forgot to mention that I had my second demo last week at New State Academy. There were around 40-50 students along with some teachers. The demo went well and ended with a round of applause. The teacher told me that the session went well.
My friend who had gone with me also commented that the session was good except that my delivery was may be just a bit fast paced. Relevant feedback which I would take care of in the sessions to come.
Many plans have been made for the next year, will write in detail sometime later, till then enjoy the romantic mood set in by my i-pod, " tujhmein rab dikhta hai, yaara main kya karun". Bye!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
The First Outing
Its been some time after the last post, and I was actually waiting for some action to happen before writing the new post. So, the good news is that some action has actually taken place. The action here is that my first demo session took place today at DAV school, Pitam Pura.
I have been waiting for this moment to come ever since I have started working on the concept. And today was the day when it finally arrived. Let me just be very straight here in admitting that the session went extremely well. If I compare with how I normally give presentations, this was somewhere around 6.5-7 on a scale of 10 and yet it was well appreciated by the teachers present. This and the feedback after the session has given me considerable confidence in the modules which I have developed. Though in the initial talks, it was becoming apparent that school was slightly reluctant to shell out money for the concept, but am sure and am quite confident that once the product starts getting accepted in the market, the money will start flowing in sooner than later.
More so, after having read and discussed so much about global warming over the past one month, I for sure believe so strongly about this issue that I am just looking at opportubities to reach out to maximum number of people and tell them what is it that is happening to their home, how is it that they are only responsible for all that is happening and therefore what is it that we humans can actually do so as to ensure a greener and a healthier tomorrow.
Consider this fact: if we look at the trend of CO2 over the past 400 thousand years, not once the level has crossed 300 parts per million part which is actually considered to be a safe limit by our scientists. However, only in the past two decades, the level of CO2 has gone up to 384 parts per million and is actually heading towards 400 parts per million mark soon.
The next session is on Saturday, just before I head into the new year party mood. So, wish me luck for that.
Since, I saw Rab ne Bana di Jodi, last week, my ipod has since been playing, " haule haule hojayega pyaar"....enjoy!!
I have been waiting for this moment to come ever since I have started working on the concept. And today was the day when it finally arrived. Let me just be very straight here in admitting that the session went extremely well. If I compare with how I normally give presentations, this was somewhere around 6.5-7 on a scale of 10 and yet it was well appreciated by the teachers present. This and the feedback after the session has given me considerable confidence in the modules which I have developed. Though in the initial talks, it was becoming apparent that school was slightly reluctant to shell out money for the concept, but am sure and am quite confident that once the product starts getting accepted in the market, the money will start flowing in sooner than later.
More so, after having read and discussed so much about global warming over the past one month, I for sure believe so strongly about this issue that I am just looking at opportubities to reach out to maximum number of people and tell them what is it that is happening to their home, how is it that they are only responsible for all that is happening and therefore what is it that we humans can actually do so as to ensure a greener and a healthier tomorrow.
Consider this fact: if we look at the trend of CO2 over the past 400 thousand years, not once the level has crossed 300 parts per million part which is actually considered to be a safe limit by our scientists. However, only in the past two decades, the level of CO2 has gone up to 384 parts per million and is actually heading towards 400 parts per million mark soon.
The next session is on Saturday, just before I head into the new year party mood. So, wish me luck for that.
Since, I saw Rab ne Bana di Jodi, last week, my ipod has since been playing, " haule haule hojayega pyaar"....enjoy!!
Friday, December 12, 2008
Just a few quotations
Below are some of the best qoutations that I have read:
Character is one factor that will guide all our actions and decisions.
It requires courage to keep dreaming. And that is when dreams are most needed -- not when everything is going right, but when just about everything is going wrong.
Playing to win is not the same as cutting corners. When you play to win, you stretch yourself to your maximum and use all your potential. It also helps you to concentrate your energy on what you can influence instead of getting bogged down with the worry of what you cannot change. Do your best and leave the rest.
Everyone feels the fear of unknown. Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to manage fear without getting paralyzed. Feel the fear, but move on regardless.
