Monthly Archives :

October 2015

THE MAN WHO BROKE THE QUE

Yatin Thakur is a young entrepreneur, founder of CoWorkin and a speaker at Young India Challenge. The man was clueless about his future at his teenage and it was his hunt for his dream which landed him here. He realised that he was good at helping people set up their businesses and advise them. He found a place which was about to close and used it and its basic furniture to set up CoWorkin – chain of coworking places. He provided people the required resources and advised them for their business plans. After organising and advising companies over years, he realised that this is his dream and he started working towards it.

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As a youth, Yatin never enjoyed ques and thus he made his own! Things never worked as per plans for him so he learnt that if you want to do something, just do it. He completed his basic education but kept working upon his ideas. Later he got his hands with Startup Weekend which works on start ups and advise them.

Though journey had not been easy for him, but he believes that looking at the positive in middle of negatives helps one to come out of it. Thus, it was his last message to our delegates – Stay positive.

LIFE LESSONS BY NIKHIL BHASKAR

Nikhil Bhaskar is our first speaker of the day. The man himself is a alumnus of College of Vocational Studies. Nikhil is a consultant with Boston Consulting Group. He is also a management consultant. Along with this, Nikhil is associated with Landmark Education where he coaches people for personal effectiveness.

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Nikhil is here to talk about three points which are crucial in anyone’s life-

  1. How do you get what you want in life?
  2. What he did to get what he wanted?
  3. How to go beyond constraints of life?

According to him, one has to be really specific of what one wants. The more clear you are with your goal, the more channelized you would be. Second, never think you are not capable of any thing. Don’t underestimate yourself rather come out of your comfort zone and grow. Everyone is capable of doing anything. Though its not easy, you have to lose your sleep to get what you want. Third, get in touch with things related to your goal. Stay motivated, push yourself and have determination to move beyond to get your goals.

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Nikhil believes that there are four pillars which balance the life and contentment-

  1. Integrity – This means having integrity in oneself. One has to honour his words and promises to be a man of his words. Not only it restores faith, also it makes you disciplined which is necessary to make things happen.
  2. Relationship – It is not the conventional relationship but the relation you build with people around. Let those people be contributors in your life. Let them touch you in ways which would guide you and coach you during tough times of your life. Let the relation be strong and powerful so that it makes an impact
  3. Existence – Analyse why you are here. What is the purpose behind your existence? What difference you’d want to make? How this game exits, in what ways and how you are going to play it?
  4. Enrollment– Bring liveliness to your purpose. Enroll people in it and be the phenomena

Such talk with Nikhil has left delegates mesmerised. They are amused by his enlightenment and his efforts to help people.

TIME FOR ACTION

  1. START NOW!
    As they say, there is no right time to do anything. You start now. Even if not at big level, try doing things which will contribute to your end goal.

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  1. BE WISE
    Don’t think that you know everything to make it right. Do your homework. Get your research work done. Talk to different people and get their feedback. Just think of all pros and cons and then move forward.
  2. KEEP GOING
    A tree doesn’t grow in a few months. It takes time and efforts. Don’t lose your patience if things take time to flourish.
  3. NETWORKING
    Yes it is an important thing to do. You need to be in touch with people who can motivate you, promote you, guide you, inform you and find you ways.

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THIS IS HOW YOU CHALLENGE YOURSELF

We blame the world for our failures but the biggest reason is ourselves, our thought and fear. Everyday, we must challenge ourselves and find ways to improve. Know what troubles you and how you can overcome it. Find what fascinates you and explore it. Be with people who motivate you and inspire you to move out of your comfort zone. Dare yourself each day and see how well you can live by it.

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No magic takes place inside the bubble. It’s only when you break the bubble and fly, you get to see the magic. Every person we talk of today never had a smooth road. Instead of waiting for someone else to do that, do that by yourself. Do you not believe that you can? You sure as hell can do that. Be that famous scientist, entrepreneur, artist or whoever you want to be. Be the first of your own kind. Unlike saying, its not easy. World will oppose you. At times, you will be the only one motivating yourself. But that’s the challenge right? You have chosen to do something unconventional, certainly the ride would be bumpy but make sue you save yourself throughout and reach the destination with pride.

