I’m your dog board the surrender P
defect and over the course of next 15 to
20 minutes I would like to explain how
the butterfly effect is nothing but the
serendipity effect so all of us in this
room are an outcome of serendipity we
exist because an event that occurred
that brought our parents together for
some of us our grandparents arranged for
our parents to meet but for some of us
our parents met each other adding at a
function at an event maybe in school or
college whatever the case be our parents
are today together with each other
because of serendipitous event and if
you look at the outcome our parents
think that we as their children are
definitely a positive outcome of that
serendipity our parents often live their
lives through us their dreams often
manifest through what we do in our lives
it is amazing that lot of their
happiness depends on how happy we are
how successful we are and my parents
were no exception
my mother often believed in the immense
potential that I had and often told the
world that mera beta which moniker I got
that one day I will make some small
impact in my own small way on the world
I remember how proud she was when I got
into a top engineering college to pursue
mechanical insulin on campus I was among
the four students selected to replace
that Tata Motors which was a dream
company for every mechanical engineer
back then my career plan seemed to be
paying out perfectly and my mother
believed that I was moving closer to the
impact that she wanted me to make
everything seemed to be in sync with a
master plan I was going to work for the
largest automobile company in our
country and it was I was moving towards
the sustain
however an event occurred which changed
the course of my career during the last
year of college by Jews a popular ed
tech company that you must have heard of
the founder came to campus and wanted to
set up operations in the city of all the
colleges that he could have gone to as
luck would have it he ended up in my
college with him I worked over the
course of my last semester and helped
him set up his company operations in the
city and while I did that I really
enjoyed working with him I enjoyed the
new ideas the young mind said that I was
involved with and it felt like it was
something I would like to pursue so I
moved out and gave up the offer at Tata
Motors and joined his company after
completion completing my engineering you
can understand the impact that decision
this decision would have had in my
family there of course flabbergasted
they there was a lot of despair and
anguish at this choice for me working at
a startup felt like an opportunity to
not just help the company grow but also
grow myself as a professional it was
definitely an exciting opportunity for
me but for them it didn’t seem as
exciting particularly for my mother she
was disheartened disappointed felt that
I was throwing away a great career and
felt that it was a path that wouldn’t
lead to the potential she believed I had
over the next few years she proved to be
right often after by Jews I moved on to
multiple roles in different industries
from Investment Banking to marketing and
finally on to consulting all along it
felt that I wasn’t really working in a
meaningful role I wasn’t enjoying what I
was doing I wasn’t I didn’t know which
direction I was moving in I didn’t know
what lie next ahead of me in 2010 my
mother passed away without seeing me
make any meaningful a part in any
professional or personal capacity
and maybe you could understand the sense
or the weight of disappointment on my
shoulders then I sat there thinking how
disappointing I have been as a son the
weight of this disappointment lay large
on my shoulders and I I forced myself to
think about what I would like to make
out of my career it’s which direction
should I lead myself to I had to cover
part out which would lead me to the
success that my mother always envisioned
for me at that time I was perfect
insulting from where I was working with
some of the largest fortune 900
companies and helping them with their
procurement and supply chain processes
it was something that really enjoyed and
in that role I was able to make real
impact because I was helping these
companies improve business processes and
having an actual impact on their bottom
line I I thought hard and it seemed
something that I would definitely like
to do going forward it seemed like it
was the direction that I wanted to take
my life in and so I realized that to get
to where I wanted to get to to be the
consultant over the next few years which
could help these companies and make a
meaningful impact on these companies
through my work I had to pursue an MBA
my mother often told me that I should go
I should apply to a business school
which would fulfill the potential that I
have gnosis the potential I have and
with that in mind I started preparing
for life at or dream b-school the best
try would be school in India I prepared
really hard for ovary or I score really
well in my GMAT and with the top 1% GMAT
score with really strong recommendations
from my seniors and an excellent
interview I was very confident that I
was right now going to get into the
school and I was finally going to cover
the career path that would make my
mother proud I was finally going to make
my mother proud but the school thought
otherwise they did not find my
application filled and they rejected my
application
and at that point that failure brought
immense sense of disappointment it again
