Comments

tompeters! company/website = Zillion x $.02 in Value & Talent

Posted by sean at August 8, 2006 2:57 PM

My personal '2-Cent Candy'

To reply personally to every comment on my Simplicity Blog. I have now written 430 different posts in 18 months. Every individual comment on every post has had a personal response from me - 95% (approx) within 4 hours.

Posted by Trevor Gay at August 8, 2006 5:06 PM

I am confused….Really confused…..Need your views (If you have time. Else ignore this post ...).

I am stuck at a company with absolutely no growth prospects. I am on a VISA here in the US that will expire next year. My company is planning to apply for a permanent residency that will allow me to stay here indefinitely. But it will take about 5 to 6 years to go through (That’s the average processing time it takes for INS to process green card applications for applicants from INDIA under my VISA category ) and i cannot change my employer during that time frame. My company has also asked for a service agreement of 2 years after the VISA goes through (for the privilege of applying a permanent residency for me). If I break this agreement, I have to pay 7000$ as compensation to the company.

I now have 2 choices:

1) Accept the way things are (as fate) and stick with the company till my VISA goes through and then look for new opportunities. That will allow me to continue in the US, but I am stuck with this company for the next couple of years.

2) Go back to India and look for a new job/role that matches my skills.

But going back to INDIA is not an easy thing for a guy who came to US 6 years back with a lot of aspiration to make it BIG . I love my country – BUT – India still has a lot of things it has to "DO right". Things are still in the "Not there yet" mode...lots of problems with infrastructure, politics etc...

Should i just go with my Gut and return back to India to try my luck there? The thought makes very uncomfortable ....but somewhere i feel it’s the right thing to do for me.

Or should I just stay back in the US?

I just wanted to give you all a peek into some of the dilemmas Immigrants go through.

Posted by Vik at August 9, 2006 12:31 AM

Hey Vik,

So nice of you to have shared your thoughts (dilemmas!). My self-effacing suggestion (if am allowed to suggest) would be for you to go by your instincts and take up a challenging assignment (in your chosen area of specialization) in India (head-on!) and prove your mettle in your fertile land.

Do not get me wrong. You may have done (and may so in future) do gr8 things abroad but I believe, given your present predicament, the time is right for you to head back to your home-land and create a cause (not a business). Am sure that the very thought of you deciding to post such a comment on TP’s blog shows that you are zealous to pursue your passion and chase your dreams wildly & passionately. PASSION PAYS! PATIENCE PAYS! Trust me.

One more suggestion Vik: DO NOT TRY YOUR LUCK in India. Just go there & give it your best shot and am sure YOU WILL SUCCEED in whatever you choose to do. It’s the BELIEF (WILL TO SUCCEED!) that is most important.

Good Luck to you in your endeavors and hope I have stirred the substance in you.

Posted by K.Sriram at August 9, 2006 2:23 AM

The two cent candy for any leader should be walking around and interacting with people. A smile and a question about them as an individual means the world to most..... time is the great gift you can give anyone.

Posted by Anna Farmery at August 9, 2006 5:53 AM

Lots of 2 penny candies for me...but today, a favorite. About 3 miles out on my running trail through the woods along the Black River in Michigan, a farmer placed an old fashioned hand pump that delivers the coldest, freshest, better than coroporate (Pepsi and Coke in the bottled water business???), water. That is my turn around spot and every day I say thank you to a farmer I never met. Often the cyclists stop and refresh their water bottles here. An acto of kindness that says a ton about the farmers in my little piece of heaven...

Posted by Mike Neiss at August 9, 2006 12:35 PM

OKAY! I should have checked my spelling. But I swear it is finger on keyboard failure, not brain failure....

Posted by Mike Neiss at August 9, 2006 12:48 PM

Thanks Sriram for your valuable suggestion & words of motivation. I have decided to go back to India.

Some times all you need is a gentle push...the ball starts rolling. Thanks again.

Posted by Vik at August 9, 2006 10:20 PM

I posted this after the Singapore story, but it probably fits better here....

The real tickler from the Singapore story is simplicity. I have been struggling with making my life simple for a long time. It is hard. My current philosophy that I am trying to execute relates to a writing analogy. Bullets, not text. How can we make everything in our life bullets and not text? Is that how Singapore makes everything so simple? There is a two cent candy analogy begging to be explored. Think about our jobs for a second. I know my job is based on keeping track of many many facts, which in some cases have associated actions, whether they are mine or someone else’s. Actions always have a date. I believe most everyone’s job has similar attributes. The only answer is to distill everything into two-cent bullets. Short. It takes time to make things simple and short, but it is worth it. Two cent bullets are sort of like two cent candies. There is a famous quote that has been attributed to Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain (among others): “Sorry for the long letter, I didn’t have time to make it short”. Two cent bullets take time to create but the payback in simplicity is worth it. Same with two cent candies.

Posted by Phil Yastrow at August 15, 2006 9:09 AM

That post was long!!!! Sorry I didn't have time to make it short.

Posted by Phil Yastrow at August 15, 2006 9:12 AM