I started working on ideas with my friend. We were in hurry to start a company (not a startup but a biggg company). I wanted to do something for education field. We hired one person to develop online platform for schools. We got initial traction, I left my job in Feb, 2014 to build my first startup in education domain.

We did a lot of mistakes, we wasted a lot of money, we lost the direction. My startup failed in six months. It was mainly because of co-founder conflicts but there were more reasons of our failure.

“Most important learnings are collection of failed experiences”

My co-founder joined a lavish job but I was determined to stay in startup. Whole experience of failure was eye opener for me. My dream was broken.

“But a dream must be broken to wake you up from sleep”

I was looking to work with other startup as employee or partner. I still had capacity to take risk (minimum salary + equity). It was more important to find founders with similar mind-set rather than high profiled.

I met with founder of The Morpheus accelerator who connected me with his portfolio companies in delhi. I ended up joining another startup in education. I found exactly what I was looking for, a visionary founder.

We worked hard, we did a lot of experiments, we changed our marketing and product. Some things went well some fell apart. We were progressing towards our goals but without earning any income. We had to pivot for making money but we could not figure out way where our mission matches with VC expectations. Soon we had to put our work on hold.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill

This is period of struggle which most of startup founders go through. I am no exception. In this journey I discovered myself, the real me. I am so glad that I said NO to my well paying job.

It’s freedom from gold handcuffs.

Now I work at my home, enjoying my successful life

I woke up in morning whenever I like. I don’t remember when I last used alarm clock. Some days I work till 2:00 AM but some time I don’t feel like working beyond 9:00 PM.

It’s freedom of working.

I go for shopping on weekdays when there is no crowd. I don’t have to get frustrated in traffic jams, I don’t have to line up in billing queue. It saves my time and energy which I use for creative purpose.

I don’t have to live by rules defined by someone (often known as Manager or Boss).

It’s my life, I decide what is good for me, I decide whether I should refine my skills in technology or testing or excel sheets.

I do things that I am not Qualified for..

..I used to get ‘C’ grade in english language (and I am still bad at using english) but I love writing articles these days. I don’t have marketing degree but I am doing digital marketing.

I always loved studying financial material but never got courage to explore it as profession. I am taking that risk now. I am determined to make my profession around financial products like investments, payments, tax savings, banking and credit cards.