Sunday, June 29, 2008

Entrepreneurs Conference

I am not sure how to start this one... but I am again in one of those lost moods... lost emotions.. rather mixed up feelings... This one's again gonna be quite a dis-organised post... I like dis-organised thoughts... They are fun to comprehend...

So Rashmi comes up on the stage to talk about her book... Stay Hungry Stay Foolish... And, as always, i have goose bumps all over me.. a chill ran through my body...
The ever so emotional me, connects with the lil intro to the book...

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish is a book on 25 Entrepreneurs from IIM Ahmedabad. The book talks about the struggles they faced and the fame they achieved while struggling to be the best and do what they always wanted to do - Start out on their own.. took the road less travelled and became what the world would want to call them now "Successful Entrepreneurs".

Though I am not a PG from IIM Ahmedabad, I have, I think, lived on campus more than anyone else from the city. So it was a nostalgic day for me too... And if the IIMA guys considered my presence at the college as attendence, I don't think they would have problems giving me a degree... I had low attendence in my Grad school, because I used to be at IIMA for obvious reasons... Love..

One of the iA guy's asked a week back - "IIMA is your boyfriend na" .. i couldn't help smiling.. and nodding my head in agreement to the phrase... "Yes, and I came back for my boyfriend from the Max City :)"

Deep Kalra - MakeMyTrip, Sanjeev Bhikchandani - Naukri, Sandeep - SequoiaCap, Desai Sir - Mastek, Cyrus Driver - Calorie Care (Calorie Care was btw my pamper aunt in Mumbai. They were my source of lunch for a month in the Max City), Subhiksha, Baring Private Equity... and innumerable other brilliant ventures... Chlorophyll, IRIS, GiveIndia.... Name it and 'we' have it.. or should I say, IIMA's got them all under their banner..

I am not sure if i want to talk about all of the 29th.. but was a day, which definitely
motivated me to get back to Entrepreneurship... I had for some reason lost the spirit and had decided to stick around with a secure job for some more years.. but I think I will take the plunge, but a secured one..

The Incubation Centre is definitely giving me what I would need to start out.. a Network, a base, Knowledge, understanding of Entrepreneurship... and blah blah blah.. make me more comfortable with the concept. . but, I am not sure if I am still comfortable with the idea of starting out my empire...

Sequoia Cap MD - Sandeep says, "Human beings have a problem... we try to do things which can solve every problem we ever faced.. we want to make something which will solve all the problems in the domain.. but thats not the way forward.. Be a needle, which pinches at a single pain point and then spreads.. !!"

I am not sure if I have heard such amazing things before.. but I guess, it opened up my eyes too.. Why do a business which solves all the pain point.. start with one, excel and then see if the other things can be covered... My idea was a hammer on the wrong side of the pin.. i wanted to do everything with that little idea, and i was also sure it would be difficult to work it out.. and which is why I stopped working on it.. anyways... timely reviews helped.. and here I am planin out things for the future again...

Sanjeev Bhikchandani... you gotto talk to him to realise what good people are about... "Try and identify the vicious circle of your business... and then try to sustain it..." again, never heard of sentence, no one ever shared such stuff, such secrets... I am not sure if its a secret, but definitely something which he experienced, struggled around with and came out successfully from the pit... and he talked from his heart.. u could feel it...

there is one thing which I also realised.. only people with low temper make good entrepreneurs.. which means, I will have to make a 360 degree change in myself to become one.. difficult, i think so.. but anythin for passion ..

met a lot of my frens from the previous batches.. confluence 2005 team - Sameer.. Aurvind and Partha - 2006 batch, have now started out their own firm by the name of Mantis Tech.. Nikhil again a 2005 batch-ee started out Wellocity, a health clinic.. Vinita ofcourse, 2007 i think and Kaushik - 2008 started out Lootstreet. Gaurav Dagaonkar, 2006 batch, and a couple of other non - IIMA guys.. and yes, these are the guys i've always had fun talking too..

2 am talks under the lamp post about entrepreneurship, technology, business, economy and whole lotta topics... and 5 of us... not possible anywhere else and with anyone else.. but these guys, who have kinda inspired me from time and again to take up entrepreneurship on full time basis.. but the 'scared' me has been refusing it since some time now..

the highlight of the 2 - day event was obviously the 28th night... atleast for some.. well, if someone dedicated a song to you and sang it in front of some 250 odd people, what are you suppos'ta do.. "now a song dedicated to a girl who's been working hard to make this show happen.. aranged for our trip to Amdabad and made sure everythin went perfectly fine.. Aditi".. and I couldn't stop laughin after that.. i wanted to walk out.. but I thought it would look foolish and dumb.. so was there, laughing and giggling..
all I have been telling him after this is, "You've flattered me.. and now i am at a loss of words.."

Serenaded !! well, I am not sure if he meant it to be like that.. I am sure, it wasn't meant to be like that.. :P

We somehow connect well... have worked with him too, on his online PR strategy, for a very brief time, but it was fun..

overall, that was the 2-day event..
lot of other things.. but Romancin Ma LyF is not suppos'ta be a Newspaper.. Or may be a Newspaper which just talks about Ma LyF, and Ma Romance wit It..

Keep reading... and I'll keep Romancin Ma Lyf again...

~Serenadediti~

5 comments:

Wanderer said...

Congrats on the success of the event.. you really deserve an applause for this!

Keep rocking!

aDeSe said...

@wanderer: thanks dude... we couldn't get a good press coverage, otherwise it would have been even better.

Anonymous said...

Hi Aditi. Very interesting blog about entrepreneurship at IIMA. You might interested to know about a really wacky and new entrepreneurship focused programme that my organisation is working on launching this year which you and colleagues/friends may be interested in participating in. It's called Jagriti Yatra - Awakening Entrepreneurship. Our organisation is based in Mumbai and our team spread around India and UK.

Jagriti Yatra is a train journey across India to meet with and learn from bottom-up innovators and entrepreneurs who are changing, challenging and redefining India today. Four hundred youth, over sixteen days, across thirteen cities. They'll get to see India in all her majesty and it happenes on December 24th 2008 - January 8th, 2009.

Youth entrepreneurship in India, Social entrepreneurs, business entrepreneurs, grass roots development, lifting your entrepreneurial endevours to the next level, going national, going international, developing a brand, changing attitudes and breaking the mental barriers of a can't do attitude to a can do attitude. Our annual semester on wheels will show the youth of India that anyone can be successful through truth, integrity and hard work.

Do check out our web site at http://www.jagritiyatra.com/

We also have a blog at:
http://www.jagritiyatra.com/blog

and a discussion board at:
http://www.jagritiyatra.com/discuss

Regards,

Kaustav Bhattacharya

Anonymous said...

I have been trying to take _the_ step for a while now.. A long while actually. At times I do hear my entrepreneur friends crib saying that life is a lot easier when we just go with the masses and sit in a secure job. At such times, the thought of what I am gonna go through, sends a chill down my spine. Well, but unless we dare to do what we want to do, I guess we wont be any more than anyone else.

aDeSe said...

@kaustav: hey, yeah i have read through JagritiYatra and I think I also applied for it.. But never got a mail from the guys there about the further steps. Anyways, may be next time. Crunch up your Communications division, I think you are losing out on the applications like this.

@cOle: Absolutely right. And, if the ppl who have turned Entrepreneurs think that they are not happy with it, I think they should get back to working with a corporate. Entrepreneurship is like sitting on a roller coaster. Trust me, its fun and also fulfilling. Take the plunge now, before its too late. and Lemme knw if I can be of any help.