Saturday, October 11

The joy of achieving

achievementI have a classmate from school. The fellow was brilliant. Is infact ... brilliant. After school, we joined the same junior college, and he promptly started gunning for the IITs. He cracked IITJEE the first time around, he also managed to get a decent percentage with the Maharashtra board. God knows how he managed all that, I had a tough time to mug up all the studies. Engineering was a relief, and so was normal working life ... MBA was a blast for me. I lost contact with him as the years gone by. The last I had heard was a brief article in the news about him starting his own company which made RSS readers for the blind. I remember thinking like a business person, how is this going to make money!?!

Recently, out of the blue, I get a call from him. For old times sake, we decide to meet. The guy is happily chatting about his business plans and all that. I naturally assumed that he finally found a way to monetize his RSS readers. After 2 hours or so, I realized that this was something else he was talking. Apparently he had closed down his company and was now working full time as a network marketing professional. For the uninitiated, that means he will sell some company's products directly for a commission, and the people he sells them to can do the same, whereupon all the middle men in the transaction get a decent commission. Incredulously I agreed to attend one such sales pitch ... I will not name this person (you know who you are!!), and I certainly wont name the company.

I have been avoiding him ever since. How can you forego your education, your training, your ambitions, your dreams ... for money? Where is the joy of achieving in that ... did he not feel that when he got into IIT Bombay, Comp. Sci?? Did he not feel that when he started his own company? How do you let go of that addictive feel of achieving ... for the sake of money. What a waste.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Sad to hear that. You know, for us, the Indians, it all boils down to the single-most-important-thing in life: M-O-N-E-Y!

I hate to say that, but its a fact. I've been approached by wannabe entrepreneurs with their ideas and all they have in their mind is this - I plan to make LOT of money in next 2 years. I think focusing on money is not the right way to go about any venture.

Secondly, unless you are making money, you are seen as a 'loser'. I've experienced this. No business makes money from the day 1, those who do, fail in a month or two. Your friend might have experienced the same. An IIT guy, not making money - oh, the world laughs!

We need lots of brave hearts who will bring golden days to the world of Entrepreneurship. I hope your friend will give his next venture a go very soon.

Anonymous said...

Good one Prasad!

It's a Bad world! You never know what money can do to you? But you always know what to do with money...

However, I feel, money makes people greedier! It rips the passion, and causes fatally overwhlemed excitement!

And then there are people like us, who love just all the things in life and want to live the fullest! As rightly put- How do you eat and elephant? Ans: One bite at a time!

Unknown said...

@Biggie - I feel that he has wasted a seat, an IIT seat. The one which tax payers pay for. We have been cheated. I do hope that he does go about setting up one more startup, or joins the corporate world.

@Abhishek - :), Good to see you around these parts! Rightly said!!

ANKUR said...

Money may not be everything but money is definitely required for everything..
May be this company is kind of a multilevel marketing kinda concept we see everyday..
Growing in this business too is an art sir !!

Unknown said...

Prasad, First of all, thank you very much!

Secondly, I would recommend to you three books - The Magic of thinking Big by David Schwartz, Why we want YOU to become Rich by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki, and Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill.

I was pleasantly surprised to find you talk about me!! As you would agree, we only talk about things that are important and significant for us. I always talk of my dreams and my vision for myself and my world!

You (as everyone else) are entitled to choose your own opinions about anything in your world, and trust me, it affects you and only you.

Meanwhile, I remain - your loyal friend!

cheers,
Gaurang.

@Kaustubh - I don't agree with some of your comments, though we do seem to have a lot in common. It would be interesting to meet you and share thoughts. Let's catch up sometime soon

@Ankur - you are right! I am indeed working with a Network Marketing company - QuestNet. Networking is the way of the Future, and Questnet is by far, the leader. I am an IITB-trained fellow, and I personally see no logical (and emotional) reason why someone should not get into networking. As a well-wisher I would recommend you to get started on your own Questnet business, if you know someone who's into it already.

Unknown said...

@Gaurang - :) I will read those and with a follow up post :). Till that time mon ami, I will keep mum.

@Ankur - Apparently you are correct. But I have my difference of opinion.

@Kaustubh - You should meet Gaurang, maybe we can do a little interview as well. What ticks behind an IITians mind. I know for sure that they (IITians) think at a different level :)

Anonymous said...

It's easy to be fascinated by the means rather than ends.

Anonymous said...

Easy money begets more easy money. Dreams? well... you see them as a tip of a mountain. You have to go through a grind to reach there. But like most of us, we will give up our quest if we find a substitute that takes care of our immediate needs.

Probably Gaurang might have changed the definitions of his 'future' and decided to get into network marketing.

Its not a waste Prasad, probably he has changed the mountain itself.

Unknown said...

To every man his poison!
For you, Prasad, it might be that he gave up his education, training, etc., but maybe Gaurang (waves at him) thought otherwise and he has the every right to do so. He has not wasted a seat at IIT as some suggest. He earned a right to that seat and at that time it seemed like the best thing to do. Things and priorities change with time!

Unknown said...

@Baba - hmmm ... few words but have made me think about them for a day now!

@Mayur - I do hope you are right. In which case it would be great to see one more hot startup in the future :-)

@Ashish - I said waste, because I know Gaurang is brilliant. He could be doing many things, I know as a child we had great interest in Aeronautics. Heck, the man was a rocket scientist ... no kidding .. cracking the IITJEE is one of these achievements. I am just wondering out loud, what is the achievement in earning 4 crores per annum. Will follow-up with a post to explain what I meant to say.

Unknown said...

Dude! Gaurang is brilliant, no doubt about it, but you are burdening him with what you think is right for him. He knows better what he WANTS and that matters more than what he CAN do.

Unknown said...

@ashish - but that doesnt stop me from wondering, there SEEMS to be a big difference between WANTS and CAN. Since I dont know either, I cant help but wonder.

Hypnos said...

This is an active thread :)

My two paise worth?

Well, while I agree that everyone has a right to follow their own path and dreams, I am with Prasad on this.

Is network marketing the way of the future? How's that? Haven't the fans of network marketing been saying that for the last 30 years? When will that future arrive? :)

And ofcourse I understand that anyone who is already sold to the idea will ofcourse find it to be the best thing since sliced bread, so no complaints there. It's like following a religion... for a Muslim, Islam is the best thing ever, for a Christian, Jesus was the best man ever. You can't debate with them on that, unless you really want to change their opinion. Which I do not want to bother with.

But seriously, for a brilliant person like that, in my opinion, NM sounds like a braindead (and also sleazy :D) job.

Unknown said...

@amit - Bingo!! Although, please dont underestimate the amount of papads you have to bel to get rich through NM. Yes, it is an active thread :-D