JetSetGo’s Kanika Tekriwal loves Ayn Rand, Shakespeare and entrepreneurship
Quick Bytes with Kanika Tekriwal...
Delhi-based Kanika Tekriwal is the founder of JetSetGo, an online aggregator of aircrafts. Twenty-nine-year-old Kanika was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 22. Although doctors were not hopeful about her lifespan, Kanika managed to beat cancer, and was selected to the Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in 2016
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Being content – I don’t want to keep looking for more, wanting more and pushing my goal post further and further.
What is your greatest fear?
Losing my family.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Impatience.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Dishonesty.
Which living person do you most admire?
Richard Branson.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Switching my phone off for the entire night and sleeping for 8 hours straight.
What is your current state of mind?
Excited.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Minimalism.
On what occasion do you lie?
If it helps save someone.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Nothing, I am very happy with the way I look.
Which living person do you most despise?
No one.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
A person who speaks his mind and is not calculating.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
The gut or instinct on which she acts.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Never say no.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My business.
When and where were you happiest?
When we managed a medical evacuation of a child. We took him to Delhi from a village for an operation. He recovered completely and his parents met me and thanked me. Nothing tops that experience.
Which talent would you most like to have?
I would like to be a lot smarter than I am.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would like to be a lot more patient than I am now.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Yet to come.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
I want to come back as myself and do things differently.
Where would you most like to live?
India
What is your most treasured possession?
All the notebooks in which I have written in the past few years – in which I note down my ideas, my poems, moods, etc.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Not being able to sleep at night.
What is your favourite occupation?
Entrepreneurship.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Transparency.
What do you most value in your friends?
Taking off from where we left off.
Who are your favourite writers?
Ayn Rand, Shakespeare. I am not a big fan of new age entrepreneurial writers.
Who is your hero of fiction?
I don’t have one yet.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
No one really.
Who are your heroes in real life?
I never really looked up to someone. But I respect Puneet Dalmia the most.
What are your favourite names?
Sudheer, my co-founder’s name (Sudheer Perla).
What is it that you most dislike?
Being late.
What is your greatest regret?
Nothing.
How would you like to die?
As someone who has seen death closely on countless occasions, I would want to die painlessly without being sick for a year.
What is your motto?
Turn every 'no' into a 'yes'; Use every 'no' as a stepping stone to success.