A few months ago, I shared my first article for women entrepreneurs in an Indian magazine . For my next article, I decided to share some Leadership Lessons. There are so many books, blogs and experts who have given us useful insights on leadership. I am sharing what I observed and what has worked for me…Enjoy!

My motto has been “Be the change you want to see in this world”. I have to thank Mahatma Gandhi for it and share my thoughts in an article What Gandhi gave me. His words resonate with me as it invites an individual to take responsibility of what matters to her. And to leave a legacy behind where the world is better a tiny bit because of you…

In my previous article, Entrepreneurship Phase 1: Romancing the Biz, I shared how the Biz and the entrepreneur are like lovers in the early stage. They have different attitudes, mindsets and are still in the chase to get each other. The entrepreneur realizes that she has to enroll people to bring the biz home.

The phase 2, is the Responsibility – This is when the work is done and the entrepreneur has secured the biz. She is now going to work on the biz. She is excited BUT nervous. This is exactly like when you get into a long-term relationship. You are excited and happy and at the same time nervous if you will be able to adapt to this change. Lets not kid ourselves, being a bachelor-ate, you are independent and hardly have any responsibilities BUT in a long-term relationship – you grow up, take charge of your responsibilities.

I felt the same way going into a new venture recently. Like I had matured over night. I felt excited and a bit nervous. And most importantly, I felt responsible. And I knew that I needed a lot of Good Help in managing this responsibility. Good vendors, customers, partners, collaborators and employees.

But with the responsibilities comes excitement – it is the excitement of holding your baby in your hands. She sees how much the business depends on it and needs her constant care. It is the phase where the entrepreneur and the biz are just one entity. You can’t see them as separate. There is so much excitement of taking this new role and way of being. Like a new mom, she takes over her responsibility NATURALLY.

Last weekend, with my co-founders, I was working on a time sensitive project in my living room. They were sitting around the dining table with each of them having a laptop open in front of them. We had to get some work done and decided to make dinner together and make it a “work and eat” session. It was a creative session and we were working on a script for a radio show we have recently launched.

What I observed was that we all had multiple sessions of windows open and one of them was constant across every laptop on the dining table – this was THE FB window.

I was pleasantly surprised by this observation. And then started to pay attention to how each of them was using it.

To my surprise, no one was distracted by it (as per the popular belief). On the contrary it was used to take a break and check out the conversation for a bit and come back to work. And it was amazing how each one was always effectively contributing AND we were not disconnected from our world. I did observe that we went straight to the News Feed, scrolled down to see what was the current activity among our friends and came back to the task at hand… and all this sometimes happened in a matter of split seconds!

Continue Reading my post on ActiveGarage: Social Media & Tribes #29: The New Blink

Recently, I am working on a building a new venture. This is a phase I equate to the early romance period between two lovers. The two lovers being the entrepreneur and the business. Yes! I know what you are thinking – how can a business be equated to a living being. Good question…

From the point of view of an entrepreneur, she is totally in love with this idea she has conceived for her business. She is day and night dreaming of what it would take to bring it to reality. She is fascinated by what’s possible…more or less she is totally infatuated. She is in LOVE.

From the point of view of the biz, is waiting to be revived, executed on or brought to reality so that it can serve its purpose. And for that, it needs the perfect team or mate who will turn every corner to make it work.

And when these two entities meet, there is an instant connection…And many a times it starts a long lasting relationship.

But like any pair of lovers, the biz and the entrepreneur differ in their characteristics and the entrepreneurs learns a lot about herself. She understands the essence of commitment is to stick it out through ups and downs. The moods of the biz, the tough conversations of negotiations, the financing needed it make it yours and excitement of the chase is there…since it is still not hers.

She has to constantly chase the idea to make it her own. Sometimes, the biz slips away and sometimes it doesn’t…either way the entrepreneur chases it and brings in a lot of people to help her in her chase…She needs to show consistency in her pursuit.

It is like getting all your friends and family involved when you are in Love with someone. And when you get a pushback, you don’t get upset or sad about the situation – you find more energy to deal with it.

