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Ajay Prasad Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Ajay Prasad
Ajay Prasad is our guest today on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots free podcast interview.
He is a guy who is a serial entrepreneur, successful business strategist and a marketing expert who before laying the foundation of his various successful entrepreneurial ventures, served organizations ranked among the top 10 of Fortune 500 companies.
The founder and president of GMR Web Team – a leading Orange County digital marketing agency dedicated to helping businesses maximize revenue from the Internet – Ajay also owns and operates GMR Transcription, a seven-figure web-based business and award-winning transcription and translation company which he founded in 2004 to fill a void in affordable and accurate transcription and translation services for writers, students, professors and businesses.
How The Dots Joined Up For Ajay
In the short span of a decade, the company has expanded its reach to include government institutions and non-profit organizations and has become a trusted partner to more than 9,000 clients across the globe.
So the key question to ask is, why does he feel that the entrepreneurial bug first bit him, or was it always an integral part of his character?
And does he see a path that others can duplicate, or is it simply the case of making it up as you go along?
Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr Ajay Prasad.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Ajay Prasad such as:
How in many ways it is hugely scary to start your own company, but by walking away from a great salary, has been so worthwhile in the long run.
Why it is so valuable and sensible to simply start a business on one thing that you are already good at. Not to try to be something for everyone.
How momentum is easy to achieve at the very beginning of building a business, but definitely flattens out later – Which is where the true effort starts.
Why his first businesses failed, due to running out of money after two years, and how it felt to have to return back to the corporate world.
and lastly….
Why he only judges his own success and failures by his own personal goals. Has he achieved them or not, not by comparing himself to what other people are doing.
How To Connect With Ajay Prasad
Return To The Top Of Ajay Prasad
Full Transcription Of Ajay Prasad Interview
David Ralph [0:00]
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Intro [0:21]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling and Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:48]
Yes, hello everybody and welcome to Join Up Dots. This is Episode 437 of the motivational conversational inspirational show. But you’ve come to love started recording first thing this morning. And when it was dark and it’s now gone dark again, it’s gone for 12 hours. And today’s guest is a guy who I reckon he puts in the hours as well because he’s been hugely successful in many different formats. He’s a serial entrepreneur, successful business strategist, and a marketing expert who before laying the foundation of his various successful entrepreneurial ventures, served organisations ranked among the top 10 of Fortune 500 companies. He’s the founder and president of GMR web team, a leading digital marketing agency dedicated to helping businesses maximise revenue from the internet. He also owns and operates GMR Transcription, a seven figure web based business and award winning transcription and translation company, which he founded in 2004 to fill in an affordable and accurate transcription and translation service for writers, students, professors and businesses. Now in the short span of a decade, the company has expanded these To include government institutions, nonprofit organisations, and has become a trusted partner to more than 9000 clients across the globe. So the key question to ask is, why does he feel that the entrepreneurial bug first bit him? Or was it always an integral part of his character? And does he see a path others can duplicate? Or is it simply the case of making it up as you go along? Well, let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Ajay Prasad. How are you today? Sir?
Ajay Prasad [2:29]
I’m pretty good. How are you? David?
David Ralph [2:31]
Very well, indeed, sir. Very well, indeed. We had a few problems on the old microphone before Didn’t we the technology started to fight back.
Ajay Prasad [2:41]
Yes, it did. But I think we are fine now.
David Ralph [2:44]
I think we are. So to give a flavour of where you are. You obviously got an Indian Asian name. You live in America Understand? So where Where’s your history? Where did you sort of start as a young boy,
Ajay Prasad [2:59]
so I grew up up in India, I was in a small town actually close to Calcutta. And you know, I went to college there and after my college degree I came to us for my master’s education and an after my education actually I wanted to stick around to work for some company because I wanted to get some work experience before going back and then you know, even in spite of couple of times when I tried to go back, I ended up just staying here this is a wonderful place and said, Would you go back now
David Ralph [3:33]
AJ, would you go back to India?
