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Bigg Boss offer

KV Gautam was offered role of a celebrity contestant in the popular TV show Bigg Boss 10 in September 2016. He did not accept the offer as he felt it did not suit his public image or personal temperament. The rejection got lots of publicity and coverage from the leading media houses and TV channels.

Media coverage

KV Gautam has been covered by leading media houses and TV channels like Indian Express, DNA, Dainik Jagran, ABP News, India TV, Zee TV, Sahara Samay, All India Radio, Tehelka, Bombay Times and Firstpost. He has appeared on several TV shows of channels like India Today and NewsX.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clients

 

Quotes of K. V. Gautam

“The only real purpose of education can be inculcating the habit of critical thinking.”

“Most of people keep making the same mistakes all their lives simply because they do not want to admit that they were wrong in the past.”

“We all can become whatever we want to become. But most people end up becoming just what they are expected to become by their society.” 

“Respect is earned, not demanded. The people who demand respect usually do not deserve it.”

“Choose a friend carefully. He will try to pull you up or down to make you equal to him!” 

“Choose your enemies carefully. You will have to get down to their level to fight with them.”

“The moment a man is born he is shackled in social bondage and expectations.”

Testimonials

“KV Gautam can change your life,”

Raikishori, The Times of India Group

“We never knew about our potentials until we heard him,”

Palash Mishra, American Express

“KV Gautam can start a very positive change in your organization. He has a clarity of thought and vision which you need a lot,” 

Aditya Singh, The Grand New Delhi

“Gautam rocked us. I realized my potential only after listening to him,”

Utsav Kesharwani, IIT Kanpur

“KV Gautam sir made a lasting impact on me. I am his huge fan,”

Monika Jha, VIT University

Glimpse of a seminar

Importance of Willpower

We often feel talent is a very important factor in success of a person. Talent is indeed important. Talent of a person makes him do a work faster or with better quality compared to the other persons. However, contribution of talent in success of a person is limited. Real life is an example where most talented people are not always sitting at the top of their fields. Most of the times you see talented people doing not much in their lives, while less talented people are at the top. Take for example, many of the most famous singers, actors or even artists are not actually the most talented ones. In many cases several people without any talent become famous actors, singers or musicians.

The reality is that the modern world is very complex and some things can be easily managed if you lack talent. So, many ordinary writers become best-selling authors just because they are able to market their book in a more aggressive way. Many actors become famous and rich even if they don’t know how to act. India has seen several singers and actors without talent getting fame and success. It is also a sad fact that most people lack the critical faculty to judge if a person is a good actor or a good singer or not. If you dress well and look good on screen many people will fall in love with the way you look. If music composers have created nice tunes and song writers have written interesting lyrics then it is not important that the singer has bad voice. The reality is that if you are surrounded by good professionals then they will effectively hide your lack of latent.

How is that possible that even less talented persons become highly successful? What is the quality which is unique among all high achievers? It’s their willpower!

Yes, willpower is more important than talent. In most years of my corporate jobs I have seen that most talented people in the office are not at the top and those people sitting at the top are actually not talented, and even not intelligent in many cases. However, all those at top have willpower. A burning desire to succeed! The strong willpower to be at the top! This distinguishes them from other happy-go-lucky fellows. If you go and ask all famous actors, singer and musicians you will feel they all have the burning desire to be in the limelight. They all love their success and they all have strong desire to be in the media limelight. They may tell you the opposite things, like inconvenience of being in the media eye all the time, like drawbacks of being a celebrity. Don’t be confused by what they say. They all have worked hard (barring those becoming a celebrity just due to family connections) to reach where they all are. And they will trade their fame and money with nothing else in the world.

A strong willpower will not only take you to dazzling height of success, it will also help you stay there for a long time too. There are several instances of a reluctant singer or actor coming and going away from limelight too soon. If you do not possess a burning desire to be at the top then very soon some other person with a stronger willpower will displace you.

K. V. Gautam’s speech at a TED event at TEDx JUIT  

TED is an international event where celebrities and intellectuals are invited to share ideas. Gautam was invited to deliver a speech at TEDx JUIT at Solan, Himachal Pradesh on 24 August 2014. He talked about how he led his life without caring about opinions of people. Below is the transcript of the speech delivered at the event.   

It’s difficult to remain yourself if everyone around you is trying to change you into a different person. It is also not easy not to be influenced by opinions of random people. As a matter of fact we all are limited by our own ignorance, biases, prejudices and beliefs. My brush with colourful opinions of people started in my early age.

When I was a small child I saw all kinds of faces around me. I found expressions of faces of people quite interesting. Even before I could go to a school, I used to observe people and their faces for hours without feeling bored. It was only years later that I realized whatever they talked about was mostly exchanging their personal biased opinions with each other. I also realized that all people had different opinions on one subject. In a way they interpreted reality very differently than how I observed it. Truth had many versions. You picked your version depending on your preference.

