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The Path To Entrepreneurship—A Talk by Dhiraj Rajaram

On 5th August 2019, Dhiraj Rajaram, the charismatic founder-CEO of Mu Sigma, visited MIT and interacted with an enthralled audience at the MV Seminar Hall. In attendance, were multiple esteemed guests and faculty including Ananth Vaidyanathan, Global Head of Operations, MuSigma and Dr Srikanth Rao, The Director of MIT.

Starting with an introduction to Mu Sigma and its various consequential operations, such as reducing the turn-around time for flights, the talk moved on to Dhiraj’s personal experiences and the story behind his journey. Dhiraj stressed on the importance of the ‘why’ over the ‘what’ when it comes to choosing entrepreneurship as a way of life. Speaking about coding as a necessary tool in current times, he offered the analogy of how knowing how to type has evolved from a profession into a bare minimum skill for employment.

After the conclusion of the talk itself, Dhiraj was gracious with his time and hosted a one-on-one conversation of sorts with a few students and professors. He provided a detailed insight into the life of an entrepreneur and also, counselled the out-going students as per his experiences. He talked about his years as a software engineer, a job which he admittedly wasn’t good at, and explained how he gained a deeper understanding of the work that went into writing code which, in turn, helped him better manage the same professionals later on in life. Thus, employing oneself to gain the required skills and experience even though the work might not be satisfying, is something which one must push through to become successful.

A few of the questions he was asked were how one would know that the time is right to venture out on their own, and what they should do if someone had already begun working on the same idea that they had thought of. In candour, Dhiraj replied, “It’s not about you; it’s about the product. If someone else is doing it, then you should be happy that at least someone is solving that problem.” He reiterated that before one decides to become an entrepreneur, they should ask themselves “why?” at least seven times, for that is how long it takes for one to discover their real aspirations.

After an hour of insights and counsel, Dhiraj had to bid adieu to the audience, but not before he hinted at an exciting future for the institute and Mu Sigma in tandem. What a tie-up would entail could not be revealed, but the prospect of it is definitely promising for the students of MIT.

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