26 Entrepreneurs Share The Best Piece Of Advice They Have Ever Received From Their Fathers

From firm roots grow the beautiful leaves.

As this quote rightly portrays what you are today and what you will be tomorrow – your father’s support and timely advices will always play a great role in your life.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, fathers compliment it to a great extent because both of them were naive when they began their journey, and grew only with time and experience. There are many startup founders whose business foundation was laid on lessons of life that there fathers learned and imparted.

On this Father’s’ Day, we reached to a few of such entrepreneurs to know what was the best piece of advice that their father gave them.

Samar Singla, CEO and Founder, Jugnoo

“Be your own man” are the four words which Samar’s father has preached to him since his childhood. He believed that one should be his/her own critic, judge and competitor and always worked hard to inculcate the same values in Samar. “He taught me to fight the business battle with my own innovative ideas and business understanding. I can never be like my father even if I try the best to imitate him, so I decided to be myself and do things the way I believe, the way I thought was right,” Samar says.

Brijesh Agrawal, Founder, Tolexo

When Brijesh set his foot in entrepreneurship with IndiaMart, his father’s advice was the first foundation principle he started with. As told to him by his father, “If something that you do in life is meaningful and useful to others, be persistent and pursue it, come what may. After some point of time, you will definitely achieve success in that.”

Pankhuri Shrivastava, Co-Founder and CMO, Grabhouse

Pankhuri speaks highly of her father’s ‘no giving up’ attitude. “He never gives up and would never let me give up too. Giving up or saying I can’t do this, called for a lot of teasing from his side,” she tells smirkingly. She is proud to get raised in a family where failing was heartily welcomed, was never criticised and always get motivated for not giving up.

As Pankhuri says, “The constant effort to prove to him that I am not giving up made me a very resilient and persistent person. It also instilled in me a very strong belief that if I don’t quit I will surely win and that has helped me so much in going forward every time I am in a fix. My parents have always been extremely supportive and sporty about the risks I’ve taken in life and all my success is attributed to their attitude.”

Varun Khaitan, Co-Founder, UrbanClap

Varun strongly feels that his father advices have always been his life saviour at critical times. “My father always advised on frugality, with personal as well as company’s money. His core principle is to spend money wisely, especially when it has been borrowed. In the end, cash in bank is what runs a business.”

Mayank Bhangadia, Co-founder, Roposo

Mayank believes that his capability to work hard and to make timely decisions has been passed on to him by his father. As he shared, he was sent to a boarding school in his childhood, where he grew independently and started making crucial decisions of life on his own. “My father gave me the push I needed and so I gave everything I had to my dream and here it is living in reality.”

Arvind Parthiban, CEO, Zarget

‘Climb up that tree, one branch at a time,” he used to say to Arvind. When it comes to starting an entrepreneurial journey or even any other journey for that matter, most of the goals seem unimaginably far away on the invisible tree top and you always find yourself on the grounds. As Arvind said, “My father inculcated in me the strength to take the leap of faith to break down my long-term vision into climbing the tree, one branch at a time to get to the top of the tree. You need to let go of the branch you are currently in to get to the next one.”

Dr. Ritesh Malik, Co-founder, Innov8

Ritesh got the definition of success from his father, who played the role of his mentor at all steps of life. Success in his opinion does not include money or power but the ability to generate inspiration in minds of people by your clean image & strong trust building nature. As Ritesh fondly described his words, “Beta, always remember that there is nothing more important than your reputation, character and your family. Whether you achieve or not, being grounded and humble is the most important attribute to success.

Sumit Dinesh Ranka, Founder, Thinkpot

Sumit’s father mantra is, “The more you innovate, the sharper you get. The sharper you get, the smarter you become.” He considers his father as the biggest source of inspiration for him as well as his daily dose of motivation. “This encouraging and positive environment is the sole reason for all the success we’ve achieved. He always tells us that one should not prejudge or define their path based on other’s failures or what they did, but should strive to create and build their own path.”

Sameer Grover, Founder, Crownit  

“My father passed away 7 years ago. I don’t have a pic of him and me alone. However – his words stay with me forever. No day goes by that I don’t live what he taught me,” said Sameer with an emotional heart.” As he shares, his father taught him three core life principles,” Whatever you take on in life, fulfil with immense passion; never sell out on your integrity and true strength is in being together and not as an individual – be a leader who can bring everyone together.” “And I imbibe the same qualities to my daughters,” Sameer added with a smile.

