“Stay hungry. Stay foolish” said Steve Jobs during his famous commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005. Steve attributed the phrase to the back cover of the 1974 edition of the ‘Whole Earth Catalog’. Ever since the phrase was quoted, it has been a constant source of inspiration for all- those who are entrepreneur or aspiring to be an entrepreneur.
But for a particular someone it went to become title of her work. Yes. Rashmi Bansal! She is the ‘particular someone’ we are talking about. Rashmi, an IIM-Ahmedabad student, decided to drop out of campus placement and set her journey to become a writer and never looked back. She is very passionate about writing and so far, she has authored:
- Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, 2008,
- Connect the Dots, Westland Ltd, 2012
- I Have a Dream, Westland And Tranquebar Press, 2011
- Poor Little Rich Slum, with Deepak Gandhi, Westland, 2012
- Follow Every Rainbow, Westland Ltd, 2013
- Take Me Home, Westland Ltd, 2013
- Arise Awake, Westland Ltd, 2015 February
All the books are widely read and appreciated. However during her initial days, she faced hardship in getting through the publishing agencies. This let her to Co-found ‘Bloody Good Book’– A platform which reflects the content which you and I would like to read over cliché publishing agencies where English Laureates decide what will get published.
Today, she is a well-known writer and entrepreneur. She has become a youth icon of the country. Here are few thoughts of Rashmi to inspire us all:
“You don’t need a fancy degree to dream big and make it happen. It’s all in your head, your heart, your hands”
– Rashmi Bansal, Connect The Dots
“The very act of becoming an entrepreneur is contrarian to middle class values-study hard, get a good job, be happy with secure income and steady salary.”
– Rashmi Bansal, Stay Hungry Stay Foolish
“A journey of thousand miles starts with a single step. But the road is slippery and wet. You don’t have the right shoes. You don’t have the Google maps.
Yet, you must put that foot forward.
You will stumble, you will fail. You will get up again, you will learn to walk.”
–Rashmi Bansal, Arise Awake
“Logic and reason are the naphthalene balls we use to pack them away into a sandook called ‘Someday’. But when that day comes we are too old, too poor, too tired or too lazy.”
-Rashmi Bansal, Stay Hungry Stay Foolish
“Life is a massive multiplayer game, waiting for you to log on. So don your avatar, do your thing. Many lives and many adventures await- your time starts now!”
– Rashmi Bansal, Arise Awake
“Badi soch, kadi mehnat, pakka iraada.’ (Big vision, hard work and determination) If you have these three qualities, you can do anything.” Housekeeping still forms the bulk of BVG’s.”
– Rashmi Bansal, Connect The Dots
“Dream big, ideate karo, there are people with funds, funds is never a challenge.”
– Rashmi Bansal, Arise Awake
And the one with the ultimate truth:
“Our mission in life is not to reach sales targets. The purpose of life is to be happy.”
― Rashmi Bansal, Connect The Dots
