Vijay…yes ,one does need a certain amount of craziness bordering on insanity…..but not all who have such an element of initiation need get success…..he does need luck as well….
Vijay Bhatt said:
i believe that you need a certain amount of craziness bordering on insanity …..when you start believing in something and you are the only one in the beginning and the strength to carry on with each passing day….it is seldom the need to succeed than the desire to accomplish being the driver.
If I ask you to randomly pick up one card from a well-shuffled deck of 52 cards, can you predict which one will you pick?
The ‘chance’ of you picking up a Queen is almost the same chance you take when you start up a business, become an entrepreneur or even take up a successful and satisfying job.
As educated and well-read professionals, we loathe the concept of luck and chance and always believe that hard work, determination, brains and passion will make us win. I say ‘most likely’. It is the unsaid and ‘swept under the carpet’ factor of LUCK that tips the balance one-way or the other. The combination of luck and effort is what makes the magic happen!
Timing
When I was 21 years old, I entered my father’s socks knitting factory that had existed for 25 years. It had flourished in a competitive, domestic market. For almost 3 decades, there had been no exports since pricing just was not viable. In about 2 months after I joined, Manmohan Singh presented his dramatic ‘liberalization’ budget and massively devalued the Rupee! All of a sudden, Indian exports became a possibility and over the next few years, our family business grew into a very profitable, highly export centric business (that was also tax free)!
It was the timing of the event, coupled with the sheer effort of changing the mindset of the family (to fly to London for orders rather than to Calcutta) that made this massive swing successful.
Lesson – Events that present great opportunities will come your way. But you have to act upon it.
People
I grew fed up of the family business and by 1997 was desperate to exit it. One day a gentleman called ‘GK’ landed up on my door trying to sell me website solutions. His pitch was to create a website for my factory that would help my buyers understand what we were about. He was the window to my world of the ‘Internet’! One conversation led to another and lo and behold I had ditched socks making and the factory and had hired GK to create a contesting website for me!
Lesson – People you meet may be messengers in disguise. Take your ‘chances’ and do the unusual with them.
Believers
After having started Contests2win.com, things began moving fast. We kept adding content to the site and started attracting more and more playing consumers . The site was free for consumers and also free to brand owners who had never experimented with an Internet media business before. As a naïve entrepreneur, I did not have the courage to ask any brand owner for money.
Just about 9 months after I had begun my journey, I got a call from a gentleman called Ajay Mathur from Intel. He treated me to breakfast at the Samarkand (Oberoi, Mumbai) and then said something very unusual to me. He said ‘ Alok, Intel wants to be the first advertiser on Contests2win.com because Intel believes that encouraging new web ideas is critical to growing Internet and computing penetration in India. Advertising on your site is a gesture in that direction’. He just said, ‘Add an Intel banner on the home page and bill us Rs. 5000 per month. No metrics, no questions, no click thrus and no reports required’. I was speechless.
That one paid Intel advertisement became my vanity calling card that I carried with me to pitches & within a year, a 100 top brand advertisers had signed up as paying advertisers.
Lesson – there is always a believer out there looking out for you. Just do your bit without expectation and you will be rewarded.
Mentors
By 1999, I was getting investors excited about funding Contests2win.com. Citibank wrote out a term sheet and we were about to sign it when GK asked me to meet a new VC in town called ‘eVentures’. I met them and was impressed. Rajesh Jog was an imposing personality. Neeraj Bhargava gave me the right vibes of guidance and incubation. I was confused about what to do.
I had met Ajit Balakrishnan of Rediff.com just once before and he had impacted me immensely. I still don’t know why but I just picked up the phone and related my story and asked for his advise! What he said stunned me. He said ‘Alok, eVentures are a great bunch of folks and will really help you in building your business but they have no money in their banks. They are still to close their funds. So, if you need just money, go to Citibank, and if you need mentorship, wait for eVentures’.
I wanted both, so I split the raise between ICICI and eVentures. eVentures, as Ajit had predicted paid us after 7 months, but the guidance, mentorship and incubation that Neeraj gave me has made us who we are today.
Lesson – Ask folks you may barely know the questions you may not have answers to. If luck is on your side, they may have the answers.
Partnerships
Just after we started games2win.com in 2007, my colleague, Dinesh Gopalakrishnan had developed a game called Bombay Taxi. It was a funny game about parking a taxi in Mumbai. It was as Indian and as ‘Bombaiyaa’ as you can imagine. One day, while sitting across my desk, he was discussing all the potential partners he would be sending this game to for distribution and while rattling off a long list, he mentioned ‘Additinggames.com’.
