Adversity unlocks great potential!!!

I've read many success stories about great leaders but, this one... just incredible!

Karoly Takacs. You've probably never heard of him. However, in Hungary he is a national hero. Everybody there knows his name and his incredible story.

In 1938, Karoly Takacs of the Hungarian Army, was the top pistol shooter in the world. He was expected to win the gold in the 1940 Olympic Games scheduled for Tokyo.
Those expectations vanished one terrible day just two months before the Olympics. While training with his army squad, a hand grenade exploded in Takacs' right hand and, his shooting hand was blown off.

Takacs spent month in the hospital depressed at both, the loss of his hand and, the end to Olympic dream. Just imagine the mental trauma he must be going through. At that point most people would have quit and, would have spent most of their life feeling sorry or accepting it as virtue of their own karma. But Winners are different, winners never give-up, and Takacs was a winner! Winners know that they can't let situations keep them down. They understand that life is hard and that they can't let life beat them down. Winners know in their heart that quitting is not an option.

Takacs did the unthinkable; he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and decided to learn how to shoot with his left hand! His reasoning was simple. He simply asked himself, "why not?"
Instead of focusing on what he didn't have - a world class right shooting hand, he decided to focus on what he did have - incredible mental toughness, and a healthy left hand that with time, could be developed to shoot like a champion.

For months Takacs practised by himself. No one knew what he was doing. May be he didn't want to subject himself to people who most certainly would have discouraged him from his rekindled dream.

In the spring of 1939, he showed up at the Hungarian National Pistol Shooting Championship. Other shooters approached Takacs to give him their condolence and to congratulate him on having the strength to come and watch them shoot. They were surprised when he said, "I didn't come to watch, I came to compete." They were even more surprised when Takacs won!
At the age of 38, Takacs won the Gold medal and set a new world record in pistol shooting. Four years later, Takacs won the Gold medal again at the Helsinki Olympics. Was he super lucky? NO, he is a man with the mental toughness to bounce back from anything.

Winners in every field have a special trait that helps them become unstoppable. a special characteristic that allows them to survive major setbacks on the road to success. Winners recover QUICKLY. I've read success stories where people don't give up. But this is different. Bouncing back is very important but in this era, may not be only sufficient. Winners bounce back QUICKLY

Similarly, Leadership is full of challenges but a great leader is the one who knows how to grow through challenges and knows adversity is precisely what unlocks one's greatest potential.

Yes, real men do cry!

I am raised in a culture where I am told, "You are a man, don't cry!". I've never understood why it is considered sissy if a men cries. Don't we have feelings? We are humans and have emotional quotient!
...and more importantly crying is not losing or giving up!

Change is the only constant thing, I reflect on my life - a lot has changed in the last year. One thing for sure, I seldom write. I don't even remember when I wrote last. Probably half a year ago.
I am not complaining, life is getting hectic, too much is going on - both, on personal and professional front.

Work has taken almost all my attention and... sadly the time. I am still with the L&T Infotech, which is now listed on National Stock Exchange (NSE) and is the 6th ranking Indian IT co. by NASSCOM. The year 2016 has been very challenging and stressful. The former part is why am still here but, it's the latter which is now affecting me. Life has taken a back seat :-(
I am not in the best shape of health either. Fighting a painful battle with my dental infection, lost a tooth. Shoulder injury keeping me away from the gym and to add to my excruciation, recently fractured my hand. But I will be back in shape and peak of my health in 2017.

Relationships are hard. Maintaining a distant relationship is harder. They need time and attention. Sometimes, life just doesn't go according to your plan. Anything you do - good or bad, will be taken against you. Like a wise man, I try to learn from my mistakes and trying to improve. "It's the effort that matters, result might be positive or negative.  The day you stop trying to improve, is when you actually fail." I've realized it hard way but still haven't learnt the best technique to balance work life ...working on it! Probably will write my findings, hope it will be helpful to someone ;-)
Learning: Always be honest, no matter how unexplainable the situation is. Honesty will save you in the long run.

