It was indeed an inspiring morning today when I took the inaugural session for the fourth batch of TYE of TIE (TIE Young Entrepreneurship program of The Indus Entrepreneurs). Three years ago, IWSB (Indus world school of Business), an endeavour of Career Launcher (CL Educate) initiated the program with TIE for the school children (classes 8-12; age 14-18) to experience the concept of entrepreneurship and kick start the potential journey of being an entrepreneur. This year, I was delighted to see over 90 participants from various schools assembling for the inaugural session at Bharti centre for Telecommunication technology at IIT Delhi campus on a Sunday morning.

I was delighted to interact with a few parents of the children who have attended the previous batches and were glad to have their second child in this batch. They shared their experience of TYE program and its impact on their first ward – that their outlook towards life has changed and are pursuing their dreams passionately.

I started the session by eliciting the ‘expectations’ of the participants from the program. Responses varied from ‘understanding entrepreneurship’ to possibly coming out with an idea that they can pursue to fruition, to finding possible partners who will be part of such a journey from among the participants, to getting ideas to raise funds and finding mentors…. It was heartening to see a large number of the participants well informed, though only handful of them has parents who are entrepreneurs.

The participants were looking forward to a program that was devoid of text books and tests, as they were told that TYE would be. But, we started with a surprise test (Written Instructions tool) – All looked shocked as they hated tests that they regularly had in their schools. Once the test started, they had fun… As they realized this was a very different test that they had never experienced… Have a look at the action during the 90sec test and subsequent discussion on ‘whys’ and ‘whats’ of their behaviour…

A few of their sharing about the test were –
– I felt amused
– I rushed to the task
– I did not think before doing
– Felt Immense Competition
– Was happy to see the questions and solving them, became sad when I saw 19th
– Anxious about my performance
– Time was constraint – just needed to hurry
– Tests have always been scary
– Made calculations, strategy of how I will complete in 90 seconds
– Peer pressure
– Conditioning

Then I invested subsequent hour sharing stories (The inspiring session of ‘Think Big, Start Small’ that is part of my national entrepreneurial motivating tour) of entrepreneurial endeavours of many a young as well as enterprising youth from not-so-well-to-do families, about how they are transforming themselves, business and communities. Visit the page – ..Think Big, Start Small

The session was an eye-opener for every participant. It set a platform for the whole program. A few of the take-away that they shared at the end of the session were –
• No idea for business is too small
• Observation and introspection is the key; opportunities are around you
• Do not worry about what others will think, have confidence in your idea
• Do not fear failure
• Be disruptive, make changes
• You need not have education and resources to be successful;
• you need conviction and have to be passionate