Critic Vs Cynic - A Thin Line Difference of Intentions

Before starting let me ask you do you have any Critic or Cynic in your life. If you do not have any critic or cynic that means you need to introspect. To achieve extra ordinary success it is very much important that you should have bunch of people either criticise you or always being cynical to you.

And if you already have many such people around you means you are definitely doing something extra ordinary. Your personality makes people think about you and comment about you.

We have to understand that in this competitive world where people are so busy running around to make money and  become successful overnight, striving day & night to help their family have good life and secured future by saving good amount of money for their future generations too. People are busy to meet up their own basic necessities. Believe me in this pace of cut throat competition there is hardly any time for a person to take proper rest.

Despite of having such restless life, imagine if any person is taking some of his personal time for you to criticize you or is cynical about you means that you are doing exceptionally well (Except if you are a criminal). Such Person/People will guide you towards the right direction by giving you some guidance or motivating you that you are all set to break tradition to get success.

There is one of the best fit Doha from Sant Kabir in this context à

निंदक नियरे राखिए, ऑंगन कुटी छवाय, बिन पानी, साबुन बिना, निर्मल करे सुभाय।

“Ninadak Niyare Rakhiye, Angan Kuti Chavay, Bin Pani, Sabun Bina, Nirmal Kare Subhay”

(जो हमारी निंदा करता है, उसे अपने अधिकाधिक पास ही रखना चाहिए। वह तो बिना साबुन और पानी के हमारी कमियां बता कर हमारे स्वभाव को साफ़ करता है)

(The one who condemns/Criticise us shall be kept as close as possible. Cos' without soap and water he cleanses our nature by telling us our drawbacks)

If we do search meaning of Critic & Cynic in Google à

Critic - a person who judges the merits of literary or artistic works, especially one who does so professionally.

Cynic - a person who believes that people are motivated purely by self-interest rather than acting for honorable or unselfish reasons.

  

As already said it is good to have Critic or Cynic in our life, but on the other hand it is also very important to understand the difference between Critic & Cynic.We should be able to cope up with both type of people. Any mistake in understanding this type of people may hurt us more than them.

There is a very thin line of difference between Critic & Cynic. Most of the time it is very difficult to differentiate between critic & cynic. In the first place both looks like enemy to you however Critic from heart would want you to grow and succeed whereas a Cynic would not like you to prosper. Hence the thin line of difference between Critic & Cynic lies in their intentions. Hence consider Critic as positive people and Cynic as negative people. But both are important to you and for your success.

Why Important: Both Critic & Cynic have some negative for us. So why is it so important to know the difference between Critic & Cynic. However as the Post Title itself suggest that there is a thin line of difference between Critic & Cynic and the difference is their Intentions. 

While Critic has positive intentions for you but Cynic has extremely opposite and negative intentions. Critic wants you to succeed whereas Cynic never wants you to be successful. Critic are most likely to be straight forward and give you the feedback contrary Cynic might be happy doing back biting & smiling in front of you. In our best time i.e., when we are near to success if we failed to understand as to whom to listen (Critic) and whom to avoid (Cynic) we might get away from success which we might have almost achieved. Both Critic & Cynic is important in our life to keep us grounded to earth (Down to Earth) and stops us from being Over-Confident and more importantly stops us from unnecessary Show-Off on small achievements and made us more focused on bigger goals.  

Reading the Mind Set (Intention): Life is full of well-wishers. Nobody comes directly to us & tells I hate you. However not all well-wishers actually want you to succeed from their heart. Some might distract you from success without your knowledge. So it is very important to read the Mind Set or Intentions and to know well in advance that whom to listen and whom to avoid. It is not an easy task but not an impossible one too. It is all about experience. Use all your senses including the most important one i.e., The common-sense J  

Modus-Operandi: What are the various method adopted by Critic & Cynic to give Negative Feedback. To know the answer lets us understand who becomes Critic & who becomes Cynic.

·         Critics are more professional. They either know the subject or they are your well-wisher and guide/comment you based on their experiences. They will be straight forward to tell you about your negatives and do not try to look goody-goody. Take the example of Your Teacher, Parent, Supervisor, Best Friend, Team Mate/Captain/Leader, Experts in field etc.

·         Cynic might or might not be professional but will try to look good in front of you and try to distract you from the right decision. They will not tell you about your mistakes but encourage you when they know that you are in a wrong direction. They will do more back biting about you. People with vested interest who don’t want you to succeed though it will not help them. The example of people that I have mentioned above for critic might some-time become cynic when they build some sort of jealousy about you or your success and might hurt their own prospect although you are much better than them they still wish that they do not have competition from your end. Sometime Cynic people might not exactly hurt you by being goody-goody but might hurt you by insulting you or making fun of you or your objective. People with negative intentions will try to put you down by hook or by crook.

