Dr. Harshaa Vinod Tells Us Why Happiness Creates Success And Not The Other Way Around

Dr. Harshaa Vinod began her career working in a pharmaceutical MNC, but soon realized that art, and teaching others about art, was really where her passion lay. That is how she started Harshaa’s Modern Art Classes in Pune.

Her institute offers art and jewellery design courses, and her students are women, for the most part. She also works as a jewellery designer and stylist for films, TV serials, ad films and portfolios.

Talking about her journey, she says, “Initially I started the institute to pursue my passion for art and education, and due to my love for jewellery designing. Slowly, I realized that this is a good career option! I make sure to never treat it as a hobby. It is my full time profession.”

To her, the biggest happiness is when her students, after completing the course, go on to start their own ventures. She believes that in this way, her work is also contributing to the financial empowerment of women.

Since her focus is on enabling other women to also turn entrepreneur, her art and jewellery design courses focus not only on the basics of product design, but also include some understanding of marketing, costing and professional packaging for students.

Given Dr. Harshaa’s work as a teacher as well as with design and styling for shoots, how does she manage to wear multiple hats?

She agrees that time management has been the biggest challenge for her, over the last 18 years of her career. She has two simple tips to make this happen effectively:

• To have a daily and weekly plan in place and

• To delegate work well to team members

A key part of any role includes keeping one’s learning updated, and she adds, “As I am working in the field of Art & Design, I have to keep myself updated with new trends and technology. While working for films or TV serials, I need to create different designs for different characters, keeping in mind the story line. We cannot repeat the same designs.”

While this is challenging, each successful project also brings her enormous happiness.

Beginning her day with Yoga keeps her grounded and enables her to wear these multiple hats with ease. She firmly believes that, “Success is not the key to Happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”

She adds that of course, dreaming alone does not ensure success; instead, a combination of pursuing your happiness and working hard to make it happen, is what she credits for her own success.


Written by Niki PK