‘Accepting’ the New-Age Woman 2.0

As featured on theTechpanda.com

Our 2^nd grade social science textbooks are filled with images: Images of women as “teachers” and men as “professionals”, of mothers singing lullabies to the baby and fathers teaching the kids mathematics.

When I was a kid, I remember the girls being as good, if not better than the boys. We did better in tests and were always picked to be Class Prefects. Sometime around the age of 16, things began to change. Boys started doing better in class, topping our engineering entrance exams and getting the more prestigious jobs. I googled “girl topper IIT JEE” and got no results – so I’m assuming there hasn’t ever been one.

Today, the world is entering a new era and India is leading the way into the next century. Yet, as on one hand Bangalore spurs its own Silicon Valley, on the other hand -India has to battle challenges like poverty, lack of sanitation, lack of access to clean drinking water and a lack of electricity. And to tackle these challenges, we need to empower our women. Not just our educated daughters in the cities but also our uneducated, illiterate sisters in the villages of real India.

As part of Jagriti Yatra 2012- I traveled to different parts of India visiting social enterprises. And it was in the deepest trenches of rural India that I realized empowering one woman can create hope- not for just the woman, but for the entire community. Be it the rural women solar engineers setting standards for MIT in Barefoot College, Tilonia, or self-help groups such as SEWA, women were taking charge of their lives, families and communities. These rural women entrepreneurs were now sending their children to good schools, they were investing in homes and were no longer victims of the abuse.

Any household with an empowered woman seems to flourish. Yet, why do we see so very few women in entrepreneurship and business? Are we as a society programming our boys in one-way and girls in another? Are our boys growing up with the notion that it is their responsibility to be “bread winners” and girls growing up with the notion that one day “they have to give up their careers to get married anyway”?

Are those same images in our 2^nd standard social science textbooks responsible for a subconscious social programming that shapes our girls in one way and boys in another?

In my personal experience, the most difficult part about being an entrepreneur is “deciding” to be an entrepreneur.  Deciding to start a business is hard for the average middle class Indian. Questions plague you everyday – Is it the right thing to do, what if you fail, what about your family, what will the neighbors say? And it is in these moments that it is important to have that one person you can look up to – your sister, neighbor or friend who knows what its like to have been there.

We come from a society, which celebrates success but scoffs at failure – and the risks associated with entrepreneurship make it an incredibly unconventional option. The additional bias of being a “woman” to this stratosphere makes it virtually impossible for an average Indian girl to even consider entrepreneurship as a viable career option.

And it is this bias that we need to tackle as society. We all respect our female teachers and are thankful to our female doctors. But as a society, we are not yet comfortable with the idea of women in business. Yes, we celebrate the success of Kiran Majumdar Shaw and Indira Nooyi – but we have not yet completely ‘accepted’ the possibility of our daughters running their own businesses.

But hope lies – in the 20-something young women such as the Anu Sridharan of Nextdrop.org and Richa Kar of Zivame.com who are redefining women entrepreneurship in India and with that, dissolving societal biases surrounding young women entrepreneurs in India.

And it is time that as a society – we begin to truly “accept” women entrepreneurs. Not look at them with astonishment, not celebrate them- just completely “accept” them.

What you should know before you Pitch your company at a Global Level

Social Cops were finalists at the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (2013) held by the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. We came out as winners for the Information and Communications Technology prize and in the process we’ve learn’t a LOT. I’m trying to summarize my learnings with what we did right and what we did wrong. So far.

 

#1: Know Your ‘Problem’

I’m surprised by how many people get this wrong. In the field of social enterprise, it is surprisingly easy to get this wrong as you sit in your plush office in the developed world connected to Google and sipping on white-chocolate-Mocha from Starbucks and try to solve a disease in India, Kenya or Bangladesh.

