When the going gets tough...

[Rohan Rajiv]

the tough get going.

A very old adage but every time I look back at tough times, I've always found people with character rise to the occasion. This applies to all the great players in all the games.. and is often the difference between a great player and a legend.

I look back at a time at RealAcad(www.RealAcad.org - a venture management camp I am a proud alumni of) at Stanford in August 2007. It was my first camp as a student at RealAcad and to tell you the truth, I was overawed by the situation as I was sitting on the same table with 18 top performers from 14 different nations, all of who were older than me. And to top it all, we had guys who were consultants, working at companies like Microsoft etc. The only end product to be expected at the end of a 1 week RealAcad camp is a new company and it turned out that every one of these strong personalities wanted to take the camp in the direction of their expectations(which is probably natural..) and there was obviously the huge barrier of inter cultural communication that had to be surmounted.. all in all.. a crazy 1 week, probably among the toughest and most memorable weeks in my life.

It was during this tough time that I met 3 others who did extremely well in these circumstances, rising above these issues and bringing the team together with strong leadership. The results speak for themselves, we created 4 ventures..

and what's more.. I had made lifelong friends.. :)

All in all - a once in a lifetime experience - My RealAcad at Stanford; where I got SO much better.

For all you guys looking to develop your venture ideas - RealAcad is just the place! :)