However, there has also been wonders this year. We are blessed with cute little baby boy. It is the best thing that has happened to me. There aren't enough words to explain the feeling. It is extremely blissful to see him do cute things, his expressions and the way he reciprocates to my gestures. His thought brings smile on my face and the fact he is thousands of kilometers away brings tears to my eyes.

It is unbelievable what my son has taught me about my parents.

Demystifying Servant Leadership

...or at least trying to!

For a while I’ve been thinking about leadership as a learned skill and the needs and requirements for great leadership. IMHO one of the most basic trait of great leader is the ability to balance the fulfilment of the organisation’s vision with the fulfilment of the needs of those who work within the organisation.

In much of the reading that I’ve done, I question my personal style of leadership, I’ve always felt most comfortable with the style of "Servant Leadership".
A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid”. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

Lao-Tzu wrote about Servant Leadership in the fifth-century BC: “The highest type of ruler is one, of whose existence the people are barely aware… The Sage is self-effacing and scanty of words. When his task is accomplished and things have been completed, all the people say, ‘We ourselves have achieved it!’”

I'd like to highlight four most important aspects of servant-leadership:
1. Humility
IMO, this is the most important of all the aspects. Humility in this context represents both the attitude and an acknowledgment by the leader that he is not omniscient and that his employees will have more knowledge and experience on specific topics than he do.This is very important for leaders in industries dependent on knowledge workers (such as those I’ve always worked in), as there is high probability that employees will absolutely know more about their specialization (and in fact be employed for their specific knowledge).
We need to facilitate a learning environment in which employees are encouraged to learn, grow and develop through their own innovation, ideas and experimentation, and through interacting with and learning from others

2. Transparency
Building on the above is the ability to be real and transparent, which is an acceptance of and encouragement to the organization’s people that not only can they be themselves, but also that the company’s culture and environment genuinely encourages and welcomes this.
Transparency requires that the leader acts with integrity, does what he says going to do and remain consistent in both actions and and words.

3. Stewardship, Empowerment and Clarity
Stewardship is both the desire and the willingness to be responsible for the larger organization and to focus attention mainly on service to those whom they lead instead of on control and self-interest.
True servant leaders act in a care-taking role, but also act as important role models for those around them in the organization. Setting the cultural, value and ethical tone helps to encourage the rest of the organization to act in the common interest and with a strong view to teamwork, loyalty and the social framework and values of the organization.
Regarding clarity and empowerment: Clear acknowledgement of the skills, talents and strengths of employees, coupled with an environment that encourages employees in their actions and in their own personal growth can only assist in excellent outcomes and in creating leaders in their own right.

Finally…
4. Empathy and Forgiveness
The ability to understand and to experience the motivations, feelings and expectations of others is totally essential in a servant leadership culture. The ability to put yourself in the shoes of those whom you work with as a leader can only make for better and more impactful decision-making.
The encouragement to forgive and to move forward is again essential in the creation of a culture where it is accepted that people can, do and will make mistakes. IMO for innovation to occur naturally inside an organization mistakes/failures are bound to happen. "You either succeed or you learn!"

Today, Servant Leadership is a much talked about however, little practiced concept. It seems many people like to talk about serving as a leader but aren’t really all that interested in investing the time required to lead while serving. They also struggle with the “people are barely aware of their existence” thing. Leaders, well actually most people, tend to like getting noticed these days.

There are many reasons why people have a hard time buying into the whole “Servant Leader” thing, a big one is the fact that the terms “Servant” and “Leader” don’t actually go together well. Even many of those who would be served see “servant” as a weakness and would prefer a “stronger” leader than a mere servant could ever be.

Reference: If this blog inspired you, and would like to know more, read the book The Servant as Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf.

What is the difference between Leadership and Management...?

...Probably one of the most intriguing debates in recent times. This is a question that has been asked more than once and also answered in different ways. I've often heard these terms being used interchangeably however, the distinction between the two has become evident with my current role.

IMO, the biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of what they do.
Many people, by the way, are both! They have management jobs, but they realize that you cannot buy hearts, especially to follow them down a difficult path, and so act as leaders too.

