Ashwin Upadhyaya's Blog

1. It gets tougher and tougher with every step you move forward, more mentally than physically. Yet, the only way you know is forward.
2. Resources are limited and you try to conserve and optimize them to the max.
3. It is not the goal, rather it is the path that gives the happiness.
4. The team moves only as fast as the slowest person!
5. For the outside world, it only matters if you reached the top. Until you reach the top, slog, slog and slog. The world doesn’t care.
6. You will never see the true height and the beauty of it unless you actually start the journey.
7. For every few people who succeed, there are a few who failed too. Its just a fact of life.

Why I write this? For the single reason that I am now able to see the tip of the mountain in our startup venture. And I know it is still not easy reaching there. It still needs many days of slogging and a lot of mental strength. Yet, how beautiful the path seems! I just hope our resources permit our journey to the top.

How do birds learn to fly? They do not just flap their wings half their life and say “I’ll make these wings strong enough before I fly”. That is never going to happen. Their only option is to take the plunge. Although most would fly awkwardly in the beginning, they would eventually learn the trick. And if you think that the rule wouldn’t work for you, then definitely read G.R.Gopinath’s Simply Fly.

From serving in the military to coconut farming, silkworms, Motorbike dealership, Udupi hotel, politics, stock broker, Agriculture consulting, helicopters, airplanes and now cargo business; His is a story of the beauty of life. There will be failures and there will be successes. What should be remembered is that failures and successes are just milestones in the amazing journey of life. The journey is what matters most.

One of the most important lessons here is “There is no such word called ‘impossible’”. I usually say to people, ‘if you want to prove why something wouldn’t work, you can invent all the reasons and accumulate all the data to support why it wouldn’t work. On the other hand, if you really want to do something, all that you need to do is to believe that it will work. Everything else will just fall in place, with effort though.’ This book just reaffirms my faith. A helicopter company can be started with no money although it took him 2-3 years to just get the licenses. 60 airplanes worth Rs.12,000 crores can be ordered with just 1 crore in the bank. And you can do farming without using pesticides or fertilizers and get a Rolex award for enterprise for that.

Those who aren’t entrepreneurs, enjoy the absolutely entertaining story and probably get inspired in the process. For those who have already taken the entrepreneurial path, this book could be a friend in your journey.

• Rajesh Hanbal used to work at a reputed software firm in Bangalore. He has quit his job and is dedicated towards preparations for the Indian Administrative Service.
• Ashwin Krishna also used to work at a software firm in Bangalore. He has quit to achieve his dreams. His aim is to create a world-class university.
• Vinay Parameswarappa, another ex-software engineer conducts walk tours in Mysore and gives you an experience of true places which are not in any map.
• Rakshit plans to quit his software job and get into music production.
• Prashanth is director at an internet solution company.
• Justin is an American who is passionate about Mysore and works hard to make civic problems known.
• Sourabh, again an ex-software engineer runs a book club and is into event management.
• Suraj and Anil and I run a company into renewable energy power plants (1).

I had written about Mysore Santhe in my last post. That is where I met many of the people I mentioned now. We had many more people like GV Krishnan (2), Krishnavattam, Bapu Sathyanarayana, ER Ramachandran and Javeed Nayeem who write for the print media and Anantaramaiah who runs a school in Mysore.

I guess you liked Phunsuk Wangdu on screen. Mysore Santhe is a place to meet such Wangdus. And probably get inspired enough to become a Wangdu yourself.

1. Added this line after comments from readers
2. It was G V Krishnan who initiated this idea of Mysore Santhe