I’m guilty of this mistake too. I was once part of a team that was trying to create a solution to eradicate Japanese encephalitis - the single most important cause for deaths in North India. We were a team of engineers, doctors and biologists and we immediately began to hypothesis – the problem must be that they are unable to detect J.E. fast enough – the villages are too far away from the medical units, the capacity isn’t good enough blah blah. Based on these assumptions, we created an innovative model for a low-cost PCR machine. Think of the possibilities of being able to install a device in each village and training a villager to use it. We would eradicate J.E and change the world!

Yeah, right. Upon going on ground to the village (and I’m glad we did this before we started building our product) – we realized that infact, access to medical care was not a problem at all. A simple 10 minute trip from every village took us to the nearest medical unit – and the villagers claimed they had no problems in seeing a doctor if they needed. Then what was the problem? The resilient villagers had a mentality of trying not to visit doctors until and unless their condition becomes critical in order to save money. Many lives were lost because by the time a doctor actually saw the patient he was in too critical a condition to be saved. So the solution to this problem would be to actually educate the villagers to encourage them to visit the doctor more often and NOT a low cost PCR machine.

The best founders are generally the ones who are solving a problem that pains them, annoys them, irritates them. Why? Because they know the problem so well that THEY are the first customers of their product. So they build a product that they would use themselves. Just like Larry Page and Sergey Brin did when they were frustrated with Alta Vista.

Upon competing on a global level as well, the biggest takeaway was that the teams that knew their markets well did a better job of convincing the judges as to why their solution was necessary. I guess the same will go when you convince investors to invest in you, your employees to join the company and people to use your product.

 

#2 Talk to AS many people AS you can

There is no such thing as an idea that is going to be stolen. After 6 months of working on my startup, I’d like to tell everyone that : NO, its not as simple as stealing an idea. Go online and look. No idea is original. When we started Social Cops, we thought we were the only ones who had ever created anything like this. And as we delved into the subject, we came across stories and case-studies that made us realize that no, we weren’t the only ones. True, we had created our own niche and own business model – but most of that came from simply identifying the problem that we wanted to solve and then going out and talking to as many people as we can.

Your idea is hardly going to make 1% of your startup. (Peter Thiel, Paul Graham et al. agree with me on this) Your success will be determined by MUCH deeper things – how much hard work are you putting in, how willing are you to absorb new ideas and pivot, how good are YOU at convincing different stakeholders to adopt your solution and help you solve your problem etc etc . So stop worrying about telling people about your ‘idea.’ If it was as simple as ‘stealing your idea’ to solve the problem you are solving – maybe you should find a different problem. 

So formulate your problem, have a solution in mind and get talking to people – and be ready to change your solution depending on what you hear from ground.

 

#3: Pitch a ‘Story’ – not a ‘Solution’

Investors invest in YOU – the founder of the company and not the idea that you propose. Your pitch should convey why YOU are singularly the best person of of the other 10 people in the room, 100 people in your city and 1000 people in the world who are trying to solve the same problem YOU are working on. Why does this problem pain YOU so much that you are willing to risk the joys of a happy married life and a monthly fat paycheck to solve this problem? Convince them with your story. Powerpoint presentations are passé. Man spent millions of years telling and retelling stories before the powerpoint was invented. Why does  Steve Jobs win over people? Because he stands in front of this larger than life screen and talks – as he makes it about HIM. Not his slides.

 

#4: Know your “Audience”

Get your audience to RELATE with what you’re saying. We had a great pitch coaching session with Jacob Colker (cofounder of HUB Seattle) and Michael “Luni” Libes (Managing Director of Fledge) in GSEC which taught me a few different ways of doing this:

- Use a single important stat and CONNECT it to something people can remember.

E.g. Every year 3.5 million people die of HIV. The population of Seattle is 600,000. That means everyone you know, everyone you see on the street, everyone around you – and 6 times of that will die. In a year.

