Interview with Emmanuel Noel | Serial Entrepreneur & MD Of TecGrove Edu-venture

Emmanuel Noel is a Serial Entrepreneur, Managing Director at TecGrove Edu-venture LLP & e-VP @Rabinnson. He is also a award winner of “Top 50 World Tech Leader”. Today we got chance to interview with him.

We hope this can inspire you to become a successful person too! It is worth listening to successful entrepreneur or to people who share their success stories? We can significantly learn many things from the experiences of them, by listening to their story.

Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:

Q1) Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, please;

I have had an interesting upbringing, Mom being from Karnataka, Dad from Hyderabad and i was brought up in Tripura, North East of India. I spent a lot of my time with my parents, being involved in the missionary work they started in north east alongside their day job. That nurturedin me a lot of this essential humanitarian qualities overtime.

Being involved in missionary work ata young i learnt the diverse walks of life and culture, It was a great add-on. Academics I wasn’t that strong, i was OK and then deteriorated further. I have a very strong sporting background with my dad being the captain of the kho-kho team of Hyderabad and had collected supreme accolades in his time. I walked in his footsteps and have collected quite a bit of a name in the sport i have played, started off with Table Tennis, cricket hung on to me as I played professional cricket and did well for myself. I loved football and have been part of the game all through my teenage years. Sports built the spirit of competitiveness and ease of decision making, strategic approach and the gift of luring the opponent into the web u have spun. It taught all that and yet taught me to be OK with losing with a never give up attitude. Sports inculcated in me a lot of the beautiful traits without my knowledge for something I didn’t dream of becoming, an entrepreneur.

I just knew I was not cut out for a normal day job and study. I was just too creative for my age and had a very mature mindset when it came to things which I loved doing or exploring. One of the main pillars of my family is music. We love music and everyone in my family has a beautiful voice and talent in different instruments. I can play close to 8 instruments.In 2015, I represented India for my music and singing in the Gospel genre in Nashville, TN(USA) at Xtreme Tour (A movement to change the world for good through music).

During my time, I was associated closely with Billy Smiley a platinum award winning music producer. My engineering days were a huge adventure, I didn’t have a great run with grades. But i was involved in a lot of projects under EPICS( Engineering Projects In Community Service) under IEEE and was recognized by our then EPICS Convenor Dr. Sagar Gujjnoor. He was my mentor and a life guide who encouraged me to be just a bit more than what I thought I was capable of.He recognized the creative mind I had and told me not to be one of the rats in the crowd race.

With so much, I was clouded as to where would i end up to be. An engineer’s life is incomplete without a heart break haha.. Well when u hit rock bottom, you realize life isn’t about commotionit’s about a clear free mind, energy and consistency in doing what you are best at. I knew instantly what i was cut out for.

My whole childhood and my very decent experience brought out the inert potential to be applied to being an entrepreneur and It’s been a very positive journey so far. I saw the need, how everyone was fine with being ok and lacked serious skill-sets technical and non-technical. To begin with communication and so on. I am the founder & MD of TecGrove Edu-venture, an education innovator & career accelerator edu-company, a Knowledge partner to NCS Bureau (National Cyber Security & Safety Bureau).

And I am the Executive Vice President, at Singapore based “The Rabinnson Group of Companies. I recently achieved a personal milestone by winning an award at Intercon 2019, Dubai as one of the “ Top 50 Tech Leaders” for my contribution to technology and innovation. An influencer and speaker on self-discovery and dichotomy of leadership. I have had a lot of failures and that’s made my journey a sweet ride.

Q2) Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?

The excitement & thrill you get in having to formulate the agenda/vision, blue print, strategy & execute it on your own strengths and with the team you deduce and build is beyond imagination. Every new project or idea is a start from scratch and it just relates so much to sport. Every game is a new game. You make your name on that day, well each day over and over again. This keeps you active and i don’t think any entrepreneur ever might have had a dull day. NEVER. Job on the other hand, we all know has its own perks but none like this. I’d be an entrepreneur any given day. It’s just so intense.

Q3) How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?

When i talk about TecGrove Edu-venture and particularly about education industry, It is quite crowded and Education is a huge business. So having to find the right niche and also creating platform for students where they are able to represent themselves of who they are and what is actually essential for them is possible with the right design and approach.There is a huge need to create awareness about different skill sets that we as students did not realize were available and I think it is the present situation that needs to be addressed.

Many professionals and students have had the need to up-skill themselves and it is time they understand that being nominal and ignorant about different opportunities available is not an option and it is quite required for them to understand its never too late to understand what they are good at and exploit it and work towards achieving the same. Well we all will agree there is a huge gap between academics and the industry and with so many academies and institutions taking advantage of it and pinching the pockets of these students is very hurtful to see.

A proper guidance is required hence awareness and a proper platform to express themselves is necessary. It’s difficult because the market is huge. HUGE! Yet not impossible to work with the magic of career accelerator.

Q4) What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?

Good Question. I would say I am a night and early morning person, it usually happens that i am awake all night to work and sleep late evenings. Nights because its peace at peaks and with a tiny power nap my early mornings are great to strategize how to conduct business during the day and execute it. I am always fond of sleeping a lot because for me it helps figuring out something niche or new, which may create a proposition for me and the public at large. I usually keep this mode on all the time and it serves the source of my motivation all the time. By GOD grace,have been able to do that as well, where either has created it or worked on something related to it. Also, I am currently in the process of developing something niche on lines with sports and healthcare domain.

