to offer post secondary students beyond 18 years to write software code for various open software projects. Selected participants are paired with mentors for a project. The idea is to give students exposure to real world software development scenarios. 

These kind of live projects, with real problems, are very useful in applying the learned concepts in real world. This is what converts information into knowledge. If you have read the process of converting data to information to knowledge you will understand the impact of such live projects. This is what Howard Garnder calls 'Understanding something'. 

Look at what students in the above program are doing.  Smit Patel, a student for 3rd year BTech who has got selected in GSoC program, plans to integrate a 'bibliography engine' to the software which is missing until now in an open source software suite called Callligra Suite ( which is similar to licensed Microsoft office). This internship is for 3 months, typically starting from May and ending in July. More importantly, in GSoC, the student can talk with a expert mentor to ask any questions and clarify doubts. 

Out of the 17 students who have been admitted in Google internship program, one is from first-year , 4 are from second year, 9 from third year and 3 from the final year of B Tech ICT program. In other words, a student can join this Google internship program at any stage of his education. One need not be a master or an expert in something. One can use these live projects to apply the concepts into a real world scenario and deepen one's understanding at any stage of the education. 

These kind of live projects help a student in understanding all the various concepts in a subject, connect them together to solve a problem, and therefore build it into a 'knowledge' that can be re-utilised later. The student is forced to move from 'rote' learning to 'real' learning. A live project like this also enables the student to 'gain' the confidence in accomplishing some useful output. And more importantly, he also gets a straight entry in corporate world if he does the project well. Success or failure of project is not important; it is the student's ability to handle the real-world constraints that are tested in such a project.

There is an additional bonus in doing such a live project. A student's future education path is automatically selected after a project work. If he likes the work after GSoC, such as software, he continues on the same path. Even if he does not like the work, he knows what he does not want to do in the future. As we have seen in this blog, shifting from software work-path to domain work-path is difficult. So if you come to know that you do not like software, you prevent lot of future misery.  Therefore in both the cases, it is helpful.

Google internship program is just one example of doing a live project in software area. But every engineer, chartered accountant and other graduate student gets a chance to do a live project scenario in the final year; which imparts the same benefits: development of knowledge and the accompanying gaining of confidence. If you are working in a town like Pune or Nashik, you can even find a company who is willing to do a project for its own use and pay for it. For example, GSoC pays US $ 5000 to work on a 3-month project ! Be it in software, electronics, civil, hotel management, journalism or any other area, student must find a live project scenario to work on. There is no better way to develop knowledge. This is also the benefit of interdependency, which we discussed in the blog.