My Fintech Yatra

Value: the regard that something is held to deserve.

So I want you to think strongly about this word, think about the definition above, what comes to your mind? Is value something we expect to have or expect to be given?

Most people in this world expect value but never realize that they fall short in their own distribution of value, I challenge you to audit yourself. Not only value through people, I want you take your attention on value through information that people create on different internet platforms.

What are available on the internet are documents and documents to me always describe the conclusion of the journey of learning, and are dead resources.

Above & Beyond, I met a man who says ‘Take me on the journey of learning by talking and whiteboard with me’ ,a righteous instance who vividly demonstrated what it is to give value.

Leaving his job, it was quite a perpetual bias for people (including me) to think that this is absurdly insane. To which he explained: How do you convince people that you can do something else? As I learned, YOU SHOW THEM.

Also, I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘The Tipping Point’ and particularly remember his mentioning of one of the three types of people ‘THE MAVEN’ who can spread ideas. These people seem to have an inside knowledge on a market, idea, trend, community and are known as people who spread change through their knowledge. Abhishant, the maven has definitely been a tremendous aggregator of information that people value and I am glad I met him.

In a country of 132 crore people, financial inclusion is not an easy task and I always resonate with the fact that our banks are perceived to be anachronistic business models, stuck in efficiency trap. So Is Indian Financial Inclusion and Fintech success stories from reality. One can only find out by meeting the fintech heroes on the ground, Abhishant with his 270 hours of 1on1 conversations has definitely created the biggest market connect in fintech space.

I was fortunate to travel Delhi-Noida (46.7km),  Jaipur (281km) and Ahmedabad (678.5km), exactly 1/9^th of his exceptional yatra of 67 days. 

Creativity comes from within and experience helps you enhance it.

On this yatra, I understood there are lot of entrepreneurs who want to participate in global connect forums, but cannot do so due to financial constraints. Cost of travel, accommodation, logistics is not something early stage startups can afford. Hence they keep loosing opportunity to showcase their product to the right set of people.

When a man decides to travel to them instead, the wealth of exchanged knowledge and impact is first of its nature.

This Yatra has made me curious about the stories people live than the ones they tell.

I will keep growing my fintech knowledge and work towards financial inclusion.

Independence through Freedom and Slavery

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"I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery" is a translation of a Latin phrase that Thomas Jefferson used: "Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem."

As India celebrates its 72nd Independence Day on August 15, I came across the above thought provoking quote which gives me a chance to ponder upon what is freedom and slavery in today's world. 

Happy to hear what it means to you then just being forwarded an Independence day image.

(FREEDOM)
To me freedom is to be able to make decisions and choices independently, to be able to breathe freely.

To me freedom is getting an opportunity to know who I really am and discovering my strengths and weaknesses.

To me freedom is living the way I want to, wearing clothes that I like, eating what I relish, speaking to whomsoever I want to or going to wherever my mind wanders to.

Freedom is the basis of reason. To be able to question everything before blindly accepting my fate. To question what is right and what is wrong without being afraid of any threats.

To me freedom is to be able to connect with my responsibilities I associate myself with.

(SLAVERY)
All too often I see people with their noses stuck to their iphones, iPods, even when they are publicly with someone else.    

I think we all have different reasons for using social networking but..

Slavery to me is when i find it hard to keep my nimble thumbs off my key-pad for just a few moments of digital satisfaction.

Slavery to me is when i am unable to decide who needs my undivided attention and respect, when social media has an irrepressible hold on me.

Technology means we’re always on, always plugged in, always stimulated, always in a constant state of self-presentation.

But just because we invented a powerful technology doesn't mean we have to become its slaves. 

Thus, with this introspection on our independence day, i would work towards improving my human FREEDOM and reduce my technological SLAVERY.

What about you?