How to become street-smart in life

Street-smartness is a skill that one needs to develop in a highly competitive world.

What exactly is it? In the simplest of words, it means developing a gift of the gab, become a smart analyser of any situation, thinking out-of-the-box and making the most of one's situation in the most constructive manner possible.

It also means developing a skill of understanding people, their moods, their strengths and weaknesses and their silly little "psyche" matters, that are very much personal, but get exhibited in public on many occasions.

There are several examples of people who have been street-smart, in public life, and who have made a big success in their careers, by just understanding macro situations, and the underlying meaning behind such situations.

Rajnikant, the superstar of the Tamil cinema is a very street-smart person. He has understood that an average Tamilian is highly emotional, likes a great deal of dramatic situations in real life, and is also fun-loving at the same time. Unlike people in the North of India, an average Tamilian is generally contended with his lot, and always likes to see larger-than-life things happening around him. When he sees it on the screen, he is simply thrilled and starts adoring his hero.

These are just the essential points of focus in any Rajnikant movie. He is always the proverbial one man army, fighting against corruption, exploitation of women, the evil men, and whatever else is very bad in this world. An aveage Tamilian relates to this character so much, and relishes it.

Street-smart people abound in business too. When Mr.C.K.Ranganathan, the CEO of the Chennai-based Cavinkare wanted to make Chik shampoo a very large selling shampoo, he adopted a totally out-of-the-box strategy: hundreds of mobile vans travelled the length and breath of Tamil Nadu's villages, and gave a free shampoo bath to poor, village boys. Since the advertisements in the local press and in the cimena halls in rural Tamil Nadu carried the very same visuals, they became top-of-the-mind recall, and helped in making Chik shampoo the largest selling shampoo in the sachet packet segment. To this day, in that particular category, it is the largest selling shampoo in the entire country.

Similarly, Bajaj Auto bounced back with the classic launch of an excellent motorcycle called Pulsar, when it was for a short time, number three in a highly competitive market.

One can always understand factors behind sucess of such organizations, and draw inferences for our lives. What we need to do at any point in time, is to just look around for the hundreds of opportunities that keep floating around and make out a clear road-map for making a success of it, by identifying markets for our skills, and then putting on paper, both our short and long-term goals. When we assess our progress in some parameters, it becomes easy for us to identify what to do and when,besides identifying the how.

Time will never stop for anyone, particulary for educated youth, looking around for employment opportunities. It is always wise, for instance, to grab the first job, irrespective of whether it is related to our core specialisation or not. The reason? Any prospective employer will like a straight-forward answer that the candidate was just making the most of a given situation and was constantly looking for a change in the core area of specialization. In some cases, for instance, it is common to see HR people do sales jobs for a temporary period till they find a slot in HR.

Look at a variety of entrepreneurs to identify their street smartness. Just look for those fast food wallahs who pitch their tent outside colleges and sometimes, even schools. Look for the hundreds of mobile eateries in every town, serving customers food that would cost thrice as much in regular restaurants. This is in fact, so common in Mumbai, perhaps more than what is common in other metros.

We can learn to become street smart with a little bit of imagination, and use of our sound common sense. Common questions that need to be constantly answered are:-

a) What can I do now, to make the most optimimum use of my limited resources?

b) What are my short-term and long-term goals?

c) What are my special natural strengths and, how can I use them now, and six months down the line?

Answers to each of these questions needs to examined in the light of environmental and situational opportunities. Once this is done, it becomes easy to decipher what needs to be done.

Street-smartness is a skill. So, go ahead and develop it, right now!

Technorati Tags: Society

Vote Result

Score: 10.0, Votes: 2