The Story
Two decades, several ventures, a few failures, and a long series of one-inch steps.
School and I never fit. I had a restless, creative mind — good at taking a problem apart and building something original from the pieces — but the classroom was never built for a mind like mine, and my formal education ended early. For a long time I assumed that meant something was wrong with me.
Then, at fifteen, I was introduced to a computer. For the first time, the way my mind worked was an advantage, not a defect.
The work
I started as a graphic designer at an advertising agency, already taking on projects of my own while learning. That habit never left.
Design led to software and web development — real clients, real requirements, real constraints. Then came animation and visual effects, where I spent close to fourteen years and truly came alive. I trained people across Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi, helped grow studios, and kept sharpening photography and filmmaking on the side.
Underneath all of it ran one pattern: find stable ground, then risk it to build something of my own. Some ventures opened with promise and then taught hard lessons — about timing, funding, preparation, execution. I'd lose, learn, adjust, and move again.
By 2012, the choice was made. From that point on, building was the path, not the side bet.
What it taught me
What pulled me back every single time was not a new idea or a better strategy. It was what I knew — skills built over two decades of doing, failing, and rebuilding. Offered to people who needed it, that knowledge funded the next attempt. It gave me runway when nothing else did.
Eventually I stopped treating that as a fallback and saw it for what it was. Knowledge, structured correctly and offered to the right people, is the most resilient thing you can build on. It doesn't depend on a single product, a single market, or a single good season. It compounds.
It also taught me how things actually get built — not in leaps, but in inches. Think clearly. Start simply. Execute consistently. The people I work with rarely need more motivation. They need a system, and the next small move.
Now
I've stopped comparing myself to anyone else. I know what I'm building — with a bigger vision now, and far better preparation.
The best chapters are still being written.