It is amazing how lack of resources and desire (or need) to achieve something can make one think differently. I was unemployed ..umm .. vocationally challenged ... for 3 years during the dot com bust times and so here is the card I got printed for myself to "network" better.
It was .. is .. always work getting my name - Mrinal - through. I also learnt to turn off spelling suggestions in Microsoft Word.
So instead of getting myself a new name, I decided to leverage the problem i.e the name I was born with. It turned out to be very successful because:
- It was interactive (I always carried a pen with me when I went to events to network and would make the other person write my first name down and fill in the blank)
- My card was always the most different
- It had a great recall factor for the follow up email
- They never forgot how to spell my name
- It always led to a discussion around the name - where does the name come from? Does it mean anything? Why didnt you change it? etc.
Now at a coffee shop, before the caffeine and mentally incapicitated, I go by my 'name of the month'. Little did I realize, this does comes with a huge responsibility of actually responding to the name call.
Now I am even more inspired since the anagram for my last name, Desai, is Ideas.