Story of MD, TSCFM, Mr Akhil Shahani, 'The Path To Success' has appeared in the book "Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul at Work".

The Path To Success

“You Are A Failure!”

Do you dread to hear someone say those words to you?

What risks have you avoided in your life to prevent being told you’ve failed?

Does having failed mean there is no hope?

Let me tell you my story……

I was born in a relatively successful business family. I did my MBA from one of the top business schools in the US, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and graduated the youngest in my class. I worked for a couple of software companies after that in Chicago. I created the business plan of the first one & helped them raise venture capital funding. For the second one, I ran a PR campaign in the newspapers that won an award for excellence.

I returned to India with the idea of starting my own software company. The IT industry was booming, I had the best business education. I had done well in the previous software companies I worked in. How could I go wrong?

Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

We created software products in an area called ‘Knowledge Management’, but then realized there was no customer demand for these products. Competitors were enticing my team away with offers of higher salaries. My partner developed cancer and left the company. I discovered my CEO was stealing funds from the company.

I kept trying to apply all the management theories I learnt at Kellogg & from business books to no avail. I finally had to wind up the company at a net loss. The last straw was when a relative of mine commented, “You’ve failed in business. Never mind, I’m sure you’ll find a good job!”

I spent a few months in a dilemma….What should I do? New business? Job? Back to family business?

At that point, I read the story of Thomas Edison. He spent years trying to convert an electrical current into light. After his 1000^th unsuccessful attempt, he declared, “I’ve not failed. I have SUCCESSFULLY discovered 1000 ways not to create a light bulb!” Imagine what the world would have been like, if he had given up?

I decided that I had discovered quite a few ways NOT to run a business.

I also realized a few other things. An MBA from a top business school does not necessarily help you run a successful business. Business magazines like to showcase successful business people, but rarely show the struggles and setbacks they had to face. India has a culture of looking down on failure and avoiding risk. Conventional education teaches you that there is only ONE right answer to a problem & to stop searching for alternatives.

These issues have made entrepreneurs keep looking for a magic formula to success and think that failure is the permanent. It has stifled innovation and risk taking. Unfortunately, nobody teaches young people what it truly takes to succeed.

This inspired me to create a company that will revolutionize management education in worldwide. Through innovative international training methods, we are helping people learn for themselves via practical trial and error what it takes to succeed.

Like Edison, we aim to change the world & are willing to discover many ways on how NOT to do so! I leave you with one of my favourite quotes:

“You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t. You can be discouraged by failure — or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes, because, remember that’s where you’ll find success!” – Thomas J Watson (Founder of IBM, the world’s richest man when he died)

(Authors Profile: Akhil Shahani is a serial entrepreneur who has found great success and faced greater failures. He currently runs the Centre For Management, an innovative chain of business schools & is a director in Kaizen Private Equity, India’s first education sector focused PE Fund. He can be contacted at Akhil@shahanigroup.com)