INTERVIEW OF SAHEJ (FOUNDER OF HUMARI GULLAK)!!!

Hi, how are you?

I'm amazing. How about you?

I'm good. Thank you. So thank you so much for agreeing to join us today. So to begin with, would you like to give our audience a little introduction about who you are and from where you're from?

I'm Sahej Arora and I'm 15 years old. I live in Mumbai. I'm very ambitious, I aspire to become the world's most celebrated entrepreneur.

Great. Okay, so before moving on to some serious questions, I would like to ask you some trivial questions just to sort of break the ice. Do you mind? Three words, you describe yourself with?

People's person, and I don't know, good, amazing.

That's a good one. Okay. If you were to write a book about yourself, what would the title be?

"Nothing is impossible".

Definitely. Okay. So, on a serious question, you are the founder of "Humari Gullak" , right? So, what was your inspiration behind starting such an organization?

So actually, since a very young age, I've been exposed to a lot of entrepreneurship. So if we talk in that sense, you know, when I was 12 years old, the teacher used to ask what is your ambition? What do you all want to become? So everybody was like doctors and fashion designers, and I was that guy who wanted to become an entrepreneur. So yeah, since a very young age, I had this strange attraction towards entrepreneurship, the whole thing behind it, how they try to solve the problems, or the right way to fix the system. This gave me a lot of inspiration. And then I started to see the things which were around me. So actually, I had a note in my phone. So my phone goes everywhere with me. So what I do with the note was that I wish to type all the problems I face, like, if I'm sitting in the car, and I don't have a mask, where to put the mask. So I'll put on a mask and I want a mask hanger where I can put the mask, something like that. So for every little problem, I was like how to solve your problems. And I think at school you can, but how to do it when you are practicing at home, it's a lot more tedious, like all these problems I used to write there. And at the end of the day, I'll just sit and analyze that what can be a possible solution. And one day, what happened was that, I think in my 10th standard, we had a chapter called 'Compound Interest' . So compound interest is something which is very Finance related. So I had never seen anything about Finance in our whole syllabus. I was very excited that finally there is something. But again, it was Mathematics and just formulas and stuff. So I was the one who was so much participating in the class. I should not care but they know the formula so they got the marks, it's like that. So that thing hit me. In India, we never give a lot of knowledge, a lot of emphasis on financial education in the whole education system. And Finance's something which every one of us has to manage, right, we all own money at some point of our lives. So we have to learn a way by which we can manage our money, and how we can make more of it. And that was the inspiration behind Humari Gullak. It hit me and now I'm trying to make a difference.

Excellent. That's a brilliant answer. Thank you so much. Okay, so the next question. Well, could you tell us a bit more about 'Humari Gullak'? What was the initial vision while starting?

As I mentioned before that the main problem which I'm trying to solve is the lack of financial literacy in India. So that was the main vision. So when I started when I got this idea how there is a venture that could help people to make their money work for them. Yeah, so that was the main vision that we have to help people to make their money work for them rather than them working for the money. So the people, they just run behind money for their whole lives, and then they never get more of it. And if they know how to make their money work for them, they will be satisfied. So that was my vision that, I want to make people satisfied with what they have. I want to make them financially independent. That was the first main vision behind 'Humari Gullak'. And then I started as I had to do with that, I wondered are there any other organizations already doing it? And I saw that there is a lot of information. We have good internet access in India, but there's a lot of scattered information. And most of it is just technical stuff. There's no one who understands it clearly. There is no clear way by which you can learn Finance on the internet. It is just very complex. So this was the main reason that if there is a way by which I can tell people, I can teach them about personal finances, which will help them. It's easy to use, like you can understand it easily whereas the language on the internet isn't.

Definitely, that's a really unique concept. Okay, so your organization, 'Humari Gullak', has a very interesting name, I have to say. So what is the meaning behind this name?

Our company name is "Humari Gullak". Gullak basically means an Indian piggy bank. So if we talk about India, we don't have the traditional piggy bank, the big one. In India, we have made it we have piggy banks, which are made by hand they are handmade by artisans. And they are made of mud. So yeah, so in a traditional Indian household, you get the good luck at home, you put all the changes, all the little money in it, and at the end, you break it. Okay, it's broken, and the money is taken out. And then a new gullak has been the circle in my logo, if you can see in my circle in my logo, it means the regeneration part. Okay, if we talk about gullak in a traditional Indian household, so our main target audience is the children, the students who will require finance in their life, and also the female, the woman of the house. So if we talk about traditional Indian households, the woman is the one who is at home, taking care of different things, and the male goes and works. The man comes home and gives all the money to the woman. So now the woman of the house has the main responsibility to take the budget to cut the expenses, how much food to buy, what food to buy, she is basically the one who's handling the finances. And that is where I thought the name 'Gullak' could be very powerful and people could relate to it.