When I started to go to a school, I found it to be an interesting place. My interest in the school was 100% but in mathematics it was 0%. I left mathematics notebooks blank. Later I found math notebooks more useful for sketching than for solving difficult questions of mathematics. I started to draw random figures in my mathematics notebook. I found it very entertaining and a good pastime. It was a time when the only source of entertainment was watching movies in theatres once in few months. Electricity supply was erratic and Doordarshan was not enough to keep us entertained. I found drawing a great way of passing time. However my mother was not amused. After warning me few times one day she tore apart all drawings from the notebook and once again warned me against drawing on math notebooks. She failed to stop me from pursuing the activity which was both pleasant and worked as an emotional release for me.

Sometime later on my way to school, I saw The Times of India newspaper hung upside down with some fine lines drawn on the front page in a newspaper stall. I was fascinated and started to buy the newspaper whenever the drawing appeared even if I did not understand what the lines were all about and what they tried to communicate. I used to observe the drawings in the paper for hours. I used to cut out cartoons from the newspapers and started a collection. Only after spending my pocket money on the newspaper for more than 2 years I realized the drawings were political cartoons and they were drawn by cartoonist R K Laxman. Sometime later I became so impressed by Laxman’s cartoons than I wanted to know more about him. I also came to know about works of other cartoonists. Then I decided to become a professional cartoonist.

When I reached 10^th standard I had made my mind that I would become a successful cartoonist of India. I was not aware if it was possible or not but I had my mind made up in spite of all odds. At that time I won the first prize in a state-level drawing competition and it boosted my confidence.

My parents and people around me gave me the impression that my life and career would depend on my performance in 10^th class exam. I was not convinced. How could a school teacher decide my fate in life? During the exam, I was shocked to see how students cheated openly and how their parents helped them. It was a mockery of the concept of exam. I preferred to write without external help and cheating and stopped my father from coming to my exam center. One day I got the shock of my life when the teacher himself started to give out the answers and encouraged students to cheat. I stood up and protested how he could do that when he was supposed to stop cheating in the first place. He gave me a casual look and then sheepishly continued helping students.

When results came out I scored well and passed with first division. But other students scored better than me. People gave me an impression that my life was finished and I could not do anything better in my life as I could not score 90% marks. I just refused to believe them. I thought no one could ruin my life just because I refused to cheat in an exam. My beliefs and a healthy amount of disregard for people’s opinions came in handy.

Soon it was a time for choosing the right subjects in further studies. All people around me told me that science was the only option for a good career. Arts stream was seen with contempt. However, I had no interest in mathematics, chemistry or physics. So, in spite of protests from all, I opted for Economics and English as my subjects. Everyone gave me the impression that my career had no hope.

After passing my graduation I was expected to take exam for a government job as my father was a government employee himself. I told a friend that I wanted to become a cartoonist. He said it was wonderful then asked me what the meaning of the word cartoonist was. My father was shocked when I told him than I had no interest in government jobs and I actually hated all government employees as I thought they were lazy and corrupt. Though I knew he was not so. What shocked him more when I declared that I would become a cartoonist in my life. He was not aware about a career option like that. The only artist he had seen in his life was a sign board painter. He was worried to imagine me painting a sign board in his neighborhood. He tried his best to convince me that I must follow a safe career option of a government employment. He also informed me about benefits of a government job like job security and pension. He also told me that he would feel very proud if I could become a senior officer like his boss. I was not moved. When I told my mother that I would become a cartoonist and showed her my cartoons she asked me if I would keep drawing the funny lines even in my old age. Obviously, she presumed that drawing cartoons was a childish activity and old people should not do that. In spite of a lot of emotional pressure I stuck to my ground. My parents became a bit comfortable only when they saw my political cartoons published in leading newspapers.

Due to my young age of 19, initially many people did not take me seriously as a political cartoonist. Even before I finished my studies I had my cartoons published in several newspapers and magazines. When I started to look for a job in newspapers I faced problems as I was young and people did not take me seriously as a cartoonist. They thought politics could be understood only by old people. Once I approached a senior editor of a leading newspaper with my political cartoons. He saw the cartoons and rushed excitedly to his staff showing the cartoons saying “Look at this. This small boy has drawn these cartoons.” He was amazed to see a boy making cartoons but did not take me seriously enough to give work.

When a leading newspaper started to publish my political cartoons on its front page it surprised many people. Once a friend of mine was traveling with his father, who reading a newspaper with my cartoon published in it. My friend excitedly told his father that the cartoon was drawn by his friend, a young boy. His father refused to believe that a boy could draw a political cartoon as in his thought only an old man could do that.     

