I started Indus Net Technologies (INT.) in 1997 after an accident. I taught myself HTML after getting bedridden from an accident and convinced a modem seller to share a booth space at a Kolkata expo.
I started there and got my first client at ₹6,000, just enough to cover the booth cost. 28 years later, we are 1,100+ people across 10 offices, serving 500+ clients on five continents.
The hardest part of those 28 years was not the beginning. It was when I could not tell whether I was building something real or just refusing to accept failure. I see the same thing when I climb.
On a mountain, there is a stretch where you have committed too much to turn back, but the summit is still invisible. The body wants to stop, but the mind starts making rational arguments for why quitting is the smart choice.
Founders and Mountaineering quit at the same moment.
📍 The "valley of despair" looks identical to failure from the inside. Revenue is flat, and the team is tired. Competitors seem to be pulling ahead, and you can't see progress.
📍 What separates those who push through is clarity. How clearly you defined the stakes before you started.
📍 The dip is not a signal to exit. It is a test of whether you were dedicated when you started.
I have learned that the summit does not reward the most talented. It rewards those who decided before they began that turning back was not an option.
Have you been close to giving up?