Ajay Prasad [3:35]
Actually, I go back to live there probably not. But just to let you know I do have offices in India that I have created because I in my pain, all my family is still there. And so I’ve been going there anyway. So when for my business when I wanted to create a back office, it was natural for me to do it in India. So I do have couple of offices in India right now. And we employ close to 100 people there.
David Ralph [4:03]
Now, the thing that’s fascinating looking at your backstory is that, to me, it didn’t seem that you were an obvious entrepreneur, you were quite happy to go into the corporate route, do your education and move through to the sort of perceived stability of working for a company. So why have you created so many companies? Why have you managed to sort of break free from the corporate route and change direction so dramatically?
Ajay Prasad [4:32]
You know, when when I was in incorporation, you see, I always had the entrepreneurial bug, I will tell you that I sort of always wanted to start my own company. Now, when I was incorporation in most of the corporation, I was very lucky in the sense that, you know, there is a term here that used to be used. You know, when I went into the corporate world, I don’t know if it is how popular it is. It was called intrapreneur. Hmm. So even more I when I worked in cooperation, I was not your typical employee who would just sit down and and you know, get instructions and do the work. I was always suggesting new ideas and how do we improve and all and I’ve been really blessed to work mostly and it’s mostly because of the right my bosses, but mostly with the companies where my my ideas were always welcome so so even though I was working Corporation, think of it that my mindset was always off an entrepreneur. And, and the reason I found that out is when I went to and I did work for, you know, a company, it was a large oil comm Corporation. When I realised that it was just, you know, it was like working for government never worked for government. I’ve just heard what it is. But it was all just rules and regulations. And, you know, there was absolutely no room for any kind of new idea. And that’s when I realised that okay, you know, I, it’s, it’s I was just blessed to be in the right corporations, I guess with the right people, rather than I was really fit for corporations. So you know and that’s when I when, when after my last job it was when I was deciding what to do, it was really natural for me to start specially because then I realised that when I if I am my own company, you really control your destiny, in cooperation with in spite of whatever success from outside you are not controlling your destiny, destiny You have bosses, you have Board of Directors, even if you become CEO, and you have stockholders and and it’s in that there are always things that is going to stop you from what you want to do. What I love the idea
David Ralph [6:53]
was to start your own company
Ajay Prasad [6:58]
you know, in the beginning, frankly, it was Especially because I was decently successful. I was not like a hot shot in a CEO of a Fortune 10 company or anything, but I was making a fairly good living. They are very comfortable life. So when you stop that and and when I started my business, I had another option just switch, you know, to be president of another company. I was offered but I was just so turned off by the whole corporate world that I wanted to start my own business. So yes, you know, there was, you know, you have a lot, a lot of uncertainty. I mean, you when you work for a company, whatever happens, you know that every two weeks you haven’t get a paycheck. Yeah. And when you are on your own, it is nerve racking. So, yes, you know, there were uncertainties, I will tell you that there were, you know, nights that I couldn’t sleep because I was not sure if I made the right decision or not. And also Yeah, it was not that. I wouldn’t say it was a smooth thing. So this is what I want to do, especially when you’re when you’re transitioning from a job board was,
David Ralph [8:09]
don’t think that people in the corporate land who are sitting here listening to this conversation, do you think it’s easier to make it up as they go along? Or have some kind of fixed plan? Because I’ve had so many conversations with people who have said to me now that yes, I knew exactly what I was going to do. But actually, when I went into the real world, ie the entrepreneurial route, that plan didn’t work, but then I’ve heard loads of other people go I didn’t have a clue. So I just made it up as I go along. And it became more fluid and more naturally successful because they they played more than trying to dictate the actual direction.
