ENTREPRENEUR SPECIAL ....................... Failure is key to becoming an entrepreneur: Ashish Hemrajani

Failure is key to becoming an entrepreneur: Ashish Hemrajani

Failure is essential to the making of an entrepreneur, believes Ashish Hemrajani, founder of Book My Show. Hemrajani turned convention on its head while addressing final year post-graduate students at the premier institute Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, at the first stopover of The Economic Times Young Leaders B-School Edition on Thursday.

"Indian society looks upon failure as the end of your career. Actually, it's the beginning," he said. The 40-year-old founder and CEO of India's biggest online ticketing company, has known his share of failure, but has refused to be cowed down by it.

He survived two dotcom busts and a personal tragedy. Today, his company is valued at over Rs 2,000 crore. "I did not know where my next salary or meal would come from, but I did not fear failure," said Hemrajani. 

Failure, he said, goes hand in hand with risk. "All these years that you have been successful, failure has been risky. But why not try doing different things in life," he said. After having finally tasted success, he says he now has the satisfaction as well as the flexibility to do what he really wants to.

"I enjoy boat sailing, beach and many more things in life," he added. An entrepreneurial mindset helps one to be a leader in whatever one does.

"And for that, you need to have the guts to fail," he said. "Entrepreneurship is a state of mind - it's not about starting a new business. You can be an entrepre neur while being in a job - by taking a calculated risk and trying something new," he said.

His definition of leadership included a long list of qualities. Curiosity, the ability to foresee, team building, the ability to mingle with the team, give direction, chart out a constant path, think out of the box and work on it, get yourself involved in field work to know the pulse of your customers, be decisive, have reality checks.

And most important, "to accomplish this, have no fear of failure," he said. He still involves himself with field work, if only to experience the situation on the ground. This helps him plan, keeping the organisation's best interests in mind. Today, Book My Show holds a 90% market share in the online entertainment ticketing space.

Hemrajani started his career in 1997 at J Walter Thompson after completing his Masters in Business Administration from Mumbai University. He quit the job after two years and started Bigtree Entertainment in 1999.

Hemrajani focused on providing cutting-edge digital solutions to the entertainment industry. The decision wan't an easy one. "My parents were angry. At that point of time, selling cinema tickets was not considered respectable," he says.

But in the end, his decision to stay the course paid off. It was a risk he took, "without fearing failure," he says.

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