Latest / ContraMinds Podcast - Unlocking Personal Growth and Professional Excellence / Prasad Mangipudi on Building a World-Class Sports Ecosystem in India (#032)

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Prasad Mangipudi on Building a World-Class Sports Ecosystem in India (#032) · ContraMinds Podcast - Unlocking Personal Growth and Professional Excellence

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: The moment a child starts playing a game seriously, he is a winner in life.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because it doesn't matter even if he doesn't win medals, but he he learns so many things through sport, which helps you to become a better human being, better employee, better entrepreneur, you know, better leader in the world.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like say, if my daughter tomorrow fails in one subject in the 10th standard, I can hide it.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody need not know.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: But if my child plays a card in tournament in badminton in the public, if she loses, she's losing in front of everybody.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: The whole world knows that she lost.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So my my daughter also knows she lost a bit of people.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: She has to come back, swallow the defeat, next day go back to the again to the court, train again, again enter tournament, play again, win.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So there are things only a sport can teach.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for inviting me.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's my first podcast experience.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad I'm doing it with you.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Having done your management from IMAM Tabad, worked in businesses, hospitality, pharma.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Where did you get this calling to get into sports development and sports marketing?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Some yeah I think you all began because you know I'm a complete sports nut.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to count the sports that I don't follow.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, always like from your Formula One to NBA to rugby to football to golf, like no cricket, tennis.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I follow everything.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, in the sense, like, no, I always uh was fascinated by this athletes, their performance, because in my in my opinion, actually, the athletes are real heroes, you know.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Unlike your let's say uh heroes like the films are elsewhere, you know, these guys are the real because they're performing live in front of you, you know, and you can see their thing the performance live, and they're no rehearsal for them, you know, like uh they don't get 10 takes to do one take thing.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it was obvious, I think you know, I was fascinated by the their performance and and you know how excited I was as a fan.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine if I'm actually part of that uh let's say industry, how much more it'll be fun and uh energetic.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we felt you know what is that about a 132 uh you know people country can't you produce like you know handful of at least champions in each each sport?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we realized I think no, it is bound to happen.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So why not we be a catalyst?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, instead of always scribbling and say, after every Asian game, sitting now, hey, why did this happen?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Who is the thing?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, say like let's just let's take the plants, dirty hands, and see like no what we can do.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's better than doing nothing.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, while we may not achieve our objective, but at least something will come out of it.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So this is always in the back of the mind.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you won't believe this is my 50th birthday gift for myself in 2013.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I said, This if I don't do it, that's me, that means I can't do it ever.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Either do it never never.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember thinking to my wife, and if we we both are, you know, we are Buddhist practitioners, so any major days we take in life, we always chant first.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we both chant for six months to be clear, to be confident, okay.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is your your calling card, because once we take the plunge, no going back.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, this is no thing.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember chanting for six months, and finally, I was that time with a Milan, which is uh you know, like uh world's third largest generic company as a global business side.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing pretty well, you know.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was flying every week to a new country, like you know, I can throw a dot on the world map and say I can go to this country.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it doesn't be easy to leave uh the job.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that time when I left, I didn't know I didn't know where to start.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know where the start even the starting block uh to join the race.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of did a dabbled in a bit of a consultancy here and there just to keep the bills going.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then I had an accidental meeting with my own batchmate or Atul Pandey, who is that time just uh resigned from uh 10 sports CEO.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we got to say, like, even though we're not good friends, but I think no, we said, okay, let's do something in the sports.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where the journey of the uh brand uh this uh uh sports lab began.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we said, like hey, let's choose our Olympic sports, because you know, cricket is saturated, and a second cricket in a BCCI is that 800-pound gorilla in the room.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we can't touch that.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we we formed this company in 2015, beginning, and luckily within a few months, I still we got a funding from my former employer from Arminda Farmer family.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that really kind of bolstered our conference level.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we went and acquired the first the volleyball league.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh you won't believe the account.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the date, February 25th.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think we had the press conference to announce very proudly our first league with the federation president or then the full press at the hotel Lalitana in Delhi.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that evening we get a newsletter saying that the secretary of the same federation held a parallel press conference in another hotel to announce another league, and a month before that Swami, we paid the Federation 11 crores as a DD, not in a check.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: At the final uh so-called EC committee meeting where you know the of the volleyball federation, my partner went and gave the DD for 11 crores.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe when this money was given to the federation, that's when the president and the secretary both got suspicious of each other because they never sent kind of money because federations get some 70-80 lakhs every year from the government.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly they got 11 crores money with their own money, so they thought the other guy is going to eat up, so they both sacked each other, and the federation got dissolved, and we it went no legal legal case.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the and the funny thing is the case still going on, and we spent some of must have spent almost two crores on the case so far.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's still going on, and the league was sold to the another uh agency, another company, and those guys decided to go ahead.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: They launched a league, they did one season, then got shut down.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, which we don't know because we said we were very clear.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: If we do it, let's not I think not do anything which is like suspicious or like no, which may not sustain.