At BrilliantRead Media, it is our constant endeavour to identify and share some of the unique and compelling stories from the startup ecosystem. As part of this, we invited yet another young and passionate women entrepreneur Shivangi Goel for an interview with BrilliantRead Media. She is a Social Entrepreneur, Change Enabler and the Founder of SOCH(अंत ही आरम्भ). Let’s learn more about her background, her inspiring journey so far and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Shivangi:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I obtained my Engineering degree from SRMS Bareilly. I have always had the ability to carve out a place for myself, and because of this, my teachers and coworkers from both my school and my place of employment still have very clear memories of Shivangi.
My ability to forge my own identity has been aided by being a favourite in my family, school, and place of employment. I worked as a SQL Developer with Xceedance Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. after graduating, and I quickly established myself as a favourite there as well.”
My time at Xceedance was enjoyable, yet I still felt lacking in several ways. The Shivangi who sought to inspire was estranged from the Shivangi who was inspired. My first experience with humanitarian altruism was teaching the children of a local labour colony as part of the ongoing construction there. I also tutored my housekeeper’s children.
I wasn’t satisfied with my job because I still wanted to give back to the community that had given me so much. Following a heartfelt conversation, one of my friends and I started tutoring children living in the area’s slums, and we also succeeded in enrolling several of them in Gurgaon’s Govt. schools.
I considered this to be my calling. I won’t complain about having to get up at five in the morning for this. My heart was at its fullest as I was doing this.I filled out numerous volunteer applications for NGOs.”
Call it luck or not, but I was never chosen for any of them. I came to the realization, “Why not make an opportunity for yourself and others?” because I wasn’t given an opportunity. It was the day and the incident that inspired me to start my journey of entrepreneurship. Undoubtedly not a one-day sail.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
For around three years, I have worked in the corporate sector. I was longing for weekends during these years. Despite having the most encouraging coworkers and a comfortable workplace, I felt like there was a lock on the door to my contentment that was missing. Over time, I came to understand that it was my ikigai or calling. I didn’t want to wake up at 5 am for work, but for SOCH, I did.
After weeks and months of internal reflection, self-examination, and self-doubt, I came to the conclusion that SOCH is the piece missing that would have enabled me to feel content not just for this life but for many future lifetimes. It is what inspired me to launch my own NGO and pursue entrepreneurship.”
If you can devote 10-15 hours of your time to making the dreams of others a reality, why not do it for yourself? That was my straightforward guiding principle when I founded SOCH.
I also approach my team using this strategy. Instead of producing employees who can make ppts and excel spreadsheets, I produce leaders. I produce leaders of tomorrow.
‘SOCH (अंत ही आरम्भ)’ 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?
SOCH – अंत ही आरम्भ means your thinking prowess. Before the inception of any activity, there’s this vision in your mind. This is SOCH.
Any SOCH that leads to the अंत of negativity is an आरम्भ of positivity and a better future. This is what SOCH stands for and works for in its day-to-day functioning. The spheres of issue we work upon include Gender Sensitization and Bullying among kids.
We have held incorrectly perceived, misunderstood, and distorted concepts of gender for millennia. In an effort to address it, SOCH offers gender sensitivity workshops and seminars in corporate environments as well as in institutions. We want to make people more aware of how gender and concepts connected to it are actually defined and interpreted.
Bullying poses a serious threat to students everywhere. We offer anti-bullying programmes to school students in an effort to teach them the necessary skills to resist bullying. The workshops aim to educate children about bullying, its effects, and its avoidance.
What does your company specialise in?
SOCH – अंत ही आरम्भ specializes in gender sensitization and anti-bullying initiatives. Our beneficiaries include the LGBTQ+ Community and school children where we provide workshops on the same spectrum.
We have sensitized a quarter million lives till now. We actively share our knowledge on our social media handles through Instagram lives, social media posts and work shops.
Our only aim is not to sensitize people, in fact, it is being vocal on issues which people usually stay silent on and do not talk about openly.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
My team at SOCH is my main source of inspiration and my main motivator. I’ve worked with more than 100 leaders in my team so far, and each one of them has given me more than 100 reasons to continue moving forward in the face of countless obstacles.
There were times when I wanted to give up because things were going wrong with our projects and life in general, but I persisted. If not for myself, I would have had to keep going for my team who have total faith in me, which motivates me to go further every single day.
Perseverance is a concept, and from what I’ve learned about myself so far, I know that I’m a stead-fast, strong woman who doesn’t let obstacles stand in the way of her goals.
SOCH is a creation of mine, a child. And how can you expect a mother to give up on her child when all it requires is some care and dedication? I am unable to and never will.
