Augmentative communication

 Midhun Noble is a social entrepreneur. A neurodivergent, he is the Co Founder @ Insighte, and Allinclusive Foundation. He is presently EIR @circle India, and is presently building SPOT an inclusive after school. . He was also an Incubatee at MIT SEAG, Empact, NSRECL,  He dreams of building an incubation program for ND kids, which helps them pursue their passion and lead a happy, productive life. 

In this interview, he speaks of his love for entrepreneurship from childhood, and the support systems that anchor him. He also gives us glimpses into his creative process. To keep the entrepreneurial boat afloat, he believes, it is crucial to have resilience and a strong support system. Midhun strongly emphasizes the significance of these factors in the conclusion.

 

Why entrepreneurship?

 I think the first time the idea of entrepreneurship hit me was when I was in school. We had  bought rabbits as pets. So my first thought was like two rabbits will give six kits, they will multiply. So how do you sell all the rabbits to make more money? How do you either grow it or sell it? Or how do you make the most money out of it? My first job was in a bank for  six years. Most of the people did the routine work and were happy with it. Trying to finish work on time and leave. But I would continuously go to my GM and ask, "Why are you doing this?" I had a different set of ideas on how we should be operating, digitalising. I see a problem, and I just try to work around solutions for it. Entrepreneurship gives you the freedom to do it.

 You don't need to answer to somebody else. I want to do it. I am willing to take ownership. But you give an idea, and then someone shuts it down n times, but in entrepreneurship, you have the freedom to just go and execute it.And probably that freedom is what I seek and like. I want to do things that I enjoy. I'm not good at certain things. So probably, like, being stuck in a place where I don't want to be, where I'm forced to do those things. Instead, just do the things that I like. I just want to say that I'm more motivated to solve problems people usually struggle with. There's a certain high in solving complex problems or designing something that's complex, which people don't really like to do, or do not want to address. So this is a battle that I need to fight. This also comes from my nature to get into fights when I was a teenager also. But I think it also comes down to risk appetite, to just jump and do things without really thinking about the consequences, which often is a hallmark of entrepreneurship. Primarily, how I basically work is like this. I see a problem. I try to see what solution to build around it, and I go with it. I don't really try to see what existing methods are, or what is the approach taken right now? I just tried to build in my own way.

 People I have idolised, Richard Branson, for instance, has ADHD. Simon Sinek recently mentioned the same. One sees a pattern emerging in the way we think and approach problems. 

What are your support systems? How have you built a supportive network around you? How do you pick the people who you want to work with?

There were very few people who had my back during my school days in Trivandrum, and I went through a dark time. I was just struggling to fit in. I was just struggling, waiting for people to find and acknowledge something good about me. I was always good at academics. Let alone best friends, making friends was difficult. It was said that I was corrupting my peers.

However, things changed in college, Christ University, Bengaluru. Luckily, I became friends with four guys who were ordained to be priests in Church. Those people were accommodative to everything that I had to say. I realised that you can actually trust people around you. You don't need to always be on guard or cautious of people around you. I think from there, my perception of people changed.  I did my Bachelor's in Psychology, media and literature. A lot of good people supported me and I've kind of continued associating with them. And most relationships I've built are in my master's during MBA, and in the places I worked. These relationships have stayed and sustained me all my life.  

I don't really go to any relationship, expecting anything out of it. And whatever I can offer, I offer it on the table. Giving without thinking about what you're going to receive in return has helped me in building a support system. My parents still don't agree with my principles, they still are not happy that I left the government job to run a business and everything.

My wife has been a pillar of strength. She said there's no point in feeling disheartened. She advised me to get into something that makes sense to me. My sister is also, like me.  Now, when she has started working, she finds it difficult to cope with the working rigor and insecurities have crept in. She's also a great support system. We think alike. We sit in it, and discuss most of the things together.

