How often do you sharpen your Axe

Recently i have read this book by name "You Can Win" by Shiv Khera. Even though its not usual type of books i read, i just took the book from my friend and started reading just for the heck of reading. As i started reading the book i must admit, i fell in love with the book.Its one of the excellent books i have read.

The book is driven by very well thoughts of the author and he has put them in a very simple manner. The book has many significant,powerful,simple analogies which will make you wear your thinking hat and make you realize your positives, negatives,dreams.It will help in focusing on your goals and makes you determinant in achieving them by devising a recipe for yourself.

This book has many useful and interesting stories, out of which i felt the below one is very apt for IT professionals.

John, a woodcutter, worked for a company for five years but never got any raise. the company hired Bill and within a year he got a raise.Then John resented Bill's getting a raise after only a year and went to his boss to talk about it. The boss said, "You are still cutting the same number of trees you were cutting five years ago. We are result oriented company and would be happy to give you a raise if your productivity goes up". John went back, started hitting harder and putting in longer hours but he still wasn't able to cut more trees. he went back to his boss and told him his dilemma. The boss told John to go talk to Bill. "May be there is something Bill knows that you and I don't". John asked Bill how he managed to cut more trees. Bill answered, "After every tree i cut, i take a break for two minutes and sharpen my axe. When was the last time you sharpened your axe?"

When was the last time you sharpened your axe? Past glory and education don't count for much. we have to continuously sharpen the axe.

As IT field is very vulnerable, one has to keep updating their skills regularly. Because the Technology of today May become Trash of tomorrow.So In this competitive world,to keep yourself in the race you have to keep updating the knowledge. You have to keep sharpening your axe regularly. Time and again you have to ask this question for yourself, and then take necessary steps.

Passion is the driving force in life

When life doesn't offer what we want in life, what are we gonna do? Are we gonna just obey and lead a life as it takes? or mold it in a way we want it ? How many of us just say that " this is all i have got in life and nothing can be changed " and live a compromised life? Not many i guess right?!! because life is such a precious thing given by god and it will be a shame if we just waste life without achieving something and lead it without enjoying it!

Then what is main factor which really provides us hope and helps in achieving what we want in life. Yes, its the Passion a person has in him/her which is the driving force in achieving what we want in life. By Passion i mean: Zeal , enthusiasm. Passion is the one which ignites fire in person. Its the fuel which drives them forward in life. It makes anyone achieve what they want in life and it surpasses pain they experience in the process. Without passion we don't live the life, rather we just exist ! passion adds Spice to the life.

With passion comes meaning to life, with passion comes hope, with passion comes determination, with passion comes pain, with passion comes success, with passion comes satisfaction.

Some people will be lucky to have their passion as their career. But not everyone is lucky enough!! But that doesn’t stop them in achieving what they want in life. Its only possible because of their passion. Passion has such a magical power , it makes the impossible a possibility. It brings the non-existing into existence.


Different people are passionate about different things. To say few examples:
The goddess of compassion Mother Teresa is the best example of people who has Passion to help others, and passion to serve the poor and needy. The king of search engine Google is the result of few passionate engineers. Lord of the Rings, Troy, Gladiator etc. are few examples of a passionate movie Technicians. The 7 wonders of the world are the result of the Passionate people.


In essence, Passion is the driving force in life. Realize your Passion in life and march ahead.

Transitions in Life

Every one in their lives will surely undergo many transitions. Right from the stage we are infants till we die these transitions are part n parcel of our life. The first transition in our life is the transition from innocent infant stage to the cheeky child stage, then from a playful child to a student life, then changing schools, moving from school to college, college to university, then student life to responsible working life, being single to becoming a married person, and so on....
In the process of these transitions we may loose many things very near and dear to us as well as gain many things. Take the example of moving from school to college, here we lose many of our old friends and may have to leave our parents, place n stay in hostel in a new location, amidst new people, and in the process we gain lot of new friends, and meet wonderful people.

Even though there are many transitions in life, according to me, there are two
major/important transitions a person undergoes in life.

1) Change from College life to Working life.
2) From being bachelor to a married person.

About the second one I am not the correct person to talk about. Because I haven’t reached that phase in my life still. First transition is the one I am currently going through. Even though this transition is not new for me (because I had been to this transition earlier also!), the conditions are totally different from the previous instance.

Recently many thoughts were going through my mind about this, disturbing me, making me mad at times!, and giving rise to mixed feelings, feelings that I am missing something and also at the same time gaining something more worthy. So I decided to come out of this confusing state of mind and put a break to these uneasy feelings. After a serious thought, I found many answers to this. If I look at the both phases (college life n working life) I could find many similarities and also differences.

As far as the learning is concerned, it’s a continuous process throughout our lives. However, what we study and learn in our college life is important because that’s gonna fetch us marks/grades and also shape our future. Similarly what we learn in the initial phase of working life will lay the foundation for our future position.

In College life we have full freedom, time for fun, n its enjoyable and cherishable, whereas working life is little restricted, added responsibilities, and could become monotonous at times!. In College life we are dependent (financially) on someone, and in working life totally independent, we make our penny.

Many feel we lose our freedom once we get into working life. That’s true to some extent! In college we can bunk classes when ever we want n enjoy life, but obviously while working we can’t afford to do that, because we are getting paid for every hour we work and have responsibility of finishing the work in time. Work is the one which is fetching us bread and butter. I.e. we earn our bread and butter by working, whereas in college someone else is paying for our bread n butter. So obviously we got to be more responsible. Not only the matter of money, college life is going to decide only our own future, no one or nothing else is affected by it. But in case of working life our performance is not only gonna affect us, but in effect gonna effect the firm v work for also.

But are we really losing out on our happiness here? Is it because in college we have variety of things to do, not only just studying? But in working life we feel bored of doing the same kind of work??

One thing everyone has to remember is many things in life never remain the same, even as we grow up our tastes, likings change. The joy we got as a child playing with toys, seeing cartoons, won’t experience the same kind of joy now. Simply because we have changed with time, and life also changes with time. Obviously we can’t expect the same kind of things in every phase of our lives. If life remains same for ever then what’s the fun?!! So changes in life are must and unavoidable. The important thing to note here is once we start enjoying what we do then life becomes different, looks totally new, appealing, and refreshing.

After all this brain storming, I realized an important truth of life. That is:

Key to Happiness in life is Enjoying What ever we do!