Self-Awareness is the Key to Success, Says Varun Agarwal

By Parvathi Benu

Varun Agarwal is a name synonymous to inspiration for millions of youngsters across the country. The 27-year-old is an established entrepreneur, film-maker and an author.

“I do not consider myself an author. I’ve written one book and might write another soon. I would prefer being called an author and definitely a film maker,” said Agarwal. He was one among the speakers at the Bangalore Business Literature Fest 2015 held on October 31, 2015 in Bangalore.

He co-founded Alma Mater, Reticular and Last Minute Films and had written the bestseller ‘How I braved Anu Aunty and found the million dollar company.’ “The book is just around five percent fictious. In fact, Anu Aunty was happy about being popular,” he said. “The book gave free promotion to Alma Mater. Sales boosted up very much.”

Agarwal said that the idea of writing the book came to him when people started liking his blog posts and could relate to very much to the character Anu Aunty. “It was a difficult task to write a 50,000 word long manuscript. Honestly, I got stuck after the first 10,000 words,” he said. “Getting your work published is a very easy task here. Trust me, if I could get my book published anyone could. All you have to do is dedicate your time and write,” he added.

He said that while the term entrepreneur is very much glamorised by the media, every youngster wishes to be one because of three reasons- To make a lot of money, to be the boss and to not have a 9-5 job. He added that these are all the myths about entrepreneurship that has to be broken.

He spoke about how he used to fail in his subjects in college. “Those failures however helped me very much. I lost my fear of losing,” he said.  He added that everyone must do what they’re passionate about in their life and should not bother about what others say. “Honestly, people do not have time to care and they won’t,” he said.

He quoted an incident during his college life, where he had to give a presentation in front of his whole class but could not utter a single word because of stage fear.  He took the embarrassment as a lesson and started working on his public speaking skills, by spreading a certain gossip among a group of friends.

“I was very much inspired by Steve Job’s speeches. Public speaking is the best way to inspire people. You just have to open up. And yeah, old monk helps a lot,” he said jokingly.

He added that one should be passionate enough to do what they are doing. He asked the crowd to be self-aware. “Spend time with yourself. Go for a trip alone. Find yourself. Also, our heart is always saying something. Listen to it,” he added.