“Nothing is out of reach – you can do anything!” Parental advice, 0r perhaps, parental encouragement delivered when Mitra was young. There is an implicit addendum to the advice that sometimes parents don’t consider: “Nothing is out of reach – you can do anything that you want to do.”
Mitra wanted to major in Comparative Literature at Princeton.
“Hmm,” I thought. “Haven’t seen too many advertisements with the headline: Desperate need: Comparative Literaturist with focus on medieval French and Persian garden allegories.”
Mitra turned it into a job in brand marketing – a field that she mastered quickly.
“Well,” I thought. “I’m an engineer, I always thought that marketing was a bit, eh, well,..”
She discovered Tango in Argentina. (Mitra was in the middle of a round-the-world business trip: proof that parental genes were transmitted.)
“That’s a nice hobby,” I thought. “But it is a bit obscure.” Then she announced that she was abandoning marketing to build a Tango School in Los Angeles.
“Gasp!” I thought.
“You and Mom told me: Nothing is out of reach – you can do anything.”
“But,” I thought. “Tango?”
“Argentine Tango, Dad. Stefan and I are going to create the best Tango School in the world. We’re going to build a community and we’re going to follow our passion – doing what we love.”
“Well,” I thought.
“And we have the metrics..”
“Did Mitra say ‘metrics’?”
“We know what works. We got 200 students signed up after the Groupon deal. We know how many students ‘stick’, we know what campaigns work and what doesn’t. We know how many hits we get on our web site – and how many click-throughs. We’re on Facebook and YouTube. We’re…
“… going to build the best Tango School in the world,” I concluded.
See for yourself. Check: http://www.oxygentango.com/
And, if you’re in Los Angeles – sign up.
The picture is Mitra in 1987. For more a more recent photo, check her website.
1 comment:
i feel very lucky that i have parents who told me (and still tell me) "you can do anything!" !!! love you mom and dad.
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