- Use a connection that almost EVERYONE can relate to E.g. The P&G Mom video does a great job of this. Why? Cos’ Everyone has a mom right? Another brilliant way of doing this is to show people what you’re talking about by using props. Bill Gates let out mosquitos during a recent TED talk he was giving about eradicating Malaria. Bang On. Talk about driving the point home.

 

I believe if your (1) is strong, and you do (2) well – you will automatically have a good solution to a big problem. Spend time on (3)- it might take days and millions of revisions. (4) can be mastered with practice and rehearsal. Steve Jobs spent days rehearsing before a launch. Same for Barack Obama.

You are the message. What Inspires you is the message.

Real Inspiration

I met some people who gave me strength and inspired me to do one thing- follow my dreams. No, not Anshu Gupta and Harish Hande who are already Ashoka Fellows and are larger than life.

1. Akram Feroze

Akram has been cycling and hitchhiking India for the last 500 days. With no money, he survives by doing odd jobs and living with the locals. When I asked Akram, what is he planning to do next- he said “I plan to do this till my last breath.” Akram probably knows India better than anyone ever could. And he is happy. Follow Akram’s Facebook page at CycleNatak.

2. Fahad Yunus Mohammed

Fahad quit his job to pursue photography & filmmaking- his real passion- full time. He’s been trekking around the country and doing what he really likes doing with his life. Did I mention? He loves his life! Subscribe to Fahad on Facebook.

3. Pratik Jain

He studied commerce, but decided to pursue videography. Worked in Balaji Telefilms, did some internships in big production houses- but found it stiffling his creativity. Pratik, quit and started his own firm- IMPED productions where they make movies that matter. Check out some cool campaigns they’ve run on anti-smoking and anti-mobile-use-while-driving.

4. Shipra Agarwal

Shipra graduated from IIT Bombay and went on to work in a famous management consulting firm. She’s probably the one person whom everyone thought was ‘settled’ in Indian terms - “IIT se graduate kiya, phir beti consulting main kaam kar rahi hai – haan woh USA bhi jaati rehti hai.” But 2 years into her job, Shipra wasn’t happy. She dream’t of creating her own enterprise- and her high paying consulting job wasn’t satisfying THAT particular need. She wanted to create an ecosystem preserving arts & handicrafts among women in rural areas and connecting them to developed markets to create wealth in rural India. And so she quit. She quit the “dream” consulting job and is working on her own social enterprise to achieve her dream.

The point I’m trying to make here is that – there is no right or wrong anymore. The first realization I had in my final year of university was that I was free to do what I chose to do now- I could get married if I wanted to (I have batchmates who are getting married), I could work on my own startup, I could take a year off and travel the world, I could work in an investment bank, I could work in a technical company, I could study further, I could do research, I could become a full-time writer (I wanted to say dancer/singer et al. but with my dismal singing and dancing skills, even ever-optimistic me says that it is of no avail). And NONE OF THESE are WRONG. And suddenly that scared me. My whole life as a student- there was the ‘right’ thing to do- study hard, take science stream, get into the best engineering colleges, do good internships – and suddenly ‘the right thing to do’ wasn’t there anymore. The world was my oasis. So, nothing that you choose to do can be wrong (and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!)- as long as YOU are HAPPY. As long as you are choosing for yourself and not because of what ‘society’ things.

The unfortunate truth is- being unconventional is still frowned upon by society. I still have people frowning at me when I tell them I want to start my own company and I know how hard it is when everyone around you is doing something completely different. And I realize that thanks to all the new govt. schemes and awareness campaigns and events around entrepreneurship, being an entrepreneur is still way easier than becoming a musician/photographer/dancer full time.

I’m writing this blog post to share some things and people I came across that inspired me which I hope might inspire you too. But more importantly, I’m writing this blog post selfishly- I’m writing it for myself. To capture how I feel today. Because I might not feel like this a few days, weeks and months from now. I met someone on the train who had been pretty depressed before the yatra because he hadn’t gotten placed in a certain company. The yatra made him reconsider pretty much his entire vision for what he wanted to do. In his words “This train is crazy man. People here are crazy. I just hope I feel like this even when I go back to college- where all everyone talks about are placements, MBA apps, CAT & GMAT scores etc etc.”

