Like most kids I started reading comics and loved all their super powers. When I read a comic version of Ramayana I thought it would be nice to be like *Vali*, getting half of your opponent's power in a fight.

I had fun and it also seemed to make me smarter before my friends and elders. This got me interested and led me to read more. As expected, I got better at school too.

I started reading the books that I saw my dad read during the day and share stories with me and my sister at night. I started reading kannada magazines (Taranga, Sudha and Mangala) and then Reader's Digest. Reader's Digest surely elevated my reading with all the humor and word exercises and also stories from people across the world.

Along the way, I came across a weekly sports magazine Sportstar. While I enjoyed the stories on/of my favorite cricketers. I also discovered names like Mohammad Ali and Lance Armstrong. An account of Lance Armstrong over-coming cancer and winning seven Tour de france, which is considering to be the most endurance testing sport known to mankind, made me purchase my first real book, when I came to Bangalore for CET counselling, his Autobiography - It's not about the bike

Since then I have developed almost a fetish for autobiographies. Some of my all time favorites are:

1. Andre Agassi's - Open

2. Mahatma Gandhi's - The Story Of My Experiments With Truth

3. Viktor Frankl's - Man's search for meaning

4. Paramahamsa Yogananda's - Autobiography of a Yogi - Probably the best book I have read thus far.

5. Helen Keller's - The Story of my Life

6. Adolf Hitler's - Mein Kampf couldn't bring myself to complete as I found it bit too cruel.

7. Anne Frank's - The Diary of a young girl

Growing up, the now ubiquitous internet was nowhere. We didn't have power at our home, let alone a TV. So books were my only access to the outer world.

Autobiographies are two things: A window to the person's soul, they tell what they think about themselves, and also how they want the world to remember them.

I am also grateful to all all my English teacher's who epitomized the pinnacle of reading pleasure through names such as Oscar Wilde, William Blake, Wordsworth and of course the Bard.

We are the stories we tell ourselves.

~ Joan Didion

My dad has taught and inculcated a few good things in me for sure. The best and most impactful of those certainly is the habit of reading.

There are as many ways to live as there are homo sapiens.

Quite possibly, even the same human lives differently at different stages in life or even in different aspects of their lives like at work, with family, friends also might want to consider *social media*

But what's the way with which you look at the world?

How do you perceive life?

As a gift or a blessing or as YOLO?

Or

As a curse, a prison, a limitation?

Either way is probably fine, what may not be fine is mediocrity.

Not acknowledging the significance of life is a great disservice.

Love it or hate it, you just can't ignore it.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Albert Einstein

The question was, if you could any super power, what would it be and why?

Many people gave a variety of answers, some interesting, some predictable.

When I had a chance to speak, I said I would make everyone happy forever.

While being dismissed as impossible but good idea. I was asked the proverbial why?

I said, if you are happy, nothing else matters and if you are not, nothing matters then either!

Coming to think of it, it was not a bad superpower to have and probably much needed now.

It was only much later that I discovered that the great John Lennon echoed my words of wisdom ☺️

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life."

~John Lennon

If yes, then you would observe something interesting. They are compulsive Why'ers or atleast most of them start out that way.

That is, all 5-year olds ask one question, again and again and again.

WHY??

I tell her not to eat chocolates, her response: why papa?

Other day we were all watching a 🎥 together and an actress was crying 😭, she asked, why is she crying? I

We had to stop at the red light, and while we wait, she fired her why weapon a few times.

Why was the car red?

Why are so many folks on the road?

Why were there pot holes on the road? She answered this as well, saying I think they didn't construct it properly🤣

I told her not to touch power sockets and her response was, you guessed it, why Papa?

The curiosity of a kid is wonderful (for the kind of questions) and torturous (because you know you will not have answers) at the same time.

While the inevitable institutionalisation (schooling & society) is likely to drive out some of the curiosity out of every child, it may not be too late for us to stop.

Take a step back.

And ask ***why***, more often than we presently do.

After all, accomplished author and speak Simon Sinek became world famous, pivoted his career and had the breakthrough insight to Start With Why.

Or if you are still wondering why should you still worry about why! Here's Taiichi Ohno the father of Toyota production system.

German philospher, Friedrich Nietzsche had this to say: He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

If you are still not convinced, here's another quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson an American philosopher and essayist to ponder upon especially if you (like me) are working for a boss and might be one someday. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who knows why will always be his boss.

Besides, he (she in this case) who has the last why also has the last laugh.

For Whitehat Jr how do you improve the connect between the candidates and tutors after the first call?

