North East India - The Hub of oppurtunities

India’s North East Region has always been acknowledged as the ‘Eastern Gateway’ for the hub of opportunities. It is home to more than 45 million people with a high literacy level when compared to the nation’s average of 74.04. The region has recorded an annual economic growth rate in excess of 8 per cent during the last decade. But the burning question still remains - Where does NER stand in entrepreneurial activity? The harsh reality is that the region still lacks entrepreneurial fluency and provides a weak ecosystem for start-ups to flourish...

It is of no doubt that the youth of north east has enough of what it takes to do what it needs to do... But we do lack something, or else we might have been able to develop the scenario the way we want to... so what is it that has caught us in its net ultimately making us lose our track while we are burgeoning for development.... So What are these... Let’s take a look

Poor infrastructure:

In spite of immense potential of MSMEs in North East, the region has largely remained underdeveloped. A key constraint to the growth has been poor infrastructure within the region. The region, connected to the rest of India by a narrow stretch of land called the ‘chicken’s neck’, needs infrastructure to support and ensure significant investments and developmental aids. 

Lack of awareness and motivation: 

: Lack of enough awareness among people about government schemes, motivation and availability of funds are the main deterrents in the growth of MSMEs. Jayanta Madhab, Economic and Financial Advisor to the Chief Minister of Assam, underscores that many factors like lack of proper connectivity with mainland are the reasons behind slow growth of MSMEs in NER. While dealing with constraints, lack of power continues to be a major bottleneck. Subsidies and incentives alone cannot drive the growth.

Lack of entrepreneurial zeal:

This is one of the biggest reason for lack of improvement in the economic scenario of this section of the country, lack of entrepreneurial spirit.  “Innovative initiatives are less in the region as compared to the other parts of India. We have a long way to go especially when it is comes to spreading awareness among youth about entrepreneurship, utilising their own resources and building up products that can be offered to outside regions. There should be schemes and events to promote local businesses and products,” shares Kokeela Mazumdar, CEO, Rhino One. 

Lack of marketing skills: 

Upgrading Marketing tactics continues to be a challenge for SMEs, since they are unable to sell their products and services. Their sales get adversely affected by the unorganised players selling their products cheap on one hand and importing low-cost raw materials on the other. Marketing is a problem for SMEs in NER. Government intervention is required here. Entrepreneurs need to go beyond the local and state markets and compete with global brands.

So, if we are suffering from these problems... What should we do? I have a few suggesstions

The government will have to facilitate an ecosystem where business practices can occur smoothly and without hassle. Despite several attempts by the Government and Planning Commission to enhance local development, the current strategy has led to a distribution-oriented, politically-led economic process and not the efficiency-led process envisioned. This has resulted in natural resources and savings moving away from the region to other high productivity regions. The dependence on the Central Government for both funds and employment has led to a passive attitude towards development in the States. The onus should be shifted to the local government agencies for a sense of responsibility and ownership over economic activities to develop.

Also, business and social entrepreneurs should take the lead in building enterprise which involves the local community. For the self-sustained growth of a region, there needs to be a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem which is able to take business strategies, contextualise them for local needs, and create systems of demand and supply for the area. 

There also needs to be the existence of a market – where entrepreneurs can target their goods and services and consumers can find the things that they need. By focusing on economic factors (but not ignoring political and cultural factors) like labour cost, comparative advantages, technology, and efficiency, such a market can be developed within the North East. 

