iRise - a Personal Perspective!

(On this day - the 16th January, 2016 - I feel really happy and positive. I feel alive and engaged with my life. 

I feel some connection to the stuff I am involved in today.  I think it's an extremely important thing for me to put my perspective about the work I do at iRise into words so that I won't feel so lost during those tough times. And I can start the process of defining my best future or vision for myself or my ideas of success.

I know the degree of usefulness of this content here - about the vision for my life or the perspective for it - is directly proportional to or is extremely dependent on the degree of its truthfulness. So I try to be as much truthful as my wisdom allows me to be.) 

So, here is the big question.
what's the point?  

What's the point in working at iRise? 

What's the idea/ideas that drive me?  

What's the destination and/or intention?  

What's in it for me? 

The point in working at iRise is in its name - I RISE. 

(And that's what I want - I WANT TO RISE. 

I damn sure want to rise. 

I f**king want to rise) 

I Rise. 

I Rise. 

iRise!! 

I learn, I grow, I become capable and empowered, I gain wisdom, I gain resources.................. 

And I realize my values and my full potential through the work I do at iRise. 

What are those values? 

Happiness and prosperity, progress and contribution, kindness and compassion, purpose and meaning, creativity and learning, humor and friendship........................................ 

And if allowed to be a bit grander (and not consider taking the inspiring lines of my hero here as plagiarism) - I want to put a dent to the universe. 

Why only iRise? 

Because 'this' is it. 

This is the path. It is. 

It's my life, my ambition, my quest, my thirst, my triumph, my strength and weakness. 

This is it. 

Did I ever ask the question that why 'Ravi Garlapati' - who is born in Koppolu and studied in the government school there till 6th class and then in VBHS in Suryapet - is 'Ravi Garlapati' ? 

It would have really helped me  to realize all of my present values, if I were born into a wealthy  and educated family somewhere in the city or even better still - in a rich and prosperous country where there are inspiring teachers in schools, whose countries have produced far more number of Nobel prizes than my country and where I would truly have made a mark on global scale........ 

The answer is - I did not.  

I might have mused about it - I don’t remember.  

But if I think about it - had anything happened different from the way it had happened, I wouldn't have been myself. It would have been a different person. (Interesting idea, I might blog about it some other time.) 

Coming back to the question of 'why iRise' I think  in every way possible - philosophically, practically, ethically, and most importantly aesthetically (yeah, I see a lot of beauty in it!) - this is the most appropriate match that I have in my hands right now. 

Show me another better path to my values -any other better answer to the question of what should I do with my life right now? Or in the near future of say 4 to 6 years? 

iRise is an open book. 

It's a canvass to my imaginations and initiatives. 

It's a platform. 

iRise is a coaching centre. It gives classroom coaching to people who are preparing for the exam called SSC CGLE through which they can get a very good central government job. For offering a quality service to it's customers it charges them some fee. And that fee sustains it's actions by paying for the salaries of the people who are working for it and the materials that are needed to run it's operations. 

This is what iRise is about now. 

Simple. 

And I - Ravi Kumar Garlapati - am at the helm of this organization. 

I am it's LEADER. 

I am the person who is leading this organization which is giving coaching to around 670+ students currently at 4 different locations in Hyderabad with 20+ employees in admin works and another 20+ teaching faculties and a number of other service providers. 

I am the person who is to ensure its survival in the short term, face the challenges it faces time to time, plan for it's future and make sure that it flourishes as much as possible, as and when possible, by taking actions in order to reach that goal - flourishing. 

I am the one who is to provide it the direction, the sense of purpose, the values, the drive for it's resources to work, the inspiration. 

This is what I am supposed to do. 

I need to take care of it's immediate needs in the present - so that it survives today and tomorrow. 

And with the resources that I have in my disposal I need to try and make sure that it reaches it's best potential - FLOURISHES - and benefits myself and my team who put in the efforts for it, the customers who make us do the things that we do by blessing us with their hard earned money, the service providers on whom we are dependent to run our operations, and the entire eco-system and society at large - which makes it possible for us to exist. 

Exist. 

Survive. And Thrive. And let others Thrive.  

Excellence. 

Progress and Contribution. 

Happiness. 

Purpose and the meaning. 

Kindness and Compassion. 

Learning and Growth. 

Whose values are these? 

iRise values or your values? 

Both. 

Because your job is to set the values for iRise. 

iRise is not something out there that you are working inside. 

iRise is something that you are building. 

iRise is something that you are struggling along with. 

iRise is something that are fighting with and fighting for. 

iRise is a means for some ends.  

And iRise is the representation of those ends. 

It's the journey and the destination.