Added on 13.11.2015:
When I saw Deeti Dave’s Diwali Rangoli on Facebook, I was stunned. It seemed so reminiscent of this well received post that I written some time back (about losing what you worked hard at) l. I asked Deeti how long she had taken to make this and she said ‘7-8’ hours.
I am pleased to dedicate this post to her!
Losing is winning.
In the upper Himalayas, an ancient Tibetan monastery follows a secret Zen tradition. Newly ordained monks perform their daily rituals of chanting, meditation, cooking and cleaning and in the evening paint colorful patterns on the floor (Rangoli in India) using dry powder paint. Initially they draw basic patterns and then graduate to complex designs.
In the second year of their stay, they are inducted into a very sacred ritual. The Master priest gives each monk an extremely intricate and complicated design to replicate as their Rangoli. This pattern is so complex that it takes 5 years of part time work in the evening to complete. The monks are made to vow to keep their pattern secret and not show their work in progress to anyone. Their reward for this mammoth effort is to have their complete painting examined by the head Sensei (Priest) of the monastery. If the divine Sensei is pleased, he can bless the monk.
After 5 long years of working on one painting, the examination day arrives and the monks tremble with trepidation as they take their master and Sensei to their room for the final review. The Sensei wears heavy robes, with the long overflowing sleeves that reach the ground.
Just as the painting is being shown, the Sensei calls out to the monk, looks him in the eye, and in one strong, swift motion, wipes clean the painting with his robe’s sleeves without even looking at it. The act is sudden, swift and brutal – executed with a benevolent smile.
It is said that the act of seeing 5 years of your hard labor being wiped out in a stroke creates a moment of ‘blankness’ in the minds of the well-trained monks, and that blankness produces nirvana (enlightenment). If not immediately ‘enlightened’, the monks begin weeping with joy at the realization that nothing lasts forever and everything must go.
Imagine making this to get it wiped out
Entrepreneurs I know shiver from the word ‘failure’. What they must realize is that one venture or a business is just like a Rangoli – the act of it disappearing ‘may’ create the enlightenment of success in you.
Celebrate failure!
Do you really have a problem?
In 2008, my partner Mahesh and I were convinced that players were discovering flash games on the web in a chaotic way. Consumers had to go to portals and then play the games the portals featured there. If I wanted to say play only ping-pong games, I could not discover all ping-pong games in one place. Google would give me some links, but also of the videos and images of the real ping pong game, etc.
We felt that there had to be a single destination to search and discover flash games, and if executed well, we could be the first movers in that space.
When we presented the concept of ‘gamecurry.com’ to our board, the investors were puzzled. Why were we getting into the search business? Did this make sense? Wouldn’t this distract us from our day to day business. How would we make revenue? I still remember Sumant Mandal of Clearstone Venture Partners telling me ‘Alok, the ads revenue arbitrage in just letting consumers discover content via search is dead. Why would you want to pursue this’?
Despite all these doubts, Mahesh and I went gung-ho creating gamecurry.com. We spent a good amount of time, energy and resources putting the site together and allocating armies of teams to search, index and tag global games.
The site launched in mid 2008 and we promoted the service extensively using our own network, etc.
The concept was a massive failure. Nobody seemed to return after using the site once and there was no viral traffic being built up. The worst part was that a service intended to help consumers was being spurned so badly. Much later we figured out that kids don’t search for games on search sites – they like to ‘stumble upon’ them.
We failed at this project but learnt an important lesson all entrepreneurs must imbibe – Even before you create an amazing solution, ask your consumers if they even want it? Your consumers will not use something made ‘easy’ if they never had a problem in the first place!
Why do everything the old fashioned way?
In mid 2007 I had this brainwave that if so many young people liked to play ‘dumb-charades’ (charades in the USA), why shouldn’t they play it online? It would take away the pain of assembling people in a room and the web idea of a traditional game could infinitely expand the universe of players to millions.
I convinced the contests2win team (a company I am on the board of) to create youcharades.com. The idea was to host a set of 200+ quality ‘charades’ that consumers all over the world would log in to watch, and then predict which movie was being enacted. Players could also shoot their charades and send them in!