I find myself in her shoes. I am getting some push back and it is hard to keep up. But I am dreaming of the possibilities of the biz and how it will make a difference in people’s lives and I start feeling energized…inspite of the rude phone calls, constant NOs and words like “This has never been done before, this is not the normal procedure”. I listen to it, smile and say to myself, “It is fascinating people still talk like this”.

And once the entrepreneur makes the BIZ her own; starts to work on building the biz…it becomes her BABY.

Will write about Phase2 in my next post.
Wish me luck.
Best,
Deepika

In today’s world, we are no more rooted to our computer for staying connected. This is largely because of the advent of smart phone and mobile apps. If you have an iPhone and a friend of yours complains about your delay in responding to his/her email…you better NOT say, “I was away from my computer”. Since you are on your iPhone, the other person is 100% positive that you have received the email and read it too…whether you replied to it OR not is a different story. Similarly, if you are a smart phone user and you say to someone “I don’t have time to Tweet or FB”; most likely they are wondering if you are using any smarts of the smart phone!

The point is that a cell phone is now more than an instrument to make or receive calls. It is now your desktop on the GO and has enabled social media on the GO.

Find out My Favorite Mobile Apps: Continue Reading my series on ActiveGarage: Social Media on the GO

There has been a lot of speculation about the what will be the impact of social media when Gen Y grows up into more mature digital natives. This generation already proved those wrong who thought they will grow up to be TV watching couch potatoes. This generation has the unparalleled skill to use their fingers on their smartphones and use social media to stay connected and consume entertainment. While generations older than them still watch TV on a flat HD screen in a living room, there is a revolution happening where your TV, computer and smartphone connected through internet are all equipped to provide entertainment on the GO – taking living room to the airport lounges, malls, libraries and even schools and other cool cafes.

Sure, Gen Y watches over 3 hours of TV a day, but it’s not a couch potato experience. I would argue that they’ve turned TV viewing itself into social media.

If you see them watching TV, do not assume that that is ALL they are doing. Check how they are texting, commenting and tweeting. They don’t just watch a movie, they are sharing, collaborating, distributing and connecting. This thumb-savvy generation has no issues with the overload of new technologies – they are excited about to learn about the launch of innovative technologies – eg. Google TV, ustream.tv.

Continue Reading my post on ActiveGarage: Social Media and Tribes: Gen Y changes TV viewing experience

Author Sam Martin shares photos of a quirky world hobby that’s trending with the XY set: the “manspace.” (They’re custom-built hangouts where a man can claim a bit of his own territory to work, relax, be himself.) Grab a cold one and enjoy.

Are you a creative person? Well, before you answer that question, it stands to reason we first define what being a “creative person” means. In Mark McGuinness own words:

“By creative people, I mean people who take creative approach to work and life. People who work hard, but because they love what they do, it doesn’t feel like work.”

They may be artists, writers, musicians, actors, filmmakers, coaches, scientists, cooks, entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals – or tackling complex, meaningful, inspiring challenges in other fields.“

If this sounds like you, read on.

Why do creative people need Freedom, Money and time?

Creative people need three things to be happy.

1. Freedom – to do what you want, when you want and how you want it. Not just in holidays and spare time – but also doing meaningful work, in your own way.

2. Money – to maintain your independence and fund your creative projects. Of course you want a nice place to live, but you’re not so worried about a bigger car than the guy next door. You’d rather spend money on experiences than status symbols.

3. Time – to spend as you please, exploring the world and allowing your mind to wander in search of new ideas.

Usually, you’re lucky if you get two out of the three. But if one of them is missing, it compromises the other two.

Without money, you don’t have much freedom, because you have to spend your time chasing cash.

Without time off, money doesn’t buy you a lot of freedom.

And if you’re doing something you hate for a living, it doesn’t matter how big your salary is, or how much holiday you get. You still feel trapped.

Surely there must be a more creative solution?

If this still sounds like you and you’d like a little more freedom, money and time in your life, read on.

What I got from this book?

