At BR, our aim is to bring to our community some of the unique and compelling stories from the startup ecosystem. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another promising young entrepreneur – Emmanuel Noel, for an interview with BrilliantRead. He is the Co-founder and Managing Director At TecGrove Edu-venture LLP, Winner of ‘Top 50 Tech Leaders’, Influencer, Speaker, Sportsperson, Singer, Part of Board of Advisory and Vice President at ‘The Rabinnson Group for innovative projects.’
His motto is – Start young, Be reckless, Inspire, Live a pleasant Autumn!
Let’s read more about his exciting journey, his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and the way forward!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Emmanuel:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, please;
A- I have had an interesting upbringing, Mom being from Karnataka, Dad from Hyderabad and I was brought up in Tripura, North East of India. I spent a lot of my time with my parents, being involved in the missionary work they started in northeast alongside their day job. That nurtured in me a lot of these essential humanitarian qualities overtime. Being involved in missionary work at a young I learnt the diverse walks of life and culture, It was a great add-on. Academics I wasn’t that strong, I was ok and then deteriorated further.
I have a very strong sporting background with my dad being the captain of the kho-kho team of Hyderabad and had collected supreme accolades in his time. I walked in his footsteps and have collected quite a bit of a name in the sport I have played, started with Table Tennis, cricket hung on to me as I played professional cricket and did well for myself. I loved football and have been part of the game all through my teenage years.
Sports built the spirit of competitiveness and ease of decision making, a strategic approach and the gift of luring the opponent into the web u have spun. It taught all that and yet taught me to be ok with losing with a never give up attitude.
Sports inculcated in me a lot of the beautiful traits without my knowledge for something I didn’t dream of becoming, an entrepreneur. I just knew I was not cut out for a normal day job and study.
I was just too creative for my age and had a very mature mindset when it came to things which I loved doing or exploring. One of the main pillars of my family is music.
We love music and everyone in my family has a beautiful voice and talent in different instruments. I can play close to 8 instruments. In 2015, I represented India for my music and singing in the Gospel genre in Nashville, TN (USA) at Xtreme Tour (A movement to change the world for good through music). During my time, I was associated closely with Billy Smiley a platinum award-winning music producer. My engineering days were a huge adventure, I didn’t have a great run with grades. But I was involved in a lot of projects under EPICS( Engineering Projects In Community Service) under IEEE and was recognised by our then EPICS Convenor Dr Sagar Gujjnoor. He was my mentor and a life guide who encouraged me to be just a bit more than what I thought I was capable of. He recognised the creative mind I had and told me not to be one of the rats in the crowded race. With so much, I was clouded as to where would I end up to be. An engineer’s life is incomplete without a heartbreak haha… Well when u hit rock bottom, you realise life isn’t about commotion it’s about a clear free mind, energy and consistency in doing what you are best at. I knew instantly what I was cut out for.
My whole childhood and my very decent experience brought out the inert potential to be applied to being an entrepreneur and It’s been a very positive journey so far. I saw the need, how everyone was fine with being ok and lacked serious skill-sets technical and non-technical. To begin with communication and so on.
I am the founder and MD of TecGrove Edu-venture, an education innovator and career accelerator Edu-company, a Knowledge partner to NCS Bureau (National Cyber Security & Safety Bureau) and I am also a member of the Board of Advisory and Vice President at The Rabinnson Group for innovative projects.
I recently achieved a personal milestone by winning an award at Intercon 2019, Dubai as one of the “ Top 50 Tech Leaders” for my contribution to technology and innovation. An influencer and speaker on self-discovery and dichotomy of leadership. I have had a lot of failures and that’s made my journey a sweet ride.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
The excitement and thrill you get in having to formulate the agenda/vision, blueprint, strategy and execute it on your strengths and with the team you deduce and build is beyond imagination. Every new project or idea is a start from scratch and it just relates so much to a sport. Every game is a new game. You make your name on that day, well each day over and over again. This keeps you active and I don’t think any entrepreneur ever might have had a dull day. NEVER. Job, on the other hand, we all know has its perks but none like this. I’d be an entrepreneur any given day. It’s just so intense.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
When I talk about TecGrove Edu-venture and particularly about the education industry, It is quite crowded and Education is a huge business. So having to find the right niche and also creating a platform for students where they can represent themselves of who they are and what is essential for them is possible with the right design and approach.