Beginning from the early 1970s, there have been planned and systematic efforts to promote entrepreneurship in the North East, initially by the Government of Assam and later on by the North Eastern Council. The efforts still continue. But more efforts are still required to promote and develop entrepreneurship in the region to bring it at par with the level of development of the rest of the country. In any approach to entrepreneurship development in the North East, due care is to be given to the removal of the problems and also for using the potential for entrepreneurship. This will mean taking effective steps for creation of awareness of entrepreneurial opportunities among the youth, developing their knowledge and skill and raising their level of motivation for entrepreneurial career. In addition, efforts are also needed for creation of an entrepreneurial environment in the support system and social environment. There will be more opportunities for small entrepreneurs in business and service sectors than in the industry sector in future partly because of economic liberalisation and partly due to development of information technology. Greater emphasis should be laid on developing entrepreneurship in these sectors. Besides, there is also need to give due emphasis on women entrepreneurship, especially from SC/ST and OBC categories. In order to create an environment for entrepreneurship it is also necessary to introduce entrepreneurship as an element of the academic curriculum. These steps may help in the emergence of entrepreneurship in the North East.

So get up and get going... Because you and only you can change the world....

Oprah Winfrey- inspiration in real life

Hey y'all! Finally Durga Puja is Over... But during these four days I have realised the powerful soul of a women... So that gave me the idea to share with you the power of a women, who face terrible circumstances from the days of her childhood... But how should a person manage and change his life the way he wants can be truly understood from her story... I wont be going into indepth analysis of her life, for that I shall leave links to resepective pages at the bottom of the article. But I am quite sure enough that this women has surely changed the way a person thinks... Do you know who I am talking about... That my friends is an american media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and also a  philanthropist. She is The Oprah Winfrey....

Born to an unwed teenage mother, Oprah Winfrey spent her first years on her grandmother's farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, while her mother looked for work in the North. Life on the farm was primitive, but her grandmother taught her to read at an early age, and at age three Oprah was reciting poems and Bible verses in local churches. Despite the hardships of her physical environment, she enjoyed the loving support of her grandmother and the church community, who cherished her as a gifted child.

Her world changed for the worse at age six, when she was sent to Milwaukee to live with her mother, who had found work as a housemaid. In the long days when her mother was absent from their inner city apartment, young Oprah was repeatedly molested by male relatives and another visitor. The abuse, which lasted from the ages of nine to 13, was emotionally devastating. When she tried to run away, she was sent to a juvenile detention home, only to be denied admission because all the beds were filled. At 14, she was out of the house and on her own. By her own account, she was sexually promiscuous as a teenager. After giving birth to a baby boy who died in infancy, she went to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father.

At age 17, Oprah Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant and was offered an on-air job at WVOL, a radio station serving the African American community in Nashville. She also won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, where she majored in Speech Communications and Performing Arts. Oprah continued to work at WVOL in her first years of college, but her broadcasting career was already taking off. She left school and signed on with a local television station as a reporter and anchor.

In 1976, she moved to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV News as a co-anchor. There, she co-hosted her first talk show, People Are Talking, while continuing to serve as anchor and news reporter. The format was soon expanded to an hour, and in September 1985 it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show.  A year later, The Oprah Winfrey Show was broadcast nationally, and quickly became the number one talk show in national syndication. In 1987, its first year of eligibility, the show received three Daytime Emmy Awards in the categories of Outstanding Host, Outstanding Talk/Service Program and Outstanding Direction.

By the time America fell in love with Oprah Winfrey the talk show host, she had already captured the nation's attention with her poignant portrayal of Sofia in Steven Spielberg's 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker's novel, The Color Purple. Winfrey's performance earned her nominations for an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award as Best Supporting Actress. Critics again lauded her performance in Native Son, a movie adaptation of Richard Wright's classic 1940 novel

Initially, The Oprah Winfrey Show followed a model established by other daytime talk shows, employing sensational stories and outrageous guests to attract viewers, but since the 1990s, Oprah began to emphasize spiritual values, healthy living and self-help, and her program became more popular than ever. Motivated in part by her own memories of childhood abuse, she initiated a campaign to establish a national database of convicted child abusers, and testified before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of a National Child Protection Act. President Clinton signed the "Oprah Bill" into law in 1993, establishing the national database she had sought, which is now available to law enforcement agencies and concerned parties across the country.

