The Value Of Cost and Creating Hotbeds
Edition #53
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 and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done. Please share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation.
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.
Return to India: My journey ~5 years later
by Hemant Mohapatra
In this article, Hemant Mohapatra, a partner with Lightspeed India, talks about his back-to-India experience. Here is a summary:
Cost is relative to what you care about.
Education & Health — India is highly competitive educationally. A vast number of alternative careers in art, design, and freelancing have cropped up. Health facilities are top-notch.
Job & Career — The downside of work in India are long hours, no real separation of work-life, startups can get really grindy, and there have been a lot of hirings and firings in the ecosystem lately.
Covid - Covid was also the time I really was thankful I was in India with my family. India was also somewhat conservative in not approving mRNA vaccines, which seems to have been the right call in the end.
Entrepreneurship — Over the last 4yrs, entrepreneurship has really reached far and wide. We see great founders — both bootstrapped and venture-backed — coming out of previously unusual places.
Daily life — Most of the things are quite smooth. Things will be more complicated with kids etc., but India also has the benefit of family/house-help.
In a nutshell, returning to India has been one of the best decisions of my life.
Read the article here.
Something in the Water: Where Do Great Athletes Come From?
Jody Avirgan, a well-known podcast host, producer, and editor does a brilliant job of decoding how and why some cities and people involved have become great hunting grounds for creating world-class sports talent.
Here are some key takeaways:
How talent “hotbeds”, the role opportunity and access play a crucial role in identifying talent, grooming them and crafting their success on the world stage.
Why and how is there a crucial difference between having talent and achieving greatness?
How talent spotters or coaches in these cities work. Also, how they create an ecosystem of coaches worldwide, enabling infrastructure and access to the best players to learn from.
The importance of bringing in volume and, simultaneously, being ruthless in evaluating talent.
Just click the link above and listen to this podcast.
The Power of Vulnerability
by Brene Brown
Brene Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston. She has studied courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy for the past two decades.
In this video, Brene Brown talks about:
The importance of connection and why it brings purpose and meaning to our lives.
She found that ‘whole-hearted’ people live from a deep sense of worthiness.
The importance of allowing ourselves to be seen, really seen, and why it is vital to embrace vulnerability.
When we numb vulnerability, we also numb other feelings like joy, creativity, gratitude, happiness etc.
Watch this video by clicking the above link.
The Value Of Cost and Creating Hotbeds
One thing that stuck hard but very deeply was our need to understand the value of cost. Most often, many of us tend to do things without understanding the value or the cost of doing them. Or we tend to compare ourselves with others and the cost relative to what we want or value.
If you want to be an entrepreneur or are already one, you value the freedom and independence that comes with it. Therefore, you are willing to initially sacrifice the cost of the lower income or, the higher risks associated with it. Similarly, suppose you want to work in a start-up. In that case, you have to value the chaos and ambiguity that come with it, and you must be willing to trade that for the cost of working in a high-paying, structured, process-driven environment but a large company. Similarly, on a product in its early maturity cycle, you must be willing to value hypotheses, experiments, testing, being hands-on as talent may be scarce etc. At the same time, the cost of that may be repeated failures, slow product acceptance etc. So, when you are moving to a new country, taking up a new role, or joining a new company, think about the value-to-cost equation and if it fits your expectations. A mismatch creates a painful situation, leading to looking at the environment, market, opportunities and people around you with disdain. Naturally, your mind will refuse to see possibilities, but all the problems will come to the fore leading to poor judgment and decision-making.
This leads to another interesting idea or concept of ‘Hotbeds’. How to create opportunities when none of them seems to be around? For example, if you take technology services, Bengaluru became the hotbed for IT services, Chennai became the hotbed for SaaS or Chess, and Hyderabad became the hotbed for Badminton. But again, the heavy lifting needs to be done in finding takers, grooming them, importing talent from outside, growing them etc. Furthermore, when you look at it through the lens of value-to-cost, there is value in building these talent bugs, but the cost of effort and time is something you must be willing to pay and accept.
The question to ask yourself is, “ Am I willing to accept the value-to-cost effort? Does it fit into the overall goals that you have for yourself and also be convinced to work and deliver while keeping the realities and opportunities in mind?” Only you can answer this very well if you are honest and ruthless about your expectations.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
Evaluating and getting the value-cost equation right can have a life-changing impact.
Talent hotbeds are fundamental to attracting, identifying, grooming and crafting success.
Being vulnerable and making it seen can make a difference in creating a connection with people who you know and work with.