Midcourse Corrections

Rajesh Setty

Rajesh Setty’s mission in life reads like a great TV or print advertisement: to bring good ideas to life. With Love.

Rajesh has a new book out now called Upbeat: Cultivating The Right Attitude To Thrive In Tough Times and is currently doing a “Blog Book Tour.” (I am writing a review of his book for a future post.)

Founder, operating executive, board member and investor are some of the roles he has played in a few companies. He published his first book at the age of thirteen and has written several more since then. When he is not building companies or writing, he enjoys presenting at conferences and company events.

I first met Rajesh through his insightful and buoyant blog Life Beyond Code and began following him on Twitter at @UpbeatNow. His enthusatic and discerning thoughts are contagious and if you want to know what shaped his thinking, you can read his story so far here.

Rajesh lives in the Silicon Valley with his wife Kavitha and son Sumukh.

1) What motivated you to write the book Upbeat?

Jeff, first of all thank you for the opportunity to discuss the concepts surrounding the book.

The book was written during my journey of building a startup during the previous recession. While we enjoyed the entire journey, it was not easy. I documented my own learning as well as what other fellow entrepreneurs were learning and I compiled that into a book. The timing was wrong as by the time I compiled the book, the recession was over. So I just moved the project to the background and forgot about it. A couple of years later we were faced with another recession. So revisited the project and revised a few things and got the book ready again!

So, while this is a short little book, it has been in the works for a few years

 2) What would you say are your two most important take-aways from the book? 

UPBEAT by Rajesh Setty

1. It all starts with your daily conversations: If you want to make a BIG difference, you have to start watching your daily conversations. These daily conversations can be empowering or dis-empowering. If you don’t pay attention to these conversations, they will go towards dis-empowering as there is so much negativity all around.         

2. Your capacity to increase the capacity of others to make something happen will determine your level of influence. As Warren Bennis said brilliantly, “When Cicero speaks, people marvel. When Ceaser speaks, people march.” If you can build enough trust that people are wiling to join hands with you and walk with you, you can do wonderful things. For that to happen, you have to be that someone who can take them to a better place that they cannot go on their own. This means that you have to be willing to listen, care and contribute to this network of yours. You basically help them first and then a sub-set of them will help you back.

3) Ok, I have to ask. How do you define social media?

For me, social media is an opportunity to make a bigger contribution. It is an opportunity for everyone to make a difference – make this world a better place.

Social Media is a place where new relationships happen, new ideas sprout and spread. It is a inherently democratic in the sense, where great ideas accelerate and stupid ideas get slammed in breathtaking speed.

4) What social media platforms do you use and why?

I use a number of tools. Here are a sub-set of them:

• Twitter – to listen and learn, to build new relationships, to share insights, to participate in conversations and to help spread good ideas.
• LinkedIn – for mostly business relationships
• Facebook – for mostly non-business relationships
• Squidoo – to create destination pages on a few topics that are of my interest

5) Did you use any social media platforms to help you write or market the book and if yes, how?

Yes, most of my books (at least the core ideas) of my books are first written on my blog (and now on Twitter.) I get feedback from readers well before it gets into the form of a book.

I also use social media to market my books and this particular interview is an example of one way to spread the message and if some people get inspired by what I have to say they might go and buy the book.

Books make something sort of a finality but through social media one can extend the conversations before and after the book is published and that’s what I aim to do.

The side benefit of sharing insights and ideas generously (on social media or elsewhere) is that you get to see what resonates well people that I want to reach via my books. When my ideas get validation via feedback and conversations, I can invest further in developing those ideas for my books or eBooks.

6) You use @UpbeatNow as your Twitter name as well as the book name. Why the name Upbeat?

Being Upbeat is like an entry ticket to whatever you want to do. Imagine someone attending a job interview and not being upbeat. Imagine a wannabe entrepreneur preparing his business plan not being upbeat. Imagine someone writing a first book and not being upbeat about it. It is almost a given that one needs to be upbeat. Not only that, since the time lost will never come back, they have to be Upbeat Now. Hence the name @UpbeatNow

7) How do you use Twitter and what have you learned about using it that you would recommend to others?

I use Twitter for the following:

• Build new relationships
• Spread new ideas
• Engage in conversations
• Listen to the marketplace
• Write books

I am new to Twitter so I may not have a lot to contribute in terms of advice but here are a few things that I can share:

• Twitter is a tool just like many other tools. Don’t be fascinated by the tool. Get fascinated by what you can do with the tool.
• Share and Contribute something of value and people will follow you. Without that, even if people follow you, it won’t be of much use.
• 140 characters seems like less. It’s a lot if you use it carefully.

Thanks Rajesh for sharing and for the inteview.

Did you get his two takeaways? Those alone were worth reading this post! Look for my book review of Upbeat comsing soon.