Here’s what I got out of this book:

1. Keep Learning: To get freedom, time and money can just turn into a fantasy if you don’t put effort in making this happen. For this, you will have to keep learning from your experiences and keep moving till you find an opportunity that offers what you desire – freedom, time and money

2. Failure ROCKS: Our popular culture considers failure as BAD luck. This could be true if you are not learning from them. But if you are a student of life, then these are blessings in disguise – the only natural progression to freedom, time and money.

3. Skills matter: Till you understand that no one was born an entrepreneur, writer or public speaker. They developed these skills to become competent in their art. So, if you keep developing skills nothing can stop you from becoming excellent in what you do…which will eventually provide you freedom, time and money.

About the e-Book

A few quick points about the e-book:

* It’s FREE!
* It’s a light read – 34 pages in all.
* Describes Mark’s unconventional career journey, as a poet and creative coach, and the lessons he’s learned the hard way about finding the right combination of freedom, money and time.

Get your copy of Freedom, Money, Time and the Key to Creative Success either by going directly to the download page or by going to the Active Garage Download page.

Also, please feel free to share the e-book with anyone who you think would find it helpful.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview with Rajesh Setty about my new eBook “Pink and Grow Rich”. I have great respect for him and he had seen me work on this for years.

He asked me a few questions about the book. Here is the quick interview:

RS: What inspired you to write this eBook?

DB: Rajesh, there is a lot of emphasis is our culture to fit in. Even as a kid, if you try to do something which is out of ordinary or lets say EXTRA ordinary, chances are you will be told “This is not how it works” OR “You can never do this” OR “Let someone else figure this out”. Also, for most of us, rich means material wealth. Our society has evolved to measure success as a function of our financial status. I am not saying making money is bad. Don’t get me wrong – being rich is definitely helpful. Money gives you freedom to work on what you want and with whom you want. It is really good if you don’t have to think about money.

But what I found is that the RICH means different things to different people. Most successful people did not start with the motive to get rich. They were more interested in helping others.

Increasingly, I believe that the cultural barriers are coming down, and a new generation of leaders who feel themselves to be citizens of the world, rather than simply Americans, Asians, Hispanics, African Americans are looking for a way to be part of a larger community and find their unique leadership styles.

So, I interviewed 30 exceptional multicultural leaders who are women. Their self-belief and confidence apart, they were UNREASONABLE. They took full responsibility of who they could become.

PINK and grow RICH touches on what REAL wealth is. In it, you will read some memoirs from the ‘Rich and Famous’, who dared to be RICH – like they wanted.

RS: What is the BIG idea of this ebook?

Continue Reading my interview on his blog: Pink and Grow Rich; Interview with Deepika Bajaj

Last week, I went through a surgery and was sentenced to BED REST. Yes. Right, I was “sentenced to bed rest“. I believe God dialed the wrong number for picking someone for Bed Rest. I normally have Bed Rest knock my door every year on multiple occasions and I tell this pathogen that I am not going to surrender and to go find someone else. So, most of the time I am able to escape. This time the buster got me.

So, here I am on two weeks of Bed Rest. First week, the pain killers kept me from staying awake. Second week, I could not make up my mind as to what to do while on bed. I am not much of a TV watcher. Friends kept me a lot of company BUT still a week is a long time (at least I think so). So, it left me with options like reading a book, spending time on internet and writing. The usual ones…and of course! working. Still it is isolating and I needed some external stimulation…

But the more time I spent online, I realized how much I had to catch up on my online activity and discovered some cool things.

Here is how social media was a boon in this time.

1. A Facebook message informed me that a company where a friend of mine was working got acquired so I wrote to her congratulating her. And we caught up.

2. A Tweet about my eBook prompted a friend to call. We had so much to catch up on since she lives in the East Coast and is going to launch a magazine early next year. Bear in mind, I have never met her, We are cyber friends. Met on Twitter, did a radio show together and now are friends.

3. Caught up on some Youtube videos of Eckhart Tolle while reading his new book “A New Earth“. Boy! it was really profound to get his interpretation about the book.

Continue reading my article and list on Active Garage:

Social Media and Tribes #24: Getting better with Social Media – Christmas Wishlist