The Resilient Founder. Mahendra Ramsinghani

other mental health issues in our society is still highly significant, the leadership from an increasing number of visible people around their struggles is starting to make a dent in that stigma.

      After reading the near-final draft of this book, I sent Mahendra a quick email saying, “Your book is dynamite.” When he set out to write the book, he told me his goal was to write a book that provides stories, anecdotes, triggers, advice, poetry, and support of all kinds from people who have struggled with depression. He accomplished this, and much more, as he deeply explored many aspects of a high-achieving personality, which includes entrepreneurs, and deconstructed many of the challenges that can lead to or amplify existing mental health issues.

      In my most recent book, The Entrepreneur's Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors, written with Dave Jilk, my first business partner mentioned earlier, one of the Nietzsche quotes we explore directly applies. In the chapter “Reflecting Your Light,” we deconstruct the following Nietzsche quote.

       Seeing our Light Shining – In the darkest hour of depression, sickness, and guilt, we are still glad to see others taking a light from us and making use of us as of the disk of the moon. By this roundabout route we derive some light from our own illuminating faculty.

In other words: When we are depressed, and everything seems bleak, we can take some comfort in the way other people respond to us. This piece of advice, along with hundreds of others, can be found in Mahendra's excellent book.

      Mahendra – thank you for shining your light on all of us and helping entrepreneurs better understand the dynamics and eliminate the stigma around mental health.

      Brad Feld

      August 2021

      Aspen, Colorado

Acknowledgments

      Without Brad Feld's courage, transparency, vulnerability, and friendship, this book would have remained a wisp of a dream. Brad – you have been an entrepreneur, a full stack investor as an angel, a venture capitalist, a Fund of Funds manager. You have co-launched an accelerator – TechStars – that has changed the life of many founders and generated over $200 billion enterprise value – and authored multiple books. You continue to innovate, contribute, and support so many along this journey. Thank you, Brad, for bringing your expertise, wisdom, transparency, authenticity, innovation, and vigor into the start-up world – you have paved the way for a better tomorrow and give voice to the crazy ones, the misfits, the ones who stand tangent to the earth.

      Jerry Colonna, the VC-turned magician and mensch. A sage, coach, guide, and friend to CEOs – sharing insights, wisdom and a much-needed gentle wake-up kick. Many a founder's rear has been propelled in the right direction by Jerry's kindness. He no longer counts exits and IPOs, IRR, or TVPI. All he counts is what matters – the names of people who sleep better at night, thanks to his nurturing and care. This Buddha from Brooklyn has saved many a startup founder from self-destruction. Deep gratitude to Jerry for his words, wisdom, and guidance in bringing this book to light. Even when he swears, it sounds like a blessing!

My deep debt of gratitude to the anonymous creative CEO who pitched in with intention and flare, and ate up all the avocados, for sharing her experiences – a brave soul. Brave in spirit. Brave in attempt. Thank you. Your light shines in this book, brightly. Thank you, Shally Madan, for taking the time and effort to sit down and share your journey and ideas that helped me frame this topic. I am sure a founder or three will benefit from your insights. To all the hundred plus founders and contributors, who so bravely opened up their hearts and souls, describing the gut-wrenching challenges of depression. A few of them include Yen Chat, Cristina Chipurici (Bucharest, Romania), Robert Diana (Media, PA), Juliette Eames, Judah Fish (Jerusalem, Israel), Felicity Noël Keeley (Washington, DC), Jake Kerr (Chicago, IL), Jake Knight (Truckee, CA), Shally Madan (CA), Tim Miller, William Morrison (Sun Valley, ID), Selina Troesch Munster (Los Angeles, CA), Christine Sommers (Vancouver, BC, Canada), and Ashley Theiss (Vancouver, BC, Canada).

      My childhood buddies, Nitin Ahuja, Chirayu Chaphekar, Nitin Mohan, and Rajesh Tihari for their steadfast friendship over 25 years of so much madness, so much laughter. My gratitude to Paddy Deshmukh, Rakesh Joshi, and Ratan Dulani who have endured my craziness for much longer than most friends. Thank you to my dear cousins, Raj Hirwani and the design maestro Sid Hirwani for ideas and inspirations.

      My family, Deepa and Aria, who sometimes believe that I have the ability to make raccoon-like noises. To Amar and Geeta, whose love and blessings have helped me become who I am.

      The journey of writing this book has been rewarding – my life continues to grow rich with purpose, resilience, adventure, joy, abundance, kindness, trust, and more.

      So thank you all, without whom this would not have been possible. As Salman Rushdie once wrote, “I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen, done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone. Everything whose being-in-the-world affected me. And was affected by mine.”

About the Cover

       Self Made Man by Bobbie Carlyle

      If the journey of entrepreneurship had to be captured in an image, this would be it.

      This cover picture, right here, is worth more than all the 100,000 words in this book.

      This process of chiseling away the granite around us.

      Artist, sculptor, and creator Bobbie Carlyle says, “I was going through a particularly challenging time over 30 years ago, when I started to work on my sculpture entitled Self Made Man. As a battered wife who has experienced isolation, grief, counseling, families torn apart by divorce, death, and hardships, my art was also my own form of therapy. This was important for my growth and I hope it is for others as well.”

As an artist, Bobbie sculpted her own path into her art business, taking a home equity line of credit, and started spending long hours working on this sculpture. First, she created a rough draft or a smaller-scale model; then, she developed the larger model. The first Self Made Man at scale turned out to be almost 10 feet tall. As she put finishing touches on it, Bobbie had herself crossed over from being a battered wife to the world of being a self-made entrepreneur. She could have her long-sought-after life for herself and her seven children, all the while creating art that would speak to many others of their own struggles. Her children became her models, and she would take them on her art show trips while hauling sculptures on freeways on her 18-foot-long flatbed trailer. Her son once wrote a school class essay about his hero – his mom, Bobbie. He wrote about how she had been through immense hardships, stood up for them, and made herself successful without compromising her inner voice. “When I read this, I sat and cried,” says Bobbie. “I knew that I was okay and we were going to be alright.”

      Over the past three decades, Self Made Man and others of her works have been installed in universities, public installations, and homes worldwide.

      “I deliberately did not make this sculpture all smooth and shiny without rough areas. Life itself has so many rough areas. We have many challenges in life. Only if we reflect on these challenges can we search and discover ourselves. They can help us to build and grow our character. We have to be determined to succeed. Women and men who have bought the Self Made Man often share all the hardships they have been through to get to a successful point in their lives. It's an acknowledgment of the realities of life, not just the epitome of their accomplishment. And it's not about gender either. While I have created a Self Made Woman as well, this process is about our own growth. My whole life has revolved around taking care of people and my art is an extension – it cares, and hopefully brings joy, solace, and strength.”

      One of the largest commissions of Self Made Man is a 14-feet-tall 1,500-pound bronze behemoth installed at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. After the 9/11 attacks in New York, the inspiration to rebuild the spirit of America would come, in part, from this sculpture.

      And