Entries Tagged as 'Me'

Heyy..its good to be back again !!

Its been a long time since i scribbled down anything here, not only this blog but i have gone lazy on updating everything from my facebook/orkut profiles to flickr album to even my twitter updates (its tooo much laziness i suppose). Reason??

Pre-occupation with work off course, doing the new company website, shaping up products, hiring people for technical/non-technical roles, balancing some new initiatives…(right from starting them to get them running in a cycle takes time), and catching up with some sleep in between all these.

ahh..i think reasons are good enough to keep me away from all the social media cloud. but still it feels good to type something here today and will keep doing it from now…

btw…whenever i write anything…i keep wondering - is anyone listening or am i talking to myself??? :P

Wanna work for a StartUp??…ahh….Dare-to-BeThere !!

This is one ‘opportunity‘ which ‘no-one‘(generally ;) ) is looking around for specially…reasons may be different, for example the reasons i come across are:

1. Job security in an established company.

2. Financial security (the kind of money you can get)

3. A better name associated with you in your career record.

4. Facilities, benefits..n blah blah n blahhh…

(i call this “List 1” so as to refer back easily.)

but the ones who have ever given it a thought, (both to work for a startup or start one themselves) ask them n they will tell you, its a Daring step…why..??…i tell you:

A Startup is where following things will never happen :-

nobody will ask you about your

a) Qualification

b) your lineup of degrees

c) your academic credentials

(lets say if they ask you…remember they dont bother much if its good or bad…bothways)

Reasons??

1. Skills are more important than theoretical knowledge

2. if knowledge is important then it better be practical

3. degrees ‘only’ don’t gaurantee points 1 & 2.

They (startup guys) won’t try to vow you with a fancy pay package or a cushy job, on the contrary they will be trying to vow you with the large amount of work you’ll be responsible for and at the same time expecting that you(prospective employee) are fascinated by it :) .

Because YOU will be the one responsible to create the elements of LIST1 (kindly refer back) ‘for you‘ and ‘for everyone else‘ in your team. Progress of any group/organization/team/company depends on its members/employees but when it comes to a startup it becomes more crucial as there are less resources to fall back.

But why work for a StartUp??

i can go on listing like 100 points on this one !! lets see few strong ones:

1. Freedom of doing your own things.

2. Freedom of creating-the-things as you think.

3. You tend to create new ways of doing things… instead ‘always’ following the old ones.

(if above points sound like a fancy kiddish perspective, have a look at some serious ones)

4. The kind of Exposure you get is valuable - as no where you will find departments restricting you of exploring a field which might interest you.

5. Better learning curve - as you will be doing the tasks which in bigger companies you’ll find to be divided amongst many people leaving you with a small part of it . so here that is what makes it challenging to work, if you think then in some way startup demand you to work as a one man army.

6. better appreciation, recognition for your effort.

7. Faster execution of ideas.

8. Open forum where everyone has his say.

9. Environment is cool, less rigid in terms of rules, or what we call a ‘Startup Culture’.

So is everyone welcome??

No, Beware of the bad aspects of the points listed above if you’re not:

  • Self-Motivated
  • Highly committed to your work/goal
  • having thirst to learn
  • work-o-hlic

and these are what i call prerequisites to even think about working for a startup or starting one yourselves.

Personally, in my early engineering days i always had this idea of starting something myself and i was sure that if in case am not able to do so then i am going to work with a startup company and that is what i used to advice my friends also ( for what i used to get mass rejection though ;) ) . its not that i have any apprehension working with a bigger company, rather the whole idea revolves around the “enterprising attitude” which demands your space to perform, which generally is not found in bigger organizations when you start as a fresher.

but if you have that opportunity of working with an established organization and having your space to innovate and create something new or better…do grab it…that is what “Intrapreneurship” is all about…around which my next post will be revolving.

A Mighty Heart…

Daniel Pearl

Memories of the brutal execution of Daniel Pearl(a Wall Street Journal journalist who was kidnapped in Pakistan in January of 2002) started breathing in fresh air again as i was watching the latest movie “Mighty Heart”. This one touched me so deep, as i was feeling that back in 2002 when these events took place, i already witnessed one side of it.

yes, it was early in 2002 when US armed forces announced the attack on iraq and our own news channel AAJTAK went live 24 hours to get us the updates running. There i was who used to switch on the TV for 2-3 times during the night to take break from my studies and watch every update. That was the time when one day Kidnap of Daniel Pearl was also a “breaking news” and as we were already witnessing allot of violence so it came up as just another news to me.

Daniel Pearl

Daniel's pics sent by kidnappers

then as days passed the newspapers started flooding with the daniel’s pics and his articles on jehadi groups and then came the news that they have killed daniel pearl. seeing that I myself was bad-mouthing these terrorist groups for killing an innocent journalist….and all this footage i saw as it was happenening.

with this movie i realized the other side of it…the suffering of daniel’s pregnant wife Mariane…the way she handled the situation, their innocence, the fraud pakistani authorities did with them and every disturbing helpless elements of it.

i really feel that i takes a Mighty Heart for these journalists to get themselves into the most dangerous situations to get us the real piece of news and i think its not at all about their job or money but there is a certain level of madness and passion which makes them go beyond the limits and come out with something extra-ordinary. remember our very own Barkha Dutt who was present with soldiers in kargil or Aajtak crew(sorry not able to remem any name) who got us the live footage of iraq war.

A salute to Daniel Pearl, his family and likes of him !! (as for the movie…definitely a must watch..Angelina Jolie has done justice to the role…)

Was it Soo Hard to StartUp !!

Ahh….am not talking about the business but something which was nagging me for a long time now and now after i have done it, this “Loooong time” is haunting me.

I am talking about setting up this Blog… :O which i planned to start somewhere in 2005, then gave it a serious thought in 2006, then gave it Very Serious thought in September of 2006(followed by few actions towards it) and which now in October of 2007 i am able to setup and start !!

While doing it i was asking myself a few questions which will provide you a good insight into my own psyche (i know nobody is interested !) …but still… ;)

But why i wanted to blog?

may be because I am an Observer, a Learner, an Entrepreneur, maybe a Mentor to people who don’t know very few things that i know (By chance).

so i want to voice my thoughts about the things which i am observing, happenings which are making me learn, ways i am carving out, solutions i am working on and blog was the best way to do that…(oh have i started explaining you the benefits of a blog…sorrry !!)

So what was the BIG DEAL in starting this blog??

Ans. Lack of time, i was running too busy (Read: Sheer Laziness and shifting the “Today’s Job to Tomorrow” attitude).

So what happened now? am i not busy or am i out of work?

Ans. Now i am learning to take out sometime for this (Read: learning to get rid of Laziness man !! ;) …dats it !! )

Hope to serve something better than the crappy stuff above here and thanx for reading this one too (if you have by any chance reached here reading!!)