Mera ek Sapna hai

I'm a dreamer & I love to dream. As is said by Kahil Gibran,  

“I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.”

I have a dream, that I live in all day & night. It is a beautiful dream with a beautiful world. It is this dream, & this dream alone that keeps me plugged into life & keeps me going.


A beautiful dream it is.


I live to make that dream a reality someday.

Few words...: A Candle in the Dark, a poem by my friend Devanshu

Few words...: A Candle in the Dark: The white burning candle, Standing in the dark.. on its own, trying to illuminate everything around...

My friend, Devanshu composed this wonderful poem, strikes a chord with this excellent piece.

Recommend a read!

What led me to write the previous post

I forgot to mention the context of the previous post. My (maternal)
grandfather had a minor heart attack today. He was brought from the
village to Jaipur & admitted in Fortis. I met him in the morning then
came back from showroom later in the evening to meet him. One of his
acquaintances, a 'powerful' person with contacts at Fortis was also
there with me to meet him.
Now neither of us had visitors passes. Both the passholders were
upstairs. I called upstairs to send a pass.
While we were waiting for the passes, I was shocked that this person
argued with the guard, used their 'power' to enter the lift & get to
the ICU floor without the pass.
The reason I was shocked was at the abuse of power on someone who was
doing his duty, the guard, to crush a system that was made for the
benefit of the patients.
Do we humans, possibly the most intelligent species on the Earth,
really need to be so SELFISH?

Morals : How I want to live my life

Honestly, is the only attribute I can associate with how I want to
live my life.
Truth, I want to celebrate in my life.
Dream, I do of being the finest jeweler in the world, not only in
terms of business, equally in terms of ethics.
Ethics are what I want to adhere in my life & not just money.
Celebrate humanity in its essence
Fearless, free like a bird soaring in the high skies.
Life is about living an honest & fulfilling life, not just building an empire.

Truth, the anti-venom of fear

'Tu kar khudko buland itna, ki khuda bhi pooche,

Bata teri raza Kya hai|

Tu khuda ke bhi samaksh na jhuke,

Aisa aatmavishwaas tu swayam mein jaga|'

I do not know the source for these poetic lines, but sure do agree
with the essence.
Something bad happened lately, that should in ideal terms not happen,
not just to me but to anyone. But the world is not ideal.
When bad things happen, people tend to be afraid, be fearful. That is
wrong, fear is a venom, it spreads, it wrecks, it curbs the mind &
saps strength.
When I realized I was becoming fearful, of something, of unknown, I
realized the fear itself will not let me work. I started out to find a
cure, an anti-venom of fear.
What I realized was strikingly simple yet so profound.
Being Righteous, is the anti-venom of fear, in all rights. What
righteousness does is give you courage, self-reliance, freedom from
fear.

Mind, a pitchfork

This is story of me, my mind. It is a pitchfork in essence.
For those that may not know, pitchfork is a simple instrument that can
be tuned into a particular frequency. i.e. it responds only to that
frequency & considers any other frequencies as noise & does not
'respond' to it.
Similar is my mind. It needs to be tuned, aligned to a frequency only
then does it respond to that goal or stimuli otherwise it does not
care about that frequency or stimuli, ignores it as if it were noise.
A few years back I'd tuned it to studies, I excelled. Anything else,
my mind would simply ignore, because it was not tuned in to those
other frequencies.
Then there was a turbulent magnetic wind in my third year that
disturbed the tuning. Since then, being a pitchfork, it tuned in to
many frequencies from time to time, but none stuck for long.
Now I have a goal, Jewelove, I need to tune it again. I have done it
before & can do it again. Only when it is tuned in, will it the work
the way it should.
Only then, will there be freedom.

Atheist Spirituality?

This is one of those midnight posts when I am really sleepy but there's so much going on in my mind that I cannot sleep.

I am an atheist, in about 90% of what the word means, at least. I believe that nobody can help you, no amount of prayers or wearing fine gems because a pandit told you to, will help if you are not working for the goal you have set yourself. Do right & get right reward is what I believe in.

Yet, I am spiritual. I awe when I look at the night sky, the vast scope of the Universe, the intricacies of Nature, the minute details of nature, how life on Earth has evolved, how every being has learned how to thrive, the delicate balance of nature. To see & imagine it, I cannot say that I am all that is there. There might be beings superior to me, there is definitely a force, the Force, there is a certain flow that I cannot deny. To give up work & hope that force will take care of me, I do not believe in.

Atheist, am I?

Why you SHOULD sweat the small stuff

"Our own sense of self-aggrandizement feels that big, important problems need to have big, important, and above all expensive solutions attached to them," he argues. But in our perpetual egotism and haste to manage the humongous project, we often miss the small, cheap and completely effective solution. What companies need, he concludes, is a Chief Detail Officer with lots of power and very little money.

Pretty much what I am in my company, owner with no money! Teaches you how to survive on less!