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we didn't go ahead that time.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So then, likely, like we didn't uh then we had to fight to get the money back.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then the money came back, we didn't know what to do.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then, luckily, like you know, we looked around and we we found the PBL is like no, uh is being piloting being launched by the Federation themselves, and we found they they found it very painful to do it themselves.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we met the president and said, Hey, why don't you give it to us?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you need professional guys to run.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So luckily we agreed.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is now I remember 2016, September, I think 18 and 19, we signed the agreement with uh BI, and that's yeah, that's how the journey began.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, like I said, I think you know, my this is my uh like a sequel.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: My first was like 2009, 1998.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: You were I think you were aware of the selling resorts, and um sterling resorts was a great stint for all of us.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: You learned a lot of things, you did some amazing stuff.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was chosen as a marketing sales set.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was there, I did a great job for two years working with the big Norman, all these people.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we launched uh only uh by invitation membership.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, hey, let's do something.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I got to this uh company called Greyhound Marketing, and then uh we got an opportunity to uh co-market ADP tournament along with IMG was the main company, but we also every I got about two, three uh sponsors through me.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: But somebody what was interesting is if you do sponsorship marketing, what you do, the organizers give you so many hoardings, ticket, logo, those standard dilables.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: What I done is suppose if you're like one of my say Paris Pirulina, my client, so they launched the Paris Pirulina, so their posting was this is equivalent to your entire day's protein requirement.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So otherwise, if you are to eat some one and a half kilos of you know lee green leaves, all the stuff, but this is one tablet given.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, what it is like now, we actually uh brought them as a sponsor for this thing, and they did a promotion of the entire one week to promote to show how this capsule can take care of your thing.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, we had a I remember a small contest where you know we we put uh one and a half two kilos of uh vegetables and green leaves in one bag and a tablet as well.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: We asked people, can you eat all this in in five minutes time?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody could eat, but but this is what you're supposed to eat every day.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then we say, Hey, there's an easier way to eat.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then you get tablets.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can you take this now?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, this this tablet can be taken in uh in 10 seconds.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let this row for each brand, we actually got something tangible out of the tournament instead of just getting the holdings, logo here, uh meet and greet, all the stuff.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: We even launched the the DTH, you know, like in uh 2000 uh in the at the tournament.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that so then, but unfortunately, like after five years, I think you know, like uh I had to wind up and uh because Singapore Tourism Board came on board as my uh partner, unfortunately, within one year they uh they actually uh uh walked out.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the bug was always there in a sport.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So 2015 turned to be a right moment to get in.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to me about how did the Premier Badminton league happen?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: What was your dream?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: What was your vision, and uh how did this get into such a big event and scale that uh you had planned for?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Walk me through it.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Swami too when we began the no template because you know this except for the IPL.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: IPL honestly, while it's a big success, it had all the ingredients.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: The cricket was already being paid for 50 years' time, they're large fan following, even people like you and me, we're all diehard fans.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I traveled to London to watch Indian World Cup matches in Sydney World Cup matches, Dubai also went to recently.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it is already given thing there, so it's just the timing that Lalit Modi came and put together.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: But to create a like no non-cricket Olympic sport league like this of this, you know, where you have to uh where we don't have a legacy, where we don't have a like you know, even the federation is not the strong, like it's not even today, Badminton Federation gets hardly some 10 10 to 14 crores a year from the government of India.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, to tell you in the last two uh five years, our investment in the ecosystem of badminton is close to 200 crores.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: We and the teams together, and the official figure for the same thing for last five years, the government of India spent 67 crores in badminton, so we outspent the government of India by three times.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we didn't have a template, but what we are committed to is a thing, you know, we believe we are great product, we have to create it right now, so we will do whatever it takes.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, you know, like there are so many naysayers at one point because I don't know if you're aware that in 2013 the league was launched by Federation in partnership with another person, but then it collapsed because the guy did not have the money to run it.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: So then 2015-16, when we launched it, the guy came back to sue us.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: But when we launched, when the first year went off very well, then he came back to sue the thing, you know.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then also he took some help of some people in the you know federation, also.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's uh every single day there was some nasty surprise awaiting us, but then you know, like no, but now this whole idea of a thing of creating something like now, because also we met Gopichan, and uh, we were completely bored out by him when he met him in 2015.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, and we also uh brought him on as a mentor.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we have seen what is done in uh in those before the 10 three years time as one single person, if he could do it, because today what he's seeing the Badman ecosystem today, entire national team, as all his students.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: He he trained them at his academy in Hyderabad all by himself with very little support of the no federation.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we said if we could do that, hey, let's just know let's think little uh beyond that.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh luckily, what happened is like no good or bad, I think you know, we we put the player's salary at a level where it was unheard of in the industry.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because even today, if a player wins a big tournament, let's say even Sarah Neva chick gets to 20 lakhs or 24 lakhs, but here we were giving one and a half crores to the icon player category.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Icon player gets one and a half crores to one man one-man tournament, and even a lowest level guy who's may not even play in the league gets 20 lakhs.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that and press the price minus six crores.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: The teammate will get three crores.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, whichever team won the first year, they broke even the very first year, broke even.