Oprah Winfrey makes her principal home on a 42-acre ocean-view estate in Montecito, California, just south of Santa Barbara, but also owns homes in another six states and the island of Antigua. The business press measures her wealth in numerous superlatives: the highest-paid performer on television, the richest self-made woman in America, and the richest African-American of the 20th century. More difficult to calculate is her profound influence over the way people around the world read, eat, exercise, feel and think about themselves and the world around them. She appears on every list of the world's leading opinion-makers, and has been rightly called "the most powerful woman in the world."

If you wanna know more about this inspirational soul...

Go through these links....

Winfrey Biography

Forbes

and also keep an eye on this video

Spiritual connections to entrepreneurship

Hi everyone! A very eventful morning out here, in the eastern region of the country, as it happens to be the eve of Durga Puja. Mostly everyone in the region has been restless since a month regarding the incoming of this festival...  But something that wondered me always was what the significance of God is? Why do we worship it? Till today I have been writing and telling about motivating entrepreneurs but if worshipping a God and having faith in him has significance then it would be of a far greater importance for everyone and anyone. So I have been going on for a few sleepless nights researching for the same. The topic is so interesting and filled with facts that will surely enlighten you regarding the laws of your life. 

So why have I taken up this topic!

You see motivation is what drives or inspires people to perform specific actions or indulge in specific behaviours and attitudes to achieve or gain something. It may arise either from an inherent condition or an external situation. Motivated behaviour gives you a sense of purpose and direction in life. People differ in their motivation. What you consider trivial may be a life mission for someone else, and what you hold in esteem may be held in contempt by others. If you want to understand motivation, you need to understand its main source. You have to know from where it is coming, and how it is shaping your life and behaviour. 

While the modern theorists focused upon the physical and psychological aspects of human motivation, the ancient seers and philosophers of India approached it from a much broader perspective envisioning humans as role players in the play of God. As early as the Vedic times, the seers of India probed into human behaviour to understand the forces that drove people to indulge in specific actions, goals, and attitudes, and their implications to human life, suffering and salvation. According to them, there are four major motivating factors that satisfied the most basic needs of humans and contributed to their peace and prosperity as well as the orderly progression of the world and society. Dharma (Righteous Actions), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Sexual Desires), Moksha (Total Freedom to Be). Thus, unlike the proponents of modern secular theories of motivation which aimed to drive performance and productivity, the Indian philosophers approached the subject of motivation for different reasons. They advised people not to engage in selfish and profitable enterprise to benefit from the economics of prosperity and mass production, but to free them from any motivation to be selfish or self-centred. 

That is the reason for me to pick up the concept of realising your spirit, because only by realising yourself you can realise the eternity.

Moving on, if you are with me, I said just now that you have to realise yourself, so what is meant by that, you already know who you are, so what is that you have to realise within yourself, that my friends is your spirit, the soul that inside of you, your pure consciousness, or simply should I say your mind. So, what is your mind? How can it help you in motivating yourself? 

The mind is known in the Vedas and other Hindu scriptures as Manas. Manas is not the same as the mind in modern science. Manas is considered the lord of the senses because it directs the senses and keeps them moving among the external objects. Symbolically it is compared to the heaven of the gods. When the mind is absorbed in itself, as in deep sleep, one enters into transcendental states and becomes united with the inner Self. This state is called Samadhi. Concentration and meditation are the means by which one can overcome the disturbances of the mind and experiencepeace and equanimity. A person who has stable mind is called Sthithaprajna. The mind is fully active in the wakeful state, partially active in the dream state, fully inactive in the deep sleep state and absent in the transcendental state.  Under the different states of the mind it increases its power to control the various elements of the life...

Wait a minute; let’s take a look in brief on the five elements of the body. We know now that the mind controls the five elements of the body, so what are these five elements? Can we feel their presence in us? Let’s take a look at the five elements, I will try to give you an insight to it:-

Fire:

Fire element is the element present in you that produces the heat required for you existence on earth. Our body temperature always remains stable at 37.7degree Celsius, is a true source of wonder for a keen observer. How can a body remain at a stable temperature? That means it produces heat within itself. That is possible only because of the presence of the fire element inside of us.

