Autobiography of a Yogi; Meditation; Remembering Steve Jobs

Few quotes from Autobiography of Yogi - Paramahansa Yogananda

"One's values are profoundly changed when he or she is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture and that not in it, but beyond it, lies his own reality."

"Nature herself is maya. Natural science must perforce deal with her ineluctable quiddity."

"The science of Yoga is more vital than any other material advances to man's happiness and to a nation's longevity."

"The Karmic law requires every human wish find ultimate fulfillment. Desire is thus the chain which binds man to the reincarnational wheel."


"Receive your initiation ion the kingdom of god through Kriya Yoga."

"Liberation is dependent on inner, rather than outer renunciations."




Steven Jobs quotes:

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me."

Scott Harris and The Entrepreneurs Club Melbourne

As I was surfing the net for information in the afternoon this last Tuesday, I came across a local entrepreneurs club from Melbourne in meetup. Soon I found out they were organizing an event featuring business coach Scott Harris in just few hours in Dockland. I had never heard of the guy before, nor did I know how to get to the venue (thanks google maps). I looked up Scott Harris quickly and found out he was indeed a great guy, with the likes of Sir. Richard Branson, Donald Trump and Anthony Robbins as his disciples. I had to go. The event started at 6:30pm. I RSVP'd online via meet up.

I left the State Library around 4:45pm. Stopped by at the Myer to get a pair of formal shirts and a tie for my interview the next day. Then, I stopped by at Meccas to grab a chicken burger and headed straight to Dockland. I must say the event was REAL. I am so glad I went. Below is the note I was able to take during Scotts' 2 hours long presentation.

The topic was How to Make Effective Decisions as an Entrepreneur

1. Rules are made to be followed. Examples: Relationship rules, health rules, wealth rules. Whose rules? Go figure.
2. You can't do everything in life but you can do anything.
3. Learn to take notes, it's good for brain growth. (Guess what?, I was taking notes of what he was saying when he said this)
4. Play full out:: Life is short, live it with kids, wife, family, friends everyone.
5. F.U.N. ::: Fully Utilize "NOW" Live in the present. Don't delay life, no "if-thens". Enjoy the splendors of this life to the fullest.
6. Your destiny is chosen the moment you take your decision.
7. Human beings are designed to survive, not thrive.


If you are serious about success and achievements in life, you gotta have your own core values of life set and figured out. Then, you need to ask yourself the following 3 questions:

1. Time::: where is my time going to go today?
2. $$$ ::: where is my $$ going to go today?
3. Focus/energy ::: where is my focus going to go today?

If you have too many choices to decide on where to spend your time/$$/energy, use the "core values" as your guiding principles.  Hope you don't have a bucket full of core values. Ideally, you want to limit your core values between 3-7 in total.

Now, in order to become a high achieving, high efficient, successful person that you always wanted to be in your life, do the following 3 things:

1. Planning: Once a week, take time off to plan your next week. For each day of the week, decide where you are going to invest your time/$$/energy. Make sure to pass everything through the filter of "core values" of your life. Planning, to paraphrase Scott, "gets more things done quicker". So, do this each week.

2. Scheduling: Once a month, take time off to schedule your weeks. Each of the weeks, focus on different things if that becomes a need. The point is not to miss anything that are important in the long run.

3. Designing: Also known as "Life Designing". Every 3 months, take time off to reflect on what you have achieved, what is lacking, and where you want to go? If you feel you are in the right track, keep moving. If you need to change course, shuffle priorities and re-adjust your speed and direction. Because life happens too quickly to lose track of things.

The whole point of doing this is to bring consciousness in your life. Use the best times of your day for the most important things. With higher and sharper consciousness, you can learn to live a meaningful and productive life. And when you are ready, seek help from the coaching gurus who can guide us to reach our destiny quicker, safer and with high certainty.

I am officially a Solar Sales man!!

In my post exactly a week ago, I had expressed a bit of frustration on my job search. Today, a week later, I accepted a job. What a difference a week can make? Amazingly beautiful.. And it couldn't have happened with a better company and a better boss. His name is Joe and owns a sales division of Chinese Solar manufacturer SSE. Joe has been in his business for about 3 years and has been installing solar domestically and internationally up to 1MW. He has years of Sales experience and is known to build successful sales team in multiple companies. As I have never done a "real" sales job before, except selling momos (dumplings) at a farmers market, I am really looking forward to getting trained from Joe and his team. Thank you Joe!!

I had two rounds of interviews for this job. I don't know how hard it is to get a sales job in solar, or in any industries for that matter, but this one is special for me. More than the earning prospects, I am excited to learn the basics ins and out in solar industry as much as possible. Working closely with an experienced team, I am sure I can learn a lot. I am also taking 4-day technical training in solar next month and then plan on taking technical sales class online after that. I had already planned for those classes before, in hopes to land a job in solar industry. Now that I already have a "job" in the industry, my goal is to have my first sales when I go for the 4-day training. I would love to share the story with everyone.

I feel well ahead of the schedule and it feels really good!!! Bring it on Australia!!!