Leadership is doing the right thing whereas, Management is doing things right!
Demonstrating good leadership skills without the management skills to support it, will leave you with an inability to operationalize your visions. Likewise, being a good manager without good leadership skills will cause continual challenges in motivating your team and producing the results you are trying to manage to. Being able to blend these two styles is truly a unique skill set.

I have seen many Project Managers focusing only on the management aspect and neglect the leadership aspect while executing projects. A project is more than scope, money and time. Keep in mind there are an abundance of managers in the world but very few truly embody the characteristics of a leader.

Subject	Leader	Manager
Essence	Change	Stability
Focus	Leading people	Managing work
Have	Followers	Subordinates
Horizon	Long-term	Short-term
Seeks	Vision	Objectives
Approach	Sets direction	Plans detail
Decision	Facilitates	Makes
Power	Personal charisma	Formal authority
Appeal to	Heart	Head
Energy	Passion	Control
Culture	Shapes	Enacts
Dynamic	Proactive	Reactive
Persuasion	Sell	Tell
Style	Transformational	Transactional
Exchange	Excitement for work	Money for work
Likes	Striving	Action
Wants	Achievement	Results
Risk	Takes	Minimizes
Rules	Breaks	Makes
Conflict	Uses	Avoids
Direction	New roads	Existing roads
Truth	Seeks	Establishes
Concern	What is right	Being right
Credit	Gives	Takes
Blame	Takes	Blames

 

Knowledge is worth as much as gold!

Came across this article and just couldn't resist reposting it. It teaches us lot but most importantly the moral it conveys...

During a robbery in Guangzhou, China, the bank robber shouted to everyone in the bank: "Don't move. The money belongs to the State. Your life belongs to you." Everyone in the bank laid down quietly. This is called "Mind Changing Concept” Changing the conventional way of thinking. When a lady lay on the table provocatively, the robber shouted at her: "Please be civilized! This is a robbery and not a rape!" This is called "Being Professional” Focus only on what you are trained to do! When the bank robbers returned home, the younger robber (MBA-trained) told the older robber (who has only completed Year 6 in primary school): "Big brother, let's count how much we got." The older robber rebutted and said: "You are very stupid. There is so much money it will take us a long time to count. Tonight, the TV news will tell us how much we robbed from the bank!" This is called "Experience.” Nowadays, experience is more important than paper qualifications! After the robbers had left, the bank manager told the bank supervisor to call the police quickly. But the supervisor said to him: "Wait! Let us take out $10 million from the bank for ourselves and add it to the $70 million that we have previously embezzled from the bank”. This is called "Swim with the tide.” Converting an unfavorable situation to your advantage! The supervisor says: "It will be good if there is a robbery every month." This is called "Killing Boredom.” Personal Happiness is more important than your job. The next day, the TV news reported that $100 million was taken from the bank. The robbers counted and counted and counted, but they could only count $20 million. The robbers were very angry and complained: "We risked our lives and only took $20 million. The bank manager took $80 million with a snap of his fingers. It looks like it is better to be educated than to be a thief!" This is called "Knowledge is worth as much as gold!" The bank manager was smiling and happy because his losses in the share market are now covered by this robbery. This is called "Seizing the opportunity.” Daring to take risks! So who are the real robbers here???

How to uninstall Hangout and rollback to talk (GTalk) on Android devices

I feel sad to write this but Google has recently done a very stupid thing - "They replaced Google Talk app for Android (and iOS) completely with the new Hangout app".

I am sure there must be few Hangout fans who might like it but I have my reason's to hate it:

1. I can not see which of my friends are online..In Talk, I used to see a green/red/yellow icons next to their names so that I know their status (available/busy/idle, respectively). With the new Hangout app, I am completely blind about this ..heck, I don't have any idea about who’s online.

2. I can’t set my status (available/busy) in Hangout. Forget about being invisible – that’s not at all possible which means you are exposing yourself to that nagging friend/co-worker of yours!