Guard against complacency all the time. Complacency makes you blind to the early signals from the environment that something is going wrong
We need an open mind to look at things in a different way and allow new inputs to come in. Otherwise, there is a real danger of becoming complacent or even downright arrogant.
Constantly ask yourself what new skills and competencies will be needed. Begin working on them before it becomes necessary and you will have a natural advantage.
If you do not take enough risks, you may also be losing out on many opportunities. Think through but take the plunge. If some things do go wrong, learn from them.
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick is to not to get bogged down by it. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
Excellence is not so much a battle you fight with others, but a battle you fight with yourself, by constantly raising the bar and stretching yourself and your team. This is the best and the most satisfying and challenging part about excellence.
Success requires no explanation and failure permits none. But you need to respect yourself enough so that your self-confidence remains intact whether you succeed or fail.
And just as I finish writing these quotations, my ipod has got deeply motivated and is indicating that something big must happen now. It has now turned on, " koi humse jeet na paave..lage raho..mit jaawe jo takraave, lage raho". I wonder if it is just motivation or a message to the so called non-state actors. Anyways, enjoy!
Character is one factor that will guide all our actions and decisions.
It requires courage to keep dreaming. And that is when dreams are most needed -- not when everything is going right, but when just about everything is going wrong.
Playing to win is not the same as cutting corners. When you play to win, you stretch yourself to your maximum and use all your potential. It also helps you to concentrate your energy on what you can influence instead of getting bogged down with the worry of what you cannot change. Do your best and leave the rest.
Everyone feels the fear of unknown. Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to manage fear without getting paralyzed. Feel the fear, but move on regardless.
Guard against complacency all the time. Complacency makes you blind to the early signals from the environment that something is going wrong
We need an open mind to look at things in a different way and allow new inputs to come in. Otherwise, there is a real danger of becoming complacent or even downright arrogant.
Constantly ask yourself what new skills and competencies will be needed. Begin working on them before it becomes necessary and you will have a natural advantage.
If you do not take enough risks, you may also be losing out on many opportunities. Think through but take the plunge. If some things do go wrong, learn from them.
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick is to not to get bogged down by it. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
Excellence is not so much a battle you fight with others, but a battle you fight with yourself, by constantly raising the bar and stretching yourself and your team. This is the best and the most satisfying and challenging part about excellence.
Success requires no explanation and failure permits none. But you need to respect yourself enough so that your self-confidence remains intact whether you succeed or fail.
And just as I finish writing these quotations, my ipod has got deeply motivated and is indicating that something big must happen now. It has now turned on, " koi humse jeet na paave..lage raho..mit jaawe jo takraave, lage raho". I wonder if it is just motivation or a message to the so called non-state actors. Anyways, enjoy!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
First School: Sorry Mr.Rohit, after the Mumbai terror attacks, Principal Mam does not meet any outsiders and netiher do we allow any outsiders inside the school premises.
I wonder what safety anyways the two guards, one extremely thin and the other too old to stand, can provide to the dear Principal Mam and to the students of the school. If terrorists do decide to pick this school, these two guards with no weapons would I am sure provide a lot more security to the Principal Mam
Second School: Mr Rohit, we have seen your proposal, please come for a meeting at 2PM today itself. So, Mr. Rohit quickly rushes home, goes for a quick shave, wears the best blazer he has and reaches 5 minutes before the schedule time. During the first visit, Mr. Rohit was not even allowed to go beyond the gates, this time reeptionist called him in, he was excited, he gave his card, the card went inside the principals room, the principal takes a good look at it, the receptionist comes out, she has a smile on her face, Mr.Rohit takes a step forward excited for a chance to meet another principal, receptionist appraoches and finally speaks, " Mr. Rohit, principal mam has a packed schedule this month and she says we might look at it sometime in Jan/Feb". Mr. Rohit tries his best to convince her to in turn convince principal mam for a meeting but guess its just one bad day for Mr. Rohit.
Patience and more of patience is what is needed to survive here. The sales team here at our parent company, AlfaTech has a lot of such stories to share and it is their patience and perseverence only which has shaped the way our company has grown over the past so many years. And I guess, its true for any sort of business set-up especially when you are new and are in the process of starting up. Otherwise as well, if we look at life in general, patience is one virtue which can help an individual cope up with a lot of issues and also prevent things from taking an unwanted or an unfortunate turn. So, patience my dear friends is what I have to keep and perseverence is what I have to follow.
