Discover "The Professional" inside you !!

"The Professional" is more than just a book, its a guide and mentor. I am a huge fan of self-help books, but this one just blew me off, since i could entirely relate to it. Out of all those that i have read till now, this is the only one which completely focuses on the professional qualities of a person and has been written by an Indian author - Subroto Bagchi. The fact that the author is a successful Indian figure makes it very simple for an Indian Professional to relate with the author and his experiences of dealing with the Indian environment.

What does it really mean to be a Professional ?? What are the true qualities of a Professional ?? How do i deal with different circumstances at my work place ?? What do i really need to be successful ?? These are the kind of questions which this book answers.

The word Professional has many different interpretations, but generally most of us picture doctors, lawyers, engineers, management people and others with sophisticated professional qualifications. To counter this belief, the author describes the true professionalism of an illiterate man whose only job is to bury the unclaimed bodies from a hospital. It is a true story and has been described in a way that it would deeply move, inspire and empathize the readers. Author wants the readers to understand that its not qualifications or the sophistication of work that makes one a Real Professional, rather it is the two main qualities which are "The ability to work unsupervised" and the other is "The ability to certify the completion of one's work".

Starting with Integrity as the foundation of Professionalism, the author describes the following qualities in different parts of the book - Self Awareness qualities, Professional qualities, Managing professional load, Managing complexity, The expectations of the New flat world and lastly the Professional's professionalism.

Every quality has a very simple and interesting 2 pager explanation, which would make the reader stop and reflect on himself/herself and feel the complete grasp of what he/she just read. The book is full of interesting incidents from the lives of the author and his acquaintances, which makes the reader totally relate to the author's perspective with the help of real life problems, complexities and experiences. He explains how to conduct one's career with intelligence and integrity. Its even better if the reader keeps rating himself/herself on the qualities described by the author and takes notes on the action items that he/she should take to inculcate those qualities in oneself. Thats probably the best way to take the most out of it.

I would recommend this book to any person who aspires to be a Professional, irrespective of the person's profession or age. Its a truly inspirational guidance that one can draw from this 200 page book.

The author of this book - Subroto Bagchi, is the Vice President and Gardener of MindTree. He is best known for co-founding MindTree in 1999 where he started as the Chief Operating Officer. MindTree is among India's most admired companies across industries. In 2008, Bagchi took on the role of Gardener at MindTree. "The Professional" is the third book written by the author, the first two being "The High Performance Entrepreneur" and "Go kiss the world". His blogs are available at www.mindtree.com/subrotobagchi.

Inspiration

The word Inspiration is the second most powerful word for me. The first one being Love. All I want to be is "An Inspiration", not because it would feel good but because I admire the people who have inspired me and now its my turn to pay it forward.

So what does this word really mean ?? The word comes from Latin language and was coined in 14th century and what it really meant then was "to blow into or upon; to breath into". In 1560, the word was also meant "creating power", which is almost the meaning thats used today.

According to Dictionary.com, the word Inspire is "to influence or to suggest". To me, this word means much more. If i look at somebody or somebody's work or somebody's thoughts and my reaction is "WOW !! I wanna do that too..", thats when the person or person's work or person's thoughts totally inspire me. Its like somebody just blew in or breathe into me, a lot of creativity and thoughts.

What i have learnt is that every person is a source of Inspiration for each one of us, no matter whether that person is the gem or a discarded piece of society. Every person can breathe into you a lot of creativity, but only if you are ready to receive it. Most of the times, our doors are closed so tightly that the breathe of others can't even reach us, but only when we open the doors and allow people around us to breathe into us some life, hope and joy - that is called "Being Inspired".

Few people manage to be an Inspiration strong enough that their breathe has the power to penetrate through the doors and walls of majority of the population of planet and they are called Legends. Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Sachin Tendulkar, A R Rehman. These are just few names of thousands of such legends.

They are an Inspiration for me because they have the power to breathe life into thousands of leaders and legends of tomorrow. WOW !! I wanna do that too...

Evil me vs. Angel me

Evil me: I have told you a trillion times that i absolutely hate gyming.. Why do u keep pushing me to be good and healthy.. I don't wanna be.. Just get off my head..

Angel me: Thats not fair.. U promised that you wouldn't argue about the gym if i let you have the kitkat in the afternoon.. U had it and it was close to 100 calories which means 20 mins on treadmill @ 8 kmph.. And just think you don't wanna die of heart attacks..

Evil me: Whats the point of living longer if you spend half the life in the gym and other half in counting calories.. Okie, lets make a deal if you will let me have a pack of kurkure after the gym, samosas tomorrow evening and a romantic movie tonite, i might consider gym..

Angel me: Are you crazy or wat ?? No kurkure and samosas.. I can consider movie.. But instead of samosas, i can allow you veg steamed momos.. only steamed, no fried..

Evil me: Kurkure, movie and momos ??

Angel me: Only movie and momos.. By the way, you didn't move a muscle on the weekend.. What are arguing about.. All you think of is movies, food and sleep.. Be productive..

Evil me: Blah blah blah.. Damn you.. Life is so very hopeless with you.. Anyways, i will have to agree with you for the gym.. Or else u'll kill me tonite with your favourite weapon - GUILT.. At least i can have a movie, momos and my peace of mind.. Too bad, i have to share this body with you..

Angel me: Its bad for me.. Had you not been there i would have been a millioniare by now.. You are so very lazy.. Anyways, thanks for agreeing for the gym.. I will definately keep my promise.. Now, lets go !!!