Page 71 - #letter to son

#SangamNiti EVENING REFLECTIONS
the unshakeable foundations of this steel behemoth. Creative ideas
meshed into unrelenting aspirations are more powerful than funds to
start a business.

The celebrated ex-CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, worked midnight to
5 am as a receptionist to earn money while pursuing her Master’s at
Yale. In an interview for a speakers’ series at PepsiCo, she described
coming to work every morning at 7 am, rarely leaving before 8 pm,
and taking home potato sacks of mail to read overnight. She did all this
while raising two young daughters.

Another business icon, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ life story shows the
incredible planning and hard work he put in growing his firm. His early
days at the company were characterised by working over 12-hours for
seven straight days, and being up until 3 am to ship books. If you want
to take the elevator to success, hard work and perseverance can replace
nothing else.

When we started our media venture, I knew through early signs that
it was an opportunity that couldn’t be bypassed. We had conviction
in the merits of the business. We had faith even before the office lease
was signed. We were prepared to bootstrap and ready to persevere.
We failed and we failed fast. We got back up and learnt to fight for our
survival and existence. We knew that this was a business for the long-
haul and eventual success required that we be patient. We voted with
our own equity. Today, the business has achieved multi-million dollar
valuations. But we believe we’ve just started.

From experience I can say that businesses that will succeed in today’s
environment are those that are agile and learn from changes that happen
in the marketplace in real-time, rather than follow a playbook written
on day one.

#SangamNiti: Always remember that visionary ideas are much more
powerful than funds. Once these ideas take flight, funds will but follow.

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