Ajay Prasad [8:49]
Yeah, it’s the latter for me. I will tell you that the only decision I had mentioned as I wanted to start my do something on my own. Like I said, I had a job offer And I, you know, I talked about it and I was just not excited to go and and take that job. So I just first thing I decided is like I’m done with Corporation, I’m just going to do my own business. candidly, at that point, I started to figure out what I wanted to do. And, and frankly, I start I moved to I did something that was I was more comfortable with which, which was, I was always a marketing person. I’ve been in a marketing strategy all my life. So that’s where I started my company initially as a consultant, and then started to target focus on small helping smaller businesses was something that I was, you know, fairly good at. Anyway. So So yeah, but I when I will tell you that I explored buying all sorts of companies, you know, landscape, landscaping company, the, you know, the pack mobile, and so I looked at a lot of businesses What I wanted to do and I came back to what I thought I will enjoy, and I think I was right there. You know, I had to pivot a lot make a lot of changes, it was very fluid like you like you said, it’s not like I had a business plan and I exclude executed to the tee, but I was in the right direction.
David Ralph [10:19]
So the key thing to VAT for all the listeners out there was, you found one thing, but you could do and you built upon that if that’s a key point, isn’t it? You don’t actually have to reinvent the wheel you don’t have to create something that nobody has seen before just find something and become very good known for that. And then build from that point onwards. Exactly.
Ajay Prasad [10:43]
And and you know, almost everyone and I do meet with now quite a few entrepreneurs because they want to start a web based business and they come to me to for help. And I always tell them that actually, you have to do two things. You have to be Good at what what you’re doing. And you know getting a good. Getting good at is not that difficult. And you know, even if you are a new thing, you can become an expert, but you have to be good at what you do. And the second thing I always say is you you have to enjoy what you’re doing. And I will tell you, I have always, like I told you that I did had sleepless nights if I was making the thinking if Did I make a wrong decision. But every day when I was working from whatever, you know, seven to nine, you know, 14 hours, it was not a burden because I was enjoying that I was doing something that I like to do. So when in when in uncertain times when you’re not very sure. Your decision, the fact that you’re doing something that at least you’re enjoying, it really helps put you through those times. And I think that anyone who is going to become an entrepreneur will go through those phases. I I have not seen many Anyone that I met who said, Oh, you know, from day one, everything was fantastic.
David Ralph [12:06]
I think the problem with it all AJ and certainly I’m speaking from my side of the fence, what I’ve experienced is at the beginning you get, if you do it right and you put the effort in, you get a lot of momentum very quickly I found, and then you kind of think it’s going to be easy and success is just gonna come your way but then you hit a brick wall, and it’s climbing over that first brick wall and then pushing through no man’s land to the next stage. That’s when you start to toughen up. And that’s when you realise Hang on. This is why entrepreneurial rewards are so high because you’ve got to put in the effort that I never had to do in corporate land.
Ajay Prasad [12:44]
It’s bought, I will tell you that I have maybe those are not entrepreneurs, they are entrepreneurs. But I have met seen quite a few people who could not even do the first sale. Right? So if you cannot even sell the if you don’t have even the first sale then of course the business is going down. But I agree with you, when some people get lucky and and and you know, they get lucky just like I got lucky. I knew enough people that when I first started getting client was was easy, but then I had to sit down I had to figure out how to come up with a process so that I can keep on generating new clients rather than you know, the first five or 10 that I got because of the people that that I knew. So you are very correct there. Especially people coming from corporate world, generally speaking would know someone so that they can get started and then it looks like oh, this is fantastic. But then you get into trouble but then I have also run into many entrepreneurs who has this they think is a brilliant idea and they spend all these stuff one on things that is not necessary and then they will end up closing the business because Because they couldn’t even get a sale.
David Ralph [14:02]
But yeah, I can see that time and time again where somebody sits there and they go oh, this is a brilliant idea just because you and your two mates who sit down in a pub having a drink think it’s a good idea. And now yes, that doesn’t make a business doesn’t it?
