In Defense of Middle Class Values for Entrepreneurship | Anuradha Thota | TEDxIITHyderabad
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4R17qoD4WA Video ID: l4R17qoD4WA ============================================================ foreign [Music] I'm a technologist and an entrepreneur I enable dreams of students and parents I strongly believe that every student has this right for imminent opportunities and world-class education what do you what you see here is one of those more than thousand seminars that I give to students from Tire to entire three cities most of the students from Tire to entire 3 cities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana know me but if you are an IIT and probably you wouldn't know me and that makes me that leads me to believe that even IIT students do not get to see best [Music] so in jokes apart that's what entrepreneurs believe entrepreneurs believe that they are the best and they can give the best Solutions they can move the mountains and only they can move the mountains that's what they believe so entrepreneurship and I actually we are somewhat same I am 50 but I behave like 20. even entrepreneurship is like that entrepreneurship and Anuradha or any other entrepreneur we are old but we try to fit in the new generation with all the generations that followed us we try to fit in with them try to understand where we can fit in try to cope up try to Grapple so how is that I'm able to be relevant across so many generations I've been relevant all across and I am still relevant how am I able to be so relevant across so I trust the power of middle class values for this why I do it why do I trust power of middle class values you have to know little bit about me I was born in Hyderabad my dad is a banker and I learned lot of discipline from him but what I have to tell you is more about about my mom most of us learn from moms so my mom she has discontinued her mbbs in the last leg she didn't complete her house surgeon activity that she has to do but she didn't stop there she went on to become you know an area called sanatnagar in Hyderabad she went on to become most beloved teacher garu of sanatnagar there are around 50 000 households and it's not exaggeration if I say fifty percent of the households would know her what's her specialty that so many people know her her specialty is Whenever there is a child who is not able to cope up with academics who is failing her specialty she'll make them pass the parents used to bring them whether it be lkg 10th class intermediate or graduation she used to be she used to make them pass so what I have found looking back is that I also used to teach people who are in higher classes than me and I teach I taught in my own where I did my graduation I was teaching the first years chemistry and the students used to wait for me the college paid me in fact for that and later also very recently when we had this 10th class reunion one of the girls the girl is also 50 and she came to me and she told that she was she passed 10th class and went on to become teacher because I don't remember but I taught her maths so looking back I think like my specialty my specialty has been explaining very well in the best possible way and about my career I had my first baby when I was in college looking back I think it was traumatic for my classmates to see me nine months pregnant classmate and I remember very clearly that students in the college you know when I walked in the corridor or climbed stairs the college used to go to stand still people used to just stand there out of fear I'm very sorry to all my classmates in college maths about that but after that I joined bank and then state bank and then joined number of multinationals most of the multinationals that usually it people join so I joined these multinationals I went to U.S I went to UK and then I came back I did my MBA from ISB and post that I worked as a CEO for an I.T organization and then started my own in 2013. and I've been relevant all these years and I am a successful entrepreneur today I call myself successful I am reasonably uh I have met the goals that I've set for myself and what do I do it's not working okay so um there are around 3.5 crore technology students do you believe in India if you go to aicte site 3.5 crores technology students in India and most of the studies say that there are only 15 percent students who are employable and Common Sense will say these 15 percent students are either from cities Tire one cities or from very good colleges from Tire to cities that's it so it is gross Injustice that opportunities are not available to most of the students and this is my main aim that I want to take these eminent opportunities and world-class education to the students across the country wherever they are and how did I start I just started with a laptop I didn't have any we are not from a business family so I didn't have much uh Capital to start with I just started with laptop but I'm able to be reasonably successful my mission is quite big actually massive to reach out to all these students so again coming to the question how am I relevant and how am I able to do I attribute and raise the money I attribute to my middle class values I didn't start my dream my life that I have to be very good at edtech I have to start something which is which is the best in it I didn't start like that I just I don't even have money as I said what I have is a very good heart which response which response when I see a student who is bright but not able to access good opportunities I feel sad for that because if he didn't access opportunities at that age he will never access opportunities for the rest of their life at the same time even if I see a patient who is not able to access good medical support I feel sad but why did I choose edtech there are so many things that you can feel sad about when you look around but why did I choose edtech looking back I didn't plan for it what I can just say is every household has exclusive intelligence what I got from my mom is this exclusive intelligence it is not you can't decode it it is some Unwritten code and you can't decipher that code every family has some intelligence for example there is one Higher in in my organization who has completed his intermediate he has done something called Photoshop done a training on Photoshop and he joined us as designer I have to tell the designs were pathetic but one fine day I had a need that he somebody has to speak in Telugu with my potential customers and this guy I'd asked him to speak to the all these potential customers by evening he has converted all of them into customers the first question I asked him is what is your dad and he has mentioned they had a saree shop and what this young lad has picked up is sales and that is why every household has that exclusive intelligence so whatever you study whether it be engineering or in engineering it is software or Metallurgy or whatever it is whatever you study combine it with your What I Call Family intelligence and you'll make wonders especially in India you will make vendors why in India will make wonders because in all the diversity that India has there is one common thread across