atul jha – Page 214

Traits of successful people

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Advantage of being a connector is that you get to meet people with diverse background, culture & belief. Some are very successful with whatever they are doing, others working hard to reach there. I made a list of qualities which in my opinion you will see in these successful people.

1. They are grounded.
2. They take advice or listen to everyone but end take the best path.
3. They are empathic.
4. They respect everyone
5. They are inquisitive
6. They are always eager to learn something.
7. They don’t get tired easily
8. Are are front shooters
9. They like to relax, smile often

PS: there are some exception i.e Steve jobs, if world thinks he was successful. What do you think, what makes you successful?

Random Thoughts: Letting it go.

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I am done living half of my life [assuming we don’t get Nuked by our neighbours or we have some natural calamity ] There are few things which at times I think about from past :

should have acted more professional in that executive meeting.
should not have fought over phone after few bottles down with someone I cared for.
should not have given my brutal honest opinion to my closest friend who is no-more my friend.
Should have bowed to his Ego for bigger paycheck/job.

I had options.

a) Either I should cry over it, burn my blood, feel miserable [Not that I did not do all of this]

b) Learn from these mistakes & move on. I don’t have to be so harsh on myself. [Its too fucking hard to practice though..]

Alas “Time is the biggest healer”, they said. It took me sometime to realize that i need to let few things go from my life & its for my good.

What do you all think?

Who am I?

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I am trying to develop a habit of reading, last week while reading one article I got to know about “Mundaka Upanishad“.

Upanishad are suktis[chants] which teachers[guru] used to share among students in older days in India. There are 18 principal upanishads.

On searching harder I got these 2 videos explaining “Who am I” using Mundaka Upanishad.

In all honesty I am not the write guy to write summery of these, i would request you to watch both the videos & understand from it. I hope it helps to almost all of us who been asking all this while to ourselves “Who am I?”

Bonus: I also found this series of lectures[mp3] on Mundaka Upanisad, you should wget get and save it will be a good content to listen while you are on a long flight.

Oli, Constitution & Indo-Nepal relationship

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Constitution

Nepal is still recovering from the aftermath of massive earthquake which killed over 10, 000 people and displaced millions. The rescue and aid operation in most of the affected part is still underway. At the same time the political parties in Nepal decided to pass its new constitution and it came into effect on September 20, 2015.

The constitution has failed to address every region of the country especially people from madhesh, as a result there were serious protest. These protests turned violent & over 40 protesters were killed by the security forces in retaliation.

India’s Advice

India suggested Nepal to bring every regional leader on table before passing the constitution India also suggested Nepali leaders to take some more time because of the ongoing unrest in madhesh region, which shares open boundary with India.

Aftermath

Social Media: As a result of this request and with social media this whole request/suggestion of India got projected as bully and young nepalis went crazy on sites like Twitter and Facebook asking India to stay out of issues in Nepal. There were hashtags like #BackoffIndia all over the internet.

Nepali Media: Various online news media, publication blamed India for shortage of fuel and other essential items. India has been supplying these to Nepal for decades[Nepal pays for it].

It should be noted, most of these same press, media ignored to acknowledge the real reason for fuel shortage being the disruption created by the protesters in madhesh region. India rejected these allegations and made it clear that there is no blockade & advised the ruling government to fix the deadloack between protesters in madhesh region.

Public Sentiments: With the help of social media, TV, press ordinary nepalis are fed enough 24*7 to believe that India is reason for all current mess not the inability of the political parties who passed the constitution without having everyone on board.

Advantage China

It should be noted that Prachanda, Koirala & Oli are key figures in Nepal’s ruling running coalition. By the time this post get published, Oli might be announced as next PM of Nepal. It is out and open that Oli is not a big admirer of India & has spoken numerous occasions about same. He is considered to be more inclined towards China like Prachanda.

Since media and people’s sentiment are already against India [at least in Kathmandu], Oli will play his chinese cards in all possible ways. [After all its a payback time for him.]

What next?

India should learn from its mistake & remember that politicians are never affiliated to a particular group/section. Its all about money & timing.
The propaganda local media in Nepal has created against India will affect ordinary people from both countries.
The newly elected leadership will keep playing catch up to Indian counterparts. It will be test of nerves for Mr. Modi & team.
China will give few billions more aid to Nepal and grab most of the reconstruction work.
With the technology China has in 12–18 months they will bomb few mountains & build a trade route with Nepal. [not kidding]
India might have to start fencing its border with Nepal because the madhesh protest will affect it more than Kathmandu.
Madhesh leaders should unite & form a single alliance. Unity always helps and the numbers will make voice heard in Kathmandu otherwise they will remain what they are called among the elite class DHOTI.

