Success

What’s in a Name?

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

My name is Bond, James Bond. This is one of the most recognisable lines in the movie industry. In this era of digital, where virtual identities have overtaken the real ones, it still signifies the attachment we have with our names!

Yesterday, as I was watching the last instalment of the Star Wars saga, one line stuck me. The protagonist is asked by a random inhabitant on a far off planet, what’s your name. And she replies with her first name. The inhabitant asks her family name, to which the protagonist doesn’t have an answer at that point in the movie.

That’s where the scene ended but left in me a trail of thoughts. And as I sat today enjoying my Sunday, I was reminded of the line – such is the impression a mere exchange of dialogues created!

All of us have names. And as our names identify us, it’s natural that we are very cognisant of who, how, and where is using our name. I have seen people getting offended by someone writing or pronouncing their name wrongly. Or being very careful on making their name public.

And yet, while our name is a matter of pride and identity for us, I have often wondered about the futility of the pursuit of making it shine nice and bright…

It’s not that I am devoid of that desire or don’t want to ever have my name shine. It’s just that having experienced different sides of life, it appears to me that most of us are in it for the wrong reasons.

Let me elaborate a bit…

I am of the belief that a person’s work should speak for oneself. That people should know instinctively about who did the work. And that’s only possible if we love the work more than we care for the results. Only if we don’t worry about what will people say. Only if we give it our very best and then be satisfied that we couldn’t have done better.

What I have seen to the contrary is that most people first think about the results, about what will people say, about the benefit they will derive from what they are doing. The work at hand becomes secondary. And while the approach may work, IMHO it’s a gross wastage of our talent.

I mean, if we look at all the genius people around the globe, they did what they did because they absolutely loved doing it. All those who are super successful, have achieved success by following their passion. And what most of us do? We chase name and fame and money without worrying too much about the work. Or treat it as a job!

That’s where I believe we as people need to change our approach to life, specially as it gets rebooted after the lockdown. To make it more meaningful. To pursue our passions. To do what we like to do. And to always give the best of ourselves to every pursuit.

That will make us happy. And satisfied. And successful.

Perhaps, some of us will still need to do our jobs apart from our passions. But if we do them well, that will be sufficient for people to remember our names long after we are gone!

And for those of us who can find our true calling, no better time to pursue that path than in this changed world, with life at a premium…

The Child in Us! The secret to business success…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

All of us were children once! Some of us still are.

I just told you one of the secrets of being successful in business and entrepreneurship!

What is it about being child-like that prompts success when starting and running a business. I have been thinking about this topic for sometime and decided to pen down my thoughts today. 

We start our lives as a care-free, ignorant child. Lost in our own world. Oblivious to what’s happening around us or in the world. Blissfully unaware of our surroundings. The only thing that matters to us during those days is NOTHING!!! 

And then we start growing up. We slowly learn things and become aware about what’s happening around us. We start recognising people and pick up their habits and mannerisms. Ignorance is lost and that’s the first blow! 

We grow up more and enter the education world keen to make friends and play. We learn a lot in the process and become aware of what’s happening in the world. As a result, we start forming opinions and deciding our boundaries and limitations. Blow no. 2! 

We enter teenage and are often rebellious. We want to do things the other way. But then, that’s not how you do things honey! And we are stopped in our tracks to try out new things. ‘You can’t do that’, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea’, ‘I hope you get back to doing something better’, and the quintessential ‘What will people say’ are statements that we hear. And we lose our enthusiasm for trying out. No. 3! 

And then we finally enter the work sphere in our lives. And all our remaining hopes get quashed. We have to function as per the defined processes. We have to stay within our limits and not try new things. We must follow orders and stick to the protocol. Gone is our last remaining ounce of child-like thoughts by this latest blow.

That perhaps explains why a lot of people desire to do something of their own but can’t muster enough courage to try it out. The fear of failure and rebuttal dissuaded them. Something which was absent when they were a child!

Successful entrepreneurs on the other hand keep that inner child alive and kicking and come out triumphant on the other side of life to start a business. They nurture their inner child and grow in between the Nay-sayers and doubting Thomases. They don’t care if they fail or succeed, it just matters that they do what their heart and mind wishes for. And they know, even if they fail, it will be great learning and they will live on to fight another day.

