BSH NEWS
Lenskart.com founder Peyush Bansal, who won hearts with his humility on business reality TV series ‘Shark Tank India‘, has a valuable lesson for budding entrepreneurs – it’s okay to be discontent.
In a detailed post on LinkedIn, the top boss said that the feeling of being discontent has not changed in him in the last 10 years. In short, for as long as he has founded the eyewear retail chain in 2010, he had been discontent.
When the company was growing, Bansal shared that his friends, family and well-wishers criticised him for constantly feeling discontent. “… Earlier when my well wishers (family, HR, seniors) used to criticise me for having this feeling, I used to feel bad, and now I don’t,” he wrote.
Titled ‘The Power Of Being Discontent’, the 37-year-old realised that ‘being discontent’ is essential in building an “ever-evolving, ever-surprising, and ever-growing customer centric organisation.”
The desi Shark also said that he believes that one can be discontent, yet happy. Being dissatisfied with goals and tasks only help plan for a stable future.
“Being discontent has nothing to do with being happy, but it has everything to do with what we will be three years from now. It is a way of being, of improving, of pushing to be more and do more every day, and yet being happy,” he added.
Clarifying his stance further, Bansal said that he appreciates the hard work his team continues to put in in building Lenskart. However, it is not a bad thing to be frustrated and to fix the issues pointed out by a dissatisfied customer.
He also said that it is normal for entrepreneurs to feel they are far behind from their peers as this gives them the necessary push to keep growing further.
Bansal said that organisations need more ‘discontent’ entrepreneurs to grow.
“All entrepreneurs are discontented, else they would never have become entrepreneurs… It is this discontent that pushes us every day to do better and deliver more,” he stressed.
‘Good is not good enough’
According to Bansal, ‘good’ always keeps evolving. What is good today will not stay the same tomorrow.
He said that being discontent helps people stay humble, curious and hungry to continuously innovate and build an organisation for tomorrow.
Citing Apple’s example, he said that the premium smartphone-maker releases a software update every 15 days and each update has 100s of new small features which make customer experience better. Because of their constant effort at improving themselves, it has become a $3 trillion-company, which is larger than India’s GDP.
Had they been content with their product and services, Bansal said they would not have been able to do this.
Bansal thanked his Lenskart team for always being discontent. “Despite accomplishing so much, we have a long way to go and it is still Day 1,” he wrote.
In the end, he raised a toast to all the discontent, yet happy, people in the world. “Let’s keep doing more and being more,” he concluded.