felt that I had let my mother down that
even though I tried the best I could I
wasn’t able to fulfill the potential
that she saw in me that I was never
probably going to do it and with that
heavy heart that sense of disappointment
I was I was pretty lost I didn’t know
which direction to move in next I wasn’t
no any any longer enjoying what I had
done or what I was doing in my job and I
decided that I had to move on and try to
figure out things better and then
subsequently two months later I quit my
job I tried playing a role in a few
ideas tried to speak to a few people who
were helping guide my way forward and
over the course of that time I you know
I played with a few ideas and settled on
doing customer loyalty as an industry
and for me startups but then I had a
little understanding of how it worked I
had little understanding of what I
needed to do I was someone who hadn’t
figured out what ruined my career and
suddenly now I do figure out what I have
to do mind my business and I figure out
that I had to learn everything on my own
then and what I did over the course of
the next few months was meet hundreds
and thousands of business owners
interact with them online
meet them offline and understand
customer loyalty from their perspective
I understood how they perceived loyalty
which kind of helped me pivot my idea
into a retail mobile loyalty program
that was something back then mobile apps
were and as common so it was something
which was a novelty and we saw a lot of
acceptance from the market for that
later that year I got into the startup
leadership program which is a
prestigious program that guides
entrepreneurs on a journey to become
better entrepreneurs through that
program I met some amazing entrepreneurs
and one of these fellows who was part of
me my cohort connected me to the founder
of the largest loyalty company
what started as an introduction to get
feedback on my product ended up actually
company acquiring my company the company
showed interest in what we were doing
and we finally merged with the entity
for me that was a really important
moment and while I was part of that
company together we build a loyalty
platform that is currently used by
millions of Indians in our country it
was the start of a journey that I’ve had
over the last few years where I have met
interacted spent thousands of hours of
time with amazing entrepreneurs who are
building some amazing products for the
future I’ve been fortunate enough to
mentor some of these startups and
entrepreneurs and even invest in some of
them and in my own small way I now I’m
making an impact an impact that probably
my mother would be proud of an impact
that maybe I always wanted to make but
wasn’t sure how looking back the failure
of getting into the b-school was
actually the tipping point of this
yearning that failure led to a series of
events that have today brought me into
what I do it seemed like a significant
failure back then but it has led me to
do some amazing things right now in the
ecosystem I have helped a few
entrepreneurs with their startups I have
run two to three multi star tops which
have successfully turned profitable and
in my own way like I mentioned I am
making that small impact and I had I not
really failed at getting the b-school
had I really made it what would have
happened I would have probably been
working for another corporate company
fulfilling a dream in a very different
way in that case I would have certainly
not met thousands of those business
owners who taught me so much about the
industry that helped me shape my shape
my first startup I would have not got
into the SARP Leaders program and
certainly not met the founder of the
company that eventually acquired my
startup I would have most certainly not
in my own small way stood here today to
make an impact
and and that’s how I look at life roll
out what was a failure at one point led
to a series of events and in hindsight
can only be looked at positive events
that have brought me into this stage in
college when that incident happened of
why she was coming to campus that event
was it possibly derailed my career and
let me do another journey where even
though I thought I finally had found
what I really wanted to do a failure
derailed that journey again and let me
do another path where today in my own
small way I can feel success in life
often things will not pan out the way we
wanted to but we need to believe that a
better future exists that the universe
will conspire to lead us in a better
direction every situation every
opportunity every moment that will not
work out the way we wanted to is because
another situation another opportunity
another moment is just around the corner
this is how my life ended up being and
this is not something that I’d ever
imagined and we need to understand that
failure is not definitive it is not
final failure does not define the end
and if we believe in that we cannot get
disheartened by failure because failure
will lead us to another direction a
direction where you might find success
you will walk towards that path you wish
to I urge you to look at failure as a
positive outcome in my life
failures and multiple instances have
only led to better things have only led
to better achievements and I urge you to
look at failure as that positive thing
always believe that somewhere bottom a
fly is going to flap its wings that
might alter your life
in a serendipitous way always believe
that please thank you [Applause]
