அதிர்ஷ்டம் பணத்தில் இல்லை- உடல் மன நலத்தில் தான்

Luck is not about money - it's about health

In 2005, DCKAP was bootstrapped with 2 desks, 2 computers and 2 people. I have made a lot of mistakes, had our ups and downs and slowly figured the way with persistence.

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About Me

Thank you for reading my blog. I was born and raised in Chennai, India. Growing up, I have bullied people and have also been bullied. I firmly believe that ‘What you give is what you get’. I am very thankful for a great childhood. My parents sowed the seeds of being honest and working hard. Growing up, I was encouraged to try different things. Though I was not great at everything I did, I always tried.

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Present

Continues to lead DCKAP and experiments.

2023

Starts experimenting with YouTube, sharing insights on businesses, places, people, language and things he cares about.

2020

Leverages the COVID Pandemic and uses it as an opportunity to grow.

2017

Reads - The Only Investment Guide you'll ever need , Andrew Tobias , Starts focussing on Personal Finance.

2015

Reads How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosernberg - Starts focussing on Company Culture

Sep 24, 2013

Starts his blog - KarthikChidambaram.com

2013

Goes into business and personal debt. Learning about Business Finance & saving the hard way.

2008

Though the company was making money, fails to leverage the financial crises to his advantage and makes a lot of mistakes

2006

Moved to the Bay Area, California, to leverage the opportunities in Silicon Valley.

2005

Reads, Straight from the Gut, by Jack Welsh- Founded DCKAP, starting the company from a small apartment in Chicago.

2002 to 2004

Attends Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago

2002

Gets his US Visa to pursue Master's in the United States

1997 to 2001

Attends Government College of Technology, (GCT) Coimbatore

1983 to 1997

Attends Don Bosco, Egmore in Chennai

1979

Karthik Chidambaram is born in Chennai, India

A Journey of Learning, Entrepreneurship, and Resilience

Language

Tamil is my mother tongue. During my school years, my Dad sat with me and taught me the language. I enjoyed reading and writing Tamil. Being my mother tongue, I did well in elocution, writing and more, and won several prizes. However, after my 12th grade, I did not focus much on language. There were no big needs for me to keep learning which was a mistake.

Competition

I used to take part in debating, elocution, writing, sports, and every other competition you could think of. There have been plenty of times when I ended up not getting a prize (and I have won quite a few too). At school, I always wanted to be in a class or on a team that had less competition. However this thought process changed during my undergrad college.

US Visa & Education

2001 was not a great year to graduate. There was a dot com bubble and no hiring across the board. Though I had a campus placement from college, the company that ended up hiring me did not call me to join. I decided the best thing to do was to pursue my Master’s in the US. Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago was the only University I applied to and was pleasantly surprised to receive an admit and an I-20 to travel. The time was short, and those days we had to stay in line overnight at the Chennai US Consulate, but I somehow got in. I am very thankful to the person who granted me the US Visa at the counter. I did not expect this, and cried. Within the next couple of days, I left for the US and ended up in Chicago, IL.

Chicago, IL

My first year in the US was one of the best experiences of my life. I worked very hard and was very aggressive. Though I was in a private school, I was one of the very few students who got a full scholarship. I had a Teaching Assistantship, Research Assistantship and also a Graduate Assistantship, and I had one of the best jobs in college.

DCKAP & Entrepreneurship

In addition to having scholarships, I was also doing a lot of other work as a student. I was looking for a summer job and a Professor introduced me to several companies. I made connections and made quite a lot of money as a student. I also hired other students who were looking for work. They helped me get the job done. Around this time, I was very fortunate to read ‘Straight from the Gut’ by Jack Welch. This not only helped me answer questions during job interviews, it also helped me start DCKAP. In 2005, DCKAP was born.

California & Silicon Valley

The Bay Area being known as Silicon Valley, I thought it would be great for business and decided to move there. I moved to the Bay area in 2006. The initial few years were great. This is the period I was focused on company growth. However, I failed to capitalize on the initial momentum. I did all kinds of crazy things. This is also the time period I did not read a lot. Though I had aspirations, I was not focused enough and this also showed (though I did not realize at that time period).

Financial Struggles

I was very bad at finances and never had the habit of saving money. This caused a lot of trouble and around 2013 or so, DCKAP faced a lot of hardship. There were a lot of bills to pay and no revenue coming in. This was one of the most challenging times of my career. (if I look back, it was one of the best). I was in a lot of debt and it took me 5 years to get out of it. I had to go back to the basics. This is the time I started focusing on reading again. One of the books I read, ‘How Google Works’ by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg, helped get the company back on track. I learned more about company culture and started focusing on it.

Personal Finance & Reading

DCKAP was running for over 10 years or so, and though we made quite a bit of money and lost even more than we made, we slowly started bringing the business back on track. I thought everything was going well. On Gates’ blog, ‘GatesNotes’, I saw that Bill Gates had recommended a finance book - ‘The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need’. I have tried to read finance books in the past. However, I failed to understand. Bill said it was a simple book. I thought, ‘Ok, Bill Gates is saying that, so let me read it.’ I was very skeptical and I was also afraid that I would not understand everything. However, the timing was perfect. Once I started reading the first chapter or so, I got scared. Though the business was getting back on track, I realized that in 10+ years of running the business, it began to hit me hard that I did not save anything for myself personally. I didn't even have term insurance for myself. What if something happened to me? One of the very first things I did after reading the book was get a term insurance and pretty much started practicing a lot of what was written in the book.

There are a few things that I believe in."

Experiments is one of them. You will never know what will work and what will not unless you try, and one of the best ways to test is to run an experiment. I also believe in long term thinking. Some of these things take time and it cannot be changed overnight. Persistence is the key. Reading is important for one's growth. Readers are Leaders. It is not one or the other, it is everything together. Thank you for reading.