And its so true. I face it everyday. And at Jagriti Yatra, for the first time, I wasn’t a misfit or crazy- infact I fit right in. We were all crazy (or wanted to be crazy). And to be honest, before the yatra- I believed that I might need to go to Silicon Valley to find that environment. Luckily, turns out our very own India is beginning to create its own form of Silicon Valley. So I’m trying to capture my inspiration here on this blog- so when I am in fear, when I question myself, when I am in doubt- I can reread this and it will make me remember my dreams.

And I hope that reading about common people like you and me who had the courage to follow their passion- be it in music, travelling, photography or entrepreneurship would make you realize that it isn’t that difficult. If you’re in doubt- reach out to people and talk to them, understand what its like to be doing what you’re scared of doing full-time. And then, make an informed decision (not a blind one because everyone around you is doing it) that you will never regret looking back.

With Dreams, Come Risk.

About Non-Conformity & Inspiration

Find your way. Not the way everyone preaches.

My fellow yatri, Ravi Kumar Jha at the end of his touching and inspiring life story said “A man makes the job, the job doesn’t make a man.”

Dreams, Opportunities & Education

Kalkeri is the name of a school for underprivileged kids. It is a boarding school which runs on grants and donations from the outside world. The kids don’t need to pay anything but are given the love, affection and education they deserve. They are taught not just math and science and English, they are taught dance and music, they learn to appreciate our Indian culture, In waysthat even we lucky privileged private school studying kids don’t.

I want to tell you the story of Ganesh. Ganesh is a 4th grade kid in Kalkeri. Ganesh, for lack of most descriptive words is a rock star. No kidding. A fourth grader with the IQ of a 6th grader and the wit of a seasoned standup comedian, Ganesh caught and held the attention of almost 15 25 year olds at the same time. We asked Ganesh, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Ganesh replied in impeccable English, “I want to be an IPS officer.” We asked Ganesh “do you know what IPS is?” and he said “Indian Police Service.” When asked why he wanted to be an IPS officer, Ganesh said “because I want to catch the bad guys and beat them and put them in jail.” Ganesh is 9 years old. 

Throughout the Jagriti Yatra, I have been surprised and astonished by the energy, enthusiasm and sheer brilliance of kids all around our country. Be it Ankita, whom I met in a slum in Patna or girls we met in a school under Gram Vikas in Orissa or a girl in first year of college in Deoria in UP- there were some resounding themes in their attitude towards education and their own dreams.

1. The older they are, the less likely they are to want to discuss their dreams.

When I asked Ankita, “tumhaara Sab se bada sapna Kya hai,” she said “sapna sach nahi hote.” 

She is in 8th grade, yet she speaks like an old woman worn out by life and it’s miseries. After much prodding, she said “hum bhi hamaare teacher jaise bacchon ko padhaana chahte hain.” A 8th grader who wants to give back to society the same love and understanding that some teacher had given her. When her intentions can be so noble, why can we as a society not create an environment for her to achieve her dreams?

2. Yet, they dream. 

Whatever the flaws of our education system be, every child in India has a dream. And I think that this is somewhere that we as a society have been successful. Every kid wants to be an engineer, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a government servant.. Something of value to the society. (of course the fact that in India we are streamlined into either being a doctor or engineer by society, is another story).

But here I would like to highlight a little known fact about Singapore and the Singapore education system. As part of a school student mentoring scheme, some of my friends from university went down to a nearby public school. They carried out an exercise where 8th grader kids were asked to write down their dreams on a post it note and stick it on a board. A shocked friend described to me how the team had been devastated to realise that 90% students said that they “wanted to go to polytechnic.”

