Edition 55

I don’t really call myself Chief Executive
officer but Chief Relevance Officer. In other
words, you have to be contemporary and
relevant. Otherwise, you would’ve seen good
companies coming up but after some time
they just cease being relevant because they
don’t recognize and utilise the status quo.
The best way to remain relevant is to “find out
where the puck is going”.
“Slow and steady wins the race” is
hogwash; the player who is able to
keep up with the blistering pace of
humankind is the only one geared for
success.
As an entrepreneur, your high will be several
magnitudes higher than average, but
so will your low. Even in the midst of the
entrepreneurial maelstrom, the biggest,
most important factor is to hold it together.
It’ll get to the point where good and bad days
just coalesce, and the boundaries are blurred.
The ability to handle that emotional swing,
to have that perseverance and resilience is a
must for an entrepreneur.
In your speech you talk about how money
should not be used as a benchmark for
everybody in general. What do you think
then should be used as a yardstick?
In general, when most of us graduate from
college and start working, we embark on
different trajectories; some people have
higher salaries than others and someone
might establish a successful venture or
achieve something at the international level.
It is important to realise that the people whose
success we treat as a benchmark might often
be the smallest of the lot they’re a part of.
There will always be days when you might be
an inspiration to someone and still be at the
bottom of the ladder. There is no need to feel
discouraged about it.
Perhaps a more important benchmark would
be to discover satisfaction in doing something
you love and making an impact in that field.
Material effects like money don’t matter in
the long run but the joy you derive from your
work is eternal.
You also said that students often develop a
ceiling, a level they feel they cannot breach.
How should they develop a mentality which
is more flexible and open?
We are victimised by the ambitions set by the
people around us. Though these milestones
might bring us some degree of satisfaction,
in a lot of cases they are simply not enough.
Often, we curtail our ambitions because
we are influenced by the mean aspirations
of the people around us. In my opinion, we
should aspire to achieve some absolute goals
which are not decided by the people around
us. It is extremely important to explore new
avenues, which can only be made possible if
we encourage ourselves to be curious about
the opportunities available to us. One must
remember that the world is largely composed
of average people and will most likely push us
in the same direction.
Why be average though, when you can
be so much better?
What message would you give to budding
entrepreneurs? What should they
channelize their energies towards?
Success is about sincerity, not about scale or
resources. In the long run, sincerity garners
both resources and opportunities. It is crucial
to remain sincere to what you have started
and also to your ideas. Be realistic about who
you are and want to be in the future.
Since you are the only person who can
give yourself a chance, why not do that
and do a great job of it?
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