So after lots of thinking about that talk at Delhi University I figured that I should talk about something that is really useful and crucial. No fun session on creativity. No lectures on noble behavior. No standing there and telling them all that I had done in life (who cares - only my mother).
No. Instead of all that - percentages.
Percentages to follow to avoid getting scr#w#d in life.
Percentages for survival.
Except for 10 per cent of the time nothing happens, you have to make it happen. This is much more true than you realize. Things rarely happen by random chance or luck. You have to be a life engineer.
If you want to make sure something is done 100 per cent you have to do it yourself. That's right. This applies to any important effort whether it be turning a tap off, negotiating with others or putting a knife through someone's heart. To be absolutely positively completely sure it is done -especially the way you want it to - you have to roll up your sleeves, make the journey, and do it yourself.
You are not the point, you are mostly 0 per cent till you start smartly increasing this number. This is pretty ruthless but it's true. No one thinks you are important in any way. You are just one in a pile of 100 bio datas. Or one email among a thousand. So you have to do something and start improving this percentage!
You need more than a Plan B to a Plan A, you need a Plan C, D and E and every Plan needs a trigger date - and 30 per cent of Plan A plus 40 per cent of B and 30 per cent of C sometimes makes it happen. Please read this statement a few times over. The moral of the story is that you have to dig deep and have a EWS - Early Warning Signal to succeed in life.
Mostly people will deliver 50 per cent of what they promise. If you're lucky you'll find a few 70 per cent and 80 per cent people. If you're amazingly lucky you'll find a 110 per cent. Unfortunate but true. If people delivered what they were supposed to or what target you had agreed upon the world would be a perfect place.
Hope for the best (100 per cent) but plan for the worst (0 per cent) but what normally happens is something in between (40 per cent). I guess you've heard this before but not the 40 per cent part. I didn't have the heart to tell the students that the figure is actually 34 per cent!
Don't try to do something you don't understand - you'll 60 per cent fail because you won't know what it is you're supposed to do. It happens so often - a barking boss and a nervous employee. The boss barks some impatient instructions you scurry off. Don't. Don't start your talk till you know exactly what has to be done. It may try your boss's patience but will help both of you in the long run!
You know when you are taking a shortcut. You know when you're not giving 100 per cent.. You know when you're being 10 per cent lazy and guess what - you are only cheating yourself! By the time I realized that the only way to succeed to my true potential in life was to give it all I has I was about 50 years old. Still I'm trying to put in 110 per cent now so let's see what happens.
50 per cent is about the idea. 50 per cent is the execution. This is specially true in the start up world. A brilliant idea without a properly thought out execution can fail while a so so idea with a brilliant execution can succeed.
And finally the most important percentage.
Don't take life 100 per cent seriously. You have 0 per cent chance of getting out of it alive.
Columnist
The author is a legendary ad man who has won over a 100 awards in his career. He is also an author, a novelist a playwright and song writer. Now he has founded the unusual and powerful website adytude.com which helps power other websites, brands and businesses ahead
