darzi

Mafatlal has been in the tailoring business for eternity.
His father took him as an apprentice at age 5.
Mafatlal is in his 70s. He has chickenpox marks on his face. His bread is untrimmed flying high, and his big nose is like an electricity pole in a paddy field.

The Jadeja family of Rajkot had called for them 100 years back.

Initially, he looked at me with suspicion, but my mad curiosity about the chicken pox marks on his face started the conversation.
I was at a roadside tea shop in Rajkot.

I will be last in my generation doing this, says Mafatlaal.
There is no money or respect left in the business.
During those festival seasons, we had to call for more men from our native, and seths would pay us anything.
Now things have changed.
Everyone wants everything quick and mechanized.
The craftsmanship is no more recognized.
So, here I am fighting for survival.

Sometimes we crave people in our life to talk to.
We end up sharing life stories with strangers, as they listen to them with curiosity.

Neither of his children is interested in carrying the business forward. Looking at and listening to him makes me painful.

dormant

How easy it is to live in anger like a dormant volcano. Does it help anyone? Be it a relationship or business: disagreements are part of it. But keeping grudges makes things only worst. We start forming our own opinion and put everything in a prejudiced bucket.

Who does it help? None
Who does it affect? Each one of us.

The only solution to avoid living in pain and anger is to speak up then and there instead of sulking.

solitude

We underestimate the power of our Solitude.
Some confuse it with loneliness.
The connected world gives us no opportunity to spend time with ourselves.

We are a robot of deadlines, tasklist, or mobile notifications.
Everything has to be done on time in a defined way by someone else. Success depends on parameters defined by others.

But what about us? Our consciousness? Are we not built on how we see things and our thoughts? Is this hyperconnected world eating our Solitude?

When we are alone, we have time to think, observe and look back or forward. Our dedicated time without any external intrusion does wonders: it makes us creative and calmer. We start seeing the world through our lens without external influence.

battle

In the journey of building taghash, it has been at times that we are fighting a battle like David and Goliath.

After demos, customers would remind us how our competitors are superior or have a mandate to buy US vendors. It was a painful rejection earlier. We have now realized this will not change, and we should focus on delighting the customers who believe in us, however small we are, and trusting in solving their pain points.

We have started, and our battle is the pain of our customers who believe in us. We are lucky to have many dozens. We are profitable and happy solving, delighting a few rather than going into boom/bust and sale at all cost journey of a startup

death

What do we see in death?
Life in a different world or the end of a journey?
Death is celebrated and mourned in varied cultures. Some celebrate with wine post-cremation, and many others spend 14 days of mourning.

Death reminds us of the importance of the limited time allocated in our life. The limited time is for us to make the best of it and leave an impact.

Our legacy stays but not we.

anger

Anger has ruined many empires in the past. Anger kicks rationality to the dustbin. We end up taking uncalled actions and end up regretting life.

We are not perfect. Our ego and unmet expectations drive anger.

There is no cure for anger besides knowing the trigger, accepting it, and trying to be calmer. Food, sleep, and thoughts all have an impact on our actions.

Nero burnt Rome in anger and got his advisor, Seneca, killed/poisoned.
Many Indian kings have done treacherous things in anger and put

5P

In the last 4-5 years of building Taghash, 4P pillars have acted as guiding principles. I am thankful to Raja for letting me know about the “Jobs To Be Done methodology” and for giving me a copy of “when When Coffee and Kale Compete” by Alan Klement.

Alan Klement talks about “jobs to be done” in:
“Pain, Desire to progress, and Willingness to pay” methodology.

Marty Cagen talks about building product keeping:
“People, Process and Product” methodology.

In our case, we read, re-read, and built our version of it by adding Marty Cagen’s book: Inspired and Alan Klement’s teachings creating 5P.

Pain: Identifying whose pain it is?
Persona: Crafting ideal persona of user in pain.
Process: Understanding their current workflow and process.
Product: Building a product incorporating above 3.
Paisa (money): Identifying the customer’s pocket and willingness to pay.

Thoughts

Our thoughts and actions define who we are as species on this planet. Both virtues are interdependent.

It is easy to get lost in thoughts and take no action. At other times get intimidated and take uncalled actions.

Cultivating thoughts require solitude and processing externals and actions can be taught.

Aid

Software is an aid for efficient workflow, not replacement in most instances.
This realization makes product development easy.
It eliminates the resistance from the user, and they know your product exists to make their life less painful.

We cannot replace a doctor, engineer, lawyer, or Accountant with software.
But you can sell them your product as an aid that makes their life less painful. They will pay you for it.

We, humans, hate life threats be it a profession or personal.