Entrepreneur Geek

Big Lie Repeated Audaciously becomes Truth

Hitler, for good or bad, changed the world history. Some of the things going around me, just reminded me of Dr.
Joseph Goebbels – Adolf Hitler’s public relations / marketing / propaganda man.

What’s most remembered of Goebbels is his explanation of Britain’s Big Lie theory (which was adopted by Hitler / Goebbels very well). Quoting:

That is of course rather painful for those involved. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

So a big lie + repetition + audacity will soon become truth! People won’t care to find the truth, they will just listen to the big lie, and blinded by it, soon they will start believing that’s the real truth.

If you look at it, what were the primary rules of Hitler?

• Never allow the public to cool off
• Never admit a fault or wrong
• Never concede that there may be some good in your enemy
• Never leave room for alternatives
• Never accept blame
• Concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong
• People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

The mentality of people is such that they will believe a big lie sooner than they would believe the truth. Malintentioned people use this to their advantage. They skew the facts and present only portions of it to public, omitting the original context and adding their own “big lie” context to it.

Some people realize this is so ridiculous, since they know the original facts. But the number of such people is generally less. And the propaganda man walks away to his advantage fooling everyone. By the time people realize the truth, it’s too late for them.

Have you ever experienced this happening? With you?

How would you fight it?

• Would you start countering every big lie?
• Would you keep quiet and wait?
• Would you expose the big lie?

(Image courtesy: notionscapital)

Our maid requested if Nikita (my wife) could teach English to her daughters. They are 12-14 year and know only the alphabets.

One of the daughters came yesterday evening for her first class. I was watching things as Nikita asked her to write down A-Z. First in capital then in small.

And she did not even understand what capital and small meant. The only language she can understand well is Telugu – her mother tongue. She does not also know Hindi well. It was funny to see them struggle with each other. Trying to understand each other by visual cues more than spoken words.

Fortunately, dad had brought a Rapidex English Speaking Course Telugu book for her. She started reading that. The book had Telugu sentences, their English translations, and pronunciation guide in Telugu. Learning by saying aloud seemed to work and that’s what they did yesterday.

Teaching English is not easy. Especially when both people don’t know each other’s language

Let’s see how it goes.. Have you taught English to someone? What’s the best way?

19th January marked our first wedding anniversary. It’s been a beautiful year. A year filled with lovely moments. We celebrated with two trips. One to Goa just by ourselves and another to Mahabaleshwar with friends from our honeymoon trip.

Goa was exciting. Riding a rented bike across the state, water sports on Calangute beach, lazy evening at Baga beach, pani puri at Miramar beach, Candles at Bom Jesus church, late night strolls and a lot of time together. Never will we forget the thrill of Anjuna flea market and Banana ride on the beach. Not even the traffic police who caught us near Tito’s. Dolphins and sight seeing boat ride at Cocoa Beach were not to our expectations but the swimming pool in the hotel made up for it. I think the best part was just being together. Away from usual daily rush. It was superb.

Mahabaleshwar was fun. Super fast trips back and forth in Mitshubishi Tavera, laid back hotel, evening corn at Venna lake, tummies filled with strawberries and chocolate creams, Pratapgadh fort, Panchagini tableau, horse ride and great food. Traffic jams of more than a kilometer on the way to Arthur Seat and Venna Lake, morning walk towards Wilson point and Republic day parades of school children. This was memorable.

I never expected we would celebrate our first anniversary this way! It was awesome!

Thank you Nikita for being my partner!

(click on the images above for more pictures)

Outlook is one of the most respected magazines of India. Their Mumbai supplement (Mumbai City Limits) has a cover story about Young Turks in the September 2008 issue. The story is all about young entrepreneurs who started their ventures even before graduating.

The story features:

• Suveer Bajaj, 20. Runs a brand building firm – Foxy Moron
• Samyak Chakrabarty, 19. Runs three communications firms.
• Radhika Mehta, 22. Runs a cafe and event management firm.
• Shawn Lewis, 21. Runs a theme wall-painting firm.
• Arun Kale, 22. Runs an online radio and magazine.
• Vidit Chitroda, 21. Runs a production house.
• Aditya Malkani, 18. Runs a youth magazine.

Congratulations to all these young entreprenuers. I am the guy who’s featured as “Been There – Doing That” in the story, and I know the hardwork needed to venture on your own!

Here’s my interview from this cover story.

Been There, Doing That
Nirav Mehta [28]
Chairman of Magnet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

On winning a national competition as an SYJC student, Nirav Mehta got to visit Bill Gates and peek into the Microsoft headquarters. “I was always a computer geek. But that experience was a turning point,” he feels. And as a 19-year-old SYBCom student, in early 1998, he launched India’s first electronic magazine, or e-zine: Magnet (‘Mag’ for magazine and ‘net’ for internet), a feat marked in the Limca Book of Records. The online magazine included everything from reviews of good websites to celebrity interviews and a humour section.
Its success soon found an investor. And about a year later, Magnet Technologies Pvt Ltd was born. At that time, this global tech company, providing web solutions, was one of the few to use software like Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP in the Indian market. Despite professional demands, Mehta went on to complete a postgraduate diploma in software technology. And a decade after the launch, he now heads a 100-strong team, with offices in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

“I remember rushing to office after college, and the daily struggle to balance both – I couldn’t wait to graduate!” he recalls. “I was in a hurry to establish myself. And I know it’s the same feeling that echoes within student-entrepreneurs today. It’s the drive to do it before someone else does; especially when you have unconventional idea. Besides, when you start early, you can afford to risk everything – maybe even fail a couple of times – before you get it right.”

Mehta feels Mumbai’s intense competitive spirit is a shaping force. “Many youngsters around you are also up to something. It’s an accepted scenario. It eggs you on to get productive. The media coverage of success stories is another instigating factor, urging the question, why not me?” The city’s educational institutions and corporate houses also support such moves. “Our professors at business and technical schools have always encouraged students to venture into the market, even helping them fine-tune their products. Mainstream colleges may not be as focused but, yes, even my college teachers at Narsee Monjee were very encouraging when I started out,” he says.

And with corporate clients, the city’s famed professionalism sees competence override any prejudice over age. “Many corporate firms here let your work speak for you, especially as this is such a technology hub,” he believes. “In fact, I may actually trust somebody younger for new ideas in technology, rather than older people with set notions.”

Thank you Ornella for capturing my ideas in beautiful words!

Chaos is the answer. Chaos is the master plan of the universe.

Not equilibrium.

What you experience today, is just part of the master plan! Chill!

(Inspired while listening to Kaos by DJ Aligator from Summer Jam 2008!)

Kaos on YouTube