Inspired.

As the release date of a new book by Rashmi Bansal approaches, I am truly inspired, not just because her new book (Follow Every Rainbow) is about stories of 25 female entrepreneurs, but also because I finally see a direction to my dream.

Rashmi Bansal is a writer, entrepreneur and a youth expert. She is the author of four bestselling books on entrepreneurship – Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, Connect the Dots, I Have a Dream, and Poor Little Rich Slum.

After more than 140 posts on both my blogs and heaps of inspiration from fellow bloggers and friends, what gave me courage was stories of ordinary people taking risks to do what they genuinely love.

Enter inspiration number 2 – Amish Tripathi. Economic Times tells his story –

When Amish Tripathi finished writing The Immortals of Meluha three years back, he took it to virtually every publisher in the country. All of them rejected his work, the first of the Shiva trilogy, for reasons as varied as a book on gods would have no readership and that it would have no connect with youth. That’s when the alumnus of IIM Calcutta decided to do the next best thing: go back to his marketing textbooks and chart out a plan to publish and sell the book himself. Tripathi printed the first chapter and distributed it at all bookstores in a unique sampling initiative; alongside he got a movie trailer made for the book and uploaded it on YouTube. A year later, Tripathi published the second in the series, The Secret of the Nagas. Together, the two novels have sold over a million copies. And earlier this month, filmmaker Karan Johar bagged the rights to adapt The Immortals… for the big screen.

Read more here.

I quote Rashmi Bansal,

The qualities that I believe make for success are:
1) being pigheaded (believing in your story and way of writing when no one else will)
2) being ahead of your time (what you’ve written has not been seen before or done before)
3) being I-don’t-give-a-damn (I started doing this for fun, not to make serious money or a big career).

**

So, now I have a dream (publishing a book), I am a pighead (I believe I can do it), I am not sure if I am ahead of my time (everyone has an opinion now-a-days, will my opinion count?) and I don’t give a damn (I really enjoy writing, not for money but to make my thoughts reach the crowd)

**

P.S : I really like the idea of creating YouTube videos and distributing pamphlets for publicity – and mostly I’ll employ these.

P.P.S : Plz help me being one step closer to this dream – cast your vote!

Art-of-Learning

How do we learn?

Answer is simple. We learn from our mistakes.

We may conclude- “All is well that ends well” or even before it “ends well”, we start introspecting. Questions like, “Where did I went wrong? What could have been done differently?”.

But the moral of the story is not generally so straight forward. We do not conclude that these were the reasons of our success. Rather we learn – these were the reasons which were stopping me from being successful.

Many would agree the idea of success is a controversial one.

Some say success is achieving your goals and living your dreams. Others may argue, taking the non-convention path and making your own unique story takes you to success.

Regardless of which path we take, it is rare that success comes along easy. People say that do what you love and then dots will connect automatically. People tend to over-believe in whole concept of “connecting the dots”. You create your own fate and its your hard-work which will pay you back, not some super-natural force.

Even Steve jobs himself, who supposedly coined this phrase of ‘connecting the dots’, he did not leave the university, but instead stayed there as a drop-out and worked hard. Its his efforts which fetched him the success and in turn “connected the dots”.

Unlike the courses and syllabus we learn in high school, learning from real life experiences is not that difficult. We have no pressure to mug up instances as to what to do when, it comes naturally, instinctively. Like “C” comes after “B”. If we face a situation once again, we’ll know ‘what not to do’ and most of the times that will pay off.

So maybe, we can start taking risks – calculated risks. Take up a new job, make a new investment, pick up a new hobby, start stopping by at different supermarket or buy a different brand of a product. At the max what can happen – we will be wrong. So at least we’ll know this was wrong. We won’t regret that we never tried it.

Imagine what would be today’s world if Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg had not dropped their normal course of life and taken up this one. They took a risk, they must have made mistakes, but they never hesitated in burning the night oil, they never hesitated in changing themselves whenever required and most importantly, they had a dream on which they never gave up.

History is full of instances, where people made mistakes, but rolled up their sleeves and learnt from them.

It’s time we do too.

D.R.E.A.M.S

They are either seen
1. With closed eyes
2. With open eyes (more commonly known as day dreaming)
3. With open eyes and a vision of practicality

I would be lying if I say I did not dream in all the three categories. 

