My Dear Student Friends,
Greetings!
This is Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Believer and Mentor, Inspire to Innovate
(i2i) Storytelling Movement. Welcome
to “Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 7”. Hope you enjoyed
reading my previous letter. These letters are making all institutions connected
across North to South & East to West, for one good cause, Inspire to
Innovate. I thank all of you for spending your valuable time reading this letter
series and patiently acknowledging the same.
In the previous issue, I discussed
the importance of inspire to innovate
(i2i) storytelling movement and
the value it is generating for growth of adolescent students. I also stressed
upon the glories of brave
hearts guarding our nation in
extreme conditions like Saichen
region and about the stories of brave kids
who won national bravery awards. I highlighted the spirit showed by Rajinder Johar (occupational therapist),
how he ran the magazine in spite of paralysis, the amazing standup by Sapper Shanti Tigga, first women jawan, Neerja Bhanot, air hostess, Mahendra Nath Mulla, captain
of the INS Khukri who sacrificed lives for the commitment towards duty, Tessy Thomas, an extraordinary
scientist of DRDO, how she managed work-life balance, Vivek Vadke,
who downsized his daughter's marriage, saved 6 lakhs rupees and donated to
farmers who are suffering from drought effected regions, Bideswar Saw, an
ordinary taxi driver, how he symbolizes for honesty, Sanjay Raval, book shop retailer, how he takes another shop
on lease to save one shadow giving tree,
Sombari Sabar, 11 year tribal old orphan girl, sells firewood every
day, to sustain her life and but never misses school are pouring unlimited
inspiration to all of us!
Dear
Friends, This is the season, students across the nation, testing their last
mile knowledge and skills in the form final examinations. Success rate is
proportional to the hard work and smart work employed in. Having said that
failures are inevitable. Winston Churchill told "success consists of going
from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm". He further states,
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue
that counts.” Socrates definition to the success is when we want success as
badly as we want air, then we will get success. I appeal all students to keep
best possible efforts, bring best of your talent and prove yourself. In this
issue, I would like to share few stories who have crossed all odds and finally
reached the pinnacle. We can learn the most
critical aspect of life- how to manage failures and how failures are stepping
stones to the upcoming success.
Entrepreneurship
is peak of all the tests. It is life examination. It is masked with risk but
projected with reward. However, entrepreneur strives to the core and prepares
himself/herself to the battle. These stories buoy our energies. Raises our
spirit. They are addresses for learning space. They are identity cards to enter
into amazing experiences. They are insurance cards for future hope. Hearing
about such stories beautifies our thinking space. In this issue, I would like
to share few such stories and about amazing people who tide over multiple
failures, sustained their deep commitment and determination and finally reached
to the pole with successful flag.
I believe,
Bill Gates is the father of successful-commercial-technology-
entrepreneurship. Having said that, before reaching to this height, Gates
experienced few critical failures. Bill Gates was a
dropout of Harvard University. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started a
project named Traf-O-Data in 1970s, to read the raw data from roadway traffic hubs and
create reports for traffic employees (wikipedia). It was
not great success story. However, they did not stop their endeavor. Had they
stopped their efforts after their initial failures, we would have not seen most
successful venture, Microsoft! In 2015, Microsoft revenue stands at
93.58 billion USD!! It took 45 years to see this pinnacle! What kind of
patience required to reach this stage! How much perseverance needed to reach
this level! This story is definitely source of learning and inspiration!
Biography.com
wonderfully articulated Thomas Edison's life
history. Born in 19th century and proved as one of the greatest
inventors of 20th century, holds 1093 patents and created best of
the innovations like electric bulb and phonograph. However, this successes
preceded with multiple failures. During his early life, had hearing
difficulties, eventually led him to near deaf situation. Prone to distractions,
he was pulled out of school and started home schooling under his mother's
guidance. Of course it helped him to prove as independent learner. At age of 12,
He became newspapers seller as well over a period started publishing his own
newspaper called Grand
Trunk Herald. In 1868, his family became almost destitute because father
was out of work and mother got ill. He took job to take control of his family. Edison
started magnetic iron-ore processing plant which was commercially failed
but used this process to produce cement. In 1914, Edison's factory burnt and set him
huge loss. Edison's attitude towards this incident is great lesson to many of
us who worry about small failures. His attitude was "All the mistakes are
burnt into ashes and let us start fresh! ". "Although
I am over 67 years old, I'll start all over again tomorrow." This kind of attitude brought back
him the old glory. Team worked for double shifts and made him to earn $10
million by 1918! When we are enjoy what we do, results are byproducts (businessinsider.in).
Walt Disney, who founded most creative and imaginative virtual
world on this earth called "Disney Land", was initially fired by a
news paper editor, for not having good ideas and lack of imagination! What a
contrast in life? In 1921, his first animation company, forced to dissolve.
Eventually, he was unable to pay rent and had frugal living. However, he didn't
deter! His motivation in life never receded. After many failures, finally
Disneyland evolved, which is now generating billions of revenue! (learningliftoff.com).
Henry Ford, who made "driving as thing", failed
few times in this entrepreneurial journey. The first venture, Detroit
Automobile Company, went bankrupt. Later the second venture, Henry Ford
Company, came down due to partnership issues. Finally, Ford Motor Co has been
evolved which is huge commercial success (http://realbusiness.co.uk/). Ford
Model T is the first car to cross 1 million units sold (16.5 million)! (wikipedia.com).
Ford
is an inspiration to people who think assembly line!
