My strongest belief in life is that I can be better tomorrow than I am today. The stories I write, the opportunity to be able to impact lives, my inner drive that inspires me to write & my feelings for wanting to help as many people as I can in this world, is clearly based on the premise that I can aid the journey of individuals to be better versions every single day” in Sandeep’s words.
Sandeep Kochhar, Destiny’s favourite child was a young bright student, caught in the compliance of life, decided to take up Science, then pursued Engineering & joined a Software Company. He kept running this logic Vs heart racket for over 15 years till one day something changed within him. It was like an Aha moment of his inner compass changing itself. He realized he had had enough, he understood he had become a sheer money-making machine & was not enjoying what he was doing. One sunshine fine day, this heartless running came to a heartening end & he hung his boots.
A passionate Rumi (a famous philosopher & poet) fan, Sandeep believes in this Rumi saying that ‘as you start to walk out on the way, the way appears’. This adage opened his eyes to a new perspective which lead him to his current amazing precious life & he continues to learn, evolve & discover himself. For the first time in his life, he decided to follow his heart & move away from thinking to doing. His initial years of self-discovery once he hung his boots & bid his byes to the Corporate world, were very hard, he was yet to find his Mojo & his hardships continued to plague him. It was as though the universe was urging him to look within & continue chipping away. He tried his hand at a couple of start-ups, which failed miserably; in the bargain he lost tender 1.5 years & some money. Yet another deep thinking day, while he was sitting in the Drawing room of his home, reflecting on the recent events, a beautiful positive story of his life began to take shape in his heart. He learnt the art of manifestation & willing his dreams.
He says ‘As a kid, I always dreamt of being a Story Teller. Stories fascinated me, enticed me, drew me to a beautiful world of my own; they took me to another dimension where everything seemed possible’. He adds ‘I was at that stage then, when for once in my life I was simply trying to be myself, not trying to be anyone else. I think this realization birthed a new me, a real me. I refused to be in the rat race anymore’. He followed DOTS – DO ONE THING SURELY.
Here are 5 simple steps he ardently followed:
- Do One Thing for an Hour
- Do One Thing for a Day
- Do One Thing for a Week
- Do One Thing for a Month
- Do One Thing for a Year
He then focused on writing for the next 2.5 years with all his heart, passion, authenticity & complete openness. He started with writing stories on his experiences, banishing all his fears, his needs for validation & acceptance from the world. He just wrote for the life of it. He just wrote his heart out. After writing around 100 stories, he never looked back. He succeeded immensely as he simply continued to do what he enjoyed most, writing. He has now crossed 150Million views & is recognised by LinkedIn as Top Voices 2019: India. He has over 387,000 followers for more than 1500 stories that he has accomplished now. He is moving on to writing his very own book now. His dream come true is BlewMinds Consulting (www.blewminds.com), which he is living right now.
Sandeep often remembers that magical decisive moment where, after 15 years of the corporate rat race, he walked out of a certain abusive meeting deciding that this is it, he is resigning. Years after that, he continued to hustle. He just kept going like the deaf frog trying to climb the tree with everyone yelling; ‘You will fail, you will fall, don’t do this’. Through his adversities, breaking myths, learning not to rest on his past laurels, he learnt the beautiful belief ‘Think Big but Act Small’. His dream came true when he started BlewMinds Consulting along with his CoFounder, Vishwapriya Kochhar. BlewMinds was simply born out of a compelling revolutionary need to enable Organizations & Individuals towards sustainable growth & progress, by creating content, weaving heartfelt passionate stories. His own career struggles, being written off as a loser, wanting to aid people to break out of their baggage, were the main premise on which BlewMinds’ powerful framework of aiding individuals & organizations towards transformation, was rested.
BlewMinds is a full services unique StoryTelling organization that constantly aims to focus on learning & experimenting. While this meant growth, it also meant hardships as they faced a lot of challenges across the life cycle. Luckily, they have a great culture, philosophy, learning agility & a wonderful bunch of people in their team, all wanting to move towards transformation, positivity at work & passion to make it better than the best. They have never run away from any roadblocks, difficulties or struggles. They have surged together every single moment & waded through trying situations.
