Entrepreneurial Gyaaaannnn

Attended a session on entrepreneurship today. Learnt a lot many good things, which I m sure I will forget till tomorrow  or max till day after that, u see, I have a quiz to prepare for. But for the little time I heard Siddhartha Sharma, I was awed, not only by the content but the way he delivered in 75 mins. The examples, the theories, a couple of hard facts about corporate life (which I was cognizant of but not very conscious of), a peek into the future et al, which he presented, asked me to give it a thought.

The man was not only trying to instill in us an entrepreneurial spirit but was also trying to make us aware of what is expected out of us by us (can say it was a bit of spiritual bias but more towards psychological side). Making money is good and required but not by getting frustrated and doing things half-heartedly every day, or the way the world expects from you, cause the world sees you as just another individual but you know you are unique. People worth people who are certain of themselves and know what they are doing and why. The theory goes as:

Passion into Profession

A tale which he shared was of Bopcy Salasar, a 6 year old firefighter, who was having cancer. When his Mother comes to know this, he asks Bopcy what You want to Do in life, and he says I want to be Fireman, and she puts in efforts to make this happen with the help of an NGO. It happens. The boy gets to do firefighting  with the firemen team due to special consideration by the supervisor. The joy he must have felt, how many of us can really feel after a hard days job.

A step based approach to get started is to consider the four major questions: What, Why, When and How. The questions are as succinct as they seem, but can be elaborated as much as desired but just to get confused.

This is quite amazing that we like all this stuff and gets pumped up when anyone else tells us or exemplify before us or Amir khan says "Kamyaabi ke liye nahi kabil hone ke liye padho, kamyaabi jhak maar ke peeche aayegi", but we never dare to go for it. There are reasons to justify this like parental expectations, family responsibilities, societal pressure, I am happy I can handle this pressure and what not the F but can it be justified anyhow?

At the last moment of life four things Talent, Skill, Potential, Dreams which lie dormant for a big part of our life will suddenly became active and will ask, "why were we wasted? We came to the world because of you."

72 hours non stop

This Friday evening, I entered in the college to see it flooded by flood lights. There was a football match going on in the ground, when I remembered that ChakraVyuh is commenced. I moved further to see a handball match, then a volleyball match, then a basketball match at BBC while hearing about a lawn tennis match and TT games. Realizing what would be the scene at baddy court, I rushed to it to just get overwhelmed.

In colleges the excitement levels rise when there is some fest or some sports activity, but this was something different... here was a phenomenal adrenaline rush clubbed with a sense of integrity and passion for respective college team and also for good players which were in plenty. I stood there with my luggage (as I was coming from home) for around two hours amazed by the air. Sports has a characteristic that keeps you awed, even when you are supporting you can feel the win or the loss vicariously.

The 24 teams fighting for the trophy in a 72 hour non stop battle where there is not even a single dull instant. The experience is uber, second to none. Teams ranging from IMT alums to IFMR Chennai covered a hell lot of India ( a little bit of France too, disguised in the form of foreign exchange students). Sportscom displayed meticulous planning and excellent execution in carrying off the event... what a show!!!

I don't know how legendary 'Abhimanyu' did it, but for me its impossible to get out once you get in the Chakravyuh.

Crossing the (admission) line...

This is the admission season in IMT, and today I got to meet some of the candidates appearing for the process. I was wondering how different it looks from the other side of the line. The stats which you might need to vomit to the panel like Indias GDP, PPP, blah, repo rate, base rate, CRR, FDI, blah, FII and blahhhh. All the things your respective coaching instis teach you before you come in.

But once one crosses the line and stands where I am standing today, everything looks so mechanistic, repetitive, and mysterious as how can you gauge a person by 15 minutes of interaction, when you know he has been all armored for these 15 minutes. Still interviewers manage to do it somehow and till date they have proven themselves wise (I can say that by seeing my batch mates). All those gyaan you heard by the seniors and coaching institute's faculty starts to justify itself...

Among other things I felt today was pride as the students I met today were so anxious, nervous, cautious..., even after being so good. I realized I am at a place which is fought for very diligently, by some really good people.

A real good experience as to know where I started and how much Ive travelled, and is this what I expected of me at that time when I was trying to cross the line...