Mr. Praveen Wadalkar, Co-founder & CEO at Techizer Tech Solutions Pvt Ltd, visited IIM Jammu on August 19 2018, to talk about “Entrepreneurship & Uncertainty”, as a part of the guest lecture organized by the PGP Batch.
The session began with a wonderful quote by Steve Jobs being projected on the screen, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.” This quote about connecting the dots formed the basis for a set of 4 points that were discussed, which, when mustered together, are of paramount importance in the context of Entrepreneurship.
- “There is no gain if you only win. If you have not failed in life, you are not playing the game of life properly”
Mr Praveen acceded to the fact that it was the movie-“Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year”, which acted as a stimulus for his entrepreneurial spirit. Leaving a high paying job for something which is uncertain isn’t easy, but he decided to go against the odds. His father said, “What if you fail?” He replied, “I will try again”. According to him, it were these 4 words (I will try again) that differentiated the successful 10% startups from the remaining 90% startups, that were not successful. Being resilient in times of failure is the key to success for a startup, or any other established business for that matter.
2. “We are trying to build a family”
Mr Praveen shared an incident from his childhood, where he ran away from his home because he failed in his 9th grade. Within 3 days, he came back to his home because he was feeling lonely. This is when he realized the importance of family. He applied this learning later on in his life when he started his own company. This is demonstrated in the fact that the employees in his organizations are treated like family members.
3. “Trusting People is a Habit”
“Don’t talk to strangers” is what we are taught by our mother during our childhood. This becomes ingrained in our mind. As a result, we rarely talk to people we don’t know. Mr Praveen had a difference of opinion regarding this. He backed it up with statistics, saying that he has been successful a staggering 22 times out of 24 times that he trusted strangers, which indicates a success rate of 96%. He urged us to let go of the cynicism and be more open minded while talking to strangers.
4. “The only certainty is uncertainty”
Amongst the scheme of things of connecting the dots, we have the ultimate two dots connecting each other-life and death. Death can come knocking on the door at any time, hence it is imperative that we life to the fullest each day. This also means exploring new opportunities with gusto, notwithstanding the potential risks associated with them. Sometimes, we are so much pre-occupied with the What-Ifs of the risk associated, that we forget to look at the broader picture of learning. Mr Praveen advised us not to let our figment of imagination obstruct our path to learning and be courageous in the face of uncertainty.
All in all, it was a productive session where students connected with the anecdotes from Mr Praveen’s life and learned about the various aspects of Entrepreneurship.
Credits:
Thakkar Karan Deepak,
Member – Media Relations Cell
Indian Institute of Management Jammu 