My experiment with mobile Detox

I would like to start with an honest disclosure, even though I had the realization that I am spending too much time on my mobile phone with all warning signs like itchy eyes, disturbed sleep pattern and headache; I have not taken any conscious step towards reducing my time on mobile. I had convinced myself that the problem has not reached alarming status yet. It is purely due to certain circumstances that I was away from my mobile phone for a few days.

So, what happened!

I accidently dropped my phone and the murphy's law took care of the rest. Even with protective cover around it, I broke my screen and the phone stopped working (so did my heart for a few moments!). As replacing it with original Samsung screen was damm expensive (almost 50% of phone cost itself), I got it repaired with a local screen with some apprehensions and as luck would have it. That screen also stopped working after two days, I just lied down a bed my mobile in my pocket and apparently the local screen could not withstand this pressure. Ultimately, I made peace with the fact that I need to shell out some bucks and get myself a brand-new phone. However, I was in another town plus I need to wait for my salary to credit before I could buy new phone. With the new phone, I got the sermon from home minister that I need to buy protection case with flip cover for increased protection. Hence, I had to wait again for few more day before I could use the phone again.

All in all, I was without my phone for a continuous stretch of few days. So, I could get taste of this so-called Mobile detox for a few days.

So how did the experience of forced mobile detox worked out for me!

At first, I thought that it was no big deal. I carry this hidden superiority complex that I have managed to stay away from the lure of Instagram or mobile games like candy-crush. I do not feel this inexplicable urge of checking WhatsApp status of other people all the time, in fact I do not check WhatsApp status at all. Most of the time, I do not have any OTT subscription on my phone. I have enough constructive habits like reading etc and most of all. I have my laptop which almost feels like an extension of my body. 

I came to realize about my folly in matter of few hours only, how something which looks totally innocuous like taking out my phone to check some random question on Quora consumes so much of your time because it has become a second nature to do it once after 10 minutes. Another big-time killer are suggested videos on Facebook, it was an eye opener for me as I thought only posting random updates or stalking profiles of other person on Facebook was addictive. Once I stayed away from phone; did I realize that suggested videos are perhaps the most addictive thing on Facebook, and they have a complex AI algorithm which tracks and monitors the videos that you watch and present a heady cocktail of more such videos which are hard to resist.

Subconsciously checking the phone has become a compulsion, a habit which is very hard to shake away. As a result of this, my attention span is limited to few minutes only. Gone are the days when I could at least concentrate on task in hand for a few hours. Now no matter how urgent the work is, the maximum uninterrupted time I could devote to it are few minutes. Few months back, I had an epiphany to add some academic certifications to my resume, taking advantage of variety of online courses offered by universities. I zeroed in a course in Robotics offered by IIT. It started with great pomp and show. I even bragged about this to few of my close friends hoping that would create positive pressure on me. Heck, I even wrote one blog post on this topic (My first blog posts this year incidentally.) Few lectures down the lines and I found myself struggling. My first conclusion was that course content, and the teaching method were not up to the mark and most of the students for this course would struggle. Other excuse was that I started the course on last moment, almost missed the first assignment date and played catch up for much duration of the course. 

After some time, I enrolled into another course by second IIT. The teacher and course content were much improvement over previous course but ironically the net outcome was same that I left this course also midway. In fact, this leads me to very uncomfortable episode in the past when I left my correspondence degree in the midway at the last step as I was almost burnt-out.

 Obviously, there were any other factors responsible for this, but one primary factor was my attention span. I was really struggling to maintain concentration during the duration of one lecture of 60 min. The conspicuous social media is a big distraction which is not helping in any sense at all.

The experience of forced Mobile phone detox taught me that in todays hyper-connected age. Its very difficult to limit your exposure on unproductive application. Time management sound like a very boric archaic concept but its more relevant in these times.

I had uninstalled Facebook from my old phone but forgot to do it on my new phone and in no time, I find myself spending more and more time on Facebook. So, I uninstalled it again relying on browser-based model to check some update once or twice a day.

Though not related to phone usage, I also removed Quora password from my laptop as it was also proving to be a distraction. 

Though a great devours of books I had almost stopped reaching books for past few months. Hence, I reactivated kindle and started reading a book after long time and as luck would have it, the main protagonist also switched off her phone so that she could focus on her work.