In office right now, so no i-pod and therefore no songs.
I wonder what safety anyways the two guards, one extremely thin and the other too old to stand, can provide to the dear Principal Mam and to the students of the school. If terrorists do decide to pick this school, these two guards with no weapons would I am sure provide a lot more security to the Principal Mam
Second School: Mr Rohit, we have seen your proposal, please come for a meeting at 2PM today itself. So, Mr. Rohit quickly rushes home, goes for a quick shave, wears the best blazer he has and reaches 5 minutes before the schedule time. During the first visit, Mr. Rohit was not even allowed to go beyond the gates, this time reeptionist called him in, he was excited, he gave his card, the card went inside the principals room, the principal takes a good look at it, the receptionist comes out, she has a smile on her face, Mr.Rohit takes a step forward excited for a chance to meet another principal, receptionist appraoches and finally speaks, " Mr. Rohit, principal mam has a packed schedule this month and she says we might look at it sometime in Jan/Feb". Mr. Rohit tries his best to convince her to in turn convince principal mam for a meeting but guess its just one bad day for Mr. Rohit.
Patience and more of patience is what is needed to survive here. The sales team here at our parent company, AlfaTech has a lot of such stories to share and it is their patience and perseverence only which has shaped the way our company has grown over the past so many years. And I guess, its true for any sort of business set-up especially when you are new and are in the process of starting up. Otherwise as well, if we look at life in general, patience is one virtue which can help an individual cope up with a lot of issues and also prevent things from taking an unwanted or an unfortunate turn. So, patience my dear friends is what I have to keep and perseverence is what I have to follow.
In office right now, so no i-pod and therefore no songs.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The first week....
So, last week I visited around 10 schools to begin with. Nothing spectacular has happened and very frankly nothing much was expected either, after all its just the first week at work. Anyways, in majority of the schools, one is not even allowed to enter the reception area and as asked I had to leave my proposal at the hands of some extremely dumb looking security men with absolutely no assurance whether the proposal would ever even see the door of Principal's office. But, then nothing else can be done in such cases except calling or visiting them again the next week and pursuing the matter further.
However, there were a few schools which entertained people like me, and made me meet either the principal or the concerned teacher. Surprisingly, most of them belonged to the DAV chain of schools. The end result so far is that one of the schools has agreed to hold the demo session in front of the teachers because they want to make sure that the content is suitable enough to be shown to their students. Though, I will not confirm it still as the concerned teacher has asked me to call on 16 of this month and then confirm. But trust on one thing, the response so far has been encouraging, lets keep our fingers crossed and see how it goes on from here.
However, the last one week has already taught me a very important lesson. As an entrepreneur or as anyone starting out on his own, one just cannot afford to have a big ego. I get ready everyday in the morning wearing a nice shirt, the best trousers that I have and a blazer on top of that, clean shave, well polished shoes and hairs in place, eager to meet up with the school authorities, impress them and convince them about the usability of the product that I have to offer. But then, in most of the cases, you are either turned away from the door, in some the principal is not even interested and throws away your brochure, in some the receptionist is asked to interview you ( i mean what she would understand from the proposal with absolutely no authority to take any decision, guess that's just another way to say NO). Frankly, while I was doing MBA or while I was in Marico, I have never experienced such a behaviour from anyone, not even from my seniors but am now gearing up even for the worse. And, that is exactly the learning that I have acquired, probably I would never have been able to react to such a behavior earlier, but now I have to, may be again and again and I don't know for how long. But hopefully things will change for good, one day, sooner or later.
In all this, I forgot to thank ( though I actually just can't thank him), or just mention about my dear friend Praveen. Someone who has believed in me, has stood with me in these times and has helped me beyond what anyone could even think of. Though its nothing new of him, but then this is something totally different and to go out of your way, to not only show care for what I am doing but also give sufficient time to me is truly exceptional as far as I am concerned and this is something which I will never ever forget. And I just hope, that we will forever stand by for each other. The guy truly has some exceptional talent and deserves to be doing a lot more from what he is doing currently and I can bet that he would be successful beyond one's imagination. Hopefully, with plans we have, this guy can defintely go places.
