This is an excerpt from an article that I wrote for The Fifth Estate, the official student news body of IIT Madras, and which will also appear in IIT Madras's Annual Magazine, to be released during Convocation 2012. The full-version of this article will be published by the end of July 2012; stay tuned for that. It has been almost a year at Stanford in this vibrant Silicon Valley, and I have so many stories and experiences to share. This is just the beginning.
People often ask me what this entrepreneurial spirit
is all about, something that, we have all heard, is unique to Stanford
and the Silicon Valley. "Being entrepreneurial doesn't just mean
starting companies”, says Chris McCann, co-founder of StartupDigest,
“It’s really a life philosophy and culture. The normal people I know are
doing the same thing they were a year ago, complain about their bosses,
don’t have anything to do when they are bored, and just lead general
less interesting lives. But the incredible entrepreneurs I know have
interesting hobbies, are excited by the future, learn about completely
random topics, and have exciting things going on all the time in their
lives."
That's
the spirit of this place - exciting things going on all the time. In
the 9 months that I have been here, I have learned tennis and squash,
picked up playing the keyboard, taken lessons in social ballroom
dancing and hip hop, improved as a swimmer, helped organize talks by public figures,
cooked a variety of Indian dishes, made a lot of new friends, and
interacted with a bunch of leaders, entrepreneurs and celebrities, in
addition to doing the usual research, courses and assignments. Every day
I wake up, I try to indulge myself in something new, try to make my day
memorable, so that at the end of it, I can go to bed satisfied, with a
smile on my face.
And
this is something that I would love to see everyone doing - indulging
in something new, every day. I realized it only recently, but believe
me, life’s too short to get stuck with a boring routine. If you think you’ve
got stuck in your lives, get yourself out of the rut. Pick up a new
pastime. Or make a new friend. Or visit a new place. Or play a new
sport. Or learn a new topic. Or try out a new gadget. So that when people
ask you “What’s up?”, you have a different answer to give them, every
single time.