Notes from DevopDays India

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Living in Bangalore has an advantage, you get to attend technology conference regularly with amazing set of speakers. Last week I attended DevOpDays India. Like every other technology event DevOp Days had amazing set of speakers, attendees & cool swags.

I made a small note on the overall event:

Everyone is excited about DevOps and it’s a need of the hour.
Containers are driving DevOps to new vertical.
Companies are willing to try newer technology in production if it scales.
Hiring is all time high in DevOps domain.
Remote Infra management centric startups were all around. This is going to be biggest job provider in IT domain in coming year for us.
Tools like Ansible, Salt, Docker is really hot.

Thanks to the organizers for making this event a grand success, already waiting for next year. Lastly i got chance to regroup, meet all my old buddies from open source community.

Introducing AroundStartups

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I am sure you all those who follow me on various social media platforms would be aware about AroundStartups. All I wanted is to have a platform to meet & interview people from India’s startup ecosystem. These are the hardworking folks inside their organization, portfolio and overall community & always willing to help, support, mentor. The timeline page has information about upcoming guests to the podcast.

Over time there will also be some post with data driven analysis around various trends on different matrix from India’s startup ecosystem. These data will be open source & stay on Github & anyone can reuse it.

These are my friends, mentors helped me in making this possible.

Alex, my boss at The New Stack has been very helpful in pushing me to podcasting world & encourage me to do this.
Prashant, the wordpress developer & a smart human.
Jugal, for helping me with the artwork, graphics, logo and helping with selecting background music score.
Abhishek for helping with audio editing, mixing & mastering.
Krishnan another very good friend, mentor of mine for connecting me to Jitesh.
Ajey Gore , Sidu & Niranjan for his pep talk on one particular evening & asking me to just start it.
Kamal Ravikant & James Altucher my life mentors.
Last not the least to my very first guests Brij, Sameer, Sanjay, Shandhya, Nikhil. It would have been difficult to start this without their time & faith in me.

Since it has just stated, I am not going to be perfect so all your suggestions & feedbacks will be incredible help to me which you can do via Twitter, Facebook or atul@aroundstartups.com The podcast is hosted on SoundCloud & also available on iTunes.

Random Thoughts: On first time founders

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One advantage of living in Bangalore, Silicon Valley of India is that you are surrounded by entrepreneurs as well as investors be it a microbrewery, cafe or restaurant.

Walk to DYU Cafe at Kormangala or Starbucks koramangala/Indiranagar or youngistaan indiranagar, you will see the action where a team is pitching to an investor or a team is working on building next million $$ startup.

I am an extrovert and like interacting, talking to people around me as a result i made small note on the matrix which can make or break your startup.

Team
Product market fit
Business model
Product pricing
Funding
Burn rate
Advisors

If you are a First Time Founder which 3 are the most import matrix for you?

The title has “first time founder” in it because you are most vulnerable to failure [unlike the experienced entrepreneurs ], which is not a bad thing. Its good to fail fast & move on.

random thoughts: Respect

I moved all the way from one of the remote part of India to Capital city. I really feel blessed that my mom made the decision to kick me out of her jurisdiction to a new independent hostel life.

My first encounter was with A.N. Singh, my physical education teacher and hostel warden. He is one of the reason why I am fit so far. I still remember every morning 6 am call followed by exercise and 7-10 km walk/run.

I got my first job, I met Shorav Sir, he helped me, kicked my ass and mentored me.

Its been 7 years since I have been working and over this tenure I have encountered various managers, heads but these two were the one who left maximum impact on me. I consider myself blessed that I met them. I will keep respecting them throughout my life for what I am right now.

What about you? Have you made a similar list?

Random Thoughts: On starting Up

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One advantage of living in Bangalore is everyone around you is working on startup ideas. You visit a coffee shop or a microbrewery you will find folks talking in length & at times even pitching product ideas to investors for funding.

I keeping asking myself these questions whenever i think about starting up.

1. Is this the thing i am fully motivated in doing & spending next 7-8 years?

2. Is this thing going to solve some real world problem?

3. Am I or my parents going to use this as soon as its out?

4. Can i keep it bootstrapped & start making revenue as soon as product is out?

I will be more than happy to know what excites you day & night about your startup.

India in 69 pictures

We celebrated 69 years of Indian independence yesterday. Like all the bloggers, artists, media houses and social media friends, I wanted to post a tribute to India on this blog. Here are 69 pictures of food, temples, people, palaces and more; taken by me or my friends [Johnshon, Shiva, Krish or Deepan] while traveling across this beautiful country. The pictures are linked to their respective Wikipedia pages for more information.

Note: All these images are under Creative Commons ShareAlike License.

1. Autowala on street of Bangalore.

autowala in bangalore