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4 years.. Feels like a lifetime to me.. A life time of learning.. June 27th 2006 was the day WATBlog was born as it had its first post on that day.. Its been four years since and we have crossed quite a few landmarks and yet I feel so dissatisfied as to the amount we still need to achieve. We started with 1 post or story a day and our early stories were not more than one para! Have a look at our first one here. We have grown from that and today have 5000+ posts on Web, Advertising & Technology, over 100+ video interviews on WATShow and we reach over 172 countries in a month! We started with WATShow next which was a video interview section and we were surely amateurs then if you saw our first attempt ! But our latest one is miles better than that. In short we have come a long way. Ive always believed its not where you are but how you got there is what defines who you become. We have got here through a lot of pain, effort and overcoming challenges. Being a self funded startup (Ive never taken money from anyone.) we have had to face some really rough days! Today WATBlog is part of WATMedia Pvt Ltd a privately held company founded by me which runs a family of sites and businesses under the WAT Brand. We run WATConsult – A leading social media firm, WATShow – The Video Show, on WAT, WATPR – Press Release site on WAT, WATJob – Job sites on WAT, WATGame -A Gaming site and we also recently initiated our own Social media course and have started a social media centric blog in Socialtrakr.com. We employ 25 fulltime people and dozens of freelancers who help us run all of this. We are a profitable! Yes we have been profitable since 10 months now as an overall company. Question is.. Did we reach where we wanted to be in 4 years? Honestly I never had  a plan. All I wanted to start was a  simple blog that helped me get my views across to a larger audience. From that it sorta grew into something that was naturally progressing. Given that I was 21 years old and full of ideas I kept adding newer things to the WAT family each year. Did all of them succeed? not really.. Do I consider myself a success? Not really again. Most people start their careers at 25 and Id be foolish to think Im successful and been there done that at my age. I have got somethings right but each day goes by and I realize how little I know on how to run, manage, grow and scale businesses. Its truly a daily learning exercise of sorts in knowing oneself and understanding markets and the world around us. Ive never had mentors or board of advisors here at WAT but I also do know that a lot of advisors and board members of other companies read us. Though I must admit Ive  been privileged to be competing in the space with people far older and far more experienced than me. Guys with IIM IIT degrees, Guys with decade of work experience behind them, Guys who have worked in professional companies etc. I have none of that and that make me and the company I run sort of a maverick. It also gives me an opportunity to learn from them. Ill be blatant in saying Ive learned a lot from competition and its great to have tough competition as thats one way to scale the bar for yourself. All in all I believe we are still learning, still trying hard and still failing more than we are succeeding. Some challenges we still face are on meeting the expectation of readers, on the monetization of WATBlog and on building a media power house in the digital media space. Yes we have aspirations now which we hope we will realize in the years to come. On this day when we turn 4 years old we would like to thank all the readers. Those who loved us and those who hated us as well. Both helped us grow. One through encouragement and one through feedback. Id also like to thank all the bloggers right from those who wrote great stuff and to those who tried. I believe all have contributed immensely in taking us where we are. All in all its been a growing up of sorts for us here and especially for me at WAT! Suddenly Im not the 21 year old brash kid. Im slightly older, calmer, wiser and also slightly more aggresssive with purpose. Hopefully Id be able to translate all this in bring a better WATBlog to all of you. PS: You will get to see a lot of new changes at WATBlog so stay tuned. Related Posts The Big Fight: Social Media Vs Traditional Media Dial62 – When You Are Lost! Infosys Ventures Into Social Media Marketing – Launches iEngage 30% Indians Access Social Media Via Mobiles: Social Media Survey Skype Calls for ‘Ubiquity’: Mobile Video Calls Need Help With Social Media Marketing?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Submit Your Work To The 1st International Social Media Awards