Author Archives: 123outsource

The karmic consequences of war and rebirth

September 10, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Not all of us are Hindus or Buddhists. Not all of us believe in rebirth. There have not been that many books written on the subject. People who have studied rebirth often have examples of real souls and how they migrated from body to body and under what circumstances. Unfortunately in the East, there is a lot of misinformation being spread about this fascinating topic. If you are bad in India, you will be reborn as a cow. But, in Thailand that is simply not the case. In Thailand you get born into a mad dog for 500 incarnations. Good god, being a cow once sounds a lot better! The shortage of good reading material on this critical subject is a shame. There are many qualified gurus out there who could write books on the subject, but only touch upon the matter.

Here is some rebirth theory in a nutshell.

Intelligence
If you develop intelligence in a particular life, you bring some of that with you. Research was actually done on rats where parts of their brains were removed. Yet, they still had their routes memorized. Scientists couldn’t figure out why. Apparently, part of their memory was lodged in an astral field around their body. Others feel that rats have a sort of collective consciousness — if one rat makes it through a maze in 30 minutes, the others will make it through faster since they can tap into a larger “rat consciousness”. Science and spirituality often agree on a lot once the scientists have taken the time to research particular issues.

A lot of intelligence is also carried in your soul from one life to the next. My medium speaks to the spirits of gurus, and they are very intelligent. They are disembodied now, but they carry their intelligence with them even though they have no physical brain.

Wealth
If you have the consciousness of wealth, you are more likely to carry that with you into other lives. Additionally, if you were born into a wealthy family, but graduate from college penniless, you are more likely to regain that wealth simply because you might gravitate towards a lifestyle that creates wealth.

Destruction
If you destroy something belonging to someone else, eventually something of yours will be destroyed as a karmic punishment. But, when? Will the punishment come right away, a year later, or 30 lifetimes later? The Rav at Kabbalah center once said that time is speeding up and karmic retrobution is faster than ever now. If you did a bad deed in 4000 B.C. it might have taken 3000 years for the karmic effects to come back. But, if you do a bad deed now, the effects might only take seconds to manifest!

Tything
If you give to charity such as organizations which help the poor, or spiritual organizations that are not for profit, you get a reward from the brighter world. I have found that this reward comes right away — within days and weeks. Some of the effect might be a little more slow. You get back far more than what you gave. This is a nice karmic reward. I like investing $1000 and getting $10,000 back within a month or so. What do you think?

Murder
The karmic effects of murder are never clear. There is no textbook answer, and no fixed way that it is decided. Perhaps the spirits known as the lords of karma decide your fate on an individual basis? It is supposedly common for one who murders another to be required to bring that person back to life. How is this possible? In a future life, the murderer would have to be the victim’s parent. It is also a common belief that in war, if you kill someone with hatred in your heart from another country — you might be reborn in their country and they might be reborn in yours.

Based on a past-life regression, I learned that in my past life I was a small child living in Vietnam. I was killed by a mad-man from America in a helecopter who was just killing everyone in sight. I was reborn in America. My revision showed that he was not reborn in Vietnam, but nearby in Laos into a very poor economic setting. No wonder I love “Summer rolls” so much at Vietnamese restaurants!

Iraq?
So, what is the effect of America’s involvement in Iraq? I feel that karmically we are inviting horrible things by being there. Many Americans are very happy to kill Iraqis. Since many extremists believe in suicide missions, what would happen if an American soldier killed such people?

Let’s look at the rash of school shootings in America. There have been many movie theater and school shootings. There was Virginia Tech, another in Colorado, and a few others I can’t remember the names of. Could it be that these were executed by souls who were extremists living in Iraq, but because they were murdered by American soldiers, that they were reborn into America according to reincarnation theory? We have been in Iraq since 1990. If you were an Iraqi killed in 1990, and were immediately reincarnated into an unsuspecting American woman’s womb, you would be 23 by now. How old was the Virginia Tech shooter? He was born in 1984, so he doesn’t fit the profile of a reincarnated Iraqi extremist. But, at this stage in America’s relationship to Iraq, there could be thousands of souls reincarnated into America who could be anywhere from 1 to 23 years old! It makes you think, is war really worth it?