Time to log off and get ready for the week ahead. By the way my i-pod has finally decided to move on in life and is in a very wierd mood today. It has just turned on " Maa da ladla bigad gaya". You guys enjoy whereas I will go and make sure my mom doesn't listen to this one.
However, there were a few schools which entertained people like me, and made me meet either the principal or the concerned teacher. Surprisingly, most of them belonged to the DAV chain of schools. The end result so far is that one of the schools has agreed to hold the demo session in front of the teachers because they want to make sure that the content is suitable enough to be shown to their students. Though, I will not confirm it still as the concerned teacher has asked me to call on 16 of this month and then confirm. But trust on one thing, the response so far has been encouraging, lets keep our fingers crossed and see how it goes on from here.
However, the last one week has already taught me a very important lesson. As an entrepreneur or as anyone starting out on his own, one just cannot afford to have a big ego. I get ready everyday in the morning wearing a nice shirt, the best trousers that I have and a blazer on top of that, clean shave, well polished shoes and hairs in place, eager to meet up with the school authorities, impress them and convince them about the usability of the product that I have to offer. But then, in most of the cases, you are either turned away from the door, in some the principal is not even interested and throws away your brochure, in some the receptionist is asked to interview you ( i mean what she would understand from the proposal with absolutely no authority to take any decision, guess that's just another way to say NO). Frankly, while I was doing MBA or while I was in Marico, I have never experienced such a behaviour from anyone, not even from my seniors but am now gearing up even for the worse. And, that is exactly the learning that I have acquired, probably I would never have been able to react to such a behavior earlier, but now I have to, may be again and again and I don't know for how long. But hopefully things will change for good, one day, sooner or later.
In all this, I forgot to thank ( though I actually just can't thank him), or just mention about my dear friend Praveen. Someone who has believed in me, has stood with me in these times and has helped me beyond what anyone could even think of. Though its nothing new of him, but then this is something totally different and to go out of your way, to not only show care for what I am doing but also give sufficient time to me is truly exceptional as far as I am concerned and this is something which I will never ever forget. And I just hope, that we will forever stand by for each other. The guy truly has some exceptional talent and deserves to be doing a lot more from what he is doing currently and I can bet that he would be successful beyond one's imagination. Hopefully, with plans we have, this guy can defintely go places.
Time to log off and get ready for the week ahead. By the way my i-pod has finally decided to move on in life and is in a very wierd mood today. It has just turned on " Maa da ladla bigad gaya". You guys enjoy whereas I will go and make sure my mom doesn't listen to this one.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Time for the next turn
And Yes, the time has finally come to jump into the waters. To give a marketing perspective to what I just said, after having done with 3 Ps of marketing viz product, packaging and pricing, its time now for promotion.
The logo has been fixed and the first set of brochures were printed today. From tomorrow begins the task of going out, visiting each and every school and introducing what I am attempting to do. I did visit a few schools over the last week, just to get the feeler of how it would be to go in front of an unknown person and talk about my product. Trust me not all experiences were good. Its gonna be an extremely tough road ahead but then since I have already taken the turn, I now cannot take a U-turn, howsoever rough or as I said tough the road may be.
Am I nervous??? well, yes I am. However irrespective of what happens ultimately, I have to do it now. And so I keep moving and the journey continues.....
My i-pod has still not been able to get over the shock of Mumbai attacks and has refused to play me a song today as well. Good night!
The logo has been fixed and the first set of brochures were printed today. From tomorrow begins the task of going out, visiting each and every school and introducing what I am attempting to do. I did visit a few schools over the last week, just to get the feeler of how it would be to go in front of an unknown person and talk about my product. Trust me not all experiences were good. Its gonna be an extremely tough road ahead but then since I have already taken the turn, I now cannot take a U-turn, howsoever rough or as I said tough the road may be.
Am I nervous??? well, yes I am. However irrespective of what happens ultimately, I have to do it now. And so I keep moving and the journey continues.....
My i-pod has still not been able to get over the shock of Mumbai attacks and has refused to play me a song today as well. Good night!
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