I had not heard of addictinggames.com (AG) before and I just kept nodding my head. If I had known at that time that AG was a Viacom (USA) owned flash gaming site based in San Francisco and had content that was as American as Apple Pie, I would have NEVER let him send Bombay Taxi to them.
I was ignorant, he was a chance taker & that one game he sent to AG created such a massive rush of American traffic to our site, that in 6 months we had changed our business model completely to a ‘Made in India, Sold in the USA story’. Today, of the 20 million unique users we serve, less than 7% come from India.
All this thanks to that one game that slipped out to AG credited to my ignorance.
Lesson – sometimes not knowing can be the best streak of luck you ever had!
Luck will play a vital role in your success. Don’t depend on it but don’t refuse it either.
Alok…wonderful writing…cheers..!..and this really goes to say that luck plays a great role…..
Alok ‘Rodinhood’ Kejriwal said:
I believe that LUCK plays a very vital role.
My take:
If I ask you to randomly pick up one card from a well-shuffled deck of 52 cards, can you predict which one will you pick?
The ‘chance’ of you picking up a Queen is almost the same chance you take when you start up a business, become an entrepreneur or even take up a successful and satisfying job.
As educated and well-read professionals, we loathe the concept of luck and chance and always believe that hard work, determination, brains and passion will make us win. I say ‘most likely’. It is the unsaid and ‘swept under the carpet’ factor of LUCK that tips the balance one-way or the other. The combination of luck and effort is what makes the magic happen!
Timing
When I was 21 years old, I entered my father’s socks knitting factory that had existed for 25 years. It had flourished in a competitive, domestic market. For almost 3 decades, there had been no exports since pricing just was not viable. In about 2 months after I joined, Manmohan Singh presented his dramatic ‘liberalization’ budget and massively devalued the Rupee! All of a sudden, Indian exports became a possibility and over the next few years, our family business grew into a very profitable, highly export centric business (that was also tax free)!
It was the timing of the event, coupled with the sheer effort of changing the mindset of the family (to fly to London for orders rather than to Calcutta) that made this massive swing successful.
Lesson – Events that present great opportunities will come your way. But you have to act upon it.
People
I grew fed up of the family business and by 1997 was desperate to exit it. One day a gentleman called ‘GK’ landed up on my door trying to sell me website solutions. His pitch was to create a website for my factory that would help my buyers understand what we were about. He was the window to my world of the ‘Internet’! One conversation led to another and lo and behold I had ditched socks making and the factory and had hired GK to create a contesting website for me!
Lesson – People you meet may be messengers in disguise. Take your ‘chances’ and do the unusual with them.
Believers
After having started Contests2win.com, things began moving fast. We kept adding content to the site and started attracting more and more playing consumers . The site was free for consumers and also free to brand owners who had never experimented with an Internet media business before. As a naïve entrepreneur, I did not have the courage to ask any brand owner for money.
Just about 9 months after I had begun my journey, I got a call from a gentleman called Ajay Mathur from Intel. He treated me to breakfast at the Samarkand (Oberoi, Mumbai) and then said something very unusual to me. He said ‘ Alok, Intel wants to be the first advertiser on Contests2win.com because Intel believes that encouraging new web ideas is critical to growing Internet and computing penetration in India. Advertising on your site is a gesture in that direction’. He just said, ‘Add an Intel banner on the home page and bill us Rs. 5000 per month. No metrics, no questions, no click thrus and no reports required’. I was speechless.
That one paid Intel advertisement became my vanity calling card that I carried with me to pitches & within a year, a 100 top brand advertisers had signed up as paying advertisers.
Lesson – there is always a believer out there looking out for you. Just do your bit without expectation and you will be rewarded.
Mentors
By 1999, I was getting investors excited about funding Contests2win.com. Citibank wrote out a term sheet and we were about to sign it when GK asked me to meet a new VC in town called ‘eVentures’. I met them and was impressed. Rajesh Jog was an imposing personality. Neeraj Bhargava gave me the right vibes of guidance and incubation. I was confused about what to do.
I had met Ajit Balakrishnan of Rediff.com just once before and he had impacted me immensely. I still don’t know why but I just picked up the phone and related my story and asked for his advise! What he said stunned me. He said ‘Alok, eVentures are a great bunch of folks and will really help you in building your business but they have no money in their banks. They are still to close their funds. So, if you need just money, go to Citibank, and if you need mentorship, wait for eVentures’.
