How meditation helped Harsh in building his startup.

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How meditation helped Harsh in building his startup.

Sometimes a small life lesson can change your entire life. Today's story is something similar. We are talking about Harsh Shah, the founder of 'Omsatva.' 

You must be aware of the proverb- "Health is wealth." 

Well this proverb is the reality of Harsh. His journey was not not a smooth ride but a roller coaster. He hails from a wealthy family and was always the pampered member of the family. However, just having good financial and family support is never enough, every person is blessed with some life lessons which come disguised as problems. He also went through a life lesson. When he was just 13, he got diagnosed with a deficiency of 'Growth Hormone' which stunted his growth. In turn, people around him started bullying him. 

"I would get bullied because of my small stature, when you face peer pressure and bullying for years, the naive teen starts to become someone they cannot relate with, trying to toughen up. In my attempts to act cool in front of others, I would often end up doing something that I would regret later," admits Harsh.

As the façade drifted away after college, after some occasional troublesome incidents, Harsh slowly came to terms with himself and worked on becoming his best version and got his damaged self healed.

Om to "Omstava"

This idea came to him very intuitively. He  was really relaxed after meditating for a while and he began thinking about a business idea, he had a habit of noting down all ideas that came to his mind and he would think then categorize them from best to worst and evaluate the best ones of different parameters. In this process, he found this business idea. Later this idea became Omsatva.

The challenging roads

Being an MBA student, he applied all the theories, he had learnt and made a really professional business plan with ambitious growth figures.

Fast-forward 6 months and he found all his projections turned out to be wrong.

"The first challenge was arranging funds, since I was passionate about the idea, I put in my own savings to start the organization with an initial investment of Rs.70000 ($1000). I started this organisation believing that funds would come and the cycle would keep going on, but I ended up with no income for the first three months," shared Harsh.

"The second challenge was getting my idea right, as an entrepreneur there must be a risk element and a unique element in your idea. I felt my business idea was unique but ended up finding many similar platforms over the past 6 months since the launch of my business. I started with an abstract business model where I ended up putting so much effort but did not make any real progress for one month. It was annoying and disappointing. I got my reality check and I was in panic mode, researching competitors and their strategies. This was such a stressful phase and I was responsible for it because I could not handle it positively." 

"However, I revamped my business model and objectives after 3 months of struggle. I shifted my focus towards building a good network, rather than the traditional monetary success. I was no longer working for money but building an asset that was so unique that no one could replicate it by revamping my business model," Harsh adds.

Talking about challenges, the most important challenge for him was to not give up on the dream. Since he is still in his final year of MBA, his college timings would intersect with work and assignments would add up to his to-do list which only kept getting longer. Handling college as well as his startup, that too without any support was a tough job. Harsh says "Moreover, I met two people in particular who were spirituality and wellness practitioners, they said “my business will fail” in these exact words during my interaction with them." 

"Generally, you would expect them to be very positive and inspiring people with a healing and positive aura about them, but we really don't need to be too attached with the success of our business. Entrepreneurs like me are always seeking validation because we are not sure about our decisions and especially when there’s too much at stake, but we need to not be too attached with our business success but only work towards realising the purpose," Harsh adds.

The journey ahead

At one point where the outside world was getting tough, Harsh says, his family support kept him going. 

"On days when I would feel lost, I would get guidance from my family members. My mother would provide a strong emotional support to me during my initial strenuous months. I would get help from my siblings who would often share some workload. I would get support from my business associates and my team. I can surely say that it was faith that kept me going on, faith in the change that I am trying to bring through my business."

Back to present

At present, they have nearly 350+ verified practitioners from over 33 countries, making them the most expansive global spirituality and wellness directory and appointment booking platform. They also have a product store that features an interesting variety of products.They are now planning community engagement events over virtual platforms to support practitioners listed on their site and around the globe, learn and grow together, form meaningful partnerships and grow their network. 

A word of advice

On asking Harsh for a word of advice, he said, "My advice would only be to keep enjoying life, love what you do even if it’s just lying on the couch all day. I wouldn’t inspire everyone to start a business because not everyone has the correct mindset or is risk-averse. But I would ask people to have clarity on their purpose. The purpose is what you would do if you were given $100 million but couldn’t spend it on yourself or your family. The purpose is what we give to this world. I would ask all readers to love who they are and what they do, they might not be the best but what they are is made from their past experience and the future is made from their present experience. If they even have a faint idea of the life they want for themselves, they should make peace with the past because it's unchangeable and work towards their future while aligning it with their purpose."