Mohit Purohit

I have been into entrepreneurship since class 4. I used to buy edible things and sold them with profit margin. After that I used to purchase more edibles. I never asked a penny from my parents.

I was born in Purulia, West Bengal and brought up in Rajasthan. Growing up in a middle class family comprising of my mother, father and my little brother, reminded me all the time about how privileged I was being able to go to school.

I had a different zeal in me… I wanted to start something of my own but never received the kind of support I expected from my family. It’s very obvious – being from a middle class family, it was not easy for me to actually make them understand what I really wanted to do? For most of my life, I felt like waiting for that moment, when in the far future, after completing all these ‘prerequisites’, I would start living and enjoy my life.

Once, when I was in first year… I was sitting alone in my classroom, delved deep in my thoughts. “Are you happy living life like this or are you willing to try until you find your own passion” – I had asked myself. Indeed, I chose the second and built my first start up in college – “Point4Code”. It was a platform to help people to learn coding with some basic and most important points. It was a hit as I got a lot of visitors and learners on my webpage. I also got my first cheque of 100$ from Google. I just can’t express how happy I was!!! From my experience, I realised – ‘it’s never too late to start something’.

Unfortunately, after a few days that start up failed due to some internal issues. I was devastated. I stopped going college and spent most of time in library thinking it was safest place to contain a failure like me. I felt so discouraged. It was then I stumbled upon one amazing book namely “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson. After reading that book I learnt that this person had the same tragedy like me… I felt connected with his biography. He became my role model instantly.

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – this quote inspired and helped me to realise again that it was never too late.

I started my second start up. Steve Jobs had become the person, the way Gandhiji was for Munna bhai in the movie. I named that start up as “Imazino”, deriving it from the phrase – ‘Imagination to reality’. It was a home automation system that helped people control electrical appliances from anywhere in the world. It went well and became a profitable business but I later sold this company to my co-founder before joining Infosys.

Fast-forward to present… let’s just say as of now I’m not the person I want to be. Given my current role and the fact that I work in a competitive and fast moving industry, doing “just enough” is simply not enough for so many reasons and… who am I kidding, there’s no way I can list all of my shortcoming within the given time period… Yet against all the odds, someday, I am hoping to be as successful as Jobs. He has said – “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”.

Total Work Experience : 3.5 Years (Infosys)