How to use words to motivate us to accomplish goals

A few weeks back I spoke to an audience about how one can use words to to create change, accomplish goals and essentially proceed on the path of success. Since the speech was a hit, , I thought I should share it with my Internet audience. Here it is
“Genius is only the power of making continuous efforts,
A little more effort and what seemed like hopeless failure may turn into glorious success
There is no failure except in no longer trying; there is no defeat except from within
No really insurmountable barrier, save your own inherent weakness of purpose.”

These words were engraved on a brass plate on my father’s desk. And every morning, he would pick up this plate and a jar of polish and would polish the plate. He did this every morning before he went to work from as far back as I can remember. This was his way of reminding himself that even though he wasn’t, according to him, the smartest person he knew; he could still accomplish any hard task. Those words on the brass plate probably enabled him to pursue a PhD program in economics at the age of 39!

What is even more incredible about this achievement is that he was a literature student. An English Major! After college he decided he wanted to be an economist! So he started out by reading a lot about economics and getting a Masters degree in economics from India. But his life long dream was to study at London School of Economics. After multiple attempts, finally at the age of 39 they accepted him and he finished his doctoral studies in 3.5 years. I too stood to gain from his perseverance because I got to spend a few years in London growing up.

I brought up this story because, today, I want to talk about “words”. I want to talk about how words can be used to create the world around us that we desire. The objective of this talk is to talk about an incredible tool that is at our disposal.

As we already know words can be used to motivate us to accomplish a goal. Words can comfort us in times of distress. Some say writing is like therapy. A catharsis! Only cheaper than seeing a therapist. But above all, I found out that words can also help us create a new world!

Let me share a personal story. A few years ago, maybe 10, I picked up a book by Steven Covey called the 7 habits of highly effective people. Most of you would have heard about the book if not read it. In the book he talks about writing a personal mission statement. A personal mission statement is kind of like the mission statements of companies, only this is about you. Like how a company defines its goals you define your purpose. So I wrote mine. And mine read as follows.

“To experience and learn from as many different situations as possible”. It is very succinct. Now looking back at the past few years, I realize why I constantly yearn for change. As I had told you in my previous talk I yearn for different experiences all the time. It of course has its pros and cons.

But my point is that by writing down a sequence of words and by fully internalizing those words and believing in them I ended up creating a world where I seek out new experiences.

So by writing certain words down and by constantly reminding ourselves of those words we end up creating a world described by those words. There probably is a logical justification for why this happens. I believe it is the following.

When we constantly remind ourselves of certain words, they become part of our thoughts. It’s fairly well documented that our thoughts in turn lead into actions. And through these actions we create the world we wrote down.

This is the tool I wanted to talk about. We all have the ability to create the world we want, and what better time to talk about it as we start a new year. Many make New Year resolutions, but how many keep them? I believe the reason why we can’t keep them is because we can’t believe in them.

So why don’t your try out an experiment?

Why not write down your goals on a piece of paper?

Why don’t you try and constantly look at them and internalize them ?

And then act in accordance to what you wrote down! Then, let life flesh out those words and create a world where those words are the reality!

Through that process, I believe that you too can find the power in words and help create a better world for you!

The basics of whats wrong with the US healthcare system

The other day, I realized that I didnt know enough of what was wrong with the US healthcare system. So I did a study and got to the root of the problem. Then I gave a speech about it to a diverse group of people. It was recieved very well and I thought I should share it for the benifit of my readers.

“Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness”

These were the words of a Democratic President of the United States. No it is not President Barack Obama nor was it was Bill Clinton. It was Harry Truman over 50 years back and the health care system today is still very much broken. Today I’m calling you to action. we need to fully understand what is wrong with the system and we need to hold our leaders and law makers accountable to fix it. I currently do not understand all that is wrong and even if I did, I will not be able to explain that in 5-7 minutes. So today, I want to encourage you to go back home and watch the movie “Sicko” by movie maker Michael More, read the book “Critical: what we can do about the healthcare crisis” by senator Tom Daschle, and above all really understand the root of the problem.

Let me start with a personal story. Three years ago, while I was at Duke, I developed a tooth ache. I did have student healthcare coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield but it didn’t cover dental. I knew that the problem would be with my wisdom tooth. So I called up to find out what it would cost to have it extracted. $200 is what the lady told me. And when I told her I didn’t have insurance it was more like $1600. I realized that a flight to India would cost about $1000 and an extraction from a good clinic about $50. I could save some money and spend some time at home!

Take a moment and think about a personal story you have to tell when you have hit a brick wall with the health care system. Now, why is it that you have a personal story to tell? Considering the fact that the per capita spending on healthcare in the US is over $6000 and there is disparity in care available?  Considering the fact that 50 million are uninsured when healthcare spending is 16% of the GDP? Healthcare in the US ranks 37 on a WHO report.

I believe that we are in a loop where every actor in the system is unhappy. Employers are unhappy because of the rising costs of healthcare plans for their employees. Companies like GM and Ford are unable to compete in the global market. Patients are unhappy because of cost of deductibles and co pays and quality. Doctors and hospitals (providers) are unhappy because they are not compensated by insurance companies for the services delivered, and the enormous bills from emergency care to the uninsured . Insurance companies are not happy because of rising cost of medical treatments and try to pass that on to employers buying group plans!!! And this is just the story of the insured. This was from the book “Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results” by Michael E Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg.

The above situation is for the insured patients. The uninsured are in a far worse situation. There are many uninsured patients who are in debt because of medical bills and others who have decided to skip treatment fearing the cost. Like routine cancer screening.