Our Perception: Most of the time we fail to identify the positive or the negative intentions in  a criticism and in the process we might hurt the people who wish good for us & might like the people who is our hidden enemy. The perception about people giving us negative feedback can never be so good until you know the positive intentions of the people. We always perceived Critic/Cynic as bottlenecks. People who understand the importance of Critic/Cynic in their life and use all their senses including common sense to use Critic/Cynic for their benefit and make best use of them with right perception.  

Mistakes to Avoid: Over-Energized/Over-Confident people generally fail to understand the benefit of Critic/Cynic People in their life. They think that they are flaw-less. They think no body can questions their work. Whatever they do they is always right. No one can point out at them. All these are symptoms/signs of failure (Might be successful in short term goals but cannot achieve the best or long term/sustainable success). However there are some mistakes to Avoid à

·         Avoid to have too many Good-Goody People

·         Avoid looking at Critic/Cynic as Enemy

·         Avoid justifying yourself every now & then

·         Avoid hating people who tried to show you the mirror

How to Deal: There is no set rule book to deal with Critic/Cynic. It all comes from experience. However there might be some tricks to deal with such people for our benefit à

·         Understand the intentions. And make the right use.

·         Do not be blindly believe the feedback from the goody-goody people. It might be for distracting you from main goal.

·         Critic will be happier if you succeed. So listen to them. Correct your-self whenever required.

·         Cynic will be a cynic and nothing can stop them. However people who do back biting/Buttering are the people who will make sure that all your senses including the common-sense stop functioning when it comes to them. They will try to hypnotize you by making a pseudo favors. Only your success can stop them. So have patience and wait till you succeed.

·         Respect both Critic & Cynic.

·         There are two type of Cynic people one who hide the wrong intentions by being goody-goody in-front of you and second who do not hesitate to show their hate for you. Second type of people less dangerous then the first type.

·         Cynic likes to hear bad news from you. And critic will try to help you to overcome from failure.

·         To avoid more damage from Cynic let them be happy with your failure/mistakes. There is no harm to share your failure/mistakes. You might not get any solution but at least it will let them make some holiday plans.

·         Do not be distracted by the Cynical People Let the hidden enemy be comfortable looking at your mistakes so that they can stop back-biting 
·         Remember Cynical are good if they do not hesitate to let you know that they hate you.

·         Do not get demotivated by having Critic/Cynic in your life. That means you are doing something extra ordinary (Except you are a criminal, Criminals are Criminals).

·         Do not try to identify negative pointes of your Critic/Cynic. Everyone has negative point. Sometime we resist to change for good when the feedback comes from Critic/Cynic because you have found some other non-relevant negative point.

·         Be happy and always happy if you have been criticized.

·         And never let your mistakes to be hidden inside you. Let people know you have done mistake. Nothing wrong in it. Probably you might get right direction for your goal if you share it.

·         Do not waste your energy in hiding your mistake. It will be a self-disaster. You are fooling yourself.

·         Be receptive to the feedback. However take action based on your best judgment.

·         Life is too long let’s have the mental strength to face small failure. It is not necessary to be successful all the time.

Examples:

There are many example of Critic à

·         Teacher/Student Relationship – We might hate our teachers throughout our life but they are our true Critics. They want us to be successful

·         Parent/Child Relationship – If you have parent who always have a problem with you then you’re lucky to have the best critic who will be there with you always.

·         Classmate/Colleague cum Competitor – The best critic who do not tell you upfront but show you the mirror by giving healthy competition.

·         Supervisor/Leader – They are the people who criticize you to see you step in their place one day.

·         Democracy & Politicians – Politician, those in power and those who don’t are best critic of each other. Healthy criticism is the sign of healthy democracy.

·         Best Friends – Your best friend are those who become your best friend after tried and tested for many years for many scenarios. They become your best critic as well as they don’t hesitate to give your negative and upfront feedback.

·         Husband/Wife – Husband & Wife are the mirror image of each other in the society. They are the best critic for each other. They never wanted to see their counterpart to fail.  

·         Society – A well cultured society is the best critic. They will not let you down.