I've met a lot of people along the way. In this space, you need people who are on the same page as you. Chitra Paul, Bilbilia, have been very supportive, and share the same vision. I'm part of a circle school program,10 of us, and we are trying different models of schools. It's a proper school incubation program. We are also trying to build an after-school program. People who are with me are those who think change is required and is possible. 

 

I understand and appreciate the thought a change is possible and needs to be done? How did you execute your thoughts?

 We started with the basic premise that ND children have to go to schools. Many schools are asking for shadow teachers. Most of the shadow teachers going to school are just nannies and ayyahs, who don't have the knowledge to work with the children. Basically, just leaving them dependent on the caretakers. What are the therapists and psychologists doing? They're sitting in their centre, seeing these kids for two hours? I did not see any real outcomes in this whole exercise. 

 The next step, was to ask ourselves was where are they qualifying from? We looked at the master's programs in different universities. We figured none of the shadow teachers have any idea of autism and ADHD. And they are doing therapies for our children. You have a KPMRC program that has hardly any exposure to children. So where do they do it?

So we have a for-profit model and we started supporting children directly through parent requests. Now we work with over 25 plus schools we work with all across Bangalore. I met Chitra, Ashika, first through Dr Bindiya , she was my psychologist and mentor.

 In the Autism space, people are constantly talking about IT jobs, but a lot of children, though capable, are unemployed. So how do we properly design employment programs around that? Each person is good at something. Let's discuss a customised employment program. We work with one child, identify what their talents are and then start placing them. So that's when we started the barista program at Allinclusive Foundation. So similarity you can find a lot of customized employment opportunities that tap into the unique skills of neurodiverse children.

 The other project we work on is in school inclusion. Schools are not inclusive. What could we do about it? We took 2-3 schools under the wings of All Inclusive Foundation. These are schools where the children are from low-income groups and have learning disabilities. 60% of the kids are drop outs. How do we make this work? It's not about sitting tolerance or any fancy terminologies, but about giving them a place where they feel they belong or they feel happy. They have a community around them; they start believing in their abilities, begin doing well for themselves, progressively realising, I'm good at this thing. The understanding, ‘I am appreciated’, gives them strength. 

What have been your challenges, and how have you dealt with them?

I think the most important thing is to tell others, you're not good at something, rather than trying to pretend that you're good at something. It is sad, most people try to mask so much. I never liked to write notes. In class 7, I realised I could not read my own handwriting. I explained to my mom; I am not learning anything by writing like this. My mother stood up for me, and explained it to the staff. She told them, insistence on making me write would only aggravate my problem behaviours. Let him be.

I don't need to write maths as well. I worked in banking for six years. People who know me also know that my computation skills are excellent. I can calculate figures in seconds and give you answers. If you ask me to write the steps of it, I can't. In colleges, lectures are one hour. When you're younger, you will run out of classes. You don't want to disturb the class also, neither do you have that attention spanto sit through the lecture. In college, I went and told the teachers; I have nothing against you, but I cannot sit through a one-hour lecture. I shall attend for 25 minutes and please let me sleep. I did not mention ADHD, but they were accepting when I told them. I was scoring well, so they did not bother me. In the office, I sleep in the afternoons, because my brain kind of shuts off.

Having understood how I work, I have realised, people have the best of ideas, strategies, but fail when it comes to execution. That is my forte. When I decide to take on something, I take it to the finish. I'm very motivated to solve the problem, and do the groundwork. I started first by hiring a personal assistant, an intern from my aluminus Christ. She schedules my appointments for meetings, breaks down whatever task is to be done, sends me reminders to take time out, telling someone to follow up, doing all those things. I focus on the problem at hand, and the rest is handled. Every organisation I run I have people like that to support me, people who are good at running schedules, breaks down my work and also do the routine followups with the team. I monitor them on the systems and processes I build on top of it.

