AlPhA KaPpA DeLtA PhI

The mysterious land of Egypt, brought to life by the Nile, is a great place for holiday lovers. One can get a taste of every kind of pleasure here. If you are the lover of all things metaphysical, you will enjoy visiting the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Material pleasure seekers will have plenty of avenues in the chick casinos and night clubs.

The towering moment of any trip to Egypt will the visit to the pyramids. One stands in awe admiring the gigantic structure, as they stand there against the test of time, in testimony to human will. One gets to see only a parts of the pyramid, but even that leaves you intrigued. What a spectacular feat of engineering?!!

The Sphinx leave you wondering about its design of half man and half animal. Was it an ancient folklore, or a hidden message that influenced the design of the structure. Historians have a hard time figuring that out. Inside the Sphinx though there is nothing much to see. Just a massive table for embalming the bodies, before they go into the pyramids.

The national museum in Egypt is another must visit place in Egypt. Its a treat for all curious minds. The place is full of ancient artifacts collected from pyramids.  One easily get lost inside the museum with its enormous size and vast collections.

Egypt is also famous for its perfumes. All along the roads are small shops that specialize in producing exotic scents, and they are truly exotic. Some even claim to sell scents that were recovered from pyramids!

The Suez Canal project is another feat of engineering, designed in more recent times. The canal provides a lot of revenue to this nation, as ships from Europe use this route to reach Asia. There is a particular stretch near the Suez where you reach the Asian continent. When you start on the stretch, you are in Africa, as you end the stretch you are in Asia!

Outside of its magnificent past, Egypt today is a lot urban and a fast developing nation. The tourism industry and Suez Canal are its major sources of income. The casinos and belly dancers will keep you occupied all night. And for the more affordable, the expensive boat cruises are a amazing way wind up for the day.

If you ever get the chance to go to Egypt, jump at it, because it is a truly memorable experience!

Why does a Sachin Tendulkar, with two decades of international cricket behind him still want to play the game he loves so much? Does it make you wonder why even the most unsuccessful musician dabbles in music, even though he is really bad at it?

The reason for choosing contrasting examples is just to point out that monetary reasons is not one of the answers. It is something other than that or something ‘bigger’ than that, the unsuccessful musician would argue.

Passion would be a close guess. But what is passion? Well, I’m still searching for an answer to that question, so shall not attempt to answer that. I hope you know it, or at least searching for it, like me.

The reason I believe is this: When people do what they like, they feel that, suddenly one plus one gives them something more than two!

It’s that extra that they see, that gives them the kick of pursuing their passion. No amount of money can buy you that pleasure, both Sachin Tendulkar and the unsuccessful musician would say emphatically.

There is something brave about a startup that chooses an offbeat field to do business in, daring to experiment on a concept that is yet to see reality face to face. Passion and the ability to always be ahead of times are quintessential to succeed in such a venture. Tall dreams and high bench marks wont help as much as staying realistic and being pragmatic. Combine this with the right balance of optimism and ability to foresee the magnitude of failure, in order to plan for contingency, make an ideal recipe. Choosing to begin such a startup necessitates decisions based on both intuitive and practical constraints, and calls for very high creativity combined with sound knowledge of consumer perspectives, in proper proportion so that it strikes a chord with the consumer base. Getting this balance right is what offbeat entrepreneuship is all about. There is so much freedom to exercise ideas which may cause success or failure; in both contexts, it warrants for better learning with every such occurrence.

The excitement and rush might fade away with time, nevertheless, it provides for life in much better ways than a conventional setup can do. The only threatening enemy could be lack of scalability, as the company grows. This cannot be foreseen as objectively as other factors in the initial stages, and therin lies the smartness of the individual. Smartness lies in capturing the pulse of the present consumer base and also, in extrapolating it conservatively,  so as to not falter gravely or be lured by just the current trend.

In the end, when it comes to survival, regardless of the sector, one has to be dogged about what works for an idea to materialize. Transformation of an idea into reality is much more challenging and intellectually demanding than generating the idea itself.  It is time to transcend barriers and make history your own!!