According to global education rankings, Singapore constantly outperforms all other nations.. India cannot even compare to Singapore. The entire world has been trying to analyse the Singapore system to understand why their kids are so good at math in Grade 6. And they do have a brilliant education system- I have seen some of the most hard working smart people graduate out of the Singapore system. But what about dreams? Why is a kid in a remote village in India with zero opportunities and living in poverty dreaming more than a kid in school in Singapore? Its definitely a question to ponder about.

It’s a miracle that these kids in slums in India still continue to dream. And for this we must be thankful. 

3. So they already have dreams, and they already have capabilities .. Can we give them the opportunity to shine? 

So that brings us to the question that if we have super smart kids like Ganesh in every slum and village in this country, what can we as a society do to create opportunities for these kids to excel?

2% of every transaction in India is educational cess. Right to education is a fundamental right according to the constitution. Yet, even the poorest of poor send their kids to private schools. Why? Because government school teachers don’t even go to school. The government is trying its hardest: Kapil sibal is working on as many reforms as possible, yet india is a large country. Before the fruits of what our ministers are trying to do reach common man, it has been eaten up by the layers and layers of corrupt officials in the middle.

Here, there are a few things we should think about:

1. Why is teaching not a lucrative + honourable choice of profession among students top universities of the country?

This is where Singapore succeeds in ways that India can truly learn from. This is the promo video of the Ministry of Education program inviting graduates to take up teaching as a career. Its definitely worth a watch. No wonder Singapore boasts of one of the best education systems in the world.

The pay is as lucrative as a college graduate would get (barring investment bankers), they send you to study in the best education schools -all expenses paid and your career path is completely based on merit. In short, if you’re the best teacher, In about 15-20 years time, you get a shot at being the Minister for Education.

This is for Mr.Kapil Sibal to note and I’m sure he already knows, and is doing his best to reform the process. But a top down approach is not enough for a country as big as India. 

2. Need for a bottoms up approach 

Change cannot be created until 1000s of US – educated youth – the future of the nation really step into the picture and get their hands dirty.

No, don’t tell me that you are ‘passionate about education’ when you sit for job placements in investment banks and FMCG companies. Save that line for your b-school application.

If you’re passionate about teaching kids – go ahead and do that. I’d like to highlight the story of my fellow Yatri- Shadab Hassan from Ranchi. Shadab finished his MBA and started his own school to teach the underprivileged in Rural areas. The school is self funded (with little startup capital) and they have 500+ kids enrolled today. Shadab made a decision to do something about the cause that he was passionate about. 2 years into it, he is changing the lives of 500 kids, hosting workshops in collaboration with the IITs and truly making a difference in many lives.

Follow Shadab’s school on Facebook.

The point I’d like to make here is that Shadab could have done exactly what you are planning to do. He could have stuck to a plush job, make a lot of money and say that ’10 years from now I will do something about my true passion- education.’ But he didnt. He made sacrifices to give back to the country. He did the unconventional. And that made all the difference. You can make that same decision.  If you are passionate about teaching kids, go ahead and teach them. Teach them NOW. India needs 1000s and 1000s of Shadabs before the problem of education is solved. And India needs them TODAY. Not after 10 years.

What can YOU do? 

There is a lot that can be done in the education space. The govt. is rolling out Aakash 2 tablets to be distributed to rural kids. The Internet connectivity is going to change millions of lives and open up millions of opportunities. Online content delivery to rural areas, how to make learning fun for kids (gamification), how to standardise and measure learning in rural areas, etc etc is one avenue.

