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One question I am often asked regarding trademarks whenever I discuss IP law with a group of young budding students, entrepreneurs or startup companies is “How to register a trademark in India?”. There are several articles and blogs that explains how to register a trademark in India in one way or the other but I hope that this post will be comprehensive enough to answer most of them.A trademark is anyword (PEPSI, COCO COLA, PEPSODENT),name (RAYMOND VEIL, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN),surname (TATA, BATA, BAJAJ),signature (LOUIS PHILIPPE),letters (BMW, IBM, HDFC),numeral (555, 501),symbol (MERCEDES BENZ THREE POINTED STAR, ADDIDAS PYRAMID),device (AMUL GIRL, PILLSBURY BOY),color scheme (PIZZA HUT, DOMINOS),packaging (CADBURY’S),shape of goods (COCO COLA BOTTLE)or any combination thereof that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.When the mark is used in respect of services then the mark is also commonly referred to as Service Mark. Ex: DHL, HILTON, INFOSYS are service marks. However, since the distinction between goods and services are not always clear, the term trademark is often used to include service marks as well.What is classification of goods and services or classes?When you file an application for registration of a trademark you need to mention the list of goods/services for which you intend to use your trademark. India follows an international system of classification called the “Nice Classification” according to which the goods and services are categorized into 45 classes, with goods covered in classes 1 to 35 and services covered under classes 36 to 45.If the trademark is AMUL the goods for which it is used are “cheeses” and the class will be “29″. Likewise if the trademark is EXPEDIA the services for which it is used are “Online reservations and information regarding travel etc” and the class will be 39.If you do not know which class or classes your goods or services fall in, please use the Classification search tool euroclass or the list of goods/services as published by the Indian trademark office.Search the records of the Indian Trademark Office – Online!Prevention is better than cure. Before you file an application for or consider using your trademark, search the records of the Indian trademark office to check if someone has already chosen the same or a similar trademark. You will have to search the exact class of goods and services for which you will be using your trademark. If you see any similar trademarks already on the records of the trademark office, it should raise a red flag! You will now have to carefully analyze each and every trademark and take a call on going forward with the same mark or possibly changing your trademark so that you don’t infringe another’s trademark rights.Search using Google.One of the best things that happened in this century– Punch in your trademark at Google and viola! Magic! Merely because a trademark is not filed for registration with the trademark office, does not mean it is available for you to take. In a common law country like India, usage of a trademark gets importance over filing an application/obtaining registration for a trademark. Search using Google and see if anyone is using the trademark you want to adopt. If you see a similar mark do a bit of research to see how much they have used their mark, period of usage, goods or services for which is it used, has the mark gained any reputation etc. More importantly, compare the marks yourself and decide whether your trademark will infringe the rights of the other person. Your few minutes of research will save you from the risk of choosing deceptively similar marks, resulting in lengthy oppositions and infringement action costing time and money. a. File an application with the trademark office.Congratulations! You have cleared the first two hurdles. Give yourself a pat on the back for discovering that you are going to have exclusive rights on your trademark, and proceed with filing a trademark application. You can either file a paper application with the Indian Trademark Office (TMO) or file an application online at http://ipindia.nic.in. You will require a digital signature and an Axis/SBI bank account for filing the application online. The official fee is INR.3500 (approx USD 70) per mark/class.If you are a foreign entity who wants to protect your trademark in India, consider claiming priority.India is a member to the Paris Convention and signatory to the TRIPS agreement. Hence an application can be filed in India claiming priority from the application filed in a foreign country, provided the foreign application was filed not earlier than 6 months from the date of filing the application in India.Required information:a. Name of the person/organization that will own the rights to the trademark (applicant);b. Address of the applicant;c. Nature of business of the applicant; (Ex:Manufacturers, Merchants, Traders, Service Providers)d. Trademark;e. Class;f. Specification of goods or services;g. Date of first use of your mark in India;h.When priority is claimed:(i) Priority date;(ii) Priority application number;Priority Country.Required documents:a. Application form in duplicate;b. Representation sheet in duplicate;c. When priority is claimed:(i) Certified copy of the priority application.d. Official fee by way of cheque/demand draft or cash.Trademark Offices and their Jurisdiction:There are five trademark offices in India and in which office your application is to be filed depends on your registered office address. If you do not have an address in India then the trademark office is decided on the basis of the address of your legal counsel.The jurisdiction of each trademark office is as follows:Mumbai – State of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and GoaNew Delhi – State of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Union Territory of Delhi and ChandigarhKolkatta – State of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim , Tripura and Union Territory of Nagaland, Andamar & Nicobar Island.Ahmedabad – State of Gujarat and Rajasthan and Union Territory of Damman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar HaveliChennai – State of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Union Territory of Pondicherry and Lakshadweep Island.Once the application is filed the trademark office issues a filing receipt and one copy of the representation sheet stamped with the application number and the filing date as proof of filing the application. You can thereafter see the status of your trademark application online using the application number.b. Examination of your trademark application.In approximately seven to nine months the trademark office will send you the examination report either citing the objections consisting of absolute or relative grounds or both, or, in the absence of any objections allowing the application to be published in the upcoming trademarks journal for a third party to raise objections to the registration. The time to respond to the examination report is 30 days from the receipt of the same and this deadline cannot be extended. So it is important that you file a response with the trademark office within the deadline of 30 days.The objections under absolute grounds are that– your trademark is not distinctive; i.e.: your trademark is not capable of distinguishing the goods and or services of one person from those of others.– your trademark is descriptive or devoid of any distinctive character; i.e.: your trademark directly refers to the goods or services for which the protection is sought. Ex: Trademark FAIRBEAUTY filed for cosmetics under class 03 cannot be registered.– your trademark is a generic term or is customary to trade; Ex: APPLE for fruits, SOFTWARE for software services cannot be registered.The objections under absolute grounds can be over come by stating that your trademark has acquired distinctiveness by extensive usage over a period of time and that the public in general, identifies your product or service by your trademark and that the public identifies only you in relation to your trademark and no one else. Documentary evidence is required to be filed in support of your claim along with your response.The objections under relative grounds are: the existence of similar trademarks on the records of the trademark office.The objections under relative grounds can be over come by stating that your trademark is different from the other cited marks in the examination report.In what ways your trademark is different from the others needs to be explained in detail. Submission of documentary evidence of extensive usage of your trademark will also help you to strengthen your case.c. Hearing before the examiner.In about six months from filing your response to the examination report, the trademark office will either allow the application to be published in the upcoming trademarks journal for a third party to raise objections to the registration or fix a hearing by sending you a hearing notice with a date and time to meet the examiner and explain why your trademark should be allowed to proceed towards registration. This opportunity should be exploited to explain to the examiner, the evidences filed at the time of responding to the examination report in detail and to submit additional evidence. Subsequently the examiner will pass an order either allowing or refusing registration of your application. If it is a refusal, you can appeal against the order of the examiner before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) with 15 days of such refusal.d. Publication of the application in the trademarks journal.Within two to three weeks from the date of the examiner’s order to publish the trademark, the trademark application is published in the trademarks journal. You can download the trademark journal and check if your mark has been advertised. After the expiry of four months from the date of publication of the trademarks journal in which your mark was published, check the status of your trademark application online and if there are no objections to your trademark by way of oppositions filed by any other person, write a follow up letter to the trademark office requesting registration of your trademark and issuance of your trademark registration certificate.In the event of any person raising an objection to your trademark application by way of an opposition, the trademark office will notify you of the objection along with the copy of the notice of opposition as filed by the other party. Opposition proceedings are complicated and we suggest that you consult your legal counsel.e. Registration of your trademark and issuance of the registration certificate.If no objections are received by way of oppositions to your trademark application within this four month period, the trademark office will grant registration to your trademark and issue the registration certificate. Once you receive the registration certificate peruse the contents of the certificate to ensure that there is no discrepancy in the data and in case of any, bring it to the attention of the examiner and have it rectified.f. Renewal of your trademark registration.Every trademark registration is valid for a period of ten years from the date of filing the application. An application for renewal of a trademark registration can be made six months prior to the expiry of the registration. The renewal fee is INR 5000 (approx USD 100) per mark/class. A trademark can be renewed every ten years and thereby protected indefinitely.With an economy of a billion people, you should consider applying for a trademark registration at the nascent stage of your business to avoid time consuming and expensive litigation to protect your rights.Raja Selvam - rselvam@selvamandselvam.in

