Sadhana & Start-up founders

My favorite office game is 'Bullshit Bingo'. It is a fun way to tap into all the nonsense we speak at work, secrets we behold, banter we exchange with colleagues, senior management polity, errr! Coming to think of it, quite an easy way to test organizational culture as well.

Juxtapose this to the start-up world where we hear words like idea, disruption, customer need, total addressable market, MVP, angel fund, revenue, burn rate, growth hack, pre-money, solving for the next round, equity dilution etc. Very rarely, we hear the word 'founder'.

The one thing, and perhaps the only thing that the 'Start-up Rekindle' program focuses on is the 'Founder'. Those of you who haven't heard about 'Start-up Rekindle', it is a short, purposeful, weekend retreat designed for start-up founders to help them rekindle the self, so everything else can simply fall in place. I had the good fortune of attending this session last week, and boy, what a session it turned out to be!

Firstly, this isn't a religious program. If you are a believer, great. If you are a non-believer, even better. 

Secondly, the facilitators will offer no solace (unlike your typical urban guru) instead provoke you to progress to the next step, and ultimately attain to the truest self. 

Thirdly, don't get anxious if you hear words like Vajrasana, Pranayama, Bhastrika, Sudarshan Kriya etc, they are easily not the typical words one would hear at a start-up clinic however they are there for a reason. Some great lessons on Indian values, accepting people as they are, not succumbing to people's opinion, living in the moment, taking responsibility (this one is a killer), offering to help, smiling, and allowing the grace to happen.

Lastly, a word about the facilitators & cohort - Navin Gupta, the facilitator was almost 'gurudev-esque' in his conduct, opened his home & heart to us. It was hard to miss his personal experiences, situational integrity, unflustered nature, deep longingness to share, and above all that radiant smile throughout the 2-day program.

Sonpreet Ji, the co-facilitator is a study in contrast, she was like the 'ma' of the program, taking charge, setting the pace, provoking your thoughts. Much more in-your-face (emphasis is on much more), rest assured some of the things she says & does will hit you like a bullet, and change your perspectives of life forever.

Both Navin & Sonpreet gracefully combined to offer a series of tools & processes to enhance the founder 'self', which is largely unaddressed in India's start-up rich ecosystem. The cohort per se was a wonderful bunch to hang out with (many of them hand-picked from Abhishant's Mumbai FinTech Accelerator). Highly passionate, young, hot & happening.

As they say, Sadhana is a tool to rise above the ordinary, acquire abilities to ride the wave and bring organic intelligence into your body. If the self is tended to, wonderful things will blossom effortlessly. 

The scart (science & art) of tending to the self, existed in this culture for several centuries. It is time we bring this back in full steam if India were to truly reign in the start-up world.

Highly recommend to all start-up entrepreneurs. 

Life is like a wave, surf it or suffer it! Sg