Well firstly, the dreams with closed eyes are involuntary. So it is not in my hands to control dreaming. And more often than usual, I forgot those. A few may count Deja Vu somewhere between dreams and reality.

The second category of daydreaming is vastly famous in all mankind. Yes, the female clan have all dreamt about the victory speech after winning a beauty pageant. For more dorky types, maybe the Nobel Prize acceptance speech. For the creative ones, an Oscar or National Award. And for men, or in general, a speech after a token of appreciation is presented. Or after the girl they like says “Yes” 😉

So there is no hiding in that, this category of dreams are for fun only. To let our imaginations run wild. To bring a famous personality in conversation with us. Or to merely imagine how world would have been different if I did not do this, or if I did that. Basically, imagine all the routes not taken, all the journeys not done, all the accomplishments not achieved. We get them here. Dreaming with open eyes.

Then again, there is the last category. A more serious one. They’re more like interview questions. Where do you see yourself down the land in 3 yrs. Or do you see yourself as a manager of this company. Or what are your short and long-term goals. 
These all, we see with a practicality. Unless we belong to age group of 5-15. Because for them, even the “serious” dreams include lists like I want to be a teacher/doctor/engineer/pilot. Those are imbibed in us due to our surroundings, peers and family.

These tender dreams we see at such a young age, evolve. Till they no longer even resemble their roots. An exception maybe, if X wanted to be a teacher, and he did masters in technology which basically qualifies him as an engineer but also opens a teaching opportunity, thus fulfilling his dream. *applause*

Others nurture their dreams, make them more relevant to the present and reality, and work upon them step by step. Many achieve it, eventually. Others, obviously we haven’t heard about them, since they dint achieve anything.

What comes in between our dreams becoming reality depends on numerous factors. Firstly, its feasibility. Secondly, availability of required inputs. And thirdly, time frame.

For instance, I have a dream to build an orphanage, I should first make sure its a feasible project. No I don’t want to start with 200 people at once. Only people like Diya Mirza, who have a star power and people employed under her to do the work, can dream so big. I dream only with ten people. Next is, the resources. Money, food, shelters, clothes for them. Plus their education allowance/ arrangement for job. To be at a stage where I can support ten people, I should first be at that stage. Which brings us to the third point. Time frame. I do not expect myself to win a lottery and start this venture. It will be my hard-earned money, which comes with time. So keeping a time frame of 20 years is a safe bet. Not to forget, by then I will be supporting my kin as well as my elders.

The most essential part of this dreaming is its vision, since that’s the only substance separating dreaming with open-eyed dreaming.

For example, I also have a dream to publish a book in next 5-8 years. But I really don’t know how to begin, what to write, which style to write in, which language to follow. The more I give it a thought, the more confused I get. Should I go into newspaper first, became an editor, or just proceed with my content and approach a publisher. Where to find a publisher, will my qualifications matter, will my book even sell? I have a dream, but not that strong a vision. But I am not giving up on it. Not yet. Not till I have tried at least.

I hope all the people, who deep inside their hearts want it, achieve it. Maybe we all might not live to see our success, but I am sure Einstein, Shakespeare and Mother Teresa are sitting up there in heaven, smiling away to glory.

Dreaming is important. Its the fist step into achieving. As they say, well begun is half done. 

Quotable Quotes :

 

 

Kick-start…?

We make plans. Hundreds of them. Some in our minds, some on paper as well. How many of them come true?

From the day we get smart enough to think, we make plans. But owing to the constraints and priorities in this fast-moving life, we walk past them at times.

We also ponder upon some failed plans. We wonder how different life would be, if “that” had happened. A song playing on the radio reminds us of it. Or casual bantering of a pal brings back memories of certain now-sounding-funny-group-plans. We think about it, we talk about it and then keep it aside in a storage area of our mind where heaps of other such plans are already resting in peace.

Why can we not implement our plans? Wake up one day, have our morning tea/coffee and decide, “Today I am gonna do this, which I had actually planned to do long time ago”. Why don’t we do this, why not? And who is stopping us?

At least the answer of the last question lies in itself – US!

Obviously we cannot perform such courageous acts every day, but once in a while, we should. Eventually, a few successful plans will make way for the others.

Cheers!