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, though it hurt us financially, in the sense, like no, we didn't really uh uh figure out the what is the thing, but it I it attracted the best talent.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we had a very first year Lee Chong Vi, who is the iconic player, like Li and the Lindan rivalry, like a Nadal versus like no Roger Federer thing.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: He came in, played, like we were so thrilled to be in the very first match, and surprisingly, he lost to Sri Kant in the first match.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that really helped the Indian fans fired up.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, here is uh that time Srikant is still not a big name, like you know, saying to beat uh Lin Lee Chong week.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good start for us, and then 2016 in uh Sindhu won the silver medal.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So from then, I think no, it uh uh this this becomes global, and today I'm very very proud to say that our league is the worst number one league.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's no other league because in the leagues in the other countries happen over the weekend, it has like Malaysia, China, it happens every weekend over a period of six months' time.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Li Chonggi might play this weekend for a for a club A, but it cannot be the next weekend, it could be somebody else will play.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the only format like no like IPL, you know, where we for the entire one month there are teams, auction people buy them, they stay together, play every single day.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: You play finals also, there's a champion, and they leave.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that way the format is worked also.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: We uh we also uh made it more exciting by what do you call a Trump concept uh call a Trump concept?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a match called Trump match.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: So the Trump match, when you play Trump match, the the the team which places Trump on the on the person on the player, if they win, they get two points, if they lose, they get minus one.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that really may that really like no uh kept the except because that way every team fights the last match last match.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: There were times when the team was trailing by 0-3, went on to like no to again get the five inning.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the yeah, I think you know, we and uh we made sure that in the same time Indian talent has grown because I can give an example like let's say Satik today, who is the world number five in the doubles, India never had any doubles uh legacy in the past.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: I remember 2017, I think he got 8 lakhs in the auction.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: 2009, he got 65 lakhs in auction.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: His parents called and scolded us, saying you're spoiling a child.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: This guy is only a 19 year old guy.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Will you believe he wants to buy a supercar something?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: They said you're spoiling my child money.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine parents calling and saying, you know, he was spoiling a child, and that today the guys are these guys are world beat us now.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Today, if India is winning as a team as a in the Commonwealth game, chain games, doubles also like no contributed.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier, we had a single space, but we had a so we see similarly Rakshasin has grown today.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's a next next big thing in the thing, and we had the guy called Pranai in the season three, he was unbeatable.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: He bet every single player in the like uh the tournament.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then he really bullied himself and he went out and became world number eight after that.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Same as a Sai Pranit.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: He went he won the uh World Championship bronze medal.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, what happened like we're giving the platform where what happens is like when these players go to normal tournament, they have their nervous because they have to win every every round to get to think.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Only if you win, you know, if you lose the first round, you're you're gone.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: You have to go back to the you know la home and then come for next one match.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: But here, what happens if you're in a team, you you're guaranteed to seven matches guaranteed for you.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: You're playing every all seven matches.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: So even if you lose this match, you know you you're getting one more chance.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: So then you know, you can fix the you can fix what you mistakes you found in the last match, or you can experiment here, there's no fear here, and you'll get your money.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you lose, you get your money back, you get your full money, there's no directions.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that helped the players to really, and the other thing is like uh what really helped us is we are putting the world's best people together, like you know, in a team, there are five Indians and five foreign players.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the foreign players could be Taiju world number one, Anderson.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: So these other five Indians are spending one whole month with these people in the dressing room, in the dugout, in the hotel, in the meetings.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: So they learn so much and they train together.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they they learn so much to enough from these people.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Also, what we found out later, because they came to know them very well, later when they played them in the tournaments, they're not intimidated by the person.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Either Taiju or Anderson, you're not intimidating like no as uh as in the past because now they played together, they spent time together, they know each other.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, my next question, Prasad, is uh you've been instrumental in building a world-class uh badminton academy with uh Polela Gopichin.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, what was the experience like and why did you think this was important?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: And talk to me about working with uh Polela Gopichin.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I think uh when I met Gopi, I remember the very uh first meeting itself felt, man.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think this man must be must get his due in terms of recognition, visibility.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, today I think there's no comparable uh sports icon in the country.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: For whatever worth you talk about the cricket, I think this person, I think you know, the last count brought about 45 medals for the country.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: 40 medals, including Olympic, World Championship.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know that from the 2012 onwards, every world champion we are we got medals?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Any every world championship, we got a medal.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're all his students.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, but he did all this from one academy.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I I told Gopi, Gopi is not fair.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, your your expertise knowledge should also spread.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, but he wasn't very clear how to go about it because he said it's a headache.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because, see, I think one more thing which people don't realize you know, Gopi apart from being a coach, he survived 20 years in the system and produces people.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: So he dealt with I know in the last 20 years, he dealt with six different presidents of the Federation president.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So he managed, yeah, six different presidents have come in the last 20 years' time.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: So he had to also manage his people to ensure the the team selection, teams go, entries they play, you know, getting the money to even travel.