Japan
There are some spiritualists who noticed that in the 1980’s, America’s corporate culture stressed “workaholicism.” Japanese souls killed in World War 2 would be in their 30’s and 40’s if they had been reincarnated into America. People in their 40’s lead corporate culture’s middle management as a rule. Could it be that people reincarnated from Japan in WW2 are responsible for America’s sudden affinity with over-working? Additionally, baseball suddenly became very popular in Japan at roughly the same time. Perhaps many “American Souls” became reincarnated into Japan and still loved baseball.

Given all of this reincarnation theory, I think that if we engage in war with a country, we should pick an enemy with attributes that we absolutely love. That way when their souls are reincarnated onto our beloved soil, we will be benefitted from that.

Tweets:
(1) There is a lot of misinformation about reincarnation. Read the realities here (in this life)
(2) If you give to charity, God will reward you in this life, within days in many cases!

You might also like:

5 reasons why Indians are less stressed than Americans
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/12/22/5-reasons-indians-are-less-stressed-than-americans/

Why your table and sitar lessons are the most important training for business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/09/why-your-sitar-tabla-lessons-are-the-most-important-training-for-business/

Assessing your clients — who does this?

September 10, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Do you assess the value of your clients?

I just learned that a huge American bank was turning away clients. Are they insane? No, they are actually very sensible. Some clients are just so difficult, that they are not worth keeping. Some argue, complain, and ramble so much that they burn out your hard working support staff to the point where a single client could be doing $500 of damage per year when they only pay you $400 of which only $20 of that is profit. Hmmm. That equation doesn’t yield good results in real life. So, the bank gives away many customers all the time.

Critical mass
I am looking at my database of people on my various directories. I often ask myself what the value of a non-paying client is. In the directory business you need critical mass. You can not have a nationwide directory and have only 10 subscribers. It would look unprofessional and be unhelpful. You should have a few thousand listings on a directory, and hopefully thorough listings with good service providers as well if you hope to become popular. So, we call all agree, that I need quantity in my business. But, when and where do I draw the line?

Wanting to slow down
After dealing with years of customer service issues, and endless work, I want to slow down, so I can invest more in my health, recreation, and branch out into other industries. How valuable are some of the dormant listings on my site? And how much work are they to keep on board?

Removing poor quality listings
I decided that there is no point in removing a listing that doesn’t require work. Wait until it requires some type of work, and THEN get rid of it if it is not worth it. Or, think ahead, and get rid of the listings that underperform to such a degree that they just don’t belong. But, over the years I overlooked many anaylitics. The information I paid attention to was NOT the information that was valuable. I learned that by assessing the SKILL of the people on the listings rather than just the thoroughness of their listing or click popularity — I was able to learn that many of the unpaid (and paid) listings that I had invested so much of my time into for years — lacked any type of skill in the industry that they claimed to serve. There was no knowledge of terminology or practices, not to mention social skills.

If you are not valuable in quality or money…
After talking to hundreds of people and seeing that they were not only ignorant, but dangerous to hire, I decided that I need to downsize the directory. I need to list only those who have some idea of what they are doing. But, what about the free listings. If they are not willing to learn or pay, then what good are they? I’ll keep them around for a while and hope that a few of them will take a course in terminology and procedures and get to the point where I can keep them in the long run.

7000 listings: 2000 good listings
Out of 7000 listings, only 2000 have the quality level worth keeping in an urban area. There are a few thousand others in remote areas who I will keep because there is nobody else there. The others will eventually get cut. I will have a much smaller directory. From now on I will focus on quality, not quantity — but, still try to have a high quantity of quality listings.

What about your clients?
Can you segment them into groups after reading about my unusual personal story?
Which ones are purely profitable?
Which ones are just a pain?
Which ones are new, but could be molded into good clients?
Which ones are nothing special, but worth keeping?

