From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
So many people say, 'Jacqueline, I would love to change the world- but I don't know my purpose yet…' Purpose doesn't come to people sitting at the starting blocks and thinking about purpose. You have to live it.
Six years ago, I got a phone call in Boston, an investor asked me what I thought about cultured meat? ..my answer was that it's probably one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard in my life.!
As an entrepreneur, you're often doing things that haven't been done before, or doing them in ways that break the mould. All sorts of people are telling you, 'No, that's not how it's done,' and you're constantly running into obstacles. Without a lot of self-confidence, you can't even get started.
I mean, people ask me, 'Should I do a startup?' And I say, 'Well, how important is work-life balance to you?' And if they say anything other than 'It's not important,' I say, 'You shouldn't do it.' Because it's a killing field.
We characterise our ideal 'Substacker' in affectionate terms – we call them outsider nerds – they're outsiders insofar as they don't fit comfortably in the dominant media structure for whatever reason – perhaps they feel they can do better work outside of it They're nerds insofar as they're especially knowledgeable or passionate about a particular subject area.
You cannot understand entrepreneurial activity without understanding optimism. Research has shown that optimism and overconfidence in individuals is directly linked to their engagement in entrepreneurial activity.
Small companies will get an idea and try to scale up. Big companies have to decide when to extend, when to extend and scale, and when to do something new. They need to build capabilities in terms of insight and execution to do the new thing.
It is the difference between an investor asking, 'so, what's your product…' and 'so, what's your idea, and what steps can we take to turn that into a product.'
When you innovate under constraints like this, you go to a different level- that's the opportunity India provides.
Here's the thing: if people really want to do something, all they need to do is meet someone who's built something from scratch to show them that it can be done by someone just like them.
Our mission is to help people create a life, not just a living. By freeing them from thinking about the tasks related to space, they can dedicate more of their time and energy on their work and passions.
From day one, we said that we wanted to create value, create impact, and create inspiration. We're not going to build a business that just creates impact—we're not a nonprofit. We have to create value. As long as we're doing all three, we're never going to lose.