When I became comfortable in my cartooning career I decided to do something more. I was recognized as a cartoonist. But I did not want to die just as a cartoonist. I thought I could be more than that. One fine day I decided to write a novel. When I told this to my friends they were surprised. They advised me against it. They gave me a list of issues I would have to face if I wrote a book, like finding time for writing, getting a publisher and then promoting the book. I realize people have a fixed image about you and they don’t like it when you break or change that image. My friends had my image as a cartoonist and they were confused when I broke the image and did something different from what they expected me to do. I went forward nevertheless. My novel Love in Crazy Times was published to their surprise.  A positive public feedback was like a bonus for me.          

The medium of the internet attracted me. I did self-study to know more about the industry and started to think about a web venture. People around me once again warned me against investing money in a business. Still I launched an entertainment portal and it started to do well. Inspired by its success, I thought of launching a bigger business. I bet my entire savings in an e-commerce venture in 2011. I did not have enough money to make it a big success. I thought I would get funding from investors and grow. I was slightly late in the market as design and development of the shopping website took time. By the time I reached venture capital firms it was too late as they had already funded several similar businesses and refused to back my venture. My business was soon faced with large-funded ventures which started to wage a price war to drive small completion out of the market. My venture was a failure. I learnt the lesson that I should not do something where my strengths like creativity could not be used. Later, I changed my business model and started to offer web services to business houses and then it started to do well.

The failure of the e-commerce venture was a blessing in disguise. That sinking feeling of seeing my much-loved venture die a slow death inspired a wave of creativity in my heart. I realized failure could teach us a lot and it can also be a great muse. By the way, I feel if you want to get instant inspiration then simply fall in love and propose to a beautiful girl, and then get rejected by her. It can set you on a great creative journey. By the way, I also want to heartily thank all those beautiful girls who mercilessly rejected me in the past and inspired me for years to come. I actually pity those people who never become creative as they never face heartbreaks.   

I thought about writing a screenplay for a film as I was a big cinema lover and I realized the potential of that powerful medium of communication. I thought that a cartoonist reaches out only to a limited number of people as our nation had a high level of illiteracy. I wanted to reach out to the masses with my work. I started to write the script of a film. Once again my well-wishers gathered around me to give their well meaning advice to me. They told me Bollywood was a tough market to crack. They told me it thrived on nepotism and neither I was a Khan nor a Kapoor. One friend suggested that I needed to befriend daughter of a film producer to make my career in the film industry. As usual I disregarded their advices and kept writing the script. It was for a comedy film as I realized Bollywood did not have many good comedies.

After writing 3 film scripts I thought about learning the filmmaking process. After reading many film making related books and making two short films I had the confidence that I could direct a film myself. My friends were surprised to see my short films. They could not believe I could also make a film. It did not go down well with their image of a cartoonist who was only supposed to draw funny lines. I approached top film producers of Bollywood for producing my film. A couple of them showed interest in the script and had advance discussions but finally refused to produce the film. A prominent producer-director claimed my script had no sex in it. Interestingly, he himself has failed to deliver a hit film for more than a decade in spite of adding a generous dose of sex in his films. I told him my film would work due to the story and comedy not due to sex or item songs. He was not convinced. I realized unless I made a feature film they could not be convinced about my directorial abilities. Then I approached small film producers. All of them told me to rope in a top film actor only then they would fund my film. When I approached top stars their managers informed me that they were either busy for the next 3 years or were not interested in working with new producers and directors. The manager of a flop, but well known actor, told me that the actor worked in films of only those who have directed hit films. Ironically the actor himself never delivered a hit film on his own.         

I realized that I would have to make the film with my own money. I am ready and determined for a long battle. Now I will make the film with new actors. The technical crew members have already been finalized. To keep myself motivated I wrote a motivational book recently and sent it to book publishers.  My well-wishers have not left their hope of changing me. They still advised me not to write a motivational book as I was not a motivational speaker. I asked them who was born as a motivational speaker?  They were speechless.  

I feel creativity is about exploring yourself. As we go on a new journey of creativity we find more about ourselves. Once we stop creating new things we stop exploring ourselves. I think creative people should keep exploring new mediums for expressing themselves. It is not necessary to be stuck to one medium only. When people label you it can become a burden for you. A creative person should disregard people’s expectations and should focus on his own creative satisfaction.

People with their biased opinions are never able to fully know what we are capable of. We should not become a victim of what people think of us. We should not live a life designed by others. We are born alone and die alone. In between we must explore our full potentials.

Trivia

• KV Gautam loves to read books on popular psychology and marketing
• His childhood hero was R K Laxman
• He wants to travel the world but gets to visit places mostly on client invitations
• He loves good comedies
• He likes writings of Orison Swett Marden

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