Example for Cynic à All the example of criticism also applicable for Cynicism if resulted in

·         Unhealthy Competition

·         Fight for Power with unethical Practice

·         Vested Interest

·         Jealousy resulted in unethical practice

·         You know someone is good but don’t want him/her to succeed

  

I am happy that from my childhood I have so many Critic & Cynic. Many a times people were so offensive and made so many personal comments nothing to do with topic. However all this had helped me to grow and evolve successfully through out my life both personally and professionally which sometimes seemed impossible and a far dream for me even after facing so many hindrance like coming out from a very poor family based out in rural India and with minimum or non availability of basic required infrastructure for growth and education.

I would like to thanks everyone who had criticized me and had given me warm regards, specially who are cynic of mine. 

"All is well if the end is well". 

You all have helped me to improve in my past & I wish you will continue to provide me with your same priceless service through out my entire future and help me to improve day in and  day out for  my entire life.

I am the person who made mistake and may make mistakes in my future life. Do criticise me whenever required.  

Thanks a lot for reading... Take care & all the best...Hope you all are not bored while reading the blog. Keep Reading..... J

***Blog Edited by My Life.. My Wife.. Lathika Jain.

regards,

rupesh

Being Ekalavya - The Art of Learning

Don’t Judge me by My Fluency in English – I may be the Prime Minister of India

Don’t Judge me by My Simplicity – I may be Defence minister of India

Don’t Judge me by My Humble Background – I may be the Missile Man of India / Former President of India too

Don’t Judge me by My Caste – I may be the Person behind Drafting Constitution of India

Don’t Judge me by My Poverty – I may won medal for my Country in Olympics

And

Don’t Judge my Skills by My Trainer – I May Learn things by my Own – By Being Ekalavya 

There is no person in this world who do not have limitation may be in their personality or in their background. Even the most successful once who are the role models for many in this worlds.

So what’s make them so successful even though with limitations and some even didn’t have proper resources in the beginning?

There may be many reason for that however one of the most important part is their Learning Skills. All are good learner and their hunger to learn & desire and interest on their subjects made them what they are today. And that’s why this post of my blog is all about “How We Learn New Things”.

And whenever it comes to Learning I always state “Ekalavya”. Many of the people close to me knows how many times I mention Ekalavya. I used to say “Ekalavya Bano (Become Ekalavya).

I am really impressed with his story. The way he has learnt Archery with all the odds and become one of the best in their time and even better than Arjuna (One of the Best Archer in Mahabharat in Indian Mythology). He became so good that his skills has no impact even after his Right Hand Thumb (Very Important for Archery) was taken as a Guru Dakhina (donation or payment for the services of a teacher) by Guru Dronacharya (who even don’t know he has taught him).

But the question is why only Ekalavya?

And the answer is very simple. Because of his “Learning capabilities with Observations”.

Yes he was a great learner without any guidance of his mentor. He was refuse to guide by Guru Dronacharya. However he has learn Archery just by observing him while he was giving training to Kaurvas & Pandavas.

So I will define “Being Ekalavya” as –

The ability to learn things by Observations when you saw someone practicing it. Without disturbing anyone who is practicing or without being taught by a teacher.

It’s not easy to become Ekalavya. There is always a background behind a person to “Become Ekalavya”. It is true that you cannot become Ekalavya always. There are certain thing where you required proper training/mentoring. However certain things you don’t required training or mentoring you can learn by observing while someone is demonstrating it to someone else.

Let me clear one thing is that everyone is Ekalavya in their life. However what they learn quick just by observation is depends on individual. Like for example I will take my self – English as Subject was never my cup of tea. I always required a teacher to understand it. I could not learn English of my previous class properly so the backlog is always there. However I was good in Mathematics where I learnt things by Observation as well. In one of my life’s most memorable incident which I have mentioned in my previous posts as well. One day incidentally I reached 1 hour before for my tuition classes of Mathematics. I was in 9^th and that time 10^th class tuition was going on. Tiwari Sir (My teacher) told me that you came on wrong time however he asked me to sit in the class rather going back to the class. After he finished his class he told to my seniors (from 10^th Class) confidently without asking me that tomorrow if you ask Rupesh to solve theory we solved today he will be able to solve. I was shocked by face but happy from heart. My teacher was understood me correct. And to justify his predictions about me I intentionally went to tuition 1 hour early to attend 10^th class lecture and to solve that theory without any preparation.

Now I will take example of one of my classmate Vikas Jain was good in both English and Mathematics. So he could learn both subject with observations. My few friends were weak in both the subject as well.

While I took example of school life and school subjects the same can be replicated to our normal life. What we learn by our self and what we can learn only by training can differ from person to person. Of one area is a strength of one person can be a weakness for another and vice versa.

There are lots of factor which forced us to learn. Sometime the situations or the ecosystem you are in may force you to learn without much resources.