Ajay Prasad [14:16]
Yes, exactly right. And and that and then then of course when they start a business because you know, they feel strongly about it, they will focus on the wrong things like is my logo good? And in which way should I have my office and let’s look at the furniture I mean, all these things that has nothing to do with business so I tell when when someone comes in and who’s wants to start a business, I always say validated and for me validation is not 100 page business plan or telling telling me that you you know the hundred million people, customers, so I just need to get point 01 percent and all that nonsense. I always say validation means you have something sales. So that’s that should be your first focus, go and get some sales. And if you can do that, then the business is validated. Let’s let’s figure out how to scale it, how to make it big.
David Ralph [15:12]
Let’s play some words now from a lady in America who talks quite wisely about that feeling that most of us have about being overwhelmed and not knowing the next step. This is Oprah.
Oprah Winfrey [15:24]
The way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself, what is the next right move? not think about, Oh, I got all of this too. But what is the next right move? And then from that space, make the next right move, and the next right move and not to be overwhelmed by it because you know, your life is bigger than that one moment. You know, you’re not defined by what somebody says is a failure for you because failure is just there to point you in a different direction.
David Ralph [15:56]
So, taking those words AJ and yours sleepless nights. Did you follow that path? Did you think to yourself, okay, what is the next thing to do? Or did you run around going? Oh my god, I’m so stressed, I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know what to do.
Ajay Prasad [16:14]
Actually, if you did, did the latter, you would probably either have a heart attack or you quit. So she’s she’s 100% correct. First thing I always say I don’t even care what other people will say. Because my goal always is my focus is that I need to lay out, you know, my targets. So I judge what success or failure based on you know, the goals that I have and did I accomplish it so for me, so that’s the starting point anyway. And and then what Oprah is saying is very correct. You need to the way I explained to people is you need to be thinking in step so if suppose you you, you take a you look at business and you see garden I have to climb on 1000 stairs. And then all of a sudden you’re you were saying, Well, I’m just going to become an athlete and do that and I run and I get there in 10 minutes. That’s not the answer. The answer is, you, you climb the steps that you are comfortable with. And then you keep on planning how to get what get to the next level, continuously. And as if you do that, I mean, I always suggest to my, the people that I talked to or not my clients generally, is you should at least spend 30 minutes a week thinking about what you did right and, and in your business this week. And and then then, so that, at least you have some different direction, all you need to do is make just tweak, make tiny changes, and all of a sudden, without you knowing you start to get a critical mass. It’s like everything is starting to move in the right direction. I’m a great believer on this compound effect
David Ralph [17:57]
and I’ve really focused in on it recently where you just keep on doing stuff, keeping doing stuff and I read an article the other day, and it was about all these entrepreneurs that literally got to the point of failure and Ben clawed it back and one of the quotes that I liked very much was 50% of my decisions are always going to be wrong, but learn from them. And I thought that is that’s quite insightful, isn’t it?
Ajay Prasad [18:25]
Yes, hundred percent you know, we will Unless Unless we decide not to make any decision we will make will make mistakes will will you know, take make wrong decision, but that to me doing something, you know, it does not to me is not a failure. So, not succeeding on something is not a failure but giving up and not learning from your failure that to me is where the loser comes in. So yeah, you will, until you try you you will not fail right so you have to try and when you try you will fail on some you You will succeed on some of them, but so long you’re learning from your failure and you’re not making the mistake, you will be fine.
David Ralph [19:07]
So looking at your history, obviously, in the introduction, it seemed like success success. We mentioned the companies that are flourishing now. Have you had other companies that just didn’t get off the ground?
Ajay Prasad [19:20]
Yeah, totally. No, I, I had first thing I started and maybe I was too green. Don’t tell me but you know, the first business I started was almost, almost now 25 years back when I quit a corporate job and and tried it. And after two years, actually, I had to go back into the corporate world because you know, I ran out of money, frankly. And now when I look back, of course, there were tonnes of errors. But then when my next stint in the corporate world was I am hundred percent sure was far more successful because of my experience. There. And Then Then when I finally started this company, I sort of knew what I had done. done wrong before. So I knew what mistakes not to repeat. And that really helped me. But yeah, you know, I, for two years of my life I spent you can technically say it was a complete failure. You know, I couldn’t get anything done and I didn’t do what? Now I tell people, right that I didn’t have one sale. I know I had one or two sales, but but it was just not nothing not worth it. And, and you know, and now I also tell people, listen, not all business, you will always succeed. But if you have to fail, make sure that you fail quick and you fail cheap. And I didn’t do that last time. I spent two years before I say, okay, you know, this is not going to work out and I had exhausted all my money. So that’s the piece that is very important when you start a business is to is to have the benchmark that will help you decide. You know, very Quickly whether you are going in the right direction or not, and if not look into it, what you can do to fix it.