Water:

Water, the element with properties congruently opposite to fire is also present inside of us. The proof of its existence also resides in the question above. How can a body compose itself a certain temperature? If the element of fire is within us, than our body temperature should always be at a rise. Rather than that it seems to hold itself at a certain point. How can that be possible? That is the role of the water element inside of us.

Earth: 

Earth, in context to life is mainly the one element on which the entire organic world depends. In its absence, bodies, which are the storehouses of life, cannot exist. That element is one which consist of all life forms is CARBON.

Air: 

Air, now how can this be a part and what could be its role? The answer to this question is inside a simple question I am going to ask you, What is the most important element required to keep a fire running? Yes, you got it right, that’s oxygen. And what is the compound that is basically release from a fire. That you are all aware of, it’s Carbon Dioxide. Got it?

Sky:  

Finally the last element, i.e., the Sky, which the Japanese refer to as the heaven or the inner self, or Hindutva says it to be the mind. This element is your soul and consciousness, the controller of all the other elements. It is your spirit connected to the all pervading energy.

Connect yourself to this energy and you have an infinite flow of spiritual strength for your way of obstacles. For entrepreneurs who already walk on a road that seems to be full of hardships, reaching for your higher inner self is always necessary... There are many ways of doing it... But the way most preferable way for those who work hard and play hard is the Karma Yoga.

So now that we have realised, What is spirit? What is soul? What is mind? You can easily understand how powerful you are being a part of the all pervading energy (Brahman). But there is always one thing to remember, power is directly proportional to accountability & responsibility.

So, are we accountable to someone? Who is it? It is our father and our mother.....

No, not our physical parents, but our spiritual parents. Our spiritual father, i.e., the all pervading energy, who has pure control over everything, the purest form of consciousness or “the Purush”. We are a part of the consciousness who has met “Maya” or “Prakriti” our spiritual mother, i.e., “the Feminine.” So, how are we accountable? We cannot see them, so how can be accountable to them? How can they know what we think, we do? These questions surely have popped up in your mental imagery by now. The answer to these question is the fifth element present in you. Your mind, you consciousness. Whatever you think, you do are a part of the Karma Yoga I have reffered of before. Your consciousness is a part of the pure consciousness. So whatever you do, is already seen by him, known to him, and is registered in the cosmic registers. Do good but not out of fear, but out of love, because we are just a small fish swimming in big river destined to finally meet the ocean, i.e., ‘the Purush’.

“Do good, Be good, Life has its way, Accept where it takes you, because that’s the way eternity wants you to go.”

OM tatpuruùàya vidmahe mahàdevàya dhãmahi | tanno rudraþpracodayàt ||

  We comprehend (realise) that Celebrated Supreme Being (Purusha), and meditate upon that Great God, Mahadeva; may that Rudra impel us to do so. This is the Rudra Gayatri Mantra.

May this Durga Puja the divine consciousness bless you... and fill you with all the motivation and spiritual strength you will ever require...

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7 mistakes an entrepreneur must avoid

7 mistakes an entrepreneur must avoid

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Entrepreneurship, at its best, is synonymous with learning. Starting an  business begins with filling a need and building credibility, but the factors that go into making your  business a smashing success don’t stop there. A big part of starting a business is having a plan then having the discipline to act on it. While the barriers for setting up a company aint low, but the majority of people starting an business fail largely due to mistakes that seem obvious in hindsight.

Today I would like to share with you those few common mistakes that an young entrepreneur makes. Avoid these and you are right on the track:-

 Being over confident on an idea rather than validating the same

Your business idea may seem like a profitable niche, but without validation you may be setting yourself up for failure. Before you invest any time or money into your idea, spend time testing it. Consult with experts from the start-up community and get your product idea in front of potential customers so that you can learn--and adapt--based on their feedback.

