Bulls-Eye

Today I was playing dart game at my house and something brought a great Eureka moment for me. Wanted to share. 

I was trying to put all three darts in the inner circle but even after numerous attempts one or more were astray. Then during one attempt I somehow removed my spectacles (I have a minor myopia, so basically was able to see board but not very clear). Now again I tried hitting and surprisingly consistently all 3 darts were hitting inner circle and some were in fact going and hitting bull's-eye. This got me thinking and then came the Eureka moment.

Because of my blurred vision I had to concentrate more and was trying very hard to just see the bull's-eye and trying to aim there only (since that was the only mark clearly visible, no other numbers were visible). I couldn`t even see where other darts were hitting, my eye was only concentrating on bull's-eye and what happened as a result was everything - my hand movement, grip, stance, trajectory - were automatically getting aligned.

Even after the first shot, which was little off, I did not see where it hit but kept my gaze on bull's-eye and then second shot automatically came near, I continued my gaze and third shot hit the bull's-eye.

The revelation I felt was almost like an enlightenment. When I was concentrating my vision and mind on the bull's-eye, everything else seemed to obey an order and automatically got aligned to achieve a common goal. It's not even that I practiced and eventually it happened, the results were sudden. Performance increased instantly.

Earlier with my spectacles on, since I had more vision I could see all sectors/numbers and was thinking that I can hit here or there etc. Later with no spectacles with all concentration and vision on bull's-eye, there was no option and my mind and eyes were only concentrating on the single target. Magic happened.

I guess the parallel in startups also holds true. If one is extremely laser sharp focused on a goal, everything will align towards that. The only condition being the focus should be unwavering. Many a times we let our focus waver on multiple things but I guess it should be the mission of an entrepreneur to find that ONE thing to focus on. There will be lots of misses, but one should not break the focus and just keep on gazing the bull's-eye…..everything will automatically align very fast and the next attempt will be near the mark and eventually we will hit a bull's-eye.

So in short all one needs is 1) Identification of ONE Goal and 2) Meditation like focus on that Goal…..don't bother about anything else…..if the focus is consistent and attempts are continuous the alignment will happen. Almost magically.

  

Life at Cross Roads Part-2

Since sequels seems to be the flavour of the time here comes my second part to the original Life at the Cross Roads, I wrote almost 8 years back. 

8 YEARS !!! Its a long time but everything seems so fresh even today.

I would highly recommend reading the first part before reading this.

In the winters of 2006, me with three maverick friends of mine Anand, Saurabh and Pulkit started our first venture in education from Patiala, a very small town in Punjab, Northern India. My previous blog doesn`t even mention the name, its Lakshya (www.lakhsyainstitute.com). People who read the first blog will have many questions in regards with how did the entrepreneurial journey go, did you achieve success (whatever that means!!), were you able to make a highway or got lost in darkness etc etc

Last 8 years have been fantabulous and pure fun. Created a rock star company, it had been a dream run with Lakshya, created an awesome team and culture…..met and made great friends for life…..understood humility, compassion and 100 other qualities….Can`t forget the experience of being a teacher myself for more than 5 years, the students will always remain special to me till life ….. In-fact there are just so many things overflowing that now I regret not blogging over the last 8 years. Sigh!! 

Now the curious ones will always be after the tangible parameters with which they judge the success of startups….so to answer them, here it goes….Lakshya has been a phenomenal success. We four started from a small floor (as mentioned in my previous blog of 1600 sqft) having 2 helpers and with our salary money of INR 2-3 lakhs, started our first batch with 35 students …… we now occupy more than 40,000 sqft of total area spanning across 5 locations employing more than 150 people teaching more than 3000 students annually generating revenues excess of INR 12 Cr. And as a final testimony to the glam quotient, as seems to be a fashion these days, a listed company acquired majority stake in Lakshya. So in short we created an enterprise value of around 1000 times what we started from. Not bad for a period of 6 years (Merger happened in 2012) ….. And yeah I forgot to add, I do have lots of receptionists and guards who wish me good morning ;-)

Awesome!! Right? ……….Yeah its good, but all this doesn`t really matter. It's very temporary, its great to think about these tangible parameters and brag about it occasionally but it's like an orgasm …. very momentary, once you are done, you move on  You will say I am bullshitting but that’s the truth. What really remains are the feelings and then the learnings. Well yes the growth and success are a testimony to the fact that whatever endeavour you have undertaken has struck a chord with the people and you are affecting them positively (which btw is a very important thing) but apart from that what really gets one going is the vision and a never ending drive to change things, to challenge the status quo, to help things evolve, to DISRUPT. This is the Ultimate Motivation. And I think in spirit that is what is called Entrepreneurship.