I wanted both, so I split the raise between ICICI and eVentures. eVentures, as Ajit had predicted paid us after 7 months, but the guidance, mentorship and incubation that Neeraj gave me has made us who we are today.
Lesson – Ask folks you may barely know the questions you may not have answers to. If luck is on your side, they may have the answers.
Partnerships
Just after we started games2win.com in 2007, my colleague, Dinesh Gopalakrishnan had developed a game called Bombay Taxi. It was a funny game about parking a taxi in Mumbai. It was as Indian and as ‘Bombaiyaa’ as you can imagine. One day, while sitting across my desk, he was discussing all the potential partners he would be sending this game to for distribution and while rattling off a long list, he mentioned ‘Additinggames.com’.
I had not heard of addictinggames.com (AG) before and I just kept nodding my head. If I had known at that time that AG was a Viacom (USA) owned flash gaming site based in San Francisco and had content that was as American as Apple Pie, I would have NEVER let him send Bombay Taxi to them.
I was ignorant, he was a chance taker & that one game he sent to AG created such a massive rush of American traffic to our site, that in 6 months we had changed our business model completely to a ‘Made in India, Sold in the USA story’. Today, of the 20 million unique users we serve, less than 7% come from India.
All this thanks to that one game that slipped out to AG credited to my ignorance.
Lesson – sometimes not knowing can be the best streak of luck you ever had!
Luck will play a vital role in your success. Don’t depend on it but don’t refuse it either.
When I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky + The harder I work the more luck I seem to have +
Luck is the residue of design. @Sum = Success !
i don’t know whether hard work actually attracts luck…there are so many hard working people who do hard work ,yet good results eludes them…[for want of luck]
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi Pankaj
When I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky + The harder I work the more luck I seem to have +
After all, all he did was string together a lot of old well-known quotations…another famous quote….and i thought we were discussing luck [chuckle]
Anushka Shroff said:
Hey
Yeah…all are famous quotes !
Neil Bahal said:
Thomas Jefferson’s famous words…..I agree completely.
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi Pankaj
When I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky + The harder I work the more luck I seem to have + Luck is the residue of design. @Sum = Success !
One has to work very very hard ….with complete focus …Luck awaits u and success is guaranteed..!!!!!!!!
Cheers
pankaj khandelwal said:
i don’t know whether hard work actually attracts luck…there are so many hard working people who do hard work ,yet good results eludes them…[for want of luck]
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi Pankaj
When I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky + The harder I work the more luck I seem to have + Luck is the residue of design. @Sum = Success !
Well I don’t like to call it “Luck” …. it gives the connotation of it being a random connection which can be hit or miss with connection to nothing else… but in actual fact it is not…. the principle involved that is most often labelled as luck has a more accurate name “serendipity” …. the universe conspires to help u…. so when Alok nodded without knowing about sending the game to AG it was serendipity intervening and distracting him… its almost like a faucet you can turn on at will…. bad explanation … remember obiwan kenobi saying there is no such thing as luck? i stopped looking for luck and have started expecting it to arrive when i want or need it…. now that sounds even more stupid….
Abey…i don’t think the universe conspires to help anyone….i feel all the more that the universe tries its hardest to fail you ….and then the ‘luck’ plays its part..Why is it that two people starting the same business venture with the same base do not have similar end results…What say ?
Abey John said:
Well I don’t like to call it “Luck” …. it gives the connotation of it being a random connection which can be hit or miss with connection to nothing else… but in actual fact it is not…. the principle involved that is most often labelled as luck has a more accurate name “serendipity” …. the universe conspires to help u…. so when Alok nodded without knowing about sending the game to AG it was serendipity intervening and distracting him… its almost like a faucet you can turn on at will…. bad explanation … remember obiwan kenobi saying there is no such thing as luck? i stopped looking for luck and have started expecting it to arrive when i want or need it…. now that sounds even more stupid….
Anushka….i don’t think every person who does hard work has luck waiting alongside ….why is it that two people working very hard do not get similar end results….one gets richer by the day and the other stays put….i think luck has a much dominant role with zeal,greed and hard work really as add ons…
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi
One has to work very very hard ….with complete focus …Luck awaits u and success is guaranteed..!!!!!!!!
Cheers
pankaj khandelwal said:
i don’t know whether hard work actually attracts luck…there are so many hard working people who do hard work ,yet good results eludes them…[for want of luck]
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi Pankaj
When I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky + The harder I work the more luck I seem to have + Luck is the residue of design. @Sum = Success !
