Dare To Dream and Don’t Be Afraid To Fail
Since last month, I have been watching the most talked about TV show on Sony Liv- Shark Tank India. When it started, I missed few initial episodes, but later when I started watching it, I got hooked to it and added it to my daily watch list. The format of the show is similar to Shark Tank US but garnished with some drama 😉.
It is so inspiring to see pitches from people from all stages of life- from twenty-something youngsters to senior citizens over 60 years. From all the corners of India, people come forward with innovative ideas and it is so good to see the partnership between Mother-daughter, Husband-Wife, Office colleagues, and for a change also between Daughter-in-law and Mother-in-law. As is rightly pointed out by one of the Sharks, the society is changing; India is changing, and this show has demonstrated that MIL- DIL team can also work together 😉 which seemed literally out of the socks till now.
Another interesting observation from the show is that these days the entrepreneurship word has become a topic of discussion. Even common people are becoming familiar with terms like B2B, B2C, D2C, equity, debt etc. The sharks on the show in between explain these terms in layman language too which helps us understand them better.
Key Take-Aways from Shark Tank India
Dare to Dream: The Sharks are from different domains and backgrounds, and I love to see three successful women entrepreneurs in the panel- Namita Thapar (The executive director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals), Vineeta Singh (Co-Founder of Sugar Cosmetics), and Ghazal Alagh (Founder of MamaEarth). It’s so inspiring to see them and learn about how they built their company and brand. It is also good to see that the percentage of women entrepreneurs coming to Shark Tank is very high. Whether it’s The Quirky Naari from Mathura or Jhaji’s Achar business from Mithilanchal in Bihar, women are setting an example that there is no limit and if you have a dream and dedication, you can achieve it for sure.
Think Big and have perseverance and patience: One of my favorite episodes of Shark Tank is when the Founder of KG Agrotech came to the show from a small village near Malegaon. He invented a multipurpose tricycle which can help farmers in spraying pesticides, sowing seeds, etc. He worked for 7 years on this idea, created the model using scrap material from other machines, and modified the model year after year. It is so inspiring to learn about his story and see the dedication and perseverance he has to solve the problem farmers are facing. His idea and prototype were liked by all the Sharks and Peyush Bansal (Founder of Lenskart) offered him a lucrative deal.
Achieving what you want can be a slow process: We all lose hope and get demotivated when results are not fructifying, but KG Agrotech's story has inspired me somewhere as Kamlesh (Founder of KG Agrotech) worked on the tricycle model for 7 years with full dedication. This demonstrates that everything starts small, grows slowly, and one has to stitch pieces one by one. Whatever one does will also be done by someone else as well, so the idea is not only to do different things but also to do things differently i.e., differentiation is important. Importantly, one must not lose sight of the tree while walking in the forest, or in other words, the focus has to be razor-sharp.
Shark Tank India is now in its finale week, and I am looking forward to the remaining episodes of this season.
Author: Garima Shrivastava