I am completely qualified to answer this. I am the only deaf person in the entire family tree of mine.  From my parents point of view, it was scary and confusing for them, not because of the disability but because they didn't know how to guide me or how to bring me up. But luckily, they received tons of supports and so they somehow found the right persons to connect and help me be the person I am today. They know I am also human, and never actually treated me differently. Maybe that's the reason I never knew I was different in the early stages of my life. After repeatedly contact with the outside world, only I did come to know that we weren't the same as others. I infact, believed that all of us, normal hearing and deaf people used to talk with lips movement like I just did. When we all were kids, my cousins and other friends of mine used to whisper stuffs into my ears, like everyone does. I used to feel puzzled that what are they saying, I used to let it off. I thought it's nothing. Later only I realised its people were talking about something. That time I made sure to let people know to talk face to face and not to whisper into my ears, as it would have been of no use.  Basically it's both a rewarding experience as well as a learning experience for me. It's then I realised that I do have parents and family as supports, but I can't expect them to find all the answers for me as they are also learning it along with me. I had to learn to find those by myself. They (my parents and my close family) have tried their best to make my life easier, by talking in English to me, and conversing to me with the help of social medias like WhatsApp, messaging. They even try to ensure if subtitles are happening for the particular movie we plan to watch in theatre. My aunts (like my parent's sisters, or their brother's wife) try their best to converse with me in English, and they keep lamenting for not having learnt proper English. I try my best to convince them that's it's alright, I really appreciate their efforts. It's actually my family who has been really supportive in this journey of mine. I do thank god for having received an amazing family. My parents let me know beforehand, that I would definitely have to do hardwork, but I always left it aside. Now though I know the value of hardwork. I used to believe that if I weren't deaf, my life would be easier. But then I realised, life being easier isn't full of sunshine, it tends to get boring after a while. Came to the conclusion that life should be a mixture of Hardwork and relaxation too. Every single and small achievements of mine are recorded in my family mind. Few Hindi words spoken is a delight for them. Or if I achieve something related to hearing stuff, they express their happiness. They know it's not taken for granted. Couple of things happened after I joined this family. ->Made English language a part of daily conversations, not just Hindi. ->Let everyone know that I am actually normal, and made me comfortable in the atmosphere.  ->Taught me to live comfortably and manage in this world.->Taught that impossible is just a word. ->Even my younger brother looks up to me, I don't think he knows that I actually have a disability. ->Learnt that I am a good human being.  ->Learnt that family and close friends will stand by you, for anything. ->Oh yeah, how could I forget the overprotective shell I am in, created by my parents.  Basically it's an amazing journey for me.

What are the best examples of people gaming the system? Around the time my son was preparing to attend an Ivy League school I began receiving credit card offers that included: 0% interest for 6-12 months; "balance transfers" (from one card to another); and "cash advance" checks. The balance transfers and cash advance checks included a small fixed fee (generally from $10 to $30 per transaction). It was also the case that my son's annual tuition had to be paid in full BEFORE he could move into the dorm. At the time I had a consulting business with some clients who had not paid on time. Ivy League tuition being what it is, I needed a chunk of cas...

It really doesn't feel different all at once. It's a very gradual process. For example, I was talking about a movie I love the other day, and realized it came out 25 years ago. And I had a, "Holy crap!" moment, because it seems somewhat inconceivable that I could have a clear memory of something that happened 25 years ago. I was 7 years old 25 years ago, and that's just crazy to me. I do have moments when I'll feel like a full-fledged adult though. Like, I bought my first car in February. I own a car. I have a car payment. I do a monthly budget to make sure I can afford my car payment and my rent, and everything else. I bought a couch last year. That feels very grown-up to me. Also one of the things that makes me feel the most adult is looking at teenagers and realizing just how YOUNG they are. When I was in my 20s, they didn't seem that far away from me. But now that I'm in my 30s I think back about who I was when I was 16 and I think, "Wow, I really was a kid!" Even though it felt like I was much more mature at the time.But none of that really answers the question, I guess. When I think about how it feels to be an adult I suppose I think it feels...simultaneously calmer and more stressed out. Like, I'm much more secure in my relationships, I don't have as much social anxiety and I'm not as worried about what other people think (to be honest, a lot of that is thanks to therapy), but I'm stressed out about money, about following my dreams while still paying the rent, about living up to my obligations, things like that. Being an adult feels like getting past the point where you realize nobody "truly" feels like an adult all the time, nobody has it figured out, and we're all just making it up as we go along, and being ok with that reality. My advice would be, stay in the moment as much as you can. Definitely plan for the future (but expect life to laugh maniacally at your plans and don't cling to them too tightly - be flexible about your goals), and definitely examine the past, but don't dwell in either place too much. Pay attention to what's happening now and just see where life takes you. I promise you'll look back in another 16 years and be amazed at how different life is than how you thought it would be, no matter what you think now or what life will be like then.