There is a huge need to create awareness about different skill sets that we as students did not realise were available and I think it is the present situation that needs to be addressed. Many professionals and students have needed to upskill themselves and it is time they understand that being nominal and ignorant about different opportunities available is not an option and it is quite required for them to understand its never too late to understand what they are good at and exploit it and work towards achieving the same. Well, we all will agree there is a huge gap between academics and the industry and with so many academies and institutions taking advantage of it and pinching the pockets of these students is very hurtful to see. Proper guidance is required hence awareness and a proper platform to express themselves is necessary. It’s difficult because the market is huge. HUGE! Yet not impossible to work the magic of career accelerator.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
Good Question. I would say I am night and early morning person, it usually happens that I am awake all night to work and sleep late evenings. Nights cuz its peace at peaks and with a tiny power nap my early mornings are great to strategize how to conduct business during the day and execute it. I am always fond of sleeping a lot because for me it helps to figure out something niche or new, which may create a proposition for me and the public at large. I usually keep this mode on all the time and it serves the source of my motivation all the time. By GOD grace, have been able to do that as well, where either has created it or worked on something related to it. Also, I am currently in the process of developing something niche on lines with sports and healthcare domain.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Every journey is a risky one when you choose a unique path. My risks are associated with having to come up with something out of the box and applying it not knowing how it will turn out to be. Failure is a very close friend. Bad partnerships, decisions and priorities are a constant fear. I already have a core niche team for my projects that I handle but I see from future expansion perspective, my vision would need innovative minds, with the flexible thought process. Although, with a clearly defined process, and innovative means to reach out to search resource, I am confident enough that it will be due-ly mitigated. With no record in my family in the business, it has been a very hard-fought walk, I am glad about the grace of God it has been a fair run. When you are 22 years old and already shooting bullets out of your gun, you become answerable to so many people knowingly and unknowingly. It takes time to mature and sink in the initial raw nature and take a firm stand on the decisions taken. You go through a lot of self-discovery and it’s more like a storm erupting vehemently inside you and you just need to be patient knowing it is going to be calmer than ever once this is over. There is a constant doubt that lingers did I do the right thing and to accumulate the required patience to see your work take shape and reap is one of the biggest challenges. Being young we become impatient that’s something natural but having the faith and conviction every day is a big lesson learnt. Never give up.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
Emotions! It’s that which drove me into this beautiful mess. Much better I’d say is once you are in the game its all about money or people. I strongly believe money isn’t bigger than people and people aren’t always bigger than money. There is a need for a perfect dichotomy. Anyone who understands this is in for it for the long term. And it is difficult, everyone who says emotion is first or people or money it isn’t constant in the real world. It keeps changing as per the situation and thus to be effective you need that dichotomy.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I am a very straight forward and out-right person. It is always good to lay a proper foundation in things you do so you can get that extra time and space to handle pressure or stress that could be the result of what you are doing. It is always good to deduce the situation. I usually retract myself from it for a good amount of time for me, so when I revert I have enough leverage over the situation. It’s never advisable to take pressure or stress. It is always the best to take time off to figure out ways and be on top of it. Don’t be hasty. It is very important to differentiate your personal and professional life. There needs to be a fine line drawn. You always need to have a strong personal life, be it a bubble you live in or friends or family or a spiritual connection. This helps to cope up and coming back strong at it. Spiritual space often helps you to understand what is the right, required to be done and we all know Mother’s are the best at lending out unignorable advice that you eventually end up acting on though you did not like it in the first place.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
In my journey so far what has helped me grow as a person immensely is understanding that it’s not worth losing someone, something for absolutely nothing or for anything immaterial and of course lean methodology which helps us know how to utilize optimally what is at our disposal.
No one could achieve everything on his/her own unless you are out of this world or super fictional. We need people, they are the strength we always need in our highs and lows. Humility is another key thing I really learnt and most of all, always give from the little you receive. People are always the centre, think about it, Who creates problems? People! These problems are observed by? People! The solution is found by? People! Who need these solutions? People!. Keep people at the centre of your creative mind. It always works backwards to see what the people want and build your next product or innovation. It will sell and you would have done your part quite efficiently.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
People have the master key to success yet people are in want of success. Why? We are lazy and cowardly when it comes to standing apart from the crowd. You need to sell your uniqueness that is going to get u success not just financially but with awe
If success is a lock for which you ask me a key, don’t you think there are already a lot of people around the world who have been able to pick this lock? And why is it possible? They were just a Lil unique than the crowd and not just that they have been consistent.
What advice would you give to someone starting?
For someone starting, I’d say don’t! Don’t! if it’s about money, Don’t! if its a fling, Don’t! if you can’t handle being unique and getting a few shoes thrown at you. It is a walk on roses, Beautiful to look at but when you step in Boy! Those thorns prick deep. But if you are pertinent about it then the tag line ‘add value to get value’ is a must. Don’t even dream of making a buck for quite some time, keep your focus on creating a sustainable venture & value creation. I believe, rest things will automatically set with time. Also, if you are starting up a venture, feel free to reach out to me. You will find me a great partner or mentor to you with a young and innovative means.
Being a young entrepreneur, there must be a lot of youngsters who get inspired and want to learn from you, what message/life hack do you give them?
Lifehack: If you know you are not good at something, Don’t do it for someone. Cause later you will have to face the music for something you always felt you never were responsible for in the first place. Self-discovery is inevitable.
Having had interacted and inspired a lot of youngsters like me, I have recently started an everyday motivational quote project on my Instagram and LinkedIn. Do follow me @emmanuel_noel20. And after seeing the need and relevance I very recently started writing my first upcoming book called “ The superhero inside you”, which should be published in January 2020. This is a small, time feasible, a non-fiction book that I am sure a lot would love to read, relate and learn from. It talks about self-discovery and the superhero inside you and how to unleash all these powers from within in a very DC/Marvel way. Well, I am excited about writing it.
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