Learning from Entrepreneurs : Interview with “Kanchana Gupta”

[dropcaps type=’square’ font_size=’80’ color=’#4a4a4a’ background_color=’#ffffff’ border_color=”]I[/dropcaps] am an aspiring entrepreneur and work in my family business with my father.I joined the Enterprise India Fellowship 2 Years back in January 2020 Jan. I was working on different projects and simultaneously grew interest in reading blogs and creating too. I got a question back then that I could relate to myself completely, how do entrepreneurs achieve so much? How did they do it? We only see the good, the rosy and the successful parts of their journey. But just like me, they must have also struggled and failed to turn their ideas into reality. That’s when I decided to interview entrepreneurs and understand what’s beneath the surface, what’s under the water, what’s the hard work they did that we didn’t see. This enabled my curiosity to connect with them and ask questions and write a blog.

The story starts with someone who shared the importance of knowing the work that makes you feel happy. “Kanchana Gupta”, a multi-hyphenate (versatile) corporate leader, entrepreneur and artist and the desire to push her beyond comfort zones has led to the development of a multidimensional career in which she has worked as a:
• Corporate professional
• Startup founder & Entrepreneur
• Multi-disciplinary Visual Artist

1. What are the values you believe in?

Firstly what I am doing is helping somebody else? And the other thing is what I am doing makes me happy? I reached here in life where I am financially independent only because of hard work and that is one more value to add to what I care for.

2. What do you think of having a mentor in life?

I have mentors in my workspace only and at my job space, I had a very good mentor that was my ex-boss for many years and continues to be my mentor even now. Right now I am not sure if I am looking for a mentor right now as I think life experiences have taught me a lot but I had mentors for many years and for that I decided to start a mentoring platform so it’s good to have a mentor. So that’s why I started a space where we get you in touch with a work-oriented mentor.

3. What do you think about spirituality?

Different people think differently about spirituality. For example:- It’s like happiness, it’s subjective for every person in the world. For me spirituality means kind of a compass, trying to make sense of things in life that look very esoteric. I am a yoga practitioner. I do it regularly. And yoga is like meditation to me. Meditation is like keeping your mind quiet and different people do different things to be quiet. So it can be reading a book, making art, exercising, or for some people like playing with my children, it’s just like making your mind focused at that moment.

4. What does investing in yourself mean to you?

So investing in yourself is doing what you find meaningful rather than what someone else is prescribing to you. Like if you find doing yoga meaningful, acquiring a skill that gives your career meaning or having a conversation with your friend that’s an investment in yourself. Again investing in yourself means that helps feel better about yourself and takes care of yourself physically mentally, emotionally and financially. This is the way I look at investing in myself in four ways:
i) Am I taking care of my body?

ii) Am I taking care of my emotions?

iii) Am I taking care of my mind?

iv) Am I financially independent?

[highlight color=” background_color=’#949494′]One more question I asked Kanchana Mam apart from those above ones. I am not so interested in the family business and I am thinking of going to Mumbai for a job in Real Estate. What do you think of it? To this she replied, It’s okay if you don’t want to do family business but do you have any specific skills or skills where you want to do the job? That answer has hit me so hard on my mind and I realise I should start preparing to make myself sufficient enough to add value to the company I want to work with. [/highlight]