The Junk in my life & how overcome them!!


I’ve been a very proactive kid in sports, business & extra curricular activities… But I’ve been a underperforming student… My whole capacity was measured based on my academic performance… My own parents crushed my dreams, and pushed me to put that extra effort to excel in what I was not good at(Studies)…

The stigma of being a poor performer in academics made me;

  • Low in self esteem.
  • Low in self confidence.
  • A comedy stock.
  • Live being bullied by above average kids.
  • Live a life of frustration.

Things I was forced to QUIT!!

Sports: I was a naturally gifted athlete & sports person which came from my maternal grandfather, maternal uncle and my mother. Sports Day is the only day I felt like a hero. I had dreams of building a career as a footballer or an athlete. But I was forced to quit because of academic performance.

Fish Breeding: At the age of 12 I started breeding fish at home and was selling to local kids. Made around ₹2000 a month during 1992. My parents forced me to quit, as they believed earning money would bring down my interest in academics.

HDK Dealership: Those were the days of audio cassettes. People use to buy empty cassattes to record their favorate songs. A 90 minute empty cassette costs ₹40 and I use to buy those cassettes to record songs. HDK(or HDC? Could collect the name) was the market leader for its quality!!

One day thought of taking dealership for HDK as local shops were selling low quality cassettes.Immediately wrote a letter to HDK asking dealership. I got a response from them telling they didn’t have a dealership option. But they offered to give a cassette for ₹20 if I could place an order for 100 units. The total investment was ₹2000 and my parents had the money I earned through fish breeding. Again they didn’t give that money and discouraged me to continue..

Movies: My interest on studies was drastically coming down as I couldn’t cope up. Got an opportunity to become a troop dancer in movies. Again I was not allowed to continue as movies are not considered as a career option for person coming from a reputed family..

Finally I took a stand that I wanted to become an entrepreneur when I was 20 and perceived with great difficulties. But I had to come across a lot of junks like;

  • Emotional Blackmail from closed ones!!
  • Discouragement from closed ones & friends!!
  • Pessimism from incompetent stake holders!!
  • Crooks who try to cheat or exploit!!

It is impossible to totally eradicate such people. But I do following things to remove those junk take over me;

  • Associate and Hang-around with Movivated and Like-Minded people!!
  • Watch motivational movies!!
  • Listen to motivational songs!!
  • Read success biographies!!

This is what I do to “Clean House of Junk”…

Scar + Story + Survival = Entrepreneur



These 3S are the basic ingredient of an entrepreneur!!

I’m a survivor too!!

Quote I frequently use!! And WHY??



As an entrepreneur I have pinned many quotes in my board room to stay motivated.. Likewise I use many quotes to motivate people and to pump up their enthusiasm..

One quote I frequently use is;

A ship is always safe at the shore – but that is NOT what it is built for.. – by Albert Einstein

This is one quote which I kept telling to my critics, my team leaders and want-to be entrepreneurs..

The quote very well explains by itself. But the quote explains;

  • Progressing
  • Risk taking
  • Failure 
  • Go-getting
  • Believing

This Quote was a game changer to me and hope it have made an impact on many others too.. 

Thanks to Einstein…

Startup Economics & Valuation Well Explained



Mary is the proprietor of a bar in Dublin . She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronise her bar. 

To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans). 

Word gets around about Mary’s “drink now, pay later” marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Mary’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Dublin.

By providing her customers’ freedom from immediate payment demands, Mary gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Mary’s gross sales volume increases massively. 

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognises that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Mary’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral 

At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets. Naive investors don’t really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation’s leading brokerage houses. 

One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Mary’s bar. He so informs Mary.

Mary then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.Since, Mary cannot fulfil her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs. Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community. 

The suppliers of Mary’s bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms’ pension funds in the various BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. 

Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers. 

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion euro no-strings attached cash infusion from their cronies in Government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Mary’s bar. 

Now, do you understand economics in 2015?

It was a mediocre day!!!



Went to office today to catch up on some pending line items… A lot were planned to catch up for the lost time..

But it was not moving as I expected.. Things were moving very slowly and we made little progress..

Being a leader I couldn’t let my motivation down and I tried my level best to pumped up…

Went out for a walk, came back to office and watched some movivational clippings from YouTube…

After competing the day I found out where was the snag and took up those snags to Swami immediately…

Though this day has not given the desired result I’m sure this will make way for the great things we are going to do this year..

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before. – by Jacob Riis

A life without computer: What does it look like??


