Year 2008 and me!

Year 2008 has turned out to be a good year for me. Some of the major events:

- I turned 21 years old on January 18 (ie legally eligible for "many" things in India)

- Organized Srishti 2008 and conducted the first ever SEO Contest by an Asian organization.

- Visited the holy mountain of Vaishno Devi (in March) after almost 3 years.

- Installed and configured a enterprise application (developed completely by me) for a Delhi based company.

- Completed my Undergraduation from IIT Roorkee (in May).

- Joined CommonFloor.com - a startup in Bangalore and worked on the product alongwith some SEO, SEM for the website (worked from mid-June to September end).

- Took an initiative to fight against global warming and pledged to provide a clean, green energy future to the upcoming generation.

- Joined Schlumberger and got relocated to Russia - Made my 1st International trip on 5th Nov.

- Went to the gym for the 1st time in December.

- Lost my 1st match in (Russian) Billiards.

Places I have been in this year:

(Hisar, Delhi, Bangalore, Roorkee, Haridwar, Vaishno Devi, Moscow, Noyabrsk)

This probably is the last post of the year. Will continue blogging in 2009.

Happy Holidays :)

Value of 500 bucks!

If some one gives you 500 bucks, what will you do with it?



Think before you spend!

Welcome Moscow!

I boarded the flight (SU-536) to Moscow, Russia on Nov.5th at 5am Indian Time. This was my first international flight and I was obviously very excited about it. I was about to join the most coveted company in my campus for non-CS guys.

Last few weeks were quite dramatic (regarding the VISA and other document related process).

Starting with delay in Letter of Invitation by a couple of weeks followed by mismatch in Russian translation of my first name. In Letter of Invitation my first name was translated as: митаншю. However, the consulate in India, translated it as: митаншу on my VISA. This meant that I have to go a little early to Moscow to get correction in MFA in Russia. After another week, there was a problem in Date of Birth on my Insurance Letter (1978 instead of 1987). Fortunately, that was corrected quickly!

After all the above problems, and a few more, I finally managed to get a ticket and fly to Russia.

Welcome Moscow!

I got accommodation from my employer in Holiday Inn for my entire stay in Moscow.

Moscow is a nice city if you leave out a very high population density and high costs for foreigners. Also, "Russia is for Russians". You will find almost all sign boards in Russian only!

I went to Red Square and Kremlin on Saturday, 8th November with 2 other newbies in my company - Rachel from Northern Ireland and Tonette from Norway.

WWW

In a recent conference, I got to hear a new definition of WWW - Whatever, Wherever, and Whenever!

For nerds: WWW means - World Wide Web

[Video] Art of the Start

I found this awesome video by Guy Kawasaki on "Art of the Start".



The top 10 things he mentions are:
1. Make meaning.
Increase the quality of life.
Right a wrong
Prevent the end of something good

2. Make mantra (mission statement) for your organization
Ex: FedEx: Peace of Mind
Nike: Authentic Athletic Performance
Target: Democratize Design
Wendy's: Healthy Fast Food

3. Get Going
Think Different
Don't be afraid of polarizing people
Find a few soul mates

4. Define a Business Model
Be Specific
Keep it Simple
Ask women about your business model

5. Weave a MAT (milestones, assumptions, tasks)

6. Niche Thyself
Ability to provide unique product or service
Value to Customer

7. Follow the 10/20/30 rule
You should have 10 slides in your powerpoint presentation
20 minutes
30 point font

8. Hire Infected People
Work Experience
Educational background
Love your product

Ignore the irrelevant
Hire better than yourself
Apply the shopping center test

9. Lower the barriers to adoption
Flatten the learning curve
Don't ask people to do something that you wouldn't
Embrace your evangelists

10. Seed the clouds
Let a hundred flowers blossom
Enable test drives
Find the influencers.

11. (Bonus point): Don't let the bozos grind you down.

What I learnt from this video: How many Macintosh guys does it take to screw in a light bulb? The answer is 1 - the Macintosh division employee who holds up the light bulb and expects the universe to revolve around him!