‘Hitting rock bottom’: 7 hungry days gave this startup founder the courage to fail; LinkedIn reacts

At 18, Abhishek Agarwal discovered what being completely broke actually meant. He lacked money for education and even basic food.

For seven days, Agarwal survived mainly on bread and water. Hunger was painful, but helplessness left a deeper mark.

Years later, the founder of The Deliberate Pause views that week differently. He now considers those seven days among his most important experiences.

“I was broke as Fu*k when I was 18. And, I think everyone should be completely broke at least once in their life. I know that sounds like a horrible thing to wish on someone,” Agarwal wrote.

“And I don’t mean the kind of broke where you can’t afford the vacation you wanted, or you have to wait until next month to buy something. I mean actually broke. Broke for education, broke for food!” the startup founder added.

The hardship showed him how life felt with almost nothing. More importantly, surviving it revealed an unexpected strength. He realised that even his lowest point could not completely defeat him.

That understanding later shaped his response to uncertainty. Business setbacks no longer represented the absolute end. Lost money, rejection and failed ideas still caused pain. However, Agarwal knew he had survived something more basic before.

“I found out what having almost nothing felt like. And I also found out something I couldn’t have known otherwise: I could survive it!!!” he wrote on LinkedIn.

“That knowledge has quietly followed me through every risk I’ve taken since - When something goes terribly wrong in business, when money disappears, when someone rejects me, when something I believed in completely fails,” he added.

Agarwal believes everyone should experience a personal ‘most broke’ moment. He is not celebrating poverty or presenting suffering as automatically valuable.

Poverty, he says, is not noble. Hardship also does not guarantee courage, wisdom or future success.

Reaching rock bottom can remove certain fears about future failure. Someone who survives scarcity may approach later risks with greater perspective.

Food insecurity can damage health, education, confidence and long-term opportunity. Those hungry days created a private reference point for every later crisis.

“...there is a certain kind of courage that only comes from hitting rock bottom,” he concluded.

LinkedIn reacts

LinkedIn users have reacted to the post.

“There’s a strange confidence that comes from knowing ‘I’ve been at my lowest, and I survived.’ After that, failure doesn’t feel quite as scary. Sometimes hitting rock bottom teaches you that you’re capable of climbing back up,” one user wrote.

“Often, people call someone courageous, but really, when you are at rock bottom, what option do you have? You just have to keep going! And somewhere along the way, you realise you can survive far more than you ever thought you could,” commented another user.

One user posted, “The most powerful part here isn't being broke. It's discovering that your circumstances can get worse without you becoming helpless. That kind of experience can change how you look at risk, failure and uncertainty.”

“Sometimes the toughest moments teach us something success never can: we are capable of surviving much more than we think,” came from another.