We at SOCH are also motivated by the same passion and desire to serve, give back, and leave the world a better place than we found it. This is because everything I or we at SOCH make contributes to making humanity stronger every day. It propels us forward and prevents us from crumbling.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
For this, I have two parts. My team at SOCH, who not only supports me in all of my endeavours but also has my back whenever I stumble, is my constant source of inspiration.
I should also mention my family. It’s no play to start anything from scratch and risk everything you have. I took a big risk, and my family supported me all the way.
Every day I get up and work hard knowing that if anything goes wrong, my family will be there to catch me and prevent the Shivangi, who aspired to inspire, from collapsing.”
Any decision I make involves my partner in certain ways. He actually gave me the encouragement I needed to leave my corporate career and launch this audacious NGO.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned in your life?
First is prioritizing yourself. In my life, I had phases where I prioritized others more than they deserved and in that, lost parts of Shivangi. This made me a firm believer of self-prioritization.
It’s not something which says you to neglect other people in your life, but being conscious of what’s good and what’s not good for you. Leave what’s not.
Second, don’t fall into the pit of rat race. I ponder that if I had done a course in Social Work rather than Engineering, I have had created something lot bigger than what I have right now. I could have upskilled SOCH to higher levels. But that’s not something for me to regret, as I have faith that I can still create it.”
Third, always be grateful for anything and everything you have. Growing up, I have always been an overly anxious, over-achiever, and overthinker, wanting to do more. But some years into it, I realised the value of everything I have at this moment. It’s a blessing from God for me to be able to read, write, eat, play, talk, listen; a blessing which many people out there are devoid of. Courage builds a person, gratefulness nurtures it.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
To name a few, there are many. Consistent learning comes in first. For me and everyone else out there, learning is a process that never ends and never should.
Everything ends for a person on the day they believe they have learned everything. Consistent learning has kept me a student and allows me to expand my thinking and persona whenever I interact with a new person.
Prioritizing your own self first is the second. Love your partner, love your children, and love your team, but keep in mind that you too need love. Whether or whether the rest of the world shows you affection, you still need to take care of and love yourself.
I can’t recall ever going to bed without saying, “Shivangi, you did amazing today. I’m happy for you. Keep moving forward, sweetie.” Yes, it may sound crazy, but when it comes to love, who cares?
The third factor is consistency. Yes, what matters is consistency—in learning as well as in all other facets of life. The astonishing improvements we achieved at SOCH are solely the product of our consistency. Making yearly goals was another great aid to me because it reduced the possibility that I would make a mistake and allowed me to organise my schedule more effectively.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I believe the three L’s are the secret to success.
Love and learning and leadership.
Love and gratitude for everything you have in life and everything you owe.
Learning to widen your thinking and adopt new viewpoints, thoughts, and beliefs.
Leadership style to foster a more welcoming, fun, and non-bossy work environment.
In my perspective, manifestation also serves as a stimulant on the way to achievement.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
For students in their senior years of high school, don’t fall into the vicious trap of medical, engineering, or what everyone is doing.
You’ll be a crumpled rat among those millions in this rat race. The biggest advantage of the era we live in right now is that the internet has opened doors to earn money from any skill you master; be it makeup, cooking, reels, or YouTube, if you’re good at it you can earn money. Do something you are good at, not something the world wants you to be good at. We need to create our own path and be pioneer towards it.
For young professionals, my advice would be that life isn’t short. It’s long enough for you to chase it, lifelong. It’s of utmost importance to love what you do.
No matter how much millions your job is paying you, you’ll yearn for weekends like I did if you don’t find your heart & soul in the particular profession. It’s not a life worth living for, make your stay on this globe worthwhile.
For those young brains who have already started their work as a professional and are not content with it; just wait. Sit down. Make a roadmap towards your passion. Find and master the skills required to make your passion into your profession. Start your side hustle.
The moment you start earning decently from there, say goodbye to your job. Don’t get demotivated if your hustle takes 1 or 2 years to show results. Once it does, you’ll be doing what you love and not what you pretended to love, for 25 years.
Life is too long, we just keep making it short by monotony.
Last but not least, why Gender Sensitization or Anti-Bullying workshops are important to you?
There have been years where people were silenced. People were never out and loud, rather they were afraid and closeted. Not that they’re showing the courage to come out, it becomes our obligation as a fellow human being to learn to respect and understand them.
It’s our duty to learn what are the different gender identities, how to identify them; and the most important being how to make the members of the community feel included and comfortable being among us.
Be it learning the basics off pronouns or delving into sexualities, it becomes extremely important for any individual, company, corporate, institution etc. to understand about the gender spectrum.
There are hundreds of suicides happening every year by students as young as in 6th standard. Therefore it becomes extremely important to include it in our existing curriculums what exactly bullying is and how to prevent it from happening. Kids don’t realize how the smallest of words can affect someone. It becomes necessary in lieu of such cases to educate kids about anti-bullying.
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.
