Everyone has this one thing that they have always wanted to do, a skill they want to learn. Maybe a dance form like salsa, or writing or photography. Maybe learning to play the guitar like John Mayer or Arijit Singh. Just imagine, being able to strum strings like them as you sing heart-breaking romantic songs professing your love to someone.  Well then, Shubham Bansal is here to help you. Topbeat is one of the easiest ways to learn guitar. And they have already helped over a 1000 people learn this musical skill.

Born in Kota, Rajasthan, Bansal comes from a family of entrepreneurs. He completed his graduation from IIT Bombay with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 2012. But this didn’t happen without struggles. While he wasn’t able to clear the IIT entrance the first time, his hard work and determination gave results when he cleared it on his second attempt.

Bansal admits that leaving a well-paid job to follow his dreams was probably one of the most courageous things he’s ever done. But music and entrepreneurship are his passion as well as his motivation. And while he couldn’t have done it without the support of his wife and family, the leap of faith was worth it. His family also knows this as they support him without questioning his decisions.

But every journey has its own hurdles. Covid-19 lockdown certainly affected Bansal’s business negatively. One of their committed investors backed off and their revenue suddenly dropped to zero in the month of April. But everything happens for a reason and there’s always a solution. Once they started conducting live lessons, their business has been growing consistently. Without having to raise external capital, consistently and they have a positive cash flow.  

Bansal’s biggest inspiration is his father (so wholesome!). Though he does say it isn’t because he is Shubham’s father, but because he is a phenomenal businessman. Successfully navigating through all struggles, it’s the perseverance of his father that inspires him. One of his biggest inspirations apart from his own father is Steve Jobs. He admires Steve Jobs for the sheer disruption he brought to multiple industries.

When we talk about entrepreneurs, fundraising is a big task. Shubham while sharing his two cents on the topic, talks about two very important things that are demanded from a good entrepreneur. The conviction in one’s idea and the ability to accept a no. End of day, you have to remember that you don’t really need a hundred investors. All you need are 5 investors who believe in your vison. And this belief only stems out from confidence and belief in yourself.

Bansal has always had the touch of business within him. In fact, he had his first experience with entrepreneurship when he started selling stickers and mehndi books, or just chocolates at a very young age. But apart from business, music and reading also bring him joy. In fact, he’s composed a lot of songs and performed professionally too!

A firm believer of following your dreams and passions, Shubham Bansal reminds us before leaving, that no profession is unconventional. In the end, it’s about what you love and what you don’t.

The beauty of hard work is that it ensures success. However, the harvest of labouring hours is not reaped in a day, although, it surely adds meaning and beauty to the formidable challenges encountered while treading the trackway to success in life. It has the power to beautify the most disquieting episodes of life.

This tenacious will power to beat the odds in life is exemplified in the spirit by Pankaj Shukla. He has earnestly climbed up the social ladder with his unlimited drive to be a good samaritan, despite the limited resources he had at the start.

He worked as a teacher before he embarked on his journey to create a positive impact by establishing an NGO that has sought to provide a familial home for orphans. His NGO, PS Foundation, works round the clock to put a smile on their faces.

Pankaj was born in a humble background in Kanpur. His family was hard-pressed to pay his school fees. Even as a young school-going boy, he realised that his family was struggling to keep him at school. Hence, he made efforts to do his bit by getting a menial job that helped him to buy minimal household items for his family.

After appearing for his matriculation examination, he took up the task of selling newspaper in his locality. Over time, he delivered newspapers to over 200 houses. To be on time, he woke up at 3am and cycled his way till 7 am. On realising that his studies were bound to be affected in the long run if he continued with his job, he took up the decision to give up his stint as a newspaper boy.

Subsequently, he was determined to pursue graduation. It was during this phase that he went on to set up a coaching institute with his dear friends Kuldeep, Bhanu and Abhishek. The revenue from the first month of coaching centre was not even enough to pay off the monthly rent. He had to carry the desks and benches for the centre on his bicycle as he couldn’t afford the transportation fee.

As time went by, the revenue started to breeze in. Gradually, he saved up sufficient funds and was now ready to take up the mission of providing support to those people who were marginalised in our society.

Through the NGO, people can celebrate their birthday among the children at the orphanage. The NGO also makes arrangements for the participating party to celebrate their birthday by visiting schools for the differently-abled and organising events like drawing competitions or excursion for them.  The NGO team leaves no table unturned to lift the morale of these underprivileged kids and to bring a smile on their faces.

The NGO also caters food and other supplies to flood victims. They are also involved in renovating schools and parks. They are also pro-active at organising blood donation camps from time to time. They have been regularly distributing warm clothes to the natives of the tribal areas in winter. They have made food arrangements for over 10,000 people in the current period of the pandemic.

As he continues to march ahead with a positive vision, it goes hardly unnoticed that his success is attributed to his will power and his self-confidence. Through his correspondence with The Talented Indian, he shares that clinging onto one’s past should never be treated as an excuse to not strive hard enough to climb up the social ladder. His story motivates us to be kind and to be compassionate. Above all, it reminds us to find happiness and contentment in living a life dedicated to the goodness and well-being of our fellow beings.

