Meet @ARKarthick – Awesome Blogger & SocialMedia Enthusiast
I am incredibly honored to bring yet another interview of a fab twitter user – @arkarthick ! Everyone on twitter knows him for tweeting great stuff consistently making every tweet of his retweet worthy. Let’s get to know more about Mr. A.R. Karthick in this interview!
1.Why did you join twitter? What made you interested in twitter?
ARK: Well, I joined Twitter on June 2008 – presumably, when you were in your higher secondary classes! 🙂 I did join Twitter because of my friends and few relatives who find it as a new-cool-tool-to-try when Facebook, particularly Myspace and Orkut on top of their game, social networking – at that time, at least here in India. But started to use it properly almost a year later. Until then, I had no idea about Twitter’s potential.
Twitter helped me fortify existing friendships/connections, make new ones without much trouble and that too in short time span. You don’t have to be a celebrity to be celebrated by thousands of people around the world, you have to be a engaging tweep. That’s it! And this is the eye opener for me on my long Twitter journey.
2. You are a world class blogger with consistent great content. How has your blogging journey been so far? Can you tell us something about your milestones and achievements?
ARK: I just exclaimed to myself, “Am I a World class blogger?” It’s true that I’m able to dishing out consistent, O.K. content to my readers – but to be honest, I’ve to be working even harder on my blog and blogging skills to be par with them. I may be wrong! Sometimes people don’t realize their potential until someone can figure out who they are and what they are up to, right? However, I’m glad to be of any inspiration and help to my fellow blogging friends.
Well, my blogging journey is exceptional so far in the sense that with my limited resources, quantity of posts (106 posts in 18 months!) I’m able to tick a large number of visitors and readers. Special thanks to all my IRL / Twitter / Facebook friends, and their continuous support to my blog. Without them, none of this would have been possible.
Yup, featured in few ‘Top’ lists – sort of! Here are the links F.Y.R. you may be interested.
(Top Indian influencers) http://www.pinstorm.com/ii/?gid=1
Top twitter people a blast from the past
Top 60 People Who Rock Twitter!
Plus many other references I forgot to bookmark.
3. Who is your inspiration? Which is your favorite quote which never fails to motivate you?
ARK: There are quite a few!
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam – I am a huge fan / follower of him for his knowledge, insights, and great future visions about India. He is one of very few dependable leaders in our times and is certainly a great inspiration / motivator to all us, youngsters in particular.
Steve Jobs – 100% inspiration for my entrepreneurial dreams. Well, who else could it be? May be, that kickass dude Mark Zuckerberg might step in next!
On Twitter – Paul Steele (@paul_steele), Sean Gardner (@2morrowknight), JD Andrews (@earthXplorer), Pramit (@pramitjnathan), Blair Semenoff (@Flipbooks) and all my tweet hearts!
Finally my dad – My own version of Steve Jobs! Without his support and caring attitude, particularly when my life’s motif in jeopardy, I could have been working in some office cubicle, 9-5, and settled for sedentary lifestyle. But he paved me a beautiful path and showed me a way how to live.
My favorite quote that motivates me 24/7:
“To be nobody but yourself in a world -which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” ~E.E. Cummings
4. How do you deal with people who try to bring you down?
ARK: I encounter such people a lot in my life, and generally feel pity for them as they’re wasting time at me, wrong person to mess around. Period. I generally don’t deal with such ducks (intentional typo!) as they can only try to bring me down. But it’s up to me to go down or the other way, Up. I always try to choose the later. No, I’m not telling you this arrogantly, without any valid circumstances. Experience in my competitive business field taught me a lot about this. Fortunately, I learned the art-of-cutting-the-crap quickly. It works like a charm. See, it’s pointless to dwell in others’ unworthy opinions. That being said I’m always open to constructive criticism.
5. What is your success mantra? What would be your advice to aspiring bloggers who want to make it big?
ARK: Relentless enthusiasm to achieve big, taking risks and hard work – are my success quotients. Without these qualities, nobody can turn their lofty dreams into reality.
My one and only advice to the budding bloggers is – To be a problogger, you’ve to keep on believe in yourself that one day you will be, eventually. Then again, this positive mindset alone won’t do the trick for you. You must be ready to dedicate enough time and care to nurture your blog.
Blogging isn’t like taking a walk in the park. Even seasoned bloggers know this. Posting frequency, getting/keeping readership, having constant flow of ideas, motivation/inspiration – are few vital things to take prime care of. You have to be passionate, persistent and at the same time, you have to stay versatile and let enough room for development. Blog on stuffs you find moving rather than emulating what others are doing. Whatever your niche, try to be unique as much as possible, give your blog a life, give it a voice, survive hard, and most importantly have fun too!
6. What difference has twitter made in your life?
ARK: Twitter induced Insomnia in me! Just kidding. 🙂 Twitter has had quite an impact on my life in a good way. My followers/friends know that I tweet a lot. And some of them even went on to advice me to curb it a bit. But once I started it in full flow, I can’t stop it and never drained tweeting. In contrast, Twitter helps me in reducing my work stress. Be it through sharing friend’s tweets, or having a fun chat – it does help a lot to coordinate my tired senses.
Since I started tweeting, I’ve came across some really nice folks. I’m very happy to convey my gratitude to everyone for enhancing my life. Twitter is a godsend place for awesome inspiration, splendid encouragement, and it helps me improving my skills & whatever I’m lacking of. It’s a very dependable infotainment resource. All I has to do is follow some people with similar interests. Boom! Good things started to happen to me. Simultaneously, I’m glad to be an inspiration and an influencer to few others as well. It’s not an one way road, right? Moreover, Twitter has been a great boon for my blogging journey. My Twitter friends are very helpful in accomplishing some of my goals. I don’t think any other social network is equipped to do that, O.K. Facebook to an extent. But Twitter, simply rocks!
7. Lastly, where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
ARK: 10 years from now? That’s a bigger timeframe to think of! Anyway, I can safely assume and see myself as a more organized individual, a better citizen, a more socially responsible entrepreneur, a perfect role model to my kids, perhaps a problogger and a verified Twitter account holder. 🙂 Life is jus’ beautiful!
Thank you ever so much, sir, for taking precious time out of your hectic schedule to give us this fantastic interview! 🙂 I bet you have inspired all of our readers! (me, too!)
If you haven’t connected with him yet, what are you waiting for?
Follow him on twitter : @arkarthick
Find him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arkarthick
Check out his awesome blog: http://arkarthick.com/
p.s Thanks to @shilpiiz for helping out with the interview title 🙂
Thank you, Nicky for posting your interview with @arkarthick and letting us get to know him better.
I find him a real cool and kind guy, and an awesome friend to have around on Twitter, and I am sure outside of Twitter as well.
I remember that when I approached him personally to help another friend in a writing competition — without hesitation, he retweeted my request.
I am glad that I met him on Twitter.
Thanks for your great comment 🙂
Heartfelt gratitude my friend for your kind words about me. Yup, trying to be as kind as possible in real world too. But at times fail to maintain the coolness due to hectic biz pressure. It’s wonderful to meet you, such an inspiring guy, a genuine friend on Twitter too. Cheers! :))
Glad to read that you always wanted to become a boss of yourself. Hope other talented people in India do the same and we would be right up there as a developed nation.
thanks for your comment, Mani!
You hit the nail on the head, bro! I know many young, gifted people in India are trying to become entrepreneurs. The desire is there. But the government infrastructure isn’t helping their dreams. Sadly, that’s the reality for poor people. I hope instead of mixing politics, corruption into everything, if the they step up with some clear cut plans, I’m sure India will be a World power in near future. Thank you for the comments.