There are No Free Lunches

One of the most important thing I learnt from my life is that "Nothing comes for Free". One has to work for getting things done. Clear choices should be made at each stage and at each minute of our life. I love the quote "Every man builds the world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice". At each moment, we have been presented a choice. A choice to take a route that everyone else takes or make a new route that can be explored and transformed. Whichever route you take, Dont take a step backwards. Not for any reason. You took a choice considering your moral and ethical value and you are taking that route and there is no right or wrong.

Frankly speaking, Life is Hard!! Its like a sine wave. You will have ups and downs.  Life rewards you with an experience that is unique and wonderful depending on the choices you make. One needs to make a choice and work on the goals.
Today, businesses have become competitive, people have become competitive. Technical skills have become secondary. Work on your interpersonal skills, communication skills and the ability to think outside the box.It is a massive differentiator in your career. Some points I observed in the Indian industry which I think are the key contributors on losing our edge are
1. Avoid discussions or articulating their thoughts
2. Offshore Mentality
On the point 1, we generally tend to avoid any discussion on new concepts/ideas.  I have been branded as a geek/nerd and have been rejected multiple times. I have come a long way now and I dont hesitate to have conversations on any topics.
Even if we have a discussion, it goes into a interviewing mode of asking questions. Discussions should be informative, It should share a piece of information about you and should have topics to branch off and continue. For example :
What are your plans for this weekend? is a typical question that everyone puts forth right. To start a discussion, we could frame a question like "Hey!! I read this book called Fooled By Randomness over the weekend. You seem to be like a avid reader. I am sure you will like it. Can we do a book review this weekend". Instead of the question above, with this approach you have started a conversation and there are possibilities to branch off. If the opposite party is not a avid reader, his response would be "Nah!! I am not. But I do like to watch movies" or "I am working this weekend, why dont we do this next weekend" or "I would love to do it". You have also provided an information that you like to read books. Try doing this on your conversation with your friends first and let me know if you had a good time discussing your favourite topic with them.
Offshore Mentality
This is a cultural change that we need to definitely improve. Your superiors gave you a work. I will do it as per the document and as per their instruction. This is a common thing. I term this as Offshore mentality. Our education system stressed more on understanding the technical concepts and general theories but practical applications of the concepts is left for the students to figure out. We carry this same thought process to our workplace and combined with the lack of scientific approach to communication, we struggle. We make a choice to accept whatever work the superiors are doing and do it blindly. We are not a deterministic function where we give inputs you will expect the same output every time. We are human beings who are trained to think and express. We all know how to do a work but we need to focus on how can we do the work differently and sell our skillsets better. It is a choice that we need to make. We need to come out of this mentality and try to work as equal with the global team. For that, we have a long way to go and the path ahead is tough. After all, there are no free lunches.