I mostly write positive motivational stories as in general, but let me try something different.
The birth of an Entrepreneur is not when he is born or his company is launched, but when a person’s Idea is turns into reality and he earns his first profit.
When I was in Class 7th, situations turned a little similar…
I was studding in Kendriya Vidyalaya Ordnance Factory Medak, Yeddumailaram, A.P, India. On those days every year Annual day was celebrated. On class 7th in particular I got attracted towards money and then started thinking how even I can earn some.?
Starting a process of THINKING is very crucial step in one’s survival as it kicks you out of both your comfort zone as well as the zone of worries.
I believe even if you think on every worry you have one by one, you would also meet up with the solutions of all your worries or a dead end at least lol 🙂.
So the thinking of making money as a garde 7th student gave me a brilliant idea of all time. (at that age and time I thought it was brilliant)
Someone gifted me a Disney Cartoon Stamp Pad. There were 15 Cartoons Stamp in the collection box. I could use any ordinary ink and good quality paper to make Group of 15 cartoons and sell the paper A4 size paper which was practically of no value into at least 1 rupee per page.
I asked my teacher Mr. Diwakar Sir, Teacher of SUPW department Kendriya Vidyalaya OFPM to kindly allow me to install a stall in the School. (SUPW stands for Social Useful Productive Work) On those days even Mr Diwakar trained some of his selected students to sell some of projects, models and paintings made by students in SUPW Class. Unfortunately I was not one of them. Thus on my request Mr Diwakar agreed to allow me to set up a stall in school grounds on one condition, I have to pay him the 50% of cash which I make on the day of sale.
I thought for a while and said, Its unfair, all your other students are using the materials provided by school and having 50% of profits only to sell those exhibits under your guidance. But in my stall all the production would be mine own, then its really unfair to give you 50% of our earning just for the permission of the store. I can give you 10 to 15% of the earnings or maximum 30% of the profits we make.
Mr Diwakr denied my offer, thus to ask for the permission of the store, I went to Principal of the School. Principal was kind enough to understand my current situation and instead of one stall she also gave me one preparation Room for production on those particular day again on condition that I clean the room at the end of the day which seemed a fair deal to me. When I took this idea and permission of execution to my classmates more ideas popped out. Aditya Kochar came with a saying we can also serve Sandwich. Bread is Cheap, we can add some salads, pack that up and sell it for 5 rupees each. At that time I dint see the investment I am doing as the profits seems high and I saw a team was forming. Kanchan Sharma and Jaswinder Singh joined me for production, Abhinav Guptha for sales And we worked hard two days in a row to plan for the store and get everything ready.
After school we stayed for more time in school and also at home to Print the stickers. Bought Bread, Arrange for Stove and Some how Pop-Corns also got involved till the end.
As I was buzy in production and spending more time talking with Kanchan rather than giving my focus on the business, I had no clue how my store is actually running. When I came out after whole production was done for my store, I saw all the decoration we did on our table was taken up by Diwakr Sir, I asked my team why did they took our decoration Cloth, Paper weights and some of my stickers? My classmates had no answer. I went to stall which had our decorations and asked back for the materials we purchased to use on our store. The stall members denied to give us our own material as it was provided by Diwakar sir. I had no time to go to Principal for complaint such issues and thus I along with my mates just snatched the materials we purchased and brought back into our table. Diwakar Sir saw what changes had happen around and did not react instantaneously. Instead when the General Manage came to visit each and every stall and appreciate the hard work done by every student, Mr Diwakar just diverted his path showing all his exhibitions and purposely said, our store is nothing to watch too and asked him to move ahead without giving any attention to our stall.
I was sad that I did not get to meet General Manager as I planned and we all team members worked hard for the store. But moments after GM’s visit, it was our store which got busiest the most. Everyone planned for different exhibits for sale, but no one thought of food to sell on this particular day. I remember Abhinav and Aditya being in the front desk sold last bread and last popcorn in our store and taking our all investments I earned a profit of 15 rupees per person.
Though every schoolmate is apart now, but I was still happy that I was successful in creating a momentary team, execute an idea, cross all the hurdles and most important make some profits for me and my team. I saved that 15 rupees for many years in my life till the time it lost its value…. But the story kept it my mind.
The anger for Mr Diwakar Sir for being Greedy negative person, my interest in girls would divert my thinking in business, Gratitude for Principle and my classmates for being there to make my idea work and adding values to it. Definitely I believe in the school days the Entrepreneur was born. Now its time to face the Real world…and I still believe either a good product or a good story would definitely come out the actions in future.
Cheers Reader
Hope you Have a Week Ahead
#utsp #tapishdongre
Tapish Dongre 