What’s Your JAM? Asks WEE Foundation's Aparna Saroagi

The Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment (WEE) Foundation started as a small initiative to strengthen the woman ecosystem is now the first such program in India with government backing. Their vision is to touch one billion women by 2020. Yes, we spelled that right.

Aparna Saroagi, founder and executive chairperson of WEE, plans to do this by encouraging and pepping up aspiring individuals wherever they can be found. For instance the multi age student gathering she met at Building India Inc., the annual business summit organized by Department of Management Studies (DMS), IIT Delhi. Aparna was back at her alma mater sharing the vision of WEE. “We want to create a chain of entrepreneurs who will pay it forward by helping other entrepreneurs out there. Help others grow and in the process, you will grow too.”

Another key goal for the foundation is gender equality to aid economic development. Aparna sincerely hopes that one day soon India will be known for gender parity. She and WEE are certainly trying to do something about it with the foundation soon planning to launch an online retail shop for businesswomen to sell their products on.

Here’s some much needed wisdom from Aparna that inspired us at Delhi IIT this weekend:

Ever heard of JAM? There are three JAM options in life.

Option 1: you can have bread and jam and be happy in life. Such a satisfying combination.

Option 2: You can complain about traffic jams in life that gets you down. “I don’t get funding, nobody supports me, people don’t understand me,” and the list of problems will go on.

Option 3: Embrace the fact that life is all about JAM. Just Achieving the Maximum.

I remember watching a movie sometime back and the hero said, “I don’t fall in love with anyone. I keep my heart safe.” His heart is safe, but it’s of absolutely of no use.

Try. Try something. Life is about taking risks, taking one step on a daily basis.

Serendipity happens when you’re out there trying. Have you ever found this to be true? If it’s a yes, go and discover something. It’s worth it.

In my case serendipity happened and I met my cofounder, Dr Sarandeep at a chance meeting where we realized our vision and mission are one and same and that we need to do something about it. We designed India’s first of its kind program for woman empowerment, and so far that’s the only program approved by the Government of India supported by the Department of Science and Technology and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). This same program is now present in the UK, Israel and Estonia. These countries wanted to replicate what we are doing in India. That’s the power of an idea.

If you ask me about how we started our journey, whether it was easy, all I can say is that we failed every day, we were rejected every day. That taught me that if we weren’t failing, then that we are not learning. And if you’re not learning, you’re not growing. Make sure you take your chances. Take your risks on a daily basis.

Here’s a tip: Think of three words that you want to be defined by. Then make a conscious decision every day try to live up to those three words.

And what happens if you don’t do anything to become these three words? Let me paint you a picture of your life with some simple maths. Let’s say you’re not doing anything new. You are where you are. After one year, where would you be? In the same place, of course!

Now let’s say you start taking one step on a daily basis. Just one step. Perhaps it’s connecting to someone, reading something, adding a new skill to your existing set. What happens then? Say you added and bettered yourself by just 1 percent on a daily basis. You do this for 365 days. Certainly a version of yourself that is stronger by a power of 365.

Here’s my suggestion to you: Please choose the words that define you and your legacy to the world. You will fail and that’s worth it. You might have dozens of failures but a few successes will take you where you want to. Whether you want to be an entrepreneur, a brand or a thought leader you can get there only if you do something about it. It’s your life.

Try. Try something. Life is about taking risks, taking one step on a daily basis.