networking assignment

Dhruv Tantia Creating You Network Assignment Section 1

1. Introduction

I think my thought process has changed a lot throughout the course. I never believed in

journals and documentations but my beliefs have changed drastically during the course. I

think writing the self-reflection paper as well as my global experience journals have changed

my thinking about personal journals; I think journals help to structure your thoughts as well

as compel one to think in a depth that one doesn’t usually. I hope this assignment will help

me further think about my career path. For this assignment, I decided to interview three

people: my grandfather, my former employer and my uncle.

2. First Interview

2.1. About my Grandfather

My grandfather, O. P. Tantia, is a businessman who started his venture in 1978. He started a

spring manufacturing company with his younger brother. He currently serves as the

managing director of the company. We spoke for around 10 minutes on 21st February,2020. I

chose him because I admire his career choice and he’s transparent with me about his life.

2.2. Synopsis

It is always been interesting to know more about my grandfather and how he started. We’ve

shared a room ever since my grandmother’s death and I’ve probably spent more time with

him than my father. He is the most respectable figure in my view because of his selflessness.

He lived in a very small town in western part of India and traveled to the capital to make a

future for him and earn a living. He didn’t have much money and started working as a daily

wage labor in a small factory. There he met two other people who wanted to start their own

factories. Each of them started their own factory with their savings from the current job. My

grandfather saw a huge potential in springs for automotive parts. He bought his first computer

numeric control machine and roped in a small tier 1 company (Mando) as one of his first

clients. Around the same time, his father died whose last wish was that my grandfather’s

younger brother gets some work to make a living. My grandfather took his younger brother

under his wings and both of them created a very solid team. They were happy to work for

themselves rather than working for someone else. He mentioned being selfless, giving back

to society and still working at the age of 77 years brings him happiness. He loves to see

growth in the company and anything new creates this sense of excitement about work. He

says the only thing that is his source of dissatisfaction is the death of my grandmother. He

misses her a lot and wanted to spend more time with her. He also mentioned that not giving

up is very crucial; he says there were nights when he would go to sleep without eating

because business was struggling. He mentioned that self-belief is something that always got

him going forward. The positivity that things will get better always got him going. He

mentioned people are very complex creatures and most essential in any organization is the

relation you build with these people. He said if an employer doesn’t get respect from his

employees and vice versa then an organization is bound to failure. He told how he used to

help his employees in every way possible. He would give aid to educate his employee’s

children, relief if someone met with an accident, and above all he would always spend some

time to know about their personal lives. He said don’t create an image for the sake of it,

people will always know when you’re lying to them or maintaining a pseudo image. Be

generous if you mean it and be honest in your relations. He said thing he would do differently

would be socialize more; he turned workaholic and that led to broken friendships. He went

into depression during his 60’s because he distanced his old friends. But, he told they were

still around for him and he was able to revive the bond. Considering our conversation, I think

the biggest takeaway was keeping the people that you connect with close to you matters a lot.

Also, I want to avoid being workaholic and I think focusing on my health will be a perfect

answer to that.

3. Second Interview

3.1. About my Former Employer

My former employer named Adarsh Warrier is a real-life warrior. He is a very gutsy

entrepreneur and currently is the co-founder at Vicara, a human augmentation startup. We

spoke for 15 mins on 21st February, 2020. I chose Adarsh because I think he has the guts to

sacrifice everything to chase his dreams. He is someone who is inspiring and exactly ten

years elder to me. He has been one of the reasons I fell in love with entrepreneurship and

decided to take this course.