I am with you on this 100%. All my life i heard this abstract phrase "learn to love yourself or no-one will love you". I am  successful, very good with money, friendly, open, expressive, I have a great sense of humor, amazing figure, self discipline, great hair, a pretty face, two houses, a very high IQ, what's not to love about me, right? This is what i kept thinking and telling myself since i was a teenager until i started psycho-analysis, because despite of how "Great" I was, I was miserable, unable to form romantic relationships and felt lonely. After 30 years of blaming others and fake-loving myself I chose to look at what's wrong with me.Turns out I did not love myself. No matter how many posters you put around your walls about LOVE THYSELF and "You are Great", no matter how arrogantly highly you THINK of yourself, love is something else. It is a feeling. And you cannot change a feeling because you made a decision. You cannot change a feeling because of facts or reasons. I was all the above, yes, but I was so unhappy, because exactly I had to be all that to even be worth anything. I had to be successful and have money, I had to please a hundred people so my bday party had 200 guests, i had to have the perfect body because i was afraid no one else would love me otherwise. This is not self-love. This is fear. I did not love myself. I feared that if i wasn't this "Great" I would be even worse off.You can think of all your positive traits all day and still not love yourself. It sucks.You learn to love (or not love) yourself in the first 5 years of your life. That's the moment you learn self-love and if you do, you carry with you all your life. If not, it is tough. I don't know how other people master it but since i was 19 i tried all forms of therapy (and meditation retreats) to learn to love myself. I even got given pills for a week but I realized this is not the way. 3 years ago i started psychoanalytical psychotherapy, twice a week. Yes it takes time. I still have work to do. What happens in this specific form of therapy is very different to others. Your analyst becomes your new parent. You have to open up, let go and become an infant again. You just talk about whatever is on your mind, there's no hypnosis or anything. Slowly you get re-born. This time learning slowly self-love. All the above traits I held for myself, one by one, painfully were shown to me as meaningless. Money? IQ? Looks? Success? What did THEY have to do with LOVE? But imagine spending 30 years living by these, judging by these, making right by these and then having to admit "shit, they meant nothing". I was worse for a while. For a long time. It's the most difficult thing i had ever done. Not only was i not loving myself, everything i ever had done meant nothing. I was rock bottom.And when after 2 years or more those fake values i judged myself (and others) by disappeared and i was left stripped naked without any self-worth, I found out things about me i never realized. I found out i was sweet. I found out i was caring. When the fear of being number 1 had gone, i found out i was compassionate, helpful, loving. These made me love myself. I am still successful although i did get fired once in this journey but landed back on my feet, I am still funny and i still have lots of pals. But i do not love myself based on how much money i have or how many kilos I lose. I love myself because of who i am. A job is not going to make me love myself more or less. I am still loveable without a job. If anyone can achieve this in a day, in a week or with a meditation retreat, it's great! But for those who simply can't , I suggest psychoanalysis or psychoanalytical psychotherapy. The best part about loving yourself, is that you start then loving others, and life itself. It's the most difficult thing I have ever done, and the only meaningful one.