Contests2win hired a foreign crew of actors and models in Mumbai and shot very slick videos. They invested in a video player backend that integrated with flash technology. There was extensive work done on the site and they even created a Myspace application for the same.
On launch day, I dreamt of instant nirvana (like the monks). By mid week, there was little pick up. By the end of the month the site and the idea was in the weeds.
What I had failed to identify was that it was not the game of dumb charades that youngsters liked so much – it was more the act of getting together with friends and family and really prancing around and making fun of each other in the process of playing out a movie title.
While youcharades.com was erased in an instant, I learnt 2 very crucial lessons:
- People like to do certain things not for the act of that activity but for the pleasure of engaging others while doing it.
- Everything in life cannot be ‘technologized’.
Who needs human intervention – get it automated!
Advergaming (or integrating advertising and online games) has been a business we as a group pioneered globally (circa 1998). While the concept is very interesting and rewarding, there is huge pain involved in meeting clients, getting briefs, meeting repeatedly to present work in progress, making changes to the game and convincing the client that the game is indeed ‘perfect’. It frustrates the most hardened of servicing people and creates massive friction between internal teams.
After a success lasting 10 years and 1000 advergames, I was convinced that an ‘automated’ solution was the answer. I hammered the contests2win management to create a one stop ‘do it your self’ advergaming destination called gamewok.com. The site allows potential clients to ‘order’ their advergames and toss up (like a wok) options of game type, look and feel, budget, etc, that clients can choose and mix and match.
A year later, we still haven’t received a single order via gamewok.com. The site is a disaster. The verdict is simple – a hands on, meeting of the ‘hearts and minds’ process that results in business being won can never be automated.
Lesson – don’t try and automate processes that involve hearts & minds.
I dedicate this post to all those entrepreneurs out there who have had hits and misses. The important thing to remember is what a famous man said – ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. Who cares if the first step begins with a sprained ankle?
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asha chaudhry
another one of my favs…
and no matter how many times i’ve read the rangoli story, i still shut my eyes and shudder when i read the “robe wipe” part.
Perzen Darukhanawalla
Agree with you Asha.. the idea of someone erasing my Rangoli would not give me nirvana. In fact just thinking about it freaks me out a little bit. Though a very interesting concept to try on someone else as a case study 🙂
Khizar
Rightly pointed out…
Alok Sharma
Hope I would be able to recall these when required..
Vese There is a funny saying ” Akal Badam Khane se nehi… thokar khane se aati hai”
Thanks for sharing this
Himanshu Mody
don’t try and automate what pains you. The pain is what brings the profits. – very well written. And I could visualize the wipeout…… must be really an extraordinary moment. Also teaches non-attachment. Not just in work but in life as well. thank you for sharing.
Anamika Joshi
So much effort in each idea and ready to take whatever comes in !! great read and a wonderful lesson. The monk example was just amazing and I could feel that moment of nirvana (even if a tiniest fraction of it).. Thanks for sharing.
Amol Ghemud
Thanks for sharing real life experiences.
this will always keep me motivated
Divyesh Panchal
Thokar nahi khayega toh Thakur kaise banega!?
Divyesh Panchal
So here was the instant example of handling the “wipe out”. I took more than 15 minutes to edit the above comment and the long comment didnt save successfully. Taking the wipe out further, gathering all my thought again and trying to re-type the long reply.
Sometimes the thought of loosing everything gets you so much pleasure even after all the hard effort has been put to build it because the loss would ultimately get you to think in a different manner, adopt different styles, figure out new strategies and force you to “think differently”.
Failure and loosing sometimes becomes so inevitable in life. Its worth failing or loosing at times, deliberately. It gets you to attain the ultimate purpose of life – detachment. Its the pathway to the ultimate enlightenment – Nothingness. Like in spirituality, you attain God when you attain NOTHINGNESS. You derive ultimate HIGH not by just attaining it but handling it. The more the better. So its not a test alone to test your temperament while you attain to loose (read attain nothingness) but your ability to handle it as well. And then, you thank God for Nothingness.