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now they're more comfortable, even till five years back.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: They had to fight for tickets, they have to fight for accommodation.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you a small anecdote, uh Swami.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: In uh 2018, I think I went to All England Championship with Gopich and then entire Indian team.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: I went with them.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: So they're saying, so I stayed in the same hotel with string.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Second day, I came back to the hotel, and we all came back, and I saw Sindhu stretching herself in the in the corridor after the match, in the corridor with the trainer, because the rooms are too small, so I felt so embarrassed.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I I I told them, okay, I'm going to book a separate room at my cost, post-life's cost, separate room for the players to stretch.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine by the time she's already a uh uh Wolfice Melissa, she's a pride of the country, she's stretching in like uh like you know in the corridor.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: There is other other uh other teams are staying in a height, whatever.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: We stayed in this small hotel because this is a this is the budget they have.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I tell Bopi, please spread your net wider.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: So they give, for example, so far, entire talent came from crose to Hadabad, you know, because that's how you said at the gang.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: All the gets all the guys or a Sri Khan, Saipanit, all these gas.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: So now it's why things.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So he finally convinced him luckily.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Then UP government has built a fantastic sports complex and then in Great and Noida, almost uh in 45 acres, 260 crore spending, and a spectacular stadium they built.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that time the IS officer whom we approached, a very enthusiastic guy.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: So he agreed readily.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'll give you the entire stadium for you guys to make uh academy here, and normally as a government uh plan this uh protocol, they supposed to do through the RFP and all for our tender base.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, in this case, because it's Gopichan, he said, I will weigh off all this, I'll give it to you straight.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: We'll go straight to the MYU.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we we signed up, and uh, I'm telling you, it's like I you you got to see it.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is a 60,000 square feet stadium, 70 feet tall roof, 4500 feet seater capacity, fully a condition, and they built 15 courts for us.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, March 3rd, 2017, we launched an academy of the first academy of Gopi outside Hyderabad.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Our logic also was maybe I think you know, like no, this uh because the bone structure, uh you know, the body build is different in the north.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you'll find a different champions here.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I remember uh Gopi trying to teach uh Srikank, Sai Pranit, Sindhu to be aggressive in the court because from being the south and thing, they're not existing by nature.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I told Gopi, on the other hand, in north.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to teach someone to be aggressive on the court.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: At every point, he'll go look at the his opponent and maybe say something Hindi, which is like BCMC kind of thing.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So at least one portion don't have to worry about that.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: They will just be aggressive.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Apart from their body structure, bone structure, everything.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we launched it.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, again, now it's just because the COVID happened in 2020.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: We are only losing one quarter every year on that because it is not a commercial academy.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: We were choosing pace only through trials to produce champions and numbers fixed.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Total number 80 out of 80, 30 of our scholarships.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, but we are spending almost 1.6 crores every year on that.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: So 2021, when this came, these guys want to revise the figures and double the lease.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: All we have to pay for AC also.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is becoming really unviable for us.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: We shut down last year.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: But three years we produce about 14 champions who could become the next champions of the country at the under under 11, under 13, under 15, under 17.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote one on one incident.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh every three months we used to have our trials.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is we used to draw drop five students, take fresh five students?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember once we invest a trial, one parent came to our office with uh bags, everything.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: He tells us very proudly in Hindi our check exam ta exam bulja.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: So exam through.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Pagalaya, like no, why are you doing that?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, you should at least let the exam be over.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Then he said, Batman Kenai, Kenai.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: So a guy just came from Mirada somewhere with a baggage to say, no, he said he he said, like, he assumed that he'll get an entry.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: He said he'll stay here only.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily he got through, then he'll like no yeah, but we didn't have hostile that time.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: So these guys had to take out rooms close by to a train.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: Prasad, if uh India has to become a sports superpower.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think are the fundamental infrastructure and ecosystems that need to be put in place?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: What's lacking today and what needs to be done?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Something you know, like now it has to start at the grassroots things for me.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can't see today what's happening is you know, there's a lot of cherry picking happening.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Suppose there is an athlete who comes to this level, whichever way, through a one coach or one parent thing, then you have a corporate like Adani's JSWs, they swoop on them, take them, they're anyway they reach already the international level.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then what happens when they become uh medal winners, they take credit for it.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: But the journey begins from the age of 9, 10, Swami.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you need let's say today if there are one lakh players playing badminton India country.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, suppose if you tomorrow if you say imagine 40 lakh children are playing the badminton, then the competition at every level ensures the guy who's going up is the best.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like other day, okay.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if I can uh I can open my own WhatsApp eyes, I gave so many suggestions to the government of India over a period of time.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Every time go to Delhi, I meet the authorities, keep giving them ideas and tips to them.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I told them, for example, there's something called a Kalo India Games, it's the biggest event in the country right now, Mr.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Modi's pet event.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: All the uh if the school students come and compete in this one.