'Wake up, show up and try again': Mona Singh, co-founder of India Accelerator

Mona Singh is the co-founder of India Accelerator. She has over 13-years of rich experience in MNCs such as GrapeCity and United Health Corp. Prior to IA, Mona was also a co-founder at Wish-A-Mitr, which is a recommendation based gifting portal.

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Recently, YS Weekender caught up with Mona to ask her questions from the Proust Questionnaire. The Proust Questionnaire is about one’s personality. It has its origins in a parlour game popularised by Marcel Proust, the French essayist, who believed that in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.

Here are Mona's answers:

YS Weekender (YSW): What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Mona Singh (MS): Scrumptious food, good music, great book and loved ones around.

YSW: What is your greatest fear?

MS: My greatest fear is to go from this world with music still in me

YSW: What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

MS: My mental inertia, whenever it sets in.

YSW: What is the trait you most deplore in others?

MS: Incongruence in words and actions.

YSW: Which living person do you most admire?

MS: There are some qualities I admire having commitment to one’s vision and the discipline to work towards it without losing the lighter side of life. And I have the good fortune of meeting some CEOs with these qualities.

YSW: What is your greatest extravagance?

MS: International holidays.

YSW: What is your current state of mind?

MS: Optimistic.

YSW: What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

MS: Being a foodie, it’s got to be temperance in eating.

YSW: On what occasion do you lie?

MS: I occasionally lie when cost of a lie is much lesser than the price of truth.

YSW: What do you most dislike about your appearance?

MS: I think I’m past the stage of being insecure about my appearance. I’m at an age and space where I’m quite comfortable in my skin.

YSW: Which living person do you most despise?

MS: Despise is a very strong word. Don’t think I despise anyone or rather anything at all.

YSW: What is the quality you most like in a man?

MS: The quality I most like in a man is good sense of humor and emotional maturity.

YSW: Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

MS: And that’s how you do it! Satya Vachan. Socho aloud. Beyond a point, there’s no point.

YSW: What or who is the greatest love of your life?

MS: My family.

YSW: Which talent would you most like to have?

MS: Reading people’s mind.

YSW: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

MS: My net worth.

YSW: What do you consider your greatest achievement?

MS: The greatest achievements are yet to come, but I think we are working in the right direction. We take immense pride in the organisation that we have setup, which is truly founder friendly and yet a wealth creation platform for all our stakeholders!

YSW: If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

MS: A book.

YSW: Where would you most like to live?

MS: In people’s memory.

YSW: What is your most treasured possession?

MS: My dreams!

YSW: What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

MS: When you feel all alone in a room full of people.

YSW: What is your favorite occupation?

MS: Anything that consumes all my creativity and passion. My current profession makes the cut.

YSW: What is your most marked characteristic?

MS: I live to eat!

YSW: What do you most value in your friends?

MS: Genuineness.

YSW: Who are your favourite writers?

MS: Malcolm Gladwell, Paulo Coelho, Adam Grant.

YSW: Who is your hero of fiction?

MS: There was a serial that was aired on Doordarshan during the late 80s and 90s called ‘Udaan’ based on a true story of the struggles of a woman aspiring to be an IPS office, which wasn’t very common back in those days. The protagonist of the serial Kalyani Singh, played by Kavita Chaudhry, was one character that influenced me great deal in my growing up years. The father daughter equation portrayed was another reason it was a big favorite.

YSW: Which historical figure do you most identify with?

MS: Not sure if I identify with the figure but Indira Gandhi is one historical figure I’ve always been inquisitive about.

YSW: Who are your heroes in real life?

MS: I’m the hero of my own story.

YSW: What is your favourite name?

MS: My younger one’s name – Aryansh, as that has been coined by me.

YSW: What is it that you most dislike?

MS: My alarm clock.

YSW: What is your greatest regret?

MS: I don’t like to have any regrets in life. I believe everything happens for a reason, we just don’t know it at that time.

YSW: How would you like to die?

MS: In my sleep… peacefully.

YSW: What is your favourite journey?

MS: It’s the company that makes the journey worthwhile.

YSW: What is your motto?

MS: Wake up, show up and try again… Every single day!