Namaskara, Hello and Hola Steemers!
Motorhead rides into Steemit with kickass pictures and an awesome story from his heart!
This may be a little different from other introductions here. But as you scroll down you will find:
- Incredible travel pictures.
- Lessons from work and life.
- Personal experiences.
- Testimonial and why I am here!
- Steemit Verification
- PSA for @wang's evil cousins!
- Infinite Powers of Steemit
Please know that It's inspired by all of your stories here, and ergo I hope it makes you smile atleast once.
Without further ado
My name is Meghan Naik
I’m 28 from live in the coastal city of Mangalore located in the southern part of India.
We have a lot of green cover here.
[Pic: Daya Kukkaje, tvdaijiworld.com]
It’s one of the nicest and cleanest cities to live in my country with a nice culture, places to visit, beaches for surfing and modern infrastructure!
[Pic: Wikimedia.Org]
Our cuisine (veg/non-veg) is highly rated.
[Pic: Asith Mohan]
I’m passionate about motorcycling and driving cars as well as jotting down my thoughts about them.
I try to stay updated with the news from around the world and have a wide range of interests beyond motoring including cryptocurrency, building niche and affiliate sites, blogging etc. I will explore some of these interests through my writing on Steemit!
But mostly, I love to explore and I travel to live, as much as I
This is the backyard of my city and my weekend playground!
I’ve spent over 800 hrs of my life here learning to ride, drive and polish my skills further. Yet I have a long way to go!
How I spend my time productively
Writing (any form of it) was a fallback career. I have a Bachelors degree in Business Management. For a brief period I was a cog in the wheel for the 2nd largest display ad-network in the world but I left that to pursue my passion for automotive writing with an Indian corporate-group run automotive portal, ‘Gaadi.com’—Hindi word for ‘Cars/Automobiles.’
I hold a national record along with my colleague from my job
It was my last corporate job, and I think I did okay.
I'm currently self-employed.
I’m the first self-employed individual in my family. My parents worked their butts off in their jobs to make a life, move into a good city, own a house etc. My grandparents taught in a school and farmed for a living in villages not too far from my city.
[With my dad, he passed away 2 years ago]
[My mother and grandparents]
My family had a modest beginning and even today we live a simple life. I have no siblings and I’m the odd one in my family with an insatiable curiosity to explore the world through my passion for motoring!
I owe my success to my parents and friends, but especially my mother!
How do I do it?
In the past 3-4 years I’ve taught myself to start and manage two small businesses. I’m still testing and learning along the way.
’Focus Innovate Solutions’ is the name of the small firm I own.
I do web content development and build and manage my websites. My goal is to create a source of passive income to support my passion for travel, and fund atleast one motorcycle trip across the world by the age of 40.
[Pic: victorstuff.empowernetwork.com]
One of my latest clients is a cool mobile app start-up
My motoring site is called, ‘TheMotorLife.’ I’m currently revamping it as we suffered some major issues recently. (I’m open to JVs and have an exciting motoring app idea in mind)
I also freelance across auto and travel niches and ghost write on various topics including SEO articles for my clients. I’m currently undertaking an editorial revamp and also write a column for a popular news portal in my state of Karnataka and their magazine.
I renamed my firm to ‘Focus Innovate Solutions’ recently as I continue to evolve the work I do and find solutions to my problems everyday. I get most of my projects through my references and past clients here. A website is in the pipeline.
No work/client budget is small for me if it means solving a genuine problem or doing something unique.
Travel Torque
In 2012, a mutual biker friend Sharad (he’s young at just 50) founded a motorcycle guided tours company called Travel Torque. I joined him on-board as the head of the company's operations.
I took care of route planning, execution, logistics, backup support, managing clients and vendors, marketing and lead generation. Everything that tested my skills and put my experiences to use. That’s how most startups are. You do everything and learn from it all!
- I’m a jack of many trades but I’m mastering some as I grow older.
- The only way I’ve learnt anything in life is by doing it.
- I’m a result driven person who loves solving problems for my clients and myself.
- If you are successful or good at something then help others realize some of their dreams.
Together, we ran this company for 3.5 years from our base in New Delhi. I worked my full time job initially and ran my content firm altogether. A personal setback forced me to move back to my hometown sometime ago and I’m just starting from scratch again.
[Extreme Left-Sharad and Extreme right-me. Pic from India Bike Week 2015]
Together, we helped our customers realize their dream of cross country motorcycling in a safe manner earning precious reputation and priceless goodwill within our local motorcycling community.
A client testimonial:
Army Captain James (Retd) “Sharad and Meghan keep up the wonderful work you are doing. I am sure a lot of guys are indebted to you, I for one have my life to thank you for!”
—when he slit his throat from a freak kite string on our tour. Indian roads can prove to be fatal if you don’t a backup plan!
I’m not kidding—read the complete testimonial here!
[Life is precious. Hence we offered full-time ambulance backup with doctor and paramedic on our tours.]
—Some of our clients were affluent HNWIs running companies with hundreds of employees who’s employment is at stake if something were to go horribly wrong when these guys purse their passion.
—Safety is paramount when you travel in India where there aren’t enough hospitals on the open highways and emergency care is nil.
- In my personal and professional life, I’ve always valued long-term relationship and associations.
- While my friends trust me with their expensive toys; my clients and their families have put their faith in me with their money and their lives!
All this looks like fun but it's not easy. But then what is?
- Some days I’m fighting to stay on this entrepreneurial journey that I’m on.
- The last two years taught me to cope with loss of life.
