How many times would you be ready to fall before you see your dream come true? ‘As many as it takes’ was Ashwin Sanghi’s advice to a room full of young entrepreneurs at the Edex 40 under 40 start-up summit.
Ashwin's 13 tricks:
1. It is said that there are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. I had no training as a writer. I didn’t know the first thing about writing until I started writing.
2. In Japan, you have these dolls that you can push down and it bounces back. Japan’s Daruma doll reminds us never to give up because every time you fall, you bounce back.
3. It was the great economist Paul Samuelson who said “Investment should be like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas."
4. I would tell my grandfather how frustrated I was with the rejections, and he would tell me “The problem with the rat race is, if you win, you’re still a rat.”
5. Luck hates loneliness. It’s impossible to be lucky alone. You need a network.
6. Beethoven’s greatest works were composed when he was deaf. Albert Einstein was expelled from school. Walt Disney was fired from his newspaper job for lacking imagination. Thinking positive is the starting point for luck.
7. You have to psych yourself into believing that there is something waiting for you around the corner. It’s a psychological game.
8. I once walked into a bookstore and said “I heard of this fantastic author called Ashwin Sanghi, do you have his books?” He said they have three in the corner. I went up there, took those books and laid it on the bestsellers rack.
9. If you are convinced about your idea, about your work, nothing can come in the way in terms of allowing yourself to get distracted by what people say.
10. When my first book came out, a review in the US said, “Ashwin Sanghi’s book could have been a little shorter. It could have stopped at page 10.”
11. My next review by The Hindu said “we do a great disservice to Ashwin Sanghi by comparing him to Dan Brown because he’s so much more.”
12. John Grisham’s A Time to Kill was rejected 28 times, but he went on to sell 250 million copies. The 28 publishers who turned him down committed suicide. It was a creative spark, a spark that one is able to see through.
13. A family friend once said 99 per cent of success depends on luck. I asked him what about the other one per cent. It must be hard work, efficiency, management, and networking, I thought. He said that one per cent is bloody good luck. I realised that you just have to be patient and wait for that luck. It happens when it has to happen.
