Nayan Shadi on an entrepreneurial journey
” Academics was never my thing to be honest. I always dreamt of doing something beyond a monotonous 9-5″. Growing up in a normal middle class family the classic “stable 9-5” notions were deep rooted in my mind.
It was my 12 vacation when I gravitated towards financial education and started working towards my business. While I finally felt centered, things started messing up when I joined college. 10 days into college life and my energies started to wear out. I wasn’t able to balance my academics and work life.
At this point, I had two options, either to pursue my dreams as a part-time thing and get a degree to seek “social validation” or to take a detour and go on this uncertain path of investing all my energies into building my empire. I decided to go with the latter, after all, it was what I manifested in the long run that mattered to me.
While it took a lot of courage to take this step of breaking the stereotypes, the lack of support from my parents and friends made it even harder. I was often called out and tagged as a rebel without a cause. A lot of derogatory remarks like “what if your business fails, koi backup plan hai?”;
“Agar business ruk gaya toh tujhe bina degree ke job kaun dega? ” came my way.
All I had was, a pocket full of 3000 bucks and a heartful of aspirations to make it big in life. And that marked the start of my entrepreneurial journey. The initial 10 months of my entrepreneurial journey were extremely difficult. While trying to make both ends meet and prove my self-worth to everyone who had doubted me, my soul craved stability amidst the chaos.
Today at 19 I’m making a 6-digit income, having a well-settled work-life, and meeting all the “ideal norms” our society has built, nothing of which would’ve been possible if I hadn’t taken the ferocious step of going against everyone.
While a lot of people predicted regret in my future, touch wood this is the happiest I’ve ever been. It’s not the money that brings me joy, but the satisfaction of breaking all the barriers to lead life my way is what keeps me motivated and gives me the faith because even if I fail in the future, I can start from scratch and build myself without anyone’s guise.