At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring some of the meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of that endeavour, we invited yet another passionate young entrepreneur Ashutosh Singh for an interview with us to understand more about his entrepreneurial journey. Ashutosh is the Co-founder of Intellance. Let’s learn more about his journey, way forward and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Ashutosh:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
Hello, I’m Ashutosh Singh, a mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur started my first company Bixie at the age of 17. The business was always like ‘love at first sight’ to me. Being born and brought up in a middle-class family in Bihar, I always dream to make a hell lot of money so that I could buy a good home and car for my mother. Even during my college days, I used to think differently. I hated wasting time on activities that added no value. Hence I started my startup during college and I took chances, made mistakes and even failed.
Entrepreneurial journey has many dark sides, if you aren’t crystal clear about your objective, if you aren’t precise and not taking calculated risk then you will definitely fail.
I love building new things and I like challenges. I strongly feel failures teach us a lot and push us to do something remarkable. Failures are like breakups because you continue to love what you do despite getting hurt.
So when I failed, I checked what options do I have like should I start something again or take a job because It was always about building a great service or product which takes a lot of efforts and time and I strongly feel it should not be compromised. I never wanted to do it in a hurry so in my 4th year I decided to do masters so that I could buy myself some more time to start again and yes I did. I bounced back strongly and completely transformed my self from what I was 4 years ago.
What once began as a journey of seeking an answer to “how can I change this world with my ideas” transformed, in more recent years, into “how can I change myself so I can better be suited to contribute to this world.”
I started working on building a Skilling/UpSkilling startup because I believe Skill gap is a huge problem as there is a major mismatch between what is taught in college and what is required in the industry. Students are not equipped with resources from the beginning of college/university to enhance their skillset & learnings. As time goes by many jobs will be automated and new jobs will come like Data analytics, AI/ML Engineers, Cloud computing, robotics jobs, internet of things and many more which needs digital transformations of the current and coming generation of students/professionals
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
The freedom to live life on the edge, the freedom to create something which adds value to this world. I love working on humanity altering quests like clean energy, emerging technology, space exploration and a lot of scientific research I’m currently involved with. What I believe is that entrepreneurship is the single most important factor for innovations and increase of human potentials.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
When you are passionate about something it doesn’t feel like working. You want more out of it, more you do it more you are happy with yourself, so the feeling is amazing, and I am motivated because I have set my ambitions very high and I have a reason to live for.
And it’s very important that you have something to live for otherwise you will not achieve greatness. and for me, I want to be remembered for the challenges I faced and how I significantly contributed positive to this world, so this thought process keeps me motivated. I want to be an example of what human potential can achieve.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
There are a lot of challenges I face in my daily life like financially, emotionally, mentally and business obstacles so I run my business on metrics like revenue metrics, profit metrics so that we could manage our finances better.
I don’t want to make decisions on emotions so I run on my thought process and mentally if you aren’t prepared then you will lose yourself in the long run so I keep myself motivated. Business obstacles like whether I am aligned with my goals, what I’m doing for my people working, how fast we can scale, momentary failures and other planning so I believe some days are rough and somedays are spectacular but I see in the long run. I don’t judge it by a day.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
Money is strongly connected to emotions. How do you feel when you are at your last penny? Fear, Angered, Depression right?
But on the flip side how would you feel if you get the news that you won a lottery? Relieved, Top of the world, Elated thinking end of all problems?
Therefore, sometimes emotions are so strong that people start to hate money.
It stems from childhood and we handle money the way our parents handled money, passed onto generations.”
Formal education doesn’t include finance and that’s why rich become rich while poor and middle-class people stay poor because they don’t know the rules of money. So if you don’t handle a small amount of money well then you cant handle a lot of money. Sudden money can change personalities and attitudes so the key is to learn about finance and follow: Make it- Keep it- Multiply its rule.
We need to find peace and contentment with or without money so that we don’t end up giving so much power to money to dictate our lives and in that case, any financial devastation impacts less on our lives.
Millennials still go after buying liabilities like luxuries to impress others and that’s bullshit.”
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I keep financials in control because that can add a lot of mental pressure otherwise and I allocate my time to people I care about and sometimes travelling is a great stress booster.
I also play badminton, connect with like-minded entrepreneurs and I prefer maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I used to smoke feeling its a stress buster but I quit it because you cannot be loose control when it comes to your health. As an entrepreneur, you also have to maintain healthy and positive habits.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
Networking and creating a long term value has helped me a lot. I learn a lot from my network of amazing people even my clients are not just clients most of them are my friends too.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Follow your love because you will never regret it. Don’t measure yourself on the yardstick of society as to make your own.
Be a leader and leader is someone for me who walks into a den of depressed people and in the next 5 minutes, they all are shouting with excitement. In this fast-paced world if people want to follow you and walk with you you will succeed and for that, your attitude should be inspiring, your attitude should be to show them what they can achieve and evolve if they will be with you.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
My heart sank when I saw people selling some online courses that you will make money and people buy their shit thinking someday I can make one.
People are telling lies in name of mentorship that you can do this and that to succeed but my fellow aspiring entrepreneurs; please don’t fall into the trap and buy anything, authenticate your sources, choose your mentor wisely.
Entrepreneurship looks cool but its a lonely and bumpy journey, very few would tell you the dark side of it. If you believe in something and you are sure then come to this.
1 – Take care of your finances and take calculative risk.
2 – Find good people to support you.
3 – It’s okay if you have average salary just to live life because who knows 8 years down the line when you wake up one day you will be a millionaire but you have to hold on till you make it.
4 – Think about solving a problem and pay it forward.
For the rest of you who wished to start on your own and have not yet then learn about finance first, invest when you have money, support someone you know who are starting their venture, make good decisions and learn about new technologies and my last words about entrepreneurship is – It’s not everybody’s cup of tea so it’s good if you are in a job and earning well as long as you are happy with what you are doing. Live a life where you say WOW in the end.
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.