After reading so many motivational blogs about waking up at 5 AM, I had to try it once.My eccentric character didn’t allow me to let go of this. So, I tried.On the night of 13th March 2017, I set my alarm for 4 AM and turned off my room’s light at 10 PM. Guess what?On 14th March 2017, I woke up at 4 AM sharp.There wasn’t anything going well with me in that phase, so I decided why not take charge of my life?I woke up and started watching a movie. What a productive activity!The focus for the first day was to wake up at 4 AM. That’s it. I knew I’m not going to be a habit-master in just one day.I spent that day yawning and searching for some more good habits that I can try out before sunrise.So, the next day, after waking up at 4 AM again, I had a cup of green tea and spent an hour reading a good book. Once the sun was up, I went out for a morning walk.That’s how I started developing new and productive habits, and a life-long chase of my self-care journey.Understanding the science behind habitsFirst of all, what’s a habit?A habit is an action that you take on a repeated basis with little or no required effort or thought. The power of habit lies in the second part of the definition- the bit about no required effort or thought.You unlock the door of a room, and the first thing you do is to turn on the light. It's a habit.You brush your teeth every morning, that's a habit.How long does it take to make a new habit?A lot of studies confirm that it takes 21-days to completely develop a new habit, while other studies state that it takes 66 days.The truth is, it depends from person to person and is subjected to the new habits you are trying to develop.The key is to start today and repeat tomorrow.As simple as that.Don’t chase motivation. Make habits.Motivation is a temporary boost in your willpower.Do you want to start reading books? Pick up a book and read 1 page right now.Do you want to lose weight? Get ready and go out for a brisk walk.Do you want to save more money? Note and track down all the money you spent today.Many People think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.Creating new habits with goals in mindWhat do you want to do? What do you want to achieve? What do you want to become?Habits are like the atoms of our lives. Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement.(~James Clear, Atomic Habits)There are two types of people: those who can add any new habits easily, and those who can eliminate the old bad habits easily.Like, some people may find it easy to add healthy food articles in their diet, and some people can find it easier to stop eating junk.Let’s say you want to be a better writer or a better singer or maybe you want to get six pack abs. Or maybe you want to read more books.Your habits would be to write regularly, practice singing regularly, and hitting the gym and eating healthy regularly.Don’t target results, target processes.Getting six-pack ab is a result oriented approach. Working out every day is a process.Getting 1 Million followers on your social media profiles is a result oriented approach. Creating quality content every day is a process.Most of the times, results are not in our hands. Showing up to work and doing our end of the task is in our hands.Tracking your habitsIf you can’t track your progress, it’s better not to do it all.How are you going to keep a track of your habit?Commit to a number.If you want to develop a habit of writing, make a commitment that you’ll write X amount of words every day or every week.That being said, you have to start small and develop mini-habits.Develop Mini-habits.You can’t, (in fact, you can, but you shouldn’t) commit to an unrealistic goal on day one.Your commitment should too small to say no to.We don't notice small changes because their immediate impact is negligible.If you are fat today, and you run for 1 hour... you'd still be fat tomorrow.But if you repeat running daily for half an hour, over a period of time, you'll see visible changes in your body.Repeating the same activity over a period of time brings tremendous changes.Rather than starting with reading 1 book a day, start with the commitment to read at least one page a day.Rather than starting with finishing one unit of your course book, start with studying one topic a day.Don’t skip twice.Skipping twice means you have to start with the habit all over.Jerry Seinfeld is one of the most successful comedians of all-time and has co-created one of the best sitcoms “Seinfeld”.His extraordinary success is effectively a result of his tremendous consistency in producing great content year after year.His strategy?He writes a joke every day. Every single day.He has a calendar set up on his wall. After writing his joke of the day, he marks a cross in his calendar. A big cross on the date. This way after a couple of days, the calendar starts showing a chain of marked cross signs. And all Jerry Seinfeld has to do is not to break the chain.Start today. Repeat tomorrow.Try and try, and just don't break the chain.Allow yourself to create shitty first drafts.Remember when you see a baby who has just started speaking?Bla bla ,,, ula lo,,, maa paaa, mapapababa…None of the kid’s words makes sense. But do the parents interrupt the kid and discourage him? Nope. They allow him to speak shit at first.Eventually, that kid grows to speak and write and use perfect language.Allow yourself to fail and create junk, at first.If you are going to the gym for the first time, chances are you’re going to cry with pains in a day or two. It’s alright.“People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts… For me and most other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. If fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.”—Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird.Be Accountable for your new habitMy resolution for this year is to write at least 1 blog post every week. The moment I skip my habit, I am going to punish myself by donating 1000 Rs to an NGO.You need to be accountable for your habit too.Sign a cheque of 1000 Rs in the name of a donation. And give it to your friend. Tell him that you’ll send him a gym selfie every day. The day you don’t send me a selfie from the gym, implying you missed your gym, ask him to deposit that cheque.Plan for Variance.Let's say you have a habit of going to the gym daily. But you can’t go to the gym while travelling.So, you need to plan for a variance.For example, you can plan on doing push-ups or crunches during the day.Create Identity-based habits.Creating Identity-based habits is the recipe for sustained success.Instead of aiming to do something, try and 'be' something.If you want to develop the habit of writing, be a person who writes 100 words every day.If you want to develop a habit of networking, be a person who keeps in touch with people, who calls someone every day.At some point, the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it (~The War of Art)You may also like to read:-8 Ways to Read More Books in 2019Amore!Click HERE to read the best of my Quora answers!Dipanshu Rawal.

