What do you do when someone whose opinion you deeply value raves about something they like? You put it at the back of your mind, at first, and then finally run out of excuses and decide to experience it for yourself — which led me to just about the most lively and enjoyable Saturday afternoon I’ve had in a while!
The Rodinhoods Open House at Mumbai (with 200 attendees!) was filled with three things that I believe are the life-blood of life itself – energy, enthusiasm and positivity. Three hours didn’t seem enough to capture what seemed like three months’ worth of perspective, and yet they somehow did. The theme of the event was “Celebrating Pain”, and ironically, I can’t seem to describe how happy it made me!
A few things that I found extremely interesting as a first-timer: Sushrut Munje (Hammer and Mop) is 23, has had 16 months of start-up experience and has lived to tell the tale. What struck me about his presentation was the fact that he’d turned a simple idea like cleaning into a service (or a product, as he’d prefer :)) that can be monetized. He seemed confident of dealing with labour, and was cognizant of giving it dignity (and career progression), which is an extremely mature attitude; sometimes found lacking in individuals way older than he was. Did I mention he was 23?
Equally engaging were presentations by Hardik Shah (Theek Kar Do) who’d chucked a cushy accountant’s job to pursue his dream, and Saaransh, who’d learnt, tried, failed, and learnt and tried again (and then succeeded). Hardik’s attitude toward resolving conflict between co-founders (you need to deal with issues in a similar fashion, else the business suffers) were things you couldn’t pick up from a fat tome on conflict management. Saaransh was the product and the service (his words, not mine :)) and seemed fully aware and prepared of how to make the most of his time under the sun. It was fascinating the way these 20-somethings had made the transition from wanting to do something and then actually going on to do it.
Energy and vibrant ideas aside, what I wasn’t prepared for was meeting Alok Kejriwal, whose persona seemed to exude a vibe of reaching out and helping individuals, not just entrepreneurs, in the real sense of the term. The questions were genuine, the criticism was honest, and the encouragement was there for all to see. I felt like his enthusiasm was possibly the most infectious, and had spawned an entire community. I could somehow relate to the pain of doing it all yourself, and facing an emotional dilemma when one makes an unpopular choice.
The advice to those all-too-eager to turn entrepreneurs (“Wanting to be your own boss is possibly the worst reason to turn to entrepreneurship”) courtesy Kanchan Kumar (from TIE Mumbai) was something nobody should forget in a hurry. Audience participation (someone asked Alok about whether he’d experienced his aha moment in life), a unique guest speaker (Anubha Sharma from the Angel Xpress Foundation), and the giving away of copies of An Autobiography of a Yogi (my very own, finally!) were a few things that made this event very special. To paraphrase Alok’s words to all budding entrepreneurs present “You guys don’t know what it is that you’ve got”, they truly don’t. And we’re all just beginning to figure that one out…