A Highly Awe Inspiring & Edifying Story Of A Person Who Failed 1009 Times & Proves That Age Is Just A Number.

As Confucius said, "Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator." This may not apply to many when someone is who is 65 years old, broke and all alone. He got his first social security check for $105 and he got mad. This was the starting point of his new life wherein he stopped complaining about the government, the circumstances, the people around him and started asking the right questions like, "What could I do that would be valuable for other people? What could I give back?" He started thinking that what was it that he possessed could be valuable to others.

His first answer was, "Well, I have this chicken recipe everyone seems to love! What if I sold my chicken recipe to restaurants? Could I make money doing that?" Then he immediately thought, "That's ridiculous. Selling my recipe won't even pay the rent." And then, he got a new idea: "What if I not only sold them my recipe but also showed them how to cook the chicken properly? What if the chicken was so good that it increased their business? If more people came to see them and they made more chicken sales, maybe they would give me a percentage of those additional sales." 

Many people have great ideas. But Colonel Sanders was different. He was a man who didn't just think of great things to do. He put them into action. He went and started knocking on doors, telling each restaurant owner his story: "I've got
a great chicken recipe, and I think if you use it, it'll increase your sales. And I'd like to get a percentage of that increase." Well, many people laughed in his face. They said, "Look, old man, get out of here. What are you wearing that stupid white suit for?" Did Colonel Sanders give up? Absolutely not.Instead of feeling bad about the last restaurant that had rejected his idea, he immediately started focusing on how to tell his story more effectively and get better results from the next restaurant. He stopped thinking about the rejections and started preparing himself for listening a YES. It was as if Colonel Sanders had drilled in himself a belief that the term No means Next Opportunity. How many times do you think Colonel Sanders heard no before getting the answer he wanted? He was refused 1,009 times before he heard his first yes. He spent two years driving across America in his old, beat-up car, sleeping in the back seat in his rumpled white suit, getting up each day eager to share his idea with someone new. Often, the only food he had was a quick bite of the samples he was preparing for prospective buyers. He sure lacked resources but was resourceful which altogether made a difference.

How many people do you think would have gone for 1,009 noes - two years of no's! - and kept on going? Very few. That's why there's only one Colonel Sanders. I think most people wouldn't get past twenty noes, much less a hundred or a thousand! Yet this is sometimes what it takes to succeed.

Just for those of you who are wondering who's Colonel Sanders & Why is there an image of KFC in the beginning of the post? Because, its Colonel Sanders on that classy image of KFC. That's right, Colonel Sanders is the one who started KFC - Finger lickin' good. Now his chains of KFC are all around the world.

So if you're the one who's beating the drums of saying, "Oh, I can't do that, I'm too old for that now" or "Its time for me to relax what have I got to do now, I shouldn't be working anymore." Well, here's someone who's broke, alone and had a crazy idea and made his exuberant success just within 2 years. And if you're not that old, if an old man can turn over his life and lives of others around him in 2 years, how long would it take for you if you didn't give up on your dreams to be successful?                    

 Don't just think about it, find what you love & then let it kill you.

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Rohan Khosla

The Millionaire Barber Who Owns A Rolls Royce & A Fleet of 200 Cars

Trust your own instincts, go inside, follow your heart. Right from the start. go ahead and stand up for what you believe in. As I've learned, that's the path to happiness. Ramesh Babu, the barber who became a millionaire, did exactly this when he was shaping his dazzling destiny. Stories of personal perseverance, the ones where heroes overcome severe obstacles and achieve dizzying heights of success, have been around since the beginning of time but they never get old. They inspire us and inflame our passions, making us believe we too can follow suit. Ramesh Babu bought a Maruti Van with his meagre savings in 1994. By 2004, he had a fledgling car rental business with seven regular cars. In 2014 he has a fleet of 200 cars. What is even more extraordinary is the 75 luxury cars on the fleet- a range of Mercedes, BMW’s, Audi’s, five and ten seater luxury vans and, his ultimate pride, a Rolls Royce.