Six years ago I was so depressed I thought I would kill myself. I had nothing going on in my life. And the girl I was dating kept calling me "crazy", would break up with me every day, and refuse to introduce me to her friends. I had three failed businesses that year and the year before. And I was going to go broke with two kids to support. This past year, one of my investments sold for 4000% of my initial investment. A business I started went from $0 in revenues to $12,000,000 in eight months. I published two books and wrote 100s of articles and do 12 podcasts a week. But I don't work hard. I'm about to go get a sandwich. I slept late today. I don't say this because it's so great. I'd like to be a little more effective in my work. It's a practice and not a formula. Every day I practice. Here's what I do. If you don't like it, that's fine. I think each person has to find what works for them. I used to not do these things. And when I didn't do these things, nothing would happen. Life doesn't stand still: it either gets worse or better. Eventually it gets a lot worse. We die. That's the only real truth. But in the meantime, here's what I try to do to be successful and work harder. - NOTHING I don't read the News [ http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/07/go-on-a-news-diet-starting-today/?utm_ad=23048&utm_placement=146&utm_medium=15 ]. I used to work for the news. I know what happens there. The more you read news, the less informed you are, the more time you just wasted. Since I stopped reading news, I read more books. i get more info. I feel more alive. I get less scared. I also don't talk to people who want to gossip. Gossip never made anyone a success. And I don't say "yes" to things I don't want to do. Else I resent the person who asked me, I hate myself for saying yes, and I'm bad at whatever it is I said "yes" to. So, in order to work harder, I try to find as much NOTHING in my life as possible. - EAT WELL It's a simple diet but I try to follow it. No snacks. No eating after 6pm (so my liver isn't on overdrive when I am trying to sleep). Plates at 10 inches. (Studies show when you reduce plate size from 15 inches to 10 inches, you eat 30% less calories). Note! If your plate size is 8.5 inches, you eat more - your body is not stupid. It knows you are tricking it. And that's it. The Plate Diet. Or the - not after 6pm Diet - MOVE A little exercise every day is known to have just as much effect on your mood as a full dosage of anti-depressants. - SLEEP In the morning, you have energy. At the end of the day, you don't. Which is why you need sleep. The average person needs eight hours of sleep. For instance, they took some famous orchestra and determined that the professional violinists in the orchestra were sleeping 8.6 hours a day. Don't think that less sleep makes you more productive. Whenever I get only six hours of sleep, I know the day is going to be useless. Preparation is how you win the game, and lack of sleep means you didn't prepare well. - GRATITUDE Worry never solves tomorrow's problems, and only takes energy away from today. Worry and Gratitude can't exist in the mind at the same time. Regret and Gratitude can't exist in the mind at the same time. Anger and Gratitude can't exist in the mind at the same time. Whenever I notice these things happening in my head, I try to replace with gratitude. Now I can continue my day - LAUGHTER The average child laughs 300 times a day. The average adult...five. Dr. Norman Cousins did a series of studies on the benefits of laughter. It improves health, cures disease, improves productivity, and of course, makes you happier. So I try to watch standup comedy when I'm low. Or thing of funny things. Laughter heals the soul. - SURRENDER Too often I would try to control things that were outside of my control. For instance, when a boss is yelling at me, it's his problem. I can't control him. So that's when I try to find a better job rather than put up with abuse. The same in relationships. One of the most important decisions you can make in life is who you spend your time with. It's like falling into an sea of hands and hoping they catch you. When you surround your self with good people, you can surrender that they will catch you. When you are creative, you can surrender to the fact that your ideas will always catch you. When you sleep well and are grateful, you can surrender to the fact that your good health and spiritual attitude, will guide you through the difficult moments. Whenever I'm scared, I surrender. I do my best. I'm honest. I know good things will happen. IDEAS I write down ten ideas every day. The Idea Muscle always needs to be exercised. It atrophies after about two weeks of no use. like any other muscle. People think that ideas are nothing and execution is everything. Execution is just a subset of ideas. You still have to have the ideas in order to execute. And the only way to have good ideas is to exercise the idea muscle. Every day. The result: your life will look completely different in six months. You will be an idea machine. You can be stuck on a highway in the desert with no gas and you will have 100 ideas to save you in no time. The idea machine is magic. FRIENDS The people in your life are like a bonsai tree. It's always growing. And every day you prune the bad branches and keep the good branches. Do that every day and you get more productive. Every entrepreneurial movement, every artistic movement, every leap in science, was done by a group of people. There are no lone geniuses. