Perseverance

Q. Which nation has the highest female representation in it's parliament ?

A. Afghanistan - 29%

Surprising isn't it ?

Here's a nice article on perseverance.

Whom do you want to emulate ?

I don't use any of Apple's products but am still a huge fan of Jobs' approach, thought and emphasis on design. Simplicity is one of the hallmarks of their design which is mostly attributed to his Buddhist/Zen's principles. One of the inferences I made from this was that, the customers really don't know what they want. Design a product in such a way that when they do see it, they say "Aha this is exactly what I wanted." 

And so when we set afoot to build something cool it was on the premise that "yeah, we know better than the customers, so let's have a prototype first and I am bloody sure they will like it. Roping in more customers shouldn't be a big deal." When we did eventually have a prototype and started selling, I was surprised there were very few takers. Rightly so. I had overlooked one of the most important and fundamental principles of Business. Know who your customers are. Apple's customers are end users, consumers. Ours are enterprises and businesses and not end users or consumers even though it's built on a B2B2C model.

Lesson learnt - just because Steve Jobs is one of my heroes doesn't mean whatever he does or his company does can be directly applicable to what we do. When it comes to running business, carefully identify which is the company's business model you would want to emulate.

To add more, even if you are targeting a sector or a specific industry vertical, there are numerous categories and tiers into which you can classify customers. Figure out which are those. Are they the ones which belong to tier 1, or customers with sub 200 employees or the ones who would need API calls of 3 lakh a month. A decision here might have a huge impact on the architecture and scale of your products as well.

Present tense

It's been close to ten months starting up. Its been daunting to say the least. A few investors have pulled out, still awaiting the third one to respond but hopes are low. Ran out of cash and bankruptcy is starting right into my eyes. While we still chug on, I thought it would be good to document a few important lessons through a series of blogs which might be useful for fellow and would-be entrepreneurs.

I have been hibernating for a quite a while and here's a good reason to jump start, again.

From an investor's point of view, top 5 takeaways from my start up journey so far (will elaborate on each of these in later posts):

1. Your idea is the least important thing

2. Team is the most important factor

3. Execution strategy is critical

4. Non-linear growth strategy is a must

5. Your network and connections largely responsible to take you to the next level

Excerpts from the book : 'The Story of Philosophy' by Will Durant.

This book has snippets of life and philosophies of some of the worlds greatest philosophers, all put in chronological order.

Part I


Starting with Socrates/Plato, but moved on Voltaire with a giant leap of 18 centuries. Some of his works are as comical and eventful as his life has been. There's more about his life than his philosophy in this book, but a wonderful read nevertheless.

Voltaire says, "My trade is to say what I think". And this he has done marvelously well in his 90 odd volumes with each page brilliantly written.  M. Arouet when in Bastille suddenly decided to have Voltaire as his pen name for reasons known only to himself. Though some of his contemporaries considered him  senile, he life was full of interesting stories.

To escape a second stint at Bastille, he went to stay in England where he decided to absorb whatever he could from that country.
Learning English was initially disappointing, plague has a single syllable while ague has two. Impressed with the freedom writers in England had, he started some of greatest works while he was there which include Candide, Zadig, Micromegas and other delightful romances. He finished Candide in three days flat. These books are not mere stories, heroes are actually ideas and villains superstitions.

Those who have read Candide will agree with me. The humor and satire keeps you hooked. The story by itself is not voluminous. Well written, showcases an amazing sense of wit which Voltaire is known for. Zadig and Micromegas should be good reads as well.

Here's a snip from Micromegas which has cosmic imaginations well captured:

A visitor from Sirius, 500,000 feet tall visits Earth. An inhabitant from Saturn is picked along the way. While they decide to wet their heels in the Mediterranean, he asks the citizen of Saturn to talk about his folks out there. Inspite of having 72 senses, standing tall to a height of a few thousand feet, and a life span of 15000 years, they still seem to be unhappy.While having this conversation, the dude from Sirius picks up a ship and rests it on his thumbnail. All hell breaks loose on the ship. The superstitious lot start with a never-ending cases of exorcisms while the wiser lot (scientists) begin to form theories on how the laws of gravitation had been broken. The Sirian lowers down to address the Earthlings. He states that nowhere has he found pure happiness but here in Earth of all places. To this a philosopher answers, "We have matter enough to do abundance of mischief. As I speak we have a 100,000 of our own species adorning hats who are on a killing spree of an equal number of creatures who wear turban. This has been the case from time immemorial." To this, the Sirian threatened to wipe out the entire species by walking a few steps. The philosopher replied, "Don't trouble yourself. This species are industrious enough to secure their own destruction. At the end of ten years, a hundredth part of these wretches won't survive. In fact, any form of punishment should not be inflicted upon them, but to the slothful and sedentary barbarians who, from their palaces, give orders for murdering millions of men, and then thank God for their success."

I'm sure Zadig too will be a pleasure to read.

Some quotes of Voltaire:

"If you do not want to commit suicide, always have something to do."

"Not to be occupied and not to exist amount to the same."

"All people are good except those who are idle."

To be contd...

Innovation lies here

Innovation lies here

Into the wild

"I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quite life."

- Leo Tolstoy on 'Family Happiness'

Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer is a wonderful, haunting, thought provoking and slightly depressing book. But it's definitely worth a read. I am only half way through this book and don't feel like dropping it until its finished. A movie by the same name is supposed to be good as well. Don't watch this on a Friday evening though.

Have faith. Science can solve your problem

The Royal Society turns 350 glorious years. Here's an excerpt from an interview with Bill Bryson.

"Think of a single problem confronting the world today," says Bill Bryson, in full rhetorical flow. "Disease, poverty, global warming… If the problem is going to be solved, it is science that is going to solve it. Scientists tend to be unappreciated in the world at large, but you can hardly overstate the importance of the work they do. If anyone ever cures cancer, it will be a guy with a science degree." There is a fractional pause, then a sheepish smile. "Or a woman with a science degree."

What does it take to be part of the RS ?