I was in Seattle this weekend – taking RoB on the road to bring it to 500 Indian Professionals and to talk about the pleasure and pain of starting your own company.  It was a great time with some fascinating and funny conversations, sometimes happening all at once.  I got to know and witness master hypnotist Asad Mecci at work and hang with friends Aasif Mandvi and Janina Gavankar.

I also had the pleasure of participating on a panel ( “So you want to be a CEO?”) with Ash Modha – CEO Mondetta, Kahshal Chakrabarti – CEO Vittana, and the charming Pradeep Singh, Founder and Chairman of the Board Aditi Technologies.

The range of questions from the audience was broad, but all roads led back to something  we all four agreed on:

To start your own company you have to be bold, resilient and fueled by passion.

I have a favorite quote about boldness which I go back to when I need to be inspired. It’s long, but powerful so I’ll share.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” Goethe

This has served me well and I’m grateful for all that has and continues to conspire to bring wonderful people my way towards building Republic of Brown.

A good place to thank Rita, Chantelle, Simi, Rafat, Deepti, Rianka and Laura. Thank you for your time and support. It means a great deal to me.

It was a good trip. I came away renewed and with some wonderful new friends across the United States. One of the coolest things was when Pradeep Singh said he’d heard about Republic of Brown from his daughter and then congratulated me on the name. We’ve got something good going here. Thank you for supporting and reading and sharing.

- Geetanjali