So many things to talk and write about when I reflect back on the 6 years since we started with this idea of NonStop. But today I’ll choose to share just 6 😇
1. We’re Evolving!
A big business leap that we take on the occasion of our anniversary — We’re excited to declare that AlphonsoGlobal (under the capable leadership of Niraj Patkar) will be merging into NonStop, and going forward we’ll collectively offer our tech. services as NonStop io. The idea is to truly evolve into a sustainable business in days to come. With AlphonsoGlobal joining NonStop, we hope to provide scale and cater to the domains which NonStop had previously not served. At the same time, we get to observe and learn from a capable leader like Niraj, and work-n-learn with his promising team.
2. The Possibilities!
I had written about “Finding our Ikigai @ NonStop” in one of my previous stories. Today, I feel our pursuit of reaching there is stronger than ever. We have the right mindset, right attitude, right targets, and right capabilities to achieve this!
3. The Ulitmate Goal!
The ultimate goal as a collective is to attain Success, Happiness, and Peace, for everyone involved with NonStop (team, families, clients, …), and then some more beyond NonStop. I do not intend to be too preachy about this and am completely aware of the fact that each of these could mean different for different individuals. However, IMHO we need to need to initiate this conversation, get this thread going, and maybe try out maverick things. Who knows something will work, and we might reach where we want to be! If not, then we enjoy the journey for sure 🙂
4. What do we focus on?
To achieve the above-mentioned things, it is very important that we know what to actually focus on.
Humility: Over the years we’ve appreciated the fact that being humble is not easy, and it is rather difficult to demonstrate empathy if one doesn’t appreciate humility. The “pursuit of being humble” is something we at NonStop consciously practice. I’d written about our Magic Words some days back, and I’m proud to say that one could find these MagicWords in abundance in our Slack 😇
Processes: We’ve painstakingly learned the importance of certain processes that need to be followed to work as a team, especially while working as an engineering unit. We continue to evolve these processes as we go along, and observe-learn-error-update-improve each day, every day.
Communication: Whenever we’ve faced a failure, a deep introspection has found that more often than not, miscommunication was at the root of the failure…be it in one’s code snippet, a BRD, a Sprint plan, a Zoom call, … (you get the idea). Setting up communication guidelines has helped us circumvent many of the issues (we faced in past), and the team now is better than ever on this front; and like anything else, we pursue to get better with each day.
Tech. Expertise: This is the bread-n-butter of our existence as an entity. Across NonStop every individual pursues to get better at her/his skill set every day.
Value Add: Over the years we’ve understood that just doing one’s part right is not sufficient. Whatever good one does should ultimately add value to the overall vision of the stakeholder. This is best achieved when things are planned, documented, and brain-stormed better.
Accountability: We as a team have understood the subtle difference between being responsible vs being accountable.
Image a housekeeping staff is responsible for keeping a conference-room carpet clean. There is an important meeting scheduled for one afternoon, and just that morning the electricity fuse for that particular room blows. What this housekeeping staff does in this scenario is the difference between ‘Responsibility’ and ‘Accountability’! :)
5. Compounding!
This is one of our most talked-about philosophies at NonStop, and we’ve kind of come to agree with the following philosophy
Essentially, all the benefits in life come from “compounding”, whether it’s in relationships, making money, or learning. Think hard about what you want (to do) in life, and then stay invested in it for a substantial amount of time for it to bear fruits.
6. Questions-Questions-Questions
We’ve found that time-n-again introspecting what one is doing at work in specific, and in life, in general, makes sense! At NonStop some of our questions are:
- Are you an expert, or on a path to becoming an expert at something?
- Are you happy getting up every day? Are you happy opening your laptop?
- Are you being accountable for the job you’ve committed yourself to? And how do you plan on demonstrating it?
- Are you the reason for someone’s smile today?
- Are you wholeheartedly contributing to something more than yourself?
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There are so many thoughts in my mind, but I’m unable to find the right words as of now. These will percolate into stories in time for sure!
As for Saurabh and me, when I look back, it feels nothing short of a wonder that two individuals with arguably more differences than similarities, could stick around and manage to get together a very promising set of like-minded individuals to create something as special as NonStop! With the addition of Niraj to our leadership team, maybe we would pull this magic some more! 😉
With a deep sense of gratitude towards our families, vendors & clients; the team steps into another eventful year at NonStop…learning, contributing, and having fun all along. Peace ✌️
