An amulet I always love to see on someone's desk is the laughing Buddha. 

While meant to be powerful, this particular form is usually presented as small, rotund, drunk-happy and jolly in appearance. These are some of the most highly sought after souvenirs in China and Nepal and are available in all sorts of materials such as wood, teak, rosewood, sandalwood etc. Some believe a vigorous 'rub' of the Buddha's tummy bestows luck on the individual doing so.

Having attended Bal-Vikas and other theological classes during childhood and having read and attended discourses on the world's religions, something about this presentation of the Buddha is very ironic to me.

Briefly, prince Siddhartha (Buddha's original name), was taken aback by the wealth of suffering and pain that existed just beyond his palace walls. He decided that he needed to understand the source of such suffering. In order to do so, he proceeded to subject himself to varying levels of physical and mental deprivation. These included fasting without food or water, sleep and other rigorous disciplines. He then learned that it wasn't necessary to subject oneself to such pain in order to experience some truths. These were then expressed in the four noble truths, and the solutions to these, in the noble eightfold path.

Basically, someone who fasted, tortured himself and abstained from any worldly pleasures, could in no way have ever been short, rotund and the way he is portrayed in these symbols. 

So, the next time you see a Laughing Buddha, go ahead and rub the tummy. But think about some of the wisdom in the four truths and eightfold paths, and then remember it isn't meant to be as jolly as it appears. 

At the least, the 'right concentration', 'right mindfulness' and 'right livelihood' portions of the eightfold path would probably have an issue with 'luck', i.e. money or other material requests, bestowed by simply rubbing the Buddha's tummy. He probably wouldn't have gone for that.

I used to get petrified of these meetings. At an earlier stage of your career, you're less likely to be involved in these sorts of meetings and so you're less likely to know how to deal with them. Just know that over your career there is a transition of first being scared, then confident, then knowing what your outcome will be and then finally getting to be the executive who decides the outcome i.e. the H or F part. Let's first define what this meeting is.

It's the sort of meeting where something fundamental is about to change, and you are single-handedly the cause for that change. It is most definitely not a status meeting, a platform meeting, an update meeting or any kind of regularly scheduled meeting. It also isn't a panic, pin the blame or root-cause analysis meeting. It most definitely isn't a technology-related meeting. It's much more.

When you present something fantastic, uniquely value-adding, a proposition that could get people above you in hot water, or stand out by challenging the status quo of business, that's when you have a GHOF meeting. When you challenge basic assumptions, organizational models, executive wisdom, redefine competition, identify new business opportunities, or all of the above that's GHOF at it's best. You have to identify something, typically a problem or five, a host of solutions, investments or deas and tie all the pieces together. You're basically identifying something no one else thinks about - and because you have - are implicitly or explicitly applying for any opportunity that arises out of that. The untold assumption is that you're suggesting status quo isn't an option, and so if not given the opportunity to solve the problem, what else exists?

I like these meetings because it reduces outcomes to two fundamental options. Green light, red light. No amber. It dramatically increases odds of success to a guaranteed 50%, gets you visibility, makes you known as a non status-quo'er (there are too many of those) all while painting a giant 3-d bullseye on your back. Things will change for you. Guaranteed.

I'll follow up with tips for one of these, but I try to work on at least one or two of these a year. That means at least three-four ideas you have to discard in the process. Desh Deshpande, of Sycamore Networks, famously used to recommend his employees always go on job interviews at least twice a year. That way they know what they're worth, aren't afraid of taking risks where they are, and can dive headlong into an opportunity without worrying about unemployment. They know they're good enough. They just found a job elsewhere to prove it. I recommend if you don't or can't head down the entrepreneurial path, try to create for yourself at least 1 GHOF meeting a year. It does the work soul much good.

Oh, and if offered cake at one of these meetings, never refuse. 

..there is a woman. Or so goes the adage. My version and story differ just a bit.

I am blessed with three women in my life. 

My mother. She has taught me to be always be honest with my emotions and never be superficial, to live within and accept your means, to love and live for your children, and to help those less fortunate. Unfortunately, India has an abundance of those less fortunate, and ever since I've come of age, all I can remember and see to this day are efforts she takes to help those downtrodden ones. "Help ever, Hurt never" is her life's motto and she goes to great lengths to live this. I have seen first-hand the unshakable power of prayer, belief and the force of the Lalita Sahasranamam or Narayana Bhattatiri's ode to the Lord of Guruvayoor, Kerala, the Narayaneeyam. She personifies the Bhakti-Marg or path of devotion and unbelievable events have happened for our family because of that devotion.

My wife, undoubtedly the smart one, was educated at premier institutions around the world incl. MIT & Cambridge. She had a great career and put that on hold for our kids. Her reason for doing so is to provide an environment for them, at least as good as one our mothers provided for us. She is my sounding board on every aspect of my life and I make better decisions only because of that. She helps me understand subjects that I have a tough time grasping, like micro/macro economics and social development, that come naturally to her and I am wiser for it. Because of her, I know who Austan Goosbee or Paul Samuelson (RIP) are and how their work shaped our lives. My intellect is better formed because of her.

My daughter, my fountain of renewal, teaches me to just let life be. She knows how to let the truly insignificant pass from memory. No event is as important as the one currently being experienced, and that's good enough. That is also the essence of Zen. She wouldn't know, that's just how she is. She teaches me that life's worries are easily forgotten if only we became more like children. Through her eyes I see how much love life can really give us. Every man should be blessed with a first child that is a daughter. It will help him.

Behind every successful man there is a woman? The revelation I had recently is that they are actually my life's blessings. I know the impact these women have on me, making me a better person. I am aware of, respect and treasure that with my very being. It is that knowledge that makes me successful.

Something as meaningful as this really helps to ground you back into reality, both when things are going unbelievably well and when nothing appears to be going well. Keep it in your back pocket. Comes in handy.

"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless..."

-- Brandon Lee from The Crow DVD

-- Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky [original author of the quote]