Zero Planning

You don’t need to have a formal business plan -- but you still need a plan. Businesses who are most successful with managing their finances have developed short- and long-term plans.

I Can Do It Myself

 It’s common to think that no one can do the job as well as you can. You know your products inside out, and are the only one who truly has the passion to make the business succeed. But to truly get your business of your feet you need who are more efficient than you. In the words of Robert T. Kiyosaki, “As an entrepreneur, if you are the most efficient person in the team, then, you are in deep trouble.”

Taking advice is good, but an overdose can make you sick

Intelligent input can make or break your business. Ignoring it or not soliciting it means you're flying blind--and your odds of success are low. On the other hand, too much feedback has its own dangers. Develop relationships with a few experienced entrepreneurs who've both built and sold businesses within your industry. Find mentors who can help you in each specific section of the enterprise rather than guiding you on your overall business.

The ever influencing question of “what if’s.”

Starting a new business is scary, and isn’t for the faint-hearted. Being scared of failure and rejection is understandable, but letting yourself become incapacitated by this fear can significantly hinder your progress. Always remember ‘FEAR’ is a false entity that portrays itself to be real.

Never under/overvalue the price of the product.

Cynthia Salim, the founder and CEO of Citizen’s Mark, a line of ethically-sourced professional blazers for women, set the starting price for her product at $425 after considering the labor and material costs for her line. “The price is what it needs to be,” Salim says.

The price should always be what it needs to be.

 Putting profits before customer satisfaction

It doesn't matter how amazing you think your product, service, or concept is; if it's not on par with what your customers want, they're not going to buy and you're never going to make a profit. You already know you need customer feedback before your launch. But don't forget about continuing to talk to customers after launch.

It’s not easy being a new entrepreneur, and mistakes will be an inevitable part of the process. But that doesn’t mean you need to repeat everybody else’s!

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly” – Robert Kennedy

The Five Levels of Entrepreneurial Development

The Five Levels of Entrepreneurial Development

The road on which an entrepreneur rides on is driven by factors influences it either in a negative or positive fashion. These factors can mold your mindset in a way which may or may not fit the vessel you are trying to enter... So today I am going to share these influential 5 levels of being a true entrepreneur, we will also try to make you visualize the consequences that you may have to face if your thoughts are driving the wrong way and how you can redirect them....

Level One: The Self-Employed Mindset

   The emotional driving force behind the self-employed person is not security but a desire for greater control over his or her life, career, and destiny. Relinquishing that control to a boss every day from nine to five is not their idea of happiness, and they believe that they could do their job just as well without an employer – and perhaps without the need for other employees. They want more autonomy. They want to do things their own way. And they usually begin by creating a situation where they do the same type of work they did while an employee, but they figure out how to do it by themselves and for themselves.

   Unfortunately, many of the primary objectives of the person setting off to become an entrepreneur with the self-employment mindset are pitfalls or traps. Because they want to go it alone, they often do so at their own peril. By not taking help from others they not only cut themselves off from valuable talent, intelligence, feedback, and experience that others could offer in the form of assistance, but they also create a situation where they will never experience freedom.

   That premise of designing a business that works for its owner – rather than the owner working for it all the time – is vital for becoming a real entrepreneur versus becoming simply the most important employee of one’s own self- employed venture. Those who understand that fact can rise to the next level of entrepreneurship.

Level Two: The Managerial Perspective

Those with a managerial outlook are often in a great position to succeed as entrepreneurs, expect for two big misconceptions that lead to massive problems. Many managers believe that if a business is not working, the solution lies in hiring more employees. They throw extra bodies at the problem, but this only aggravates the situation because it fails to address the underlying root cause of the difficulty or lack of profitability. Another mistaken belief that is common to this mindset is that the route to success is through growth – not profit growth but the overall structural growth of the enterprise itself. Once again, bigger is not necessarily better unless and until the fundamentals are sound and efficient. Growing larger to fix the problems of a small business only generates a much bigger company with problems that are expanded, magnified, and much more expensive to remedy. Many managerial entrepreneurs go into bankruptcy thanks to vigorous growth, but they never figure out why.