What they pay you doesn’t matter
My new point of view is that what a client pays you should be a smaller analytic than you think –for now. If a client starts out being knowledgeable and has all of the same characteristics of your best clients, then they have a sort of an un-monetized value. They have potential. This is what I look for. After they get to know you, and get rolling a bit with your company, if you do a good job, you might be able to talk them into a more comprehensive service plan involving a lot more money. In short, the quality of the client is more important than what they are paying you NOW. After all, the small new client could turn into a huge client later. A huge client could downsize or go out of business. The size of the client can change fast. But, their intrinsic quality in terms of their business skill, knowledge, personality, and other “soft” factors like that are less likely to change much over time.

On a brighter note
I will say that I have high paying clients that have no clue what they are doing, and a few non-paying clients who are experts at what they are doing in their business. So, if you nurture poor-quality clients to a higher level of interaction with your company, they might become larger clients who SHOULDN’T be your clients. For me — now — it is not about me getting money now. For me — now, it is about quality. Being the best quality version of me that I can be, and finding the best clients regardless of how much they pay me. I am not even thinking much about the money any more. That is secondary.

Outsourcing might make more sense than seasonal hires

September 10, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Do you need more workers at a particular season of the year? It is not fun taking your chances with strangers. Maybe it is better having an overseas agency who can find you outsourced workers. If you find a reliable company or a few companies, you might have a channel to reliable work!

If you hire in-house workers for a few months, consider the following. You will have strangers in your office which will alter the chemistry or your work force’s delicate equilibrium in its ecosystem. What if those new people don’t get along with your existing staff? What if they take up too much room? What if you like them so much that you miss them when they are gone. You will not have this problem if you outsource your task to some foreign destination like the Philippines, India or Romania.

Additionally, hiring people in a hurry has its consequences. Having an agency in some other country that specializes in a particular type of work ensures that they can get you an unlimited quantity of suitable workers in a snap of a finger. Okay — I exaggerate. But, they already have people on staff which takes the mystery out of hiring. If you don’t like them, you can always find another agency or fire them without any legal consequences.

If you do seasonal hires in India, be aware that monsoon season is the wrong season to do this. They might have to take an inflatable raft to work. If you hire people in the Philippines during tsunami season, their call center might become a mud flat when you really need them. Use common sense and caution if outsourcing seasonal work. Their seasons are considerably different from your seasons.

Interesting factoid:
By the way Summer comes in India at the same time that Spring comes in the USA, and Autumn comes in Australia — March for all three seasons.

Speaking of seasonal hires.
Here is a section of a menu at an upscale Chinese restaurant that I found interesting:
Maine Lobster — $40 (choice of sauce)
Fresh Atlantic Salmon Steak — $25 (w/ginger soy sauce)
Spring Rolls — Seasonal

The Power of Knowing People for Outsourcing

September 10, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Sales | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Companies are always asking me how to get more clients for their call center, data entry house, software agency, outsourcing outfit, etc. I have many years experience in marketing and have some sales background too. I read that roughly 50% of sales made in the United States were made between people who know each other. If you are always refusing to make small talk with prospective clients, then how will you ever get to know them? The point is that you make sales by having developed a reputation of being trustworthy, helpful, capable, and having people know you.

If people know you and know that you are not trustworthy, then knowing them will not help that much. But, if you have known people for years, and you are always one of the best people to come to for advice, and you are always helpful, they will WANT to spend money on you. They will feel like they owe you as well. They will feel it behooves them to buy from you because who else can they trust at the level that they trust you?

People who own outsourcing companies in India are typically very reserved. They don’t want to get to know NEW people. They don’t answer their phone. If you get them they are busy or don’t want to talk. If they do talk they don’t want to share much about their outsourcing work. They make me not want to know them and not want to use them. On the other hand I know two really nice guys in Web Design & PHP programming. They do e-Commerce set up, blog set up and stuff like that. They are the nicest people I know in India. I like working with them partly because their work is good, but they are very pleasant to be around.