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Our delegates are going through the same dilemma. Confused about the choices and worried about how to make it. And that’s why we are here helping them make decisions for themselves and bring the change. This movement of #DoWhatYouLove is just not any other movement. It’s a revolution which will change the world works today and the first step is you. Take the change.

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DIFFERENCE IN IDEOLOGIES

Today’s youth is dynamic and is ready to break the bubble of doing the absolute. This is a creative era. They are finding their passion in arts, dance, writing, photography and other creative fields. Problem arises when generations have conflicts. Most of the families around the globe, especially India, is facing this problem. Impact of globalization is so strong that its impossible to remain a cocoon. This is what parents need to learn. Time is changing and this youth is going to become leader of tomorrow. Every person who has made a difference has been able to do it because he was passionate enough.

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Every Young India Challenge has people who are defying the society to follow their passion. We have delegates who are college dropouts, left their corporate jobs to follow their dreams and school students (surprise!) who don’t want to waste their time struggling like others and are already ready for this conversation.

It is not about rebelling your families but about saving yourself. Society has this perception that if you are happy doing something, you are not doing the right thing. You laboriously work for five days and take off on the rest two. What’s the use if you are spending 70% of your life being unhappy. This had not been the case if you had been pursuing you passion.

Do What You Love and show people the difference it makes. They will come on board, for sure.

YIC’15 – College of Vocational Studies

Yay! Young India Challenge is a year old. Yes, at this time last year, Human Circle launched first Young India Challenge at IIT-Delhi. Today, we celebrate its anniversary by having another Young India Challenge at College of Vocational Studies.

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This time the we have a little difference. This time delegates already know what #DoWhatYouLove is. All thanks to #DoWhatYouLove hangouts. Youth is aware of Human Circle’s initiative and is ready to experience the change.

The conversation is all about the conventional way of making a life while passion can yield better results. Most of the crowd lacks on the job skills. Is it not the waste of time and resources? The government already invests in education but don’t students get job or require training to be “employable”. The main reason behind this imbalance is mismatch of education and career. People are not pursuing their passion thus lack skills in their jobs and are certainly unhappy. Everyone is running after engineering and MBA without having valid interest. Some have their ways clear while others just become the part of sheep walk. There is so much of confusion and imbalance that even after pursuing graduation and post graduation, people are not sure what they want to do. It’s okay to have knowledge of different fields but only till the time it is solving the purpose.

Moral of the story being – do what you love and build career around your passion and get paid.

Life Experiences (in India)

Open letter from Inaki Arana, Spanish Teacher at the Shri Ram School – Aravali

For those of you who I have not had the pleasure to meet personally let me introduce myself: I am Inaki Arana, the Spanish teacher in Aravali. I am from a town called San Sebastian in the north of Spain and I have spent the last 3 years of my life here in India.

I came to this country for way far different reasons than teaching Spanish. I was working in the corporate world and my company in Spain sent me to India to be in charge of its manufacturing plant. Yes, all my professional life I have been working in the corporate world: that is what I studied for, I did my internships for, my masters, my trainings…everything. As soon as I reached the age of 18 and I had to decide what I was going to study after high school, there was no doubt that I was going to go for business studies. I was quite oriented or guided (not obliged I must say) by my parents and environment back then, and it was kind of a natural decision, because I come from a family of business men and women. I did not have the required skills for becoming an engineer or an architect, and just the smell of a Hospital used to make me feel (and still does) nauseous. That is how “easy” I took the decision about what I was going to be in the future. I did not do much research and I definitely did not listen to my inner voice that was trying to tell me that I should lead the way in a completely different direction…I wish I knew then what I know now… but I did not, and I think that is the way it should be. That is one of the beauties of life; not knowing exactly what is coming. Very few people are lucky enough to know what they want to be or become in life at the age of eighteen. So Form 12 students, you are not alone on this one!