Let me take you some points of the social and self-ecosystem which makes you learn things faster and by observations and help you to “Being Ekalavya” à

·        Interest: The most important part of learning. Your interest is something which is in your own control. Nobody can change it other than you. If you want to learn something, the very first thing which comes to your way is your interest. Are you really interested to learn that particular thing? Your interest decides the area where you will be successful and no one can stop you to learn. Your interest make you have stop where you found something related to it and try to understand and observe. 

·        Hunger & Desire: Many people have interest in many things but could not succeed. Because even though they have the interest but they lacks hunger and desire to make an attempt to learn things.

·        Desperation & Dedication: Half knowledge of a topic consider to be is more dangerous than having no knowledge. Your desperation to learn and to be good or in fact to be best increase your self-judgment capabilities to understand the depth of knowledge. You judge your knowledge with unbiased way. You always found good in others which you don’t have. And that makes you dedicated to keep learning. Your continuous learning is a results of your desperation to do unbiased review of your own skills and your dedication to improve your own skill set.

·        Confidence & Smartness: Are you confidence enough to face the toughest part of learning. Are you smart enough to understand the complex of complex things? Your confident makes you stand always to learn and your smartness helps you to learn things innovatively. For example few people who found difficulties to remember big jargons create theory own abbreviations to remember the sequence of logics. Although they understand the logic in depth.   

·        Necessity: Some time we have interest on something but we hesitate to learn because of usability of learning. Does it have any significance in my life if I learn something? So the Necessity is an important part of learning. Necessity can come in any form. It may be forced by society or by family or by your profession or it can be your own self-made necessity. Necessity is an important part of learning. If there is no necessity then the learning is incomplete.

·        Will-Power, Zeal & Hard Work: There will be lots of ups and down will come on your way to learn something. You should have the will power to face all this. Your enthusiasm, your Zeal to achieve what you want can only give you strength to face all odd and learn. In this world nobody will give you special attention until you show your potentials. You can now buy learning you have to earn it. You have to work hard to get the best out of you to learn the things with less resources.

·        Demonstration: What is the end product out of your learning? Do you have a complete picture? Learning start from the very 1^st time you have seen any demonstrations of skills by any one in any form. Like a cricketer start watching cricket from childhood & before he hits the ground he know what he is going to be after learning the abc of cricket.

·        Out Of the Box Thinking: Once Bills Gates said if you want to get the Complex work done give it to the laziest person he will find the way to do it faster. That is called Out Of the Box Thinking. While learning Out of the Box Thinking is very important. While learning you have to go Out of the Box to understand all the nuts and bolts of it.     

·        Subject & Content: Focusing on your Subject is very important. Knowledge is everywhere, you have to be greedy for content. Whenever you get any content related to your subject you have to pay attention. Learning can come in any form. When you get contents from multiple sources in bits and pieces and if you are able to correlated them and create a big picture out of that means learning on the Subject going in the right direction. This required combination of Logical Reasoning, Aptitude & Intelligent Quotient.

·        Understanding What is Hidden: Its applies to both type of training formal or informal/Observation. In any training you might not get 100% things. You have to understand what is hidden. You capacity to drill down to the minutes details and understand the context in bigger way is the real learner inside you. If you have learnt what is not taught to you but you have found it by your own with the help of minimum information you have is the ability which makes you the true Ekalavya.

In my life I have many things which I have learnt as “Being Ekalavya”.

The very first is the Desktop Publishing Work. Whether it is Adobe Page Maker or Adobe Photoshop. And how did I learnt these work, I remember I went for one DTP work for my shop to the nearest DTP operator. They design the leaflets while I was sitting behind. I was just observing the mouse movement and the hand in the keyboard of the operator. In another incident our Youth Club “The Friends Club Barghat” decided to publish book on Career Path for Rural Student after schooling. The book Called “Disha.. Career Ki Aur”. The whole book was designed in front of me. Without disturbing Jitu Bhai (Jitendra Kushawaha – Who has designed our Book), I and Naveen learnt lots of DTP work. We haven’t taken formal training on DTP however just by observing work of other we did learn and then later become the choice of many in barghat for any kind of DTP work including commercial/political leaflets, wedding cards and so on.. Including composing the local weekly News Paper called “Barghat Ki Bhoomi”.

Being a Marwari business is in our blood and that is another stint of “Being Ekalavya” to learn business from family by observing them from childhood. One of the best learning from my father is the Customer Care is the best most tool for your survival in your business.

