Awesome thing # 25

Life is not going too well at the moment. But, awesomeness finds a way to creep into my sad story ;) 


So, between a pretty boring last week and an enormously boring sunday came the saturday. I met my EVS buddies (Amit n Dheeraj, both of whom have now left the sucker that place was :P) and shared a couple beers and some quality Chinese food at CP on a rainy evening in Delhi. Me and Amit made a plan to attend Dheeraj's wedding together in december and start quest on a new business proposal the coming saturday. God knows if it will materialize, but with the McD chocolate softserve after the food and an auto ride back home in the beautiful weather, all i hardly cared for...was nothing! :)

9 Lessons from Business

I can vouch for the fact the starting a business is the single most exciting thing in the world. I mean really, if you want some excitement with your life, start a business. There'll be challenges, back stabbings, achievements, downfalls, riches, bankruptcies, 10 new friends, 100 new enemies :), you'll see it all.


and while, 6 months into setting up my own establishment, I am still groping with the righteousness of my decision, I am proud to say that every day of this half an year journey has brought a new learning for me, some of which i present below.


Learning 1. Importance of a good team. You might be having the greatest business idea ever, it will not work unless you have a great team. A single wrong individual in the founding team of your business plan has the potential of ruining the whole setup, all because of the trust you place. You need to trust each other because that is important when you start; but trusting the right set of people will create the difference between success and failure.


2 of my plans failed because i chose the wrong guys to work alongside me. They never shared the vision, never gave enough time and kept assuring me that they will bounce back, but never did.


So choose the right guys, people who share your vision and are willing to go all the way to make it possible. and more importantly choose the people who are as passionate as you are but have different set of skills than you. Then you will make a great team.


Learning 2. Baniya-logy. This is an Indian learning. You need to have a 'baniya' in your team. Now, this is not frivolous; i mean it. This particular race of people are misers and will go to any extent possible to save that 10 paisa you might be tempted to spend. A baniya will make sure your expenses stay curbed, and if you're outsourcing something and paying for it, the baniya will stay up at night and make it for you himself. :)


My present business idea is still up and running because of this baniya i have alongside me. and yes, we've saved a lot of cash all thanks to his miserliness.


Learning 3. Never give away freebies. Freebies remove the trust from your products. Give a Trial Version or a 'limited number of days Trial', if you so may..but never give your products for free.


Learning 4. Never price your products according to your whims. Again, trust from your products will be lost. Analyze your competitors' products or similar services in the market and price intelligently. (Don't just price a 100 bucks less than your competition because that would mean that your client needs to pay only 100 more to get a renowned service!)


Learning 5. You are not here to make friends. Mostly you will be dealing with people who don't know you or who don't like you. These will be the guys who will also offer to help you. and when you start, it is help that you want from all sources.


So, whenever you take help in terms of finances or resources or even simple testimonials, keep a record in writing. Exchange a mail with the benefactor seeking his approval or have an agreement signed. Because if you don't, you won't believe it happening when some of your trusted 'benefactors' actually come lashing at you at a later time.


Learning 6. Build trust of your clients. A delighted client speaks good of you everywhere he goes and refers your product to every person he meets. Delight your clients, by going that extra mile; they'll love it. It will always bring you extra business.


Learning 7. Keep your best friends out of your business idea. There are many reasons to it. One, they're your best friends and 'learning 5' does not go down well with it; you will lose the friendship. Two, if you fail and get stuck in dire straits, it is your best friends who will come and help you. Three, you can always ask them for money without any interest or written agreements; they are probably the only guys who will trust you and if you cannot (are seriously not able to) repay they will be okay with that. 


Learning 8. Read. You do not know what all is happening in this world. When you start reading, a magazine or a book or just blogs, you will find out 1005 new technologies which can make your business plan simple to execute or 23410 new people/mentors/forums which can help you out with queries on your start up.


Learning 9. Wait before you go public. Discuss your idea in the forums or with mentors, but don't make it public on your FB page or twitter before you are pretty sure that, 'OK, its going good now.' It will add a lot of character to you and your startup when people in your network find out about it through some other source or through a news clipping and see it as established.

Dhanaulti (Part II) - Awesome things 21-24

The view that made the trip worth it

Finally, I got a much needed break. 

A gage cab driver, a yellow number plate (read commercial) cab (which unnecessarily cost us 600bucks more), my college senior (because of him and his adventure-prem i actually planned this trip), 2 of my college classmates (one, my nemesis on the cricket field and the other in the photography department), another friend (who strangely agreed at the last moment to join us) and I, left for the green and wet grassland hills of Massoorie and Dhanaulti in the wee hours of saturday while a spectacular weather took stop on our hometown itself. 

