At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited yet another passionate women entrepreneur – Anita Rego for an exclusive interview with us. She is an Entrepreneur, Leader, Mentor, Coach, Change Enabler and Consultant. Anita is the Founder Director of PEARLSS 4 Development. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, her background and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Anita:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
My seed to the helping space was sown very early in my life when I accompanied my mother to reach out to the sick and the needy. From the early days, my interest was in health and greatly involved in the care when someone falls sick in the family. After my post-graduate studies in Social Work, I moved to NIMHANS to do my M.Phil. in Psychiatric Social work at Mangalore University and PhD. Marital and Family interactions of people with minor mental disorders. I have completed certification in the space of therapeutics, management, and data protection.
My career journey has given me a 360-degree understanding of the healthcare and wellness and public health space.
Starting my journey in the clinical as well as grassroots space, over time I moved to manage large global and local projects. At heart, my interest was therapeutics and behaviour change. I have contributed to research and assessments, training and capacity building, conceptualization and proposal development, and policy development.”
I had the privilege to work with reputed organizations, on a full-time job or as a consultant. I have done assignments for organizations such as bilateral and multilateral organizations such as USAID, UNAIDS, UNDP, LSTM, LSE Centre for Effective Practice- Effective Intervention, World Health Organization, and Governments, national and international NGOs, and corporates, directly or through an intermediary. The perspectives that range of functions that I worked on have provided me with deep perspectives on how people respond to change especially when life trajectories are complex and deeply entrenched.
I am innately passionate and enjoy co-working with people to develop solutions and results.
I am a risk-taker and enjoy venturing into spaces that are challenging and demanding. This quality of mine led me to initiate the consulting firm PEARLSS 4 Development Private Limited which provides consultancy services for workplace interventions in the space of creating, building, strengthening, monitoring, and evaluating change and growth.”
I am now harnessing my three-decade knowledge and experience to build a tele-mental health space under the brand name AMITA.
What attracts you to entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
I have always been interested in social impact and in every space, I have worked in, my energy and focus have been on it. When I had to resign from the position of Country Representative in the LSE Centre for Effective Practice- Effective Intervention due to personal reasons, the organic response was to enter the space of consulting and counselling.
I would not say it was any single trait of mine that brought in the entrepreneurial mindset; it blended with my skill set, my thinking style, and my ideate mindset. I am a solution finder, an evidence-based thinker, and a creative yet structural. In recent times, the ecosystem has promoted to become entrepreneurial and I had the opportunity to be a part of several capacity-building pieces of training and mentorships. I learned that just being an ideating or innovating is not enough.
One needs to learn several things from legal, operations, markets, financial management, impact, and personal characteristics such as a sense of achievement, motivation, and endurance in addition to technical knowledge. I had to run the extra mile to make that happen and there is not a day where you can relax or stop.
Every day is a new day and it gives you the kick to keep the going consistent and balanced. It is immense growth between thinking up and implementing ideas, between revenues and costs, earning money and spending money, and between planning and improvising.”
‘PEARLSS 4 Development’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving?
The original name for the enterprise was PEARLS for development and I worked using that name for almost 5 years without registering the organization. I suppose everyone starts small and would like to ground themselves.
When I went to register, I realized that all the possible versions of the name were taken and I decided to make it unique with PEARLSS 4 Development.
The name is an acronym for professional expertise for action, learning, research, strategy, and systems for development, the core works that we do.”
Our journey has been wonderful over the years and we will continue to achieve our purpose.
What does your company specialize in?
We have two major activities under the company:
(1) We provide counselling and psychotherapy services to those with mental health issues, marital problems, and people facing violence
(2) We carry out assessments, training, tracking, and impact assessments for corporates for CSR and Companies on POSH, mental health issues and violence-free environments.
(3) We provide training for skill building for NGO staff, carry out assessments and studies, support in developing concept proposals and monitoring indicators for the project, carry out periodic audits and impact assessment and evaluations and develop policy documents for organizations on development issues
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
Our consulting business slowed down but we did not. We ventured into building the mental health platform. We set the free online mental health services and the experience gave us the energy to build a formidable space for therapy.
We engaged in a series of free training programs and this made us still relevant in the space. Our focus was to make a social impact and not think of revenue as the crux of our being; a philosophy that we
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
If one is focused on the purpose and the vision, the challenges appear smaller than they really are. I believe that if you are relevant in the space, then people seek you. The word of mouth is a big space and our networks have been generous to promote us. Every challenge is an opportunity to dream and carve a change.
Our satisfaction comes from the point where we see people and projects growing and handling their problems with greater ease and comfort. When we look at the results with each of our clients, we see growth and when one sees progress, the challenges are opportunities to find creative solutions. We believe in the agency of the client and our co-working of solution are based on respect, sensitivity, and purpose.
Our focus is on building people by healing their traumatic journey and taking responsible actions for themselves and the world around them.
What are the most important lessons you have learned in your life?
Success and happiness are within you. We define it for ourselves.
Do not run after other people’s definition of success and happiness.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
My biggest source of motivation is the sparkle in my son’s eyes when he hears about my growth. But foremost, is the enthusiasm and the desire to bring about change in the client is what makes me walk the path of counselling and consulting promising and doable.
It is the energy that emerges from the very existence of those who want to live a life of joy and happiness and/or reduce the pain in their lives.”
People try multiple ways to reduce pain; they do not realize that if they were no pain, we would understand joy. If we did not anxiety, we would not strive for progress. If there were no sensitive people, we would not have empathetic people.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
What has really worked for us is the confidence of the client in our delivery and quality. One thing that we rigorously follow is the culture of continuous learning. The second is reading the pulse of the client and the ecosystem.
We try to get into the skin of the client and try to understand their psyche and what they want from us. Once we have understood that, we tailor-make the solution to closest fit to their needs and desires.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
Empathetic leadership is what is most required in the current scenario. Everyone is in their own rat race and we need to be present for people in their difficulties.
What are some of the strategies that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
The biggest strategy that I use in my life is being grounded and thinking that the ‘present’ is the biggest present that one could hold in one’s life. Sharing your ‘presence for the other’ is the biggest gift that I can provide to people. Often those who most need it, do not get it as they also lack the resources to access help.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Focus, hard work, and persistence despite the challenges or troubles. One needs to look at the small joys and hold on to them to motivate oneself.
The small successes will gradually build up and lead to bigger successes.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
Work hard the first five years, connect with people the next five years and then enjoy the fruits of your progress for the next 10 years.
It is important that you build yourself as a brand and people associate you with a certain skill set.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
