Friday 29 June 2007

My Car

My car has been doing some crazy things for two years now, leaving me confused.
This month, I realised why. It has turned 16. My Car is in the prime of its teenage years. So what exactly did my Car do?


One day I found a magazine in it. It had pictures of nude female Cars. Shocked, I stashed it back in before anyone saw me. It took me a while to recover.

Whenever I parked in my building, I left my Car with its tyres facing left. But the next day, it would be facing right, in the direction of a slender young female car preening nearby. This happened a few times.

On its fifteenth birthday, my Car demanded that I gift it a set of denim seat covers. It said it would only wear denim. Correction. It said that I should only fund the denim. Not choose it. “You won’t know the current styles,” it told me.

My Car would scrape or clang against even a small bump on the road. I didn’t get it. One day I pulled over by the side and looked under it. Its Adam’s apple had gotten bigger.

The other day I decided it was time for a man-to-man chat about life and temptations and the need to enjoy yet not be reckless. I put my arm around the car steering and said, “You are 16 now and I was thinking maybe we should talk about a few things.” It was chatting up the slender female car and was part upset, part embarrassed by my presence. “There’s no need, I know everything,” it said, blowing smoke rings through the exhaust pipe.

Monsoon Spirit

They arrived late in Mumbai, but now that they have arrived, they haven't stopped. Thats monsoon this season. The weather was never such beautiful earlier. It's a season to celeberate, to have fun and spread the joy.

Though it is such a blessing, people are fearing it. They have been struck by madness. I have come across people who will start fearing if it starts raining continuously for an hour. People at home would not leave their homes in such situation while those in office would wrap up their work to return home as quickly as possible. Nothing wrong in it, but the fear that has been infused in the minds of people due to the 26/7 deluge has been more than required.

We bitch acout the authorities not doing their work, but how many people actually do their duties as a citizen of Mumbai. There are people I come across everyday who'll throw papers, plastics or wrappers on the road or will spit anywhere as if the place doesn't belong to them. The material thrown goes to the drains and blocks the drainage system. No matter how much the authorities try to clear the drains, the problems will persist until we ourselves become responsible.

Lets remove the fear by making our Cities cleaner and spread the JOY.

Sunday 17 December 2006

B Schools

When I was in college in my final year, I had one dream. To be in one of the best management schools in the country. It was a hype maybe that everyone followed, or maybe I was really destined to one.

But when I got deeper and deeper into thinking of a prestigious MBA degree and my future, there was somehwere some disconnect. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, someone who is indepepndent from the boss, someone who can decide what he wants to do and which 20 hours to work in a day.

As i learnt more and more about the education pattern and the demand for B schools, I just learnt that majority of the B schools in the country, the good ones, teach us students to be an employee. They teach us how to be an employee, how to communicate to the peers, how to market a soap, how to make a balance sheet of a BIG company, how can you manage a small operation in a Huge production House.

No one teaches you to be an employer. For there may be some courses who does deal with Family businesses and all, but then they are not as recognised as an MBA degree.

India has been and still is the country to produce the largest number of entrepreneurs. Though there may not be so many names unlike the west who have big names, but the fact of the matter is that even a small pan wallah on the nook of the street is an entrepreneur.

In my view, the focus has totally been shifted because of placements in B schools. Students want to get into big companies and giving up a brilliant idea they may have for they dont want to take any risk.

Students are getting lucrative salaries and a 8 hour job that they dont want to try their dream which could be n times more profitable (income generator) and which could be more enjoyable.

There should be a change in the attitude, the way people think. There are too many jobs. Companies will hire you because they know that they would not find a better person and a cheaper skilled person that him.

"My message was that follow your dream, think about entrepreneurship and don't just let your dream die. It just needs some courage from your side, a couple of failures and you will make Big".

PKC

Inspiring words from the best of the best

Looking for some inspiration in starting your own business? Look no further! Here's what some of the world's most famous entrepreneurs have to say about entrepreneurship:

"When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure."- Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

"An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it.- Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries

"Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming."- Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Enterprises

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something.
It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's

"Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being learned, capable of being practiced. Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation, the changes and their symptoms that indicate opportunities for successful innovation. And they need to know and to apply the principles of successful innovation."- Peter F. Drucker, "The Father of Modern Management"

"I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent."- Thomas Edison

"The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it."- Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies

"We were young, but we had good advice and good ideas and lots of enthusiasm."- Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Corporation

"Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning."- Bill Gates

"Entrepreneurs are risk takers, willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise. They willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets."- Victor Kiam, best known for his "I liked it so much, I bought the company" ads for Remington electric shavers

"If it really was a no-brainer to make it on your own in business there'd be millions of no-brained, harebrained, and otherwise dubiously brained individuals quitting their day jobs and hanging out their own shingles. Nobody would be left to round out the workforce and execute the business plan."- Bill Rancic, winner on Donald Trump's "The Apprentice"

"The cover-your-butt mentality of the workplace will get you only so far. The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business--but it's a whole lot more fun, don't you think?"- Bill Rancic

"Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it's about trading: buying and selling."- Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop

"I have always found that my view of success has been iconoclastic: success to me is not about money or status or fame, its about finding a livelihood that brings me joy and self-sufficiency and a sense of contributing to the world."- Anita Roddick

"Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make."- Donald Trump, real estate and entertainment mogul

"My son is now an 'entrepreneur'. That's what you're called when you don't have a job."- Ted Turner, broadcasting entrepreneur

"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!"- Madam C.J. Walker, creator of a popular line of African-American hair care products and America's first black female millionaire

Saturday 16 December 2006

Uncommon Quotes

  • "A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are screwed first."

  • " Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous."

  • "The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. ! It will destroy you."

  • "There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no Friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."

  • "Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."

  • As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."

  • "Once you start a working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest."

  • "The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."

  • "Whore s don't live in company of poor men, citizens never support a weak company and birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits."

  • "God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple."

  • "Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness."

  • "Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."

  • "Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person."

  • "Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth."
These are all quotes by none other than the biggest politician after Lord Krishna.....Chanakya. He was a politician, a strategist and a writer.