Life in a Startup

When I woke up today, something felt different about Bangalore. I knew it was Monday, but for me it has always been just another day. There was an air of calmness, an oasis of serenity, the smell of earth. I had a little breakfast and got ready for the office. And then I received a call from my sister. We talked about the usual stuffs, the life, the family, the friends, the school and all this made me a bit nostalgic.

On the way, a song from Dirty Picture (never watched it though!) was playing on the radio. I changed it to something more soothing - by then I was lost in the thoughts. I remembered how far I have come from everything. I thought about the family, the friends, the lost love, where everyone else is, what everyone else is doing - in the grand scheme of all things it made me feel timid. For a moment, everything looked pointless. Life appeared to be so cruel and different from anyone else. But then it struck me.

I realized that this is the life. It's tough, it's hard, it will make you cringe, it will do whatever it can do to disappoint you, to bring you down, to dissuade from the pursuit. There will be days when you will feel at the top of the world, you will feel like nothing is gonna stop you and then there will be days when everything around you will look incongruous. And it is in those times that you need to be strong, to remember what you have accomplished and to remind yourself what you are going to. You have to elicit hundreds of past memories where you have felt the same way, but each time you have overcome them elegantly.

Remember that line from Pursuit from Happyness? I am going to hit you with it again.

You got a dream. You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period.

By the time I had stepped in to the office, I realized it again. What we are doing is far greater and amazing than we have ever done. We are solving a real problem at HackerEarth, working on a tons of stuff, growing aggressively and having lots of fun. There is so much happening everyday and is gonna happen next that it's a roller-coaster ride, it's a party! This is what life is like in a startup. And I am having the time of my life!

P.S. I co-founded a startup - HackerEarth (www.hackerearth.com) to solve the problem of tech recruitment in India. We have built some amazing products and technology in-house - we are going to put them on our engineering blog. Even we are going to open-source some of them. I am also currently a student at IIT Roorkee. Follow me @vivekprakash.

Comments

  1. Nice, waiting for the engineering blog! :)

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    Replies
    1. It's up. Check out http://engineering.hackerearth.com

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    2. i have read ur story at yourstory.in

      wonderful and inspirational thanks

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  2. Greatly relatable one Vivek. Looking ahead to seeing HackerEarth doing some groundbreaking in the tech recruitment industry. All the best.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Rupam for your wishes. I am confident we are going to disrupt things very soon :)

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