In the nutshell I could surmise that this action is not something that can be done successfully in isolation, you must be constantly on guard as subconsciously we replace one app with another, even innocent looking, or so-called productive apps can get you hooked. The temptation of checking your phone time and again is hard to resist. It like a lifestyle change.

Yayavar mode on - Again

My family is really into Astrology and zodiac signs etc. All the family members have their janam patri listing the prophecy and predictions about our lives.
Personally I am a bit confused about its veracity, but I don't dismiss it completely either. It does make for a casual fun read as it mostly says only good things about you. I also believe that people writing daily horoscope has a serious psychological writing talent as majority of people relate with it. Obviously, there is some scientific logic behind this which is maybe too obscure for us right now.
Anyways one of the predictions made about me was that I will be traveling a lot both in India and abroad in my future life. For a typical Punjabi family for whom greener pastures in Canada and Australia are always alluring. This was no big deal. 
I had memories of long travel since a very young age. My father was in army, so we use to shift the house after every 3-4 years. Majority of my childhood memories at that time are from cantonment in Goa where I did my schooling from 2nd to 5th. As our native village is in Punjab. We used to travel from Goa to Punjab in train in every summer break. It was a three-day journey which involves changing of train too. It is a whole world taking long duration train journeys in India. After my father retirement We settled in Chandigarh which was a biggest city near my village. We were living in south end of Chandigarh and my school was in north end of Chandigarh even though it is a very small city. So, on daily basis I used to take school bus from one part of city to another and later I covered the same distance on cycle at the end of school and beginning of college.
As I have no intention of writing my autobiography here, we can conclude in a nutshell that I have been traveling most of my life one way or another. However last few years have been very interesting in this regard. I come to Gurugram (then it was called Gurgaon or Gurgawan in local colloquial terms) in 2011, the decision was primary because my company was in Gurugram only. In 2014, my company shifted to Connaught place, Delhi. My office commute increased by around 1 hour in morning and evening each. The only solace was that I was travelling by metro, so it was not so taxing. But even this relief was also short-lived.  In 2016 I changed my job to a company based in Greater Noida (I live in Gurugram by the way). Initially I had some training and was deputed in Malaysia, but I came to India in last quarter of 2016. Then onwards for 3.5 years till the time I left my job I was commuting from my home to office which is around 80km one way. That too in peak office hours in Delhi traffic. It seems my biggest achievement in that company is not the exposure and knowledge I gained but rather the feat of surviving this mad traffic for 4-5 hours on daily basis  I could write blog post on this topic.
Like any other job; there have been good days as well as bad days in my previous job, the bad days could be due to extra work on hand, some inadvertent mistake by me or it’s just that I was not feeling well. But whatever the reason maybe, the long car drives back home used to become a struggle on those days. In the hindsight, this daily suffer in Hindi and English, my boss who was like a big banyan tree and the recent perception by top boss in my previous company that I am up to no good was instrumental reasons behind my leaving that company.
Though I am saved from daily office commute in my current job as I am working from home only. Business travel or official travel is much more here. Most of the places are new for me where I have not travelled much in my previous jobs. Thus, slowly, and gradually I am trying to rekindle my love for traveling. This life has its own charm and I have always liked it. Spending time at airport or hotels, living out of suitcase, trying new local cuisines while on travel, as a sign of current times, getting RT PCR done or evading quarantine at airports exit. I have always been enamoured by people who are well travelled and well read. Now I am trying to inculcate the habits in myself.
However travel is much more than moving from point A to B. Its having your me time which can be used for introspection, testing your discipline and willpower,  getting exposed to new experiences, Meditation bundled into one.

PS : In our society, the janam patri also serves important purpose in match making as it's used to match planetary alignment between prospective bride and groom but that is a topic of another post.
PPS : Yayawar is an Hindi work which means travellers or more accurately someone who is addicted to wander lust. I read it in a story in college some 15-16 years back, but I stayed with me. Strangely one of the other stories that I remember was titled “Neelkant ka Safar”.

My Experience with Academics

 1st Jan 2021

I'm starting this blog post on first day of new year. With positive intent and high Hope that this momentum will continue throughout the year. 