I lost my mother at the age of 18. Broke up at the age of 23 and lost the most revered relationship (6 long years of loving someone). Lost my father at the age of 26. Got into my start-up at the at the age of 26 and landed up getting slapped in a street fight on the first day of my start-up for no mistake of mine, and lost all the self-respect. Contemplating all the losses I had, I gained so much.
I got into entrepreneurship which i never though of in the past (learnt how to spell ENTREPRENEURSHIP at the age of 23). Got into spirituality not knowing what the hell (or heaven) it was ever in the past.
When Steve Jobs was thrown out of Apple, he tasted the bitter medicine of loosing what he built and said this – the heaviness of being successful was replaced by lightness of being beginner again, less sure about everything.
OBO. JGD.
Manish Nasa
Awesome! Thanks for sharing 🙂
DEEPAK DUBEY
@alok ji : awesome man m damn inspired…do u whats d cost of the golden words written in this blog zillions of $’s for me 🙂
Tushar Solanki
Nice post !!
It reminded me of a book I recently read, ‘The Lean Startup’, all the learnings you mentioned are very well explained in that book & it says that you should always test the water with MVP (Minimal Viable Product) before doing deep dive.
Nilesh Gamit
One of my fav post … reading it many times 🙂
Ratnakar Gokarn
Beautiful post Alok.
Loved the way you tied in the lessons with the example of Tibetan Monks.
Jitendra Gursingh
This is really crazy! Especially the wiping of the design after the monk has worked on it for FIVE years! This has to be clearly viewed in the context of ‘Knowing how much time to give to a project and knowing when to move on’! The human mind is trapped in a chicken-n-egg situation; without getting attached or passionate about something, it is impossible to create the best and at the same time there is an awareness somewhere that this is not going to last forever. The worst trap one can get into is that “why do something so passionately if it is not going to last forever?” The only answer is to Live in the Present, in this moment and be ready to give it up any time in the future.
Sourish Ghosh
This post reminded me of a afternoon spent with my father way back in 1997 when he stood behind me as i sat infront of my computer – my 1GB Hard Disk was wiped out and along with it all my stories and drawings and early year PPTs which I had compiled ..gone ..irrecoverable ..WINDOWS had crashed again and the Hard Disk had to be formatted.
What he told me that day is something I remember – he said YOU Are the creator of all of these what you have lost.Only you can make it happen again and this time better and far more efficient that before.That day I learnt a valuable lesson while losing my work …yes nothing is permanent , but it also means , I can create it again better and far more effective than before – the incident was not a curse , it was indeed a gift.
from there on, I have lost my data three times , the last time was the backup I had taken which had 10 years of my life in photos, work, creations, Articles, stories, poems , musings and thoughts penned down digitally , art work and documents for the magazines I used to write for and notes and modules I had painstakingly created for the MBA classes I used to teach- all gone in one swift moment of electric voltage surge.
And I heard my Father ( he was long gone too ) say to me is a typical MUFASA SIMBA Moment from LION KING ..you are the creator , you can create again , this time better and more effective.That one moment of blankness is indeed Nirvana.On a hindsight , it was almost like a huge weight had been lifted from my conscience.The 10 years of baggage which may have been holding me back was gone.Now If i have to prepare for a session to take , I create my teaching materials fresh with newer more impactful perspectives. Photos may have been gone, but I learnt to cherish the moments rather than the photos as a fleeting glimpse of that moment.As for my stories and poems – I guess it did their part to tender and curate my mind and did its purpose and was gone.The newer stories and poems are much more in perspective and maturity and maybe those were just the practice run of better days and works to come.
And who knows, i might find an old musing scribbled in a scrap of paper somewhere in my files and I may start again , and as Mr Ghose Sr. used to say ” You are the creator- you can make it more better”
Robin Dhanwani
Really Inspiring!! Wish I could read it when I felt wiped out 2 months back 🙂
It really makes you go blank and direction-less and then the light emerges again to guide you to the next step.
Deeti Dave
Thank you Alok soooo soooo sooo very much for comparing my rangoli making with your Zen monks’ learnings… hope, i can reach this level of yours when i can imbibe Zen in every aspect of my life.. I am truly humbled with your generosity.. 🙂