3. The interface is such that you easily inadvertently move your conversation to archive (left / right swipe).

How do I get back my Talk app?? I can’t find it in Play Store..
Interestingly, this is what some of the people at Google had to say about this. Read it, it is very funny:
“We’re upgrading Gmail video chat to Hangouts for all Gmail users over the course of the next few weeks. If your account has already been upgraded, there isn’t a way to return to the old video chat, as we are now going to be using a more modern video calling technology.
Thanks for your understanding!”
Here’s another one:
“I’m sorry to say but Hangouts is going to replace talk at all once it has been rolled-out globally.
Don’t worry that much about who’s online or offline, the great thing on Hangouts is, your messages are delivered for sure – no matter if the person is online or offline!
However, on your mobile you see friends that are currently not “online” at that time grayed out. Online members are displayed in “full” color and on the web extension you’ll see a green line below their photo.
Hope that helps.”
Yeah, really that was ‘really helpful’.
So, THIS is WHAT you SHOULD do TO GET BACK YOUR TALK APP in ANDROID phone. BTW, I am using and HTC device.
1. Go to Settings and then to Applications.
2. Select Manage Applications
3. Select ‘ALL’ to see the list of all the applications installed in your phone.
4. Scroll down and find the ‘Hangout’ app.
5. Click it
6. Select ‘Uninstall’
7.  You will be asked to confirm your command, say yes.
8. That’s it!!!
Now, go back to where you saw ‘Hangout’ app in your device and voilà!! there the old Talk guy sitting!!

UPDATE:
It is really vexing to see what Google has done with regards to Hangout/gtalk. In Android version Jellybean (4.2.2) and above, the gtalk is completely replaced by Hangout, leaving users without much option to switch back to gtalk. Thus, the option above (uninstall will not really work if you have upgraded your Android).
Then how to get back the gtalk?
1) Go to App manager and, kick out Hangout (disable it). There is no option to uninstall it.
2) If you are rooted then, you can uninstall it using Titanium backup app.
or If you don't have SU rights (not rooted),
2)you can download 'SuperManager' app for free from Playstore. Then, goto settings - "Enable root", then goto apk manager, find Hangout and uninstall it.
3) Download the attached gtalk zip (this is the one am using on 4.2.2).
4) Install it using CWM or TRMP.
or If you don't have SU rights (not rooted),
4) Extract the gtalk APK from the zip and install it...

Enjoy!!!

Whisky - on the rocks please!!!

I am almost two patiala pegs down as I write this...
I've had so many different spirits from various parts of world but, whenever I have "Whisky on the rocks", it just feels like home. Probably because this is one drink that we have often at home (well not on the rocks at home ;))

What is Whisky/whiskey?

It is a type of liquor basically made from grain mash.
Scotch, Bourbon, Rye, whisky are all of same family - Whisky.
There are three main factors which determine the type of whiskey:
1. Where it is made.
2. The type and proportion of grain used.
3. How it's aged/matured.
So, if you see someone drinking Johnny Walker Black Label or Dewars White label and says, "whisky", that's correct. But if someone asks you, "if you'd like a bourbon", and pours Bushmills or Johnny Walker (JW) then he doesn't know about whiskies. Because, Bushmills is Irish whiskey and JW is scotch!.
P.S: Whisky and Whiskey both are valid spellings. In U.K it's spelt without -e and in US with -e.

What is a Scotch whisky?

For a whisky to be called as scotch, it has to be distilled in Scotland and then aged for a minimum of three years in oak casks.
Typically scotch is a malt whisky rather than a grain whisky. Which means malted barley is the main ingredient and not any other grain like corn, wheat or rye. Typically the malted barley used to make the scotch is dried over peat fires, which gives scotch a distinct, smoky flavour you don't find in other whiskies.

What is a bourbon whisky?

For a whisky to be called as bourbon, it has to be made in the U.S and then aged for a minimum of two years in oak casks.
Bourbon is a made from mash which consists of at least 51% corn
Like Scotch, there is blended bourbon and single-malt bourbon, however it's not called as "single-malt", instead it's called "single-barrel".

What is an Irish whisky?

For a whisky to be called as Irish, it has to be made in Ireland and distilled for a minimum of three years in wooden casks.
Like scotch, Irish whisky is almost always malt whisky (i.e. made from barley) but unlike scotch, it isn't roasted over peat. Instead it's roasted over charcoal or in gas kilns, which leaves a cleaner, sweet malt taste.
Also, Irish whisky is triple distilled and scotch is double distilled, which also yields a clearer taste. 