Just to set the background for this post. I passed out of college in 2004. It was a Diploma college so I received an advance diploma on completion of course. I had campus placement in college itself so I joined my first company after 2 days and thus begin my professional life. Even during college I had this inkling that a diploma holder gets far less than a degree holder unless he is outstanding which quite evidently I was not. Partly because of that and partly due to peer pressure I had enrolled into correspondence degree course AMIE. Many of my other friends were also pursuing the same course and many others were doing BA, LLB, BCA etc too. Some of them managed to clear it in the college itself and some others in the initial years of job after college. I could neither clear in college nor immediately after joining my first company. To cut the long story short, ultimately I had to give up on the idea of acquiring a degree or higher education and make peace with the fact that I will remain a diploma holder only.

Now its around 16 years since I passed out from college. Even though I changed many jobs, department and roles randomly, sometimes due to factors beyond my control. But for many years now, I have some order in this chaos. In some way or other, I'm associated with packaging and Robotic automation which remains constant while job change. Plus the fact that I have more spare time than earlier due to working from home and many universities are offering online courses due to pandemic. I felt that time was just right for me to enrol into and get the degree of Robotics. And the cherry on the cake was when I found out that even IIT is offering online course on Robotics. I grabbed the opportunity with two hands without any second thoughts.

I enrolled in this course from NPETL through IIT Kanpur. It was taught by Prof DK Pratihar.

Unfortunately I lost track of exact date when the course was starting as it was postponed a few times. As a result of that I was late in very first assignment and thereafter only playing catchup till the very end. Like a stereotypical engineering student, I was submitting the assignment on last dates. Nonetheless I went through the motions and completed all assignments. There was no way I could have cleared the exam required for a formal certificate so I skipped it. It was a sobering experience for me which made me realize that I need to study more and focus on basics not relying on practical experience at all. Secondly it was Deja vu moment for me after more than a decade as I remember that I used to give up on exams when I was pursuing degree while in college.

The good thing is the courses are of 8 to 12 weeks duration so I could again enroll in similar course with different teacher this time as each teacher has their own unique method of teaching. In fact  I  have already joined another course due to start in around 2 weeks time. Hopefully second time will be a charm. 

However I need to pull myself by the socks if I want to succeed this time. It around 16 years since I set foot outside college and there too it was more practical based approach in my college. It requires constant effort with Discipline to master any new skill or gain mastery. I have been known to fall short in these aspects 

Now is another chance to set things right. I could feel that my discipline will be severely tested as cracking the exam will need daily studying. The subject selected is also pretty complex one.

I got reasonable results on writing blog post in early morning even though the arrangement is only few weeks old. Hence I'm thinking to allot some time in the morning to study on Robotics subject too. The problem is that I want to utilize morning me time for exercise and physical fitness too. Combine that with freezing winter mornings where you do not want to come out of cozy bed and you get a perfect recipe for failure.

PS : My second course has started too and I'm already having thoughts of leaving it as I find the first assignment too tough. When I planned on having a go at this course, I thought it will be relatively easy as the concept will not be totally alien to me. But I underestimated the fact that generally it's more difficult to clear any exam on second time if you are not mentally strong and demons from last time will raise their head at any opportune moment and remind you about the futility of whole exercise.

Plus last time I took some shortcuts which affected my petty badly. I have to avoid falling into the trap of going the same way again.

My reading glasses Evolution Cradle

I took a book for reading after a good gap of more than two months which is pretty unusual for me actually. As I was not able to built a tempo for reading. I took an easy gratitious pick. A combinaton of thriller and mythfiction. So how it goes. Lets see.

One of the first thing I noticed even before staring the book was that this is a new author for me. I have a tendency to compare all these authors with Dan Brown as that was my first brush with this genre. Subsequently I ready Ashwin Sanghi a few others but never quite had the same kick. Personally I find that Dan Brown has more tension in the plan typical of a thriller while enfusing the book wtih tid bits of history and religion. Whereas Ashwin Sanghi and others (including this author too) does not have same tension in the plot plus they have more mythology than history which does not tie as well.

The main protagonist Chad who is a scientist trying to create a cross species with his team of three more scientists. After a chance discovery leds them to a breakthrough. They were referred to another scientists related with Hitler himself who also tells them about a secret and sinister society with plan for world dominance (Vril Society). I would not spoil the plot by going into more details. But the scientist duo embark on an adventure across India

So as per me, what works for the plot. 

There is a nice colloqial quality to the plot and story keeps on flowing nicely. There is understated humour in conversation without overdoing it which I appreciates. It was a nice spin on Indian mythology that the authors linked mythological characters as half human half animals cross species experiments. The multiple and parallel narratives in the story are also well handled compared to some of the other books that I have read. As for the main twist in the end, the author do tried to throw some breadcrumbs foreshadowing it.