David Ralph [21:07]
Do you like the fact that success and failure doesn’t matter? It’s the journey. Is that the important thing for you?
Ajay Prasad [21:16]
Yes. You know, again, David, when you when people look at me today, and I don’t consider myself a huge success or anything, at least, I’m not based on the benchmark that I have set up for myself. But yeah, people look at me as a cardinal, so great that you started your own business. And you know, and they don’t realise that the journey that you go through is is, you know, the journey is you go through good times and the bad times, but that, in itself is is a lesson in life. And like I said, Now, I know that if I want to tomorrow, I had to start another business. It will be much easier than it was the last time and then of course, last thing was much easier than the first time when I failed. So yeah, it’s the whole journey are so long you’re learning you’re enjoying. I think you’re fine.
David Ralph [22:07]
I think so as well. This this is a quote from a gentleman and this really says everything about what we’ve been talking about. And it’s the if at first you don’t succeed, try try again. So this is a very rich man if he’s not a billionaire, he certainly a very wealthy millionaire. And he said, the very first company I started filed with a great bang. The second one failed a little bit less, but it still failed. The third one, you know, proper failed, but it was kind of okay, I recovered quickly. Number four almost didn’t fail. He still didn’t really feel great, but it did. Okay. Number five was PayPal. And I think that’s amazing, isn’t it?
Ajay Prasad [22:50]
That is incredible. What I was saying is, I am amazed that he failed four or five times and I guess you have to when you fail that many Any time or after fifth try you get to make PayPal. You know I had like one major failure and obviously you know I had several minor failure but you know that’s how I ended up getting him I wrapped him
David Ralph [23:15]
and how do you know Ben but you’re going to love the business and not just like it because like after a while can turn into a corner if it’s not strong enough a passion
Ajay Prasad [23:29]
Yeah, it seems that you in my I can just give you my example. For me it started with because of my core conviction. First thing I love marketing area of marketing. I love it that is changing. I love that all of a sudden, you know, I come from a very traditional marketing background TV and radio and all and digital was was kind of exciting and I created another business just to test the marketing methods which ended up becoming a You know, GMR Transcription. So, so you know, first thing is, is, is there something that you are going to enjoy and I’m excited about in this business and then the second piece was the pleasure that I got, you know, I am, you know, the goal of my business is to help small and medium sized companies generate revenue from the internet, so I can see exactly what is happening right all the results and and it just keeps me excited is challenging if I if I don’t see the kind of results that I would like to see that that means, you know, I’m spending time trying to figure out what it is. And then if it is going well, then it’s a pleasure and then I’m seeing what if I can improve something. So the best part is that it keeps you always on your toes and at least in my, for me, this was the best business to get in. I don’t know I don’t have many hobbies. So it’s not like my goal is to retire and play golf seven days a week. I mean, that’s, that’s not my goal. So, but you know, I’m doing what’s my hobby, which is marketing and helping companies.
David Ralph [25:12]
But But you do it in a very streamlined way because I was reading about you and it seemed to indicate that you were less successful financially with more staff, you found a way of streamlining it so that your, your bottom line increased, but your overheads diminished massively.