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had the HomeBrew Club. Jack Kerouac had the Beats Andy Warhol had his community of Pop artists. Even Larry Page had the thriving entrepreneurial cultures of both Stanford and Silicon Valley and all the search engines before him that he was able to stand on the shoulders of. You can't be productive without shoulders to stand on. MESSAGE OVER MONEY I think people are scared. I know this. I am often scared. We live in a hard world. It's a sentence of frightening nightmare punctuated by periods of intense joy. The message I like to convey is that these ideas help you not only be more productive, but more creative...happier. At least for me, this has worked and transformed me from someone crying on the ground in a pool of vomit, to someone who wakes up and (some of the time) feels the full beauty of the day. I do the above. I surrender to it. And hope for the best. Read More: The 100 Rules for Being an Entrepreneur [ http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/04/the-100-rules-for-being-an-entrepreneur/?utm_ad=23046&utm_placement=146&utm_medium=15 ]

My Quora Inception: Episode 1A Reader ArrivesOctober 2011,San Francisco, California.My research group had just finished a stellar performance at IROS, 2011; an internationally reputed robotics conference and our professor took us out to a really fancy Sushi and Karaoke bar to celebrate. Most of my colleagues were piss drunk within the hour and singing away to glory. My mentor and I were the only two people in the group who didn’t drink so after devouring more sushi than I had ever seen in my life, I started chatting with him about what I should do to learn and grow more quickly, how I should raise my bar to meet what the research group had set and how I can get an insight into more experiences and journeys. That is when he told me about this site and app called Quora. It was new and fresh and a place where a bunch of nerds talked about nerdy stuff. Answers were very well researched and largely revolved around technical topics. I signed up and started reading. I watched it evolve from that small little closed box of nerds into the mammoth it is today. I was a silent reader for almost 7 years.I’ve watched people complain about the dilution of quality content on Quora but I never found that to be true. If you follow the right people and topics and don’t mind filtering out the noise, there is SO MUCH to learn from this platform and the people on it; no matter what your genre of interest.My Quora Inception: Episode 2A Writer is BornFebruary 2018,Seattle, Washington.I just got back to Seattle after one of the most harrowing experiences of my life; a family emergency call from India which resulted in a month in the ICU with my dad helping him battle for his life after a very severe life-altering stroke. I had kept absolute calm and maintained my composure through the journey but when I got back there as a feeling of void; a sense of helplessness at being far away and not in control anymore; almost as if I had left the rest to fate. I decided to pen down my thoughts and wrote my first Quora answer that day. As I was writing, I thought through all the stressful situations I had been through that month, and, why they did not frazzle me even once. The answer was quite obvious; I was prepared. I had read and studied so many scenarios on disaster management, read so many stories on dealing with intense pressure and learned to separate decision making from emotions. A lot of that directly or indirectly came through Quora. I decided that day that maybe I too should share a few life incidents and anecdotes here and hopefully help change the lives of a few people. I wanted to give back and make a difference. I had already been writing about birds for many years on other social media platforms and didn’t want to repeat the genre. Education and learning from life experiences are topics that I’m very passionate about and had often been the themes of many late night debates and discussions with friends; so I thought; why not write about it?As a college student, I didn’t have a lot of guidance or mentorship while I was learning the ropes, but at some point, when cold emails resulted in a couple of people helping me by merely sharing their own journey and experiences; I was very motivated and learned a lot from them. When I started writing on Quora, I just wanted to pay that forward and make a difference in a few lives.I’d like to believe that a non-zero number of people have learned something from my answers, been motivated and inspired a tad, to push themselves a little bit harder in life and work towards their dreams and goals.I’m not sure if these were good reasons to join Quora; I’ll let you be the judge of that in the comment section. This was just my personal story here and why I chose to join. It’s the reason I do my job; it’s the reason I nurture relationships; it’s the reason I build my network; to make a tiny little difference in the lives of a few people; to make the world a little bit better than how I found it; to shares a few smiles and wipe a few tears and make your day a tiny bit happier.In case we haven’t met before, I’m Rohan Kamath.Thank you for reading. I hope I could help you smile today. :)