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Interviewing Wadhwa is like talking to a new age guru: "In the media we are trained to look at the black spot on a blank sheet of paper, but if you think positive you are always trying to find creative ways to fill the white space." Or: "The future is not something you arrive at, you make it yourself every day."
This message of positive enforcement is carried in Boss, a monthly magazine for Nepali entrepreneurs, and the glossy women's magazine, VOW, published in both English and Nepali.
'Wherever I go, there I am,' Wadhwa writes in an editorial in a recent issue of VOW, on returning to her job after many months due to illness in the family. 'My eyes are brimming as my heart wants to burst open to say thank you to all of you…I witnessed the miracle and the power of those prayers every month, every week and every day.'
Wadhwa says she hasn't always been so positive about herself. At age 28, following her son's birth in Patan Hospital in1984, Wadhwa recalls having an existential crisis. "I remember thinking I had done nothing with my life, I had no dreams, no visions," she says.
Accompanying her husband to Sri Lanka, she started the travel magazine, Explore Sri Lanka, "without a business plan, and no clue about how to go about it." Later, in California, she launched a travel magazine where she did the writing, editing, desktopping, marketing and even the delivery of copies to hotels in the Fresno area. "I learnt the business the hard way, doing everything myself," she recalls.
Returning to Nepal in 1995, Wadhwa helped restart Shangri-la Inflight Magazine for Royal Nepal Airlines. After hearing her libertarian husband lecture her endlessly about the free market, Wadhwa decided in 2003 to launch the monthly business magazine, Boss.
"People thought it was a terrible name for a magazine because the word has negative connotations, but that was precisely the point. Businessmen in Nepal are all seen as crooks, we had to change that image," she says.
Seven years later, Boss is regarded as the premier business journal in Nepal and its annual Top Ten awards constitute a prestigious recognition of young entrepreneurs. "We wanted to create icons in society, the younger generation need role models, people they admire for their integrity and hard work, people who they can emulate," explains Wadhwa. She also believes that being a leader places great responsibility on a person: "It is a holy covenant to behave yourself, to set an example. You are put in that position, how dare you misbehave?"
What Wadhwa hadn't expected were the number of women entrepreneurs who were reading Boss, which led her to set up the 'Voice of Women' club, the logical conclusion of which was the magazine, VOW. "Especially with the Nepali language edition, we get many calls from people telling us what a difference the magazine has made to their lives," Wadhwa says.
A man who was against his daughter-in-law remarrying after his son died called the office to say how an article about widow marriage changed his outlook. Charities flocked to support prison inmates after a recent article about the work of Indira Rana Magar with children of jailed mothers.
Having been selected as Nepali Times Company of the Month, Wadhwa expands on what motivates her. "After a while you realise it's not just to keep your magazines afloat by selling ad space," she explains, "it is about involving people, by making them a part of your story to change society for the better."
www.vownepal.com
www.readtheboss.com
Previous Company of the month:
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
July 2008
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
