Category: GE Money

Yet another july evening

This day, in 2009, I quit from Creativeland Asia. And in 2007, on the 8th of July, I quit from my role at GE Money. For the curious cats, this is what I have done in life (my linkedin profile) so far.

I dont know whats with July, but from this day onwards, in 2013, I am taking a break from my full time employment at Gravity India. To work on a few personal projects, that include the Nidhi Kapoor Story (other things are listed below).

However, unlike the other two July dates that I mentioned above, this time the break is temporary and I am hoping once I have done things that I have planned to do in this break, I am accepted back at Gravity. I think they call this sort of an arrangement a sabbatical.

So, while I am on this sabbatical, I want to focus on the following…

  1. Achieveing the goals I setup for myself in the beginning of 2013. Some may be almost impossible, for all I have is five months, but bring them to closure for sure.
  2. Finish Nidhi Kapoor story. And publish it. Even if it requires me to publish it myself.
  3. Travel as much as I can. In fact I am willing to work for free if I am given an opportunity to travel. See below.

Thats all I want from the next few months. Simple.

Oh, for the concerned, I have enough savings to see me through till
the end of the year at least. So I think I would be comfortable. But
then you never know with the money matters, I can only hope for the
best. To mitigate the risk, I would indeed try and take up few freelance assignments with things that I am professionally good at, 1 – Brand Planning and 2 – Events conceptualization, ideas, planning, management. Apart from these two, startups and writing excite me as well. I thus want to explore opportunities to work with, 3 – marketing / product management with startups and 4 – writing (anything and everything).

I do not want to compromise on free time available to me and thus I would look for temporary arrangements only. If you are looking to hire a freelance professional to work on any of the disciplines listed above, please do write in and I’d send my credentials (here is my Linkedin profile). If you cant
help directly, please do point me to leads, inputs, tips and anything
else that you think I may need to know while I am by myself.

My contact details are here.

And thats about it. This is the second time I am taking a leap of faith. First time around, it dint really work for me (in the hindsight, we were doing some good things but we were doing a lot of bad things as well). I am not really anymore wiser this time around but this time, Inshallah, the leap of faith would help me take off, rather then send me crashing down a steep hill.

Can someone give me a credit card?

So even since I realized that I need to own a credit card, I have been banging on doors of all card companies and literally begging for a credit card. I call the companies myself and tell them to get me a card. I walk into bank branches and fill application forms. I even used my airline frequent flier programme to apply for a card. And its been more than a month now.

Since I have worked with GE Money in the past, I understand that I don’t meet the credit policy guidelines. Those days the risk policy said, if you are above 25 and living with your parents, you are ineligible for a credit card. Irrespective of the amount of money you make or the background you may have. And they checked for two things only – Intent and ability to pay back. I have all the intent. I am not sure of the ability though.

Is there a banker that can trust his guts and my promise and issue me one? I promise not to default on the card.

2009: the year that was…

I am at Delhi airport. Waiting to take the flight to Mumbai. Like most thing in my life, there is no agenda for this trip to Mumbai. And like all other things, this trip was planned at the last minute. There are no specifics, no reasons why I wanted to see Mumbai. Only a vague sense of reason and some amount of gut feel. In fact, think of it, most things I do, I do because of these two.

Anyways the idea of the post is recap things that I did in 2009. Mumbai is a different and longish rant. Lets keep it pending for some other time.
So, here is a quick and dirty list of things I did and things I did not in 2009.. In no particular order.

  1. I resigned from my job (July). Second resignation in three years post MBA. GE Money and now Creativeland Asia. Both for different reasons. Both times, trying to chase hope and dream big.
  2. I did Vipassana (Sep). This is the first time I was quiet for 9 days on the trot. Last time I was this quite, it would have been the time when I was still a toddler and hadnt learnt talking. I am told I took 2 years to start talking. No wonder I am catching up on the lost time by all the talking that I do.
  3. I finally took the Mensa test and got the membership (June).
  4. I applied for TED fellowship and I did not get it. I knew and still know that I deserve it as much as rest of the 100 fellows who got it. But as they say, life aint no fair. Shall keep trying.
  5. I started a company with Kunal (Aug). 10 years after we started working together and dreaming about owning businesses. This one is nothing to write home about but our pipeline is full.
  6. I finally started teaching full time (Aug). Although what I teach is inconsequential but it still is addressing a batch of students none the less. And I now know that I enjoy teaching. Need to think more and take this forward.
  7. I started writing a book. A piece of fiction. But left it midway for reasons that I dont know myself. I dont even know where those chapters are.
  8. I realized that I could be wrong. And more importantly, I realized that its ok to be wrong. As long as you tried.
  9. I discovered that I love advertising, media, entertainment, design and technology businesses. Of course I am an outsider, young, incompetent, inexperienced, “un”talented, dreamer, naive et al. Along with these disadvantages and more, I do have all the advantages that outsiders have. I can look at things from unbiased perspective. I can slaughter the sacred cows. I can dare. I can change. I can improve. I am the new.
  10. I moved back to Delhi. Though I do miss Mumbai and all the fun I had in Mumbai. Is it the people that I miss? Or the place? I shall never know. It sucks how friends drift apart with passage of time.
  11. I got my Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 5S (April). I have been thinking of buying it for about 15 years (not exaggerating). And its one of the best decisions that I have made in my life.
  12. I learnt how to fold a paper into a crane (April), juggle three balls at the same time, drive a car, be diplomatic and live with a bald head.
  13. I started watching movies (Dec). Of all the ones that I saw in 2009, the Shawshank Redemption impressed me most.
  14. Met tons and tons of people. I got their contacts from Twitter, Facebook, MDIJFK, friends, family etc. Most have been helpful. Wish they could actually DO rather than just talking.
  15. Discovered the world of Poker (Sep). I am not good as it as yet but I am practicing. Plan to be a part of WPT some day.
And few insignificant numbers (I do love numbers, especially when they are useless).
  • 147 – number of blogposts in 2009 till date. At the rate, I should end the year with 150.
  • 6 – number of years I have been blogging now.
  • 27 – my age
  • 1722 – time on my laptop. My flight takes off at 1820. I need to board at 1740.
  • 2 – number of bags I am carrying.
  • 3 – number of tabs I have open on my Google Chrome.
  • 126, 415 – number of chips I have on Zynga Poker. And that is what I am going to do till my flight is announced.
See you in Mumbai.
P.S.: Now that I am reviewing the post, I should have done this in a chronological order with months adding to the structure.

GE Money to shut down Consumer Finance business

Economic Times reports that Jeff Immelt said

We will get out of consumer loans and focus on a few segments such as the credit card and infrastructure financing business, may be do a bit of commercial loan

Too bad. Although I left GE Money way back in 2007, it is still close to my heart. It was my first job post MBA and it was an awesome learning experience. Unfortunate that we weren’t really made for each other and I decided to part ways.

And more importantly the report says that GE would miss its 2010 revenue target of USD 8 billion. Worried about my friends back at GECF 🙁