Weekend Musings 17
The gangster who became an ultramarathoner, running 60 marathons in 60 days and Facebook ODAX
Rahul Jadhav - once a gangster, sharpshooter and addict. Now an ultramarathoner.
Initially, he ran for life and now he runs to live a life wrote MumbaiMirror in 2020. “I have been running for over 19 years. For the first 10 years to save myself from the police. Thereafter, it became the very purpose of my existence.”
‘Gangster on the Run’ by Puja Changoiwala documents his story. However, I was introduced to a fellow elite runner by Vice Asia.
The 18-minute video takes you through the life of Rahul about his journey, mistakes and acceptance. In the last few seconds of the video while he is sipping tea with his wife he shows some of his artwork and advices that if life gives you a second chance then don’t let it go. Not many people get a second chance.
The ultramarathoner wants to be known as an athlete for the rest of his life.
Obviously, the 18-minute video can’t justify the pain or struggles that Rahul had to go through. And even running may sound good on Instagram posts but ask any long-distance runner about her recovery process. The pain in her back, knee caps and heel.
Open any drawer in 8092 you will find two to three Volini gel or spray lying as if I am their brand ambassador.
The mind plays a big role and it gets blood(confidence) from the practice routine.
Wonder what would have been the routine of Pune based 50-year-old Ashish Kasodekar. The travel entrepreneur recently created a Guinness book of the world record of most consecutive days to run a full marathon.
He ran 60 marathons in 60 days and his last marathon was timed on Republic Day 2022.
Take a deep breath and visualise getting up every day and running a marathon for 60 days. This man’s recovery I guess happens on his next marathon and not while he is sleeping.
Talking to Indian Express he said: “Warm-ups and stretches are very important. Adequate rest is crucial for the recovery process.”
When you have a bigger goal in life then you need to remove distractions from life. That could be letting of things or saying no to things since peace is important. Be it, Rahul or Ashish both did and are doing things for themselves because they have formed a deep relationship with themselves before forming with someone else.
So what will you give up or reduce in 2022?
Sweta Vikram in her thoughtful piece talks about the concept of “langhana.” She adds: “Langhana means therapies that help with “reduction” or “to lessen.” It is one of the six principles of treatment in this ancient healing science from India. And its purpose is to make the body light by reducing heaviness.”
She has decided to have a dry first quarter in 2022 even though she rarely drinks a good quality wine.
“If I don’t sleep well, I am unable to wake up at 4 a.m. the next day to meditate and write – which is non-negotiable in my book. I loathe anything that impacts my workouts. Lack of sleep makes me lethargic, and wine slows me down. I pride myself on my cala quality (speed, in Ayurvedic terms). The irritability is “sharp,” another pitta trait. I don’t like being unkind with my words. It’s been a little over two weeks since I’ve had a sip of wine. I have never felt better!”
“To know what you like is the beginning of wisdom and old age.” - Robert Louis Stevenson
But we also live in a world of must-haves like Hubspot has shared the must-haves for nonprofits in 2022.
“Segmentation and Personalised campaigns” is one of the consistent trends this year. Others are Nonprofit Partnerships, Community Building, Accessibility and Data Privacy. In the list of emerging trends, Hubspot informs NFTs, Cryptocurrency, Crowdfunding, etc.
Organizations like Save the Children, the American Cancer Society, and No Kid Hungry are accepting cryptocurrency donations which are still tax-deductible for donors. Nonprofits can accept crypto donations using a wallet, like the Giving Block.
But the ground reality in India is very different. As a fundraiser focussed in India the needs for NGOs are very different when it comes to brand engagement and fundraising. The bigger the organisation the bigger is the gap between both the business objectives.
When it is India I still believe the Meta family is the only answer for engagement and conversions. The latest Global Digital 2022 report highlights Facebook is still the most used platform.
However, YouTube has closed the gap with Facebook over the past year though, with the platform’s audience growing almost twice as fast.
“YouTube now has at least 2.56 billion active users, which equates to roughly 88 per cent of the latest Facebook total.”
Simon Kemp while sharing this post on LinkedIn mentioned that the region-wise data will be shared in the coming weeks. I believe it would be a great time for me to share the data along with my thoughts on how the Indian Nonprofit fundraising world looks from the ground.
Coming back to Meta it is simplifying Facebook’s Campaign Objectives in Ad Manager. I have not seen the update in my account but in the meantime, Jon Loomer has shared his thoughts on the update. The biggest change for advertisers will be moving from 11 campaign objectives to six.
The new objectives, using ODAX, will be:
Awareness
Traffic
Engagement
App Promotion
Leads
Sales
That doesn’t mean that five objectives are necessarily going away and that you’ll lose options related to those objectives. It simply means that some are redundant and are being combined (again, from Facebook).
In a subsequent post, he has shared a hands-on with the ODAX. He thinks the flow seems clearer. “You set your goal (the objective). You tell Facebook where you want to send people. And then Facebook provides optimization options consistent with what you’ve selected.”
However, you’ll also notice that the ad sets are now far more complicated, particularly for Engagement, Leads, and Purchases. I will let you know how it goes at my end once I have it rolled out at my end.
That’s all from my side for now.
Please be safe and before I sign out here is a deep house version of the legendary song “Kiven Mukhre Ton”. The song has the magic touch of DJ NKY.
Enjoy your Sunday.