Being Persistent

The founder of Persistent Systems, Mr. Anand Deshpande addressed the IT Professionals of Goa on 9^th August 2012 at the GITIC. I had the privilege to attend this inspiring session. Mr. Deshpande spoke on his entrepreneurial journey since 1990. While talking about his story, with each story he gave a lesson. He concluded by summarizing each of the lesson at the end- which can be the best advice to have, if you are an aspiring entrepreneur.

The story on how Persistent got it’s first two projects had nuggets of lessons studded into it. The first project came from a French entrepreneur who had started a company. Mr. Deshpande was in USA and was acquainted with this French businessman who often called him to drive his vehicle. During such rides, this French businessman often lamented and complained about Americans. One fine day, the French man said to Mr. Deshpande – “I wonder how you Indians stay here in America!”

Deshpande replied – “But I intend to go back to India. I intend to work from there.”  

“All Indians say that!” The French retorted, “But they never go back!”

Mr. Deshpande then quipped – “If I return to India, would you give me work?”

Taken aback by this question the French businessman said – “I will think about it when you write a mail to me from India..”

Mr. Deshpande kept his word, and so did the French Businessman. And Persistent got their first project.

The story of the second project too is interesting. There was this some kind of monetary assistance provided by the US Government for research ideas. A passionate researcher applied for this assistance for 8 different ideas. In one of the ideas, which was related to databases, Mr. Deshpande volunteered to write the software required for it. Out of the eight ideas, the one in which Deshpande worked got selected. He went to the researcher and said- “I have contributed to this idea, and now I want my share of what the idea has earned”. The researcher obliged in the form of a project for him to work on, and thus came the second project.

The lessons that Mr. Deshpande had for aspiring entrepreneurs were truly inspiring.

• When you start with your entrepreneurial journey, life is not easy. But you have to go on. It’s easy to give up. All successful people have gone through this difficult initial phases.

• Never resort to corrupt practices. If you do, then people who involve in corruption will manipulate you and you’ll be entangled into more such practices. It will go on and on.

• When you are in the beginning of your entrepreneurship, there is nothing to lose. Approach big players. Look for work with the big names. Ask for it even if you think they are beyond your league.

The above point was supported by his story on how he bagged project from Microsoft. Mr. Deshpande said, “I called my friend working in Microsoft, and she said that they have something very challenging and nobody was ready to go for it. I said I will take it. Though I had no idea about the technology, I thought I’ll figure it out and do it. If I was not able to do it, I had to pay a sizeable amount of money to the person doing it instead of me! I thought, why would such a big company run after me, or come to hunt for me in India just because I didn’t do this project?” But then he says, “Today I would never make such a deal… But at that time, I had nothing to lose!”

• Have the ability to hire your peers. Start-ups often think of hiring people working for them. But the secret is to collaborate with people who can work with you. They may be as intelligent as or even more intelligent than you. But you cannot do it alone. Be ready to share your earnings with your collaborators. That’s how you make it big!

He summed it up all by saying – “Finally, you need to persist! That’s the key to all the challenges in your life!”