Would you be incredibly stupid, but lucky or incredibly genius, but unlucky?

Interaction with 3 kids that my wife was babysitting. They were watching some random game reviewer’s video, where he was asking different ‘what would you choose?’ questions and showing polls of what other people chose afterwards.

One of the question is “Would you be incredibly stupid, but lucky or be incredibly genius, but unlucky?”

Kid 1: What question is that, of course I would choose genius.

Kid 2: Yeah me too. [After a pause] but being lucky is lucky. I would prefer to be lucky.

Kid 1: No. But that makes you stupid. No body wants to be stupid. I would choose genius and unlucky

Kid 2: What would you do being genius it is of no use to you.

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Me: Kids, you are both right, but you are missing other factors such as hard work and planning. It doesn’t matter whether you are genius or lucky, unless you put in effort you can’t succeed.

Kid 3 [came running to me]: His time of choosing video is over. It’s my turn , can I choose the next video.

They soon moved on to watching next video, but I am still stuck with that question.

Interaction · Dec 17, 2019 · Permalink · 1min read

I was talking to a 5 yr old girl, X and asked her to tell a story, while she is sketching

X - Drew 3 figures on a paper, started speaking, pointing to them :

This is a princess, and this is her mean step mom. She used to trouble princess. This is prince. They both killed their mean step mom and lived happily.

Me : Oh that’s good. Can you tell another one.

X - Again drew 3 more figures : This is the princess, and this is an ugly monster. Monster attacked princess. Then prince came and saved her, and killed the monster.

Me : Well, another one.

X - Drew 3 more figures : This is the princess, you see her big gown. This is the bad guy. Prince came and fights the bad guy and saved the princess.

As cute as she said it, it is equally frightening. This is not how children should be influenced.

To all young girls - There will be no prince charming, coming to your rescue. You have to fight your own battles.

Interaction · Dec 19, 2018 · Permalink · 1min read

An interaction with Mr. X, Doctor by profession and a Social worker by heart, at the airport waiting for our flight. Discussing ways to empower people from remote/ backward areas

Me: So why do you think the majority of the people that are hunger-stricken or poor unable to think big?

X: Okay! Tell me are you a ‘Glass is half-full’ person or ' Glass is half-empty' person?

Me: ‘Half-full’ may be!

X: Well, for a person that is thirsty, doesn’t care if it’s half-full or half-empty, He would just drink it.

Interaction · Jan 22, 2018 · Permalink · 1min read

Wrong type of Audience!

This interaction has got me thinking for a long time, and would like to know more of your thoughts on this.

Me: So what do you think is the problem with helpful articles, inspirations or advices on social media.

X: There is no problem with those articles, but the problem is with such articles reaching wrong audience. and people being inspired from sources that are not relevant to them. For example, advice needed for baby boomers is different than that of millennials. Posts related to an established tycoon are different from a teenager.

A person responsible for multi million corporation taking advice on budget/ organizational structure from a nobody on snapchat or youtube is a problem. …

*After thinking about this statement for a while, here’s my take on this.

Imagine a coach training a group of students to run a marathon, that needs a steady pace. Imagine one of those students is running extremely fast, burning out himself and another student is just casually walking. Now, what happens if the coach shouts just ‘Go Slow’, and the person that’s casually walking follows that advice? or the coach shouts ‘Run Faster’ and person that already running fast take that advice? It is the same with Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp groups, or any other social media. *

Interaction · Nov 23, 2017 · Permalink · 2min read

I don’t usually get offended or irritated, but interactions like these, make me feel uncomfortable.

As you might already know, we are establishing a web-development firm and is currently looking for more projects. Met X, who is opening a new shop and called me to discuss his branding and development needs.

…

After a lengthy discussion on how we can improve his shop’s digital footprint.

X: So, how much would you charge?

Me: Well, I can’t say right away, need to analyze more, but for similar services, we are charging $***** for another client. (Wouldn’t reveal the price but it is in thousands)

X: Are you kidding? I can get it in Squarespace or Wix for less than a 100 bucks.

Me: well then, please go with it. (Stood up and started leaving.)

X: Wait! You still haven’t answered me for your price difference.

Me: I would like to remind a couple of things here

• Web Development doesn’t mean just including a theme. It includes customization, SEO, SMO, Deployment/Hosting, Security, testing, content-entry, …
• ‎Our discussion is not just development, but also branding and marketing which includes a lot more like the logo, lead generation strategies, content…

X: Well I can get them done for much cheaper prices on freelancer or fiverr. Looks like you are expecting way too profit margins.

Me: Imagine you have a medical problem. You can do your own research on the internet and use a house-therapy suggested by someone on Quora or go to a pharmacist, tell him your symptoms and let them give a generic medicine. But you would instead go to a doctor who does a thorough diagnosis, sometimes the problem is not what you thought it was, might refer you to a specialist if needed, treat as necessary, support you until you get healthy.

This is the same. It is your decision if you want to do your own diagnosis or consult a doctor but please don’t compare them.

X: Looks like you have got offended. All I am saying is you don’t have to spend or invest much, why charge …. money then?

Me: We do. We invest time, expertise and skills.

These kinds of interactions we all face every day, across multiple fields. As freelancers, recruiters, artists, photographers, models, copy-writers, mentors, … Thing is we don’t mind doing it for free for our friends or non-profit causes, but if you are adding value to your product/business, with our services, we do expect to get paid for the value we add.

Interaction · Oct 26, 2017 · Permalink · 2min read

Me: So what is one change or action, that you think would make a difference in a person’s life?

X: (After a minute of thinking) Have you ever asked or being asked by others, questions like what do you do? what are you doing? what next? what for? …

Me: Yes. Almost all the time…

X: If a person asks those questions to him/her self, it would make all the difference.

Interaction · Oct 9, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read

Met this amazing person, Mr. X at a conference, who turned his side hustle into his career recently.

Me: Any tips on transitioning a hobby into business?

X: Yes. But first of all, know the difference between a hobby and side project.

Me: ??

X: Hobby is something you are passionate about and do it for yourself. Side project is something you are passionate about, but do it for community, people, the world. Side projects can be made into business, because you are contributing where as hobby is just meant to be a hobby.

Me: Still confusing, could you give an example.

X: Yes. If you collect currency, because you want to have huge collection of them, it’s an hobby. If you are passionate about educating people about various currencies, and started collecting them so you can demonstrate, that would be a side project which could be turned into a career.

Interaction · Sep 30, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read

Interaction with stranger, X with a camera at a coffee shop

Me : you seem to be a great photographer.

X (with attitude) : You see my friend, There are no great photographers, just great photos.

Me : wow! that itself says how good photographer you are. Can I have look at your snaps?

X : huh well…It’s my friends camera. He’ll be coming in 5 min. And I’m not a photographer.

followed by silent smile, that turned into a huge laughter and Hi5

Interaction · Sep 25, 2017 · Permalink · 1min read