Journey of 3 athletes  –  any resemblances to startup environment is purely intentional

In a valley far far away, there were 3 young athletes – Ramesh, Suresh and Ganesh. Each had a same goal in life, to be a great long jumper. Inspired by International athletes like Amey, John, Faiz and Buck; the three began their journey. Just out of college all 3 were almost equally talented and would regularly hit 6 metre jumps. Though the path they choose for the “Road to Glory” were different.

Ramesh’s Mantra was,

Learn -> Practice -> Measure -> Improve

While that of Suresh and Ganesh were a bit different,

Search for Sponsors -> Convince Sponsors that they were the best.

A few months later, Ramesh through his practice is able to improve his jumps to a consistent 6.5 metres. Suresh being the most well-built and having been a member of a premier gym is able to easily find and convince Sponsors to give him a pair a shoes which lets him hit 7 metre jumps with ease. He is a local hero after being covered by TheirStory and other local news. Strangely though he was termed successful and became a hero not for crossing 7 metre mark, but for being able to get sponsored shoes. Ganesh struggles to convince Sponsors and makes hardly any improvement over his 6 metre jumps. Witnessing Suresh’s popularity, Ganesh believes his mantra is right and if not a shoe he should at least be able to get socks sponsored with which he could hit 7 metre jump.

With constant practice Ramesh is now able to hit 7 metre mark. Suresh found it hard to maintain his records as his shoes started wearing off which concerned his Sponsors a little, but thanks to his popularity he was able to get his aerodynamic suit from Sponsors. With his new suit Suresh goes into bat shit crazy mode with hitting 8 metre mark consistently and also participating into other track and field events. TheirStory and other local news love him, again, not because of hitting 8 metre mark but because of his aerodynamic suit.

Ganesh hasn’t given up on his dreams yet, though changed a little. His dream now is not to be a great long jumper but to be able to get Sponsors. He attends every sponsor pitches. The town is now buzzing with events calling up athletes trying to connect them to Sponsors. Here Ganesh figures out that he is not alone in his dream of getting Sponsors. None of people he met in these pitches resembled athletes to him because they haven’t jumped or ran for months. All they have been doing is just chasing the Sponsors. Reading local news Ganesh realised Sponsors are now more interested in 100m race events, so Ganesh even switched and tried his luck in 100m races. It obviously turned out to be disaster, but it didn’t matter all he just wanted was Sponsors. Finally he does manage to get a sponsor, but with a clause – the Sponsor was only ready to sponsor his left socks and that too if he is able to convince someone else to sponsor his right.

Few months later, Ramesh is very close to hitting 8 metre mark. Though little infuriated that no one cares about his accomplishment as getting sponsors had become new parameter for success, he still opts to stay away from that path. Suresh having participated in multiple track and field events has worn out his shoes and suit faster than he thought. He finds it hard to hit to even 7 metre mark now. This is seen as failure and widely covered by NextBigVaat and other local news. Ganesh is still looking for Sponsors for his right socks.

Fast forward to today, Ramesh now with a regular 8 metre mark is being chased by Sponsors. He opts only to get shoes sponsored for now because that’s all he need. Suresh is ridiculed almost every day by local news for his declining records. He realises his records were purely dependent on the things he got Sponsored and not on his skills. Our boy Ganesh is still looking for Sponsors for his other pair of socks 😉

Who are you? Who do you want to be?

Also published on Medium

Twitter: @vishshet