Some 8 hours later, we were not disappointed. While me and Aman knew what it would be like, we both were relieved to find the untouched beauty and serenity of the place still pure and that our decision of getting everyone else up here didn't earn us any abuse :D (awesomeness)

Dhanaulti was just the way i had left it 3 years ago - divine. All it had was absolutely green grass, and wetness..everywhere! My eyes were set straight on the treks we would be doing and with Aman and Ankur to give me company, my vacation had begun. As for the other 2 'adventure seekers' who were also carrying the costliest cameras among us (one a 28k and the other 35k worth), they were here for photography and they hated well..treks. :) Quite ironical huh - photographers who hate to walk :P So we dealt a pact, that we won't stop for people who were left behind...suited me just fine :)

After making everybody walk more than what was intended, meeting 8 Jaats topless dancing in the mountains to  the tune of munni badnaam hui and drinking BP, handing them our only water bottle (for fear of being beaten up as when i approached them, none of the 4 bastards came up alongside me..infact the 2 photographers completely ignored the acquaintance!!), coming back to our hotel only to find one of the Jaat back there recognizing me and offering me a bottle of BP :), and a hot plate of maggi noodles (nothing can beat maggi on a mountain), we finally rested in our room to open our own stock. (awesomeness) After the overgrown mosquitoes (there were some evolved varieties of them in our room. Trust me, in some billion years from now, there will be mosquitoes as large as there were dinosaurs) were squashed by some towel and chappal stunts, we decided it was time for eggs and a toast.

There was vodka, there was scotch and there was Nipun. After convincing everyone that he has grown up on his drinking habits now and that he would only be taking scotch, the guy fell on the bed after his second small and fell ill. And while the rest of us 4 laughed our guts out for the rest of the night, he found it more amusing to keep himself busy with his cellphone. So much for coming up at 10,000 feet for a break from technology!

View from Surkanda Devi @10k feet

One of the many spectacular views from the trek

The next morning saw so many more treks. Even the usual Ma Surkanda Devi trek was detoured by me and Ankur to take some off tracks all the way to the temple. We had fun. The view was majestic from up there. After we came down, we decided to embark on another not-known trek, a very steep one. When the photographers decided to skip this one, for the sake of their safety, they had no idea what they were about to miss. What we saw from when we reached the top of the mountain, was the reason why cameras had to be brought up there! It was a spectacular view of Nothing! (awesomeness) It's like when you see a beach for the first time. There was the ground on which we walked, and then it vanished. An abyss and following it emptiness. for all that you can see. till your eyes take you. Deep in the horizon i think i spotted a river snaking up. There were small mountains, there were clouds and there was a valley too. It was, as i call it, Awe-mazing! So, while the photographers missed it, I took a lot of photos :)

Massoorie showed us why she is the queen afterall!

Then, we left for massoorie and some kempty falls, which was pretty boring. Up in massoorie and in our hotel room, once again it was time for a toast and the same Nipun story repeated :) The rest of us 4..by god, we had fun! (awesomeness)

Morning after, we left for the desert back. and once back, i spent 3 days coming out of depression (and the temporary end of awesomeness) :P

Awesome thing # 20

You are planning a weekend getaway with friends and none of the fuckers seem ready. Then one agrees and you two decide to go ahead on your own. "Fuck the others!" and then the third says yes and then the fourth and then the fifth one too! and you suddenly have a gang that's ready to hit the hills! 
Now regardless of how the trip ends up, the very coming-together of ol' college buddies is in itself Awesome :)

Awesome thing # 19

You know the most awesome thing about work. I am talking about work that you do for someone else. It ends! and after you've literally slogged your ass off for 4 days on a project, and you come back to your workstation on the 5th day and find the work finished and delivered, and you realize that you are finally free to do your own shit for at least that one day..no prizes for guessing how you feel. AWESOME!

Awesome thing # 18

A feeling of longing can be best gotten rid of by involving yourself in an diametrically opposite activity. For me that is playing tennis. :) I suck at tennis, to be honest. but when i see the Wimbledon finals between the two best players in the world, i get turned on. So much so, that i want  to spend the rest of my life playing and learning this game and who knows, maybe playing for the country one day :P

anyways, so that's 1 sport i have picked up lately. The second one i tried picking up is swimming. the moment i saw the pool, i dropped the idea! Fuck, i am scared of water as hell. Why should i learn how to swim, anyways? There is enough land on earth for me to stay away from water. Global warming, you say? Will i survive just by swimming..there would be some boats then, right. Well, one of these days, i will start to learn this swimming shit.

So i spent my saturday watching my ol' buddies race it out in the pool (i chickened) while i sweat my tee out in the court and then we went for a show of transformers with the sexy sultry some-Huntington beauty in 3D, right in my face! Wow! Not a bad day at all.