and that Common Thread is middle class value system there is definitely middle class value system even with Ambani he has a middle class value system probably his children might not be having but middle class value system exists in the country across in the mines so in this middle class value system what happened is with the middle class value system is most of them refer to middle class value system or middle class mentality with a very negative connotation there is inherently some problem with this middle class value system is what people say you have to change in order to succeed is what the people say I went to ISB I was taught Finance marketing strategy and everything if somebody has said all the speakers or researchers or or intellectuals have said that you will have to change your value system in order to be successful so I've been taught everything but who gave me the new value system that I have to follow there is no new value system they just criticize the middle class value system right so nobody gives us that and so that is the reason I'm here today to tell you that middle class value system needs a defense I am the legal lawyer person who is who stands here defending the middle class value system for success so the first casualty or the first thing that when you say middle class value system is flawed is there were so many comedy shows and in every every place they say okay don't don't worry about the society you go on free will what I think is whatever society that we hate that brings us the much required discipline keeps his morality keeps our morality intact and helps you avoid distractions and more so ever it creates a fear of failure fear of failure you should have you should have fear of failure for Success most of them say though you don't have no fear of failure you should have and you thought did you think that I had an option to leave my Venture and say you know this is not working for me I didn't have an option because my mom had a favorite poem in Telugu and this is the favorite poem her favorite poem since I was a child is this is in Telugu name this means that you need not take everything seriously this Loosely translates to you don't need to think take everything seriously but if you take seriously then don't don't leave it you know if you have to leave it then you better die that is what it means so I never had this option of saying this is not working for me the second important one everybody says is not right is complacence why is complacence complacence they say complacence meaning you will have to agree to somebody even if you don't like but still willingly this is taught in all the households to your Chacha or to your mama to anybody of the elders you just have to listen and do what they say you will have to please them and this complacence is people say if you are complying then you are weak and living on Free Will is strong no it is not compliance complacence will help you think from multiple angles it helps me think from the student angle it helps me think from from the parent angle it helps me think from the investor angle it is nothing but emotional intelligence you don't need to especially go through lots of books for emotional intelligence this is how you are taught in your household how to use your emotional intelligence and the next comes Stand by Your Word everybody knows the story of harishchandra and everybody knows the story of the cow that comes back to the tiger after leaving its leaving its child because it has given the word to the tiger that it will come back we all know this story these stories are told as if they are foolishness today they are not whenever I thought I'm not able to take it forward or whenever I thought I have to give up then I think what happens to that student who trusted me what happens to that college which trusted me I think about them and standing by your word is very important next family so for me family or Community for me it is family it is true that most of the time first two years or so you are an entrepreneur your parents wouldn't like it there will be so many people who will say no this doesn't happen to you but once they see once they see your great and persistence they are all with you my daughter she has resigned a very high paying salary and she is working for 30 percent of her drawn salary just to keep this um take take this to the next level my husband's dream is my dream he also has he also shares the dream of making my organization really big so the family is always with you and for you it can be your friends it can be a small community if you have watched the movie Joker I couldn't relate to one frame of Joker that's because in India nobody will allow a family to to be like that the mom and the son they will always hit you from the back saying no no this doesn't work the Charlo will not allow you to fail okay they always say you know you have to do this you have to do that they come to support okay so Community is very important and another one they always ask us to ask us is grow silently do not boast did you ever hear of kimathurai Gupta kimatra Gupta has started his life in a shop in electrical shop of his mama and then on he he has built havels which is so huge 2022 Financial year ended with 1500 billion rupees in sales in revenues did you hear of him and from the time he started till today his old he is expired so it will till till this till this time of this picture it takes so much time to build a sustainable long-lasting organization we never heard of him compare and contrast with the unicorns that we have today and these are all Bahar sherwani andar pareshani they have 5000 crores loss and always grappling for funds that's not how we build sustainable long lasting organizations sustainable long lasting organizations require you to build step by step for a long time so build small all these things the importance given to education your manners honesty discipline the financial discipline that they are forcing on you will really give you lot of strength will form your real personality and Confucius has said everything has Beauty not everyone sees it this is true we are not able to see the beauty of the middle class mentality or middle class values and once in after three years I started my organization I was in shambles I I was weeping inconsolably on the lap of my 13 year old son and I told him I think Vivekananda told wrong he asked us to work hard he asked us to actually work incessantly work hard incessantly I think that's not how success comes he said with his 13 year old mind what he said is I think what he told is not wrong what you interpreted is wrong so that is true we are all interpreting middle class mentality as wrong and I started small and everybody has to start small build a sustainable business and there will come One Moment One opportunity one situation that will make it big and we call this lifestyle entrepreneurs start small and first sustain yourself first sustain your lifestyle and then start expanding a day comes when it will become really big so let us encourage the becoming of Lifestyle entrepreneurs from students and see how the new India unveils thank you so much for listening to me thank you