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I told them, take your any one event, let's say 100 meters.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: The guy who won last year in a Kalo India Games, compare his his cars, his timing with a Europe level, Asian level, and see what the gap.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you if you if he is a champion of India as an under-17 champion, compare with the European Asian leaving the and then see the is the gap bridgeable.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: The gap is a bridgeable, even if it's because they were giving five lakhs per year to the each student of the who wins it.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, but are you investing money on a guy who can't uh make it to the Olympics?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: But the that because today the competition is not so not so stiff, but suppose this guy had to go through at every stage, he had to fight very hard, then the timing which comes out will be maybe closer to the Asian level, whatever.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: So you need the competition at the every level that will fail competition.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: India, one more point realizes the huge of uh age fraud, fudging, age fudging.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is so much in naught because logic is if you become even a state champion, it seems, you get a sports coder job in the government.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, what they do is in the under-15 May, they put a 17-year-old guy, they bring a uh for certificate.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you play under 17, uh under 15, but you're a 17 year old guy, so you win the tournament.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Same age, so under 19, you're only a 20-year-old guy, but you come with uh under-19 certificate, you play, you win.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you get a certificate saying that you're a state champion.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Go to some for food corporation of India or a sale or a Punjab police and gets a job.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: So the process genuine students likeness suffer.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you need the at the grassroots level and press no Sami where in the where the grounds of children to play.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: See the the best place to uh perform like and learn a game is a school, and most schools don't even have a game, uh playgrounds, and most cities also the playgrounds are disappearing, and uh every city has only one big stadium, even in your uh Chennai, you only have uh the uh join stadium only that after all these years, you only have one big stadium.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: So you need infrastructure, you need a thing, you know, incentive for the children thing today.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Parents are going to pay.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I suggested to them suppose if the toy the parent puts a child in the academy and paying eight rupees per month with them tax breaks, just like you're giving a tax break on health insurance.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: This way, give the tax breaks to the to the parents who invest money on the child.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just imagine if every child, in fact, our philosophy is like no, forget about the winning and uh champions.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Every child, if he plays a sport regularly seriously, he's only a winner in life.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is the philosophy of Gopichan.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: The moment a child starts playing a game seriously, he is a winner in life.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because it doesn't matter even if he doesn't win enough medals, but he he learns so many things and through sport, which helps you to become a better human being, better employee, better entrepreneur, you know, better leader in the world.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like say, if my daughter tomorrow fails in subject in the 10th standard, I can hide it.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody may know, need not know.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if my child plays a card in tournament and badminton in the public, if she loses, she's losing in front of everybody.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: The whole world knows that she lost.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: So my my daughter also knows she lost a bit of people.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: She has to come back, swallow the defeat.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Next day, go back to the again and to the court, train again, again enter tournament, play again, win.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: So there are things only a sport can teach.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it is imperative that you know every child.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I think, like the right to education, there must be the right to play, act.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Every child, because when a child plays sport, apart from all these things, he becomes he becomes a healthy person physically, mentally, we're a healthy person.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine we even told somebody like no, if it may save you 2% of healthcare costs after 10 years' time.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: If one generation goes through playing a sport seriously, you know, everybody, so they become healthier today.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: India is a diabetic capital, you know, like hypertension capital, cardio capital.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can bring down the number of this diabetic patients, number of things, you may uh, your your pressure on the healthcare system.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're not like a Western country there, you know, we have a such a uh solid I think you know, healthcare system.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the reset I think, no, and the place the money has to come at the grassroots level.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Today the money Sindhu gets five crores.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: How will it help?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you give Sindhu five crores, it won't bring ten minutes, but with the five crores, I can produce at least hundred champions at the grassroots level.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: So those are misplaced, I think, in our priorities right now in the country.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: So schools should take initiative.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's why uh I don't know if you told you there's a school called Gaudium.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can just uh Google after God is a school which I I was involved from the scratch.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: See that sourism godium have to play two sports every single day.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a spectacular school, it is produced to produce champions, it has 21 academies inside a school, including a school academy.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it has the best gymnastic academy in the entire country.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it has to be a conservative effort, I think.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Swami, like now there are parents willing to put children, but uh, for example, I can't take my today.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: The nearest academy for me is about uh eight kilometers from here.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: My daughter has come back to four o'clock, she has to change, then get into a car and again go to this academy in the traffic and come back.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: And these days it's not safe to send your child along with the driver, somebody has to go.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to create the opportunities for children, just let them play, play, play, play.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Out of this 10,000 people, 10 will definitely be champions.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that culture is missing right now.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think sporting a change.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's all credit-taking culture right now.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: You wait for somebody to bring the child to this level, then you grab the person and say, Hey, come, ease my product.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Whether Jinders, Radani, Reliance, or like now, all the people.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're looking for high performance so that you can apply these lessons on your journey to becoming a publishable athlete.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Back to the show.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: And what's really the infrastructure in India?
