Loud Thinking

Archive for January, 2014

“If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself.”

— Charles M. Schulz

“May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night. May the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being. May you walk gently through the world and know it’s beauty all the days of your life.”

Apache Blessing –

One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas. Victor Marie Hugo …. No army can stop an idea whose time has come. Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

Road Test Your Business Case Before Presenting It

After you’ve put the hard work into developing a business case for a new product or initiative, don’t make the mistake of presenting it cold. It’s better to share it beforehand with a few people who will be evaluating it. You’ll want allies in the room when tough questions come up. Give individuals on the review committee a preview and ask about their concerns. Get feedback from as many people as you can — you want to know where they stand, especially on new projects that are out of the ordinary for your company. Of course, you’ll need to adjust your content in response to what you hear. You may drop some features, for example, or tweak a few numbers. But then let your stakeholders know you’ve made changes to allay their concerns so they can give the project their support at the review meeting.

Adapted by HBR from the HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case eBook + Tools.

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”

— Winston Churchill

“Some people believe that holding on and hanging in there are signs of strength, but there are times in life when it takes much more strength just to let go.”

— Ann Landers

Sri Lankan team has snatched a draw from the jaws of the defeat and Pakistani team has also snatched a draw from the jaws f the victory.

Hail Misbah ul Haq for playing Rahat Ali in place of Talha, not retaining Sharjeel and Sohaib Maqsood from the ODI squad (like Bilawal Bhatti) in place of less than an average players Khurram Manzoor and Asad Shafiq.

“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

— Howard Thurman

An open letter to the Indian PM – Let India and Pakistan live like United Europe and not like divided Korea..!

Dear Mr. Manmohan Singh,

Greetings.

We in Pakistan, really appreciate your desire to visit Pakistan, as informed by you today, in your first press conference in three years.

In this regard, I would like to suggest to the current leadership of both the countries, to take advantage of the conducive atmosphere prevailing in the region; and let India and Pakistan try a NEW APPROACH towards the peace: by first deciding upon a list of such core thorny issues, which are complicated and can only be resolved after full confidence between the two nations is restored; and freeze all such issues or problems, for a short period of just one decade.

In the meantime, India and Pakistan should restore full friendly relations, by genuinely restoring cooperation in all fields of economic activities, visa free to and fro, travel of citizens of both the countries, facilities for the businessmen of the two nations for opening of trade offices, banks, business shops and show rooms in each others country, removal of all restrictions on cultural and sports teams visits and full permission of the TV channels, to be viewed in each other’s country.

It will be just of a sorts of a no war pact for a limited period of ten years. It is expected it may work wonders, like a magic, in the economic emancipation of the teeming millions of both the countries.

Mr. Manmohan Singh, hope you know very well that ordinary people of both the countries are fed up with the acrimony between the two closest neighbours; and earnestly desire hundreds of years of peace, for which the only impediment, is the lack of statesmen and visionary people in the policy making arena of both the countries.

Now, your and our leadership has got a golden chance of a life time, to jointly work for the peace of about 1.5 billion humanity.

Please extend your hands to meet the gestures of genuine peace, already offered by the Pakistani PM Mr. Nawaz Sharif, to make the peace aspirations of the hundreds of millions of residents of the sub continent, come true.

Remember, may be this golden chance for the peace between the two nations if missed, may not come again in the decades.

Also please inform all those military and political planners in your country, not in favour of genuine peace with Pakistan that low intensity war or other covert hostile methods, are no more a long or short term options for, as well as, against any nuclear power(s). All such paradigms are out dated in the ultimate nuclear scenario. Such policy planners have no business to stay in the past non-nuclear status frame of mind; and they must develop a NEW and FRESH vision, to guide a major nuclear nation, like India.

Policy makers of nuclear powers must not have a mindset of a non nuclear state. And the foremost responsibility of these policy makers must be to ensure, at all costs, that under ALL circumstances nuclear flare up or provocation has to be ruled out: irrespective of the defined policy of no first use of nuclear weapons or retaliatory use of WMD’s.

Last but not the least, it must be a very clear objective of the leadership of both the countries, to ensure that India and Pakistan must not live like divided Korea, rather, we should live, like the united Europe.

Seasons Greetings and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year 2014.

An open letter to the Indian PM – Let India and Pakistan live like United Europe and not like divided Korea..!

Dear Mr. Manmohan Singh,

Greetings.

We in Pakistan, really appreciate your desire to visit Pakistan, as informed by you today, in your first press conference in three years.

In this regard, I would like to suggest to the current leadership of both the countries, to take advantage of the conducive atmosphere prevailing in the region; and let India and Pakistan try a NEW APPROACH towards the peace: by first deciding upon a list of such core thorny issues, which are complicated and can only be resolved after full confidence between the two nations is restored; and freeze all such issues or problems, for a short period of just one decade.

In the meantime, India and Pakistan should restore full friendly relations, by genuinely restoring cooperation in all fields of economic activities, visa free to and fro, travel of citizens of both the countries, facilities for the businessmen of the two nations for opening of trade offices, banks, business shops and show rooms in each others country, removal of all restrictions on cultural and sports teams visits and full permission of the TV channels, to be viewed in each other’s country.

It will be just of a sorts of a no war pact for a limited period of ten years. It is expected it may work wonders, like a magic, in the economic emancipation of the teeming millions of both the countries.

Mr. Manmohan Singh, hope you know very well that ordinary people of both the countries are fed up with the acrimony between the two closest neighbours; and earnestly desire hundreds of years of peace, for which the only impediment, is the lack of statesmen and visionary people in the policy making arena of both the countries.

Now, your and our leadership has got a golden chance of a life time, to jointly work for the peace of about 1.5 billion humanity.

Please extend your hands to meet the gestures of genuine peace, already offered by the Pakistani PM Mr. Nawaz Sharif, to make the peace aspirations of the hundreds of millions of residents of the sub continent, come true.

Remember, may be this golden chance for the peace between the two nations if missed, may not come again in the decades.

Also please inform all those military and political planners in your country, not in favour of genuine peace with Pakistan that low intensity war or other covert hostile methods, are no more a long or short term options for, as well as, against any nuclear power(s). All such paradigms are out dated in the ultimate nuclear scenario. Such policy planners have no business to stay in the past non-nuclear status frame of mind; and they must develop a NEW and FRESH vision, to guide a major nuclear nation, like India.

Policy makers of nuclear powers must not have a mindset of a non nuclear state. And the foremost responsibility of these policy makers must be to ensure, at all costs, that under ALL circumstances nuclear flare up or provocation has to be ruled out: irrespective of the defined policy of no first use of nuclear weapons or retaliatory use of WMD’s.

Last but not the least, it must be a very clear objective of the leadership of both the countries, to ensure that India and Pakistan must not live like divided Korea, rather, we should live, like the united Europe.

Seasons Greetings and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year 2014.