10 Lessons for Entrepreneurs or those that want to Be Entrepreneurial!

Out of the little journey as an entrepreneur I have had here are 10 lessons that I would love to share

1. Have a VISION: it's not just to be studied in classrooms or as part of workshops, it truly has depth. You need to know where you are headed or at least what you purpose is in the first place when you are starting your business. A lot depends on what exactly you wish to do and WHY. If your vision is to give the fastest service, you will design your products around TIME and if your vision is to give the most quality service then you will design your efforts around luxury and quality, while if your focus and vision is make it affordable for all then you focus on costs. If your vision is to make it global then you work your energies on going beyond all borders,while if your focus is on being locally global then work on your local emotions.

2. Start with small targets: First of all, keep targets and keep small ones to start. No one would want to start with demoralizing effect. If you take big targets and fail them one after the other, the only thing you will derive out of it is "I am incompetent", while if you take small ones and achieve them one after the other, then the only thing you will derive out of that is "BOY! I am AWESOME!!!" and you need just that when you are NEW in business.

3. Remember NETWORKING counts as much as Nett WORK that you do. Build a network. A network of people who you can rely on, get your expert opinions from, get small things done, get big things done, do things for, get yourself pepped up, spend quality time with an what NOT. Remember a network for all your needs is a MUST. Move out and TALK, build relations, build a NETWORK and you will see things will MOVE.

4. Don't build a team of workers, build teams that are passionate missionaries. You need to understand that you work hard as an entrepreneur not just because you wanna make money and truck loads of it, you do it because you know it drives you, you are mad about it, you are passionate, you are just like the missionary who forgot his way back home because he forgot he belonged there... Let others in the team also feel that. Let go the fear that having people like that will move you out of business because they would leave your company join other high paying jobs. Remember people quit because they run out of love or purpose, not just MONEY.

5. Believe in serving: No one ever lost his self esteem by serving someone else, it only gets stronger. No one ever was taken for granted because he served well, he was taken for granted because he OVER SERVED and did it only because he expected something in return. Just serve because that is your purpose and not because you might be offered bucks in return. Believe in the statement "Well served is Well done!"

6. Bucks come to those where the buck stops: Let's get it straight - everyone wants more bucks, but unfortunately it doesn't come to you because you just want bucks and don't want the buck to stop here. To understand this google "Buck Stops here" and read on it. Take it UP & DO IT! Bucks Follow.

7. You can't have it all: Don't believe this statement! It's because others din't want to have it all or couldn't is why they coach you. Just understand - you can have what you want! Just be clear on what you want and plan it with patience how you would get there. Remember, nothing happens without giving it a time-frame and sharing the responsibilities with right set of people.

8. Reward yourself & your teams well: If you don't know how to reward, you just don't know how it feels to work hard and WIN something, may be because you haven't worked hard enough and always relied on other people's efforts or you haven't dreamt much of winning things at all instead you do things because they need to be done. In either case, please leave your business now, because you will be OUT OF IT soon and you won't survive. Better to leave then to get THROWN out, else reward and reward genuinely.

9. Stand up!: Not where you are.. but for SOMETHING. You need to understand what your principles are, what values define you and your business and stand up for them. Compromises are always there, but let those not be the only things in your business.

10. LAUGH, LOVE & LET GO: 3 Ls of Leadership. To end this sexy write-up all I would say is Laugh and Love a lot, it keeps you sane, keeps you happy and returns you enough love, that money definitely can't buy. This in-turn gives you and your team enough power to deliver the same to clients & happy customers are the passionate missionaries you hire without paying them ever, Hire as many as you like costs you nothing but your laughter and LOVE. Fair ENOUGH! Understood it all - What's with this LET GO? Don't bother... Just let go and you will understand...

I am UP for some BIG BUSINESS and I dream to create a business organization that truly speaks of what I have written above. IU is what we are building - you can help us build and we are willing to help you build yours. We love our business and we love yours too! Tell me what business are you doing and if there is anyway IU or I can do something for U - Watch out - WE will be there!!!

is.sujitlalwani@gmail.com is my eMail - if you have a thought you wanna share with me or talk to me in person. Just shoot an eMail and let's get this BUSINESS thing TICKING!!!

