the Habit Stack

Graeme Silvera: Life lessons from a 13000 kms bicycle journey

Graeme Silvera is the author of ‘Talewinds: A coming of age memoir of a 13000 km journey by bicycle through Europe, North Africa and the Middle East’. He also happens to have a diverse 30 year career in real estate. That career spans a wide range of experience in virtually all aspects of the industry including residential single and multi family, industrial, institutional, retail, office and public private partnerships. 

We speak about the life lessons he learnt from the journey taken 33 years back, and how those lessons helped him create success and overcome setbacks. Some of those lessons would resonate with leaders, executives and entrepreneurs irrespective of their stage of life.

Show notes are available on https://purplecrest.co/podcast/

Thomas Mirmotahari: On getting business education through start-ups

Thomas is a young entrepreneur who is building a business that started as a desire to solve his personal problem as an employee in the post-pandemic world. Thomas' journey before starting up, consists of stacking up the relevant skills, beliefs and habits to be a successful entrepreneur. This includes making decisions for choosing the right undergrad course, then picking up the marketing, sales and technology skills to build a tech-led business. He sees himself as a business/product guy who knows how to write software applications end-to-end. To date, Thomas has done the engineering, sales, marketing, and support for his business - PerkUp. 

PerkUp drives employee engagement by allowing companies to issue pre-loaded Visa cards that the team can freely spend on entertainment, education, fitness, childcare, or office equipment.

Our conversation focused on understanding how Thomas made some critical decisions, what he could have done better in early career and how he built the relevant skills and habits. His journey and decision making is relevant for early stage entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, wannabe entrepreneurs and students who are about to make critical career decisions.

Show notes are available here: https://purplecrest.co/podcast/thomas-mirmotahari-on-getting-business-education-through-start-ups/

Krishnan Kasturirangan : Making career decisions by prioritising impact

Krishnan Kasturirangan is a former McKinsey and Company consultant and former COO of Knowlarity Communications - the largest cloud communications provider in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He is on a new mission: Eliminate Food Waste. His latest pursuit, Wastelink, is a food surplus management company that helps food manufacturers manage their surplus and waste by transforming it into nutritional feed for animals.

Krishnan made very interesting transitions during his career. Our conversation focused on understanding the thoughts, mental models, influences and habits that helped Krishnan make such transitions. Krishnan’s journey and decision making is relevant for those building a career as well as those driven by the desire to create impact on their own terms.

To read the show notes, head over to https://purplecrest.co/podcast/ 

Gaurav Dhir: Buying a business using credit card during Covid-19

Gaurav Dhir is an Internet Entrepreneur based out of Oshawa in Canada. He started his first business in India, then took a franchise in the education segment when he moved to Canada and then, and this is very interesting, started his next business by acquiring a website from his credit card!

We must add that he did that without knowing anything about Internet businesses. Gaurav is one of the ‘antifragile’ Problem Solvers who became stronger with the disorder created by Covid-19.

Listen to this episode to get motivated for starting an internet business, learn about some initial challenges and some thoughts about the world of content monetisation. This conversation is a flashback to capture the first 6 months of the business, so that anyone who wants to start a business can benefit.

Interesting fact: As of January 2021, Gaurav grew the business by 10X from where it was when he had acquired it.

4 achievers, 5 big learnings for growth

We had 4 achievers from diverse backgrounds in the show so far - 2 entrepreneurs, 1 CEO and 1 CFO. All of them are self-made and started with very ordinary backgrounds. That makes replicating what they did possible for Anyone who is hungry for success.

Our community members had some questions. Are there common patterns in these achievers’ success? What was common in their mindset? What habits, routines and systems were similar?

This episode is a reflection on 5 biggest learnings our community members had from these 4 achievers and the habits that anyone can develop for accelerated success. If you didn’t get a chance to listen to all the episodes, or if you did that and are looking for actionable insights then this episode will possibly do that for you.

Kedar Choudhury: Small town beginnings, to CFO-in-demand

Kedar, the CFO of Founding Years Learning Solutions (Klay Schools), is a contrast from our previous guest RD Sriram in terms of number of jobs and career strategy. Yet, both of them are also similar in their humble backgrounds. Kedar’s career is a journey of transitions. He has worked in Indian promoter driven organisations, PE funded organisations, multinational companies, in education sector, dairy sector, engineering technologies, software sector, manufacturing sector and financial services sector. When I had approached him, I was curious about his habits and beliefs that made him succeed in such diverse environments. What impressed me was the origin - the struggle and lack of resources of a small town life in Orissa. His is a story of grit and perseverance, and an inspiration for everyone who is determined to succeed on their own terms. Enjoy listening to this one.

RD Sriram: Eliminate needless blindness. Globally, from India

This week, Rahul is in conversation with RD Sriram, a humble entrepreneurial leader to take inspiration from. Sriram had an unusual career, entirely spent with deep passion and love at just one organisation - Aurolab, where he is the CEO now. Aurolab’s mission is to eliminate needless blindness globally. It is doing that from a remote corner in India, from a small town called Madurai (you can hear birds chirping in the background of the episode!). Today, Aurolab has a presence in 160+ countries and exports 18 mn+ products annually. We asked Sriram about his learnings in building a global product from India, as well as the challenges Aurolab is currently working on. We also asked how entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals and students could collaborate with Aurolab, to contribute to its mission as well as potentially benefit from working together. Listen not only to get cues on habits for growth, but also for collaboration possibilities!

Sarika Sethi: The 'Accidental Entrepreneur', on dealing with career or business crossroads

This week, Rahul is in conversation with Sarika Sethi, one of the entrepreneurial leaders we need more of. Besides playing roles of mother and wife, she plays roles of co-founder and COO, at Gemini Power Hydraulics Private Ltd. Along with her husband, Sarika has built an organisation with pan-India presence, 175+ employees and multiple multinational organisations as customers. Other than building Gemini, Sarika is more passionate being a leadership accelerator and an executive coach. If you are at career or business crossroads or have stopped finding joy at work, Sarika might have a solution in this episode. Enjoy listening to this one!

NK Chaudhary: The Gandhi of Carpet Industry (Part 2)

This is the concluding part of Rahul's conversation with Mr. Nand Kishore Chaudhary, a globally acclaimed social entrepreneur and the founder of Jaipur Rugs, one of India's largest manufacturers of hand-knotted rugs who is often referred to as the ‘Gandhi of the Carpet Industry’. If you are an entrepreneur or an expert in a business function, then this conversation is for you. This episode explores ideas for anyone to collaborate with Jaipur Rugs or work with Mr. Chaudhary in his impact-creation journey.

NK Chaudhary: The Gandhi of Carpet Industry (Part 1)

This week, Rahul is in conversation with Mr. Nand Kishore Chaudhary, a globally acclaimed social entrepreneur and the founder of Jaipur Rugs, one of India's largest manufacturers of hand-knotted rugs who is often referred to as the ‘Gandhi of the Carpet Industry’. If you are someone driven by the need to create a social impact and feel limited by challenges and lack of resources, listen to Mr Chaudhary's inspiring story and his habits that led him to success.