He says, ‘As a team of multidisciplinary, intelligent, passionate & good human beings working together, we aspire to fulfill our purpose towards transforming people & businesses, helping others, enabling their progress & creating equal opportunities. We wish to change the paradigm that – nice guys finish last’. He adds, ‘I strongly believe businesses can be profitable the right way, the humane way & the fairway too.’ The average age for his organization is around 24 years today & is more than 50% women. From hiring in the Diversity space enabling LGBTQ+ communities, Sensitivity Training in areas of unconscious bias, to Coaching & enabling ‘diverse Individuals’, Human Resources & Business Consulting, Sandeep’s enthusiastic Squad breathes it all.
BlewMinds works with their Global & Domestic clients in creating endless possibilities of growth by overcoming setbacks & using adversities as stepping up challenges to rise like the proverbial phoenix. They strongly believe in the theme of ‘Believe, Be & Beyond’. Started in the year 2016, today BlewMinds is engaging with over 150 clients, across industries & geographies, with a spread of intelligent much-required services at different levels & domains. StoryTelling is being used as a means rather than an end, to provide solutions to business & individual problems. For BlewMinds, StoryTelling is a powerful tool for change, growth & evolution.
Their services include Corporate StoryTelling, Executive & Diversity Hiring, Business Coaching, Human Resource Consulting, Influencer Marketing, Brand Communications, Leadership Consulting, Management Consulting, Public Relations & Thought Leadership. Their clients range from established global conglomerates to Startups all over the world. They work in the B2B, B2C & also the B2E space with close to 100 colleges & universities across India to transform more than Million lives. Their B2C segment facilitates individuals towards becoming their next best versions. They have won several contracts where leading Consulting companies were competing. They strongly give back to the community & indulge in giving freely to all needy individuals. Like they say ‘We do not grow, when things are easy’, BlewMinds grew when they looked at their fears in the face & embraced approaching challenges with all gusto. Sandeep Kochhar is also the recipient of World’s Best Story Teller Award & has also been a TEDx speaker. He humbly says ‘The highest achievement in my life has been my spiritual transformational journey; awakening from a Techie, numeric/logic-centered bore to a more Emotionally Intelligent, spiritually connected Coach, Mentor & avid Learner; this has helped me in Touching & Transforming over 1Million lives directly & over 50Million lives indirectly & I hope to continue counting. BlewMinds is like a butterfly which has grown out of its cocoon & has started its journey 3.5 years ago. We birth a new self every single day & die a bit every single day. This ability to flow, adapt & be easy about ourselves while being serious about our work, keeps us going’.
When asked what his advice would be to emerging entrepreneurs, Sandeep narrated his ’PICK & STICK’ Story. In his own words: PICK: I was confused what to PICK in life, choices & confusions. There was no clarity. My mind wanted me to pick all, there was greed. There was also fear, as to which one to pick. What if I fail? What if I lose? I wanted to pick the best of all given choices. It was only later, that I learnt there is no best choice. It is all meant to be, it is all contextual. STICK: Once I picked something, I was unable to STICK to it, I would give up soon. There was also FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. Greed played out. Sticking to one thing was boring for an indisciplined me. Progress was slow, I wanted instant results. A common reason, why most entrepreneurs give up after failing once. In the last 4.5 years, he says he learnt his lessons the hard way.
He advocates:
1. PICK what interests you. PICK where your Strength lies. Start from anywhere & move forward. We all need a starting point. Drop your baggage, move an inch every single day, keep moving, keep going.
2. But then STICK to it even if you fail. DOTS (Do One Thing Surely), keep learning from every failure, build your growth path, persevere, what others think of you does not matter, trust, keep working on yourself, small baby steps. Sometimes success may come in disguises you cannot imagine. Also, the so-called wrong choices, may at times, lead us to our right choices. It is all about persistence, our desire & willingness to adapt to the changes around us.
His mantra, Keep at it, let the world say what it wants to. Keep at it, let your failures not determine your course. Keep at it, let yourself experiment, falter & rise again. Keep at it. Let sunshine arrive after sunset. Keep at it. Let yourself flow, meander, lose & find your path again. Keep at it.