And 'Challenge the Status Quo' we did. Figure this, in 2006 just 2-3 students used to get selected for top colleges like IIT`s in Patiala, last year more than 100 students went through from the city. Imagine the change in mind-set and in their life which will have a ripple effect over the entire society. This is a parameter of success for any entrepreneur and a point of immense satisfaction. We changed something….forever!! 

Having said this there are two things which clearly stand from these last 8 years. I met my darling sweetheart with whom I am happily married and it was through Lakshya (I will always be indebted to you for this). And the second being that we four are still together (surprise surprise!!) mature, stronger and more deeply in Love :-)

Well it all started with Life at Cross Roads but I came to realize that Life always remains at Cross Roads, you just move from one to another. The irony being its nothing to do with life, it has to do with you.

We could have easily continued a settled lifestyle at Lakshya, after sweating it out on a startup, reap its benefits as it matured, but then how could we, as our wives say it …. we are Entrepreneurs after all!!

So as if the risk of 0.1% was not enuff we again set out to test the laws of probability by starting our second educational startup together as an endeavour to once again challenge the status quo and disrupt education….. With a vision to Democratize Knowledge.

Why?? What's the need? Is this the right time? Again all sort of questions keep popping up……Well at least now I have a link to my first blog to refer to :D

And I answer them with again the same line…."Success or Failure, it really doesn`t matter coz for us the journey itself exemplifies Success"

For me the fact that we still have the passion and the energy to pursue our dreams is a matter of Success, the fact that even after having a stable setup we have the guts to start afresh not being afraid to start it all over again means being Alive, it's a testimony to the spirit of entrepreneurship and till the time this is left in us I will be a very, very happy and a satisfied person.

So here we go again, on the path less trodden….full of uncertainties and new challenges …. keeping in mind learnings from previous journey and yet being open to unlearn and re-learn, with a resolve to make a bigger change….. A bigger dent in the universe

As I conclude, I will again remind myself and to all others who are contemplating on this beautiful journey of entrepreneurship, of what I wrote 8 years back…..….

Just follow your heart, do HELL with the world. And then, well as the Nike commercial says "Just Do It"

Times sure are changing ….. And I am falling in love with it, all over again :-)

Its been a long long time since I experimented with Photography. The reason was that I lost my first camera Canon Powershot S1IS which introduced me to this beautiful world. Since then there was no urge to try/experiment anything. This went for couple of years. Now recently thanks to my student Aayush and my roomie Naggu I purchased my first DSLR. My Canon EOS 500D with lens kit and other lens and accessories. I will detail about my kit separately. It just been few weeks, I went on a trip to my hometown Tirupati and got this cam along and had a chance to try out some few things. Here are a few snapshots arising out of that. Rest assured this space will now feature some regular updates.

I was primarily experimenting with B&W photography and had this lovely portrait shot of my Grandma. Thanks Avva for posing :-)

50mm(18-55, 3.5-5.6 lens), f/5.6, 1/8 s, 800ISO







Continuing with B&W this was an attempt to capture details in shadows. I intentionally produced grainy effect by using a higher ISO. The thing I wanted to capture here was a bland face with its details evident in the shadow. Thanks to my cousin Teja for posing

(18mm, f/3.5, 1/8s, 1600ISO)



Continuing with B&W this was an attempt at soft focus and also to create an impression of a person behind bars (well sort of). Since we already know the previous pic so the purpose will be diluted but as an independent pic I guess it would stand out a little.

(18mm, f/3.5, 1/4s, 3200ISO)

It was monsoons and how can I miss these shots, a simple B&W shots out from my window.

(50mm, f/22, 1/50s, 400ISO)


Well the mood outside, did a wide angle shot, although wide angle with 18mm does not come as striking because of the crop factor of 1.6x for small sized sensors this actually translates to a 28mm shot. I also have a wide angle converter to solve this problem an will post some pics when I experiment with that too. I also used the fluorescent filter in this shot to emphasize blue hues.

(18mm, f/10, 1/200s, ISO 400)-FLV Filter used


Experimenting with macro shot. Came out well. Look at the colour reproduction. I love my DSLR :-)



(50mm, f/5.6, 1/15s, 800ISO)

Views

A view of Sunset at Kasauli ... was a memorable trip. It shall be remembered in the history as the trip when it all began ...

This is the pic of the famous Golden Temple ..... Damn the rain you will notice a slight blur the in the middle left corner.