I think the relationship between luck (serendipity) and expectation (also known as faith in some circles) is very important…if you expect to face an uphill battle and much failure you will….if you expect not to close the order you wont….you will naturally sabatoge yourself in a self fulfilling cycle…on the other hand if you expect to succeed no matter what the odds are you will respond to the environment and reorient yourself to catch the order… consciously and subconsciously…I’ve experienced both sides of it first hand
I started out as a salesman and I was constantly sabotaging myself on the big orders and I couldn’t understand why. I worked hard, very hard. I tried to work smart but inevitably when it came to the real moolah deals it would slip through my fingers and I would watch it slip through and had no idea how to stop it. Now when I look back I could see where I was going wrong. My basic attitude to the deal itself was all wrong (thats another trail of thought altogether!)
I came back to India five years ago with one firm decision that I would never work for anybody ever again. Since then I have consistently doubled by income every year starting from near zero. And at every inflection point where this is the income jump when I look at it it, I cannot point to a specific instance and take the credit and say because I did this, I got this order. Its not what I’ve done but a combination of factors that pushed things in my favor. The critical difference between then and now is my attitude: I am “willing” to be lucky and the universe conspires to help me….
These are two ways of looking at the universe. The one way is that the universe loves you, is your friend, and here to help you (what the religious/spiritual texts teach), the other way is to declare the universe your enemy and everything you extract from it a hard won treasure….the second one is the vision science supports because there is direct evidence…the law of entropy. And through a long convoluted series of steps it has seeped into our culture and we accept that the law of entropy will at the end “get us” and ergo the universe is our enemy at worst or an indifferent spectator at best….the evidence for the first approach exists too but it is more subtle and does not easily lend itself to being quantified, you have to intuit it….
I think I read this about AG on Alok’s blog too and remember clearly thinking at that time as this is what probably happened…Alok is willing to win so the universe conspires to even befuddle him when he is likely to shoot himself in the foot….
And there are factors that contribute to making you willing to win…generosity of spirit…a balanced view of the world and oneself…a flexibility to change and to respond to respond (also a firmness to hold your ground when you know it is *wrong*) ….all these matter
pankaj khandelwal said:
Abey…i don’t think the universe conspires to help anyone….i feel all the more that the universe tries its hardest to fail you ….and then the ‘luck’ plays its part..Why is it that two people starting the same business venture with the same base do not have similar end results…What say ?
Abey John said:
Well I don’t like to call it “Luck” …. it gives the connotation of it being a random connection which can be hit or miss with connection to nothing else… but in actual fact it is not…. the principle involved that is most often labelled as luck has a more accurate name “serendipity” …. the universe conspires to help u…. so when Alok nodded without knowing about sending the game to AG it was serendipity intervening and distracting him… its almost like a faucet you can turn on at will…. bad explanation … remember obiwan kenobi saying there is no such thing as luck? i stopped looking for luck and have started expecting it to arrive when i want or need it…. now that sounds even more stupid….
Hi, if we try to analyze or conclude why two people working very hard and dont get similar results, then we are getting into a comparision mode…each person is an entity by him/herself…..and if one has got richer than the other ..then, the saying “May the best always win” stands true……Continuous daily efforts creates luck ..which is then “success”.
Pankaj khandelwal said:
Anushka….i don’t think every person who does hard work has luck waiting alongside ….why is it that two people working very hard do not get similar end results….one gets richer by the day and the other stays put….i think luck has a much dominant role with zeal,greed and hard work really as add ons…
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi
One has to work very very hard ….with complete focus …Luck awaits u and success is guaranteed..!!!!!!!!
Cheers
pankaj khandelwal said:
i don’t know whether hard work actually attracts luck…there are so many hard working people who do hard work ,yet good results eludes them…[for want of luck]
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi Pankaj
When I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky + The harder I work the more luck I seem to have + Luck is the residue of design. @Sum = Success !
You are absolutely right Abey that a relationship between luck and expectation is very important.I think its because of expectation of the desired that people begin to get to work mode.Its the expectations that gets the zeal and greed to work hard .But its not mandatory that high expectations ,a great lot zeal,plenty labor and obviously drums full of greed will actually translate to success [read money here ]….We recently had a discussion ‘is money all that important ‘…and I think most of us agreed that it is .So ,all this actually means that success in its actual meaning is money .I feel that all said and done ,if its your luck,you succeed ,if not ,then you continue to work hard with zeal ,greed whatever ,but our purses remain empty…or you just dont get the fame you might have desired.Everyone knows Neil Armstrong …no one remembers his other two colleagues with him …now ,isnt that luck.
