Why I Stopped Wearing My Socks

by Alok Kejriwal

The successful launch of Mobile2win India taught me many valuable lessons. The first one was that it was important to have a clearly identified business goal especially when starting up. I wanted to partner with a large TV channel for strategic reasons and I accomplished it. I firmly believe that from time to time, an entrepreneur must focus his energies on a single ‘laser-targeted’ task and work positively towards achieving it, with a premeditated mindset of victory. In my experience, when you wish for something and work hard at it, you will achieve it. The second lesson I learned was to be open to the idea of finding like-minded co-founders and partners who were committed to making a startup business successful. I found Rajiv and Ranga who were rare professionals with a solid entrepreneurial streak in them. Then comes the need to be ‘street-smart’ whenever the situation permitted. My trick of impressing Sunil Lulla with the Jassi ringtone taught me how important it was to demonstrate great ideas instead of just talking about them. It is imperative for an entrepreneur to develop his unique marketing and presentation panache and deliver it in his unique style. One has to work hard at this, but it is extremely important. My success with the Mumbai hoardings taught me that any industry or process could be reinvented and disrupted with creative and innovative energy. Above all, I learnt that when an entrepreneur created ideas that were inherently helpful and delightful, the w...