You know life is short and there is no time to leave important words unsaid, that is what inspired our protagonist Kopal Khanna who runs a startup aiming at offering a platform to the storytellers of the country and the creative people who possess an immense talent of putting their heart out in thought-provoking words.

Speaking of her childhood she was born and raised in the royal city Lucknow and moved out for further undergraduate, she pursued B.A History from St.Stephens, Delhi University and proceeded to study MSc Global Media and Communications from London School of Economics; afterwards did MA in the same field from the University of Southern California.

Being an inquisitive individual, she liked to learn new things and formulate art in various forms. She possesses an interest in writing, filming, and reading, and started with Tape A Tale with an eye to living her dream of becoming an entrepreneur and offering a platform for interesting and inspiring stories for the world to listen.

It was lucky for her that poetry had been on a rise over the years, and she identified the opportunity at a great time to start off with this venture. She is inspired by Adam Braun who is an American entrepreneur that believes in providing access to education to the children in the developing countries. She is also a very big fan of the poems written by Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

She holds immense pleasure if she is able to contribute even a little in the betterment of any individual who needs help. She shared an emotional story where she describes the joy she received when she had a girl who shared her healing from depression through the stories and poems shared on Tape A Tale. She believes in those little moments that are memorable and heart-warming.

Discussing the future entrepreneurs, she feels everybody suffer through a different journey and not one formula can fit everyone, Although her advice remains the same for everyone where she advises not to take failure or success too seriously and have fun with whatever they are pursuing.

It is often believed that it’s never too young to start an empire. Well, it’s true since there was someone who proved his worth at a very young age and recently, in the past few years, gained a lot of appreciation due to his exceptional entrepreneurship skills that changed the game of the travel industry.

Guessing who it can be? Well, he is one of the youngest entrepreneurs that India witnesses who even got acknowledged by our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, It’s the Founder of OYO Rooms Ritesh Agarwal who started off with his own venture when he was barely twenty-two.
It seems to be quite an achievement in this age of technology where everybody runs after the sought industries and very few focus on the industries that have the capability to expand widely but lack the initiation.
In India, he broke through the taboo and created his own mark and ended up becoming the face of his company performing the branding himself since he was an inspiration to so many others.

In this interview conducted by Beer Biceps, he talks about his personal and professional opinion over the pandemic crisis which has taken over the world. While speaking about him as an entrepreneur he is very much inspired by Bill Gates and Uday Kotak and shares a common fact among them of leaving an impact over the people regardless of the money earned.
He shares his opinion over the people who initiate a start-up to become a millionaire which according to him isn’t sustainable. He draws a picture from people who leave an impact and that is what he is inspired to do so in his course of life.

Having achieved so much in his life, he believes in influencing others through his work of smoothing down travel for the people around the world. He puts out his ideas over various new startups that could boom after the crisis calms down.

In this long interview, various aspects of his life are being reviewed followed by the discussions made over his inspirations in the course of his life.

You know how they say some of the best things come when you least expect them, Dropout Dude happened just like that. Two childhood friends, Divya and Anshumaan, very distinct from one another, but yet the same started this venture for the youth. 

Divya, a nerd, was very studious but extremely unclear with her goals for life. She studied Science but ended up doing business development for a renowned IT firm. Anshumaan, on the other hand, was very talented and full of life pursued Arts while being a computer and technology enthusiast. 

Anshumaan was well aware that 9-5 job isn’t made for him, he always knew he wanted to do something of his own, whereas, Divya had no idea what to do with her life, she was not happy with her job at all. After a while, she got to know about Anshumaan’s first venture that was DU Khabar and she began to help him when later on, they decided to form their own venture called as Dropout Dudes.

Divya, in order to perform well in the start-up, learned Digital Marketing, after which she realised this is what she loves and wants to pursue in life. Their motto behind Dropout Dudes was to provide motivation to the youth of the country through inspiring stories of real-life personals.

Their story had many ups and downs, they had worked really hard to make this work since the start-up was not the only thing to be worried upon, their parents were also to be convinced for allowing them to follow their dreams. It is never easy, it is even more difficult than a 9-5 job. You spend all your savings to make this happen and work all day and night for slightest amount of revenues.

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone, people tend to start their own business when they become unhappy with their job. It is not always necessary to become an entrepreneur just because you think a 9-5 job isn’t made for you,  this is the reason that many start-ups fail after a point.

There can be various other reasons to start your own business but it need not be boredom from your current job.

Although, it worked well for Divya, and after earning enough revenue they managed to establish two more start-ups called Campus Media and Startup Style. Campus media primarily focusses on news and entertainment for university’s messages and information, Start-up Style is India’s first online merchandise store dedicated for Startups, Entrepreneurs, Organisations, Freelancers, etc.

They have managed to create their own mark in this industry and will continue to do so. There is so much to learn from these two, firstly being never to give up on your dreams for whatsoever reason. No reason is good enough to give up. You will face problems that might not have solutions to get out of but then again you need to remind yourself the initial inspiration that got you at the place you are at today.