‘Live like a legend’: Soumajit Bhowmik, Co-Founder and CEO, Styched
The Proust Questionnaire is a questionnaire 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.
Soumajit Bhowmik, Co-Founder and CEO, , an ecommerce platform, is an IIT Kharagpur alumnus with over 14 years of experience in Marketing, Branding and Digital Marketing. He earned the title of Most Influential Ecommerce Professional in India 2018-19 by Asia Retail Congress.
Before joining Styched in 2019, Soumajit worked with Technologies as the Director, Ecommerce, where he focused on creating integrated ecommerce solutions for clients ranging from CRM to Cross Device Ecommerce platform to extensive Digital Marketing with measurable KPIs to support every stage of customer life cycle.
Here are his responses to our Proust questionnaire...
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Spending time with my daughter. The innocence with which she talks and explains or asks questions has a very positive impact on me.
What is your greatest fear?
To live a mediocre life. Mediocre, not in terms of money earned, but more in terms of lives impacted in a positive way, either by creating job opportunities, or making a difference through a social cause, or just inspiring people, community or industry.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Being a workaholic. I love to work all day and night. I hate sleeping. In fact, I did try to take a sabbatical some time back due to popular demand, but I was so confused and bored the whole time, that I happily went back to work.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Blaming others for anything that goes wrong. I find this trait very annoying and a testimony of lack of character, ownership and self-confidence.
Which living person do you most admire?
From a personal viewpoint, I admire my parents for having survived all the hardships of life. From a professional perspective, it has to be Aneesh (Capillary Tech CEO) who also happens to be my Kharagpur batchmate. What he has been able to achieve is almost like a fairytale for most entrepreneurs.
Which is your greatest extravagance?
I love my shoes. I have a collection of almost 100 and growing. I love splurging on footwear. I believe you can learn a lot about an individual by just looking at their shoes. What I wear while leaving for office defines the mood I will be in all day.
What is your current state of mind?
Extremely pumped up post lockdown. I am extremely proud of my team for the work they did during lockdown which allowed us to come back stronger and with a much clearer view of the vision we set out to achieve.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Patience.
On what occasion do you lie?
When I eat my daughter’s chocolate or ice cream.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Nothing. I love myself.
Which living person do you most despise?
None honestly. I do not live in a state of comparison. I am happy with my life. I believe you should let others inspire you to do better, but you should also be happy for anyone who does better than you.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Honesty.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Intelligence.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Passion, essentially, skin in the game, typically, focus.
What is the greatest love of your life?
My family. My wife and daughter. It's a relationship I have acquired and not born with. And they have been my two pillars of strength.
Which talent would you most like to have?
Playing the guitar.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Impatience and my temper. A little less of both. Need to keep my BP under control. There is a family history of high BP.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Going to IIT. As time passes, I am able to understand the value of the IIT degree even more!
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
I would be exactly what I am. I have had the perfect childhood, college life and professional life. Maybe a tad richer.
Where would you most like to live?
Anywhere with my family is around. Maldives maybe. Greece if I were not married.
What is your most treasured possession?
My close group of friends.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Hunger, especially when you cannot feed your family.
What is your favourite occupation?
Marketing, branding and book writing.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Aggressiveness.
What do you most value in your friends?
The fact is they don’t judge me. I can be who I am in front of them, and don’t need to act like someone I hope they would like.
Who are your favourite writers?
Arthur Conan Doyle, Shakespeare and Dan Brown. I am not much of a reader. I just pickup whatever I see lying around.
Who is your hero of fiction?
Captain America.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Napoleon Bonaparte.
Who are your heroes in real life?
Homemakers.
What is your favourite name
Rahul. People with this name never cease to entertain me. Whether it is the onscreen name of SRK, or the politician, or the cricketer (current one) - it's full of entertainment.
What is it that you most dislike?
Dishonesty.
What is your greatest regret?
That I did not spend enough time with my grandmother, before she passed away in a road accident. We were very close. I was in my 12th standard. It left an indelible impression in my mind. A scar I would say. I still miss her.
How would you like to die?
By taking rebirth in a parallel universe where mankind is still centuries behind this earth.
What is your favourite journey?
One without any defined itinerary or travel plan. Just getting lost in the crowd and discovering something new about yourself.
What is your motto?
Live like a legend.
