Monthly Archives: September 2012

It’s the Rolls-Royce of wheelchairs

There could not have been a better way to describe Cougar 9000!

Drawing analogies between your product (or service) and a well-known product is one of the better ways to give elevator pitch description of your product. The idea is to take a product that has a definition of its own in an industry or category and use it as a comparable to help someone picture the core characteristics of your product. Like Chipotle: Subway for Mexican fast food. Or Entourage: Sex and the City for guys.

Another great use of an analogy is to explain your vision. How you see a particular technology or event shaping the future? How you see your product playing a critical role in an industry? For example, when a visionary leader was asked during the launch of Tata Nano as to what role he wants Nano to play the automobile industry, he drew a great analogy to explain his thinking: Tata Nano will do the same to automobile industry what Microsoft Windows did to the computer industry. Without arguing the role of Tata Nano or its success, I believe the analogy clearly describes the vision of the individual. Everyone knows the role Windows played in personal computer industry towards Microsoft’s mission to put a computer in every home. Along the same lines, the vision behind Tata Nano was to make a new car accessible to every family who could not have afforded one in the past.

A good analogy adds a lot of substance to an argument. Whether you are describing your product to someone or trying to layout your vision, a good analogy is a great way to put it out without using a lot of words.

Why – Part 2

I believe there is a much deeper meaning to the why question in the lives we live. We all get up in the morning and go to do what we do. How many of us know why we are doing it? We all do our jobs and money is the result of it. That’s not the reason why we do it. If you are not sure why you are doing what you do, you got to take some time out and answer to yourself, why?

I am not qualified enough to talk about the philosophy of life but from what I believe in, you can live up to a much higher potential and eventually succeed if you believe in what you are doing. If you believe in building great homes for people to live in, design buildings. If you believe in managing people’s money so that they can have a better retirement, be an asset manager. If you believe in doing innovative research using cutting-edge technology and state-of-the-art techniques, be a part of a great market research company.

Don’t do something because the race is on to work for the biggest bank or hottest technology firm. It is never too late to learn something new to fulfill your passion. Life to too short to do something that you don’t believe in. Every few days, ask why you are doing what you do. Make sure you are  excited enough to go to work in the morning. The question you need to answer is not what you do, it’s why you do it.