But somehow I have more complaints than praises for this book and a bit of disappointment as this genre is close to my heart and I feel that its a golden oppotrunity squandered by the writer.

So what does not work for me in the plot.

First I firmly belive that there should be some basis for flight of fantasy. Its always good to include some sort of disclaimer in the book and list the body of references in the end for further reading if ther reader is more interested. I found that sorely missing. 

The first chapter itself included some wild theory to form basis of Cow worship in hindues. The theory propogated is that "cow was probably the first complex multicellular organism after the Ice Age. So, basically, the dinosaurs disappeared but the cow magically appeared right after that. Cow never followed the basic principles of evolution like we humans did. It was as if it just appeared out of nowhere." Without any scientific literatur to backup it up. I found it as a cheap shot to appeal to a certian audience. 

Secondly I feel there are too many concepts forcibly squeezed into a single book. such as 

"Kauravas in Mahabharata as an example of embryo splitting and cloning "

"Reverse Aryan Migration"

"Divine weapons from Mahabharata"

"Ajanta and Ellora Caves made by gods"

"Nuclear weapons used in Mahabharata"

"Yetis in himalaya"

"Hidden city of Sangri-la"

"Zoroastrian religion practiced in Afganistan"

If only author would have let go of the temptation to include everything in the same story. It would have been more coherent and compelling read.

Also I was expecting that Author would touch upon a bit on the moral and ethical dilemma involved when men tried to be God or interfere in natural order.

There were four scientists in the team but Fourth member is not mentioned at all once the story took place. Even in the end She was not mentioned,  forgotten?

Its funny how less we know about our ancient civilization apart from some made up claims to boost our ego. 

PS : Not only I took to book reading after big gap. I'm writing a book review after an even bigger gap. I had this problem of immediately jumping to my next book after one read leaving very little time to get my thoughts in order and write a review of the book.

Sales and Entrepreneurship

24 December 2020

I’ll start the post with a useless trivia first as off late I'm fascinated by these useless tidbits of information. The information is that I'm writing the post in the morning on my mobile one day before Christmas. This is important for me as I have been struggling to post blogs for quite some time now and is under extended writer's block currently. Hence this small effort to break the shackles.

Okay now to the main topic, Sales and Entrepreneurship. I'm neither in Sales nor an entrepreneur right now. So why do I want to write on this topic. My current profile can be termed as product management or application engineering or Sales engineering or Proposals or technical sales. The very fact that we have so many names for the role makes it amply clear that my job can be viewed at many different angles. To separate wheat from the chaff. I'll like to define it as a crossroad, from where one road leads to Sales and second to Machine designing. I have been always more inclined to Sales than design due to various reasons. And this job is giving me opportunity to transition into Sales gradually (at least for now). Entrepreneurship on the other hand is always a long-term solution or dream for me. Hence this post.

 

To give some insight into my current company, it started only in this infamous year of COVID 19. Is an Indian arm of newly formed group. Hence, we have very limited visibility among the target customers. We have a very lean team hence not many people in Sales right now. As part of application team, I am present in all customer meeting, attest for serious customers. In other words, the situation cannot be riper for my transition into Sales.

I'm trying to remain focused and don't try too many things at once as its always a good thing to start with basics and built a solid foundation 

Firstly. I'm mentally preparing myself to be ready to front customer and give our company's presentation at short notice (I already had an experience where I was asked to present about the company at last moment and I struggled). Obviously like everything else,  its getting better with more practice. 

Secondly, I’m reaching into my network to collect relevant information about prospective customers.

Thirdly, I’m working on improving company's corporate presentation (which I target to finish in this year). 

Fourth, I’m going to write my elevator pitch which I'd like to keep a bit longer. 

Fifth I'm going to listen to all the company's presentation for my company on YouTube etc, I understand there are not many of them plus even less in English, Hence I will look at our competitor’s presentation as well to understand how they present their company 

 

I could have done on and on and one. But I know that execution is my weak point compared to planning. Hence, I'll stop here and focus more on how to implement the steps listed above.