But even those insured cannot really have peace of mind because, they are just a pink slip away from being uninsured. Clearly a system that is unable to provide affordable medical care to everyone is broken and needs to be fixed. I encourage you to get your hands dirty and learn more about the system. Movies, books and the internet can be a rich source of information.  We need to play our part by raising awareness, first, among ourselves about the failings of the current system and then encourage others to participate in forming a better system.

Brave new world quotes

I have to write this here, lest I should forget..

“The greater a man’s talents, the greater his power to lead astray. “

“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin”

“One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies”

“The optimum population, is modeled on the iceberg-eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above”

“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid … in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamor of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand”

“Freedom to be a round peg in a square hole”

“You can’thave a lasting civilization without plenty of pleasant vices.”

Aldous Huxley is brilliant!! One of the best authors I have ever read. Brave New World is a must read. Mind blowing.

Patterns in life

This is the most amazing story, I have ever heard. And it is true. And it is personal. And it is about me! That is what makes it the most amazing story in the world. It is about how when you really, really desire something, the whole world, nay, life itself conspires to make that dream come true. I borrowed part of the previous statement from Paulo Coelho’s Alchemist.

About 4 years ago, I was in Bangalore and tired of my job. I wanted to do an MBA. I did not know where Ill do it or how. I talked to someone who graduated from Wharton and was living in Bangalore. He told me that I should apply when I have the strongest application, when I have a bunch of good stories to tell. But I didn’t pay too much attention to that advice and studied for my GMAT the next 3 months and wrote it. I had a pretty good score and applied to some schools in India. Although I was called for an interview at ISB I did not make it. By then I had an offer to study at Duke for an MS in biomedical engineering and left for the US. The last semester of Duke, my desire for an MBA again reared its head and forced me to research business schools and apply to Harvard and Wharton. I spend close to 3 months putting together stories from my past. I didn’t even get called for an interview. I know why: I did not have solid letters of recommendation and my essays weren’t strong enough. One essay wasn’t even mature. I did not get them reviewed by many people. There was some more growing up to be done.

During the final semester at Duke, McKinsey and Company came to campus for recruitment. Due to some quirk of fate, although I wasnt really qualified for their role, I was called to interview with them. I got through the first round, then the second and finally failed at the third round of interviews! But it convinced me that in the future when I am contemplating an MBA, I should only apply to the best schools.

I graduated and then started working for a healthcare IT company in the US. I thought I’ll defer my MBA plans for a while and get on with my work. And like every Indian family does do, when a certain age arrives for men and women, mine decided to find me a girl. But it was different with this girl, she wasn’t all that interested. She was getting an MBA and didn’t have time to spend with me. But she inspired me to apply for an MBA yet again, with a month left for the deadline. That was her purpose in my life!

I thought Ill give this an all out attempt. I traveled to Boston to meet admissions officers, alumni, faculty and current students. I decided to apply for the BEP program offered through MIT and Harvard. I mustered enough courage to ask my boss for a solid letter of recommendation and he complied! I got a senior employee who left my company a couple of months back to be my other recommender. And a professor at Duke reached out at the precise moment when I needed him to be my third recommender.

I already had my GMAT scores. I already had essays from the previous year. I added a few essays and modified some others to put together a solid set of essays. This time I knew friends who graduated from the Duke MBA program and others in top 10 MBA programs who could review my essays and make revisions.

A strong application started taking shape. I had excellent letters of recommendation, I had fantastic essays that were reviewed and revised multiple times, I had a good resume and cover letter. I knew people at MIT and Harvard. I had visited the schools. I had a good GMAT score. I had an underlying message, a theme: to make my mark in the field of healthcare IT. All my career choices, work experience and education can be tied together to that theme. It worked! I got called for an interview at Harvard-MIT division of Health Science and Technology for the BEP and at MIT for the Sloan MBA!!!

This it self was a dream come true. Interviewing at Harvard and MIT!!! There were people from all over the world interviewing for the BEP. They invited like 20 people and I was one of them! They were going to select 10. The Sloan interview call was also incredible. They invite 20-25% for an interview and offer admission to about 15-20% of the total applicant pool. This is truly shaping out to be an incredible thing.

The McKinsey behavioral interviews already prepared me for what the interviews were going to be like. Furthermore, an MIT Sloan student sent me his preparation material! For my interview preparation, I had help from students and alumni from different business schools from around the country. But that was over the phone. I wanted one face to face mock interview before the actual one. This is where the story gets even more amazing. I am part of a toastmasters club. In my club was a graduate from Wharton Business school. I found this out 2 days before my interview and she agreed to meet me over lunch on short notice to mock interview me a day before my actual interview!!!

I interviewed with MIT Sloan and Harvard-MIT HST a few days ago. I had to interview with each school separately. I couldn’t imagine the Sloan MBA interview going any better. The other one with HST was good, but not great. I don’t know what to expect. But so far the pattern of things falling in place, leading up to the show-down was incredible. I had help from all kinds of sources the moment I desired it. Finally, two days after the interviews, I chanced upon a copy of the Alchemist, almost as if someone or some force out there wanted me to recognize the patterns and omens  leading up to the interviews. I might not get in or I might get in. Either way I don’t really care at this point, I have done my best. If I don’t, then Ill apply again. I know I have a good story to tell now!

Is it fate? Is it my persistence? Or is it the journey to my “Personal Legend”, where I have to be persistent to fulfil my fate?