Yeah. Okay. Excellent. The next question is, your organization is very successful. So how did you market your venture? What were the tactics you used that were very successful?

Oh, yeah. So as I said, there are two types of my target audience which are children, the students and the females, the Indian females. So I am starting with the students as of now. So as you know, the main students are on Instagram. So I made an Instagram page for my company and then I started with reading. I didn't like the fact that, if we talk about the financial pages already existing on Instagram, they talk about 'which stocks to buy, what is liquidity etc.' That is very complex. And to start with the first phase, the first step. So I, and obviously, we all know that on Instagram, the reels are the ones which just hit, they're just trending. It's just, it's very far from entertainment. And people just love them. They're like millions and billions of users on them. And so I started with a post, which was a welcome post for the people who know me to follow me. And then I started with a reel. So the first read was, "Why should you invest?" So we have like, that's the most basic thing of Finance. "What is investment? Why should I invest?" So that's where I started the short form video. I started with why should you invest and then I also had a LinkedIn page. So LinkedIn is something which is quite formal that will make a whole profile for you. So even a LinkedIn page has helped in that sense. So and then, for LinkedIn, now I'm planning for more posts of these because LinkedIn is of a more formal audience and on Instagram more reels. In fact, today I just posted and you can check it out later.

I definitely will. Okay, so my next debut is from your LinkedIn profile. I saw you have taken a course from Harvard. So could you give us some insights about it?

So actually, I'll start, so when the lockdown happened, I had a lot of free time. I was in 10th standard, but then we had nothing. So I need to use that time, which is getting wasted. So as I told you I had that idea of entrepreneurship from a very young age, so I opened EdX. As we know, EdX is a very big platform for Harvard and Stanford, so I found this course called "Entrepreneurship in emerging economies". It was basically built for India, an emerging emerging economy. The professor, I guess his name was Mr. Parag Khanna. He was an amazing professor. So I started from there. There I fell in love with entrepreneurship basically, the way he taught concepts, the different things of India. Yeah, that was the starting point for me. And then later, I go to a school and in that school, there's an agency of Harvard, that's called Harvard student agencies. So they had partnered with the firm called leaders and both of them had come to different schools for students. So I had enrolled my name for it. There was an interview round, there was an exam. There's basically a qualification round for the course. And I was quite lucky I got selected. And yeah, so that was the whole course about We were taught by two Harvard students itself. And it was an amazing course that I took a lot from.

Amazing, amazing. Okay, oh, I see that you're very interested in finance and economics. And you were a finalist in international economics Olympiad. Congratulations, by the way. So what other fields are you very passionate about?

So I will tell you one more story, a similar story to when I was a student, I was 13 years old. So every friend of mine, they had some interest. Okay, some people loved Math. They used to do math like crazy. Some people loved Science, some people loved History, Geography. And I did not have one favorite subject. I had a little interest in History, a little in Math , a little in Economics. Not Economics, we just had a part of it, and chemistry and all little but I cannot call a single subject my favorite. So that's why I waited till my 10th grade. Now I have taken the commerce field and there are a lot of options in Finance. So the main thing is Finance & Economics . Other than that, I am very interested in the history of India. If I talk a little informal about my hobby, I also play ukulele. So I'm passionate about music, history.

Do you play an instrument?

Yeah, I play the ukulele. It's like a small guitar. It's amazing.

Definitely. Okay. So could you give us a little hint about your upcoming projects?

Sure. So the next thing, which I'm covering is. So basically, I started with the most basic concepts of Finance and what I'm thinking is to start from the basics, and develop gradually. And God has been very kind to me, I got 200 followers in just 10 days on Instagram. That's a very big thing for me. So people are liking my content. So starting again from the basics, I did a video on why you should invest, insurance. And then I did a post on the different types of investments and I will be doing on savings. I will slowly and steadily post on mutual funds, cryptocurrency and then further on how to make your own stocks, how to choose your own stocks, what are different things, what are in audit and everything. So basically, if you are with me for a year, you will find everything about Finance. So, stay tuned.

Brilliant. Okay, so the next question is what is the key driving force to become an entrepreneur? What was the one thing which made you want to become an entrepreneur?