   A third misstep common to the managerial attitude is that the entrepreneur wants to be the boss, even if that means sacrificing the talent or potential of employees. To give orders and be in charge requires no great skill or aptitude, but to be a leader – one who knows how to inspire and train others to rise to greater heights – is a rare quality. Managers who become leaders succeed because they accept the challenge and responsibility of ensuring that others under their wings also succeed and flourish.

Level Three: The Attitude of Owner/Leader

   The entrepreneur who attains the level of an owner/leader enjoys remarkable benefits by knowing how to step aside and let the business – and those employees working in it – operate as a profit center not reliant upon the owner’s constant hands-on participation. This kind of entrepreneur has created an organization that is more self-sufficient and self-sustaining, and by doing so has created more wealth, personal freedom, and free time.

   Rather than being the only person who could get the job done the best, this leader has passed that torch of responsibility and expertise along to others who now enjoy for themselves a greater level of career achievement. The owner/leader can, therefore, focus not so much on sales and revenues, but on net profits. While the business continues to run smoothly – and generate more transactions – the owner/leader concentrates on fine tuning it for increased profitability while letting others handle the day-to-day operational details.

Level Four: The Entrepreneurial Investor

   With a business that generates profits, the entrepreneur who has succeeded this far can begin to accept another exciting challenge, that of managing money so that it works to produce more money. Investing for maximum returns involves smart leverage of assets, and the entrepreneurial investor will often leverage the success of the first business to create a second or third company based on the same model or system.

   By franchising the original venture or buying other healthy businesses, the investor can get into the career of not just selling basic products and services, but of selling entire businesses. The goal, of course, is still to turn a profit. So rather than remaining at the helm of these companies the investor will buy them, ensure that they have valuable equity or attractive allure and potential, and then sell them to other entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs. The focus becomes finding, buying (and perhaps refurbishing) businesses, in the same way that a real estate investor locates homes, rehabs them, and then flips them for a profit. 

 Level Five: The True Entrepreneur

   Having learned new things every step of the way and evolved through various stages of entrepreneurial accomplishment and insight, it is possible to reach the ultimate goal and realize one’s dreams in a really life-changing way. The true entrepreneur experiences a paradigm shift that involves a four-step process of changed thinking:

#1: Idealization –  Imagine gigantic, all-encompassing dreams for creating the ideal world.

#2: Visualization – Picture the ideal world as a reality and begin to clarify this vision on a daily basis, filling in more details each day.

#3: Verbalization – Begin to put words to the dream and talk of it as if it was already happening. Talk about it to others as if it were real and continue to have a personal dialog with the ideal to make it come true

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#4: Materialization – Because the effort and intention of designing and believing in the ideal and the dream, things begin to fall into place and happen in a natural and automatic way. The idea becomes a real and tangible fact that materializes in the world and influences others while opening new doors to fresh opportunities and the birth of more dreams.

   The true entrepreneur is a dreamer whose dreams come true, and an income earner whose income is passive. Money comes automatically from profitable ventures that feed success with more success but do not require extraneous work. The money made does all the work for the entrepreneur to create more money with a snowballing effect. These women and men profit in all situations and add to their wealth by acquiring more paper assets, more profit centers, and more entrepreneurial power.

Real inspirational life stories worth Writing

Hi again! We have been discussing all souces of motivation for entrepreneurs till date, but today we are going to get some real life motivational dose. Motivation, that we get only when we see others doing something which seems to be unimaginable, unbelievable, phenomenal. I am going to share today the success story of someone who not only did great things in his life but has literally contributed a lot in making the world a better place to live in...

The guy I am talking about is the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, chief product architect at Tesla Motors, and co-founder of PayPal. He is also envisioned in high-speed transportation system known as Hyperloop. Participating in designing of electric cars and spaceships, he has invested himself into the projects that were able to change our world. He is not only an entrepreneur but also an inventor, innovator and engineer.