Abey John said:
I think the relationship between luck (serendipity) and expectation (also known as faith in some circles) is very important…if you expect to face an uphill battle and much failure you will….if you expect not to close the order you wont….you will naturally sabatoge yourself in a self fulfilling cycle…on the other hand if you expect to succeed no matter what the odds are you will respond to the environment and reorient yourself to catch the order… consciously and subconsciously…I’ve experienced both sides of it first hand
I started out as a salesman and I was constantly sabotaging myself on the big orders and I couldn’t understand why. I worked hard, very hard. I tried to work smart but inevitably when it came to the real moolah deals it would slip through my fingers and I would watch it slip through and had no idea how to stop it. Now when I look back I could see where I was going wrong. My basic attitude to the deal itself was all wrong (thats another trail of thought altogether!)
I came back to India five years ago with one firm decision that I would never work for anybody ever again. Since then I have consistently doubled by income every year starting from near zero. And at every inflection point where this is the income jump when I look at it it, I cannot point to a specific instance and take the credit and say because I did this, I got this order. Its not what I’ve done but a combination of factors that pushed things in my favor. The critical difference between then and now is my attitude: I am “willing” to be lucky and the universe conspires to help me….
These are two ways of looking at the universe. The one way is that the universe loves you, is your friend, and here to help you (what the religious/spiritual texts teach), the other way is to declare the universe your enemy and everything you extract from it a hard won treasure….the second one is the vision science supports because there is direct evidence…the law of entropy. And through a long convoluted series of steps it has seeped into our culture and we accept that the law of entropy will at the end “get us” and ergo the universe is our enemy at worst or an indifferent spectator at best….the evidence for the first approach exists too but it is more subtle and does not easily lend itself to being quantified, you have to intuit it….
I think I read this about AG on Alok’s blog too and remember clearly thinking at that time as this is what probably happened…Alok is willing to win so the universe conspires to even befuddle him when he is likely to shoot himself in the foot….
And there are factors that contribute to making you willing to win…generosity of spirit…a balanced view of the world and oneself…a flexibility to change and to respond to respond (also a firmness to hold your ground when you know it is *wrong*) ….all these matter
pankaj khandelwal said:
Abey…i don’t think the universe conspires to help anyone….i feel all the more that the universe tries its hardest to fail you ….and then the ‘luck’ plays its part..Why is it that two people starting the same business venture with the same base do not have similar end results…What say ?
Abey John said:
Well I don’t like to call it “Luck” …. it gives the connotation of it being a random connection which can be hit or miss with connection to nothing else… but in actual fact it is not…. the principle involved that is most often labelled as luck has a more accurate name “serendipity” …. the universe conspires to help u…. so when Alok nodded without knowing about sending the game to AG it was serendipity intervening and distracting him… its almost like a faucet you can turn on at will…. bad explanation … remember obiwan kenobi saying there is no such thing as luck? i stopped looking for luck and have started expecting it to arrive when i want or need it…. now that sounds even more stupid….
Anushka….its all about comparison ..isnt it .We all work hard to be there…and this ‘there’ is the top rung of the ladder of success.Each and every person wants success ..wars have been fought for regional supremacy….So ,may the best win is OK BUT when there are several bests [and one cant imagine that the world produces just one best]….its sheer luck that the best person amongst those several best ones reaches the top….i think thats my view…
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi, if we try to analyze or conclude why two people working very hard and dont get similar results, then we are getting into a comparision mode…each person is an entity by him/herself…..and if one has got richer than the other ..then, the saying “May the best always win” stands true……Continuous daily efforts creates luck ..which is then “success”.
Pankaj khandelwal said:
Anushka….i don’t think every person who does hard work has luck waiting alongside ….why is it that two people working very hard do not get similar end results….one gets richer by the day and the other stays put….i think luck has a much dominant role with zeal,greed and hard work really as add ons…
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi
One has to work very very hard ….with complete focus …Luck awaits u and success is guaranteed..!!!!!!!!
Cheers
pankaj khandelwal said:
i don’t know whether hard work actually attracts luck…there are so many hard working people who do hard work ,yet good results eludes them…[for want of luck]
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi Pankaj
When I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky + The harder I work the more luck I seem to have + Luck is the residue of design. @Sum = Success !