Now coming to the second parts. Enterpreneurship. All the points listed above on sales are relevant for an Enterpreneur too. As broadly its always better to have Sales related orientation for running any business. But its not only about sales. There are various other factors too like risk taking, reach out to team. Leading not only your peer group and sometimes your superiores as well. Building your personal brand with prospective customers and network. Gathering business intelligence. Working more on presentation. And last but not the least, self discipline and will power to finish the task even if its monotonous or something that you didn't enjoy. It starts with setting small small targets and putting max effort in achieving them 

As my current company is in a start up phase, I'm gaining the experience of various challenges involved in setting up a company.

Also I'm trying to gain some insight into the financial matters as well for which U have no prior experience.

In the nutshell, I need to have visibility about all aspects if business If I wish to fulfill my dream of entrepreneurship. I have started my journey with baby steps in that direction.

 

Birthday - A day to reflect

20 October 2020

When I started this blog good six years ago. The occasions like Birthday, New year etc were my favourite topics since it was very easy to write on them. Plus out then; I was very keen on planning anything and everything. I used to think that writing about the goals was a sureshot way to achieve them. I was consuming lots of self-help books and was also a member of Toastmaster Club back then which is a sort of non-profit organisation for developing your leadership and communciation skills. Gradually reality dawned on me that discipline, will power and constant, sustained efforts are more important and planning is just the first stop towards acheiving your goals.

Gradualy I came out of that vicious circle. First I let go of my reliance on self-help motivational books. Regarding toastmasters; I finally it in 2014 after crawling to clear the first level of 10 speeches( I had joined it in 2012). I wrote last blog post on my Birthay in 2015 as I could not see any positive results regarding acheiving goals. In fact, I stopped writing about so called goals on occasion of New Year too.

22 December 2020

The date stamp should give an idea about my struggle with blogging. Seemls like my birthday and new year post will be combined into single post now. I'm going to go out on a limb and after eating the humble pie; I'm inclined again to make some sort to plan with goals and milestones to follow in coming year. The next year is special and unique in more than one ways. firstly, we are well within the age of COVID virus. Secondly I have more than enough spare time on my hand right now unlike my situation some months back. Right now my challange is more on putting the spare time to good use rather than finding any time out of busy schedule. One thing I'm very sure is that I need to change the very approach from last time and it will start from the goals itself. Even though my idea remains same of personal improvement but I dont want to rely on cliche goals of reading more books, more blogs, reducing weights etc. All of these are actually a process, not the milestones I wish to pursue. Some of the goals I have in mind are as below

Learning new Language - Spanish

I always treat polyglots with admiration. In our hyper-connected world, knowing more than one languages is one of most relevants skills to gain. Its all the more relevant in my case as my current organisation has its head quarter in Spain. Moreover Spanish is one of the most widely spoken language perhaps after english and hence it makes good sense to learn it. I also found useful source in terms of YouTube channel to learn Spanish. But now I need to follow it religiously. My target is to look for any official certification course in Spanish and pass it.

Upgrading the qualification and skills  - Robotics

I have been fascinated by Robotics and Simulation for quite some time now. It looks magical and appeals to my childhood sense of wonder. Fortunately both these streams are part of my job and hence I have been motivated to master these fields from a purely professional point of view too. In spur of moment at startingof year, I had enrolled into a Robotics course offered online by IIT. But it did not end well for me. From the vey beginning, I was late and not prepared for this course and was playing catch-up only for the most part. In the end, I did not appeared for the exam as there was no chance I could clear the exam and earn the certificate. The only positive gain from the exercise that I had made one small beginning into Acedemic Robotics. My target is to enrol into another course and this time, actually earn the degree.

The last thing is to ensure that I incarporate my effort toward achieving these goals in daily routine. Else this activity is limited to another blog post only. I have always been an early morning person but the unseasonal cold wave is testing my resolve to leave cosy blankets early in the day.

PS : I realized that my car is also around 6 years old now. It means that I started this blog at the same time I bought my car. Just an useless trivia but I found it interesting.

I'm adding this section of blog post from my phone in the morning. It's just some edits in terms of correcting grammatical errors plus I added few lines here and there  But nonetheless, it's a small step in right direction.

Hope I could continue this 

Jealousy

 Writing on this topic is like stirring hornet's nest. There is so much of negative emotion attached with this word; that looking for any positive connotation is  like looking for needle in a haystack. Probably jealousy is not the right term for the behavioral feeling I want to describe but its related with comparison with others, lack of self esteem, this nagging feeling that life is not fair to you and you are getting short end of the stick.