What is a Canadian whisky?

For a whisky to be called as Canadian, it has to be made in Canada and aged for a minimum of three years in wooden barrels but, there is no rule regarding the type of grain.

what is a Rye whisky?

For a whisky to be called as bourb, it has to be made in the U.S and then aged for a minimum of two years in oak casks.
Bourbon is a made from mash which consists of at least 51% corn

Another aspect when we talk about whiskies is, "Single Malt" or ''Blended'.
Every kind of whisky, be it, bourbon, scotch, rye or whatever, can be either single malt/barrel or blended.

Single Malt / Single Barrel:
Single malt and single barrel whiskies come from the same batch at one single distillery. Thus, scotch is single-malt scotch when it is made from a single batch of 100% malted barley, and the same goes for Irish whiskey.
With bourbon it’s slightly different. Like scotch, they call it single-barrel bourbon when it’s from the same batch; however, since bourbon by definitely only has to be just 51% corn (the rest of the mash can be any mix of other grains), single-barrel does not mean it’s 100% corn.
Nevertheless, single-barrel bourbon and single-malt scotch are advanced whiskies. Because they come from a single batch from a single distillery, single-malt/barrel whiskies are very unique and distinctive. The type of water used, the character of the soil in which the grains are grown, the flavors imparted by the wood used for the casks—all of these come through in unblended whiskies. And this is even more the case for single-malt whiskies than for single-barrel bourbons, since they also use only one grain.

Blended:
Blended whiskies are the most popular in the world. All the brands you are most familiar with, are blended: Jameson, Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker, VAT69, Chivas Regal, Crown Royal, etc.
Basically, these are whiskies that are made by combining multiple single-malt or single-barrel whiskies. The reason for blending? To create a well-rounded, balanced whiskey that is both lighter and smoother, and thus easier to sip.
Blended whiskies can be either a blend of whiskies made from the same grain but from multiple distilleries from different parts of the world, or they can be made from whiskies made from a variety of grains. Johnnie Walker, for example, is a blend of mostly wheat and corn, while, Seagrams is like the cornucopia of whiskies — a little bit of everything.
The important thing to remember is this: although the term single-malt scotch has come to be considered the epitome of whiskey in recent years, there aint nothing wrong with blended whiskey — so long as it’s the good stuff, like Johnnie Walker or Chivas Regal. Like I said, they blend whiskies to make them balanced and cover all the whisky flavor bases. So if it’s done well, then blended whiskies will give you everything the spirit has to offer.

Last but not the least
Before sipping your whisky give it a sniff, believe me you will love it!
When you sip, don't just throw it inside and swallow. It is not supposed to be taken at one shot! Instead try to keep it in your mouth for a while or make like chewing it, you may get the flavour of sweet, spicy, dried fruit, leather, wood, smoke, earth... you may feel stupid but it works.

2012: The year that was

The leap that made me 30 years of life. Not my best, but an eventful one nevertheless.

A very unusual start…
It's not that often, that I spend my new year's eve away from my family and without booze ;).  However, it was an amazing experience watching the fireworks at the City Hall Square, Copenhagen. for the first time I felt there are people living in this city!

It has been more than a year living in Europe and working for one of the big banks. Did some nice work, not awesome, but am not sulking about my professional life. Made some decent money. Well, now a bit boring though err... not the money making ;), the typical job!

Tough times…
Both my India visits were terrible. Just couldn't imagine how all that happened.

Good times...
The only but blissful vacation to Legoland, Mons Klint, Odense with friends and how can I forget Stege (gosh... that pretty place ;))
First time driving on the right hand side of the roads and shifting gears with right hand haha... (Thankfully the pedals were in the same sequence)
Made some very good friends, learnt lot of interesting card games.
Met some brilliant people round the globe. Inspired.