3.2. Synopsis

When I was in third year, one of my seniors at an entrepreneurship club asked me to work for

his friend’s start-up. I wasn’t sure as startup back in the day didn’t interest me as much as

core businesses did. But boy was I wrong, I met Adarsh through him and felt amazing by the

knowledge this new guy possessed. Adarsh got into entrepreneurship via accident. He was a

very clever electrical engineer and participated in Startup India hackathon with his friend and

now co-founder Abhishek. They won the prize of 10,000 dollars and thought they should take

this further and try to win more competitions for pocket money. Adarsh was a high scoring

student and sat for campus interviews during his fourth year. In this one opportunity for IBM,

he had 5 rounds of interviews. He gave the 4th round and went to his room and slept because

the entire night before he was preparing for his interview. When he was sleeping, the HR

decided to have the 5th round of interview (The interview process in Indian Colleges is

brutal). He didn’t pick his phone and only when his roommate woke him up, he showed up

for the interview. He recalls HR told him as soon as he entered the room that the HR will

decide his future and he should forget about the job. Adarsh remembers he got very angry

and told the HR that he can decide for himself, thanked him and left the room. It was then he

decided to pursue his hackathon invention as a fully-fledged business. I think his guts are the

reason that the start-up today is doing so well. He says seeing people grow in his organization

is one of the most satisfactory feeling of his life. He says he loves talking to people and

motivating them whether it is for his startup or their own personal ambitions. He told that one

can only learn so much on his own but if you club other’s experiences and learnings you can

get very far in life. He said sometimes he feels dissatisfied because he’s not able to devote

enough time to his family and himself. He’s a workaholic and also takes very less care about

his fitness, but then he contrasts saying that this is deciding decade of his life as he has

chosen for himself. He says a very big inflection point in his life was the choice to pursue his

start-up or get a MBA degree. After his placement, while pursuing his start-up he applied to

Indian School of Business and got in. His father wanted him to join but he wanted to pursue

the startup. He said he could’ve had a comfortable life and job after that but he wanted to take

technology further. In his opinion, the only significant way to do that was to live his dream as

a founder. He says his father is the most inspiring figure in his life; when he chose startup

life, his father supported him and helped him live his dreams. I think his nature of seeing

people grow irrespective whether it’s in his organization or elsewhere is something very

crucial to any organization. I’m an ambassador for him and his organization and it’s only

possible because how he treated me. I still connect him wherever I find opportunities. He told

me to avoid compromises in life and be iron clad in my goals.

4. Third Interview

4.1. About my Uncle

My uncle, Sajjan Kumar Jain, is my grandfather’s best friend. He was a labor with my

grandfather during their struggling days. I spoke to him on 21st February for about 10 mins.

He is managing director at Indo Auto tech, a sheet metal company. He is also a serial

entrepreneur and I think one of the most composed persons I’ve met.

4.2. Synopsis

Sajjan uncle and my grandfather actually have a rag to rich story. He started his own sheet

metal automotive company from his savings and helped my grandfather to setup his own

business. He said he wanted to work for himself and working as labor helped him to learn

and adapt to various situations. He said he educated himself and still loves to learn at the age

of 67 years. He says learning new things is something which gives him satisfaction. He also

loves to execute plans. He has several companies now. He opened one textile firm with his

daughter in law, a mechanical pump plant with his son, two automotive plants with her

daughter. He loves learning and teaching so much that now he has entered the venture capital

segment. He loves to translate his knowledge to different startup founders and he think

becoming a VC is a perfect route for him. He recently started learning about stocks and

public sector as well. He has been growing his learning skills with advancement in

technology. He also thinks relations can take you to a scale that you can’t reach without

collaborating. He says when his organization picked up and was scaling, he couldn’t manage

all the ends himself. He said he needed help and that’s when he collaborated with his nephew

to help him out. He says that is one of his best decisions in life. Although, he had to give

some equity to his nephew, he turned out to be the perfect partner. He says greed will only

get you so much in life. He says any company will never progress with the pace you’re

envisioning it to. He said he took a lot of time to build the calm nature he has now. He said

always set goals but be ready for unpredictable circumstances and be flexible with those

goals. He told me to never take a decision when you’re impatient because mostly it’ll turn out

to be wrong.

5. Conclusion

I aspire to be a mix of my grandfather, his best friend and my former employer. I think

they’re excellent story tellers and have a huge appetite for risk even when they have no

resources. I think the saying that “The most dangerous enemy is the enemy who has nothing

to lose” is an appropriate statement to define the three. They gave me some key qualities to

build upon: Have a vision, be selfless and calm, and ultimately giving back to the society is

the most satisfying feeling.