So I know you are confused. What’s the deal about this Steve Jobs moment and why the hell I am celebrating it. I think my story of getting fired from my own company last year on 20th Aug, 2013 is well known. I don’t know who it was but someone named it as my Steve Jobs moment. And now the question that why I am celebrating it. Look, let us get it straight, getting fired from your own company is not a happy moment for anybody. But life has to move on. You have to figure out what to do next and get it done. There is no single failure which can bog you down for life. So I have decided to celebrate it.
So now comes the next question, how to celebrate it. After all we are used to celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, new year etc. Nobody knows how to celebrate this. So let me try to put forward a framework and activities to celebrate it.
- You can call or drop in to my office and say “Happy Steve Jobs Day to you”. Add the music and tune if you wish. I have chocos for everyone who drops in to my office and the coffee is on me.
- You can wish me on my social media accounts. Here are the links – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
- You can send me books like How (Not) to Get Fired from Your Job
- You can send me chocos, flowers, gifts etc. I am accepting it from everyone. Even ZhaapNow is welcome to send it across.
- You can share your Steve Jobs moment with me and feel lighter about it. I will give you a jadoo ki jhappi to make you feel better ( 2 jhappies for women entrepreneurs ) and you can remember the magical lines by Gulzar – Dil bahal to jaayega, iss khayal se, haal mil gaya tumhara, apne haal se.
- Enough yaar, think of few things yourself also
And here is a report card of good, bad ugly part of my life after Steve Jobs moment. I had stated following agenda last year and I seem to doing OK on some fronts – Entrepreneur, Interrupted and then Resurrected
Good
- BBG ( Bhoole Bisre Geet ) work has continued to give me happiness beyond I could ever imagine. In last one year we have done shows for Airforce, Cancer patients, Mental patients, kids with genetic disorder, Mumbai police etc. All these events have brought happiness to me and made me feel that there is no happiness like spreading happiness.
- Launching AdalBdal with some dear friends has been awesome experience. It is not just about how this product has expanded to other geographies, but also the process of building it. I have enjoyed spending the time together, debating on various features and spending our weekends building this. And yes, eating together on weekends also.
- I have been on a mentoring sprint in past one year. I must have easily mentored over 100 entrepreneurs over past one year. I meet atleast 3-4 companies every week. This has been one of the most satisfying aspect of my professional life. Working with such a diverse set of individuals and business scenarios has helped me understand the startup eco-system much better. The best part of all this is that it has happened over a friendly cup of coffee, not any complex mentoring/accelerator/VC setups.
- I have been able to take care of my health much better in past few months. I have been doing regular exercise and also trying to inspire few friends. My sincere thanks goes out to my friends who inspired and bigger thanks to friends who blackmailed me to ensure I take care of my health.
- I finished a poetry book titled Besabab Likhta hoon Main
Bad
- I was planning to work on suicide issues in IIT Kanpur. I have not been able to make significant progress on that front. This has been due to some lack of effort on my side as well as bureaucracy in IIT. Hoping to make some progress on this in this year.
- I am also falling behind on launching another product company. Hoping to get that out in few months.
- I have been planning to launch a music album titled Kaash but I have not been able to finish it yet.
Ugly
- It is sad to see a company you built with your blood and sweat going down in a year. I still get lots customer complaints and unfortunately I can’t do anything to fix them. Where peers have grown by leaps and bounds, lack of Zhaapnow growth hurts me and pinches me.
- I thought getting fired from my own company was a shocker enough but the real shock was after that. What the company did to me and rest of the employees is what I call “assholeness of legendary proportions”. They fired almost all the employees who were good performers just because they knew me. Come on Bhukhri/Bhukesh, you could have cooked up better reasons dude. IITK CS ka itna bhi izzat nahin utaro.
- They just refuse to grant me even an ex-employee status. No responses to mail reminders on settling things and they don’t even have the basic courtesy of returning my sister’s fridge which I had brought to office, let aside money and stocks. So much for professionalism of a company funded by respected names in the industry. Holy be thy name.
And here is a song to end the post which sums up lots of philosophies of life…
I can’t believe this. How can you fire a person, who had not only sowed the seed but the person who thought of that seed or gave birth to that seed. I still remember those wonderful moments, my interview taken by you, having a coffee with you and Bhargavi in Jaynagar and meeting your family on the day of puja performed to start Zopnow in Myntra office. I still cherish those beautiful moments and especially when i requested for your guidance to help me to choose on whether to accept your offer or my companies new offer to send me abroad. Sir, my respect for you had no boundaries on listening your answer. You suggested me to go abroad instead of knowing that this will have a time impact to fill this vacancy and that to in starting of the company. Believe me sir there are very few people in this world who can think for others goods first then of there own.
Sir, from whatever little time i had spent with you, i can easily say you can create many such companies and you will surely do it and surpass this small hurdles. Even Steve Jobs would not have started Next or Pixar animation studio and kids would have never seen the movie Toy Story or he would not have meet his beloved wife if he had not been fired from Apple. So we can see that a new company is going to come up soon by you which will add to the new discoveries this world has seen. Best Of Wishes for you and hoping to work with you someday.
Good points are very impressive…especially #3!
20,21 Aug must have be days full of wishes for you!!