Passion into profession a WIP@GISB. Game on

“Someone you met 2 weeks ago can have better intentions for you than someone who you have known for 2 years. Do not let time fool you.”

I dont remember where is I read this and I do not think I understood what I meant when I read it, but for some unknown reason this line stuck with me.

For anyone who know Aniruddh Iyer at any capacity personally knows me to be a person who is very conservative with expressing my emotions additional almost everyone would testify that I have been someone who really did not care about appearance and opinion of others. Like I do not fit in for some reason and kind of a loner.

Professionally, I am a workhorse and workaholic and get the job done kind of person and personally, I feel more at ease. However, I still lacked a certain sense of professionalism about me.

I have experience working in the sports industry in some capacity about 1+ year in real time and 3 + year worth of experience in various verticals with not proper education of the sports industry. I have researched countless hours, attended seminars, done courses and all but I was still feeling I don’t know squat about the place or have the knowledge to be in a place to influence and meaningful contribute to Sports. I am like something has to change. I contacted and personally connected to every sport management program in the county and visited more than half of them. Before settling for the place called Global Institute of Sports Business India

For a Person like me this Place is the perfect place. Where professionalism is not only expected is in mandatory in all aspects. I have been serious about my career all my life absorbing information and experience wherever I go, but unfortunately, I was not in the right places for most of my life, but all those experience and learning make me the person I am now, and the person I will become.

Regardless Global Institute of Sports Business (hereafter will be using GISB) and doing masters in Sports Management has been the most soul enriching experience for me. Though I am all in and everything to lose, but I know with my ability and this environment I could do wonders for Myself, GISB, and the sports industry as a whole. I special thanks and shout out to my Schoolmates Ishaan Motiwale (Alumni of GISB) and Kaustav Karan who are walking the same Sport Industry paths as me.

The following is more like a novel based diary/ story, (a digital diary is you will) of my experience here.

Just a sample context I am from Pune so I had to shift to a whole new city to gain this experience and environment. It is not very important but still.

GISB course start date was official the 7th of November, but this year was Special. This year was the Premier league 30th anniversary (and GISB and Premier League have a long standing and healthy partnership) so as fan engagement activities Match Screening were taking place.  The match Screening was at 9:30pm on 6 November. This informal get together was complete optional, but none the less couple of us outstation students living in the same Hostel went to the screening. Knowing full well we have to be on time the following day. The game was Liverpool Vs Spurs. On any other day even when I am just chilling and have nothing to do, I would not watch this game especially not when Son is not playing and Liverpool are facing tough times.

I was stunned with the excitement and the vibe of the place so were all my peers. We were given the privilege to see and click photos with the Premier league trophy and watch fans cheering for full 90 minutes. The most surprising thing about this whole thing I found out and physically saw Spurs having a fan base. I am like WHATTTT!!! Meet new people with whom I will be spending 12+ months alongside with and most of work life with in the industry. We come back to our room post 12 with a buzzing experience.

On the 7th I have this nervous energy, same as experiencing when you join a new workplace all over again. The first day was Icebreaker session and introductions. As I said earlier is no ordinary year. This year more than 50% of the batch have come with work experience in various sectors and couple of them are profession athletes or have been at some point of their life. On average, we are all older to our immediate seniors. Moreover, believe me when I say this, these people are some of the most passionate, knowledgeable and desperate to make a change in the sports industry people I have ever known. When I was taking admission the word cohort was used multiple times, and one is like what is cohort how is it different from friends' group or peers, for all those who don’t know it meaning in a business environment it means people who walk the same path as you. Trust me on this have a cohort. Later that day we had a interview with Kate Hodgkinson who is the head of International Strategic Partnership conducted by Pratik Sonawane . As a person who only saw the sport from the lens of a fan it felt like a whole new world has opened up. There is so much to cover in just her interview alone i could write 500 words on that alone. In the briefest way possible Kate is the driving force for pushing the envelope of Premier League in India and it give me immense pleasure to know that down the line in 10 odd months my batch and I would meet her and team in England part of the study trip.

I have written so much and it is just day 1. Day 2 (8th Nov) was more on the administration stuff and the knowhows and do and don't, followed by expectations and how to be a complete professional. We also had a virtual Session with Will Norton . Mr Norton glossed over our Course work stuff, but dedicated time in the explanation and breaking down of Mindset, these are Growth and Fixed mindset. For me his most valuable teaching was qualities we need to cultivate in ourselves to be great human beings and professionals these are: 1) be Intrinsically curious and open to new knowledge 2) Internally align yourself, if you are not calm, receptive and responsive everything is for naught 3) Be genuine and network selflessly 4) always seek career growth 5) Have high emotional Intelligence 6) be confident of your stroke and humble of your shot. From the 8th of November I vowed these principles are what I will strive for relentlessly. Thank You, Mr Norton hope to interact with you soon and I will internalize these lessons.

9th November. we started the day of with a sports quiz. My team "Synergy" was off to a great start and were winning for much of the quiz until we eventually lost. Definitely not a not best of start to the day. Little did we know it would turn out to be one of the most interesting days. After the quiz we were given us the privilege to talk, interact and pick the brain of Pranav Marwah . The decisions and interaction were profound. Some key takeaways and insights were Relationship and People are paramount in business and life in general. Mr Marwah spoke about 4 pillars of business which are 1) Team 2) Find your Hook 3) Sustainability and 4) Marketplace. Thank you, sir for taking time and answering all our questions we learnt a lot and will be looking froward to more interaction in the future. To finish the day on a amazing note we had book reading session with Neel Shah and Gaurav Gala and a decision about various details such as how they wrote this book whilst having full time jobs. Neel was the person who conducted my interview and I am immensely grateful to him that i got the opportunity to join GISB. To make this day etched in our memory everyone got a copy of their book Awakening the Blue Tiger. To all the football lover and book readers I recommend this book.

