When?
July 1992
Where?
Florence – Italy – Factory floor of the Conti Socks Machine Factory
When I was 24 years old, I got a chance to visit the Conti Socks factory from where my father was planning to buy some socks machines to knit ‘tube’ sports socks.
I was a B.Com graduate from Sydenham College and had no clue in machines, equipment nor manufacturing.
Call it luck or simply entrepreneurship – I took the leap and told my dad ‘I will be the jobber (technical worker) of this new line of machines’.
It was sacrilege in many ways. The sons of a 400+ worker factory was going to be a mechanic? To work with tools and grease and repair machines on a shop floor with workers?
The night I left for Florence was Diwali night and one relative whom I had gone to visit in the day really made fun of me and my adventure. He said, “Kya, Mechanic Banega”? I still chuckle when I meet him and remember his taunt.
Mauro taught me pneumatics – precision, cad/cam (see the computer console – you could change the way the socks were knit using that dashboard).
I learnt how to make machines listen and dance to the tune of man….
This particular machine taught me the power of ‘creative’ computing – how a simple design (say a flower) drawn on a computer could then be transferred into the machine (notice the black socket connector on the the extreme right bottom corner of the picture), and made to actually knit a sock with the same flower!
This factory also taught me hard work.
The first day I arrived, after 1 hour, I was looking around – Mauro asked me what I was looking for? I said, “A Chair”
He smiled and said, “Signor Alok, on the factory floor we have no chairs. Your legs are your chairs. You will have to learn to sit on them for 8 hours“.
The first night, my legs were swollen and I was almost numbed and disoriented.
One afternoon, almost towards the end of the 2 week training, light was coming down the glass ceiling and was shining on this machine. That moment I had a mini ‘satori‘…
I realized that computers synced with creativity was my future.
In 1998, I switched lines – I became an Internet entrepreneur and launched a contesting website called contests2win.com (https://c2w.com) and the rest just followed after that.
I now run a group called the 2win group (https://2wingroup.com).
This story is just one of the many examples amongst us all of “how things start”.
So many things I learnt in those 2 weeks in the Conti factory come back to me even today and continue to guide me!
I am sure you have your own story to share… or you are in the midst of a plot that will unveil itself to you soon….
So, just wait for your moment – for your entrepreneur ‘Satori’. But for that to happen, become an entrepreneur ASAP!
*****
Aji (Digital Marketing)
In 2001 I learned computers (first year MCA), in 2002 we thoughts we can offer solutions and we forced everyone to use C or VB 🙂 ..in 2003 I contacted a company to get one project and they asked me to join the company and they offer 10k per month, being a student I was living on Tata schlorship and I wanted to buy a Sony mobile, costing around 22k, largest screen, color screen, photo etc …so I joined the company for 2 months quiting some of my classes (but college allowed it as my grades were good) … after 2 month, I liked the company of my boss, we were 2 people working on many ideas .. he was an IIMB pass out, doing reasearch at Stanford … the 2 month adventure for a mobile lead me to a 5 year stay in the company as Web ventures were too sexy to leave … I did not make much money there but yeah I did get my phone and tons of failures and success stories 🙂
A thought of having a Sony mobile lead me here where I am today 🙂
Mathew Anthony
Success is often just six inches or six days away from giving up. A swimmer gives up on her quest to cross the English Channel and then realizes she was almost there when the fog clears. I was putting together a database of all retail outlets in the city of Bangalore back in 1994 – a first of a kind venture – when I found things not quite falling into place. I had approached and signed up several sponsors for the study, the likes of Cadbury etc., and was in the process of ‘giving up’ and returning their money (ya, honest me!). Then I got a call from Coca Cola, who I had also approached, but had not heard from until then. I was asked how the study was going, and if they could participate at this stage. With nary a thought I said ‘yes’ when just a moment back I was thinking of throwing in the towel. I went back to the drawing board with renewed vigor, changed my approach to the data collection process, and completed the study and had the outlets mapped on digital maps. Coke, post the call, never showed up. But they helped me finish what I started. Thank God for Angels who come by to direct your paths and disappear to let you glow in the success of your venture.
Aditya Singh
Real good story man … you inspire me. The fact that you learnt so many things yourself and created a big business out of it ….
Neelesh Salve
Very Inspiring journey sir ….. can u tell me …….when u start the contest2win that time how many people with you? how you enter in this business? what was in u r mind that time ? this question came in my mind because u said u was graduated in B.Com, then u take a BIG TURN to the web market without having knowledge! realty surprising but i am a big fan of u ….. hats off to you SIR!
Sugandha Dubey
The best way to describe it is ” Behind every overnight success there is 15 years of hard work “
I had first registered http://www.stockimagebank.com in 2004. I had worked in ” A+ ” Indian company and two A+ MNC’s by then and at 29 was Director – Marketing for South Asia & MEast – w 17 countries under the belt !
At 29 its a high ! yes. and I thank, that each and every organisation I worked with for believing in me.. making me feel I could so early !
Call it confidence, I quit a fat salaried job way back with perks such as a fancy car, corner office, and frequent travel abroad ( a critical perk even now) … I took my leap of faith !
Every entrepreneur will agree that it is humbling to be one … but If you have a Rock solid idea that you can implement in a logical manner, faith in yourself and the business model, never say die determination and and a supporting husband (as in my case 🙂 ) you will make make your dream come true one day !
Its been 7 years since I registered the site id. Today I will not say I am a runaway success but yes I am stable and I am growing, learning and learning a LOT, and hopefully one day I will look back and say ” I gave it a shot” ! I will not regret and say ” I wish I had given it a shot “
Nishant Agrawal
Kudos!
Sugandha Dubey
🙂
Shyam Sunder Vyas
Mine was a humble beginning.
Around year 1991-92, I was a fresh 10+2 drop out and joined a company as an accounts assistant, mainly because I had okay to good handwriting, but zero to nothing of exposure to accounts. I feel it is one of the perks of being a Marwadi, that it is taken for granted that the person will be good with figures.
I was a teenager all of 17 years and youngest on office floor and was allowed to move between departments anywhere and anytime.
During that period computers in offices were a rare thing, a system with printer would have around 1lac at that time, and gold being almost 10% of its current value today. We too had one and were having and accounting and inventory system being developed by two consultants on Foxbase.
I was infatuated with the computer system, and being able to do a bit of data entry in the system was a huge high for me. So, it was but natural that whenever these consultants visited our premises, I was always one of the peek over the shoulder guy.
It happened once that both the consultants and our in-house programmer were once having difficulty in writing a where clause for a particular query and somehow my inputs helped them in writing it correctly. ( It was a where clause with multiple .and. and .or.) I had generic praise from both the consultants and my boss.
I feel this was the incident which stayed with me and helped me in shifting my liking towards computers and eventually programming to turn it into a passion. I worked as an accountant till year 1999-2000, but was always meddling around with Foxpro, and rest for me is history.
Prabhakar Ramakrishnan
Thanks for all the inspiration Alok ,Its time and again when i feel low i see a post by you and feel good and start working towards my goal… thanks .