Why I decided to forgo my IIT placement to start up

Photo credit: Greg Rakozy

“Start with your story. That’s it.”

This is one of the most simple yet powerful pieces of advice I’ve gotten in my life. “But, my story? Does it even matter?” I thought, “Why in the world would people care to hear my story?”

As entrepreneurs, we generally tend to see the positive side of things, and so I told myself, “Why not? If my story can inspire even one single person, it’s worth telling. I will be able to make an impact and that matters.” Somehow, the latter seemed to make much more sense to me (given that I am biased towards it) and I decided to write it down.

Coming from a small town in Bihar, I always wanted to be rich and famous. And the easiest way I could think of to get there was to get into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and become an engineer (up until the time I got in). And so, clearing the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) was a dream I always had since young. As it happens, I went to Kota and cleared the exam.

I got into IIT Delhi with big dreams and high expectations. For about a year, it was all about getting a high-paying job at the end of it, and living like a king. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was a still a part of the rat race at this point of time. But things started to change.

Two things happened during this time: 

1. College was my first ever encounter with intelligent people having different perspectives about the same thing, and all of them good. It became very clear to me that I needed to improve a lot. I started observing people and picking up their good qualities. I started to look at things differently, which helped me make better decisions.

2. Life after getting into college became aimless for a while. I previously had a well-defined goal and was working to achieve that. Now, I didn’t feel like doing anything else. By then, all the wisdom that I was able to accumulate from my colleagues and peers through self-learning, knocked me on the head.

I started asking myself: Will getting into a particular college be the biggest achievement of my life? The answer was a clear no. I felt the need to set new and bigger goals.

But what should the goals be like? 

Cracking another big exam? Or getting a day one placement from the campus? This time, I stepped back to think about it. I was in no hurry. It took me around a year to figure this out.

During this year, I got exposed to the terms ‘startup’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ in various college events. I was fascinated by the idea of being able to make something that many people out there may use, and which could change their lives for good.

Throughout the year, this thought made a place deep in my heart. Even now, it fills me up with motivation.

I realised what my goals should be – making an impact on people’s life and pushing the entire generation to a new level.

I started looking out for people who share the same sentiments, and met Durgesh and Vibhanshu. We started with some ideas accompanied by half-baked executions. Among them were thoughts of having a grocery delivery startup for the IIT-D campus and a Bliss App to make others happy.

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