Teen whiz turns life coach

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He doesn’t have an IIT or IIM degree, but this does not stop 19-year-old Karnika E. Yashwant from, coaching CEOs and CFOs on life skills.

The teenager, who set up his own web designing firm at the age of 14 after completing class 10 from Coimbatore school, has been on a self-learning spree from the Internet. Today his firm, which is into training, web consultation and social media marketing, boasts of a Rs1.2-crore revenue with a significant global clientele.

“Google is my guru,” says Mr KEY, as he is fondly called, who learnt about 20 computer languages on his own from the Net to start his company in 2007. “It took me six months to finish my first project but now I can design a website in 10 minutes,” adds the banker’s son who spends over 16-17 hours on the computer.

Today he has an Associate of Science and an MBA degree to his credit, all completed online.
Age has never been a barrier for Yashwant as he deals with most of his customers online. “When they are convinced about your value and consistency, there are more avenues for the youth,” says the CEO of EnS Group (named after his parents Elango and Suguna) which employs 26 full-time people and more on contract.

While doing a web project for ISKCON in 2010, he was initiated into the world of philosophy that saw him turn into a motivational speaker. Since then he has lectured in over 100 colleges and has started a corporate HR and life skills training firm. Recently, he also won the Best Mentor award from TN Arya Vision Mahasabha in 2012.

After this successful corporate training stint, Yashwant now wants to help college students. He plans to launch a new portal, arKEYtect, which he hopes to tie-up with over 100-plus colleges, to hone communication and leadership skills among students.

“Getting other people involved in what they do is the KEY to happiness,” he say