Some Stuff about Ideas....

The man who had given me an appointment obviously relished his food more than talking to me….Of course he had asked me about food albeit with a clear expectation that I should say no! ….. After all these years, I somehow vividly remember the menu of his lunchbox but do not remember a single word that we talked….. a few friends in the college told me that I draw great caricatures (which was a fact) and had liked the way I sometimes sketched on my T-shirts…… “Why don’t you approach some agency who can market your offerings if you make the T-shirts”…… Without a thought, I went to meet someone in South Mumbai behind Sterling Cinema…… when I look back, I realize that the appointment given to me was more out of respect for my father than anything to do with the idea of 19-year old…. I have no grudges for the man who loved his food better than my idea……

After a few years in the job, when I was still in my twenties, I almost became obsessed with a desire to be an entrepreneur …… As I decided to take a plunge into entrepreneurship, I decided to stick to something closer to my background and started a recruitment consultancy predominantly focused on overseas placements …….. I can still smell my first new letterhead…… first small office…. I was on a high and back then in nineties earned my first million rupees …… not bad for a boy in late twenties in the year 1998 with just one PC as an investment…. I remember spending year and half happily only to get stuck completely on way ahead…… not because lack of work or capabilities but it was clearly a stage where I had to invest to expand…… was it worth was the question….. Having started business to earn more money….. I just felt limitations on my own knowledge and exposure – not so much of a problem by itself but I myself lacked clarity on big picture…… I took one of the most emotionally difficult decisions of my career….. to close down what I had started with so much of pride… It was a decision that baffled a few as I by then had started earning some decent money (I could buy a brand new car out of the money made from my enterprise – an ultimate middle class test of success!)…. The year was 1999 …. Demand for my sort of business was at peak …… I was fed up with it and decided to move on……

Life has been generous….. my career has always given me a diverse exposure….. I have always been associated with great people…… When I look back I guess I learnt a few things about ideas…..

1. Idea is not an impulse which you casually walk into ….. my heart really goes for the man who listened to me patiently over his lunch
2. It is good to dream higher money and the good things that come along with it but that perhaps is not adequate to be an idea…… An idea itself should be strong enough to be a guiding force ….. strong enough to keep the desire burning
3. An idea can be big only if it can be built upon by many …. Only if there are multitudes of stakeholder who see something in it for them …. All the big stories are built this way!
4. The beauty about an idea is you can understand all the theory about an idea but that doesn’t help to create one…..it has to strike your heart!

As I go along thankful to my exposures and learning that life has to offer, deep somewhere in my mind, I hope and pray that my big idea is somewhere out there and waiting to strike my heart! …………..