Q5) What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?

Q: What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far? Every journey is a risky one when you choose a unique path. My risks are associated with having to come up with something out of the box and applying it not knowing how it will turn out to be. Failure is a very close friend. Bad partnerships, decisions and priorities are a constant fear. I already have a core niche team for my projects that i handle but I see from future expansion perspective, my vision would need innovative minds, with the flexible thought process. Although, with a clearly defined process, and innovative means to reach out to search resource, I am confident enough that it will be due-Ly mitigated. With no past record in my family in business it has been a very hard fought walk, i am glad with the grace of God it has been a fair run. When you are 22 years old and already shooting bullets out of your gun, you become answerable to so many people knowingly and unknowingly. It takes time to mature and sink in the initial raw nature and take a firm stand on the decisions taken. You go through a lot of self discovery and its more like a storm erupting vehemently inside you and you just need to be patient knowing it is going to be calmer than ever once this is over. There is a constant doubt that lingers did i do the right thing and to accumulate the required patience to see your work take shape and reap is one of the biggest challenges. Being young we become impatient thats something natural but having the faith and conviction everyday is a big lesson learnt. Never give up.

Q6) How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?

I am a very straight forward and out-right person. It is always good to lay a proper foundation in things you do so you can get that extra time and space to handle pressure or stress that could be the resultant of what you are doing. It is always good to deduce the situation. I usually retract myself from it for a good amount of time for me, so when i revert i have enough leverage over the situation. Its never advisable to take pressure or stress.

It is always the best to take time off to figure out ways and be on top of it. Don’t be hasty. It is very important to differentiate your personal and professional life. There needs to be a fine line drawn. You always need to have a strong personal life, be it a bubble you live in or friends or family or a spiritual connect. This definitely helps coping up and coming back strong at it. Spiritual space often helps you to understand what is the right, required to be done and we all know Mother’s are the best attending out unfavorable advice that you eventually end up acting on though you did not like it in the first place.

Q7) What comes first to you – money or emotions?

Emotions definitely! Its that which actually drove me into this beautiful mess. Much better i’d say is once you are in the game its all about money or people. I strongly believe money isn’t bigger than people and people aren’t always bigger than money. There is a need for a perfect dichotomy. Anyone who understands this is in for it for a long term. And it is difficult, everyone who says emotion is first or people or money it isn’t constant in the real world. It keeps changing as per the situation and thus to be effective you need that dichotomy.

Q8) What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?

In my journey so far what has helped me grow as a person immensely is understanding that its not worth losing someone, something for absolutely nothing or for anything immaterial and of-course lean methodology which helps us know how to utilize optimally what is at our disposal.No one could achieve everything on his/her own unless you are out of this world or super-fictional. We need people, they are the strength we always need in our highs and lows. Humility is another key thing i really learnt and most of all, always give from the little you receive. People are always the center, think about it, Who creates problems? People! These problems are-observed by? People! Solution is found by? People! Who need these solutions? People!. Keep people at the center of your creative mind. It always works backwards to see what the people want and build your next product or innovation. It will sell and you would have done your part quite efficiently

Q9) In your opinion what are the keys to success?

People have the master key to success yet people are in want for success. Why? We are lazy and cowardly when it comes to standing apart from the crowd. You need to sell your uniqueness that is going to get u success not just financially but with a seIf success is a lock for which you ask me a key, don’t you think there are already a lot lot of people around the world who have been able to pick this lock? And why is it possible? They were just a lil unique than the crowd and not just that they have been consistent.

Q10) What advice would you give to someone starting out?

For someone starting out, I’d say don’t! Don’t! if it’s about money, Don’t! if its a fling, Don’t! if you can’t handle being unique and getting a few shoes thrown at you. It is a walk on roses, Beautiful to look at but when you step in Boy! Those thorns prick deep. But if you are pertinent about it then the tag line ‘add value to get value’ is a must. Don’t even dream of making a buck for quite some time, keep your focus on creating a sustainable venture & value creation. I believe, rest things will automatically set with the time being. Also, if you are starting up a venture, feel free to reach out to me. You will find me a great partner or mentor to you with a young and innovative means.
Emmanuel Noel

Q11) Being a young entrepreneur, there must be a lot of youngsters who get inspired and want to learn from you, what message/life hack do you give them?

Life hack: If you know you are not good at something, Don’t do it for someone. Cause later you will have to face the music for something you always felt you never were responsible for in the first place. Self discovery is inevitable. Having had interacted and inspired a lot of youngsters like me, i have recently started an everyday motivational quote project on my Instagram and LinkedIn. Do follow me@emmanuel_noel20. And after seeing the need and relevance I very recently started writing my first upcoming book called “ The superhero inside you”, which is published in January, 2020. This is a small, time feasible, non-fiction book that i am sure a lot would love to read, relate and learn from. It talks about self discovery and the superhero inside you and how to unleash all these powers from within in a very DC/Marvel way. Well i am excited writing it.

Follow Him At:

`Linkedin`	https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuel-noel-7a1503b8
Instagram	http://instagram.com/emmanuel_noel20

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