My first working years were great. I was always learning new things and I was enjoying the fact that I was being able to earn my living. I am a curious person by nature so I had a lot of stimuli to focus on. I always enjoyed languages and I loved travelling (I still do), so I specialized in International commerce. I soon started to work in Export Departments of different corporates. That allowed me to travel and to visit all the countries that I dreamt of when I was a little boy.

I jumped from company to company during 13 years, in periods of 3 years at each place. That was the time limit that I was allowing myself to learn new things, so I had to change and move on to bigger challenges; always within the corporate world but in different assignments. I have to say that during all these years I was doing a great job. I was taught early on, like in many households all over the word, that “whatever you do, do it right and be the best at it!” And I followed and still follow that. But deep in my heart I knew that I was supposed to do something else with my professional life (this inner voice I mentioned before never stopped sending messages to me); something that I knew but I was not daring to say out loud or even admit to myself. Changing companies (I can say it know with some perspective) was just an excuse or what I call a red flag, it was me saying deep inside:”I do not want to continue in the corporate world. It does not give me any satisfaction and what I really want to do is teach”. I wanted to do something that was closer to my heart, to my personality, to my real abilities…something that was more connected to me where I could give my 100% every day.

The last company I joined brought me to India. The project sounded amazing when I first heard about it. They needed a person who would be in charge of a whole manufacturing plant (more than 200 souls). I was going to live abroad, I was going to become an expat!! It was what any business student would write down in his/her letter to Santa! So even if I still had doubts in my mind, I immediately accepted the challenge and joined. The good news was, and I am being ironic, that the company was located in the middle of India (in Indore). I did not know what I was up to.

Being alone in a foreign country gives you a lot of thinking time. There is barely any space for leisure, all you do is work, but you have a lot of thoughts coming in to your mind (late at night) that make you question everything that you are doing in life. I had a lot of thoughts coming to me indeed. Everything that I had felt about my professional life and all the doubts I had about me doing the correct thing suddenly increased in intensity and really made me think seriously about my future.

My company, after working in Indore for 1 year, decided that the plant was well under control and transferred me to their second manufacturing plant in the South. In Chennai. Well, when I say Chennai what I mean is an industrial hub that is an hour and a half away from Chennai City. Once again, a great place for your own thinking time.  I had to adjust and adapt again to a different environment, different weather, food, people…everything!. And trust me, it is a hard task.

After 7 months in Chennai, I could not take it anymore and finally I felt courageous enough to take the decision that I should had taken well in advance. I resigned…

It was not an easy one…in theory I had everything that anyone in my position and with my background could have and desire. But there was something missing that was not allowing me be “happy”. On the other hand, I have to admit that I was in a position where I could afford and allow myself quitting my job. It does not happen always that way.

I came to Delhi (Gurgaon); I thought that being in the capital of the country would allow me do better than in the cities that I had lived before. I had no doubts that I wanted to remain in India and do not go back to Spain. I had the feeling that if the transformation had started in India it should continue here itself. Plus, I love the country and I still wanted to discover the many wonders that it has to offer me.

I happened to find a place in Gurgaon, just in front of the School and I decided to come by and introduce myself. The rest of the story, you already know.

I hope this personal experience will allow you to get to know me and my intentions better. What I have learnt in all this process is that we have to follow and do what it is closest to our hearts, what we believe we are good at (whatever it is), and give our best and all in that; no matter what other people or family think (we need their blessings but approval is not necessary). It is our own life that we are talking about and we have to be accountable for it.

None of what I have explained comes with being at home, laying down on the sofa complaining about how unlucky we are or how things do not work the way we expected to. It requires high working ethics, pursuit of excellence (both in our personal and professional life) and a truly conscious belief in oneself and one self’s possibilities.

I could not have done all this without all my background education, experiences and learnings. I was provided the best education and possibilities and after many years, I believe I have taken advantage of all of them to do what I am doing right now. Trying, keep trying, taking risks and learning form “failures” are great concepts; they are necessary learning processes where the best creative you is reborn and finds alternative ways to carry on.