Sujit Lalwani, Founder & Managing Director, IU.

Over-Rustication leads to Stagnation of Activity of Neurons!

On a fine day you lie down by the window gazing into the sky and don't realize how hours together pass-by till you get hold of your senses only to know it's lunch time already. The food is overly tasty and you can relish the real-taste of it, for you know you have all the time in the world to do it. It suddenly sub-consciously feels like you are on holiday, but that ain't the case. You spend days like this relaxing and giving your body the most deserved rest and mind the space it needs. One day you wake up to realize that you have given yourself a holiday longer than was necessary and relaxed far more than you should have, only to know that "time and tide wait for none" & "time once gone never comes back again!". Either you regret or you don't.

The regret kick-starts the self-leadership mechanism in you and you finally decide that you are going to fight it and not be pushed down by this phase of your life, where you gave yourself the luxury you thought you deserved. After all of self-convincing set of phrases and volumes that you speak to yourself, you are more than convinced that you were right in what you did and that you are now prepared for the geared up phase of your life and that you are going to make up for all that was lost (if any was).

You begin with all the zeal and then work really hard, with all the momentum, that waking up early and going all out to make happen all that you desire. There are no more gossips but just talks on what can make things happen and move ahead. "Progress" is the word and the only one that hits your mind more often than your eyes could blink and lungs could breathe. You are finally owning what was once only in fairy tales - the midas touch. All that you attempt only goes great and you see results and the glory that you dream of and all that you are trying to make up is finally happening and getting closer.

You make glory in tasks after tasks and then comes a moment the energy levels are at peaks and you know you are performing beyond expectations and you are beating every target by margins twice or more and you know that you truly deserve many pats on your back, BUT NO, you are not going to stop because you had already had a long break and you now know that you have to make up for all that was lost to ensure that time feels worth it.

Now there are many paths and many destinations that can open up from this stage of life, majority relax after a few more miles only to repeat the phase mentioned at the on-set of this article and put themselves in the cycle of this article phase 1 - phase 2 - phase 1 - phase 2... and so on. But seldom do they realize each time the phase 1 is getting longer than phase 2. Such people end up in Mediocrity. While for those in whose lives the phase 1 goes shorter each time on the cycle become Winners in Life, pretty successful enough to tell tales to all their family and extended family.

For those in whose lives phase 1 barely comes again apart from the long lasting break of life called childhood, post which they are forever set in momentum and they go on rocking become Living Legends. For those in whose lives phase 1 never comes at all and they keep themselves in phase 2 always and keep rocking, become the historic role-models for living their life in ways rarely anyone could attempt living, they are the ones who love everything they do and just keep walking and truly own the midas touch.

Finally the ones in whose lives phase 2 never comes at all are ones totally unheard of or In some rare cases called quality venture capitalists :) (Who don't over rusticate! They plan & live well. Not all though.)

IUY2C Leaders Megha & Moumita Set Waves of Inspiration!

Taking upfront leadership for the initiative IUIndiapreneurship Phase running until Aug 15, 2013 starting from 5th Aug, 2013, Megha & Moumita - the two IU1010 Season 2 leaders have created waves of inspiration across 32 government schools across Karnataka. Majority of the schools covered were from Bangalore and Hassan Districts while they were successful in touching other districts too.

It has been an amazing week for the selected individuals among the many applicants for becoming a part of IU1010Season 2. All these youngsters from Bangalore were on a massive mission of educating the government school children about the lives of freedom fighters who had sacrificed their lives for Indian freedom struggle. With a holiday in the week, and the activity of IUY2Cstarting on Tuesday, these 8 elite enthusiasts had just 4 days to address students in government schools where such topics are seldom spoken about, to drive in the patriotism spirit among the younger lot. Among the 4 teams of two each involved in the activity, there was one team which went on to inspire 6810 children in a matter of just 5 days across 31 organizations/institutions with the help of ten volunteers panning 4 different cities of Karnataka. Megha and Moumita were the young and dynamic leaders of this team which cast the maximum impact.