So what do entrepreneurs do, basically? So we have a system, okay, let's take an example. There is a road, okay. And people are going through the road and there's a gap in the road. And people have a lot of problems because there's a gap. So you have to go around. There is no proper system yet. Okay? There's something which is wild, okay. And what entrepreneurs do is they fix the roads, not everything will go smoothly. So I think it's a bit of a complicated analogy, but I have a better example. So for example, the fans were working, but they were not very efficient. Okay, people like to do things in the non efficient way or take a longer route. And then came air conditioners, and entrepreneurs came out with an air conditioner. People love air conditioners, that was the whole thing which filled the void. And now life is so smooth. And the entrepreneurs basically solve your problem and make your life easier. And that was the first thing which hit me that I want to do something like this, I want to solve people's problems .Entrepreneurship, it's like many moving parts together. Okay, like I have been an entrepreneur, for not more than three weeks. But I can just see how it is: you have to do sales, you have to do marketing, you have to do content and so many things together, you have to manage everything. So yeah, that's something which I am very attracted to leadership qualities. It's something that's been in me since the beginning. That was the main focus.

Good. That's a good example. I loved that. Okay, so you're in high school, right? Cool. So what are your plans after high school?

I go to a school called Singhania School, it's an ICSE school. So now I have taken ISE commerce, not ICSE one. So basically, if I take an ISE course, that means I have an option of being in India as well as going abroad. So yeah, because ISE gives you a broad perspective of both things. So now after 12 standard, and I'm just considering right now, I have a lot of interest in Finance and Economics. So what I'm planning to do is that I'm going to give all the exams which are needed and I'm trying to get into the London School of Economics. That's the main aim. It's a very big school. It's a prestigious school. It's amazing. And I was thinking of doing that. But now basically, it's an age where your choices change a lot.

Very good. Very well said. So my next question is, how do you generate new ideas?

So, the thing is that I started an IT tech startup. Yeah. So in the start, I knew that my main content was going to be through Instagram and LinkedIn. So before launching anything, I had a list of 50 topics. What I'm trying to do is, I'm trying to make a whole curriculum by taking different people's feedback. I have all the topics of Finance, I have around 15 or 16, reel ideas. Some are post ideas, some reel ideas and different things. So I had that ready. I knew that once I started, then I have to produce content fast. Because you have to get people's attention, or people`s attraction. And reels are something that give attraction as you post more . So I had it, I had it all ready. And now I'm just, and obviously there are some days you are very creative. So you can just open the google doc and just write ideas and then refine it. Yeah, so content batching is something which is very important. So, make batches of contents, do it all together.

Okay, so the next question is who's the biggest inspiration in your life?

So basically, I don't have any single inspiration. If you have seen my LinkedIn, I have three inspirations. I want to innovate like Elon Musk. So as you know, Elon Musk is someone who is a very big innovator. He's bring life to Mars. So I want to innovate like Elon Musk, I want to donate like Bill Gates, Bill Gates is someone who is a very big donor. And although his name is little down today, the philanthropy part is amazing. And I want to manage everything like Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos, he is the world's most celebrated entrepreneur right now. Everybody knows that he's such an amazing businessman and how he scaled Amazon, which is such a big organization today. So, these three are the ones whom I admire the most, like millions of teenagers.

Nice. Okay. So, you are a very successful entrepreneur, and you're in high school. So you juggle between them. But you don't get ~me time, right? Everyone needs ~me time. So when you get time, what do you do? Can you describe your typical day?

Yeah, if I talk about the typical day, I have college from 8 to 12. I wake up do college and then after 12:30 I start with ideas. If I have any idea, I will do that. And then I have a little chill time. During my lunch. I watched the movie. Please don't give me spoilers. And I just want to tell you that even at the end of the day, I'm a teenager, okay, so I even I have Instagram, I meet my friends. And then after that I have classes. After that I do "Humari Gullak". And then the thing is that I have to find the me time, you said it correctly. So that's why I am learning the ukulele. Music has a lot of effect on me. It's very powerful for me. I know I listen to music, I play the ukulele, I go down and cycle and that's it. That's pretty much my day and again I'm doing homework.

Well, I have to say it was very well planned. Okay, so you have written blogs on simplifying bitcoins and simplifying mutual funds. Can you give us a little summary.