Comprehend the Situation

What : The conversion rate after the demo call is below satisfactory levels

Why:

The children are not happy with the tutor

The parents are not happy with the tutor

Clarifying questions:

What's the duration of the demo?

Whats the structure?

Is there interaction?

Is there an internet connectivity issue?

What does the tutor focus on merely showcasing knowledge or building rapport?

Identify the Customer

Customer: Parents of young children - since they are ones paying.

Note: The purist in me wants to say the child/learner is the customer, I would like to take a different path and want the reviewers to expound on the merits or lack thereof of this approach of identifying the customer. \*

Also, in principle should the customer be the one using the product or the one paying for it(when they are different)? Example in the case of B2B product etc?

Report the CX's Needs

Assumption: the parent would assess whether the below objectives are met in the demo session by the tutor as far as the child is concerned.

1. Is well behaved - polite and patient

2. Knowledgeable and able to transfer that knowledge according to age, inclination and aptitude of the child

3. Keeps the child engaged - through interaction

4. Enjoys and has fun interacting with the kids and vice-versa

5. Ensures learning is happening - through retention and recall

Cut, through prioritization

First priority,

Enjoys and has fun interacting with the kids and vice-versa

If the child is having fun,

It will stay engaged and it will learn. It will continue to do so for long periods of time consistently. Also, it becomes a pull where the child learns without any sense of conscious effort and is therefore likely to want to learn more and remain interested much longer than otherwise.

Next thing would be,

Is well behaved - polite and patient

The third,

Knowledgeable and able to transfer that knowledge according to age, inclination and aptitude of the child

List All Solutions

1. Educate the tutors about learning pedagogy and on nuances of interacting with and educating kids

2. Seek feedback from those who didn't sing-up on why they did not with open ended questions

3. Improve on those and iterate

4. Keep an initial rapport building or get to know your customer session where the child and parent can share what they want and tailor the demo accordingly

5. Work towards making the tutors more kind and compassionate human beings and distill the wisdom on why its good,

6. Incentivize the tutors for genuine interaction and not merely for closing the sale. Provide them autonomy and flexibility on how they want to do it and for how long. Encourage them to be collaborators and not competitors by sharing their learning and experience from interacting with other prospects.

7. Improve the quality of leads and prospects, thereby investing effort in client that are more likely to convert

8. Allow tutors to be open and honest about the limitations of their platform and service - parents are able to see through promises that are too good to be true

9. Provide time for parents to voice their concerns or queries and educate tutors on how to address them

Evaluating trade-offs

Given enough resources (funding, time) and pain tolerance - ability to withstand temporary setback

I would recommend solution 6.

Incentivize the tutors for genuine interaction and not merely for closing the sale. Provide them autonomy and flexibility on how they want to do it and for how long. Encourage them to be collaborators and not competitors by sharing their learning and experience from interacting with other prospects.

Summarize your recommendation

With the core vision of transforming the online education landscape and not just making a quick buck, one can see a much deeper concern that can be addressed using the above problem statement as a starting point.

Which is to enjoy the process of learning and being able to have fun while doing it.

With that in mind, I would recommend incentivizing the tutors (possibly through equity ownership or ESOP) to build relationships and not approach the process with a transactional mindset.

He had a heart attack which forced him retire from professional tennis. He contacted HIV AIDS during blood transfusion on the second bout of heart attack.

When he shared this news with the world he received letters from fans all over.

One of which read: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease”?

To which Arthur's response was both touching and wise.

“The world over — 50 million children start playing tennis,

5 million learn to play tennis,

500,000 learn professional tennis,

50,000 come to the circuit,

5000 reach the grand slam,

50 reach Wimbledon,

4 to the semifinal,

2 to the finals,

When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD ‘Why me?’.

And today in pain I should not be asking GOD ‘Why me?’ “

• Happiness keeps you Sweet,

• Trials keep you Strong,

• Sorrow keeps you, Human,

• Failure keeps you humble and

• Success keeps you glowing, but only Faith & Attitude Keeps you going..”

Sometimes you are not satisfied with your life, while many others in this world are dreaming of living your life.

A child on a farm sees a plane fly overhead dreams of flying, while a pilot on the plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of returning home.

That’s Life! Enjoy yours…Because;

• If wealth is the secret to happiness, then rich should be dancing on streets, but only POOR kids do that.

• If power ensures security, then VIPs should walk unguarded. But those who live simply sleep soundly

• If beauty and fame bring ideal relationships, celebrities should have the best marriages

Therefore, live simply, Be happy, Walk humbly & Love genuinely!"

He spent his final years raising awareness of HIV AIDS and helping the victims through his foundation.