A month ago, a very good friend gave me this book, ‘The BITS of Success’. The book was released in 2014 on the Golden Jubilee of BITS and compiles the narratives of 50 prominent BITS alumni who realized their dreams and set new trends in various fields. Sanjay Anand (Founder, Microsoft IDC) , Sabeer Bhatia(Founder, Hotmail), Prithviraj Chavan (Chief Minister of Maharashtra), Mani Shankar (Film maker) and Chandni Sahgal (MTV India) are only some of the names on the list.
The book is full of several interesting anecdotes and experiences. As an example, when Suresh Kabra shares his experience of starting Samadhan Systems, he says,
This was a phase when even Ravana inspired me as I needed ten heads and twenty hands to be all in one — office boy to CEO and keep the venture running.
Having read the book, I would like share some of the things I learnt from it :
1. All things I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten : Play fair, don’t hit people, don’t take things that aren’t yours, say sorry when you hit somebody and the biggest one word lesson of all,’Look!’ . Ever thought it could be that simple ? Well, D Balasubramaniam, Research-Director, LVP Eye Institute offers this simple advice to anyone looking forward to build a motivated and productive team.
2. Want to make a difference? Know yourself better : Notice what makes you laugh, what makes you cry, what irritates you and what pleases you. These are the emotions that lead an individual to the problems he wants to address.
3. Learn from the Japanese Bamboo Tree: In the first six years it grows only 6 inches and then in six months, shoots upto 90 ft. “When you start a project, remember this and persevere!”, says Sarathbabu Elumalai, founder, Foodking. There is no succesful person who hasn’t had his share of frustrations and struggle. And as an alumnus shares,
“ While the business card title moved from VP to CEO, the actual role depended upon where the next fire was!”
4. Don’t go out as lone rangers! : Find a team that knows you, shares your dream and collaborates with you to achieve it. Never think or claim you know it all. Recognize your limits and find partners who complement your skills.
5. Have a strong core of fundamentals : Sanjay Anand(Founder MS-IDC) says
You have to be a ‘dada’ at something before you aspire to climb the corporate ladder.
The same advice came from our alumni I met during the Distinguished Alumni Awards this year, and no points for guessing why!
6. Solve problems. Help others. Contribute. : One thing that was common among all the 50 success stories was the desire to help others. Clearly, people are inspired by the idea of creating a better world and changing societies, so an enterprise must be based on more than a profit principle.
7. While in college, Build! : Build what? Skills. Projects. Teams. Friendships. Experiences. Things that make sense. Things that do not. While in college, experiment. Build your networks. Because whatever you do later in life, college network can go a long way to help out. As a BITS alumnus said ,
BITS is in every bit of me. It has never left me and I have never left it.
8. Keep learning. Volunteer your time : Learning never stops in college. Take out time for the things you are passionate about. Attend events, seminars and workshops to enhance your knowledge in the space and meet people.
9. Don’t presume a problem X is already solved : I realized that I used to make this mistake a lot. In my opinion, a lot of people do. But if we look at successful companies like Apple or Facebook or Dropbox , the solution to the problem they solved already existed. They did nothing different, just did same thing differently.
10. With quality comes growth : Whatever you do in life, either give it all you have or do not do it at all. Don’t let our traditional ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude lower down the bar you can set for yourself and for others. Remember, details make all the difference!
As I write, I realize how difficult it is to capture the essence of 50 success stories in a few bullet points. I better stop here or I might end up writing the entire book! For interested people in college, you can drop by at the Innovation Garage and go through it. Others might have to buy or borrow.
So, the point is this. What I told above is nothing new. We have been hearing the same advice every single day in one form or the other and no wonder one can’t ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ values into his/her life. If only , however, we could be selfish enough to try and enforce them bit by bit, with persistence and discipline. After all, these people also, at some point of time, were just students like us!