Recently, I was reading a wonderful story in
Betterindia.com. Hajabba, a poor
orange seller, from a village called New Papdu in Harekala, near Mangaluru,
living with wife and three children, worked towards noble vision. In spite of
his adversities, he setup a school so that poor children in his village can
receive education. Initially, there were 28 students, but started growing. With
his savings, he bought 50 cents land and went pillar to post for raise funding.
CNN IBN nominated him for "Real Heroes" award with 5 lakh cash. He
donated the whole amount towards construction. Now school expanded to 1.5 acres
with 150 students benefiting out of his noble mission. Vision never ends! Visionaries
never get satisfied. Hajabba is now planning for pre-university in this village! Thank
you betterindia.com for sharing such good positive stories.
Oprah Winfrey's life is truly
inspiring. Born in poverty-stricken family, during her childhood, suffered from
different abuses. However, she had lot of determination and commitment towards
academics and proved herself that most popular girl at school level. She showed
lot of passion towards media and worked hard to become best speaker. She became first black female anchor at the
age of 20. However, hurdles haunted her! She got fired from the job but not
deterred. Joined "AM Chicago" and helped in improving the ratings of
the channel through her anchoring and by "The Oprah Winfrey Show".
Now she became billionaire anchor. Oprah is making huge donations towards
charity and proving herself of noble heart as well. I thank risingafrica.org
for publishing an inspiring story. Such stories raise hope in this world and
lays foundation for better world.
At this
point of reading, I want to introduce you an wonderful article published in a
website called http://fundersandfounders.com/. You may visit this website and
read full article but let me attempt to give you the gist of it. Out of 100
(billionaires) richest people of today (as article published in year 2013 Apr,
so assume the dates accordingly), 27 are heirs, means, mostly inherited from
parents /ancestral etc. 73 of them are self made. I personally
recommend don't give much importance to names, locations etc. May be try to
understand that large set of them are self-made rich. This is positive news.
Out of 73, 18 of them not having no college degree! 36 of them are children of
poor parents. But some of them fall into intersection of both adverse
conditions- neither college degree nor wealthy parents. They are orphans, children
of welder, railroad worker, cab driver, farmer, lumber miller and so on. You
will be surprised to see the analysis of the author, Anna Vital. They have few qualities in common and got into
different unthreaded approaches. Some invested during hard times, some bought
ruined companies, showed empathy towards employees and built good teams,
recognized trends and so on! Thank you Anna Vital for brining different
perspective. I really amazed to read that King of database, Oracle founder, Larry Ellison is an orphan, Li Ka-Shing, Hong-Kong
famous investor is an orphan, John Fredriksen , is son of welder
father, Francois
Pinault, French art collector is a son of lumber miller.
Often, we
attribute success or failure to various parameters. You will be most successful
if you are having wealthy parents, very good education, born in elite family
and famous location / city, holding good network, supportive horoscope or stars
etc. However, many of these great self made people proved that they can succeed
without these qualifications as well. Then, what are you waiting for? Think
about great idea, incubate, inspire and verify it in the market. I am sure you
will be most successful. I wish I will write about your story after few years
in another volume and issue! Yes, I am serious, my dear friend. Don't delay in
dreaming. Time has come to act. Hope you agree?
My Dear Friends, Hope you found useful reading these inspirational stories! Hope you got inspired to do good for
better society! Inspire, Inspire and Inspire!!! Friends, I appreciate your valuable time. I wish this is
informative and useful. I will again see you in my next letter. Thank you for
giving me this great opportunity to write to you and help me to learn, unlearn
and relearn in this process. I personally thank all websites, authors who are
publishing / writing such an inspiring stories for common good and contributing
for better world. Thank you Authors and Websites.
With Best Wishes
Dr. Ravi Saripalle
About Author: Dr.
Ravi Saripalle is Mentor and Believer of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling
Movement. He is also Director, Center for Innovation, GVP College of
Engineering (A), Vizag, AP, India. As part of Inspire to Innovate (i2i) Storytelling
Movement, Dr.Ravi is trying to spread inspiration through real time case
studies in the form of short stories and conducting Storytelling Workshops to
inspire students. Also providing customized mentoring to specific inspired
students. Dr. Ravi is having more than 17 years of experience in Industry,
Consultancy, Training, Mentoring and Research. Prior to this current role, Dr.
Ravi worked with Wipro Technologies for more than a decade. Dr Ravi can be
reached at saripalle.ravi@gmail,com or http://i2itm.blogspot.in/ or facebook.com/saripalle.ravi
Links to previous letters
1.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 6 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016_02_01_archive.html
2.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 5 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2016_01_01_archive.html
3.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 4 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2015_11_01_archive.html
4.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 3 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2015_08_01_archive.html
5.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 2 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2015/07/letter-to-student-series-volume-1-and.html
6.
Letter to Student Series- Volume 1 and Issue 1 (Inspire To Innovate
(I2i) Storytelling Movement @ Students Of India) http://i2itm.blogspot.in/2015/05/inspire-to-innovate-i2i-thinking.html
Disclaimer:
The goal of this i2i letter series campaign is to inspire students / youth
through storytelling and develop innovative leaders to build strong nation. In
this process, I have taken several data points from various websites, NEWS
articles, books, videos etc. I sincerely thank all the editors for providing
such an insightful stories and information. To the best of my knowledge, I tried
to acknowledge all the sources. I sincerely apologize for any omissions,
grammatical mistakes and hurting any reader’s sentiments. I request all the
readers to understand the spirit behind this effort. This effort doesn’t
involve any commercials. Letter series is for free distribution.
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