Pathik Bhatt

Author: Pathik

  • Tips for Entrepreneurs from the Founders of DP Legal LLC

    Umang DesaiI had the privilege of being Umang’s stunt partner on our college dance (raas) team. We shared many hours of practice together on the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana campus, and also two victories in national competitions.

    Now he has partnered up with another fellow Illini, Ashish Patel, Ashish Pateland together they recently founded DP Legal, a Chicago based law firm specializing in corporate law, estate planning and real estate. Ashish and Umang are excited about their new venture, and were kind enough to share things they’ve learned from their experience for others who are thinking about forming or joining a start-up here. Read on for some pro bono tips: (more…)

  • Find Reasons To Celebrate

    The sun will come up today. The sun will go down. People will go to work, or school, or not. They will drive. They will eat. They will watch tv. They will sleep. Today is like any other day. Except it is also different. It is different because we as a people have decided to use such days to celebrate. We have decided to think about this particular day differently than we would any other day of the year. We recognized how powerful changing ones outlook can be. We can simply decide, “today is special” and it becomes so – to you and to everyone who knows you. You wake up with a smile. People who know you think of you, and smile at you when they see you. They wish you joy and happiness – because it is today. Today people treat you differently, just because all of us collectively decided that this is how this type of day should be treated. And so it happens that way. (more…)

  • Tips for Entrepreneurs from the Founders of Elegance Decor

    elegance decor outdoor weddingIt is with great pleasure that I share this behind-the-scenes look at Elegance Décor and the founders, who are 3 the most creative minds in the wedding and event décor business. Both my wife and I went to the University of Illinois in Champaign with them and since then we have shared many great times together with this family. We were also fortunate enough to have them help us with the décor for our wedding events (even though they attended), which made everything look beautiful! But of course that’s not the point of this post. In this interview Swetal, Bhavik and Ronak Patel reveal the not-so-glamorous side of working on a start-up and share the fears that they had when they started. They have great insights for new entrepreneurs, and after reading this you will be reassured that you’re not alone if your struggle – and that it’s totally worth it! (more…)

  • Jim Carrey Shares Wisdom on Outlook and Life with Students

    jim-carreyI just stumbled across Jim Carrey’s commencement speech at the Maharishi University
    of Management, and I am both shocked and smiling. His outlook is incredible! After just hearing him say a few things I immediately opened a Word doc to start taking notes because it was clear it was worth remembering what this happy soul had to say. (more…)

  • Tips for Entrepreneurs from Sumeet Patel – Co-founder of BrandBacker

    Sumeet and I competed in an Indian dance competition many years ago back when I was on the Illini Raas Team and he was on Berkeley’s Raas Team. Fortunately, my team won that night – his placed 3rd. Although his dancing may not have been up to par (kidding of course), I can’t say the same about his knack for business. Sumeet has started three start-ups – BrandBacker is his latest. I got in touch with him recently to find out more about it and his other ventures. (more…)

  • Guest Post for Future MBA Students Featured on TopMBA

    I’ve made a habit of sharing my takeaways from conferences that I attend on my blog. My most recent post about what I learned at the 2014 Higher Ed Conference got some decent visibility after I made many of the active tweeters from the conference aware of the post. That was enough for one of the leading MBA websites to take notice and share it on their blog. Someone from QS TopMBA followed up with me shortly after they linked to my blog post:

    topmba-emailWhat do you think I said? (more…)

  • 11ish Takeaways from the 2014 Higher Education Summit

    pathik bhatt kelley badges I had the opportunity to attend the SalesForce Foundation’s 2014 Higher Education Summit in Tempe, AZ earlier this month – my first higher education conference after becoming a “higher education professional” this year. It was a great learning experience with nearly 600 attendees who were very willing to connect and share ideas with each other. In that same spirit I wanted to share some of my takeaways from the conference as well, so here goes: (more…)

  • Why MBAs Should Be More Like Noah and Less Like DRose

    As mnoah1uch as it hurts me to say this, Derrick Rose is approaching his off-court role as a Chicago Bull all wrong. He did not see it as his job to recruit talent such as King “flop-master” James to the team when we so badly needed him. I like everyone else outside of Miami will diss LeBron, but that’s only because he’s so freaking good and would gladly take him on my team. Back to my point: Rose said he didn’t have a problem with recruiting and would do it if the team asked him to do so. That, my fellow MBA candidates and alumni, is precisely the attitude that results in 2 championships in ANOTHER CITY. (more…)

  • How My Kelley MBA Landed Me My Dream Job & A Second Home

    10,000 feet above the ground, I see the California mountains from my window seat as I’m headed home. My new home as of 3 months ago. I left Chicago, the city that raised me for all 29 years of my life (this is when all the people living downtown cringe and make sure I know “Aurora is not Chicago”). No one who knows me – including myself – could have pictured me leaving the greater Chicago area (happy?), much less for the state of Indiana. “Why don’t you and Bhumi go somewhere nice?” asked Naitik, my younger brother who had just returned home after grad school in Berkeley. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have similar thoughts about the location to where I was about to move to. (more…)

  • 6 Reasons Why You Should Visit Zappos When You’re in Vegas

    My wife and I had the privilege of going on a Zappos Tour on our Vegas trip last month, and I’m so glad we did! I knew I wanted to make it out there ever since I finish reading Delivering Happiness, the story about their company & how they built a great culture written by their CEO Tony Hsieh. zappos-family-sign (more…)