If you want more outsourcing business, I suggest working on your personality and networking skills. If you make small talk with people who work at Western companies (US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc.), then people will get to know you. Instead of trying to sell them something, just chat. Get to know them, and what their needs are. People hate it when you try to sell them something, but love it when you help them solve a problem. In India small talk is not approved of in business, but in the West it is a must, and you need to master this art. Forget about mastering the art of selling. Master the art of chatting and getting to know what matters to people. Sales is about finding a need and fulfilling it. If you are too busy selling (cramming something down someone’s throat), you will be too busy to LISTEN to what the person actually wants and needs!

Network, Chat, Listen, and understand the power of knowing people so that you can effectively market your outsourcing services!!

Making suggestions without being asked — nurturing relationships

September 9, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

In business, to get ahead you need to develop and nurture relationships. Contrary to popular belief, business is not about making money as much as it is about relationships. To gain relationships, it is best to have your channels of communication open. You need to be responsive to emails and phone calls, etc. You need to give reliable information to others in order to gain trust. But, what about your clients who are already on board?

Many companies just ignore their clients who are on board.
Some companies find that phone calls from existing clients are a bother. “I’m with my son, can we talk later?” Sure, we all need family time, but sometimes I feel that companies just don’t want to deal with me. Once you have signed the contract, you are just another bad habit! Relationships need to be nurtured. Treat all your clients as if they are important. But, HOW do you nurture business relationships?

Information is a valuable commodity in business.
Helpful and reliable information is particularly helpful. If you are stupid, then you might not be of much help in this department. But, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that you are smart — at least some of the time. If you have an existing client, getting work done correctly, and on time with good follow up is of primary importance. Most companies do not do this. But, then there is the icing on the cake — making suggestions about what other things the client can do!

Self-serving suggestions vs. being helpful
People will respect you and value you more if you are being helpful to them, rather than promoting your own services. If you are always looking out for the best interests of your clients, they will become very loyal to you. If they need a good accountant and you recommend someone good, you are helping them. If they need new web design and you offer that service, there is nothing wrong in recommending that. If you are solely promoting the idea that they spend more money on your services and only your services then you lose points. If you have ideas about pricing strategies for your client that might be helpful, you can mention it.

What if they are not receptive?
Not everyone is receptive to ideas — or to all ideas. Some people might like some of your suggestions some of the time. The secret is not to be too pushy. You can gently suggest ideas. If they don’t have time, or don’t like the idea, then just drop it. Your job in the universe is to help others, not to burden them with your unwanted opinions.

The most important point is to think about what your client’s needs are instead of your own. If you can do this, you will eventually get far ahead in business. This is a skill that needs constant development. Learn to nurture relationships — it pays!

You might also like:

Outsourcing is like a long-distance romantic relationship!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/20/outsourcing-is-like-a-long-distance-romantic-relationship/

The emailed question technique
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/30/a-hiring-technique-similar-to-2nd-interviews-the-emailed-question-technique/

Choosing the optimal networks to source your followers on Twitter

September 9, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Identifying the source: a guide to building your Twitter network

We all want more followers on Facebook and Twitter. The difference between someone with a big account and someone with a small account is how smart you are at getting new followers, not to mention how hard you try. I started out on Twitter a year ago fumbling around, and trying different strategies, most of which were useless. I tried using various keywords, links, tags, but my results were ineffective. My newer strategies involve tags that actually get results, and following strategies that are amazing.

Steps to grow your Twitter account
(1) Post interesting content
If you can’t think of anything good to say, perhaps you should wait to tweet something until you get something interesting. People will unfollow you if you are boring or not relevant to the theme of your account. Don’t create more Twitter litter.

(2) Retweet amazing content
It is hard to create good content. It has taken me years writing blogs, and still, the majority of my blog articles are not popular. But, to identify great content that other people wrote is easier. You need to compare hundreds of tweets before you pick one tweet to retweet. Amazing photos can go a long way too. If your retweets get retweeted, then you know you picked a winner, and you can use it a few weeks later again!

(3) Who to follow?
This article focuses on who to follow. But, on Twitter, if you want to grow fast, you should not think of following individuals. In reality, you are following individuals, but those individuals are members of groups. To find individuals to follow, you either wait for them to follow you, or you find them following some other account.