Ajay Prasad [25:30]
Yes. So, so that was for the transcription business. You see, when I created a transcription business, I created really to, to, to start a business that I can, you know, I can test the marketing methods on before I can start to start offering to my clients. So when I started GMR web team, I did not offer website marketing. All I did was website design and the strategy because at that time for small businesses, You know, only people who are doing website were these kids, literally. And they had no idea what the businesses so I started with that now, very soon I realised that there’s a need for marketing. And I could hire marketing. I knew what to do with marketing, because I had managed that in my corporate world. But I just needed to prove something. So that’s why I created GMR Transcription. And in the beginning, all I was doing is one marketing. When it worked. then very quickly, we reached a point where it was just doing six figures in revenue deema transcription, and it it hit that level very fast for me, but I had like seven people managing it because first thing I was not thinking about that business as much and I had no one thinking about it. So any problem you just throw a body on it right to fix it. So when it was said and I was still in the red for that business, I still Added to, to pay attention and then see there I am blessed with already the experience, right I had from Corporation. So I started looking at the processes and I realised that this whole thing was so inefficient. And luckily I had a programmer team, right doing the web design. So I had to, you know, the process, we redid the whole process, automated tonnes of stuff. I mean, it’s amazing like we used to have like 30 I’ll give you one example. We used to have like 30 transcribers, and the person would spend like three days on the payroll, which means six days every month, right, because we do every weeks we pay because to go and tally and there was there was not nothing in there. When I was done with this process. Now we have like close to 400 transcribers and it does not even take 30 minutes to do their payroll because it’s all done in the in behind the scene. So I had to create a whole process. And then the benefit of that was that now I have a platform. And I will tell you now it is a seven figures in revenue. My both businesses, you know, knock on wood are seven figures in revenue. And, and now it’s managed by two and a half people. So that’s the amazing part about but this I will tell you that I don’t know, I guess you know, what I was doing was nothing brain surgery, so a smart person can figure it out. But for me, my corporate experience was a was a huge factor there. Yeah, but
David Ralph [28:36]
what you did there was you use your brain which a lot of people do, but you were willing to hustle as well and get in there and assess things. So many people would just be throwing money at it. But even when the the income was going up, you could still see but actually, there was a better way of doing it and making a more streamlined, I think that’s quite a brave decision to make it that Point.
Ajay Prasad [29:01]
Correct? And I’m I will tell you, it’s not like I’m done. I’m still doing it. It you know, you, I we are still tweaking to make it better every day because the, you know, efficiency is is is something that you don’t say, you know, no company runs on hundred percent efficiency if they say they don’t know what they’re talking about. So which what it means is you can just keep on improving, and that’s what we do for both our businesses.
David Ralph [29:30]
And do you have the virtual staff across the globe? I know you were saying that you had offices in India, do you personally connect with them or are they operating on automatic pilot?
Ajay Prasad [29:43]
Actually, India I have to go and visit to my office because these are on my employees and, and they need to have face to face interaction. So it’s not just me but people from here, go to in the office, and then I have clients all over I talked about Gentlemen actually in London I was in London in in June to meet with him because he was interested in in creating a platform that is similar to what I have for Jima transcription. So, you know, and then of course, transcription clients we have all over we you know, we have marketing clients in, for example, right now we have a marketing client in Melbourne, Australia. And so we so we have, what our services we can of course, it’s internet based, so we can do it for everywhere. We are talking to a client in Germany right now for doing their internet marketing. So again, we have a very global you know, that we have footprint and GMR Transcription from the get go. We always so we have clients from any country that you can think about and we have clients from there is a sense of several from UK.
David Ralph [30:57]
Yeah, isn’t it you know, the days of somebody opening up a brick and mortar shop and hoping happening to get a few people that walk past to come in. It’s really yeah, it’s it’s the global approach, think bigger and then think bigger again seems to work.
Ajay Prasad [31:14]
That is exactly right. And and you are very correct, you know the days of brick and mortar, just, you know, I think those are those days are gone when you don’t need to have it and then, you know, thanks to what we are doing on Skype and you can do video Skype now, video conferencing, you really don’t need to have offices all over.