So the thing was that as you know that Bitcoin is something which everyone loves, everybody knows about Bitcoin. Some people don't know about it. It's like Bitcoin here. Okay, I invest in it but you don't know what Bitcoin is like. So that is also what I wanted to do and I myself did not know about it. So what I did was, I went on Google and just wrote Bitcoin. Now just news articles about Elon Musk saying something advisers falling there was like, it was not simple. Okay, this might not be what I said before, the internet is very complex, you'll not find the information clear. That's why I started doing research what that was about and then I thought that if I bring this closer to the people, I simplify it to them. That's why I've written about bitcoin, my first article was about simplifying Bitcoin. So, Bitcoin basically, as you know, is the new currency. So I'll explain to you what Bitcoin is now. So as you know that every country has a Federal Reserve Bank, okay, for India, we have the Reserve Bank of India. So, the main function of that organization is to print the money, via the notes, the coins, everything. The whole money printing is done by the Reserve Bank of India, I guess in the USA, it's the Federal Bank, which prints dollars. So everybody in the government is the one who is printing the money. The government has every right on the money, if they want, they can stop renting, causing the whole economy to collapse. Their main power is with the government. But people did not like this concept with the government keeping that, they wanted a free economy. That's why they started with Bitcoin. So Bitcoin is not controlled by any government. I don't want to use technical jargon. That's why I will not give technical terms. But basically, it is not controlled by any government. It's a centralized system. It is all online. So basically it works on a technology called blockchain technology. It has a ledger, I will not go into details right now you can read my article for that. I want to brand that as well. So yeah, but basically, it's on blockchain technology. So you can transfer Bitcoin in the future, it's basically the future of currency? Everybody wants to use cryptocurrencies sometime, and that I can tell you, by guarantee, it's the next big thing. People don't want the government to control their money. And I explained precisely about that. And then this first article became a hit, people loved it. And then I thought that I could start with the whole series. So I started simplifying mutual funds. Let's take an example. So imagine that you want to go to a picnic with your family. Okay, so you want to go to London for example, you're five people, but you don't know what are the best places? What are the best places to eat, the best hotels, nothing. So that's why you go to a travel agent. So you give him money. Now, the travel agent collects money from everyone, he makes a pool of money, okay? And then he makes a combined booking for all of you. And that's exactly how mutual funds work, so in mutual funds, what do you do? You give your money to a company called us Asset Management or the AMC, it's a mutual fund company. And you along with millions of people do the same with the mutual fund, they all invest their money, a pool of money is created. And then they come near experts. So their investors invest money at the right place. That's simply what a mutual fund is. You give the money from experts, the experts will have the money and then they invest at the right place. And now I'm thinking of a new topic, like I'm working on a topic simplifying inflation, something like, what is inflation? So these are going to come along with Humari Gullak.

Lovely. I found your blogs really helpful. And the people who want to know more, they definitely should see your blogs. Okay, so this is the last question before wrapping up the interview. Do you have any tips for people who want to start their own venture or want to become an entrepreneur?

So the first thing is that if I talk about students like me, the first thing is that you have to dream big, okay? You have to dream big. So if you have a big vision, a big ambition, and you want to start something, so just like I did, that's a very good exercise, you can make a whole load, you can have a whole diary, you can write just other problems in your diary, any problem, okay?, any basic problems, every problem write it in the diary. And then at the end of the day, just sit and analyze, what can be the solution to this, this solution which we are providing that is the business. So if you get a solution, which is legible, that's how you get an idea. And after getting an idea, if you think that this is the one for me, I want to work on this, I'm passionate about this. So that's when, usually the start, the first thing the main thing is taking the first step. Once you take the first step, you will not know how support comes to you. For me, I got over 200 followers in two weeks. That's amazing. So I got a lot of support. And that's how you should start a business. If you talk about people who are like in jobs and stuff, and they want to start in business, but like the people who work , they want to start their own business, but they don't have the financial security, they are just dissatisfied, I want to do something which I'm liking and passionate about, but the thing is that life is not always fair to you. Sometimes you might end up at the place where you don't want to be there by your heart, but you have to be there. But now the thing you have to remember is you have to have patience. Patience is something which is very important. If you're an entrepreneur, you have to have patience. If you have patience you're going to survive. So have patience and wait for the right opportunity. So, there's a businessman called Mark Cuban who is a billionaire businessman. When he talked about this, you have to wait for the right opportunity and when the opportunity comes seize with both of your hands. Till that time have patience sit there, collect the finances and the right opportunity, anything is possible. That's the tip I would like to give to the people who want to start a business. And sometimes businesses also, there's some time, some moments where you're just tired of juggling everything. But if you want to become an entrepreneur, successful entrepreneur, think one thing, you want to come in the top 5% of the world. And if you want to come in the top 5%, you have to do what the 95% are not doing right. You have to step up your level. The initial phase will pass so hold on and have patience.

Patience is the key to success. Well said, I love that. It will be very useful for starting, if you want to become an entrepreneur. So it was a pleasure having you. Thank you for taking the time and joining us today.

Amazing interview. Questions were really good.

Oh, thanks to my team. They helped me. Okay, it was great having you. Bye.