The trick is finding the perfect accounts to harvest great followers from. Lonely Planet is my all-time favorite Twitter account. However, they are too easy to find, and individuals who are not related to the travel industry love to follow them simply because they are so cool. The problem is, that less than 5% of their followers are relevant to the travel industry. The next problem is when I follow those select individuals, they follow me back only 10% of the time. These relevant followers appear to be like relevant followers on other accounts, but their follow-back behavior is completely different. On the other hand, if I find accounts with only 10,000 followers as opposed to the one million + which Lonely Planet has, the follow back rate is higher. For the followers to even find these smaller accounts, they had to be more aggressive which is not evident based on how they set up their profile.

The problem with finding followers on accounts with only 10,000 followers is that you run out of people to follow quickly, especially if you visit those accounts daily. Another strategy is to find accounts in the 50,000 to 200,000 member range to find followers on. Although, they might not be optimal in their follow-back rate, there are more of them. To me, it might be more efficient to make a long list of accounts in the 5000 to 30,000 range and visit those accounts daily and follow their newest members who have completely filled out profiles.

(4) One more point
Don’t follow people who followed someone else more than five days ago. They might not be that active on Twitter. They will be less likely to follow you back.

(5) Unfollowing
If someone doesn’t follow me back within two to four days, I have to unfollow them. Twitter allows you 10% more followees than followers once you cross the 2000 member threshold. You simply can’t follow unlimited amounts of people. You are forced to unfollow those who don’t follow you back.

So, the moral of the story here is — find accounts that you can visit to find great followers (people who followed those accounts or are followed by those accounts.) See what percentage of them follow you back. If particular accounts yield followers with a poor follow-back rate, then find a more optimal selection of accounts to harvest followers from.

“Live is cruel, so tweet about it!”

Do men feel more capable after meeting with higher level people?

September 9, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

According to The Daily Stat, men who interact with a high powered executive even briefly will feel even more powerful, confident, and wiling to take risks. An interesting statistic. But, this effect doesn’t happen with women who are less keen on becoming powerful.

I have learned through personal experience that everybody I interact with rubs off on me. If I am with someone good at creative thinking, I become better at creative thinking myself. If I am around great technical thinkers, I make better decisions when I am sitting next to them — especially the really complicated decisions. Being around people who constantly complain has a really bad effect on me. I get very irritated. I am not brought down by the specifics of what they are complaining about, but by the fact that the complaining never ends, and that there is no relief.

I feel inspired to even read a book by a higher level person. Reading about Warren Buffet gets me closer to that mindset of a Billionaire. I learn to think about the types of things that he thinks about, and in the way that he does. Sure, it takes a while for it to sink in, and a single exposure is not enough. But, just being around someone smart or powerful can have a huge effect on you.

The interesting fact here is that women are less interested in power and therefor being around powerful people doesn’t rub off on them as much. Does that mean that if I am around a great football player, that they will not rub off on me because I don’t have the internal desire to be good at football? Maybe we can say, that if the spark is not there within you, that external influences will not influence you that much. That is a very spiritual type of a thing to say!

The winning traits to get an outsourcing job!

September 9, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Getting a Job, Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How to get an outsourcing job
 
I get emails daily from people in the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan asking for the secrets to getting a job in outsourcing or doing outsourcing.  Doing outsourcing is no different from any other industry.  You provide a service, and someone pays you.  The only difference is that the person or company paying you lives in a different country.  The main focus is to always be improving and sharpening your skills and to be at the top of your game.  Presentation is another very important factor.
 
Presentation
Most people have a variety of skill sets.  Some people are good at being a “people person”, while others are good with numbers, or good with their hands.  The best acupuncturists are generally the worst at marketing and vice versa.  The worst chiropractor I have ever had was a millionaire because he knew how to market his clinic and how to hire other people who were good at chiropractic work and related professions.  Maybe you are good at your work, but terrible at presenting yourself.  Have you ever thought about that?    If you are unskilled, then you will not be able to get any type of decent job until you have some solid skills.  An unskilled person should find a way to become masterful at some skill.  But, for those that are skilled, but have lousy presentation skills, here is my “expert” advice:
 