David Ralph [31:36]
Absolutely. Well, I’m going to play the words now of a gentleman who’s no longer with us, but he left a legacy he left not just a flourishing company, but also these words. This is Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs [31:50]
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards. 10 years later. Again, you can can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [32:25]
So you’ve obviously had faith you’ve had trust in yourself. But when did it all start coming together? When did those early failures start to form into something that you could personally believe what’s going to be successful?
Ajay Prasad [32:40]
Sure, first thing I just want to let you know that I think that Stanford speech that you know, the portion you played from, is is so inspiring that I, you know, probably once every two, three months I go back and listen to it. So to me, it’s that powerful. And and yes, you know, when you Remember I was telling you when the second time I knew all the failures on the first time and when I look back, exactly like Steve Jobs said you cannot look forward you cannot look back and and all the dots that are connected, I will tell you that it is it you know like I just just another dog that I told you that the process is that I could very clearly see how to solve the problem of Jim when transcription came from an experience of in, in the corporate world before when we were focused on generating efficiency so I’m with hundred percent all the failures and successes I will not discount successes in the past really help you in where you are without you even knowing it. Because you know the habits that you change the decisions that you don’t make or or do make based on your experience that that’s what is going to That’s where that’s what is making who you are today.
David Ralph [34:04]
And you buy into the words that Oprah said, but you literally can’t fail. You’ve just got to keep on finding better ways of doing it.
Ajay Prasad [34:13]
Hundred percent, you know, I, I am I am with him hundred percent. That’s what I’m saying it resonated so well for me that I still go for inspiration and I, you know, I I’m a big fan of Steve Jobs obviously, he is He was like a marketing genius that I don’t think that you know, he belongs to the same group of people like Edison and Ford in my mind. So, so yes, you know, I agree hundred percent.
David Ralph [34:40]
Well, let’s bring the show to an end like we always do with this sermon on the mic when we send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go back in time and speak to the young AJ, what advice would you give? Well, we’re gonna find out because we’re gonna play the theme tune and when it fades, you’re up. This is the Sermon on the mind.
Unknown Speaker [35:07]
With the best bit of the show, man, my man
Ajay Prasad [35:22]
when I’m talking to younger, AJ, one of the things that that I luckily did, I will say, just follow your dreams don’t give up. You know, I grew up in a, in a middle class family in India, which meant like poor families in US or UK because we didn’t have anything. And at that time when when I wanted to go and and go, not only to us for higher studies, but I wanted to travel the world and which, you know, I have, I’ve been through 40 countries yet so I have not travelled the world but something in my circumstances at that time. If I had told, I will be where I am today people would have laughed. But I always said dream the dream and like Steve Jobs said, stay foolish and stay motivated, or what was the last for I? But but that’s exactly what I would do is is just you follow the dream.
David Ralph [36:20]
AJ what’s the number one best way that our audience can connect with you sir?
Ajay Prasad [36:26]
You know best thing is to go to my website and and see what I do. And if they need some help, they can contact me if they want to, if they want some advice doesn’t have to be work related. I mean, I’m very happy. You know, I was blessed with you know, really I was blessed with some mentors who helped me with where I am today. So I have no problem giving free advices so they can always send me an email at AJ at GMR web team.com is AJ ye at ga Mr. Web team.com or If they want to, they can call my office 714-731-9000. I cannot, I cannot really promise that I will always be there to take their phone call. But I will always call back if I’m not available
David Ralph [37:13]
is very generous of you. And of course, we’ll have all the links on the show notes. AJ, thank you so much for spending time with us today, joining up those dots. And please come back again when you have more dots to join up. Because I do believe that by joining up the dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. AJ, thank you so much. Thank you, David. Thank you so much for listening to Join Up Dots. If you like the show, please tell a couple of people. They tell a couple of people and then another couple of people and then it’s global domination. You can’t get away from us. We will be on every television screen, every radio and every computer that you log on to good thing. Well, I certainly think so. So thank you so much for listening. Thanks so much for sharing and hopefully I’ll see you again Cheers. by
Outro [38:01]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you or wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.