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: How do you really get certification for the best coaches?
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: Who is the best coach?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: So, what needs to be done here?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: True, because right now, why don't have coaches?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a huge problem for us in Batman because, like uh we uh in India, I think uh 40% of Batman coaches are foreigners, Indonesians, Malaysians, who because those countries have a lot of coaches that come here.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: But because you know the ecosystem is not there.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: If uh suppose you played Batman, let's say at state level, you retire now.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's opportunity for you to become a coach, if you can earn enough money, you know, for your family for you.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Suppose if you can earn eight, eight, nine lakhs a year, why would you take up the coaching?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's a game which you played, which it's a game which you like.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can make money out of the game, why won't you become a coach?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: So then he will certainly probably go through some uh uh certificate uh certification course, whatever.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: But today, even today's Swami is a sad.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know, uh average coach gets about three three three lakhs a year salary.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Three lakhs, and uh when you bring a foreign coach, we pay seven, eight lakhs foreign coaches.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: So three lakhs, he he may be earning more by going to some uh call center, you know, executive, right?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Chain guy if he gets trained himself in the go join some call center, a customer says something, or even a swiggy something, maybe get more money than that.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's I think today that's why I think you know Gopi himself launching his own coaching academy right now, coaches coaches, because he himself is uh launching four more academies, and incidentally, I what I didn't talk about so far is my dream was to take Gopi's brand international.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: I done that in the last October 9th.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: We launched Gopi's Academy in Dubai.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Gopi we formed a company, and Gopi is also a stakeholder company.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: We formed a company in Dubai, we launched the first academy in Dubai, now there are four academies in Dubai, and September 3rd for launching Qatar, Bahrain.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: We'll go to Saudi, they'll go to Kauai, they'll go to Oman.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: By uh 2024, we'll have at least 20 centers teaching uh Gopi's curriculum in these countries, and now we also converted his coaching into a 225-page manual.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: We create a manual which will be distracted very, very shortly, and we're going to create an app.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: So every child, where whether it's in Qatar, Bahrain, or thing, he we start with the how to hold the grip from Gopi's expertise.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Today, what happens is you suppose today you put your child in some neighborhood guy, so your child is learning from that guy based on his expertise, based on his proficiency.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: That is the that are the learning basis from them.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Suppose the same child were to learn the basics from the from like Gopi's thing manual, it'd be different, you know.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Results, also, other thing what's happening is let's say if you send your child to neighborhood academy, the guy suppose he played five years back, retired.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: His knowledge learning is stopped.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he's teaching you from the expired knowledge.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas Gopi being a national coach even today, he's traveling, he's still training children, uh people, he's watching Koreans, Japanese, Indonesians, got a team who will study their tactics and not becomes input for him, and he upgrades his own training because what is training is Hindu five is back is different now.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, in the sense, you know, when with Gopi's uh coaching manual, which will upgrade every three months' time, we are constantly giving the latest technology uh training now, which is not the case with uh you know any other neighborhood academy.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you will try to launch an app very soon, like you know, with all this stuff like right.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, one of the things that uh really uh you know worries me, and uh I think it's important to put this in perspective.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that just that one percent of the sports people who become champions, but the rest of the 99% who have a dream, who have an aspiration, uh really don't make it to the top.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: So, what does it take for the society, for the sports authority to take care of these people and what needs to be done there?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant Swami, you reach a very uh hit a valid point.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll share the article with you after the this call.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Gopi uh this bothers Gopi all the time.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying if I get 100 students into my academy, eventually one may go to become the Wolfic champion.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the other 99.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, you're there.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: So uh the other 99 they leave the sport with a bitter feelings because they feel I I fail.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he's won't worried about the people who don't make it than the people who make it.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you know, we actually constantly, I think, you know, uh counsel them saying, play the sport, you know, which will make you a better what are you gonna do in life later on?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: While you may not, I think, become champion, but wherever you go, you can actually become a thing, and now also like now are we trying to create a pathway for them in the in the in the system?
