As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from the startup ecosystem, we invited yet another passionate and purpose-driven woman entrepreneur – Dr Shreya Govind for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. Dr Shreya is a proven leader, certified corporate trainer and consultant. Let’s read more about her inspiring journey so far and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive Interview with her:
Talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I was born in well to do and highly educated family in Bihar where education was of paramount importance. I excelled in studies throughout my school days and graduated with Hons. in Political Science from prestigious Miranda House College, Delhi University. I then pursued my PG in Management from IITTM, Gwalior and specialized in Human Resource Management with distinction.
I always had a keen interest in people matters and had leanings towards Training & Development. Hence, it was quite natural for me to opt for a T&D role with Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training where I was instrumental in designing their world-class Training programs.
I continued excelling in my professional life and played many important and leadership HR roles in reputed organizations of varied size and industries like WNS, MPC, UBQ Technologies. However, I also simultaneously harboured a strong passion for attaining a PhD degree and then embark upon an entrepreneurial journey in the area of skill development to become a change agent for many lives across the various strata of the society.
It was my sheer passion and single-minded focus that enabl me to successfully pursue and attain both my dreams even when I was continuously juggling between my home and work responsibilities.
I successfully transitioned from a fruitful corporate life to a demanding entrepreneurship journey in 2016 – just a year and a half after giving birth to her second child. I also utilized my brief maternity-related break to fulfil most of my doctoral thesis requirements and also getting trained on becoming a professional trainer from IATD.”
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
First and foremost what I would call is the degree of Drive/Passion that one has for his/her dream. Many confuse it with the level of dissatisfaction with the current job to which I mostly disagree.
I chose entrepreneurship because I always wanted to make an impact. I remained true to my initial dream of becoming an agent of change by sharing my knowledge with the unprivileged class and also with young Indians of very impressionable age.”
Your current financial standing: another critical factor that people have to consider while making such tectonic career shifts your current family arrangement becomes another critical factor since it majorly influences the amount of time and focuses you can have on your dream
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
The biggest limiting factor is the woman’s mindset and self-confidence. If the mindset is positive and the self-confidence is high; then nothing can limit a woman to break the glass ceiling. Look at any successful women leader and you will find these two common traits in all.
Like all other women, I had 2 major challenges;Financial Stability and Family. It’s always a tough call and depends on certain factors”
Another critical factor that people have to consider while making such tectonic career shifts. your current family arrangement becomes another critical factor since it majorly influences the amount of time and focuses you can have on your dream. If you ask me, I would say those who can keep the list of challenges minimized and have a reasonable risk appetite are the ones who usually cross the line and pursue their dreams
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
Everyone has different motivator for themselves. I would say I believe in Confidence and conviction.
I have not started my entrepreneurial journey only for money. My dream is to become an agent of change by sharing her knowledge with the unprivileged class
For women, money is emotional currency. It’s tied to our sense of self-worth and self-confidence, and our feelings of safety and security. These feelings often translate into self-limiting decisions.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Sometimes it does happen when there is pressure and it creates stress. I try to the plan and prioritize strategy to manage the daily workload. I Consciously, try to draw the line between personal and professional space and time. And most importantly adhere to it. We can’t avoid stress but can certainly manage it by various techniques like Yoga, Meditation, pursuing non-work-related hobbies. I try to listen to songs and watch some light-hearted movies.
What has worked well for you so far?
I would rather say that one should compare correctly/positively and differently at different junctures. When you are feeling ‘top of the world’, You should compare yourself to more successful friends around you. It will keep you grounded and fuel your ambition.
But when you are going through a tough time, compare yourself to the lesser successful friends. Then you feel more privileged and positive about your abilities and successes till then. It will help you overcome the temporary self-doubts and negative thinking.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Everyone has a different interpretation of success, as per me, keys to success are:
1 – Keep learning from one’s mistakes and making a mental note of these major learnings
2 – It is always important to break big goals into smaller milestones and celebrate the attainment of each milestone. When in doubt, you can take stock of the wins/losses of these smaller milestones and most often you will find yourself in greener territory
3 – It is very important to keep demarcation between professional and personal success. Failures in either should not create self-doubts in the other space
4 – Whenever in doubt, be open to discuss and change course if needed. Big egos always create self-doubts because you are raising the stakes for yourself
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
There is no age to be an entrepreneur. There is no too old or no too young. All you have to believe in the dream you dreamt off and do whatever it takes to make it happen. Believing in yourself when everybody thinks what we dream of is a fairy tale is the most important thing. I would suggest all aspiring entrepreneurs friends look around and within themselves. Around to find what’s the key skills required for success in their chosen field. Then inwards to identify one’s strength and weaknesses. Then come out with a plan of how to maximize their strengths and minimize their weakness. Second, as I said earlier, breaking big goals into smaller ones is important to keep oneself pivoted.
Lastly, when you look around, you will invariably notice that the most successful people in any field are not always the ones who had always excelled in everything. They succeeded because they could identify their strength & calling and tirelessly worked towards acquiring other necessary skills on the way
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
Everybody defines leadership differently but I really like the way John C Maxwell defines leadership, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” Irrespective of how you define a leader, he or she can prove to be a difference-maker between success and failure. There are many different theories behind successful leaders
I believe the below points are important:
1 – Leaders should always inspire others. They should always stay calm, positive and keep the motivation level up
2 – He should be the one leading the way towards the solution but should avoid hogging the limelight and taking the credit all the time. Like a true leader, he should share the success with everyone and take the responsibility for failure
3 – Leaders should always have a growth mindset and focus on innovation
4 – And lastly, I believe that leaders should be adaptive to the changes which are happening in our VUCA world
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.
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