In January 2017, I chose to let the shit hit the fan in my life. I had a clean slate ahead, in other words; I was starting from scratch at the age of 33. As an engineer with a Masters in Actuarial Science, I decided to begin a career as a fiction writer. You read it right, a fiction writer. With all the time in my hands, I decided to join a government supported volunteer group and teach at a local public school. I volunteered to teach ethics and scriptures to primary school children, particularly expatriates.

At that point in time, I was not a startup founder; but was strongly inclined to become one. I was working on establishing product-market fit. I had a strong purpose in hand, neither did I know what my product was nor my target market. All I wanted to do was change the world. Yeah, stupidly naive. In the startup spirit, I volunteered at SparkFestival’17. That’s where I got to know about Pledge 1% and immediately signed up. Because I believe in giving. I was super confident that my startup will take form. And it did 6 months later, I named it BlueTemple.

 

lakI continue to volunteer at the school and spend half an hour every Tuesday with primary school children. I help them stay in touch with the culture and tradition of their country of origin. This is my way of investing in the future. I think the more we help with refreshing the practices of various cultures, the more interesting the mosaic of perspectives could be. This may also help the future generation embrace diversity and add depth to their identity and background.

As the founder of BlueTemple, this giving helped me comprehend the enormity of the business opportunity. Though giving at the school began out of my personal interests, it slowly began to add value to the thought process of BlueTemple’s product strategy. The purpose of BlueTemple is to create a stress-free meaningful life for everyone, a little peak into the mindset of tomorrow’s consumers; helped me understand the depth of influence BlueTemple’s product can have on their lives. Giving-first helped me understand the true meaning of ‘give and take’. All this time, unknowingly I lived by ‘give and receive’; the complete meaning of ‘give and take’ occurred to me recently. It gave me a lot of clarity and strength, a much-needed quality for a startup founder. I want to think that this personal development is an accumulated result of my collective giving. I like to believe giving-first provides returns in twofold. Once when you are open to receive and again when you’ve found the strength to take righteously.

 

3 Cheers to giving