Friday Quiz #2: In the loving memory of Hustlers

Welcome to Friday Quiz.

Every Friday, give yourself the excuse to be human.

If you profess to be a knowledge worker of the 21st century, it would behoove you to work out your muscles of knowing. As simple as that.

Of course, feel free to completely miss the point of the game, if you choose to google out the answers.

For the clueless, read below to understand in doing what I am doing, what am I really doing. Once you've done reading, don't go anywhere else. Come back. You don't want to miss an exciting quiz game, do you?

Today, August the 11th, marks the birthday of Hulk Hogan.

Do you remember Hulk?

Oh yeah!

Growing up in the 90's was like that.

You collected WWE Trump cards. You remembered Hustlers and their birthdays for reasons other than technology.

Yes, the theme of today's quiz remembers hustlers for reasons other than technology.

So, let's begin. Four questions harder than a nut await you.

1) In all probability, you would not have heard of me. I was the second youngest Vice President in Westinghouse's history. But, I was fired from that job and many other jobs there after.

When I died in 1992, Financial times had this to say about me, "Few people have had as much impact on international business in the second half of the twentieth century"

If not for me, I bet you would not have imagined anyone in a board room meeting talking seriously about their business, drawing 2x2 matrices with cows and dogs.

Who am I? What did I found?

2) In the early days of my company, the going was tough. I remember one night, when I took my company's last $5000 to Las Vegas and won $27,000 gambling to cover the company's expenses. You know, at some point, the tough had to get going.

I was always looking for the next big thing that could disrupt my business. I realized that Fax machine is the next big thing that will perhaps kill my business. Why should I not then be the first person to build it?

When I approached my board, the board director almost fell off the chair, hearing my audacious proposal.

In 1984, I launched Zapmail to much fanfare.

It was a total disaster.

So much that I had to sell my equipment to an electronics recycler for scrap value.

Who am I?

3) I am sure you are familiar with Visa card. Do you know who owns it? Or where is it headquartered?

The truth is, I always wanted Visa to be an invisible organization. Only the results should be visible. Nothing else - its structure, governance - other than the results should speak for itself.

I was raised in the mountains of Utah. I have always loved Nature. I became enthralled with studying biology and ecology to discover some of the essential organizing principles of Nature.

In the year 1968, when the Credit Card Industry was in crisis, I challenged my industry with a bold, radical vision:

"If anything in the world was possible, if there were no constraints whatever, what would be the nature of an ideal organization to create the world’s premier system for the exchange of value?"

In 1984, when the world basked in the success of VISA, I left the organization I led to do some gardening and think about the lessons I had learned all the way. I bought a piece of land in Northern California, and read a lot of books.

Early this year, I joined the Advisory board of a startup which also wanted to revolutionize the payments system. Who am I ?

4) When I first sang the song in 1902, I chose to sing a hindustani khayal, in Raag Jogiya.

After I had sung the song, I ended the recording spelling my name out loud. I was paid Rs. 3000 for that recording. Back in those days, it was a big amount.

I was born to an Armenian Jew, who worked in an ice factory near Benares. When my mother's marriage ended, we were left stranded and thankfully we found support from a Muslim nobleman. I later converted to Islam.

When I was the court singer to the Nizam of Hyderabad, I was permitted to use a carriage drawn by 18 horses.

When I visited Madras to perform at Victoria Hall in 1910, the audience were floored by my music. That year, I learned few Thyagaraja kritis from Veena Dhanammal and Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar learned few bhajans from me.

In 1992, when my earliest recordings were found in the EMI archives in London, adjacent to its Abbey Road studio, R.P. Goenka, a music lover, heard of it and bought it from EMI, paying a a huge sum.

I had cut close to 600 records. History remembers me as the woman who was the earliest to tap into technology to support myself, rather than being subservient to the royal patrons of Arts.

Who am I ?

Do write the answers in comments. Remember. Answers need not be just about "Who" and "What" alone.

I haven't thought of a reward yet for the quickest human to answer these questions.

What reward do you think you should get to assert your Human Intelligence in this age of Artificial Intelligence?

Do you feel inspired to share interesting quiz questions to be featured in future editions of the blog? Write to me.