Presenting yourself has many facets, and don’t overlook any of them.  A good RESUME is key.  DRESSING well is very important in our superficial planet.  Being PUNCTUAL is critical.  Being pleasant or even FUN to work with can be a huge determining factor in getting or keeping a job — nobody wants to work with someone who makes them feel like tearing their hair out no matter how talented you might be.  A good ATTITUDE that comprises caring about others and caring about what you are doing is irreplaceable.  LANGUAGE skills are critical — do you speak clearly and enunciate or do you avoid people and grunt “uh” when someone asks you a question?  If English is not your mother tongue, people will still enjoy talking to you if you are clear, helpful, and pleasant, no matter how thick or thin your accent is.  SPELLING — do you type with an accent?  People lose respect for others who don’t spell well (which is a problem for me, because I’m  a lousy speller-er).  Lets elaborate on these main points below:
 
Resume
People send me their resumes daily and these documents are filled with a multitude of sins.  Some resumes do not clearly document what the person does, while others don’t document what company and metro the person worked.  If the company and metro are mentioned, job descriptions and responsibilities are often omitted.   The purpose of a resume is to evoke a feeling of credibility and to inform others. If you leave out all of the useful information that someone would look for in a resume, your resume will get tossed in the trash.  As a general rule you should NOT send a resume to anyone you have not talked to either in person or over the phone.  Resumes end up in what Americans call, “The circular file” (trash).  Go to a professional resume editor to have your resume get a professional touch and you will impress everyone.  Additionally, people misrepresent themselves on resumes making themselves look like they are much more skilled than they really are.  Try to make your resume look real, and make your experience look believable and include contact information so that your information can easily be checked by the person reading the resume.  You could include contact information for the manager(s) you worked for. 
 
There are different formats for resumes.  It could be in inverse chronological order.  You could include: Job Objective, Highlights, Relevant Experience, Work History, and Education.  Avoid leaving “holes” in your resume.  If there is no material for 2002-2008 then the person reading your resume will wonder what you were up to?  It is best if a resume is on one page, but two pages might be acceptable if the content is good.  The resume should be professionally typed with adequate margins.  It must be proofread so you can be sure that there are no errors.  Its traditional in America to have a resume on special off white or ivory rough paper.   The quality of the paper is part of a professional presentation.
 
FYI: I do NOT hire individuals for any jobs, nor do I have personal contacts in outsourcing other than programming companies throughout the world.  Please do NOT send me your resume.  
 
Dressing
People have always been very superficial, and human nature shows no sign of changing.  Dressing for success is very important, however, what to wear can depend on your job description and culture.  Italians like flashy suits, while the British prefer more “understated” clothing.  Indians are always found in slacks and a button down shirt and rarely wear a tie (at least in the high tech industry).  Blue collar jobs have set uniforms, while white collar jobs allow a lot of flexibility in the grades of quality of clothing.  If you have expensive clothes, but wear them sloppily, you will make a mediocre impression.  But, what if you get clothes for a bargain that make you look like a millionaire — its possible.  Remember, that you are dressing for others and not yourself.   If your boss is happy if you wear old “frumpy” clothes with holes in them, then there is no harm in wearing them.  Since we are not psychics, we don’t know how others that we don’t know want us to dress.  Therefor, its best to dress well so we are more likely to please our superiors.
 
Punctuality
Working with others involves coordination.  If someone is always late, it is aggravating to work with them.  If you show up late for your interview, the boss will expect that you will be even more late for future meetings and will strongly consider not hiring you.  In some European countries, you are supposed to come a few minutes early, while in Japan you customarily must arrive within seconds of the appointed time to avoid being rude.  Japanese coordinate their trains and cabs so they arrive exactly on time.  If you live in India where the locals are on IST (Indian Standard Time — always late), if you are on time, you will be special, and everyone will like you — at least after they arrive which will be at least twenty minutes after you do.  They will appreciate that you are waiting for them instead of them waiting for you. Although Indians are much more patient than any other nationality on the planet, they still will appreciate your punctuality.
 