Hi,
Comparision is unhealthy….competing with others is fine…but again..competing with the best is what it is….agreed , we all work hard to be successful….that’z what we “value add” to life and ourselves…and if there are “several bests” then the “one best+” would be the “bestest” ..ie # 1, not just by luck only …….though, I certainly respect your point of View.
Regards
pankaj khandelwal said:
Anushka….its all about comparison ..isnt it .We all work hard to be there…and this ‘there’ is the top rung of the ladder of success.Each and every person wants success ..wars have been fought for regional supremacy….So ,may the best win is OK BUT when there are several bests [and one cant imagine that the world produces just one best]….its sheer luck that the best person amongst those several best ones reaches the top….i think thats my view…
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi, if we try to analyze or conclude why two people working very hard and dont get similar results, then we are getting into a comparision mode…each person is an entity by him/herself…..and if one has got richer than the other ..then, the saying “May the best always win” stands true……Continuous daily efforts creates luck ..which is then “success”.
Pankaj khandelwal said:
Anushka….i don’t think every person who does hard work has luck waiting alongside ….why is it that two people working very hard do not get similar end results….one gets richer by the day and the other stays put….i think luck has a much dominant role with zeal,greed and hard work really as add ons…
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi
One has to work very very hard ….with complete focus …Luck awaits u and success is guaranteed..!!!!!!!!
Cheers
pankaj khandelwal said:
i don’t know whether hard work actually attracts luck…there are so many hard working people who do hard work ,yet good results eludes them…[for want of luck]
Anushka Shroff said:
Hi Pankaj
When I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky + The harder I work the more luck I seem to have + Luck is the residue of design. @Sum = Success !
pankaj khandelwal
hi Neil…..i and you have a lot in common it seems…..cheers!
Neil Bahal said:
pankaj khandelwal
Vijay…yes ,one does need a certain amount of craziness bordering on insanity…..but not all who have such an element of initiation need get success…..he does need luck as well….
Vijay Bhatt said:
Himanshu Mody
Luck is not a premise for success but is definitely the premise for amount of success.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
I believe that LUCK plays a very vital role.
My take:
If I ask you to randomly pick up one card from a well-shuffled deck of 52 cards, can you predict which one will you pick?
The ‘chance’ of you picking up a Queen is almost the same chance you take when you start up a business, become an entrepreneur or even take up a successful and satisfying job.
As educated and well-read professionals, we loathe the concept of luck and chance and always believe that hard work, determination, brains and passion will make us win. I say ‘most likely’. It is the unsaid and ‘swept under the carpet’ factor of LUCK that tips the balance one-way or the other. The combination of luck and effort is what makes the magic happen!
Timing
When I was 21 years old, I entered my father’s socks knitting factory that had existed for 25 years. It had flourished in a competitive, domestic market. For almost 3 decades, there had been no exports since pricing just was not viable. In about 2 months after I joined, Manmohan Singh presented his dramatic ‘liberalization’ budget and massively devalued the Rupee! All of a sudden, Indian exports became a possibility and over the next few years, our family business grew into a very profitable, highly export centric business (that was also tax free)!
It was the timing of the event, coupled with the sheer effort of changing the mindset of the family (to fly to London for orders rather than to Calcutta) that made this massive swing successful.
Lesson – Events that present great opportunities will come your way. But you have to act upon it.
People
I grew fed up of the family business and by 1997 was desperate to exit it. One day a gentleman called ‘GK’ landed up on my door trying to sell me website solutions. His pitch was to create a website for my factory that would help my buyers understand what we were about. He was the window to my world of the ‘Internet’! One conversation led to another and lo and behold I had ditched socks making and the factory and had hired GK to create a contesting website for me!
Lesson – People you meet may be messengers in disguise. Take your ‘chances’ and do the unusual with them.
Believers
After having started Contests2win.com, things began moving fast. We kept adding content to the site and started attracting more and more playing consumers . The site was free for consumers and also free to brand owners who had never experimented with an Internet media business before. As a naïve entrepreneur, I did not have the courage to ask any brand owner for money.
Just about 9 months after I had begun my journey, I got a call from a gentleman called Ajay Mathur from Intel. He treated me to breakfast at the Samarkand (Oberoi, Mumbai) and then said something very unusual to me. He said ‘ Alok, Intel wants to be the first advertiser on Contests2win.com because Intel believes that encouraging new web ideas is critical to growing Internet and computing penetration in India. Advertising on your site is a gesture in that direction’. He just said, ‘Add an Intel banner on the home page and bill us Rs. 5000 per month. No metrics, no questions, no click thrus and no reports required’. I was speechless.