When we asked villagers in Deoria, ‘apka sabse bada problem Kya hai, hum apke liye Kya jar sakte hain?’ they replied – ‘bas sabki Naukri laga do.’ There is a big need for vocational training courses in villages. I met a fellow yatri (Nikhil Kulkarni) who was working on a mobile platform that helps teach people conversational English. The mobile phone penetration in rural india along with the upcoming govt scheme to connect villages to wifi networks holds many opportunities for local enterprises. These people are smart – smarter probably than you and me, they just need access to opportunity. Give them this and they will shine. Looking for an idea on what you can do? Just visit a village and stay there for 2 days. I bet my life you will think of atleast 100 ideas. So what if it has been done before? Implement it in a different location. People ask me- what if other teams start implementing Social Cops? I say ‘the problem I am solving is so large, that I welcome other teams to implement it. Even if 10 companies work on the same model, the problem is too large to be solved and there will still be opportunity.’

There are millions of young kids dreaming in our country. Do your part in making at least 100 dreams come true. 

Yaaron Chalon!

An anthem by itself- the Jagriti Yatra geet. This song can rejuvenate you, no matter how sleep-deprived, tired and annoyed you are.

Brilliant lyrics written by Prasoon Joshi, composed by Adesh Shrivastava, and sung by Babul Supriyo. The choreography by Gauri Mani ma’am is so simple, yet so powerful. (When Gauri ma’am dances, she’s the only one on stage you can look at!)

Dance & Music is such a powerful tool. I realised this only about a year ago. I was always really shy, I have two left feet and I hate dancing. I was fortunate enough to have participated in Bhava Spandana (by the Isha Yoga Centre) which changed my attitude towards dance forever. This was followed by my involvement with AIESEC, and if you’ve ever heard about AIESEC- you’ve heard about AIESEC dance! So for those of you who are too shy to dance at random places- try. This Jagriti Yatra, we danced on railway platforms, in government schools, on buses and in trains. And it was the most liberating experience ever.

In conclusion, Yaaron Chalo is truly a part of every yatri and deserves a mention. Yaaron Chalon, Badalne ki rut hai.

Prince Charles is our brand ambassador, before that it was just the MBAs!

Role Model Visit 1: Mumbai Dabbawallas

Harvard studies them. IIM studies them. Stanford studies them. They are 8th grade passes and do not use any CRM management tool. They’ve been around since 1890 and they still operate the same way they did a century ago. They make 1 mistake in 16 million deliveries. They are the Mumbai Dabbawallas.

“A watch can go wrong but not the Mumbai Dabbawallas”

These men surely beat DHL when it comes to six sigma ratings. They are illiterate (average literacy of 8th class) but in their gandhian caps they surely do better than us techno-geeks with Harvard degrees. Yes, the dabbawallas are illiterate but are a matter of case studies for harvard, Stanford and the IIMs.

And why not? 5000 dabbawallas transport 2 lakh dabbas on a daily basis across 70 km using just bicycles, hand carts and the Mumbai locals.

Sounds like an awfully hard and manual process huh? Their error rate is 1 displaced dabba/ 2 months. That equals 1 in 16 million failures. What makes this organisation tick? Yes, the Mumbai Dabbawallas are used to us ‘padhe likhe log’ shadowing them day in and day out to try and understand why they are so good.

Read an Article on what Harvard is learning from the Dabbawallas here.

Check out a TED video of the Dabbawallas here. (TOTALLY WORTH A WATCH, this is non-stop entertainment with a wow-factor!)

What struck me most was how well the culture of the dabbawalla community was built. They were all owners, not workers.. Shareholders in their own company. They walked with pride and put in their best efforts into Their work. The dabbawallas never took a days off without prior notice. In their words ‘mere bete hospital main bhi ho, main Subah 9-12 am tak kaam karoonga, uske baad hospital jaaoonga.’ And every great organisation thrives on the commitment of its workers and this kind of commitment is almost unrivalled.

How does one create a culture of ownership in an organisation? If all organizations manage to learn from the Dabbawallas, maybe we would have more people loving their work, less people quitting their jobs, more productivity, shorter work hours due to an increased efficiency and all-in-all a better world.

“If you do good work, the world will follow you and praise you. All I know is that my customers are the most important to me, not these awards, not this praise.. Serving food is serving god”