It was a phase of Indiapreneurship that was being celebrating by team Inspiration Unlimited on the occasion of our 67th Independence Day. Inspiring people to work towards solving the problems of India with simple solutions was the core agenda of Indiapreneurship. Moumita went on to share her feelings about how she felt when she got to know that she could mentor people younger than her. She felt really proud and happy for having done so. Megha shared about the learning she took out of these sessions where she addressed hundreds of budding Indians. They spoke about how the mindsets get formed as we grow up in life and how difficult it is to break mindsets once people grow up. They were overwhelmed to see that students from primary classes were far more enthusiastic in participating and learning when compared to their seniors in schools. Overall, Megha and Moumita expressed their deepest gratitude towards Sujit Lalwani sir for having designed this amazing activity.

It was an exhilarating experience to listen to these young duo sharing their lessons from their experiences. The confidence they had in their eyes of having accomplished the feat of reaching out to so many kids in a matter of just few days and transferring the energetic inspiration with the future of India was exemplifying in itself. It has been a vision of IU to build massively strong leaders among the youth of the globe starting with India. Witnessing such hardworking and high spirited souls like Megha and Moumita has, in fact, enhanced our belief and faith multi-fold that it will not take much time before we see India as a transformed and intelligent youth led developed nation of the globe. 

I extend my warm wishes on behalf of entire team IU for the amazing work that these young-STARS are doing and request them to continue the same with the same zeal and relentless passion.

8 Powerful Guidelines TO Study Better, Focus better, Concentrate better & Live better!

Too many people asking the following, lead me to use blogger's facility of leaving a page online for all those who need the solutions for any of this permanently without me having to re-type the generic things.

1. How do I study better?
2. How do I focus better?
3. Am not able to concentrate better. How can I increase my concentration?
4. I feel, I am not able to remember things better. How can I better my abilities?
5. I feel I am not a good student.
and scores of similar type. (If your question is unattended in this blog, leave a comment here and I shall get back to you!)


First of all, studying is something that has been terribly misunderstood. While, one should be studying to learn something, majority are learning to score better. Scoring better is a goal for sure, in the kind of competitive system we have created to promote talent and better education for people, but, not the only one. One needs to understand that studying is an art just like painting or any other form of art is. It leads to self-discovery and enhancement of the perceptions and elevation of life through better understanding of the world and systems around us.

One should first consciously re-inforce in oneself that studying is for improving the knowledge and level of know-how of the world and it's many streams and not for scoring better alone. Once you have felt and understood this, then your whole focus is not marks and you chase the subject until you understand. Generally, you develop the interest in those things, that you really understand well or interest forces you to develop better understanding, in either case, it's important to develop interest in what one is studying.

We need to break our mind-sets that we like some subjects & some subjects thoroughly bore us. The moment you tell yourself that you do not like something, half your motivation of doing that is killed and the more you do it, the more you lose it. So, when you are doing something do it with deep interest and push yourself to love it.

Once this much is ensured following points would ensure you concentrate better:

1. Avoid Distractions & Stay Focussed: 
Majority of the times, we are very strong at focusing on what we want to do, but then we introduce distractions. When there are less beams in a building that has large spaces, chances of roof coming down are high, which shows division of weight is important. It clearly shows that weight divides itself on to different beams & hence per beam stress levels reduce and hence strength of the building is better(in lay-man terms). So, when you focus on multiple things at the same time, you are dividing your focus on multiple things, hence each item demands HEAVY FOCUS, which is pretty difficult. While, if you attend one thing at a time, then it's much better to stick to what you doing and your efficiency improves. Do not let your friends, family and facebook call you for frequent breaks when you know you are on a serious mission.

2. Avoid Lousy Company:
What kind of a company you keep, determines the type of person you are. Ensure you are in company of people who have zeal and passion to do something in life, and ofcourse who are awesome students, not just because they score well, but they love subjects. Keep their company, become friends, have meetings every week to discuss subjects, spend time discussing and debating topics of subject interest. Avoid, negative people and those that talk negatively about progress and education in life.