That one paid Intel advertisement became my vanity calling card that I carried with me to pitches & within a year, a 100 top brand advertisers had signed up as paying advertisers.
Lesson – there is always a believer out there looking out for you. Just do your bit without expectation and you will be rewarded.
Mentors
By 1999, I was getting investors excited about funding Contests2win.com. Citibank wrote out a term sheet and we were about to sign it when GK asked me to meet a new VC in town called ‘eVentures’. I met them and was impressed. Rajesh Jog was an imposing personality. Neeraj Bhargava gave me the right vibes of guidance and incubation. I was confused about what to do.
I had met Ajit Balakrishnan of Rediff.com just once before and he had impacted me immensely. I still don’t know why but I just picked up the phone and related my story and asked for his advise! What he said stunned me. He said ‘Alok, eVentures are a great bunch of folks and will really help you in building your business but they have no money in their banks. They are still to close their funds. So, if you need just money, go to Citibank, and if you need mentorship, wait for eVentures’.
I wanted both, so I split the raise between ICICI and eVentures. eVentures, as Ajit had predicted paid us after 7 months, but the guidance, mentorship and incubation that Neeraj gave me has made us who we are today.
Lesson – Ask folks you may barely know the questions you may not have answers to. If luck is on your side, they may have the answers.
Partnerships
Just after we started games2win.com in 2007, my colleague, Dinesh Gopalakrishnan had developed a game called Bombay Taxi. It was a funny game about parking a taxi in Mumbai. It was as Indian and as ‘Bombaiyaa’ as you can imagine. One day, while sitting across my desk, he was discussing all the potential partners he would be sending this game to for distribution and while rattling off a long list, he mentioned ‘Additinggames.com’.
I had not heard of addictinggames.com (AG) before and I just kept nodding my head. If I had known at that time that AG was a Viacom (USA) owned flash gaming site based in San Francisco and had content that was as American as Apple Pie, I would have NEVER let him send Bombay Taxi to them.
I was ignorant, he was a chance taker & that one game he sent to AG created such a massive rush of American traffic to our site, that in 6 months we had changed our business model completely to a ‘Made in India, Sold in the USA story’. Today, of the 20 million unique users we serve, less than 7% come from India.
All this thanks to that one game that slipped out to AG credited to my ignorance.
Lesson – sometimes not knowing can be the best streak of luck you ever had!
Luck will play a vital role in your success. Don’t depend on it but don’t refuse it either.
pankaj khandelwal
Alok…wonderful writing…cheers..!..and this really goes to say that luck plays a great role…..
Alok ‘Rodinhood’ Kejriwal said:
Anushka Shroff
Hi Pankaj
When I work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky + The harder I work the more luck I seem to have +
Luck is the residue of design. @Sum = Success !
Cheers
Anushka Shroff
Hey
Yeah…all are famous quotes !
Neil Bahal said:
pankaj khandelwal
i don’t know whether hard work actually attracts luck…there are so many hard working people who do hard work ,yet good results eludes them…[for want of luck]
Anushka Shroff said:
pankaj khandelwal
After all, all he did was string together a lot of old well-known quotations…another famous quote….and i thought we were discussing luck [chuckle]
Anushka Shroff said:
Anushka Shroff
Hi
One has to work very very hard ….with complete focus …Luck awaits u and success is guaranteed..!!!!!!!!
Cheers
pankaj khandelwal said:
Abey John
Well I don’t like to call it “Luck” …. it gives the connotation of it being a random connection which can be hit or miss with connection to nothing else… but in actual fact it is not…. the principle involved that is most often labelled as luck has a more accurate name “serendipity” …. the universe conspires to help u…. so when Alok nodded without knowing about sending the game to AG it was serendipity intervening and distracting him… its almost like a faucet you can turn on at will…. bad explanation … remember obiwan kenobi saying there is no such thing as luck? i stopped looking for luck and have started expecting it to arrive when i want or need it…. now that sounds even more stupid….
pankaj khandelwal
Abey…i don’t think the universe conspires to help anyone….i feel all the more that the universe tries its hardest to fail you ….and then the ‘luck’ plays its part..Why is it that two people starting the same business venture with the same base do not have similar end results…What say ?