 I also struggle with organisational tasks like, if I have 10 tasks on hand, how do I priortise? Productivity apps like Notion, Trello have helped me be on top of the game. I also tend to work with mentors and coaches, which has worked for me. Any new business ideas that I have launched, I've always worked with an incubation program, I work with people who are ready to coach me in that space. That, I believe, is beneficial because someone else is holding you accountable to deliver on your promises.

I'm very bad at putting myself out there. I usually ought to give interviews but I shy away from the media. But even to clients, I don't want to engage in small talk. I leave it to my team. I dont want it to eat into my productive time. The team handles the rest. My clients always find this annoying. Why is this person not reachable? I tell them, if there is something important, I shall address it, but I don't want to just talk to you. Just because you want to talk to me to feel good about it; I'm not the person for that. So probably those are things I'm just bad at. I acknowledge that.

I also give unrealistic deadlines to my team members. Because I work on very short deadlines. At home, my wife bears the brunt of it. I work on my time. If the vessels have to be done, I do it on my terms and sense of time. I get to finish it by night. Be it laundry or a used coffee cup to be washed.

How can you leverage your unique perspectives to identify and pursue new business opportunities? To some extent, you have already answered this question.

There's this tendency in me to go into that rabbit hole, like most developers tend to do.  I mean, you just go into that hole again, and again, to figure out what is happening. What are the international models?  What's possible? What's the best research happening right now? Initially, it's like a full discovery phase, where you have like, 50-60 tabs open at a time. 

I shall draw a parallel to a widget spinner that children use. I am constantly excited over one idea that keeps me afloat and enthusiastic. So, I manage to do the routine stuff. I am constantly iterating on an idea that makes other things bearable for me. 

Any final words for aspiring ND business owners?

My dream is to run an incubation program for children. I work with schools as a mentor for innovation programs. I've been doing it for the last five- six years. I find the ND kids are the smartest. But as a culture, I don't think we value entrepreneurship. We think, oh, he's already not good at academics. Now, how will he be an entrepreneur? You think that academics and entrepreneurship have some weird connection, which is not there, anywhere else. 

High school education is where we need to start building work ready skills. I wouldn't say entrepreneurship skills, but more like communication, leadership, doing projects, doing internships. Go find five businesses around your house, go and intern with them. I have sold Christmas cards. I would design them on photoshop and sell them with a 5-10% margin as a kid.

I always try to plan my time as in like, I know in the afternoon, I'm not good. Evenings I keep for my family. I like to spend time with my wife. We sit and chat, go out. We have our own fun. But I think that balance is very important. I love designs and I am at my creative best at night. 

I have a very good friend who's a robotics engineer, who's autistic. He has built really good startups. His problem is that  he gets feverish about the problem he has to solve. He works on it, for two weeks, then has one month of burnout. He would not eat, drink, sleep. His work is excellent, and it is difficult to find that quality of work elsewhere. The reason I bring this up is, we tend to hyper-focus on one thing. Your health is also important. You can't do this hustle culture for long. I think we have a lot of insecurities with us. Find good people around you. There a lot of good people in the world to support you and help you with things that you're not good at. And especially with social focus business, you'll find a lot of people who are ready to be supportive without expecting anything in return. Surrounding yourself with pessimistic people doesn't work.

This is an analogy of an elephant being in the water. Sometimes you just need to get into the water and just stand there. If you try to do too many things, then the water gets muddy and you can't drink the water. Entrepreneurship is more like that. Like, you know, like when COVID happened, I was out of my job. And entered full time into entrepreneurship. There was no money coming in. I had two verticals. One being the shadow teachers and the other, home therapy, where my therapists go home and work with the children and their moms. Not just me, many people could not operate under those circumstances. In the meanwhile, we started online therapies. However, when covid ended, I stopped online programs. The demand for shadow teachers also suddenly shot up. You just need to hang on there and do the things that you're doing correctly, but also acknowledge that when it's failing. ND entrepreneurs, loose motivation quickly. I would prize resilience over everything else, be it intelligence or hard work. 

 Thank you, Midhun Noble, for sharing your story and giving us valuable insights.