That guy my friends is Elon Musk. Elon Musk is the second entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley who managed to create three companies with the market cap of more than $1 billion – PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. The distinctive personality traits of Elon Musk are perseverance, critical thinking, accurate self-analysis and hard work around 80-100 hours per week.

Born in South Africa in 1971, Elon Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers. He achieved more success by founding X.com in 1999, SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. Musk made headlines in May 2012 when SpaceX launched a rocket that would send the first commercial vehicle to the International Space Station.

I need not go into deep details of his life, you can go through that in Wikipedia or other biography related sites. But I will surely jot down his deeds which made me a great fan of his. Let's go through all his startups one by one:-

Zip2

He enrolled in the graduate school at Stanford University for further studies in the field of applied physics and materials science. However, he left the graduate school two days later and together with his brother Kimbal Musk created his first IT company Zip2. He worked restless like he knew no worlds. He lived in the same warehouse where he rent the office, and went to a local stadium for taking his shower. At the moment, the Internet was experiencing a period of rapid growth and development; however, nobody had ever earned considerable fortune on it. Musk’s company was among the first ones to do this. In 1999, the biggest search engine of that time “AltaVista” (later acquired by Compaq) bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in securities. 

PayPal 

 In 1999, Musk started to work on electronic payment systems that were gaining popularity. He then gave startup to X.com. In March 2000, X.com merged with a rival company Confinity that was run by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. Confinity developed software to allow owners of PalmPilots and other PDAs to store encrypted information on their devices, creating the first digital wallet. In 2001, X.com was renamed to PayPal and Elon Musk became the chairman and chief executive of PayPal.

Tesla Motors

In 2003, engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded Tesla Motors. From the very beginning, the company positioned itself as the first serial manufacturer of electric vehicles and its founders dreamed to free the customers from oil burden. Musk greatly supported such aspirations.

Elon Musk came into the project in 2004. He became the chairman of the board of directors and at first did not take over the operational management of the company. Musk participated in designing of their first electric car, which was a Tesla Roadster sports. He insisted on using carbon fiber composite materials in the hull to minimize weight, developed the battery module and even some elements of design, like the headlights. When Tesla Roadster was about to enter the production in 2007, a run of bad luck started for Musk. Some management failures led to the fact that the actual selling price of the electric vehicle was almost twice as high as originally implicit price of $92,000.

During this crisis, Elon showed his incredible critical management skill: he fired everyone who stalled project’s development. Then taking the burden on his shoulders, he headed the company by himself. As the result, Tesla Roadster saw the world in 2008 with a minor – less than $20,000 – increase in price. 

Powerwall

On May 01, 2015, within the Tesla Energy project, Tesla Motors introduced a wall mounted, rechargeable lithium ion battery with liquid thermal control, called Powerwall. Powerwall batteries can be combined in arrays to increase the total storage capacity. Each battery is provided by a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty. For more demanding consumers of energy Tesla Motors provides a solution, called Powerpack. It can be used in offices, industrial facilities, and utilities. In this case, it is possible to store much more energy. Moreover, 100 kWh batteries, can be combined into arrays from 500 kWh to 10 MWh. According to Elon Musk, 160 million Powerpack units would be enough to provide energy to all consumers in the United States; and 2 billion of Powerpack unites would be enough for the whole world.

Solar City

SolarCity Corporation is a provider of energy services headquartered in San Mateo, California, USA. The co-founders of SolarCity are two cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. Elon Musk is a shareholder of the company. SolarCity provides solar power systems for homes, businesses and governments. In May 2008, the company built solar powered electric systems for British Motors and eBay to power their headquarters and servers. On January 15, 2015, SolarCity has tied up with Credit Suisse Group AG to start a new solar financing facility worth $200 million.  SolarCity’s concepts are cost effective, environmental friendly and completely coincides with Elon Musk’s principles. The company, in particular, provides solar energy systems for Supercharger stations of Tesla Motors.

