Prashant Desai - The Biography of a Failed Venture: Decoding Success Secrets from the Blackbox of a Dead Start-Up

1. 1. Childhood
   Honhaar birwaan ke hoth chikne paat
2. 2. Becoming a Chartered Accountant
   Saala mai toh saab ban gaya
3. 3. Early Work Life
   Paisa bolta hai
4. 4.Mumbai Magic
   Yeh Bambai hai mere bhai, Bambai!
5. 5. Wealth Creation at FT
   Risk hai toh ishq hai
6. 6. Greed Is Good
   Yeh dil maange more
7. 7. Health, Running and
   Bhaag Milkha bhaag!
8. 8. The Lucky Discovery
   Khul ja sim sim
9. 9.Becoming an Entrepreneur
   Badhe chalo!
10. 10. Know Your Customer
    Main hoon na
11. 11. The Partnership
    Rab ne bana di jodi
12. 12. The Product Obsession
    Ji jaan se
13. 13. Product Expansion
    Thodi aur jaan
14. 14. The Brand Story
    Vande Mataram
15. 15. Bollywood Connect
    Dil Chahta Hai
16. 16. High Risk, High Return Bet
    Mila mauka, maaro chauka
17. 17. Online Partnership
    Mujhse shaadi karogi
18. 18. Skin in the Game
    Khud pe yakeen
19. 19. Devils Advocate
    Soch lo Thakur!
20. 20. The Big Bang Launch
    Hows the josh? High, sir!
21. 21. Launch Conversations
    Kuch inki suno
22. 22.Whats the Hurry?
    Itni bhi kya jaldi hai
23. 23. Diwali Campaign
    Band baaja par baaraat kahaan?
24. 24. Team
    Satthsudharahi satth sangati paayi
25. 25. Financial Blunders
    Khayaali pulao
26. 26. The Not-So Discerning Customer
    Sona ya peetal?
27. 27. The Slip
    Socha kuch, paaya kuch
28. 28. The Wall of Worry
    Kuch toh gadbad hai
29. 29. Hope
    Ummeed pe duniya qaayam hai
30. 30.The Calm before the Storm
    Shanti toofan se pehle ki
31. 31. Death
    Ram naam satya hai
32. Reflections
    What could I have done differently?
33. Greenlight
    Marne se pehle jeena mat chhodo

To everyone who has erred

Kisa Gautami was a young woman. When her one-year-old son fell ill and died, Kisa was struck with grief. Weeping, she went to the Buddha.

Buddha said, Kisa Gautami, go and find me four or five mustard seeds from any family in which there has never been a death and I will bring back your son.

Kisa was filled with hope. But soon she discovered that each family she visited had experienced the death of one person or another.

She slowly realized that death comes to all.

Like death, mistakes too come to all of us.

Contents

1. Childhood
Honhaar birwaan ke hoth chikne paat

2. Becoming a Chartered Accountant
Saala mai toh saab ban gaya

3. Early Work Life
Paisa bolta hai

4.Mumbai Magic
Yeh Bambai hai mere bhai, Bambai!

5. Wealth Creation at FT
Risk hai toh ishq hai

6. Greed Is Good
Yeh dil maange more

7. Health, Running and
Bhaag Milkha bhaag!

8. The Lucky Discovery
Khul ja sim sim

9.Becoming an Entrepreneur
Badhe chalo!

10. Know Your Customer
Main hoon na

11. The Partnership
Rab ne bana di jodi

12. The Product Obsession
Ji jaan se

13. Product Expansion
Thodi aur jaan

14. The Brand Story
Vande Mataram

15. Bollywood Connect
Dil Chahta Hai

16. High Risk, High Return Bet
Mila mauka, maaro chauka

17. Online Partnership
Mujhse shaadi karogi

18. Skin in the Game
Khud pe yakeen

19. Devils Advocate
Soch lo Thakur!

20. The Big Bang Launch
Hows the josh? High, sir!

21. Launch Conversations
Kuch inki suno

22.Whats the Hurry?
Itni bhi kya jaldi hai

23. Diwali Campaign
Band baaja par baaraat kahaan?

24. Team
Satthsudharahi satth sangati paayi

25. Financial Blunders
Khayaali pulao

26. The Not-So Discerning Customer
Sona ya peetal?

27. The Slip
Socha kuch, paaya kuch

28. The Wall of Worry
Kuch toh gadbad hai

29. Hope
Ummeed pe duniya qaayam hai

30.The Calm before the Storm
Shanti toofan se pehle ki

31. Death
Ram naam satya hai

Reflections
What could I have done differently?

Greenlight
Marne se pehle jeena mat chhodo

It is good to learn from your mistakes. It is better to learn from other peoples mistakes.

Warren Buffett

S uccess is celebrated; failure is overlooked. There is fame when one succeeds; failure is shamed. While stories of success attract, those of failures are expunged. Success underlines what should be done; failure underscores what should not be done.

My story is not of success but of failure.

I started a business and launched a truly Indian sports brand D:FY shoes, apparel and accessories, much like Nike that failed.

My business lost Rs 30 crore (USD 4m) in 30 months, virtually wiping out all that I had earned for nearly 30 years.

I failed not because I did not possess the necessary vision, determination and courage; I failed because the number of errors in my business exceeded the positives.

Initially one wallowed on the world conspiring against my business, that circumstances had been unfair in not encouraging a truly Indian sports brand to succeed.

After the noise had subsided, what remained were facts. I began to think: What if one had done things differently? What if one had listened to what data was telling us? What if we had not done What if What if

It was not one monumental error that had sunk the ship; it was a sequence of under-addressed leaks not planning to fail as much as failing to plan that had been our undoing.

One could weep over the fuselage or decode the black box.

When one did select to decode, new possibilities emerged: What if these mistakes could be documented? What if my failure could benefit others? And what if and here it got interesting this analysis could initiate a dialogue on mistakes?

I started to look for people who had no inhibitions in sharing their mistakes.

My research on mistakes furthered my conviction. There is not much written on either the importance of sharing your mistake or on being wrong. I chanced upon a book: Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Katheryn Schultz. It provided insights on why. Error study practitioners are a motley crew (Schultz, 2011).

This is why: we are social beings; mistakes are associated with shame, ignorance, indolence and worse, moral degeneracy. Mistakes are associated with deficiencies, rightness with righteousness. When we make mistakes, we deny, defend, ignore and blame them on someone else. As a culture we have not developed tools for accepting our mistake.

There is no I was wrong. It is always I was wrong, but

We are mistaken about what it means to make a mistake. Meta-mistaken. Our brain receives 400 billion bits of information every second. It filters the important ones and stores them for prospective access. The brains principal function is to eliminate the unimportant. It then tags experiences and stores them into long-term memory. What it does not seek to remember it stores in inaccessible files. Mistakes, accepting mistakes and sharing mistakes are stored in the inaccessible folder. Our capacity to forget mistakes takes precedence over remembering them. Mistakes are an ultimate inside job.