An Interactive Online Amity Alumni Entrepreneurs Forum on “The Role of Hard Work and Luck in the Life of Entrepreneurs” was organized by Amity University. The speakers in the forum included Ms. Sonam B. Saluja, Founder, Beyond All Barriers; Ms. Upaasana Roy Kalia, Partner Coach Reshape-Nation, Fitness and Body Transformation Coach; Ms. Sunanda Verma, Co- Founder, TCHA.CO & THE DAFTAR; Mr. Vipul Kumar, Co-founder & Director, Genexis Biotech Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Ankur Gakkhar, Co-founder, Fresh Works Singapore.
Prof (Dr). Anupam Narula commenced the session, delivered a welcome address, and introduced the esteemed Alumni speakers to the audience. He mentioned that Entrepreneurship is a Lifestyle and what comes easy doesn't last long and what last long doesn't come easy.
Prof. (Dr) Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor was delighted to welcome the Amity Alumni Entrepreneurs from Biotechnology and mentioned that Founder President Dr. Ashok K Chauhan always recognizes Amity Alumni Achievers (AAA) in the exponential growth of the Amity Group of Institutions. Further she gave a brief introduction about the theme “The Role of Hard Work and Luck in the Life of Entrepreneurs”. She expressed her views on how an entrepreneur functions in multiple and diverse roles; the ability of an entrepreneur to work hard and in all circumstances, which can transform business ideas into opportunities. She emphasized that some people would argue that successful entrepreneur is one who is lucky or has got the luck on one’s side, but to be successful it needs more than luck in this hardcore competitive market. She highlighted that luck may take an individual closer to the destination where one wants to reach but it is their ideas, dedication, hard work and their action that gives successful stronghold on that destination. Luck is something entrepreneurs have no control on, but they have control on their abilities; they need to always keep their actions under scanner to always improve and reform themselves as an Entrepreneur. She also gave six significant mantras for entrepreneurs: Risk taking ability; Hard work; How powerful is the idea; Goal Orientation; Vision and Dedication to succeed in new ventures.
Ms. Sonam B. Saluja, Founder, Beyond All Barriers expressed her views that an individual’s attitude towards life is of utmost importance. Anyone who came into this world as a human being is lucky, has full potential to identify various problems in the society and look for their creative solutions. She also added that an entrepreneur can't find a solution by inaction, one must think and act and there is no shortcut to success and hard work. As motivational trainer, she has noticed that people during their lives face external circumstances where feeling of self-sabotage manifests and the first reaction of an individual is mostly of panic. The ability to control oneself and not to run from the situation in tough times leads us to succeed eventually. She uses the techniques of subconscious programming and explained how on daily basis the brain receives negativity from everywhere, but an individual should train his/her subconscious mind to feed only on positivity to stay positively constructive always. She also said that eating and defecating is a process with every person’s thinking pattern. An individual should train his/her brain to eat and process every thought and then defecate the negative ones.
The second speaker Ms. Upaasana Roy Kalia, Partner, Reshape-Nation, Fitness and Body Transformation Coach said that every individual has been taught to work hard since one’s childhood to achieve their goals and success. Hard work and perseverance are essential value-additions in our formula to success. She looks at luck and hard work issues in two ways. Luck according to her matters in an absolute sense, and hard work matters in a relative sense. Luck can always take an individual to a particular destination, but hard work is needed to maintain the success. She emphasized that the entrepreneurs should have a clear vision and must have passion for hard work, without this the entrepreneur will just give up. She explained vision as a vital energy that drives an entrepreneur and gives him/her a purpose of life to turn a business idea into a large-scale business. She talked about the importance of passion and that a successful Entrepreneur is a visionary and passionate person.
Prof. (Dr) Manoj Joshi, Professor Strategy & Entrepreneurship, Director Centre for VUCA Studies, AUUP as co-moderator of the forum emphasized that entrepreneurship is a process. An entrepreneur is a person and Enterprise is the outcome of the actions of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur has intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. He invited the third speaker Ms. Sunanda Verma, Co-Founder, TCHA.CO & THE DAFTAR. She said that in today's time, companies need people to have a positive attitude in how they look at situations and scenarios. According to her, entrepreneurship is about taking ownership, it’s all about handling the situation. Circumstances will come and go but it all depends on how well a person is prepared to face and act under that ever changing and ever-testing ecosystem. She shared few tips on how to develop a positive attitude, how to be good at decision making and to take charge of small things. Eventually, the entrepreneur will start taking bigger decisions. She laid the foundation of DAFTAR and created a hundred-seater space, which is now a community centric co-working space with more than 1500 community members.
The fourth speaker Mr Vipul Kumar, Co-founder & Director- Genexis Biotech Pvt. Ltd spoke about how an entrepreneur should keep playing with designs and should constantly experiment. That one will fail many times but will eventually succeed. He emphasized that luck is a constant factor that an individual can't change; he/she should make decision making skills sharp and should not be afraid of failing. He emphasized that hard work makes the difference between a loser and a winner and luck always favors prepared minds. An entrepreneur should never lose an opportunity to gain experience and information. One should be prepared for both failure and success in this journey.
The fifth speaker Mr Ankur Gakkhar, Freshworks, Singapore, emphasized that hard work is a journey and luck plus hard work combined can lead to a significant destiny. An Entrepreneur should know where his/her passion lies, and what should be one’s conduct to fulfill that passion. He gave the 3 P’s mantra of three internal factors for success: Passion, Patience & Perseverance. According to him there is no entrepreneurial journey without randomness, the longer a person survives and fights, will decide whether he/she will succeed or not in their venture. He said that luck plays a role in the end or somewhere in between while the rest of it is the outcome of hard work. In the practical entrepreneurial journey randomness will always come and one has to face it.
Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, Faculty of AIB, proposed vote of thanks at the end.