As part of our ongoing quest to get you meaningful and powerful stories from the startup ecosystem, this week we invited yet another passionate entrepreneur – Joydeep Ray for an exclusive interview with BrilliantRead Media. He is the Founder and MD at OnEnergy. Let’s read more about Joydeep’s inspiring journey so far and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I come from a middle-class background and also from a tier-4 city. My father was an insurance agent. So being from a middle-class family I always knew the value of an opportunity.
Getting an admission in a Pvt. Engineering College & spending over a lac rupees is no less than a big opportunity for me.
As I said a single opportunity is dam imp & a big thing for me. So I proved myself on that and secured a campus placement job and landed in Mumbai with a new opportunity once again.
However, the job was not that high paid job & 2out of 15people who selected in the job joined and I was one of them. This was the first time from a small town I came to a metro city and it was a new life for me all the new people around me a city with a new language. With the salary of 7500, I survived in Mumbai until a decent paid job after 1.5Yrs. I remember a lot of people said and laughed and said in this salary one can not even survive by eating “vada pav” and You are taking this job. Still, I accepted this job and struggled for 1.5years to prove myself and others that there is nothing more bigger than your will power, not even your problem.
After1.5Year a got a new job, It was a start-up and within 6months I proved myself to be in the core team & within a Year I become the CEO of the Company.
From my childhood I always wanted to be the Leader & winning a task or proving on any task was kind of I always fond of. This attitude always provoked me to take new challenges & throwing myself in the uncomfortable situation becomes a new normal habit for me.
This same attitude pushed me to quit the comfortable job and start from a scratch as a result I started “onEnergy” with a new challenge 1.5 years back.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
It all started with a habit rather I call it a problem.
I love to throw myself in an uncomfortable situation. I always knew one can only learn better when she/he is not in a comfortable situation.
I remember in class XII, I used to go for maths tuition. Everything has pro & cons. Pro was, the teacher was famous for is teaching and cons was he used to insult students in a full batch if the student fails to solve the problem. So, in the fear of getting insulted & obviously it’s a very uncomfortable situation – I used to rework the sums & chapter twice. So that was the source of the thought process.
Meanwhile, in job mid of 2018, I have started one startup which was
in Mental health in the name of “talk to buddy”. I’ve started this, once I found one of my close friend who recently shifted to Mumbai and joined one startup due to some personal & professional life problem he becomes very depressed and helpless. He was so depressed he thought of making suicide few times, that scenario pushed me to think that how difficult it would be for someone when he becomes depressed, how badly he needs support in this time. However, after 6 months of giving effortless try, I have to shut it due to some technical problem.
So basically I always wanted to solve a real-life problem from the beginning and starting by my own.
As I worked in a start-up & knew the consequences – I picked entrepreneurship as a new challenge, a new journey & a new Learning session.”
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
Actually, I bring challenges & difficulties on my own. More of it it’s all about the vision or how to see the challenges or problems. For someone, it may be an excuse of not doing a job but for me, it’s a new opportunity. I convert every problem into a new opportunity.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
I know nowadays it has become a very common statement but, I never started my venture to do business. My whole journey is a full roller coaster with lots of ups & downs. Even I haven’t started my journey (JOB) with the focus of earning money. I always seen money as a by-product as what you are doing.
So basically it played an emotional factor for me. I believed selling is not about what product or service you are selling. Sell happens when u succeed to target the emotional factor to convert the deal. Whatever sell happens there is always an emotional factor present & it has to be.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I remember while in a job, whenever I had to work post my working hours I feel like there is so much stress, workload, Pressure in a job.
But since I have started my own venture, hardly there are any working hours, I had to work late nights. Had to travel till late nights post-meeting. But never felt like workload types.
It all starts with what you choose to do, what you love to do that’s all.
So if you are in a job a late-night work is out of no choice then it will be burden & stress. and if you are in a job but still love what you are doing it won’t be pressure or stress.
“ there is a difference between Inspiration & motivation..”
What has worked well for you so far?
Every success which looks like overnight success is actually the sum of a lot of sacrifices, efforts and good works.
So there is no specific one thing that worked well but the sum of all my efforts I took and somehow all the efforts turn out well in each place.
It reminds me of the famous line of Steve jobs –
“ You cannot connect the dots by looking forward”
So when I look back I found that whatever I have done right or wrong, today I’m here.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
There is no key of success of for me.
I define success with as a process with a sum of milestones.
People say you have to be focused, hardworking and so on to be successful but to me, it’s all are the by-product of the process itself. It automatically brings all my attention to my work & and I become so engaged that I can think of any other things.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
I’m not that big person or business tycoon to give advice. But I can share my learnings I got throughout my journey till date.
First, Remember u can learn from every single person it may be a street vendor or from any business tycoon but u have to have the enthusiasm or vision. At least I think in that way and it helped me a lot.
Whenever I meet a new person, I consider it as a new learning session, from his journey I can learn something new, a new chapter of the book called “life”.
Second, Never ever miss an opportunity. If you don’t know how to do it, take it then think how to do it, believe me, it’s a great learning experience.
And last but not the least always believe in yourself, if you can’t believe in yourself or in your vision anyone in the world will not do then.
What’s your take on coronavirus?
We all know this situation has a huge impact across all the industries. As I told you I always take problem or obstacle as a new opportunity and as I continue to do so.
I have found out a very genuine problem people facing now & whenever I witness a new problem, I just fall in love with the problem. Currently working towards the solution of that problem.
We are planning to start a product line under the umbrella of “One-energy”. The product will be launched soon in the market and I’m very excited about if. A new opportunity of learning as always.
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.