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: They can become a sports science, uh, or they can become the fitness trainer, they can become coaches, they can become you know, like a counselor themselves.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one thing.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: And secondly, just two months back, we decided that we'll approach NHRD, you know, the national HRD body, to say, why don't you guys you know consciously take sports person into the into jobs, private jobs?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you if there are two guys with all equal qualifications, if you if you have a guy who played sport till a certain level, take that guy because he's been this additional you know traits one, two, three, four.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's a team player, he knows how to draw open challenges, he's disciplined, he's dedicated.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we actually want to, I think, knows uh talk to the this NHRD and say, like, no, consciously take sports persons.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're also looking at the vocational and all like for this people.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this was uh Dino Kakar Mambo Yunus uh Noble Love Price winner from Bangladesh.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he was uh in a webinar about one year back with uh Abino Bindra, myself, Gopichen, this guy, and uh that day we brought the lady that uh uh Shindya sister, she's a Madhya Pradesh minister for education.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: So she took the idea of that.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: She said, like no, hereafter, all the students who are training in our academies in Madhya Pradesh or coaches, we will provide them parallel vocational training, you know, because they play for six hours time.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, based on their skill sets, give them the training thing, maybe some language skills could be like no public speaking, could be some vocational thing.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is something which should, I think, you know, which should happen.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think this we are really ready in the policy.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: As more people come to this sports ecosystem, when they leave, they should have some pathway, they should not feel like shit.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: I made a mistake by joining sport.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: One one thing is that no, if Indian sports ecosystem is gross, all these people can become part of the system itself.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they can become coaches, counselors, whatever thing, you know, and uh they can.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, now many of them become the entrepreneurs.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh, you know, many of them become the entrepreneurs, the coach, they'll they'll find some sponsor now who will give them 40 lakhs to set up an academy and start training.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's how it's happening morely by the benevolence of some people, but it should become this way.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think corporates can come in.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: CSS can say, like, no, we will support.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: My next question is uh sponsorships and you know, corporates are really the bedrock of some of these sponsorships, and most often a lot of money gets thrown into the biggest sports.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, what is needed for corporates to really build an ecosystem of great sportsmen, which is probably beyond cricket, uh, if we have to become a sports power of you know scale that the world looks up to.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_02: So, what needs to be done by brands and corporates to really support sports in the country?
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, even if you are a promoter of a large company, even if you have a five 50 crore CSR money, you can't put the money where like you know, you are you you want to like spend.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because this country still has so many other challenges, basic challenges.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, governments, because you know, like no, the easy easy money for them is a CSR fund.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: Very, very few really company, only Tata, only Tata group has for the last 50-40 years time, like now, they've been actually actually involved in the sport for all these years at a grassroot level.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: In Jamshet Pour, they run academies, all that stuff.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, here as an entrepreneur, suppose if you know if you spend the money with the minister's consciency, you know tomorrow you can get something out of him.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, where will you spend money?
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you give that two crores, build a school in the in the minister's consciency, you know that thing tomorrow, like you can go to the guy and say, like, no, ask for favors.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: So there's not a thing.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: So now I think that's why we uh we just I think there's a I got a somebody approaching for a business idea where they want to create a like a forum where I think you know we can actually start crowdsource funding linked back to back.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Today there are people who do uh do the thing, but here suppose tomorrow if I start myself, crowdsource funding, I can take that money and also invest on that.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: At least I know who they are, I know who got who got the potential, I know I know where uh where to put them, their nutrition, everything I can take care of that.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we we try to plug these gaps in see India.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: We have to find solutions slowly.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: I very difficult to find transformations or solutions like no at this kind of level.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I think yes, I uh since you talk about sponsorship, I want to give an anecdote.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I met one uh company in Chennai some three years back for a sponsorship, actually.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I know they spent about four or five crores every year on a CSK, even though the brand is not because after the IPL is over, if you do a survey to recall brand recall, the brand never be there recall because there are uh honestly out of 109 brands which invest in the IPL, only 11 brands are recalled because those 11 brands also spend more money promoting themselves.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I asked uh the marketing head, why does this guy spend money money?
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sir, that guy spends money because he's got Dhoni's number in his contact list.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Every he sits to Dhoni for watch a match.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: He takes selfie with Dhoni.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: He can call Dhoni.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the guy will need to spend four crores just to have the with the Dhoni.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: Same with the Irad Corey, whatever.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, today even the society has not really woken up to the importance of sport, just beyond the sport, as a what sport can do to society.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Parents are waking up, but not the authorities are like no.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I I remember uh three months back, I got the the the big man sports authority of India, uh sports ministry called me and said, Prasad, I want to write my own KRAs, help me for next three years' time.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, like, no, have only one single KRA.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go with viewership, go with participation.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: Remember today, today if I if I if a sport each sport has so many people playing, after three years, just see how many people are posting the sport.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's the growth.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: Once done that happens, everything will just cannot get pushed up like it will work out.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: So don't go because They think you know cabinet has 1.5 TRT rating so successful.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: But how many people take up Cabody?
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: How many academies have come up?
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if it's a cricket, there is soccer, there is hockey, there is a backman, there are people they it's it's a participative uh growth.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: People take up the game after watching it.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: What would be your advice to an 18-year-old in an university or college today?
