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Many a times we come across situations where we not only don't like what's happening to us or around us but also seem to have almost no control over the situation. Such situations make one unhappy and unsettled. How should one approach such situations? I believe one must choose one amongst the following to be happy in life:

1. Change - if one doesn't like what's happening one should try to change it. The attempt to change should be an honest one based on fair considerations. Sometimes one may be actually be wrong but may think otherwise so it's important to realize that the situation is actually not right and needs to be changed. The second aspect is that one must be willing to bring about a change based on one's values and beliefs.

2. Accept - after one has tried to change and failed one can simply accept what's happening. This is not to be seen as a failure as everyone has inherent limitations which are extremely difficult to overcome. And even if that is possible the cost to overcome these may not be worth it at times.

3. Quit - after one has tried to change and failed one has another option and that is to quit. Quitting may be seen as a sign of weakness but is really not. One must understand the fact that one is not good at everything and can make wrong decisions. Quitting should be considered as correcting a wrong decision. One would surely get down from a bus if one wants to travel to a place other than where the bus is headed for, even if initially one wanted to go where the bus is headed for.

I spent the last weekend tagging all the wiki pages and blog posts on this website. I have heard that tagging is a powerful tool for visitors to a site to quickly reach to the content related to a specified topic.

Tagging, as I realized, is also a powerful tool for webmaster and bloggers to write good quality content. Tags are essentially the major themes around which any content is generated. I stuck to generally 2 or 3 tags per page or post as I believe for the length of page and post I typically write, the major theme cannot be more than this number. While doing this activity I found that tagging is easy if the content is well thought and very difficult otherwise.

I managed to complete the tagging without major changes to the content. However, there were few pages and posts where I had to make minor modification for better alignment with certain theme(s), which eventually became the tag as well.

I am still to explore how tagging can help increase traffic to a website but I am sure it has some impact. And no matter what, if a visitor comes to a website which has a tag cloud, then it is always helpful.

I think the IPL (Indian Premium League) is a good example of monetization of cricket. The amount of money cricket has seen in the last 3 IPLs (the 3rd edition is going on currently) puts to shame the money which was there in cricket so far.

Thanks to Indian cricket officials, IPL has become a grand success. It has benefited everyone, especially the players. Most of the players probably don't play for more than 10 years and therefore must get an opportunity to earn enough to sustain themselves after they leave the cricket field. The money pie has gotten bigger enough for everyone to partake a big enough chunk to make this possible.

I think this means well for the future of Indian cricket. I also see this becoming the talent pipeline for the Indian national cricket team. Competition is surely bound to increase manifold and so will the quality of cricket.

Yes it is possible. However, based on what we see happening all around us it seems too difficult for the next few more decades. But we must try to fix this problem for the greater good of this great nation and its people.

There are many things the Government is already doing since last many years. The NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) is a commendable step in this direction. This scheme and many other similar schemes have helped take development to the poorest of the poor.

Early this month when I was in Delhi, I saw lot of development work going on to face-lift Delhi as part of the preparation drive for the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG 2010), scheduled later this year. This has also provided employment opportunities to the daily wage earners.

So in summary, there are many initiatives from the Government which either directly (NREGA) or indirectly (CWG 2010) help reduce poverty.

What is lacking, is not strategic and political will and funding but the planning and implementation at the ground level.

These words came to my mind after I went through an interesting experience. This happened when I was presenting about something to a group of people. One amongst the participants, who was questioning just about everything, made me think of these words: "Critic, Cynic, Doubter, Negative, Hardliner, Biased, Rigid".

It was a good learning experience for me. These are times when one would be extremely annoyed. Such behaviors are quite provocative and when questions are asked with a negative tone, deliberately and with a not-so-good intent, it can be extremely frustrating and irritating.

I let my imagination run little ahead and thought of a situation where this comes from someone you are reporting into. I guess then it will be quite funny and dangerous as well.

Without doubt, handling such situations makes one better. After all every day is a learning opportunity for all of us as it presents us with new challenges and situations.

Some interesting thoughts came to my mind as I was coming back from work today evening. How does a manager become a CEO? What is it that differentiates a CEO from a manager?

Here are some funny observations I had based on two favourite pastimes for most managers and all CEOs - meetings and presentations. This observation is in terms of the percentage of time that is spent on meetings and presentations.

Activity	Manager	Senior Manager	VP	CEO
Attending Meetings	20%	30%	40%	50%
Listening to Presentations	5%	20%	30%	40%
Giving Presentations	40%	30%	20%	10%
Creating Presentations	30%	20%	10%	0%
Work that Earns Revenue	5%	0%	0%	0%

The message is loud and clear - for a manager to become a CEO, the difference is in terms of what percentage of time is spent on meetings and presentations.

Based on my experience of working with many organizations, big and small, here are some common buzzwords (typical words, phrases, acronyms, etc.) I have come across:

1. Fyip - For your information please

2. Value addition

3. Managers as mentors

4. Star performers

5. Proposed actions

6. Road map

7. Capability building

8. Competencies

9. Data-based decision making

10. PPT

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