Swati Bhargava, Founder, Cashkaro

Swati has always seen her dad as a very ‘balanced’ person. “He would approach every big and small thing in life without rushing into it and he taught me also to carefully consider all aspects of a decision before jumping into it!.” The Bhagavad Gita teaches us to have ‘Sam bhav’ – and Swati believes that this sense and sensibility is just one of the qualities her father taught to her.

Dinesh Goel, Co-Founder and CEO, Aasaanjobs

“The best piece of advice from my father, something that remains relevant for me until this day, was to be frugal with one’s material needs, and save big for the many hurdles and obstacles to come.” These few lines by his father helped Dinesh become a more humble person over the years. As Dinesh tells, “ It keeps steering me away from extravagant indulgences and thus utilize the money I had saved for the things that really mattered – for instance, during the initial months of Aasaanjobs when we had to sustain ourselves with our own money.”

Swati Dayal, Co-Founder, Sagoon

When Swati was going through a dilemma to choose between her job and her dream of becoming a part of the next social media revolution, her father came to her rescue. Since she would have to start everything from scratch, the risk involved was big. “My father knew about my dilemma and told me – Spend a good amount of time thinking what you want and when you make a decision, just go for your dreams. Never look back to regret.” Rightly, there was no looking back since then. “His encouragement helped me join Sagoon confidently and it is turning out to be one of the best decisions of my life. It is only by taking that bold decision I am able to unleash my true potential. And to me, it is the most magnificent feeling of life,” says Swati.

Geetansh Bamania, CEO and Founder, RentoMojo

Geetansh went through a rough phase during his college – studies were awful, broken-up recently and huge backlogs. However, a simple advice from his father changed his life. As Geetansh tells, “My father smiled at me and said, Son – you have hit the rock bottom, it can only go up from here. This one advice has always helped me be at the cliff and take a few discussions early in my life.”

Raghuraj Sunder Raju, CEO and Founder, HealthPlix

Back in 2013, when Raghuraj got diagnosed with a chronic illness, his life went through a 360 degree turn around both personally and professionally. While he was struggling to change his lifestyle to treat himself and planning to introduce a solution for other patients like him, a few words of his father worked like a ventilator support for him. “Always do things that does justice to your potential. And surprise yourself everyday by the things you do. This is the only way to live a life of meaning and purpose.”

Anshuman Mishra, Founder and CEO, LoanAdda

When Anshuman leaved for Mayo College, the one advice he got from his father is to believe in his dreams and chase them passionately. In his exact words, “dream takes the leap of faith, focus on excellence but pursue only what you are passionate about”. “My dad is a dreamer, achiever himself,” says Anshuman. “I didn’t understand it then, but it has stayed with me till date as the only piece of advice I ever needed.”

Abhinav Choudhary, Co- Founder, SmartPrix

It always take an extra mile to reach excellence from mediocrity, and Abhinav learnt this from his father. “My father taught be to be consistent and persistent. He wasn’t a very ambitious person, but whatever he did, he made sure that he went that one extra mile – be it negotiating with vendors, his job or even washing his car. That extra mile, that I have learned to walk, has always accounted for the difference between mediocrity and excellence in all my endeavors.”

Avijit Marwah, Co-founder, Modspace 

Avijit grew up with a never giving up attitude, all thanks to his father. He inculcates deep within him the belief that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. “This is the best piece of advice that he ever gave me. He always tells me never to give up and keep pushing through. This advice has become a principle I follow, helping me get to where I am today.”

Naiyya Saggi, Founder, BabyCkakra

The lessons of equal partnership, importance of team and to be yourself at at all times – are some things that Naiyya’s father didn’t advised her, but make her learnt from his actions. While remembering the old days, Naiyya tells that being a retired official from Ministry of Shipping, and earlier being in merchant navy, he was the one who move to be with her mom (who was in the IAS) and commute to his workplace from remote districts in Bengal. He would come back everyday from office and would sit with kids late over their math and physics homework. “We have one life to live. Living it in a way that is most meaningful and authentic necessarily entails adding meaning to other people’s lives as well in a way I know best:  be it parents who use BabyChakra or our team building BabyChakra or clients of BabyChakra.”

Sairee Chahal, Founder & CEO, SHEROES

“It’s a woman’s world,” Sairee once said in an interview, but for her the world starts with her Dad. Her father made her believe that nothing is ever too good or too bad. “Follow your true spirit and be who you are. Life has its own way of creating balance,” as he tells Sairee.