defect and over the course of next 15 to
20 minutes I would like to explain how
the butterfly effect is nothing but the
serendipity effect so all of us in this
room are an outcome of serendipity we
exist because an event that occurred
that brought our parents together for
some of us our grandparents arranged for
our parents to meet but for some of us
our parents met each other adding at a
function at an event maybe in school or
college whatever the case be our parents
are today together with each other
because of serendipitous event and if
you look at the outcome our parents
think that we as their children are
definitely a positive outcome of that
serendipity our parents often live their
lives through us their dreams often
manifest through what we do in our lives
it is amazing that lot of their
happiness depends on how happy we are
how successful we are and my parents
were no exception
my mother often believed in the immense
potential that I had and often told the
world that mera beta which moniker I got
that one day I will make some small
impact in my own small way on the world
I remember how proud she was when I got
into a top engineering college to pursue
mechanical insulin on campus I was among
the four students selected to replace
that Tata Motors which was a dream
company for every mechanical engineer
back then my career plan seemed to be
paying out perfectly and my mother
believed that I was moving closer to the
impact that she wanted me to make
everything seemed to be in sync with a
master plan I was going to work for the
largest automobile company in our
country and it was I was moving towards
the sustain
however an event occurred which changed
the course of my career during the last
year of college by Jews a popular ed
tech company that you must have heard of
the founder came to campus and wanted to
set up operations in the city of all the
colleges that he could have gone to as
luck would have it he ended up in my
college with him I worked over the
course of my last semester and helped
him set up his company operations in the
city and while I did that I really
enjoyed working with him I enjoyed the
new ideas the young mind said that I was
involved with and it felt like it was
something I would like to pursue so I
moved out and gave up the offer at Tata
Motors and joined his company after
completion completing my engineering you
can understand the impact that decision
this decision would have had in my
family there of course flabbergasted
they there was a lot of despair and
anguish at this choice for me working at
a startup felt like an opportunity to
not just help the company grow but also
grow myself as a professional it was
definitely an exciting opportunity for
me but for them it didn’t seem as
exciting particularly for my mother she
was disheartened disappointed felt that
I was throwing away a great career and
felt that it was a path that wouldn’t
lead to the potential she believed I had
over the next few years she proved to be
right often after by Jews I moved on to
multiple roles in different industries
from Investment Banking to marketing and
finally on to consulting all along it
felt that I wasn’t really working in a
meaningful role I wasn’t enjoying what I
was doing I wasn’t I didn’t know which
direction I was moving in I didn’t know
what lie next ahead of me in 2010 my
mother passed away without seeing me
make any meaningful a part in any
professional or personal capacity
and maybe you could understand the sense
or the weight of disappointment on my
shoulders then I sat there thinking how
disappointing I have been as a son the
weight of this disappointment lay large
on my shoulders and I I forced myself to
think about what I would like to make
out of my career it’s which direction
should I lead myself to I had to cover
part out which would lead me to the
success that my mother always envisioned
for me at that time I was perfect
insulting from where I was working with
some of the largest fortune 900
companies and helping them with their
procurement and supply chain processes
it was something that really enjoyed and
in that role I was able to make real
impact because I was helping these
companies improve business processes and
having an actual impact on their bottom
line I I thought hard and it seemed
something that I would definitely like
to do going forward it seemed like it
was the direction that I wanted to take
my life in and so I realized that to get
to where I wanted to get to to be the
consultant over the next few years which
could help these companies and make a
meaningful impact on these companies
through my work I had to pursue an MBA
my mother often told me that I should go
I should apply to a business school
which would fulfill the potential that I
have gnosis the potential I have and
with that in mind I started preparing
for life at or dream b-school the best
try would be school in India I prepared
really hard for ovary or I score really
well in my GMAT and with the top 1% GMAT
score with really strong recommendations
from my seniors and an excellent
interview I was very confident that I
was right now going to get into the
school and I was finally going to cover
the career path that would make my
mother proud I was finally going to make
my mother proud but the school thought
otherwise they did not find my
application filled and they rejected my
application
and at that point that failure brought
immense sense of disappointment it again
felt that I had let my mother down that
