Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
The ContraMind Code provides you with a system of principles, signals, and ideas to aid you in your pursuit of excellence.
The newsletter shares the source code through quick snapshots for a systems thinking approach to be the best in what you do.
The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best. It also enables you to draw a blueprint for what it takes to get extraordinary things done. You can share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation here.
Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession, to drive peak performance.
The Quiet Confidence of Great Founders.
Why the loudest entrepreneurs rarely build the strongest companies.
This article by Ashish Kulkarni is an excellent reminder as to why we must not get carried away by the hype and hoopla surrounding founders, as it may not necessarily reflect the quality of the companies they are building.
Ashish summarises it beautifully with a lovely statement: “They(Great Founders) understand that true confidence whispers while insecurity shouts.” He unpacks some of these psychological traits and behaviours around them:
Hidden Patterns - The difference between ‘Performative confidence’ and ‘Authentic confidence’ defines their drive for ‘internal validation’ or ‘external validation.’ This neurological dependency can severely compromise long-term resilience and strategic thinking.
He elucidates further that this helps to do a founder reality check, which explains the reasons behind the behaviours like ‘tend to over-pitch to investors, dominate every conversation, maintain a constant social media presence, and feel compelled to have an opinion on everything’ versus ‘listen more than they speak, ask better questions, and choose their words with precision. When they do speak in board meetings, people pay attention—not because they’re the loudest voice, but because they consistently add value.’
All these then translate into the three pillars of the founders’ quiet confidence framework - internal validation, calm conviction, and strategic silence.
You can read the entire article here.
Kevin Kelly - Be Generous And Unique.
This is one of the all-time classic episodes in Invest Like the Best. This conversation with Kevin Kelly throws up so many brilliant ideas and thoughts, life lessons and learnings which need to be first absorbed deeply, imbibed in full and practiced with conviction.
Here are some thoughts and ideas from this chat:
Kevin Kelly emphasizes the importance of authenticity in one’s life and how getting it requires a lifelong journey of reflection and practice. It is easier said than done.
One of the powerful points he makes is that when you conform to others’ definition of success and societal biases, it hinders your progress. Ask yourself one question: Do you have the conviction to walk your beliefs and values?
Learn to accept life’s imperfections and be ready to embrace them when they happen to you.
Challenging expectations and norms helps build and develop your imagination.
Kindness is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of strength.
Learn to simplify, simplify, simplify and then exaggerate!
Find a way to do things that is easy for you to do, but others find hard to do or replicate! Aim for uniqueness and originality.
You can also listen to the full episode on:
Who Is A Professional? Talk by Subroto Bagchi.
We often refer to a company as unprofessional if, for example, we are unhappy with the way they handled a service issue, such as a complaint, or maybe in the way they treat their employees. Or we call a boss unprofessional if they don’t give credit where it is due or if they manage their subordinates in a way that is not transparent. Or we call a colleague or a peer unprofessional when they fail to meet their deliverables within the time they promised to get them done.
But what exactly is the definition of being a professional? Subroto Bagchi, co-founder of Mindtree and Chairman of the Odisha Skill Development Authority, unravels in this talk the meaning of ‘being a professional’.
“A true professional is one who can work unsupervised. You must be able to give your best without anyone else looking over your shoulder.”
“The ability to certify your work of completion. Completion of work means the work could not have been done in any manner better.”
“You must have integrity. There are lots of people in the world today who are competent, but they lack integrity.”
You can click on the above link and watch his talk in the video.
Preparing To Be Professional.
So, what does it take to be professional?
Ask yourself a couple of questions, but these will require an honest and authentic answer:
How professional are you in your life, both at a personal level and at work?
How do you rate yourself as a professional on a scale of 1-5?
Do you act, reciprocate, and behave in the same professional manner that you expect others to behave with you?
When you answer these questions in the context of the definition laid out by Subroto Bagchi, it will throw up some interesting perspectives for you :
‘A professional is one who can work unsupervised, giving their best when no one is looking over their shoulder, complete the work in a manner that could not have been done any better and do it with integrity.”
Your answers, with the above contextual definition, require deep introspection and brutal honesty. Let’s attempt to paint some scenarios that provide a picture of your actions and behaviour - maybe it could have happened in the past, or imagine how you would, in case it happened:
How do you work on something when there's no deadline? Does it often get pushed, or do you force yourself to complete it using an imaginary internal deadline and self-imposed pressure?
When are you at your best? When you have people competing with you, or when you compete against yourself?
Do rewards and recognition motivate you to give your best performance, or do you give your best and let rewards and recognition come your way?
Do you go back and keep tweaking something even after the work is completed and done because you feel it was still not at its perfect best?
Do you earn to learn or learn to earn?
Have you walked away from a deal, project, or a job when it didn't align with your ‘integrity framework’?
Do you apply the ‘excellence and quality filter’ to your own work, effort and output?
Is your response and the quality of what you do relative to how others do things?
Do you frequently rate your competence and skills without bias?
Some of these questions and their answers define the building blocks of preparing yourself to be a professional.
Professionals are internally-driven, set their own benchmarks, take personal accountability, care little about external noise or bias and expectations, are ruthlessly honest about their strengths and weaknesses, keep moving the needle up in terms of competence and capability, pay a high price for integrity at the cost of their jobs or relationships, don’t work to others’ templates and success metrics, demand the same attitude from others while reciprocating with the similar intensity and benchmarks that they set for others, maintain a deep silence which is a mark of deep introspection and assessment of the work they are doing, are humble to accept their mistakes and ignorance, results or lack of rewards or recoginition does not deter or drive them, can maintain a delicate balance of growth and beginner’s mindset, never satisfied even after reaching the pinnacle.
The most apt analogy to consider is when an amateur sportsperson turns a professional. When they graduate to the professional circuit, the intensity of effort and discipline is several orders higher. Only a handful make it up there, let alone the ones who win.
Based on the above context and attributes of a professional mindset, most companies tend to have a higher percentage of amateurs and a relatively lower percentage of professionals in their rolls. It’s the responsibility of individuals to work for themselves to graduate to the professional zone. They must take control of their personal growth, career and excellence benchmarks rather than let the companies they work for dictate them. The companies need to create a playground for such professionals to thrive and grow.
Think, observe and evaluate your work when nobody is looking over your shoulder. It’s your first step in preparing to be professional.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
Understand the difference and value between ‘performative confidence’ and ‘authentic confidence’.
Authencity requires lifelong learning and practice.
Competency alone does not make somebody a professional.