The way ahead…
If/when my current gig ends, I’ll have worked in most of the areas I’m interested in -technology, finance, strategy, smartphones etc.
New role. Interesting work.
In 2013, I’ll definitely start working on my big idea. One way or the other. In my own startup or someone else’s. Probably the latter. Hopefully the former ;)

2013 to-do:
Keep  myself fit - Physically and Mentally.
Work on my idea/startup.
Travel more round the world.
Sky diving, bungee jumping, ...

Capitalism vs Socialism vs Communism

During one of the debates recently, I learnt that, commonly people are confused with the terms Capitalism, Socialism, Communism and Democracy. Thus, I thought of putting things here explaining (trying to explain) the difference between these in layman's term.
Capitalism, Socialism, Communism - these are commonly known as economic models and entirely independent of political models like Democracy, Anarchy...

Capitalism - An economic system based on the "Survival of the fittest".
Example: I own the cow. You buy the milk. The government gets its taxes. Or, more generally, everyone owns a private property but the government can tax us.

Socialism - An economic system based on the "You get your share no matter what your contribution is".
Example: The government owns the cow. You buy the milk. You pay the government. Or, more generally, government owns the resource production (farms, factories,...) but the people can own private property.
Want to read my view on socialism, click here

Communism - An economic system based on the "you put in your fair share you get your fair share".
Example: The government owns the cow. The government owns the milk. You are allowed to drink the milk, but only as much as you really need. The government owns everything, but everyone shares the resources.

Financial crisis - the ticking timebomb...

This post is an advanced version of one of my earlier post, How the Bubble burst.

What is the credit crisis?

It's a financial fiasco including:

• Sub-prime mortgages
• Collateralized debt obligations (CDO)
• Frozen credit markets
• Credit default swaps (CDS)

The credit crisis brings two groups together, Home owners and Investors. There is common place for either of these groups to suffice their respective needs - a bunch of financial institutions commonly known as Banks.

It is these banks which actually initiate the process of creating this time bomb.

How does it actually work?

1. Let's say, a family A wants to buy a house and needs some money. 

There is another group called Z who is financially well off and has stash of money which it would like to invest.

2. Now, A goes to this bank B in need of money and the bank B lends them in return of an agreement to pay EMI (equated monthly income). A is happy because he knows the house that he bought at x amount is appreciating in terms of value and doesn't mind paying the EMI. B lends mortgage to many such home owners.

3. People from group Z would like to invest their money and want to become richer so they go to bank B for deposit, but, bank B pays a very low interest rate. So, not all investors from group Z are happy. In fact, very few park their money at low interest rate in the bank B.

This is observed by another investment bank 'IB' (probably of higher magnitude) and approaches small bank B. IB buys out these mortgages from B at a very good price and B is happy as it sold off its risk at better price! 

4. IB collects many of these mortgages and bundles them in one box. This box receives EMI monthly from all these mortgages. Now, IB does financial analysis and splits this box into three parts viz, Safe, Ok and Risky. This is called, 'Collateralize debt obligations' (CDO). A CDO works like cascade with Safe block at the top, when the money flows in, it first fills in the Safe block, then in the Ok, and finally in the Risky block. This means, in case if there is some family which defaults to pay their EMI then, first it will impact the lower most i.e Risky block.

To compensate this, the bottom block has the highest rate of return and the top most block has the lowest but still better rate of return as compared to bank B.

To make the top most block more safer IB will take a small fee usually called, 'Credit Default Swap' (CDS). Usually the CDS fee is charged by the insurance firms to protect the investor. Credit rating agencies will give the rating AAA on it. Credit rating firms have nothing to lose and they get money to rate the risky CDOs as AAA.

(Credit rating AAA is considered as the safest investment area)

Thus, Group Z investors are interested in these top block of safe CDOs which pays of better than normal bank B deposits.

IB sells of the rest of the CDO blocks to other high risk taking institutions like hedge funds, etc... thus, IB sold it risks and makes millions and is obviously happy!

Everyone is happy, in fact the Z group investors are so happy with the return on their investment that they demand for more of such safe CDOs. So, IB calls up bank B and asks for more mortgages. But bank B has no new mortgage as there are no more home buyers.

