Inauguration of E-Week SSN EDC 2009

The Annual E Week Celebrations of Entrepreneurship Development Cell of SSN kick started with the speech of successful entrepreneurs like Mr.Sarath Babu-the Food King of India (Alumini of IIMA), Mr.Sunil Vishnu-cofounder of the Evam Enterprises theatre group (Alumini of MICA) and Ms.Vishnu Priya-coordinator from NEN.

Many of us say “If only, I had a few more bucks I would have become a.…”
But, Mr.Sarath says “Good that I didn’t have enough money because that made me work harder and strive longer to turn my dreams into a reality” There were thousands of hurdles in his life and those obstacles were perceived as steps of opportunities by him! This is just a tip of an iceberg.This small boy from Madipakkam in Chennai has made it big with his chain of food outlets and restaurants.

Many of us complain of power cuts and here is a man who has topped his studies amidst that. Mr.Sarath says, “For those who had electricity, they had a lot of distractions like watching television, listening to songs, or getting carried away by surroundings. I can see only my book from the light of the kerosene lamp but my friends have other things to see and that is the competitive advantage I enjoyed” he explains and chuckles. That’s the kind of positive attitude that we need to absorb from him!

In fact Mr.Sarath adopted an interesting strategy to save his energy. He reduced his communication to 10words/day which in turn increased his concentration manifold!
Mr.Sarath has conquered many hardships and it was his passion that made it all possible. When Mr.Sarath fell ill with viral fever, just one week before belling the CAT entrances, he didn’t give up and rather was working harder. ‘I have come this far not to quit’, he said to himself. That’s the kind of dedication one needs to have to succeed!

The world hardly remembers about 10 lakh personalities who walked this earth and Mr.Sarath is all set to enter that hall of fame! He dreams of a hunger free nation and soon we are going to witness his dream turn into a reality! Our best wishes for that too!

And next in the list came the enthusiast from the field of drama, full of life and energy! “Everyone here is born and studies in a good English medium school, gets into one of the top colleges, then a well paying job in a top company, later gets married and then his son or daughter carries forward the vicious cycle. So how are you going to be unique” questions Mr.Sunil who captivated his audience with his “fatafat” talks, entertained folks with his humor and exalting abundance energy levels!

Many of us have enjoyed fling kite when we were young and felt on the top of the world when we did that. What happened to us now? Where has our kite gone and why aren’t we flying it anymore? Where did the flame of doing something from the heart vanish, he expressed anguish! Feel passionate about the things you love doing and do that every time you feel doing it. This formed the base of his speech.

He also rightly pointed the flaw in our education system especially the flaw in the counseling system wherein a 12th standard student has to merely utter the name of the department he wishes to join and about which he has no clue at all. Don’t say I am being bounded by the system, change the rules, break the system, he advocates!

Mr.Sunil briefed us about the importance of grabbing opportunities and taking calculated risks with the following example. If you were on a top of a steep valley filled full of fierce sharks and you see a small wooden plank floating in it, what would you do? Who knows what will happen when you jump and hence the most important thing was to jump! Jump! And who knows you may unleash that you know to fly!!!

It was interesting to note that both the entrepreneurs pointed out that their "mothers" were a major source of inspiration in making them tread the path of entrepreneurship!
Kudos to Mr.Sarath and Mr.Sunil!