Success of a Failed Start-up

My blog has typically seen little activity in recent couple of years. I haven't really talked much about the time when we had to close our start-up 'Discover Life'. I had signed out of the placement process at MDI and started a venture called 'Discover Life' in the area of critical life skills training in schools in a fun and engaging manner. The other co-founder was Amit and this wasn't the first time we were trying to burn our hands together :).We founded an NGO Sanskaari when we were just crossing our last teenage days and it became a 70 member organization in less than one year actively working on various social issues. We also experimented with a business idea around handmade chocolates for a while before getting started with "Discover Life". We continue to remain the best of friends and pick each other's brains on new ideas that can , as the famous Jobs quote said- 'create a dent in the universe'.

Some important questions to begin with:

• Do I regret starting out so soon or on that particular idea: Not the slightest bit!
• Do I cherish the time of life spent on Discover Life: More than anything else in the world :)
• Will I start again: Ofcourse!

Shutting down a start-up is like a near death experience- and you don't want many of those. The idea/venture takes up your entire mind share, it becomes your identity, its all that you think, feel, breathe. It feels like a death of a close relative when you decide its time to shut down. Its a difficult phase to go through. We shut it down more due to my personal cash flow situation at that point of time (crappy MBA education loan!).

Anyhow, Now that I look back at it, I smile at all the success that we created:

• It was 1.5 years of total fun :). The first centre, the first school, the first batch of students, the first cheque- its an insanely awesome feeling each time.
• In a Nation where the entire education system has just rusted over the years (its plain crappy!), we brought life to an idea that really meant life education in true terms. Its affected numerous young minds who continue to remain inspired and infected by the thought process they developed during the Discover Life program. Students still connect with me and share their stories which make us proud, as somewhere the seed of their thinking pattern was planted during that point of time.
• It was accepted in the best of institutions and the students still tell us that it was the most engaging and advanced thought process that they had experienced and even after 3 years they haven't seen anything like that happening in and around their schools
• Its personally helped me initiate a social voluntary citizen initiative called 'skills for life' in which we are providing free life skills education to government school students. Last year, we affected 100 young minds and this year we are well on our way to affect a 1000 young lives.

Amit has continued to work on interesting ventures and is an able entrepreneur in the making. 

I love start-ups :) and I went back to educating myself by working in the start-up culture with ventures which were at the next level.  I have managed to play a somewhat important role by building new markets for a couple of education related ventures and the learning has just been immense. Now I view ideas differently, have had various quarters of sales experience and I feel more prepared to start again. 

Starting up has been a delight :)! Highly recommended to everyone! 

As Amit says- Keep Shaking The World!

1000 Days of Good Health!

Yup. No medicines. No doctors. Its been 3 years now.

While I thank my stars for being kind to me, I can still draw some patterns from my journey towards peak fitness.  My work over last three years has got me continuously travelling, skipping meals and generally eating out a lot. Thus, there have been factors which have been beyond my control. I love getting wet in rains, and have been doing that extensively over the last three years but haven't caught flu even once.

Whats the secret?cliched as it may sound, it is indeed about thinking healthy and understanding your physical self really well. Reflecting back, I can think of few things that might have helped:

• Sleep: I am generally an early riser, but I make sure that I get adequate sleep. I feel that one really needs to learn to switch off their mind, no matter how urgent a thought may be and catch a good night's sleep. 
• Breathing: Someone mentioned that the biggest contribution of Baba Ramdev has been to simplify Yoga and I second that. I have made it a routine to go to terrace every morning and do some simple breathing exercises along with listening to music and feeding birds. The catch: Routine. I have managed to do this everyday for the last 5 years.
• Early signs: Start listening to your body when you feel anxious, tired, stretched and act right away.
• Purpose: This one is a general observation for life. A bigger purpose always draws out a bigger self.
• Good things in life: Doing things that make you happy and give some peace to the restless soul.  Some such things for me are meeting friends and loved ones regularly, listening to great music, working on ideas, reading, interacting with kids in a classroom etc etc. Smiling is magical for your health :)

My wish for the world :)

ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः
सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः ।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु
मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om, May All become Happy,
May All be Free from Illness.
May All See what is Auspicious,
May no one Suffer.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.