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: University or a college today, I think.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think you know, just uh just fortify yourself as a human being.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you can fortify yourself as a human being, because you don't know what challenges might come.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you go to the best job in the world, you may face challenges.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, tomorrow, even if you get married to the your uh the best uh whatever 10 person, you know, at every walk of a life you'll felt challenges.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: Today, uh you live in a sad world where you have a people like IIT and committing suicide.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine like no guy who's going to IIT committing suicide?
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: You think the guy is very made in life?
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's because like human beings are thinking, you know, while you may go materialistically in terms of a thing, but as a human being, you become weaker and weaker.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think today why does this much trolling online?
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're unhappy in health.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: Who will today if I'm talking to you, my tone will be dependent on like what I'm inside, right?
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: So today I think you know that the problem is because of the pressure on the world.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can actually fortify yourself, like no, you can overcome anything because you don't know what may come in your way.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Similarly, even what you're achieving, also, you can achieve much more than what you are what you what you can achieve without a thing.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: So just strengthen your human values, you know, and just you know make sure you're in a you know good frame of mind all the time, which is not affected by your which is not affected by your happiness around you.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because if your mind condition keeps changing based on what happened the last incident, then you you let the leaf in the you know in the in the wind.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you can do that, that's why the school which I which I talked about Gaudium.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh instantly, Gaudium, the name logos done by Ananda, just talk to him.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's involved from the day one.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: So this school focus on children's happiness.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's called uh the baseline is called sculpting happy, sculpting happy minds because our logic is simple, children are born happy, but as they grow, they lose the power of the happiness because of the other pressures around them.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then after we become adults, we go to Isha Foundation, go to Art of Living, Art of Living to find the foundation happy again, which is only with you in the beginning.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if I can retain the power to stay happy from the childhood, so I tell uh the school I think you know, you said just an engineer, engineer, a doctor, happy engineer, happy doctor, happy pilot, happy sports person, happy.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: So add the happy to the what you're doing.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that is what I think you know today is required.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think you know, you just fortify yourself as a human being.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_02: So, my next uh rapid fire question is uh Prasad, what does success mean to you?
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: Man, success is a man, the thing you know, if you can just go to the bed with a smile on your face.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not only the uh what we should think that day, even that day, like no, what you've done, if you feel good about okay, boss, I think I best, and now that's the success.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they'll do the success of your TRB ratings, all that's a different world it talks about.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_00: But what for you is like no, if you have gone to the bed, I think now, boss, I think you know, success actually also me.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh one of my uh Lintas boss tell me telling me, I think, boss, I think you know, like uh success is something doing something, achieving some pre-agreed uh goal, whatever, you know with a using pre-agreed resources in a pre-agreed time.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, he had a he gave me a quotation saying that if I give a typewriter to a monkey and uh allow it to type, after a million years, it may produce Othello.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: So he's told anybody if yeah, if if if I give you 100 crores and give you 10 years time and you know, create a brand, anybody can be a brand.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: But success is something not doing something which you like, no, you what you determine you know in advance with the resources which already allocated in a time frame, I think, you know, it's done, and that's like what success actually in terms of to uh measure it out in a measurable way, I think you know.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: What is it that's something that you deeply believe in, which nobody else around you agrees with you on?
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing here.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh people believe that no, if if you're a good if you're a good guy, you can't win.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean people tell me the boss, I think I'm told on my face.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_00: Even recently, recently somebody, another man told me, Prasad, you're you're you're a too good a guy, like no, like your uh uh success will always be hard hard for you to get because like I said, my success is my on the last day of my life.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: I go to with a smile, that's my successful in life.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: Trust me, that will happen only if you if you live your life correctly.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: Today, I may even if I earn thousand crores, but if I didn't earn it properly, on the last day of my life, there won't be a smile on my face for sure.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: That time all will come back to hit you that time.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_02: If you were to invite three or four people for a dream dinner, who would they be and why?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: Dream dinner.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: Tough at least alerted me for this too.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: Dream dinner.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, it'll be some of my I have some amazing friends, in fact.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think actually my dream now is like you know, uh, if I leave my family outside, which anyway I think, uh for me, I'm extremely lucky to have an amazing batch of IMA, my batch.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are uh it's it's not cliche, but we're one large family.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I'm in Delhi tomorrow.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've already posted.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I had hundreds of dinners with that wedding.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: Every time, like you know, I'm more excited about the next dinner.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: So these guys are thinking, you know, like it's an amazing, like no, I they're all like successful, like the Nokari owner, everything, but when we get together, it's just like no, we are just back in the like you're back in the campus, the same naughtiness, same kind of lingo we use.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really like my tell you very honestly my dream night with my batchmates.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for listening to this episode.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: For selected links and detailed show notes, visit www.contramines.com slash blog.
• 50:53
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• 51:07
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• 51:17
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for listening and stay safe.