Major Prashant Rai, Founder & CEO, OTJ247.com

Prashant got discipline, leadership and relationship values in his genes from his father, who served the Indian Army. Prashant himself being the Ex-Army Major and a Gallantry award winner, served the nation being a part of the Punjab Regiment. “Now, I am an entrepreneur and a part of the service Industry, serving the society under the banner of Balram Corporate services which is named after my father and Mother ‘s name put together.”

Anshul Sushil, Co-founder of BoringBrands and The Moody Nation

Anshul boasts proudly about the life lessons his father has taught him. As he describes it, his father lived with the belief that one should always be in a position of strength wherein one can offer help to those who need it, instead of being in a position of weakness, seeking help from others. He taught him the meaning of hard work and commitment.

“My entire work-life dynamics revolves around this mantra. He instilled in me the feeling of putting my 200 percent in whatever I do. Through his life lessons, today I have built myself up in such a manner that I can proudly say, I have done my best in whatever life has offered me and turned them into larger-than-life ventures—be it professional challenges or family affairs.”

Sakshi Vij, Founder and CEO, Myles

A problem solver, an initiator and a fighter herself, Sakshi believes that ‘Resilience’ is the most taught lesson to her in the life by her father. “He has always taught me the power of being able to take every situation as an opportunity to strengthen my personality. I think I learn from my dad everyday and every lesson is valuable.”

Sankalp Agarwal, CEO and Co Founder, TravelTriangle

In words of Sankalp’s father, “There are no shortcuts in life. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” Sankalp believes in this completely and gives all credit to his success to his father only. His preachings instills in Sankalp a high patience level, a must have personality trait for an entrepreneur. “I feel that for an entrepreneur patience is a must have. One should always consider long term effects of his actions, and not just the immediate benefits, to keep running the race.”

Sandeep Aggarwal, CEO and Founder, Droom and Shopclues

“My dad hardly interfered on anything I did in my life and lasts encourage me to pursue my passion,” tells Sandeep. When he was coming to India to launch ShopClues, his father advised him only one thing: “Make sure you burn all your boats so that you do not get tempted to go back or think about plan B.” A simple line taught Sandeep the meaning of tough commitment.

“I built ShopClues with no plan B and always hired people who believed in wholeheartedly what I do vs thinking about plan B.  People who think about plan b, typically kill main plan or assign less commitment to what they’re doing deep inside.”

Sumit Chhazed, Co- Founder, CredR

Sumit shares a small incident from his school days when he was helpless and lost, and all he needed was his father to take him out of the puzzle. But instead of giving a solution, he said just one line to him, “You are strong enough to find your own way now. Whenever you find yourself stuck somewhere, be your own problem solver and help yourself.” This was the moment which instilled in Sumit the courage to face challenges independently, the confidence to believe in his decisions and the qualities of a problem solver.

Sumit’s father also made him learn the value of intangible relations that one make with people. In his words, “Money does not define success and is not worth the chase, instead it is measured by the number of people who would come forward to support you in bad times and be by your side; it is all the love and respect you earn through your actions.This is real success.”

Azhar Iqubal, CEO and Co-Founder, Inshorts

“My father is a Bank Manager in small town in Bihar called Kishanganj, like most fathers he had to make a lot of sacrifices to be able to provide me top quality coaching and guidance to help me prepare for the IIT entrance examination. All his efforts paid off when I become the first student from my district to make it to IIT Delhi.” But the superdad moment arrived when Azhar decided to drop out of IIT in his 4th year to pursue his entrepreneurial dream with Inshorts.

Azhar still recalls a long conversation he had with his father about the decision, the idea to drop out of IIT seemed crazy to almost everyone. Predictably, his father had a lot of questions but eventually the conversation ended with him giving Azhar the best advice – “It is your decision, so make sure you give it your best. Just remember that no matter what happens, your Dad will always be there to support you”. Azhar says – “That was totally a superdad moment for me because 9 out of 10 fathers would say No in that kind of a situation”.

The role of fathers have changed significantly in past few years from just the ‘money-earning’ man to being the family’s support system. You want help in projects, or you want to go hiking, or you are stuck in life – He is always there for you. We love him as our friend, our guide and our mentor.

The whole team of Inc42 wishes all Fathers – Happy Father’s Day. Keep Loving and Motivating Us

He never looks for praises

He’s never one to boast

He just goes on quietly working

For those he loves the most…

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.