Shabd Saran Mishra, eCollegeofindia.com
Wednesday June 03, 2009 , 5 min Read
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it”
His dreams once made real have touched the lives of many people directly and indirectly. Saran and his idea have benefited many. He says “If we were to look at all our businesses as a single entity till date over 5000 people would have used its services directly and over 100,000 indirectly! Our aim is to cater to an entire gamut of professionals from every sphere through our education portal – www.ecollegeofindia.com”
Not just any old eLearning site either, the uniqueness stems from the fact that they are:-
- Introducing technically the most up to date version of eLearning technology available.
- Affordable, relevant, and effective courses
- Content from the best subject matter experts
He is also not one to stay still for long, and right now as you read this there are already plans under way. Saran reveals “We are working on creating the brand ‘eCollege of India’ a ubiquitous entity. There will soon be a pan-India campaign on the benefits of eLearning, how our courses are different, why are they useful and a must do and how they add value to one’s CV. Creating one of the largest and the best eLearning content library is a part of this plan.”
An entrepreneur by nature, he believes in the fact that a single man with a good idea can change the world. He says “I think that I can safely call myself a born entrepreneur as I have helped my uncle in his business of power transmission belts right from school days, made T-shirts and sold at a decent profit during engineering, contemplated and organized events in engineering and management, acquired companies and ran them profitably for my employers. Hence its natural to think, why should I work for others when I can better contribute to my society, my country and the world in general by being more expressive and implementing my ideas more creatively and in an independent manner.”
Interestingly enough, Saran also considers his mistake to be his greatest challenge. He answered both the questions posed to him saying “I would like to answer both Q7 & Q8 together. Every day entrepreneurs take risks in the form of a decision that they take, be it signing a contract or hiring an employee, making capital purchases or just about any other decision. Each day they make errors in calculations or strike it right and hence it would be correct to say that each day is a challenge, each day we commit an error and each day we learn something new. To use adjectives like “biggest” or “worst” may sound good, but by my own experience – each one of us have yet to see the best or worst in our life!”
Even more intriguingly he says that his seed capital was nil. He spoke about his initial amount saying “Zero!! (And the Entrepreneur in me compels me to write that if they are people interested in knowing more details, I do not mind conducting a paid program on this! J”
With year-on-years growth of 300% and 35 employees operating 2 branches, they seem poised to take the world of eLearning by the horns.
They were also nominated as one of TATA – NENs hottest start-ups in India. Saran says “We did not win it but it was exciting to be there! Yes, we have won a couple of awards but the best award has been that not a single client has looked at any other firm once they engaged us!”
The clouds of self doubt that plague others seem to have been accepted as a transitory phenomenon by him. He remarked “The stress and the aspirations do compel every entrepreneur to think in this direction. But it is always a passing thought – I would not like to trade my freedom for anything,”
With the goal of becoming the best eLearning provider in India with the largest and best eLearning content repository by 2010, Saran has little room for retreat or self admonishment. He described entrepreneurship while adding his own hard gained wisdom saying
“I feel that Entrepreneurs do a great service to the nation. They create jobs, they contribute to the growth of their country, they pay taxes, they earn foreign exchange, they create wealth, facilitate intellectual property creation, commit to charity and other social causes! Hence if you aspire to be an Entrepreneur, You are aspiring to be the best form of human being. Yes, there will be hiccups, you will be scared, you may not have resources – but trust me - follow the Goethe’s couplet in spirit, “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it”. You will certainly be successful!!”
Yourstory wishes this dynamic entrepeneur all the success he can gather and hopes he continues ply his unique brand of Entrepreneurship.
