Three words for entrepreneurs – Sonal Kapoor, Founder CEO, Protsahan

Murali D 191 Stories

Monday November 11, 2013 , 2 min Read

Empathy, creativity and innovation, and sustainability – these are the three things that Sonal Kapoor, Founder CEO, Protsahan, emphasises as the most important for new entrepreneurs.

Empathy – Ifyou are not empathetic enough, you will never understand whether what you are doing has a meaning. If you are not empathetic enough, you come to a phase in your life when all that you would have done till 40, till 50, till 60 does not really make any sense. Empathy helps you leave a legacy.
Creativity and innovation – Youneed to be creative and innovative because if every time you encounter a problem you look for solutions that have existed in the past, you will put yourself into a spider web. Solutions you take from the past may lead to another problem, because the environment has changed. We need to come up with something which is adaptable; you need to come up with something which is more in sync with your present environment.
Sustainability– It is not only about generating enough value for the planet you live in, but also your bottom line. It has to be people and profit. You cannot say that just because I am running a non-profit, I need to only believe in charity. Charity is a great thing to do; I am not contesting that thing at all. For half of my projects, I need people to come in to make me money, for the other half. The point is, if tomorrow nobody gives me money, can I still run Protsahan?Am I still capable enough to give the dream to a child when nobody else is supporting me? Have I made the child capable of standingon her own feet, and say that I can empower ten more people with jobs? That’s where the point of sustainability comes. That’s why we started another project where we started working with design, with artisans, started creating and started selling products to corporates, even international markets, now Singapore and Australia. That gives us the money to run Educare when there is no fund coming in.