“CAUSE” – MOPOLITAN WAY OF LIFE!
“More than asking yourself what or how, you should ask yourself why. Your cause is always the most important.”
10 minutes earlier…
It took a while for the thunderous round of applause to subside, before the reign of silence could reclaim the room, as about a hundred sets of eyes stared expectantly at the man who stood before them. Mark Zuckerburg had once said that, ‘In an ever changing world, the greatest risk is not taking any risk at all’, and this person, who had effortlessly claimed the room’s attention was certainly no stranger to this notion. He stood tall and distinguished, the embodiment of authority, and when he spoke, his voice radiated an aura of confidence , that had come, undoubtedly, from years of heading arguably the most prominent and prestigious group of companies in the state. Mr. Srinivas Dempo was given a short introduction, although he certainly didn’t need one, by one of the students of the Mushtifund Aryaans Higher Secondary School, and he smiled warmly at the sea of faces that watched him in awe. He began, soon after, what was to be a 2 hour long, zealous and inspiration-filled session, with an audio clip from a TED talk that he claimed had changed his own way of looking at business, and at life.
The voice blaring through the lone speaker spoke about the Golden Circle of business, comprising of 3 concentric ellipses, the outermost signifying What?, followed by How?, and Why? right in the centre. It compared the successes and failures of large companies, and tried to analyse what differentiated the best from the rest, pondering on how we could extrapolate that logic in our own lives.
“Apple and Dell are both great computer companies”, boomed Mr. Dempo, who chose to speak without a microphone. “But if you’ve noticed, Dell advertisements spend so much time on the statistics of just how great their product is, that most viewers find nothing relatable in them at all. There’s nothing that they can connect to. That’s because Dell focuses on the Whats and the Hows. That’s where Apple is different… Apple ads are all about a purpose. They don’t tell you what kind of processor their product uses, or how many gigs of memory it has. They tell you why they built that product, and why you need their product, and why that one product will change your life. Dell is selling you computers, but Apple isn’t merely selling watches, or phones, or Macs, its selling you a cause, a way of life…Something to believe in… And that’s why Dell is Dell, and everyone wants an Apple.”
He stressed on believing in what you do, and not doing things only for incentives. “Money is a by-product of doing what you love”, he said. “It shouldn’t be what drives you, or what makes you get out of bed every morning. You’d end up eventually burning yourself out. Its your purpose that is the most important. You have to ask yourself why you do what you do. How strongly do you believe in your own cause, and how much are you willing to risk and sacrifice to make your dreams come true?” He used the director of the institute, Mr. Vyankatesh Prabhudessai as an example, speaking about how he had watched him grow a little idea into a successful academy.
“ Today the world is your playground. And you have to keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. You may fail when you try something new, but that’s okay. I believe that failure is essential for learning. You’ll fall down a thousand times, but every time you pick yourself up and push forward, you become a little bit stronger, and a little bit wiser. You have to fight for success like you need it to survive, and realise that there definitely is no substitute to hard work. People will tell you that you can’t do something, or that something is impossible to achieve. But remember that only you decide your future. The sky is the limit.”
Mr. Vyankatesh Prabhudesai coordinated the entire question and answer session. Mr.Dempo answered question after question, speaking about everything from his own failures and internal battles, to his love for his family, even sharing his daily schedule. He admitted to being a voracious reader, and stated that reading helped develop a lot of his ideas, whether business related, or philosophical. He spoke about entrepreneurship and innovation and how he planned to give up all his other commitments and focus solely on funding research and start ups within the next decade or so. He spoke about making difficult decisions, and realising when it was time to let go of an idea or company that didn’t have a future. He joked and told stories, and encouraged everyone one of those faces to step up and create, to think different, and even to come to him for funding if they had an idea that they believed could change the world, and make peoples’ lives better. He said that if an opportunity didn’t come, then you would have to create one for yourself, and even if other people could rip off an idea, or product, nobody could steal your passion, and your purpose, which, in the end are the heart and soul of any movement or company.
Nobody noticed when the time had come for the session to end, or when he remained on stage for nearly half an hour more than planned. But when he stepped of, the applause took a little bit longer than before to die down, and there was a spark of hope and belief in most of those eyes. Maybe the world is our playground. Maybe nothing is impossible. Maybe we will make the world a better place… Maybe that’s our cause…
– Prepared By Noah Martins (Student of STD XI)