10th November was by far the best day of my experience here till now. A huge thank you to Gaurav Modwel . We did an extremely fun activity introducing ourselves with our views and debate topics. It is by far the best way to understand somebodies thought process (ideas and ideology) loved every second of it. The topics for the debate were 1) If you made sports minister of India 2) Can the growth of esports significantly impact viewership and general fitness and other sports 3) Should betting be legalised 4) Is Mankadding necessary 5) Why commercially men and women don't make same money. This was followed by Sports industry mapping listing down all the different move part and giving us the scope of how the industry works and all the possibility that exist in the industry. There are 1) Federations 2) League 3) Owners 4) National 5) Teams 6) Sponsors 7) Broadcasters 8) Players 9) Fans 10) Aspiring Players 11) Academies 12) Stadium Owners 13) Manufacturers 14) Retailers 15) Online Gaming 16) Event Management 17) Agency 18) Insurers 19) Micro Infra Providers 16) Coaches 17) Support Staff 18) Betting Companies 19) Sports Management Companies. Mr Modwel also taught as about the key stages of Composition of Ad Agency are 1) Media Planning 2) Brand Strategy 3) Creatives 4) Media Buying 5) Client Servicing. There was so much knowledge learnt on the 10th that it took me a day or so to process of it.

11th Nov and Day was a blast, it started with interaction with Aditi Chauhan whose insights into the Football industry was worth its weight in gold. She threw so much light on her project and aim of spreading the sport of football to all female youth, it was a source of inspiration. In the second have we travelled to Pune to be a part of the festivities of Pro Kabaddi a special thanks to Leah Poonawala and Varun Koli for organising this. We were shown the broadcast room, the organisers area and most importantly the allowed to enter FOP (Field of Play).

All that and in only 5 days. These 5 days proved to all of us as a partial litmus test that even though it is hard work it payoff it worth it.

Week 2 was eventful but not as event as the 1st week. Knowledgeable definitely more It is place for education after all.

14th November was Conducted by Neel Shah , a gentleman who I have immense respect for. Neel taught is more in depth about Fixed and Growth Mindset, and trust me it was an eye opener. The session was a internal diagnosis with a guiding light. He introduced what SMART goals were and we were to set out own goals for the year. For most of my life every resolution till this day had been a vague one. that is, I couldn't really judge my performance. Also, I was always hung up on the results more than the process. For me it was a breath of fresh air and it shook of my mental cobwebs. In the second half Neel taught his presentation skills. And to no one's surprise it was Practice. He is too knowledgeable and we are too educated and curious enough to probe him to understand the method to the madness and the direction of approach.

On the 15th November we had a virtual session with one of our alumni Vedant Shinde . Alumni interaction this and other such as Leah and upcoming one in my opinion are in ways more important than faculty interaction. It gives us the confident to trust the system. Not that we didn't when we join the course, but regular reminder and feedback gives us the will power stating if I too go down this path I will a million times closer to my dream job than I ever can be if i were doing something else. There is no shortcut to the work but it is not wrong to say it is if you have the right guidance and helping hand one can scale quickly and in a more organised manner.

16th November started off with a bang with a brief case study and overview of FIFA women's U17 World cup given to us by Ankush Arora . He was patient with us and answered all our questions with explanation and appropriate examples. His insights and approachability and looking at the overall success of the Tournament made it so that we as football lovers can realistically envision a future where India would host and participate in the world cup.

on 17th November were taken on a tour of the Mumbai City FC special thanks to Dwaipayan Ghosh and Prashant Jagtap for guiding us and giving us all their insights. The most insane part about this is that both of them are our immediate seniors. Like the difference between them and us is only about 11 months into this course. That is the value of this course, It will makes you that you work on live projects and areas of business that add value to the industry.

Spanning the duration of these 3 days were exposed to the concept of Design thinking by Kashyap Sheth . It is a simple concept and has these 5 stages namely :1) Empathise 2) Define 3) Ideate 4) Prototype 5) Test. When reading these words, one doesn't understand what they mean, but as we go deeper and deeper in it the solution of all and any problem. Any and all problem statement can be solved if you tackle it with this system. Design thinking works are a guide post for complex problem and has its checks and balances in its own. I hate the word Perfect, but design thinking as a concept in infinity close to perfection than anything I have ever come across and Kashyap was the best person to teach us that.

And that has been my first 2 weeks, kind of a roller coaster. I thing is constant the people i am with and the place I am at are right for me. Life is all about choices. There is no right no wrong, just options and where you stand to view something. I wanted to change and evolve to reach new height and in such a small sample size. Evolution in me has happened and I will continue to Evolve and add value.

One can definitely make Passion for Sports into Profession for Sports. I was ready to put in the effort and had the will to make it my reality. Needless to say, it is not all flowers and Sunshine all day every day. But when I go to sleep as a happy man and wake up as a happier one cause i can give it my best today too. If you too want to dive into the world of Sports head over to www.gisbindia.com and go through it. It might not have an immediate effect but if you truly want to work in sport this would be arguable the best starting point

If you actually read my article and reached here Thank you. If you left it mid-way absolutely no worries i will make better one. I have always avoided the spotlight and not expressed my thoughts and knowledge and will start doing that starting now.