- Deal with terrible betrayals and fight to stay alive.
But you see, I’m a self-motivated person, an optimist, and ergo you’ll hardly see me down for long.
Let’s get down to the more fun bits of my life
I also love driving cars, my Fiesta 1.6S to beautiful places and come back with stories.
I've driven to cold and harsh places testing vehicles and in search of a story!
[17640+ ft, Around -18°C / -0.4°F. Snow chain, who needs em?]
I love getting my hands on the fastest toys in the world!
We have to make sacrifices, and sometimes life doesn’t go our way. I've learnt to live with that.
- Learn to accept failures but at the same time find new opportunities through them.
- I see every failure as an opportunity to do something incredible again!
I’ve learnt it the hard way that when life gives you lemons, you have the opportunity to squeeze the best lemonade for yourselves! Don’t wait for anyone, just do it yourselves!
Finding solutions to everyday problems is my mantra. I’ve learnt from my experiences and those of others around me; that people and situations in your life are not always within your control, and will bring you down quite often.
You must refuse to give in and continue pushing and persevere at any cost!
You will eventually reach the top and find success and when you look back the view is incredible!
[It's a major highway deep in the Himalaya]
Sometimes we limit our potential with negative thoughts. Break free, and we will accomplish everything we need through our actions! —Meghan Naik
I’ve shared my motoring experiences before.
Being asked to flag off my motorcycling buddies was one of the coolest things I've done in these years of motoring!
How I spend my vacation days
People close to me know that I enjoy my solitude from time to time!
- I’ve been to some awesome places within my country.
- I’m a social person but I’m not afraid of being alone in the middle of nowhere.
- I’ve been places where people haven’t ridden on motorcycles before.
- I've gotten lost on purpose just to find myself again —at my own time and expense ofcourse!
Disappointments and sadness are all part of life. I want you to know that you can overcome any hurdle in your life just as long as you decide not to give up. Even when the roads ahead gets rocky or disappears entirely.
[Pic: Saif Siddiqui] —At 16500ft I was on a 150cc motorcycle. Did this route twice enroute to the Indian border with Tibet
If you persist it gets smoother later on. We have adapt to different situations. So, sometimes I’m fast and smooth.
[Pic: Rishabh Sood]
A little crazy when I let go!
If when the situation calls for it, I am hands-on and don’t mind getting down and dirty.
[Pic: Kanupriya Bhatnagar]
Life doesn’t always serve you straight up. You have to learn to tackle it sideways.
Lean over and get through it all fast as you can!
Life can be amazing if you want it to.
Don't take it seriously all the time. If I fall down, I get back up! So should you!
When the music plays I don't stay still.
[Pic: Aman Chotani]
I don't have many relatives but I’ve made some amazing friends in unexpected places.
This is Jimmy (named after Hendrix) and I meet him at the same spot in midst of towering Himalaya on my recurring visits to Ladakh.
I have close friends not only in India but I’ve even made some over the internet and it took me places! The most memorable one is a visit to US for their wedding and roadtrip thereafter in 2011. This is just an example of a friendship that is going strong 14 years on! —story for another day.
[Good people come in different colors and from different parts of the world]
I’ve been told I am a little crazy time and again. But aren’t we all just a little?
Happiness is everything!
No matter where I am and what I do, I try to put a smile on somebody’s face.
I like to surround myself with happy people. If they are unhappy I’ll try solving some of their problem until I see a smile.
In my spare time I read a ton of books, watch movies, and participate in local initiatives.
I’m part of many offline and online communities, some large and small groups just as I am today with you Steemers.
- We live only once and when we are young it’s possible to take a risk and do things differently.
- I’d like to see a better world when it’s time for me to kick the bucket.
It's important to show gratitude to those whose jobs are 10x harder than ours.
Why am I here?
To proudly wave the Indian flag and add more value to the growing diversity of this incredible community.
I’m taking this opportunity to invite everyone to visit my beautiful and incredibly crazy country atleast once in your life!
Steemit Proof of Life and the Living
[I just found the time to write this post for Steemit!]
I've shared this post on my Twitter a/c.
@Steemit Community: How about some branding stickers? I'd like to take Steemit to the highest roads of the world in the Himalaya!
Someone please consider getting them made!
Winding Up
Passion for motoring and travel has taught me my important lessons of life.
- As I tell you my story I‘m rebuilding and re-writing my life.
- I have many people to thank in this awesome life already!
- I’ve traveled overseas just a little. But India is so vast and beautiful that I haven’t gotten enough of it even after 120,000 miles of motoring here.
I live by this quote everyday of my life and I've done so for the past decade!
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming , "Wow! What a Ride!" —Hunter S. Thompson
Goals
- I’ve promised myself atleast 1 trip to a new country each year and someday I wish to live abroad and work so I can explore other countries and cultures as I have done in India.
- Continue living debt free and work harder to improve my finances to accomplish my dreams sooner!
Public Service Announcement
Bullies kindly please stay away from this awesome community. When you come i’ll be waiting...
To rain down some serious...
Infinite Powers of Steemit!
I sincerely hope that collectively we can do something amazing on this platform so that one fine day when we look back, there’s an incredible story of Steemit to be shared with the world!
A BIG thumbs up to @dan, @ned, awesome dev-team at Steemit and the entire community! Incredible things are waiting to happen now because of everyone of us!
If you have gotten here, you have my utmost gratitude! This is the first time I’ve written about myself and connected some of the dots. Follow me for more interesting blogs. Until next time...