Always keep curious about everything that surrounds you, you never know what futures holds for you. The Shri Ram schools provides all of us great opportunities to keep our curiosity alive, students are exposed to so much stimuli in so many fields (both academic and non-academic) that definitely provides them the best tools to be able to take decisions that will determine their future.

 

Let’s be ready to explore and enjoy the journey!

 

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THE AWESOME TIME

All teams are ready for this Young India Challenge. One by one they are presenting their best ideas. Teams have been working really hard for five continuous hours and taking notes from their mentors. It is amusing to see the young minds coming up with such innovative ideas which are worth the change.

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Some of the awesome ideas are of inventing a inbuilt device to detect alcohol in driver’s breath and raising an alarm and alert to his family; providing A-Z medical services to people at their doorstep; bringing education to rural India in the form of entertainment and many more!

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The real excitement lies in networking and getting to know the fabulous speakers. Other than this passionate movement, these amazing speakers are the ones who make Young India Challenge greater. For the night we have Jeroninio Almeida, Seema Bharwani, Anubhav Razdan and Aashish Beergi. Their experience of life, struggle, success and zeal to pursue passion adds so much of value to the purpose. What else can be the best way to motivate people other than the motivating personalities themselves.

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After two exciting days, winners are announced and Young India Challenge comes to an end but the secret lies here. YIC is not just about the final challenge. The real challenge is to face your inner voice. Listen to what your heart says. Follow it. Find a passion and hold it. Hold it till you accomplish it and find another one. Yes the challenge is to invest your life in your dreams. The real challenge is to #DoWhatYouLove.

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THINK LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR – VAJIRANGA AMARASINGHE

Young India Challenge is incomplete without entrepreneur and leadership skills.For the third YIC-YMCA, we have a friend on board whose amazing work on entrepreneurship has helped Human Circle and delegates take Young India Challenge to next level. Inspired by her profound knowledge in business, we have challenged the delegates to design a program or technology which can have privilege of these intellectual properties such as copyrights, patents and trademarks using her guide.

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In true sense, the book is a student’s guide to AS Level Business Studies. Vajiranga Amarasinghe’s research on entrepreneurship and business development will help our delegates throughout the challenge. The book overcomes the stereotypes and provides the modernised approach to business. Importance of market research, customer satisfaction, funding and strategy behind potential business ideas are some of the relevant points on entrepreneurship.Given, market is the king, marketing has to be the queen. The author, our friend, has beautifully narrated its importance and tips to get it right.

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Though the book is a complete guide to Do’s and Don’ts, still encourages unconventional ideas. This is what this challenge will be all about. Do anything you want, think anything you can, just make it awesome enough to make it unique.

STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN IS NOT EASY

While the first day of Young India Challenge was more about knowing the movement; the second was surprising. The young delegates have started realising the difference already. They are acknowledging facts about their passion and are now courageous enough to make a difference. Telling your parents about what you actually love and scrapping off what you have been doing in the first place is not easy. Starting all over again is not easy. Doing what you love is not easy. Had it been, people would have been never upset, frustrated and exhausted.

It is great to see that #DoWhatYouLove movement affecting the young India so efficiently. While The Challenge awaits, delegates need to realise that Human Circle or Young India is not any conventional program. It is a movement, a revolution.

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Second day brings a lot of adventure. Most difficult part being, listening to the inner voice and holding on to it even after Young India Challenge. The world outside has always pushed every one of us to leave the rope and drown in the flow. Human Circle inspires you to hold the rope again. It makes you believe that the grip of hands and mind are stronger than that flow. Keep holding it, take the course you love. You’ll slip, get hurt but the feeling of accomplishment you will have after walking against the current, it can not be expressed in words.

And while I write this article letting the world know what it feels to be a part of Young India Challenge, I have tears already. You know why? Because it already made a difference to me.

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Contact Us

Please feel free to contact us and be a part of the #DoWhatYouLove Movement.

REACH US

Phone: +91-8800770673

Email: info@humancircle.in

Contact Us

Please feel free to contact us and be a part of the #DoWhatYouLove Movement.

REACH US

Phone: +91-8800770673

Email: info@humancircle.in