From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

Tolkien

Is your entrepreneurial journey as fickle as a jealous man/woman or as faithful as Fido?Is it more relaxing than a millionaire in a holiday resort or more stressful than an audit in Enron? Whatever be the case, it takes strength of character, resilience and newness, along with an equal dose of passion to ‘jump into the ring’ of entrepreneurship.

The Backstory & The Dream

Before I take the ‘bull by the horns’ and get all excited to share the mantra about starting all over again at 50, it is important to put a spotlight on my past life. A little more than a decade ago, I ventured into the extraordinary by launching a business which included bringing astronomy to the doorstep of people. I had no prior experience in the space of astronomy and yet compelled to venture in because of real value to students:

‘To encourage a scientific and spiritual temper by understanding the significance of stars and deep celestial objects in their supreme form’

I became the first individual to showcase astronomical Newtonian telescopes in the ‘India international trade fair’ and later set up portable planetarium shows in schools and universities across institutes and homes in India. Along with my team of amateur astronomers we travelled the length and breadth of the country by road, and visited close to 150 schools and educational institutes in 3 years with upward of 175000 students, teachers and rural underprivileged going through the 60 minute shows.

‘The mantra’

Heart in the business

I set sail with one Newtonian telescope, an amateur astronomer (hobbyist) and seeded the following thought in the universe:

“I want to bring astronomy to the door step of schools and homes”

Every morning I would say this 21 times to manifest the purpose and generate powerful vibrations believing that the universe will conspire.

Within a month I stood up a team of leading amateur astronomers, support staff, channel partners for North and South of India.

Within 3 months we procured a high technology 45 SEATER portable planetarium for the U.S, and because of high coverage in electronic media a leading industrialist approached us with an offer we couldn’t refuse- Buying for us a 90 seater dome in addition to what we had. The universe picked our vibrations of a great cause. Before we could say “Abracadabra”, the business was on auto pilot with show bookings 3 months ahead in time.

“I attracted all of the above and didn’t hunt or strive to put it together”

Resilience when “rubber hits the road” in the journey

Importing this capital intensive equipment meant dealing with the cruel Indian red tape and bumbledom. Things could have been easier had I agreed to grease some palms, but I didn’t because the very foundation of venturing into the planetarium business was in the interest of public at large. Resilience paid off and we were granted an exemption with the state’s principal secretary’s intervention.

Another mammoth task was carting these planetariums hundreds of miles by road in rudimentary Mahindra Boleros from city to city and village to village (CSR). It subjected us to policemen and traffic authorities who were ignorant and corrupt to the core. They believed we were carrying dead bodies in the planetarium duffle bags. Some would threaten to confiscate our equipment. Explaining them what a planetarium was like making a 5-year-old understand algebra.

‘The show must go on’

During peak summer months we would not give in to the 45° scorcher, instead installed portable air-conditioners in the domes for the comfort of the students

 

The ‘Fulfilling Fruit’ from this beautiful journey

For 3 years we relentlessly rambled from school to school and village to village:

“The glee and excitement that children exuded was a ‘Spiritual’ experience for me and my team”

Another accolade was an invitation by the Ex-President of India, his excellency late Dr. Abdul Kalam, to do shows at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for the differently abled children.

Stop

After 3 years into the business I found my clichéd ‘true calling’ and made a profitable exit both in terms of wealth and a fulfilled spirit of starting a revolution in astronomy which is alive till date. This wasn’t going to be a ‘one trip’ pony.

Recover

For over a decade I have nicely paced my life in the executive, business and life coaching space. I worked with global CEOs, founders, and senior executives of fortune 500 companies as a coach and strategic advisor and also had short stints with multi-national management consulting firms.

Resurgence-The birth of Recalibrate

Fast track April 2016, I am clocking almost 50 years and all set for another ‘Big game’ to make it count. The upside is that I am getting into the swing (think golf) with the energy and strength of a man in his 30’s and the game is called ‘Spiritual entrepreneurship’.

My simple definition of spiritual entrepreneurship is:

‘Business with a deep sense of purpose’

The thought provoking question was: “What will it take to start all over again at 50?”

Who was I 15 years ago?: Revisiting the past

An examination of the past can teach us new perspectives on our current situation. I was bold and courageous always seeking adventure and exploration. Connected with the masters and universe through superconsciousness, yet loved cars and was fashion conscious. Sociable and surrounded myself with young well-traveled, sharp, intelligent, encouraging and creative people. Always hungry to learn new subjects. My energy levels were extremely high given my focus on physical and mental fitness. I would roll up my sleeves and had absolutely no qualms about visiting customers to install telescopes if my manpower was busy servicing other customers. I valued relationships with customers more than the business and had faith and trust in self, others and the universe. I was lighthearted yet intense in all my engagements. I stayed focused on the benefit to society at large, therefore never needed the support of a wealthy family to get the business up from ground zero all by myself.

History repeats: The ‘Spiritual Entrepreneurship’

Drawing on the reflections above, over the past 6 months I consciously demonstrated the traits and behaviors of that past life and reviewed where Recalibrate is after 6 months. Many astounding facts stand out.

Let’s look at scale. We kicked off with two members and on-boarded a core team of 8 members in a short span of 3 months. A stellar team of practitioners, thinkers and academicians. We laid the first stone of executive coaching as the core offering and soon expanded into leadership excellence and business Innovation practices within the first 3 months of inception.

The drive: Focus is on measurable impact for our client, social impact, travel, adventure, exploration, learning and intensity. The team picks each other’s brain to stimulate thinking for continuous improvement. We build on our strengths and yet challenge each other and stay true to the client/customers agenda

The Energy: In the words of Rumi “What you seek is seeking you!!” We have attracted major organizations as our key clients who are themselves pivoting. They required our support for their seamless transition using our research, techniques, knowledge and experience in the coaching and business innovation space. In a short span, leaders of top technology MNCs & CEOs of several SMEs have shared remarkable feedback about their experience of engaging with our alchemists. They are all inspired from our individual stories and infectious passion.

Our compelling need to to add value to customers drives us to acquire knowledge even after multiple decades of successful professional careers. We continue to invest heavily in our own knowledge acquisition and learning experience through intensive programs from Ivy league institutes.

The multiple partnerships with renowned global federations and councils for social impact completes us

Inspired by Recalibrate’s work with tens of leaders including founder CEOs and entrepreneurs across geographies, my questions to current and aspiring CEOs and entrepreneurs are:

“How are you playing the ‘Big game’?”

“What are you doing to Restore and Recharge for the Big game?”

    

Author

Dr. Deep Bali, Managing Partner, Recalibrate Pvt. Ltd.  

Deep is a Columbia University certified coach, and is acknowledged by business leaders and CEOs across geographies for his super ability to enable leaders, teams and businesses to “Pivot”.