When I entered in my Professional life, TCS has given us classroom training on SAP HR & Payroll. That was the demonstration of end results however the understanding the nuts & bolts of SAP HR & Payroll was not an easy task. Thanks to Sanjay Landage Sir who taught me the smart work. He always do things with innovative way whether it is comparing two excel sheet data with help of Pivot rather Vlookup functionality. Or creating a filters to divide employees in bunches. Or use of Macros to automate excel work and so on… His PCR writing skills and ability to understand the issue out of the Box and give solution to real pain rather the projected pain by user… He is genius. I have learnt this all from him just sitting behind him and observing him. As he has demonstrated these skill in front of me, I didn’t wasted this opportunity and by Being Ekalavya I have learn all this smart work from him by observing him from backend.

Thanks to Phiroza Mam to demonstrate the value of Professionalism. She taught me the value of time. Being a fresher worked under her and observe her utilizing her full time to meet the deadline, sitting at night, ready to work 24 hour in a stretch to complete the deadline taught me the value of Hard-Work. As she has demonstrated the value of Accountability & Responsibility and ability to take ownership by being in the top most post where she could easily get the work by ordering to subordinate, she always lead from front and show the path a true leader and a hard worker. By “Being Ekalavya” I learnt the hard work from her by taking self-accountability and responsibility.

The most important the MS-Excel Skills from Subbu Sir. Subbu sir was in TCS Service Deliver team where I happens to work with him for Data Migration. As fresher working with him made me shock. Oh My God look at his speed in MS-Excel. His finger speed in Key Board was like a Rocket. Mouse was hardly used. It was hardly possible to catch his speed and monitor his finger movement with what happening in MS-Excel in screen. Either you can see his key board movement or you can see screen what he is doing. However by “Being Ekalavya” I start sitting with him frequently and start observing screen and keyboard movement and then after all go home I started practicing the same in my computer. And that is what made me what I am today when it comes to MS-Excel.

Now I am 8.5+ Years old in my professional career with 10+ implementations & 20+ support projects still I am “Ekalavya” always in my professional life. I try to learn things whenever I saw it happening. Whenever I give training I asked my trainees to ‘Being Ekalavya” as it is my favourite way of working which brings best out of you as a learner.

Let’s your internal Ekalavya alive inside you irrespective of your age. Being Ekalavya is a Mantra to survive in this evolving world. World is changing every day and for coping up with this change you have to have an Ekalavya inside you who is eager to learn the new thing. You can read book, read newspaper, you can observe things by while watching a daily TC shop. You can observe people in public place you can learn things everywhere, it’s up to you. Knowledge is everywhere and with or without interesting subject. It’s not necessary you try to understand each and every thing. Let’s your brain used for what it is better understand. Let’s be Ekalavya for the things which you are interested in.

Last but not the Least –

Being Ekalavya – Observe, Understand and Replicate and Finally Learn… To become Productive & Successful…!!!

Thanks a lot for reading and watching... Take care & all the best...Hope you all are not bored while reading the blog J

regards,

rupesh

An Initiative - Educating Farmers for System of Rice Intensifications

Passion.. Courage.. Dedication..

Dream that could not make me sleep for years and ultimately yield this documentary which is helping farmers to increase their rice production by 250%.


Here is the documentary -->

Story Behind Making of This Documentary -

The Best Part of this Documentary is that I became Farmer & then Invested Money on Agriculture & Did this with my Own Money & Finally Directed & Produced by myself. It is easy to instruct Farmers from AC room but when you invest your own money, bear loss like farmers then only you can instruct them with sensitivity. Although my Agriculture Venture Vardhman AgriTech ends with big loss but still taught me the real problem of Farmers in India. Agriculture is always & will always be a profitable business, the only thing required is the Business mind & Rich People to Invest on the Same.

4 Years Back I had started working on Agriculture in India. To understand the real problem of farmers.

For that no other way than to do farming by my own.

I have taken 20 acres of undeveloped agriculture land on 3 years of lease.

Spent my own money (taken personal loan) to develop the land.

It was an great learning for me, even though I could not make money and lost all money.

After loss making 1st year I happened to meet Mr. V.S. Sharma (Rural Agriculture Extension Officer, Barghat, Seoni (M.P.). He has an excellent person and having lots of motivation to help Farmer. His mastery in agriculture is unbelievable. I have never met such a Government Employee in my life who serve more than 100% for what he is being paid for.

He has suggested me to do paddy farming with help of System of Rice Intensification method.

He also asked me to make documentary of whole process with all video visuals. And after 5 months of process this documentary has been released. We are distributing Free DVDs of this documentary to farmers.

Here are some snaps during the Documentary Making -->

Thanks a lot for reading and watching... Take care & all the best...Hope you all not bored while reading that J

regards,

rupesh