Much of Ramesh Babu’s early life was spent in a struggle for survival. Now, ensconced in the lap of success, he remains true to the vocation of his heart- a barber. Babu took up to sniping locks in high school, a profession he inherited from his father, to keep his family afloat. It is one that, even now, he does with great aplomb. He charges only hundred rupees for his services. He has been featured in television channels and newspapers all over the country. His phenomenal success coupled with his disarming humility has earned him the moniker, ‘Millionaire Barber’. It is the title he used while giving a TED talk earlier this year. This has made him something of an urban legend. Here Ramesh Babu, the Millionaire Barber, shares his utterly inspiring story.

Difficult Beginnings:

I was born in a poor family. My father was a barber. He passed away in 1979, when I was just seven years old. My mother started working as a maid servant to make ends meet. My father had left behind a saloon business on Brigade road which my uncle took to running. He would give us five rupees a day from that. Five rupees, even in those days a pittance, was too less to see to me and my brother and sister’s physical and educational needs. We took to having one meal a day just so we could survive. From when I was in middle school, I took up various odd jobs to make a little extra cash. I would deliver newspapers and milk bottles and whatever else was convenient to ease my mother’s load a bit. This way I somehow managed to finish my tenth standard and joined evening batch of 11th standard.

Breaking Point

Sometime in the nineties, when I was in 11th standard, my mother had a bitter fight with my uncle. He had simply stopped paying us any money. I told her I should take over the saloon and run it myself. She was adamant that I prioritize my education, but I started working at the saloon too and learning the ropes of the business. In the mornings, I would be at the saloon and evenings at college. Then again at night I would return to the saloon, which would remain open till 1 in the morning. Since then I have been called a barber.

Breakthrough Idea

Later in 1993, I bought a used Maruti van(Omni). My uncle had bought a small car and petty pride made me buy one too. I pooled my tiny savings, took a loan and felt grim satisfaction at having bought a marginally grander vehicle than him. My grandfather had to mortgage his property to enable the loan. The loan interest was six thousand and eight hundred rupees and I was reeling from having to make the payments.

The lady whose house my mother used to work, Nandini akka as I like to call her, asked me why I don’t rent out the car instead of it just lying around. She taught me the basics of doing this kind of business. She became like a sister to me and remains a big part of my life even today. She called me to her daughter’s wedding and showed me off!

Building a successful business:

From 1994 onward I seriously got into the car rental business. The first company I rented it out to was Intel because that’s where Nandini akka was working and she helped arrange it. Gradually, I started adding more cars to the fleet.Till 2004, I only had about five to six cars. I was focused on getting the saloon business off the ground, so this was not my priority. The business was not doing well as the competition at this level was intense. Everyone had small cars. I thought of getting into luxury cars because that is something that no one else was doing.

On Taking Risks:

When I was buying my first luxury car, in 2004, everyone told me that I was making a big mistake. Forty lakhs in 2004 for a car, even a luxury car, was a very big deal. I was extremely apprehensive, but simply had to take the chance. I told myself that I would sell off the car if worse came to worst. Fortunately for me, the risk paid off remarkably. No other car rental service had luxury cars of this stature. There were ones who had purchased second hand models and the conditions of those cars were far from pristine. I was the first person in Bangalore to invest in a brand new luxury car and it did very well.

If you want to do business, you must be willing to take risks. When I bought my Rolls Royce in 2011, people warned me about the scope of failures against buying such a tremendously expensive car. I told myself that I had taken a risk in 2004, why can’t I take one again almost a decade later? It cost me almost four crore rupees, to buy the car. But once again, it was a risk that paid off. It’s been three years since, and it’s has proven to be tremendously popular. In December this year, the EMI payments will be over.

Biggest Challenges:

Every business will face challenges and pitfalls. Last April, I had to pay over three crores in road taxes alone. I still don’t know how I managed to pull the amount together. I borrowed from so many people and put up property documents to get the cash. Every business will have recurring formidable challenges. The idea is to embrace them wholeheartedly and tackle them vehemently. I had been in the red for a while with the road tax, but in another year or so we will be free of that.

Ideas for the Future:

Earlier we used to pay taxes quarterly. As of now, I have had to put a hold on the plans for expansion because the taxes have become sky high. In 2015 we are going to buy some stretch limousines and other such vehicles.

Message to Aspiring Entrepreneurs:

Ramesh Babu reiterated the simple message to entrepreneurs that he told students to follow in his TED talk.

Millionare barber: Ramesh Babu at TEDxChristUniversity 

Work hard. Be Humble. Anything else is just luck.

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Rohan Khosla

If You Must Run, Then Run Towards Your Fears.