Here's the talk by Rory Sutherland, reblogged via TED

"Don't be evil (Google)" tool

Haha! This is amazing! Exactly what I pointed out in my post, Real reason why Google Plus exists
outlined in this post by Danny Sullivan.

I’ve written that Google has plenty of public data to allow parts its new Search Plus Your World feature to be inclusive of rival social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Now, those networks are proving that true, through a new “Don’t Be Evil” tool that lets anyone leverage Google’s own results to see this.
The tool — a bookmarklet that works in your browser — changes three parts of Search Plus Your World that currently shows information only from Google Plus. These are:

• People & Pages results
• Google+ Sitelinks
• Google+ Suggestions In Autocomplete

Overcoming Choice Overload - Key to Success?

 

Video by TED

Venture Capitalists Investments soar to $28.4 Billion!

VC Investing Soars 22 Percent To $28.4B In 2011, Internet Sector Reaches Highest Levels In A Decade

Double-digit increases in investment dollars in 2011 were spread across a number of industries, including the Clean Technology and Internet sectors. Investment dollars also increased across every stage of investment categories, with the exception of a 48 percent decrease in seed stage investments.

Tracy T. Lefteroff, global managing partner of the venture capital practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers observes that investors “are acting prudently and not chasing excessive valuations” and we’re “unlikely to see these sectors overheat like we saw in the 1999 to 2000 era.”

The Software industry brought the most VC dollars by sector for the year, with the amount raised up 38 percent over 2010 to $6.7 billion in 2011. VCs invested into 1,004 software deals, a 7 percent rise in volume over the prior year. Reflecting the fourth quarter decline, software investing was down in the last quarter of 2011 with $1.8 billion going into 238 deals. Despite this decrease, software was also the number one sector for dollars invested and total number of deals in Q4 and counted more than double the number of deals during the quarter than the second largest sector, Biotechnology.
Internet companies also saw a significant increase in investing in 2011 with $6.9 billion going into 997 deals. That’s a 68 percent increase in dollars and 24 percent increase in deals from 2010 when $4.1 billion went into 807 deals. In fact, 2011 marked the highest level of Internet investment over the past decade.


Early Stage investments experienced double-digit increases, rising 47 percent in terms of dollars and 16 percent in terms of deals in 2011 to $8.3 billion in 1,414 deals. For the fourth quarter, Early Stage investments increased, with $2.3 billion going into 364 deals, an 11 percent increase in dollars in Q3 while the number of deals was flat. Early Stage companies attracted 29 percent of dollars and 38 percent of deals in 2011 compared to 24 percent of dollars and 35 percent of deals in 2010.
Expansion Stage investments increased in 2011 by 9 percent in dollars and dropped 8 percent in deals with $9.7 billion going into 999 deals. Expansion funding dropped in the fourth quarter, dipping 9 percent from the prior quarter to $2.4 billion. The number of deals also decreased during the quarter, falling 21 percent to 222. Expansion Stage companies attracted 34 percent of dollars and 27 percent of deals in 2011 compared to 38 percent of dollars and 31 percent of deals in 2010.
In 2011, $9.5 billion was invested into 864 Later Stage deals, a 37 percent increase in dollars and a 5 percent increase in deals for the year. For the fourth quarter, $1.8 billion went into 178 deals, which represents a 26 percent decrease in terms of dollars and a 9 percent decline in terms of deals from the third quarter of 2011. Later Stage companies attracted 33 percent of dollars and 24 percent of deals in 2011 compared to 30 percent of dollars and 23 percent of deals in 2010.






Reblogged via Techcrunch

Paypal India : Good News

Effective October 13, 2011, the RBI has raised the limit on international payments to be received in India to $3000 from the meager $500. Though a lot of industries (including gem & jewelry industry, fine handicrafts, painters, artists etc.) are still not so happy. But Neils Armstrong said, "It is a big step for e-commerce in India".

GO India!


Reference : https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/10/great-news-for-our-merchants-in-india/

How SOPA & PIPA Acts affect non-americans

A lot of non-americans in touch with me, a lot of them Indians with
e-startups, are not really concerned about SOPA & PIPA. But I think
there are reason to be concerned about.
If you do not know, these acts are giving ISPs, the Government &
Domain Registars the power to pro-actively censor any website, not
just content, they deem as piracy with 'considerable evidence' or 'in
good faith'.
Sounds close to internet dictatorship?
1. The acts do not just cover US businesses & websites but also
foreign websites located on US servers (like this blog) as well as any
foreign website that has 'piracy content' from being accessed from
within the United States.
2. This is a deadly blow to user-generated content, crowdsourcing &
e-businesses.
3. It gives dictator-ly powers to ISPs & domain Registrars.
4. Similar laws might be enacted in other countries on the same lines.
5. It 'awards' ISPs & Registrars that pro actively take action in good faith.
6. It has a clause to take down the whole website & not just the
acclaimed pirated content. i.e. If one piece of your content is
pirated, your whole site can be taken down & not just the 'pirated
content'
7. It places the responsibility of action on the website. which in
simple words means, if you post some 'pirated content' on Facebook,
then Facebook not you, will be penalized.
Impact - Websites will discourage user-generated content as it is
impossible to check all user-generated content being generated on a
big website. This could also lead away investors & venture capitalists
from internet startups. So much, for the golden era of the internet.
All in all it could mark the beginning of the end of free & open
internet that we enjoy today.
Hope that helps clear why even Wikipedia blacked out today. Wikipedia
might become illegal under the acts & we will have to live without
Wikipedia if the acts are passed!
--

