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 of business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, management students and aspiring entrepreneurs. As part of the endeavour, we invited Seasoned Entrepreneur and Leader – Deepak Gupta for an interview with us. He is the Founder & Director of Vision One Training & Advisory Pvt Ltd. Let’s learn more about his inspiring journey and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Deepak:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey, please;
Coming from a humble family from a village, having gone through hardships of life, lesson learnt is “Keep Moving”.
I am a strong believer that marching ahead in uncertainties often leads to the certainty of progress. Having the right people around, to help you boost in life, is a must.”
I am stubborn when I decide to do something, with a sense of urgency and ownership. I don’t waste much time in thinking and re-thinking instead of learning doing and improving. our company is based on these three pillars – “act now”, “act for yourself” and “act in the moment”.
To reach to a level of having being recognised as business troubleshooting and turnaround specialist, we had to cover a long journey. It was really a tough decision quitting a full-time corporate job with one of the largest MNCs. The last position held was National Sales Manager Dun & Bradstreet India.
Thereafter, planned ahead, identified people to come along and thought about a profession that should be matching to the skills sets gained, have to be sustainable and no retirement beyond that. Having said that, it’s was a daunting task aligning the expectations.
With the Vision to create value for all stakeholders, in the area which was perceived as Graveyard of Banking and financial institutions for businesses – NPA, the entire business model was developed and executed.
Along with that, I decided to continue to upgrade my learning & skills so did some courses like Insolvency and Bankruptcy, qualified as Independent Director, joined Delhi Management as lifetime member etc.”
It’s been an absolute challenging journey but the most satisfying ever in life. I am a Management Graduate in International Business & Marketing.
How did you find your passion and purpose and started working with it?
Just like many people I was not aware of my passion and purpose at the beginning of my professional career except the thought that I want to be successful and eliminate shortcomings in growth. Of course, there was something missing in life and the challenges I faced were simply trying to tell me to look in a new direction for a new journey.”
However, I was able to find it with the help of my mentors. And hence I strongly believe in the power of mentoring and coaching because that changed my life. I have been lucky that way wherein good people played the role of mentor time to time, stage by stage, actually giving me enough wings to fly high.
My purpose is to intensify mediation, training & development of SME/Mid Corporate which are still in need of hand-holding in special situations. If you make others winner, you are already a winner.
Hence, we the like-minded professionals have worked together for years started Vision One India.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
To do something new and productive that I have not done yesterday and to live and contribute in that day fully because I feel grateful every morning that I got another day to live.
I really feel humbled and honoured to be mentored by many friends, colleagues (since the list is long so not naming). My mother & sister have been the biggest sources of inspiration and motivation. Of course, my wife has always stood by me in any decision that I take. They all have been instrumental in shifting my paradigm.”
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I always try to make sure that doesn’t go overboard on engagements so that adequate time and energies are spent in finding out right & timely solutions. This way I do not feel overburdened with work that leads to stress.
In my free time, I try to travel, spend time with my family, and try to maintain my work-life balance as much as possible. Travelling helps me clear my mind and focus on issues that need my attention.
I would say that I get motivated seeing my parents work tirelessly in their respective fields and that drives me to go on despite all the challenges.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
One thing I would say that helped me and my company grow is the ability to listen to our customers. We believe that customers are not interested in products but in getting their problems resolved.
The more we listen to them, the problems they face in their business, the more efficiently and effectively we can resolve them. We believe that we are capable to do that and it is the only reason for our growth.”
Putting ourselves in client’s shoes and then look around for a possible and plausible solution is the key learning which never fails.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I will say it straight that there are many factors but if you really have to have the key elements then to me these are the ones –
The network is your net worth, courage, ownership, curiosity, risk-taking ability, attitude, consistency and belief. However, the right action has no alternate.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
I love my work. Anything you do in life you have to have a passion for and should not feel like work.
Work is my motivation while the right solution and conclusion to the customer is the reward. A rewarding success always keeps your passion and motivation up.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and see them as an opportunity to learn. Keep moving and work for the day.
Work towards something where you are confident about final deliveries to customers than getting influenced with other’s success, copy it and become dependent on someone else for your success.
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.
