Children need to fall to grow up

Situation:

2001 dot com bust. At contests2win.com, we had 2 months of cash left to survive. I was desperate. I knew I had a great idea and had to ride out this storm. So I assembled my core team and requested a meeting with Renuka Ramnath – then CEO of ICICI Venture – our principal VC

We met in the lobby of the Oberoi (now the Trident) – the sofa was small and so I was sitting facing Renuka with my team members standing.

I started mumbling about more money and rambled for a few minutes. Renuka looked at me, smiled and said ‘Alok, when we have children, they need to fall to grow up. As parents we can easily hold them but do not. Allowing them to fall is what is good for them’

That’s all she said. The message was clear. Fall. Stumble. Get hurt but get strong.

My team and I were shattered as we walked out. Yet something had been triggered inside.

Almost 10 years later, we are miles ahead of those horrid times, and that advice remains unbelievably hard to beat..