Navigating entrepreneurship: Ronnie Screwvala's lessons on failure and resilience

Ronnie Screwvala, Chairperson and Co-founder of upGrad, emphasised that it's important for founders to set their own benchmarks when it comes to failure and success.

"The best way I've handled my failures continuously is to double down on them," he said at TechSparks 2024 in Mumbai.

Screwvala recalled that, when he started his journey as a first-generation entrepreneur, entrepreneurship was looked down on.

"Everyone looked at you and said, 'You couldn't land yourself a job with somebody, so you became an entrepreneur'," he said, in a conversation with YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma.

"There was no concept of angels ... or venture capitalists, and there was no ecosystem for success. So, you get grounded in a very different sense," he added.

In contrast, he noted that, today failure often stems from a sense of entitlement, arising from a lack of understanding and support. He attributed his success in handling failures to his lower-middle-class background, which allowed him no sense of entitlement. 

"You can have the highest level of expectations but you can't have the highest level of entitlement," he remarked.

He also acknowledged the challenges in starting, building, growing, and managing failures in a business and emphasised the need for perseverance and resilience to navigate setbacks and move forward.

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Screwvala also stressed the importance of learning from failures.

"Acceptance is crucial for moving forward and overcoming failures," he said.

He suggested that entrepreneurs and leaders forget about what others are saying about how they are running their businesses. "We spend 50% of our time worrying about others' opinions, which doesn't significantly impact our success," he said.