I Was Never Convinced Of Any Idea As Much As This One Did.
Hi all, this is Rafsal. Here’s a glimpse of my recent start-up journey called OSM Cult.
How I got the idea for OSM Cult.
It was a random chilling session, with my friend Dhruv, at my hostel room one night when the idea struck me first. Till then, I had had a decent exposure to the world of entrepreneurship (managing our family-owned kirana shop, multiple entrepreneurship stints (during and after undergrad), secretary of Entrepreneurship Cell at undergrad, coordinated South India’s biggest entrepreneurship development campaign, attending all possible meetups/seminars/etc. based on starting-up, the exposure to Startup Village and its culture while I was managing their account for a short while at Papaya Media). Therefore, I have always had this tendency to build bigger models, and I guess I’ll have this trait throughout my life. That is the reason why I couldn’t really convince myself to take up a job from the campus. I’ve always been fascinated about building responsible business models.
So I’d say I was extremely lucky to have got all of these opportunities. I’d thank the experiences I got from working part-time for all of it. I started working when I was 16. Started off as an entry level talent, got promoted as an Emcee (when the actual Emcee for an event backed out at the last moment, the event manager pushed me to take up the job. It was a success. That same event manager provided me more Emceeing opportunities eventually), finally ended up getting selected as a Radio Jockey with a leading radio from Kochi. Nothing what I do and enjoy today was part of the Electronics & Engineering textbooks I learned during my undergrad. I somehow felt that there is a huge disconnect between what’s part of the regular school/college curriculum, and what’s actually required to build a career/future you like. I don’t feel qualified enough to challenge and change the system, but I felt I should try and build an open platform for youngsters to come, by their will, and get involved in activities that fall outside their normal course of life.
All that’s mentioned in the above para flashed in my mind, spanning just a few seconds. That’s when I decided; fuck it, lemme do it. I had always had 100s of ideas in my list to chase. I was never convinced of any idea as much as this one did. Felt like this was the idea I was waiting for.
That’s how I got the idea for OSM Cult.
What attracted me the most?
I’m not sure what attracted me the most. But I could list down a few things that I feel got me into doing this:
· The bad experiences and tough situations I had while working part-time.
· My exposure to the world of entrepreneurship.
· Creative, dedicated and peaceful mentality of the people around me. I think the set of my close friends from Kochi made all the difference in my life. We grew up playing football. Today, all of us are pretty much doing what we like. 90% of us are artists. Creativity is a survival need for us.
· My post graduate education in management in a premier institute; Man it widened my horizons!
What I’m currently doing
If you are asking for my role at OSM, I’d say I’d be the Chief Hustler (I consider myself to be extremely lucky to have got more hustlers in my team). As any other entrepreneur, I too get to do everything from cleaning the office washroom, to collecting cheque from clients, to attend meetings with big shots, etc. I love it. I’m actually fortunate enough to be doing all this. Not everyone gets to do business. Therefore, I really wanna do more and more of it. Make the most out of this experience. So that I could build bigger and bigger things in the years to come! #TouchWood
Except for BD, Coordination, Tech and Marketing, I do all other works that could possibly be present in a company. I mostly look after Operations and Finance. There is a considerable amount of time I spend on HR, mostly reading about company cultures to prepare myself for the future HR challenges I could face. (I love HR. But then I love Marketing even more :)). I’m also responsible to plan for what next at OSM, after part-time jobs. We all at OSM could contribute to it equally well; I just need to take the responsibility of bringing it into a conceivable format.
Once when Steve Jobs was asked “..what do you do at Apple?”, he responded saying “Musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra.” I’ve a team of pretty decent musicians. It’s my duty to compose magic out of them. And that’s pretty much my role / responsibility / designation / whatever you call it.
