Building A Higher Education Institute - The Entrepreneurial Way

If life is the greatest teacher, what should our educational institutes be teaching? This question intrigued me for many years.

- Sanjay Padode, Secretary, IFIM Institutions, Bengaluru

I was immersed in learning from life. Our ventures were not immune to the challenges faced by any business. There were good times and bad times. There were times when the social and family pressures forced one to question our choice of being an entrepreneur. The pleasure of learning and the reward of solving problems helped me continue my pursuit.

My early days

I started my career as an entrepreneur; post my engineering graduation, 28 years ago. When I joined my engineering college, there was a great sense of pride in me as I had lived up to my parent's expectation by enrolling into a premier engineering college of the country. I also felt relieved as the preceding two years had been stressful. It was just after my tenth boards that I discovered my passion for innovation and the only route available to nurture this passion was engineering education. The stress was caused by anxiety as I was an average student who had built an aspiration to study engineering with the best brains of the country. I thoroughly enjoyed my five years at BITS, Pilani as I could explore and discover my strengths and weaknesses whilst pursuing my quest for innovation. My faculty, seniors and peers taught me the ways of life, especially in dealing with people. However, as I moved from one year of course work to another, it became apparent to me that it would not be possible for me to continue innovating after graduation. The career options available at that time, were a job in a corporate or a public sector. The entrepreneurship ecosystem was non - existing and the only other dream that most of my peer were chasing was the "the American Dream".

Journey of entrepreneurship