Human memory is a strange thing, you remember some unremarkable experiences unintentionally. I remember one mundane memory from one of my previous company. I remember there was a notepad with plain sheet on one side to write on and some random quotes on other side. One of the quote which was quite interesting and which I still remembers is as below. "Jealousy is powerful motivator. Use it to get better that the person you resent". It was not exactly the same words but close enough if my memory serves me right. At that time I have not paid much attention to it except noticing it for its oddity.

Another remarkable experience from that company is not so innocuous. It happened right after our company was acquired by another bigger company and the the resultant downsizing of the manpower. It goes without saying the environment was full of insecurity and stress. As if it was not worse enough. We had another crisis as somehow the salary details for every employee in the office was made public. If rumors are to be believed, it was the handiwork of accounts person who was asked to leave and who thought that it will be good fun to share these confidential details. The negative effect of these details on psyche of most of the employees cannot be overstated. Probably it just acted as a catalyst for an already explosive environment prevailing in our office. But there was a blast resulting in most of the people loosing their peace of mind.

As in every office, there are always groups and groups within groups. People forming friendships depending on their work profile, internal customers and their individual natures. But this incidents formed a new group of so called Haves and Have nots. People redefined their association and friendship based on how much salary you are drawing. I found myself into the Have not category based on my Salary drawn. Total experience wise, I was pretty senior but in this company I was part of new recruitment. And evidently the company has started cost cutting in Salaries off late. Or they have realized that they are actually paying above market average and now they were in course correction. Whatever the reason may be, it was clear that there was a marked change in the salary structure of the company. The employees who have managed to join the company in the earlier phase have managed much better remuneration that the latest joiners. So we were the martyrs who want to highlight the elephant in the room and have discussion on rationality of salary structure. However other people who have managed to get more salary package had this version that every-one got what they asked for at the time of employment and hence it makes no sense to raise this point now. Personally for me there was another complication as even though I was very experienced, My previous experience was in another field altogether plus education wise I was a diploma holder whereas there were many junior employees in my company who were more qualified academically than me (including some MBAs too)

In the hindsight and specifically after the gap of around 6-7 years now. Its difficult for me to understand why I behave in the way that I did. Perhaps I was disillusioned after a few years in the company with regards to my career trajectory. All that this group did was to add fuel in the fire. Whatever may the reason was, the end result was that I was frustrated and not able to think rationally after comparing my salary with few of my colleagues. This realization that I was the least paid out of my department and in-spite of my continuous good performance (at least in my perception). There was no way I could bridge this gap ever. I cant say if my actions were driven by my latent frustration or anger regarding  my career trajectory or it was an impulsive response on the salary structure. But I did took some actions like talking to my immediate superior on this topic. It was a difficult topic to broach specially as I did not enjoyed a very good rapport with my boss but I did it nonetheless. My boss's response was as expected. He just put his hands up and shrugged it off.  But he did agreed to my other demand regarding change in my current responsibilities. I managed to get more responsibilities than my current role which means better visibility in the eyes of management. I'm not going into more details else it will take more than one post to describe my colorful experiences in that company but my boss resigned after some time. Interestingly, he was very junior to most of the team but was degree holder from a prestigious college of our country and very high of self confidence. However his tenure was almost a failure and he was clearly disinterested in last few months in the company. After he left, the company wants to fill in the position internally. There were three person in contention including me for that internal promotion. It was like management has let a cat out in the wolves, We were already not great friends of each other but this environment of mutual competition destroyed any possibility of cordial relationship between us.

Around 7 years later and with tones of water under Yamuna and other rivers, Most of us are in different companies now but that incident triggered something which still leaves a bitter taste in everyone's mind. There is a tendency to constantly compare yourself with others and draw satisfaction in other's failures than your own success. Seems like even though everyone is charting a different course, their stories are inter-linked with each other. We are still interested in malicious gossip about each other. 

Personally I have moved on to another companies after that. Looking back, it was not an unique situation in that company only. In every companies we'll find management's favorites. I myself have been branded as boss's favorite on more than one occasion. But on my credit, I always tries to downplay it, plus the fact the my nature is more on agreeable side make it less hard on other people. On the other hand, I have seen people who loves to brag and exaggerate about themselves. Which tends to further aggrieve other people including myself. 

The only conclusion, I could draw is that its very difficult to to remove this tendency of comparison and jealousy from your mind. The only preventive measure you can take is that it should not consume you totally, and instead of dragging the other person down, It should motivate you to rise further.