ability to live their lives are slightly
better imagine two and a half million
people being able to get to financial
security for the first time 100,000
women taking the first steps towards
financial independence by all means this
would be an extraordinary outcome most
people will agree that will be net for
the outcome so today for next I five to
ten 15 minutes I’m going to talk to you
about how series of ordinary can lead to
extraordinary low and I’ll come back to
this starting line one more time towards
the end so the story actually starts so
basic I’ll take it through maze of my
own journey and through this journey I’m
hoping that some of this will reconcile
and resonate with you and maybe in you
in your own endeavors you will find the
extraordinary you know through the
course of your careers so my earliest
imagination from childhood starts when I
was about five years old
and I remember a very stern looking lady
sitting right across from me on a table
asking me or almost commanding me to
take out ten marbles from a jar of
marbles so in my excitement I took out
20 and I conquered them I thought you
know a good job later I realized that I
failed my first entrance examination it
was admission to a Catholic school an
English Catholic school in a lava of
course my mom tried one more time next
year the same result so it was I was in
second grade coming home in a rickshaw
and you know this is not the auto
rickshaw that we talk about it’s a
rickshaw
you know people pull and I had my
friends who were also my schoolmates
coming back with me and there was this
old guy older guys fifth grade and I got
my report card that day so I showed it
to him
it’s a peak so pink color leaflet I
showed it to her I said dude can you
take a look at it
look at it he said and I asked him you
know there are these two red lines under
two of the marks what does this mean he
said dude you failed these two subjects
what was that
and the other was Hindi so basically I
imagine the horror of a parent not that
I’m a parent you know your child failing
math and language both even you’re
doomed
anyways Indian parents thank you
so you know one thing led to next events
and you know suddenly I find myself in
the fourth grade and fourth years
something very profound happened to me
the series of profound that have
happened and I’m trying to share some of
those with you but one of the profound
that happened to me and fourth grade was
my principal comes into my class and
says you know the 5th graders and it’s a
primary school right so 5th graders were
the sea demos class 5th graders will be
taken to the nearby nearby narrow
planetarium it was a big deal you know I
was into like most kids at that time
into Flash Gordon phantom space planets
stars spaceships it was a big bummer I
was I was I was told that only three
people from the fourth grade can be
taken because the entire fifth grade is
going but he’s just asking because we
have some more space we’ll take three
people from fourth grade and I was
definitely not one of them and there was
a big bummer I went home and I had a
conversation with my mom so it might
feel very you know like a very confident
guy having a short chat with with his
mom it was actually very scary event for
me I told her that you know can you
please stop teaching me I don’t want you
to help him homework anymore she was
shocked why it was she had a horrible
way of teasing by the way but anyways my
intent really was that I thought why
can’t I study on my own and I promised
her that in return I will maintain my
35th rank out of 40 in the class it will
not fall below that 35th rank and and
she she agreed and we
we tried this experiment I think I did
all right I probably got 3233 you know
it was fine but it was profound it was
profound because for the first time I
took agency over my own learning I took
control over my own learning and things
you know went on sixth seventh eighth
ninth tenth eleventh is again something
really profound happened to me it was in
11th grade English started making sense
to me I think and I’m think I mean trust
me I’m just looking back on my life and
I’m trying to say no what happened in
11th in 11th there was this time after a
very lackluster 10th exam you know when
you just barely make your first division
you know you go into this introspective
moon and or you’re forced into its
respective mood so I went into this
intersecting mood and I started thinking
about you know I have learned all my
life by rote just rut low and I had
remembered the definition from seventh
grade like for example force is a push
or pull with tends to start or stop or
otherwise change the direction of the
motion in on which it acts I can keep
going on I cannot give you mass
acceleration at Moody’s principal all of
them just I just know them by heart
but they didn’t ever made any sense to
me but it xi relate something very
fundamental happened I understood them
force is a push or a pull that can start
something or stop something or maybe
change the direction of the motion in
which it acts it certainly makes sense
it was almost like somebody who has not
who doesn’t know that needs glasses and
has poor eyesight and suddenly gets the
glasses for the first time the vision
corrected and you see that that blob of
green that you see in your front of you
which you call tree is actually