Abey John said:
pankaj khandelwal
Anushka….i don’t think every person who does hard work has luck waiting alongside ….why is it that two people working very hard do not get similar end results….one gets richer by the day and the other stays put….i think luck has a much dominant role with zeal,greed and hard work really as add ons…
Anushka Shroff said:
Abey John
I think the relationship between luck (serendipity) and expectation (also known as faith in some circles) is very important…if you expect to face an uphill battle and much failure you will….if you expect not to close the order you wont….you will naturally sabatoge yourself in a self fulfilling cycle…on the other hand if you expect to succeed no matter what the odds are you will respond to the environment and reorient yourself to catch the order… consciously and subconsciously…I’ve experienced both sides of it first hand
I started out as a salesman and I was constantly sabotaging myself on the big orders and I couldn’t understand why. I worked hard, very hard. I tried to work smart but inevitably when it came to the real moolah deals it would slip through my fingers and I would watch it slip through and had no idea how to stop it. Now when I look back I could see where I was going wrong. My basic attitude to the deal itself was all wrong (thats another trail of thought altogether!)
I came back to India five years ago with one firm decision that I would never work for anybody ever again. Since then I have consistently doubled by income every year starting from near zero. And at every inflection point where this is the income jump when I look at it it, I cannot point to a specific instance and take the credit and say because I did this, I got this order. Its not what I’ve done but a combination of factors that pushed things in my favor. The critical difference between then and now is my attitude: I am “willing” to be lucky and the universe conspires to help me….
These are two ways of looking at the universe. The one way is that the universe loves you, is your friend, and here to help you (what the religious/spiritual texts teach), the other way is to declare the universe your enemy and everything you extract from it a hard won treasure….the second one is the vision science supports because there is direct evidence…the law of entropy. And through a long convoluted series of steps it has seeped into our culture and we accept that the law of entropy will at the end “get us” and ergo the universe is our enemy at worst or an indifferent spectator at best….the evidence for the first approach exists too but it is more subtle and does not easily lend itself to being quantified, you have to intuit it….
I think I read this about AG on Alok’s blog too and remember clearly thinking at that time as this is what probably happened…Alok is willing to win so the universe conspires to even befuddle him when he is likely to shoot himself in the foot….
And there are factors that contribute to making you willing to win…generosity of spirit…a balanced view of the world and oneself…a flexibility to change and to respond to respond (also a firmness to hold your ground when you know it is *wrong*) ….all these matter
pankaj khandelwal said:
Anushka Shroff
Hi, if we try to analyze or conclude why two people working very hard and dont get similar results, then we are getting into a comparision mode…each person is an entity by him/herself…..and if one has got richer than the other ..then, the saying “May the best always win” stands true……Continuous daily efforts creates luck ..which is then “success”.
Pankaj khandelwal said:
pankaj khandelwal
You are absolutely right Abey that a relationship between luck and expectation is very important.I think its because of expectation of the desired that people begin to get to work mode.Its the expectations that gets the zeal and greed to work hard .But its not mandatory that high expectations ,a great lot zeal,plenty labor and obviously drums full of greed will actually translate to success [read money here ]….We recently had a discussion ‘is money all that important ‘…and I think most of us agreed that it is .So ,all this actually means that success in its actual meaning is money .I feel that all said and done ,if its your luck,you succeed ,if not ,then you continue to work hard with zeal ,greed whatever ,but our purses remain empty…or you just dont get the fame you might have desired.Everyone knows Neil Armstrong …no one remembers his other two colleagues with him …now ,isnt that luck.
Abey John said:
pankaj khandelwal
Anushka….its all about comparison ..isnt it .We all work hard to be there…and this ‘there’ is the top rung of the ladder of success.Each and every person wants success ..wars have been fought for regional supremacy….So ,may the best win is OK BUT when there are several bests [and one cant imagine that the world produces just one best]….its sheer luck that the best person amongst those several best ones reaches the top….i think thats my view…
Anushka Shroff said:
Anushka Shroff
Hi,
Comparision is unhealthy….competing with others is fine…but again..competing with the best is what it is….agreed , we all work hard to be successful….that’z what we “value add” to life and ourselves…and if there are “several bests” then the “one best+” would be the “bestest” ..ie # 1, not just by luck only …….though, I certainly respect your point of View.
Regards
pankaj khandelwal said:
pankaj khandelwal
hi! it seems hard work is not the greatest factor for success…its luck and pure luck only….Yes .the greed to be the best is a mandatory accessory..