Lived the first eighteen years of my life without access to technology. There were no internet or mobiles then, even a computer was considered a toy for wealthy.

Then slowly internet came and it quickly took over me. Also I built a career backed by Internet & Mobile.

Then at one point in life I was running through a rough patch. Then I started blogging just to keep me engaged. Over a point blogging became an habit and slowly if became an addiction.

Today I can’t even think of a life without Mobile, Internet & Blog!!!

I’ve tried many instances to stay away from gadgets and technology for one day in a month. Slowly within hours it made me restless and I give up!!

I know it is not a healthy thing and one of my 2016 goal is to practice staying away from Computers / Technology at least once a week.

I’ve planned to convert my small land measuring little more than an acre into a farmhouse and consider engaging myself into farm activities every Sunday.Will jump into execution as soon as my wife joins me.

Life After Blogs: I’m seriously considering to buy a big farm and venture into organic farming!!!

What is this situation called!!!



Two weeks back I had a discussion with my CFO Mr. Bala and we decided to rework on our Coffee Shop initiative!!!

Like we anticipated there were lots of hiccups on reworking on big Coffee Shop. It involved many challenges like;

  • Finding Coffee/Snack Menu
  • Finding a Shop
  • Working on Interiors
  • Working ways options to need capital needs!!
  • Recruiting staff

Then with lot of delebration we have decided to go for a franchise for a small coffee shop kiosk.

By doing this we thought;

  • We will have a quick start!!
  • Reduce on Capital Cost!!
  • Can meet our requiredCapital expanses through internal sources!!
  • Franchiser takes care of supply chain and stafftraining!! 

With that thought we immediately arranged a meeting with a franchiser and made an agreement him, we fixed a place and as always it was the bank which was playing spoilsport to fund us in spite of holding an FD!!!

Bank offered us 80% of our FD as loan and we asked for 100% as we have a working relationship with the bank for a long time and also we have;

  • Fixed Deposit
  • Current Account which has no interest!!
  • A 60+ salary account

In spite of threatening the bank that we have to look for another bank they stretched the limit to 90% of FD. But we agreed for this ask the money was sufficient to start!!

When we thought we have set everything is place and we were good to start. The place we finalised couldn’t be fixed as the person incharge backtracked for some reasons.

Now we are aggressively looking for place!! It is a Coffee Shop Kiosk and we need 10 * 10 sq ft space in some prime locality or commercial place which can get us lot of footfalls!!

We are looking for a place in following locations.. Kindly pass a message if you have any reference;

  • Porur
  • Valasaravakkam
  • Kesavardhini
  • Alwarthirunagar
  • Virugambakkam
  • Avichi School
  • Vadapalani
  • Butt Road
  • Manapakkam
  • Mugalivakkam

Thanks in advance for sharing leads!!

My Five To-Do’s and Life after its Done!!!


There are many To-Do list in my life but let me list the top five;

  1. Exercise and reduce 30 kilos of weight!!
  2. Meditate for an hour everyday!!
  3. Create a Neem Tree forest in a 10 acre barren dry place!!
  4. Survive an year by bartering!!
  5. Sunday’s live with nature by staying disconnected from Internet, Mobile & Television!!

When I come across a day where those to-do’s were accomplished will definitely make me feel happy and I’ll carry a sense of accomplishment!!

Then I’d look out ways to continue task which to-do’s that needs continuity and document other one time to-do’s!

Then I will start thinking What is my next To-Do? And workout ways to get that Done!

Every challenge throws an opportunity!! This is how I got my Opportunity!!!



Became an Entrepreneurship against the wishes of my parents during 1st September 2000 a month or two before the dot-com bubble.I remember it was sometime around December 2001, it was already 15 months of entrepreneurship and things were not getting any simple… World was still reeling under dot-com bubble and 9/11 terror attack has only made matters worse and nothing was gloomy… Life became very challenging and cruel to me as;

  • Money due to my mentor & vendors has started accruing.
  • All my efforts of winning a project was hitting to a dead end. 
  • Criticism from friends and family were getting aggressive every passing day.

But every challenging situation throws a opportunity unknown to us!! Like wise an opportunity one day to my dingy office in an oil go-down. The place was hot, dusty and smelled oil everywhere and I had this 10 year experienced US return who came to me asking for a Job. He was too experienced for me to handle and i was not interested give him an offer. But the conversation between us gave me a new dimension.

US Returnee: Hello Sir!!

ME: SIR?? Who Me?

US Returnee: Yes Sir!!