As of February 13, 2015, the share stock price was $57.60 and the total market cap was $5.53 billion. Now Elon Musk owns 25% of SolarCity (SCTY).

Analytics consider his assurance in the company’s prospects to be the main reason for the phenomenal success. If the creator of SpaceX and Tesla Motors bets on that technology, then it means that there is truly something to it. The Wall Street society even came up with a term for this phenomenon and called it The Musk Effect

SpaceX

Elon Musk started thinking of creating a space exploration technologies corporation (SpaceX) at the turn of the century. He was inspired by an ambitious idea of reducing space transportation costs to enable people to colonize Mars. SpaceX was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Hawthorne, California, USA. Elon Musk was fascinated by the opportunity of colonizing Mars and created Mars Oasis. The goal of the project was to create automated greenhouses, which in the future could have become a basis for a self-sustaining ecosystem.

 The prices per launch vehicle ranged from $15 million in Russian Federation to $65 million in the U.S. and they seemed to be too high to the entrepreneur. He calculated that the cost price of all the parts required for constructing a launch vehicle were only 2% of the launch vehicle price in the United States. This fact outraged Musk. The root of the problem he saw in the bureaucratization of the space industry, the low competitiveness of large corporations and their lobbying efforts to prevent the entry of new players.

SpaceX started working on the Falcon 1 launch system yet in 2002. It has taken 4 years and hundreds of millions of private investments to design it. In the period of 2006 through 2015 such companies as DARPA, NASA, ORS, Celestis, ATSB, SpaceDev, Orbcomm, NSPO, Astrium got interested in SpaceX and ran several test launches of Falcon 1 rocket.

In 2006-2008, the first three flight attempts failed. On 28 September 2008, during the fourth flight attempt Falcon 1 finally reached the orbit. If the fourth launch also failed, SpaceX would be never existed. NASA was impressed by these achievements and signed a $1.6 billion contract to fly American astronauts to and from Earth orbit. NASA plans to fly 12 delivery flights using SpaceX robotic Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.

Rocket soft landed in the ocean within 10m of target & nicely vertical! High probability of good droneship landing in non-stormy weather. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2015

Hyperloop

Elon Musk is a demanding perfectionist and innovator in the high tech industry. His education in the field of physics and economics helps him to see the objective truth and separate it from the emotional and speculative forecasts. He just thinks big. A bright example would be his concept of a fifth mode of transport called Hyperloop.

On August 12, 2013, Musk published a blog post about Hyperloop and a 58-page Alpha Hyperloop presentation, which shed some light on its structure and function. Hyperloop is solar-power high-speed transportation system driven by linear induction motors and air compressors should deliver people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes covering the distance of 381.8 miles (614.44 km).

Hyperloop would be two times faster than a plane and will not be limited to any schedule. Elon Musk wanted to share Hyperloop concept with the Governor of California Jerry Brown and the US President Barack Obama of how to build an efficient transportation system in the nearest future. Musk thinks that Hyperloop can be a great alternative to the Government’s plans to build a high-speed railroad between San Francisco and Los Angeles, which will cost more than $70 billion. In his opinion, spending so much funds on such slow type of transportation is wrong.

The transportation system would be composed of steel tubes. These tubes would be mounted on columns 50 to 100 yards apart (45.72 to 91.44 meters), and the capsules inside would speed up to 800 mph (1287 kmh).

So you see, nothing is impossible for a man who thinks he can, and none can stop you if you are focussed on what you dream.

The incredible life of Elon Musk is a great example of a man who has accomplished his childhood dream. He made his own game, made his own online payment mechanism, designed a super cool car that avoids pollution, started some of the largest projects on energy conservation, and also on his wy of colonizing mars.

What a great personality! Such people have truly define the way to make the world a better place to live in. More will be coming on shortly.

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