The world looks at them in awe! But it was just the inner child that they kept on nurturing and enthusing all this while to succeed and live the life of freedom and dreams…

What I Learned from my shattered dream… And how it helped me reshape my life!

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

I always wanted to fly fighter jets.

As a young kid of 6 years of age, someone first asked me what I wanted to become! Really. As if I had some idea at that tender age!

I promptly looked at the sky and without any hesitance said “I want to be a pilot”. And as far as I can remember, I was looked at with awe…

As I grew up, that childhood desire became stronger. It became my only dream, to fly MIGs and Sukhois. Others in my class and friend circle continued to treat me as an aberration. Someone who knew what he wanted and also because I didn’t want to do engineering!
When I finally got selected, I realized I couldn’t join the Air Force. It was discovered that I have partial colour blindness and therefore could only join the Army. Second best option was the only option for me and I took it…

The first year at the Indian Military Academy was filled with ups and downs but I came out triumphing on the other side, 7th in my course. This got me my choice of arms in EME and I was all set to rock. Except, that’s not how the script was written!

I suffered a freak accident. It led me to stay close to 6 months in the hospital, facing ridicule from other course mates, and filled me with self-doubts.

Eventually, after getting out on medical grounds, I got my life back on track. Since then, my unorthodox thinking has taken me to many places and experiences. But things that I learnt from my shattered dream have perhaps been the biggest shapers of my life!

Here’s a quick enumeration of these life-shaping attributes that got ingrained in me during those couple of years.

Discipline. Easily the most identifiable thing about the Armed forces. And about me as well. I am credited for it and derided at the same time. But it has stood me in good stead and helped me excel time and again.

Persistence. Armed forces taught me how to doggedly pursue what I want despite trying circumstances. It has served me well throughout, helping me pursue my life’s ambitions and goals come what may.

Integrity and Honesty. A must have in the Armed Forces and something that is ingrained in me for life. Helped me to be successful and forthright in my work all throughout, something I believe I can vouch for in all my dealings to date.

Big picture vision. Doing all those field exercises while in the academy and plotting strategies has remained with me all along. Big picture is what I focus on and figure out all possibilities. As I transitioned into the corporate world and then into business, it’s proving to be a great asset.

Self confidence. To do anything I lay my hands on. Armed forces led me to situations that invariably tested it and helped me become supremely confident. And its an invaluable ally in my life now.

The list could go on. But it would become boring!

What I want to highlight here is that all those positives that I mentioned were there for me to take out. I could very easily have gone bonkers and wasted my life after my dream got shattered. But I chose to go on. I chose to fight my circumstances and triumph over them. I chose to pave my own path towards success. And I took these Positives and rebuilt my life around them.

And if I can do it, so can anyone. Our biggest failures are our biggest treasure troves also. It’s upto us to chose if we become wealthier by recognizing them!

The people angle in business

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

Business is in fashion across drawing rooms these days!

Reading news of companies and platforms raising millions and billions of dollars has sure got the average Indian interested. There are regular discussion happening over these topics across age groups and everyone wants to know how do these hotshots get built…

Over the past few months, I am in the process of building up my new business. During this time, I have often thought about what makes a business venture successful and how do entrepreneurs succeed. And specially how to build once such company!

I must confess when I started out, I thought it was all about hard work and some luck. But as my journey has progressed, I have realized it’s all about how to manage people…

People management is the mantra to run a business successfully. If I can manage people and build a great team that shares my passion and belief, the business will scale and do well. The execution of the idea shall be as planned and success will be a formality.

Even in jobs, if someone is a good people manager, he or she will automatically do well and excel in the chosen field. Most successful managers I have read about seem to have this trait in common…

In fact, I was reading an article about how Richard Branson, one of the greatest entrepreneur of our time, has scaled up his empire. He mentioned one very simple thing – “I hire good people, leave them to run the business and trust them to do their best. It frees up my mind and gives me time to think about the future.”

A great example of great people management leading to greatness for the founder and group companies!

However, most people neglect this aspect when they are figuring out things in their professional life. They treat others with contempt or neglect the human angle and in turn this gets ingrained in their behavior, leading to future fallibility.

If we also become as steadfast about the all important human aspect as Richard Branson, more companies and empires as vast and efficient as Virgin can be built!