ME: Yes tell me.. How Can I help you??

US Returnee: I’m looking for a Job. Here is my resume.

ME: Resume read 10 years experience, 4 years in US etc etc. OMG!! I Said, you are too experienced to work under me who doesn’t carry any experience.

US Returnee: No Problem Sir! All i need is a job to engage myself. I didn’t want to stay at home and become dumb.

ME: Sorry, I’m not in a position to offer salary. I think you are in a wrong place.

US Returnee: No Problem Sir!! I’ve earned enough money to survive next couple of years. All I need is a job. Pls consider me.

ME: I don’t have any computers to accommodate you.

US Returnee: No Problem Sir!! I’ve a LapTop and I can bring that. Just give me Job & Projects to work thats enough.

ME: Mind Voice “LapTop ah?? I’ve just seen that on TV commercials and on internet”. Then I told him that I’m not in a position to offer him a job.

US Returnee: I’m ready to offer some money for the Job.

ME: I closed the conversation by telling it is not going to work and I was not interested.

But this situation opened an opportunity in life and I thought why not recruit 3-4 freshers and build a product and leverage on that product. The same day posted a walk-in on a Yahoo Groups for Chennai Freshers .

Again this was like a opening up of another devil. I was sleeping and my mother woke me up telling it was a call from mentor. It was 6.30 AM and I picked the phone and here goes the conversation;

Mentor: What did you do?

ME: I did nothing SIR.

Mentor: There are some 200+ people waiting at the entrance of the office.

ME: 200? I made a post for walk-in in Yahoo Group thats it?

Mentor: What ever goto office and see to it that you are talking to the crowd and send them off ASAP.

ME: Ok Sir!! I’ll be there by 8AM and I’ll handle SIR..

I got ready and immediately drove to the spot. To my surprise the crowd has grown to a couple of 1000’s. My mentor has panicked and has sent his staff to tackle the situation. Already I stared shivering and my brain totally stopped working. Even thought of running away from the situation. But I wanted to handle the situation at any cost because I didn’t want the crowd to damage the office.

I Climbed the compound wall and shouted telling I was a startup, till now it is just me and i’m looking for just 4-5 developers. I thought that is it, but to my surprised every individual started pleading to consider them for that 5 opening. There were people who have traveled from Bangalore, Hydrabad & Mumbai for just a Yahoo Group post. That is how the Job Openings became viral during those recession time.

For me coming out of the walk-in was the only thing on my mind. People used every reasons from sympathy factors, to health issues, to parents health issues, to poverty to get a job. One girl was literally crying when she got rejected and then came her father. Her father said;

Sir!! She is my daughter, she is a gold medalist and her self-confidence has gone down. I’ve not seen her like this & i dont want to see her like this. Here is 1,00,000 INR Sir(It was ready cash)!!! Take this and give her a job. That didn’t look like an opportunity. It only made my already panicked mind into more panic and i rejected that offer and sent that man out. Some how i managed to move away from that day..

After moving from that day it was again days of criticism, push from vendors and desperation to succeed. But no where money was coming. That is were i thought why not I call the US Returnee & The Gold Medalist girl and take a Job Deposit from them. Unfortunately I lost their contact.

From then I started to demand deposit for the job which would be returned after a year. Some how I managed to get Job Deposits from 2 recruits. With that money I could settle all my debts and settle all my commitments with 5 months liquidity. With no distraction for 5 months I could turn things by 3rd month and there was no looking back from then.

Life is not a Not Lemonade and this is how I resolved a a situation in early part of my career!!!

The 11th item in my Bucket List


Kick It on the Daily Post asks What’s the 11th item on my bucket list??
First let me explain the meaning of Bucket List. A Bucket List is an experience or achievement a person would like to achieve in his/her life time.

So, What’s the 11th item on my bucket list?

My 11th Bucket List is to spend one full year of my life by just bartering my needs. That means I don’t work for money. Instead I would barter my professional service to fulfill my needs.

  
That made me think what all I need in a day / week / month of the year and how I could barter for those needs??

  • Every day I can host guests at my house as a barter for breakfast, lunch & dinner!
  • I can carpool people to spots I want to travel as a barter for GAS.
  • In a month I can buy groceries for 10 house hold as a barter for getting me groceries.
  • Every evening I can offer tutoring service as a barter for paying my electricity bills.
  • I can write promotional blogs as a barter for apparels.

Couldn’t think of more personal needs!! But I’d love to see more comment on list of things I forgot to list and I can come with the barter I can offer for that!!!