Now, as we know that prices of house are ever increasing so bank B thinks, if the home owner defaults then his house can be sold as collateral. Thus, bank B starts adding risk to the mortgage like, no down payments, no income checks etc... This is called 'Sub-Prime Mortgage'.

This is where the time bomb actually starts!

The above process, from 2 to 4 repeats. unsurprisingly, few the home owners start defaulting. Which stops EMI from the home owners. So what! Bank IB sells of their houses as house prices are high and covers up the default. But slowly and gradually as more and more home owners start defaulting, a situation arises where there is more supply then demand. Obviously, the housing prices will not increase in fact they plum.

Now the family A which is still paying the EMI thinks, "why we are paying so high value of EMI for house which is not worth that much?", and even they put up the house for sell and don't want to pay EMI. 

This increases the default rates and further diminishes the value. So now the question is, IB had taken a lot of credit from other countries to make the CDO boxes which is now worthless and IB cannot afford to pay back the money it borrowed. This situation is not only with IB but also, the family A, bank B and group Z. This is known as 'Frozen Credit Market' and eventually they go bankrupt. 

...BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!

Professional dilemma at 30

 It’s been exactly 8 years since I graduated, so I have quite an idea of what the world after getting out of college feels like.

Don’t be a fucking drone!
By this, I mean never join any of the lame companies coming to your campus for bulk recruitment. This includes all IT sweatshops which offer the normal training-bench-mind-numbing-job routine, bulge bracket investment banks which work you like a dog for meager pay (which may seem high at first to some, but you’d eventually realize that it’s not worth it), and every other shitty company which pays like shit, and more importantly, robs you of some of your most productive years by forcing shitty work down your throat.
This is the worst way in which you could possibly start your professional life. You may not realize this then, but you will regret this when you turn 30 and have a mid-life crisis wondering why you aren’t filthy rich, why your job sucks and how your life didn’t quite turn out to be the way you imagined it would when you were a kid.

Steer away from the herd!
Don't just fall for any big company which is talked by most of your friends and folks.
Don’t study further just because every other clueless idiot is doing it. I know idiots who have gone abroad for their Masters or MBA just because their friends were doing it and they wanted to have fun for a couple of years. If you do that, never take an educational loan for that, because it’s highly likely that you’ll end up asking “Would you like fries with that?” or work in some shitty job there just because you want to recover your investment. You might feel great when you convert your dollar salary to rupees, but ultimately, you’re still just a drone. If you have a rich Dad who is willing to splurge on your education, then by all means, do it. Better still, just go for a world trip and then come back and take over your family business. Cheaper, more fun and a better use of your time.

The after MBA journey...
It's been 2 year since I did my PGDM in Finance and it is comletely different then what/how I expected.
If you do an MBA just because you want to “get into finance” since you can’t code for shit, then you need to know that most post-MBA jobs are very fucking boring. And the interesting ones are so few that only a fraction of the top students at the top colleges will be able to get those. The chances are so low that it’s not worth studying like a dog to get a good CAT/GMAT score, and then again for two years to get good scores in your MBA tests. Rather just work at interesting startups in related profiles, and jump on to the job you want without studying further.

Start/Join a startup - It is wroth taking a chance!
In your first couple of years after college, you probably aren’t going to make a shitload of money, so your opportunity cost is the lowest that it will ever be. This is the best time for you to experience the startup way, because "you don’t really have much to lose". If you don’t have a great idea or team or aren’t sure that you can do it, then join one.
Start something, work on side projects, freelance and do whatever it takes to diversify your income sources, so you aren’t dependent on a job, and don’t lose much even if your startup fails.
If your startup takes off, you’ll get to the 'fuck-you-money' point in a few years, and won’t ever need to work again just for money. You can then pursue something you’re really interested in — your passion — which improves the odds of success significantly. This Passion/Talent otherwise is unfortunately smothered in need of basic necessities.
And, even if you fail in the startup, you’ll have learned a lot more than you’d have at any lame job at a BigCo, and you’ll easily be able to get back in a better role at a BigCo than your peers (so its not really a failure). But you won’t want to. Because once you’ve worked at a startup, you’ll never ever want to work at a BigCo again. You’d rather want to build one from scratch.