Best regards
Sambhav Karnawat
JeweloveTM
K.K. Exports
The Ruby King
+91-9828012999
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Philosophy of Life - Birthday Special

Not that I consider birthdays any more special than I do every moment,
but I just realized this today in the context of birthday, so this
post is The Birthday Special.

Philosophy :
Every moment of mine is only mine to enjoy.

--

Best regards

Sambhav Karnawat

JeweloveTM
K.K. Exports
The Ruby King

+91-9828012999
Connect with Jewelove [image: Facebook]
<http://www.facebook.com/Jewelove> [image:
LinkedIn] <http://in.linkedin.com/in/jewelove> [image:
Blogger]<http://blog.jewelove.in/> [image:
Twitter] <http://www.twitter.com/JeweloveIndia> [image: Google
Plus]<https://plus.google.com/100481229995468376393#100481229995468376393/posts>
Contact Jewelove [image: Google Talk] JeweloveIndia [image:
Skype]Jewelove. [image:
Y! messenger] JeweloveIndia
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail!
IMPORTANT: The contents of this email and any attachments are
confidential. They are intended for the named recipient(s) only. If you
have received this email by mistake, please notify the sender immediately
and do not disclose the contents to anyone or make copies thereof.

Cost of Failure - Good Reason to Start Early!

This post is a prelude to an upcoming post on 'Failure Funds - Way to
spur Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Indian Universities'
Cost of Failure
One of those weird terms that I very often come up with. When I say
cost of failure, I mean the loss you have incurred, because you tried
something (usually new) & it was unsuccessful, in terms of lost money,
time & peace of mind (aka financial & other security)
Why is it important?
Lot of IITians (in particular because I've had interactions with quite
a few of them) think the cost of failure is high when they are just
around graduation.
The general consensus amongst most IITians is that if they do not take
up a corporate job (I am not talking about the almighty researchers
that we nurture because they are (few) gods walking amongst us humble
men), & start something new aka startup & they 'FAIL!' they would have
screwed up their life & (dramatically) 'Condemned their souls to the
raging fires to hell for all eternity'
Now my point (scientifically speaking, hypothesis) is, that it is
quite not true, rather if at all, it is quite the opposite. i.e. The
cost of failure is VERY LOW early on & there is a very good chance it
might be very high by the time you are in your late thirties & early
forties (mark important, will explain why, in next post)
Proof : (my favorite part, #MTH101)
Consider a (read daring) IITian who starts a company (or at least
starts working on an idea) early, let's say his sophomore year or
maybe third year. He works on it for a month or two, but does not
achieve success.
(sad story) & he 'quits'. (he stops working on that idea & starts
working on another idea)
Now, consider what people think he has he 'lost' :
1. 3 months of time.
2. Some peace of mind (maybe)
3. Some parties
4. Some money (maybe)
5. Grades (maybe)
6. Confidence - you might lose a little confidence, but dude, get over
it & work on the next big idea that will change the world.
Now, let me explain what he has gained :
1. 3 months of work experience. These 3 months would have otherwise
been wasted boozing around & in hangovers.
2. In 3 months, he would have had at least 6 surprise quizzes & a
midsem, so I don't think he'd have had a peaceful mind all the time
anyway.
3. 3 months of internship in working hard & trying to make an idea work.
4. He may lost some money, eg. Booking a domain, travel expenses etc.
but otherwise it would have been spent on Domino's pizza etc.
5. You may have a lower grade on your transcript but definitely a
much-more-important self-motivated work experience which would help
you throughout your life.
6. Confidence - You will gain a lot of confidence in the long run
(with the help of your friends & mentor maybe) because you dared to
venture into an unknown territory. It will help you in the long run
because life belongs to those who dare to venture into unchartered
territories. (reference - Han Solo, Star Wars)
So, overall I don't think you lost a lot.
Living Example - Me & my initially successful idea. I started working
on an in idea in the 4th semester which was initially a decent
success, but as times changed, it sort of 'died'. In the business
terms, you'd call it a failure, but for me it was a success! I was
able to pay my mess & canteen bills independently. It gave me such a
boost of confidence that even today when I am raising capital for
Jewelove & trying to venture into a relatively unknown territory I
feel confident. I know that, God Forbid, but if I do not succeed, I
can make my living independently doing something that I love to do.
For me, that is life.
More on the cost of failure in the next post, 'Failure Funds - Way to
Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Indian Universities'
Stay Tuned!