We often know know what or who we fear, yet we hardly face or even talk about them. We live in fear so much that we aren't really "Living". It could be fear of failure ie something you're wanting to do but you don't do it because you fear that what would happen if you'd fail? Fear could be that of Rejection ie you might love someone from the core of your soul but you just won't tell the one whom you love, fearing what if I get rejected? It could that of fear of poverty, that of Loss of Love, Fear of ill health, fear of old age and most importantly, Fear of Death. Whatsoever it is, stop running away from your demons. Everything in this world is created twice, once in the mind and then in the physical reality. Does this mean that our fears too were first created in the subconscious once then in the reality?

Unbelievably, Yes. It also means that if you could just get the "Demons" out of your head, you can oust the fears from the physical reality. Its all in the mind. There's this story, I came across in a very hypnotic and riveting self help book. It said that, there was an Indian Swami or Guru (Teacher) who was along with is student and observed four dangerous wild dogs running towards them. The student was just about to run away but the Guru gestured him to wait there and he(Guru) did something which made the student was jolted and astonished. The Guru stared right through the eyes & ran towards those Wild Dogs! What was even more bewildering was, the wild dogs all of a sudden stopped and changed their course, fled away from the Guru. This is the best best solution, stop running and run towards your fear as early as you can. The more you delay and continue to stay in that feeling although it makes you more comfortable and thus limits your thinking but still you're cool because you're now even certain that you can't do something. But the way you do something reflects in everything you do. So run towards from what you are or were running away. Its Now or Never.

Take Action Now.

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Rohan Khosla

Enigmatic World

This is an unbelievably enthralling video which would make you realize how enigmatic and tempestuous or world truly is ! Every time i see this, makes me feel so grateful and exuberant that I'm alive.

Take away the remote control to your life from others

We often think about our life and end up blaming people for mistreating us and thinking,"Why is he/she treating me this way?",
"Why don't you understand me?", 
"This isn't going the way I wanted it" , "Maybe this would soon be sorted" and statements like that to yourself hoping and wishing that things in your life change and so that you'll be happy soon enough as the things you are hoping for would materialize.

If you are one of them, I'd like to tell you guys that, You could keep hoping that the people and circumstances would change so that you be happy, feel the freedom, the sense of love and connection or you'd take back control of your life from the auto pilot mode. You could either go with the flow or follow your conscience. The latter won't be easy but would be worth it. Trust me. Get rid of people that no longer serve you, you may think that this is being selfish but it isn't, its just not letting anyone or anything come between you and your happiness. Remember, happiness begins with you, not with money, not with relationships, not with friends but You alone. So next time you start complaining about other people not treating you right or things not going along as you wanted it to be, you are the one responsible. You are the one who let things go wrong. You'd have gone across the winds but you didn't just because it seemed uncomfortable and thought it was out of your reach or capabilities. Stop being being controlled by people who do so little for you. Be in charge of your own feelings, mind and emotions. 

Take 100% responsibility of your Life. Be it Misery or Bliss. When you take full charge of your own life, you wouldn't do anything which would affect your life. You've gotta take care of your own back and keep moving forward. Leave the dead waste and past behind and keep moving forward. Success is yours.

Don't be a victim, be a victor. 

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. ~ Henry Ford.

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Rohan Khosla

Raise Your Standards

Raise Your Standards

While this may sound like a tired old thought process, none of us who are honest can deny the truth that changes do not last long term until they become a part of our identity, until we literally begin to see them as the standard we live by. Raising your standards truly means turning your shoulds into musts. Everyone has a list of shoulds: ‘I should spend more time with my kids.’ ‘I should spend more time with a business plan.’ ‘I should lose some weight.’ I should, I should, I should. People don’t actually change. They just end up what I call, “shoulding” all over themselves. Convert those “shoulds” into “musts” and your entire life changes.

I’ve seen this example so many times when people have no money, but then one of their parents becomes ill, and they find the way to generate the money to cover the incredibly expensive cancer treatments. If you look at anyone who seems to have a superior life to yourself, I guarantee you they have a superior standard in that area. If you see someone who works out five times a week, it’s not because they have more time than you have. It’s because it is a must for them. They never miss. They identify with the standard and they live it every day.

When you feel that you absolutely must get something done, you will find a way.

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Rohan Khosla