Sales job

It was towards the end of the week last week, I decided to revise both of my resumes, data analyst and solar sales as I wasn't getting any response from the jobs I had applied. I again thought, what's the point of investing time finding a job as a data analyst, when I really want to get into Solar and sales? It was my light bulb moment, then and there I decided to drop my quest for analyst job and narrow it down to Sales job only. I spent the next couple of hours to edit my resume to highlight more of my sales type of job experience from the past and briefly mentioned my engineering experience towards the end of the resume. Truth be told, I borrowed few phrases from the book "Autobiography of Yogi" to help enhance my writing skills.

Me and Babita had planned for joining swimming at the Brunswick Bath last week. The date we had set was for Thursday, Feb 18th. She called me off-guard as I had completely forgotten. Eventually, my wife, daughter, Babita and Prabhat (her husband) and off course me ended up in swimming pool around 6pm. After about 2 hours, we decided to eat dinner at a local thai restaurant. So we did.
But on our way to the restaurant, Bijaya noticed a missed call from "Joe" and the voice mail was addressed for me. I had given her cell# in my resume as I didn't have a cell phone. I decided to call Joe back the next morning in a fresh mood.

Joe invited me for an interview in Hoopers Creek at 3:30pm Friday, Feb 19th. I dressed up and showed up for the interview. It was great and Joe actually really impressed me with his business. I only wished to have an opportunity to work and learn from the guy. The job was "Solar Sales consultant" with base pay + the commission. I called me this afternoon to find out if I was selected. Joe recognized me with my American+Nepali accent even before I told him who it was. Then, he asked me to come for 2nd interview this coming wednesday. I am stoked about this opportunity because this is all I was looking for, a place and an opportunity to get into solar industry. With no major sales experience I was a bit concerned. However, Joe liked what he saw in me, acknowledged my self learned technical strength and truly believed in me. I am thankful to him for giving me the opportunity. I will not disappoint him.

Work? No Luck..

One month in, I have received zero phone calls from the jobs I have applied. 100% of the jobs I have applied have been on seek.com.au. I haven't been on the job market ever since I graduated from school and got my offer in 2006. Things have changed quite a bit since. Australia doesn't have semiconductor manufacturing so there isn't any job for me to match 100%. So, it's been a struggle to find jobs I think I actually can work.  Despite, my convictions are strong I will find a job sooner or later.

Reading, Learning, Writing

Two weeks of gap in my blog entry. WOW!! Even I can't believe that. I really want to continue to write and improve on my writing skills. Because it's important in both personal as well as professional life.

Progress since my last report:

- I have decided to take Glen Morris Solar PV + Storage course up in Moora Moora, Victoria. It's a 4 day course and I am signed up for March session. Really looking forward to that. Cost: $1500+ US$ = AU$2200. Payment method: Citi MasterCard, my only credit card from US. Feeling about the investment: Excited to learn off-grid solar installations and more, hopefully i can network with people as well.

- Reading the following two books:

• Autobiography of Yogi (almost half way now): Learning to become more spiritual via divine infinite cosmic powers. It's a book on self-realization. I have also started on Kriya Yoga learning via youtube channels.
• 4-Hour Workweek: Great book so far. I had this book reserved at the library and finally became available last week. Lot's of cool stories about people from all walks of life.

- Enrolled in following Coursera courses:

• Initiating and Planning Projects
• Intro to Public Speaking
• Writing Professional Email and Memos

Looking ahead

First day of the week was also the first day of the month. February is here, in full force. Yahvie's school, Bijaya's job search as well as mine has hit full speed. I had an appointment with Max Connect this morning. It is a government job search agency. The meeting was more of a formality with couple of signatures in privacy forms and things like that. I created a profile on their online database to help with job search. I am supposed to apply at least 20 jobs per month and fill out all the information about them on the back of a handout they gave me. It is going to suck, hopefully I find a job. I updated my resume over the weekend. I put focus on my data analysis part of the job at Micron as I noticed there were quite a few Data Analyst jobs in Australia.

I also spent couple of hours today doing a free online course on solar energy by Solar Energy International(SEI). It is a beginner's course that is mandatory to all who want to take their advance classes.

Regarding my certification for solar energy, I am still undecided between $12k priced Penn State's  course or individual classes from SEI, which are also cheaper. It may take me sometime to decide on that. It is likely going to depend on what kind of job I end up finding and how soon. It also heavily depends on how well paid job my wife can find.

I have been reading "Autobiography of Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda for a week. I try to read
one hour every morning. The book teaches significance about spirituality, yoga and meditation. I don't fully grasp the message of the book due to difficulty in vocabulary. But every time I am able to make sense out of a sentence, it's divine and deep. The book is also written in Nepali which I plan on reading after finishing the English version. Here is a snippet of what I read today:

"Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats his planets-which is to say, his past-by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator. The more he realizes his unity with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter. The soul is ever-free; it is deathless because birth less. It cannot be regimented by stars." Page 157, Chapter 16 "Outwitting the Stars".

Long live the Spirit...

This was a restaurant I owned back in US. I was in love with it for 2 years, then sold it and moved to Nepal