Kanwal: I think I will be foolish to expect more from myself. I have done well and I have shared my good fortune with others and with my family. I sponsored all my brothers and sisters. We have a huge family we have 7 of us: 6 brothers and a sister. The next generation kids are going to colleges one by one and becoming professionals now. We have been married 37 years. Paid back my dues both to the Indian society and the American society. I just want to be productive right till the day I die.
Kamla: Are you surprised by your success?
Kanwal: Yes, yes, absolutely. Like I said I was one of the 500 million people back then and so there was an element of luck getting into IIT. Yes, I did work hard and my wife would tell you that I did work hard, but nothing came easy in terms of...nothing was handed out to us. I worked hard but success was phenomenal. First entrepreneur, first guy to take public in NASDAQ and so these were some things which were not everybody was able to do back then.
Kamla: What are some of the basic things you need to do to succeed?
Kanwal: I tell people that the biggest hurdle you have to overcome is yourself and you have to give yourself the chance to succeed. A lot of people don’t even try and they start telling 10 reasons why they would not succeed, why they should not do it. My advice to people is give yourself a chance give yourself second chance, third chance to start up business, specially as an entrepreneur. You have not failed until you decide that it is not for you and then you go ahead and get yourself a job. So if you don’t succeed in the first start up you give yourself a second chance and if you don’t succeed in the second start up give yourself a third chance so every step of the way your odds are improving. You yourself have to decide whether you are going to do it or not which nobody else can tell you. Other people can hold you back, almost everybody will tell you that why bother why do that but you have to give yourself the push.
Kamla: So persistence?
Kanwal: Persistence and not taking no for an answer, not putting any limitations for yourself, not accepting any limitations on yourself.
Kamla: You make it sound so easy. But if I was an entrepreneur and I failed in my first venture and then I failed in my second venture it takes a toll on me because there is only so much that I have and have been beaten down that to get up again and to do it is not very easy.
Kanwal: Yes that is probably true. If you have failed three times you have to think whether it is for you. But the first failure is in the nature of the beast. You are trying to do something that has very low odds of success and the fact that you tried was a big step. People mostly succeeded on the second attempt. The first attempt becomes a learning experience and sharpens your senses plus shows you the danger that you missed. The more people fail because they fail to see the dangers, they see the upside they don’t see the downside and so what happens is by the time you do the second start up you become very aware of potential downfalls, you start to think hey what am I missing and what is going to bite me and from which side? So you develop this sense, which gives you a bit of an edge that you did not have the first time.
Kamla: So entrepreneurship is not for everybody then?