3. Sit for continuous hours:
If you never sit for continuous hours, you will never know your ability and will power that you can exercise. At least to know you can do it, ensure you sit for long hours studying and don't move from your study place and be surrounded by what you wish to study and dive deep into it. While a lot of people say that studying longer and for long hours spoils your efficiencies (its true), not having an experience of it at all, is a loss of the experience of exercising your will-power, and at least knowing that you can pull it off with full concentration if you desire or if there is a need. Then switch to shorter durations (1 or 2 hours) and a mild break and then return.

4. Healthy Study environment:
Maintain a healthy study environment. If you cannot keep your study place clean and not love being there, you cannot fall in love with subjects. Imagine a romantic scene in a place full of stinking garbage in the background, quite sad and bad. You wish you never saw that or fell in love ever, if thats where your honeymoon would be. So I hope you understand!!!

5. Keep your goal on mind:
Have a daily target and a set of weekly ones and an overall target where you wish to eventually reach. If you never knew where you wish to be, then you would reach anywhere. Keep targets and stay focussed.

6. Keep away from these things(Reminder!):
Keep your phone away while studying no matter how addicted you are. Stay away from Facebook and other social networking sites till you complete your targets and don't update status in between. Do not let the sound of TV move you towards and please don't tell me you love studying with your ear-phones plugged. You are just reducing your efficiency by a huge margin by doing any of this. Ensure you don't let your pets, neighbors or friends come for walk-in distractions when you are studying.

7. Believe in your abilities:
Remember if people have explored, discovered, invented, created and compiled books, concepts and theories, we just need to study them, so that we can be reasons for creating and inventing tomorrow. Its all possible.

8. Final Tips:
Take power naps, Don't group-study too often, unless it's important, Don't let people build mind-sets about difficulties in studying which are negative, Keep your notes up-to-date, Don't over-engage in just reading, practice skills, remember reading alone does not make you stronger with your concepts, researching does, Keep mind-maps, flow-charts and pocket diaries for quick recalls and Ensure you share what you learn with others (the most effective way of learning is teaching!).

A sound education is a foundation for a sound life. You are a super-star and you can be what you dream of. You will fall in love with your studies and subjects, if you start applying these and read this blog every single day and focus yourself each time your thoughts take you for a walk. Don't expect a MASSIVE improvement in day or a week. Take it step by step but take it seriously and decide to take control of your life and education from here onwards.

If you have questions still unanswered, re-read the blog, sometimes it just fills those gaps that we don't catch generally in the first reading. If you still remain with any. There is unlimited space here you can always drop in your comments. You can also write what you feel like sharing after reading this blog here in the space below for other readers to know how this benefitted you. Share if there is any tip you have for the many readers who might read this. Share the link to your blog on better study techniques (if any) to ensure readers reach you too!

Thank you
Sujit Lalwani
Founder & Director, IU

PS: To buy my book "Life Simplified!" online, just log on to http://iuworldwide.com

#WID

There was a dream I once dreamt to celebrate World Inspiration Day every single year. The date was decided to be April 23rd owing to the conception of IU on the same date. Every birthday of IU was celebrated as a day to inspire. But this year on, we are glad to let the world know that we are officially celebrating this day as THE WORLD INSPIRATION DAY, which just leaves me to tears. I know this would never stop from here on in, and create a more inspired world year after year.  

The support from Global Organizations has been huge and promising for me to believe even stronger in the vision of an inspired world!

I wish to see you all join us in this chase towards creating a more inspired world where people wake up to a positive morning each time they go to bed, to create a world where classrooms are full of people with zeal and not of people who are bored to the core, companies have people who are bubbling with innovations and ideas that make this world a better place and not those who reach there to make ends meet, where canteens have gossips around solving issues of society and not gossips of how they could create issues for others, where politics is full of leaders who wish to serve and not think of how much they deserve, where common man is not disgusted and has not given up because he is tired, instead he smiles and attempts to make happen things because he is inspired!!! WELCOME TO INSPIRATION UNLIMITED (IU).

#WID is just a statement to all those negative people out there in the world, that we just need a year a day to ward off their influence in our lives!!!

Sujit Lalwani

Founder & Director, 

Inspiration Unlimited (IU)