beautiful it has leaves in it each one
different no it’s a it’s an amazing
experience and and you know people who
have who have gone through the
experience know exactly I’m talking what
it happened to me so anyways that day
suddenly education started making sense
to be and things that had started
happening very rapidly and I was by 11th
sorry by 3rd
my school like I passed je we went to
IIT sorry and and by a third year of my
of my engine exam I had been offered PhD
in astrophysics by inter inner city
center for astronomy now astrophysics I
had published a paper on astrophysics
which was accepted by Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society
I think things happen immediately those
were extraordinary outcomes for me but I
think the learning really was that
education has to make sense it became a
passion and the ordinary life led to
something extraordinary change of scene
I joined profession my first first job
for that broad color steel plant public
sector unit steel authority of india
limited for many people it was you know
a dream job Sakaki nakri after retiring
say that was the mindset for me it was
it was jarring it was jarring because as
soon as I entered my profession my first
few months I was dragged I was like like
dragged thoroughly Network we believe
that ragging only happens in school and
colleges trust me it happens in in in a
profession too and so the nature of
regular search I remember so I am barely
21 years old and I have 80 people who
report to me I’m a mechanical engineer
and I am responsible for the maintenance
of the steel plant at least the shop
that I was working at and during my and
these 80 people many of them many of
them had worked in Rattler steel plant
for more than my age so anyways so they
were they were there they were
entrenched and there was the one time I
remember there was this bucket elevator
that that broke down so I called my
charge man and said swine babu 42 a
bucket elevator you had to hear can you
please come
sir kipnuk a panel like a wrong I said
what’s up what Spanish should I get what
size Spanish trying it I said what size
manners I have no idea what you talking
about
he
Boult quantify sky I have no idea in the
four years of mechanical engineering I
don’t think I was ever told how to
figure out the size of a bolt and then
from a size of a bolt figure out the
size of spanner that is needed but
anyways I went home that night
thoroughly embarrassed also realizing
they 5-2 lead people I need to know my
and I home with a bunch of bolts of
different sizes from the storeroom went
home put them under a sheet cover so I
can’t see them and through my hands just
by touching them learnt how to tell a
cypher bolt but just just by feeling it
that was profound
but then few days later or maybe a few
months later I don’t remember we’re
working on this very expensive German
hydraulic press and it broke down it
broke because of a mistake I I didn’t
follow the standard operating practices
and it was very expensive I mean the
replacement part was 2 lakh rupees 2
lakh rupees at that time was very very
large sum of money even today it is and
I was scared I was about a year old
into steel plant I went to my boss I
told him sir broke the total machine I
am very sorry
don’t break this machine the same way
it changed many things so for for a very
long time I think it became a mantra for
me that mistakes are only mistakes when
they repeated that they’re not their
learning experience and that was
profound
anyways life went on I became a
tentative I became a father a bugling
parent you know screwing up things here
and there all the time
and I remember I went through a bunch of
startups companies that had like money
left for only two weeks I joined them it
was crazy it was exciting I was in the
US for about 15 years and then suddenly
there was this strong desire to come
back to India and and run a market place
I tried in 2009 you know I have two
first time we said it how can we do this
you know we’d be lived living there for
15 years how do we come back it’s a big
change what if you don’t like it if what
if the company doesn’t work you know
there were so many ifs that we never did
it so 2009 never happened 2011
situations exactly the same the mindset
changed and what changed is what I want
to share with you is that the mindset
changed that many many years ago I went
to college for four years I paid them
money to educate me and I got a degree
in a similar manner I will go to India
for four years start something of my own
pay myself the money and I was speaking
with some of you guys you pay 18 lakhs
to do your masters here you probably pay
200 to about 200,000 to 300,000 rupees
dollars in the u.s. to do masters so my
masters had to happen in India for years
pay yourself if it works great if it
doesn’t work you still have a degree
from real world and I think from that
but that day my I could differentiate
between danger and fear danger was real
you had to do something about it fear
was artificial
it was a story that your mind was
telling you long story short we started
swap loose and today we enable or we try
to enable 20 million people to make the
life slightly better two and a half
million people an opportunity to learn a
livelihood and one hundred thousand
women to take their first steps towards
financial security thank you [Applause]