No Substitute for Hard Work

Day 59 / 365

I have been watching a lot of Shark Tank, the Indian one. The second season seems visibly worse, because of the lack of Ashneer Grover. So I started rewatching the pitches from the first season on Youtube, which then led me to some of Ashneer’s interviews. The more I heard him talk the more I was intrigued by his journey. So much so that I ordered his book “Dogalapan”

In this book, Ashneer talks about his life and his career, the challenges he faced, and the hard work he put down. And it was a real eye-opener. I read it all in one go, I just couldn’t put the book down. I won’t say it’s because he is a literary genius. Rather, it's because the book resonated so much with me.

When we look at these successful people, we want to believe that maybe they just got lucky. Or maybe they were already from a rich family, or they were at the right place at the right time. I’ve been guilty of this as well. But if you look deep into their journey, you will find more often than not that the biggest factor for their success was sheer will and hard work.

Ashneer went to IIT Delhi and worked hard here to get good grades, getting a 9+ CGPA in all semesters and a 10 in the final one. When he worked at corporate jobs, he excelled there as well. He worked hard to get results for his employer, and that was reflected in the performance bonuses that he got.

In my search for a new venture for myself, a new way to make money, I forgot the most important thing. I need to work hard and improve my skills. I need to become a better coder, a better planner, and a better team leader. I had been concentrating on the wrong things so far. But thanks to this book I know what to believe in again. I just hope I can execute on it now.