Global Schoolpreneurship Summit '19

As you all know I love doing activities outside academics. Taking part in extracurricular activities is always fun and it is even more thrilling if it is something you have never done before. Last year our school informed us about an event organised by Metamorphosis called Global Schoolpreneurship Summit 2019. It asked us to come up with a creative business idea and pitch it to the judges. I have no experience in economics or commerce or any sort of business(other than the fact that my dad is a marketing professor haha) but this caught my eye and I couldn't help but think about it. That night I told my parents about it and they also felt like this was a nice opportunity. But for taking part, I needed to come up with an idea, make a presentation and present it. There was quite a bit of commitment in it which is something I unfortunately am not good at. We anyway started brainstorming for ideas

Finally we came up with an idea and so I enrolled in this competition with the business idea TweenON then after getting selected for the school round I changed it to Teenkar. Are you wondering why I gave this name? In Teenkar,Teen is meant Teenager and Kar is the Hindi word for doing. So the literal meaning of Teenkar is teenagers doing. It also sounds like Tinker which means an attempt to repair or improve something in a casual way. Which is what this idea is trying to do. When my idea got selected for the school round, I had to prepare a presentation pitching my idea to a jury and the audience. They could ask me questions about my idea too. This is where I get terrified. I don’t mind speaking to an audience but getting questioned on what I said in front of a whole audience which includes students from my school! That scares me. I always fear that it is where I will choke up or won’t make sense and make a fool of myself. First I had to show that presentation to a mock jury consisting of my seniors so that they could help us out if we made an error. They would also ask me questions about it! I was really nervous and realised that this was just a mock, and that the competition is still a long way. I was such a bag of nerves already! Luckily, my presentation went very smoothly and everyone quite liked my idea. After clearing that hurdle, my confidence increased quite a bit. As the day of the first round kept coming near so did the nervousness. I kept fiddling with my presentation and had a lot of questions in my mind like do I have less information or sometimes the opposite that I have a lot of information, should I add that or is it unnecessary but the question I most frequently thought of was whether others would accept my project. So like the time for everything arrives, the time for the competition had also arrived. My serial number was quite in the end part of the event so I had more time to be nervous. How great! All jokes aside, I thought everyone was phenomenal and had brilliant ideas. Even the 7th graders impressed me with their out of the box ideas and confidence.

When it was finally my chance, I got on the stage and…….. You are probably wondering if I messed but I didn't mess up, well not as bad as I thought I would. I ended up speaking really fast thinking that my marks would be deducted if I crossed my time limit. I had not planned for my presentation with a script but luckily for me, it wasn’t very noticeable nor did the judges mention they had nothing but praise for my Idea. Am I gloating?Maybe. However, now it was time to wait for the results!

Does this happen to you all, that when you write a test which you think you did well but still you have the “what if something goes wrong?”. That was me. I was extremely anxious.So when the time for the results arrived I had prepared myself to be fine with no going into the next round. However, I along with 30 people from my school had been selected for the second round which was the semi-finale. In this round, students from other schools were also competing with you. So learning from my previous mistake, I prepared a script for my Presentation for this round. As well as had sketched a few ideas of how the product would look like.

In the semi-finale, In my room, I had 12 people with brilliant ideas. My chance was like usual at the end.However, I was more prepared for my presentation this time. When it was my turn as soon as I started speaking there was a power cut and the presentation stopped working. Everyone in the room including me started laughing and I was standing there awkwardly , not knowing what to do. That actually helped me calm my nerves. It is not easy to go into a room full of people you have never met and then explain something to them which you have made while not being too formal or tense about it. So the fact that this comedy of errors made everyone laugh had a huge impact on me. You might be getting bored at this point or wanting to know what happens next as people who write stories like this are the ones who might have won. But luckily for the ones who were getting bored, this is where this journey of the Global Schoolpreneurship submit ends.

I didn’t make it to the finale but was in the merit list that is the 4th highest marked idea in my school. I don't say best because everyone had a brilliant idea and we were judged by different judges so it is unfair to others. My aim was not to win or go into the finale. I wanted to try something new and different. I wanted my thoughts and ideas to be out there for everyone to listen to. Moreover, I got over my fear of getting questioned by someone else. Which was a personal win and at the end of the day that is what matters!

I didn’t really want to take part in this event but I did and I am very glad that I did. From being unsure about whether I am capable enough to qualify for the first round to now launching Tynkrr, it has been quite a journey. And yes you have read it right, I will be launching Tynkrr soon.You thought it was the end of my journey with Tynkrr but I had specified Global Schoolpreneurship submit. This story is not done yet. I will tell you more about my idea in one of my coming blogs. You are also wondering why I suddenly started switching between Teenkar and Tynkrr. Unfortunately for the people who are wondering, I will also be telling you about this in my coming blogs. So stay tuned and keep tynkrring.