Being pleasant and fun
Some salespeople are overly friendly and it sometimes comes across as fake.  But, their livelihood depends on interaction, so they try to speak in a pleasant way and be fun.  If you are trying to get a job, you are selling yourself. You need to be up beat, fun, and ready for action.  Although Americans have some of the worst scores in math and science in the developed world, the levels of confidence and fun-ness are higher here than in other places.  Indians are the opposite.  Its common to see an Indian who can do PhD level math have no self confidence and be very shy, uptight and rigid at a job interview.  In the professional world, those who can be fun without sacrificing professinalism or responsibility have a huge edge over the competition.  Additionally, smiling generally doesn’t hurt unless you are applying for a job in a mortuary.
 
Attitude
A good work attitude is important anywhere.  You need to really care about what you are doing and about the people you are helping. In India, the culture lends its self to a lot of superficial bowing down to authorities.  Indians love to huddle around their superiors, kiss their feet (at least mentally), and never question authority.  This might be a cultural necessity (I’m glad we are not like that here), but its superficial.  Real caring and responsibility is necessary.  Responsibility will be omitted in this blog because it is a minor part of getting a job, although its the main component in keeping  a job.
 
Language
We live in a world where people speak several languages, and we all use language differently.  Slang can differ from metro to metro, and levels of formality differ in different types of professional and class environments.  Obviously if you want to work at a call center, you need to speak and communicate clearly and be patient with others.  But, to be a programmer or data entry clerk, its also advantageous if you can communicate clearly.  When I talk to programmers in India, I always have to say, “What?”, because I can never hear their answer to my question.  “Was that a yes or a no?”.  If you are shy, quiet, or an unclear person, try to practice being clear.  Nothing in life comes easily, especially language.  People spend twenty years learning their native language, and another twenty to learn a foreign language. Plan on putting some thought and effort into speaking clearly.
 
Spelling
If you are submitting written work to a manager or boss, make sure you spell well and write well.  Have your work checked by your most erudite friend if you have such a friend.  Paying a professional to edit your work wouldn’t be a crime if you can afford it.  People lose respect for me every day each time I make a spelling mistake.  I write a lot and most of it is not valuable enough to triple check.  I explain to people who criticize my spelling that I am a marketing professional, not a spelling professional.  Those people who lose respect for me still do business with me since I get them work, but its painful to be disrepected so frequently for petty reasons. The main point is to do whatever you consider to be “doing your best” to spell well when submitting important documents.   Its as important as your professional skills to many people.

Wealth consciousness and HOW to develop this step by step

September 8, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Success | Tagged | Leave a comment

Many spiritualists belive that to gain wealth, you need wealth consiousness. Yes, there is more to it than that, but the consiousness is a very important component. Many people who are wealthy came from well to do neighborhoods. The fact that they went to good schools and had smart parents really helps. But, what also helps which people don’t understand, is that the fact that they grew up around wealth instills a feeling of wealth consciousness in them.

My comfortable childhood
I remember that as a child, I grew up in a very comfortable environment. Everybody had a nice house, enough to eat, and there were trees and other nice aspects of the environment all around. I thought that this was how the world was, and that this was what I would always have. Unfortunately, after I finished college, I was not able to make much of a living and had to live in a much poorer circumstance. However, I still had the wealth consciousness of the upper-middle class in me; and that consciousness is what kept me motivated to get back to what I was used to.

Regaining my standard of living.
After many years of hard work, I attained a standard of living that was similar to what I had as a child. Of course, now I live in an urban area, and as a child I lived in the suburbs. There are differences. However, I aspire for more. The problem, is that I have the wealth consciousness of an upper-middle class person. I am used to affluence, but not oppulence. I am not used to being around people who have millions!!

Get used to a type of environment
The key here is to GET USED to whatever consciousness you want to develop. If you want to have the consciousness of a great musician, then listen to great music all the time and be around great musicians. If you want the consiousness of a great wine expert, then hang around great wine, and around great wine experts. If you want the consiousness of a wealthy person — then hang around master business people, read their books, and be in places that they would be.

