Hitesh Gossain, founder & CEO of Onspon.com talks about his humbling experiences during his journey as an entrepreneur which changed his perspective of looking at things drastically.
By Hitesh Gossain
Founder & CEO, Onspon.com
I remember my early career days as the 'best performing employee' with fancy frills of staying in five star hotels and having luxury cars at my disposal. Even a five-minute delay for an airport pick-up or something equally small would make me furious - the world had to move at the same pace as I was moving, and it was fast. Super fast.
My first tryst with SE Asia saw me based in Bangkok for a while. During an early morning stroll, I happened to pass by a monastery. With some time on hand and the usual inquisitiveness to know what’s going on, I went inside. I was amazed at the atmosphere of happiness all around, without an iota of materialism, the currency that I valued to get me 'happiness'. Incidentally, at the same time, we were in the process of acquiring a company, and when I asked the promoter of the company (who was about to get a lot of zeroes added to his bank account) 'What’s next?’, he peacefully responded that he would donate all the money to causes that he believes in, and would himself become a monk.
That was the turning point. It changed my perspective of life. I was shocked and puzzled at the same time. And I asked myself the question which a lot of us dread to ask – ‘Why am I doing all this?’
This was eight years ago. Fast forward to 2014, when I decided to plunge into entrepreneurship. I guess self-actualization as per Maslow's hierarchy of needs came early to me. If I have to sum up my experience of two years in one word, it would be 'humbling'.
I have always been a workaholic and my start-up saw me doing just the same. The real test came when we had to hire, set up an office, negotiate contracts and plan growth - all with my own money. That’s when it dawned upon me that I was now happy and super-charged - not because of the frills and cars, but because of my inner self - the 'monk' inside me. It made me feel engaged, find awesome employees, convince them… in fact, the toughest sales pitch was to sell my profile to people, and be 'real and true', convincing them to join the team (and not a fancy brand name). Trust me, it sounds easy but the realization that our success would decide whether the families of our employees would be able to live a happy life or not - was one hell of a burden. Suddenly, I had to seek appointment from folks who queued up to meet me just a while back. I had never taken a train in my first five years in Mumbai, but suddenly I found myself on local trains very often, under the alibi of 'faster and convenient' with 'cheaper' read between the lines. Was it the 'monk' inside me?
Thankfully, as the journey progressed, start-up became a sexy word and the world started appreciating it. The bid contracts which had 'Rs 100 crore revenue and five years of balance sheet' as pre-requisites became more performance-driven; therefore, the pressure of doing something which had 'No U-turn' reduced. But what increased was the expectation of others – fund-raising became the benchmark of success rather than ensuring growth, which was (and still is) such an anomaly.
It’s been a fantastic two years of entrepreneurship. Our growth has been phenomenal and boot-strapping worked well for us. The next phase of growth will definitely need external capital infusion, but guess that will work out well soon. Cheers to start-ups! Cheers to getting humble!
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hitesh@onspon.com
