Sanjay B

Hi, I’m Sanjay. I started my entrepreneurial journey when I was 19 years old, with zero investment and with no business knowledge.

My journey from a 19 years old teenager to the current CEO of Contriver is fascinating.

Here is how I grew from being an “F” student to “CEO” & founder of this prestigious organization “Contriver”.

History:

Schooling

I was an “F” student in my schooling but being an entrepreneur that doesn’t really matter to me now.

But back then I literally had a hard time learning(memorizing) things in my life. But, I always hated the one size fits the all strategy, probably the school system wasn’t for me and I was degraded and my confidence was reduced to dust in the traditional school system.

I was bullied in my schooling a lot and was completely mentally upset because of the dumb education system. I say that education system is dumb yes of-course it is. I’m not a dumb person I believe in Albert Einstein “Everybody is a Genius.” I 100% understand that the teachers are who try to discourage a student saying he is dumb is the dumbest person who doesn’t know how to educate a student. It is not the student that is a failure it is the teacher and the system that fails to extract the creativity and knowledge from the student in the words of Garyvee “I didn’t fail school, school failed me. School fails entrepreneur everyday because it’s not built for entrepreneur its built for workers.”

In my schooling my favorite subjects were Physics & Compute Science but not none of those was thought which excited me. But I always knew these subjects are something that I love to read.

Profession

After my schooling I joined Diploma in Mechatronics as soon I entered diploma I loved the technical stuffs over there.

I was sent to Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bangalore. Its a Navarathana company but I was just a trainee in such a gigantic company. Although the trainees and casual workers were the most hard working people in the entire company they were treated completely low in that company.

To be true they were treated like dogs and slaves in that company I clearly understood that 9-5 jobs are nothing but a form of modern day of slavery, I always wanted to start my own business and work for my passion for 24X7 in my life.

I would always consider “Entrepreneurship is not a job or something that you do to make some money entrepreneurship is a life style.”

When I am done with my diploma I wanted to start my par time job to make some money and learn lots of business, but I didn’t know only one of those would happen when I started an internet cafe as a first business.

I also continued my studies during that period of time but unfortunately the schedule of the college didn’t allow me and my business partners to continue the business. I didn’t realize schools are made to make you employees and that is the reason we have a hectic schedule in the time table.

I didn’t get enough time when I was studying Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) there was lots of special classes which was complete waste of time attending them I argued a lot with one of my lecturer who was teaching management and entrepreneurship in my college the reply from him was ironic when.

I said “Sir, I can not attend the special classes I have an internet cafe to take care of and I own that business if I could get any free time from college my first priority would be to go to my Internet cafe and scale by business.”

Lecturer ” Well you are still a student and you are studying, why do you need a business now you are studying engineering just study, If you wanna do business just quit engineering and do business.” Well this might not sound crazy for such a discouragement to many people who say when you are studying studies is important. If your reply is the same then trust me you have no idea to how a business works and you can never start a business if you your mindset is just like the lecturer. The ironic part here is he was teaching me management and entrepreneurship in college.

Well what does that really mean what I’m I trying to convey here? In the traditional education the lecturers think they are the superiors and students are their slaves and servant. Let me transfer his words into human language it is just like the lecturer is telling me that do not learn swimming by jumping into the water try reading a book on how to learn swimming once when you completely learn how to swim completely by read just a book you can then confidently dive into the water and parented that you have learnt swimming just drowning in the water which will result you to death. This is how the system is that is the reason I didn’t care whats my grades are in my engineering, I clearly understood that this piece of paper that has been valued by a dumb person can not decide my future.

The First brick.

Business

My first business was at the age of 19, me and two of my friends stared an internet cafe in our hometown with zero investment. I had no idea how to make money but I believed that the skills that I had(computer skills) could be monetized if we could form a great platform.

Everyone expects that they need an investment to start their first business but how did we do it with zero investment? We negotiated with every single person and bought computers and tables and every accessories that you name we have either rented it or just bought it from anyone of our home.

I loved working more than 16 hours/day in my first business I personally loved gaming for hours and hours in my life. Since I loved managing and explore new games to play I loved serving customers the service they need, it could be gaming, Internet or any other computer servicing.

I never expected any profits and salary out of my own business, All I wanted to is learning new skills every day and work for it. Probably that is best decision of my entire life, I learnt marketing, selling, branding and management skills. I clearly understood that this skills that I am learning everyday in by business will pay off for the long run.

Soon after a while when the business was booming a lot after 8 months we need to shut it down because of my education. But I knew that I would start a business again. My 9-5 job in BEL thought me how not to work for someone and allowed me to envision that my future as an employee will never be the way that I loved.

After the shutdown of my first business I was trying to use any opportunity to start a full time business that would make me learn everyday and challenge my status quo from being an “F” student to becoming a business owner.

I had a plan to start Contriver in 2017 but again in middle class family you can do anything in your life until you just study well, mechanical engineering in the university that I studied was completely hectic stream to study.

So I decided to start Contriver. But, before we start Contriver we need some initial amount of money that would serve as an investment for out massive mechanical machine and hire some employees to work on it.

Contriver

When I wanted to earn some money out of the skills that I had in 2017, the best way was through the college that I studied. So I went to my college principal and told him that I wanted to start sharing the knowledge that I have learnt in a year in BEL. Fortunately the principal was very supportive and we just start conducting an workshop by touting 38 members in our college.

It was successful event and probably many would have thought that this is a great business opportunity to make money and lets do it forever. But, my vision was to start a firm that would be completely a multidisciplinary. So for one complete year I started approaching every single college in the entire city. Some accepted some didn’t but after getting the required amount of money with the help of MSME with the place we started our own plant in Thanadavapura industrial area.

Sharing my experience

I always loved to share what I have learnt in my life. So, with my 5 years of business experience I wanted to make sure that people become the originals and be who they are. Chasing their dreams is the best thing they can do in their entire life. I want people to get rid of the rat race and work on their own passion and start a new life style and believe that they are the CEO of their own life and company.

The first playlist con_san show is the complete blue print for people to start and work on their own life. Being a entrepreneur in India I want to share the experience that is happening in my life how I changed my life from being a “F” student to owning my own company.