Thinking about having a bigger venture
My business has been nice for years. But, it never grew. I always am trying to make it bigger and better, but for years it was stagnant. Part of the problem was the economy. I kept getting smarter and better, while the economy kept getting worse — these two factors averaged out to stagnant growth! That was not a bad result considering that most others in my industry were ruined! Now, things are growing, but my thoughts are slow to grow. I need to picture my business having ten times as much going on, and many more people working for me. I need to picture assistants for everything, and a completely different work environment. If you can picture it — that is the first step in the battle. Getting used to doing more types of things is another part. I need to picture running 10 sites, and 10 blogs and having most of the work done by others. I have to picture training these people and managing these people, and finding a place to do it all in. Can you picture your business growing? How do you see your company’s growth unfolding?

Being around the right consciousness
One technique I found which makes no sense to anyone except myself and a few people I know is feng-shui. I have written many blog articles about feng shui. BEING around wealthy people who are actively moving wealth around is excellent feng-shui. If you go to a neighborhood where millionaires live, and these millionaires are doing large deals regularly — then you will benefit from being around their energy. A neighborhood of retired millionaires will not do very much good as the money is stagnant. You need movement and the consciousness of the movement.

Call Center Mumbai in the news!

September 8, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center, India | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Call Center Mumbai in the news
 
Call Centers in Mumbai vs. Rat Catchers
The Chicago Sun Times stated in November 2010 that a rat killer in Mumbai makes $271 while a Mumbai Call Center employee makes $338 as an entry level employee and claims that the competition for rat killing jobs is tough.  Indian call center jobs are now being outsourced to the Philippines, but there is no way to outsource rat catching jobs.  So, unless there is an influx of foreign born cats coming to Mumbai, the rat catchers are safe… for now.
 
“Outsourced” and real Mumbai Call Centers
The TV show Outsourced is really funny.  I watch each episode at least four times on hulu.com and love each and ever character.  Each persona is loveable, interesting, and hillarious.  But a real life Mumbai Call Center would be dull and boring in comparison.  I remember visiting a Vashi call center in Navi Mumbai (over the bridge from the Bombay peninsula). There would be the bored looking security guard in a dull uniform, the gray concrete buildings, the endless honking, unhappy people in a hurry to come to work.  I wish that real call center employees could be as delightful as on Outsourced!  The one call center employee I remember from real life was a girl in the Philippines who was entralled by the fact that I “Flew over her” on my way to India.  She asked me to wave hi next time I fly over the Philippines. I promised that I would!  I think this sort of charm should be integrated into the job.  Adding humor and personality makes a wonderful bridge between far away people.
 
Spiegel online’s article about India by day America by night discusses issues inside a Mumbai Call Center.  Call Center employees are encouraged to develop American accents and personalities. These employees live as Indians by day, and Americans by night.  The article claims that eligible English speaking call center call center employees are in shorter and shorter supply and that Mumbai call centers and Delhi Call Centers are trying to attract Europeans who are recent college grads to work overseas with them for a year. 
 
In the film “John & Jane”, a lady named Naomi is in her final state of Westernization.  She had bleached hair and bleached skin and spoke with an accent that somewhat resembled a Texan accent.  My point is that if you don’t live in a particular culture, then you are not part of it.  I can fake an accent from any part of the world, but I am only part of the cultures that I spend time in, and I spend more time in some and less time in others.  
 
What disturbed me is on domestic flights in India, I am always bumping into these falsely Westernized girls.  There is the fake sounding British accent, and the unwillingness to acknowledge Indian tradition.  Real Westerners who go to India know Indian tradition. We don’t always relate to it or like it, but we don’t pretend not to know what Chai is, and we don’t bleach our skin if we have a dark complexion — except for certain pop singer(s) who recently passed away who do the moon walk. We don’t pretend that no Indians have arranged marriages anymore.  There is a subculture of Indians with foreign samskaras who feel they are “too good to be Indian.” They love the airline, film, and bar industry. Their attitude is completely un-Indian, but equally un-Western and is often stuck-up.  They are in a neither here neither there sort of a cultural niche — the antithesis of being bi-cultural.  If they really want to be American, they should live with us, and become Westernerized in a real way, and stop pretending.

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