even though I tried the best I could I
wasn’t able to fulfill the potential
that she saw in me that I was never
probably going to do it and with that
heavy heart that sense of disappointment
I was I was pretty lost I didn’t know
which direction to move in next I wasn’t
no any any longer enjoying what I had
done or what I was doing in my job and I
decided that I had to move on and try to
figure out things better and then
subsequently two months later I quit my
job I tried playing a role in a few
ideas tried to speak to a few people who
were helping guide my way forward and
over the course of that time I you know
I played with a few ideas and settled on
doing customer loyalty as an industry
and for me startups but then I had a
little understanding of how it worked I
had little understanding of what I
needed to do I was someone who hadn’t
figured out what ruined my career and
suddenly now I do figure out what I have
to do mind my business and I figure out
that I had to learn everything on my own
then and what I did over the course of
the next few months was meet hundreds
and thousands of business owners
interact with them online
meet them offline and understand
customer loyalty from their perspective
I understood how they perceived loyalty
which kind of helped me pivot my idea
into a retail mobile loyalty program
that was something back then mobile apps
were and as common so it was something
which was a novelty and we saw a lot of
acceptance from the market for that
later that year I got into the startup
leadership program which is a
prestigious program that guides
entrepreneurs on a journey to become
better entrepreneurs through that
program I met some amazing entrepreneurs
and one of these fellows who was part of
me my cohort connected me to the founder
of the largest loyalty company
what started as an introduction to get
feedback on my product ended up actually
company acquiring my company the company
showed interest in what we were doing
and we finally merged with the entity
for me that was a really important
moment and while I was part of that
company together we build a loyalty
platform that is currently used by
millions of Indians in our country it
was the start of a journey that I’ve had
over the last few years where I have met
interacted spent thousands of hours of
time with amazing entrepreneurs who are
building some amazing products for the
future I’ve been fortunate enough to
mentor some of these startups and
entrepreneurs and even invest in some of
them and in my own small way I now I’m
making an impact an impact that probably
my mother would be proud of an impact
that maybe I always wanted to make but
wasn’t sure how looking back the failure
of getting into the b-school was
actually the tipping point of this
yearning that failure led to a series of
events that have today brought me into
what I do it seemed like a significant
failure back then but it has led me to
do some amazing things right now in the
ecosystem I have helped a few
entrepreneurs with their startups I have
run two to three multi star tops which
have successfully turned profitable and
in my own way like I mentioned I am
making that small impact and I had I not
really failed at getting the b-school
had I really made it what would have
happened I would have probably been
working for another corporate company
fulfilling a dream in a very different
way in that case I would have certainly
not met thousands of those business
owners who taught me so much about the
industry that helped me shape my shape
my first startup I would have not got
into the SARP Leaders program and
certainly not met the founder of the
company that eventually acquired my
startup I would have most certainly not
in my own small way stood here today to
make an impact
and and that’s how I look at life roll
out what was a failure at one point led
to a series of events and in hindsight
can only be looked at positive events
that have brought me into this stage in
college when that incident happened of
why she was coming to campus that event
was it possibly derailed my career and
let me do another journey where even
though I thought I finally had found
what I really wanted to do a failure
derailed that journey again and let me
do another path where today in my own
small way I can feel success in life
often things will not pan out the way we
wanted to but we need to believe that a
better future exists that the universe
will conspire to lead us in a better
direction every situation every
opportunity every moment that will not
work out the way we wanted to is because
another situation another opportunity
another moment is just around the corner
this is how my life ended up being and
this is not something that I’d ever
imagined and we need to understand that
failure is not definitive it is not
final failure does not define the end
and if we believe in that we cannot get
disheartened by failure because failure
will lead us to another direction a
direction where you might find success
you will walk towards that path you wish
to I urge you to look at failure as a
positive outcome in my life
failures and multiple instances have
only led to better things have only led
to better achievements and I urge you to
look at failure as that positive thing
always believe that somewhere bottom a
fly is going to flap its wings that
might alter your life
in a serendipitous way always believe
that please thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: