{"id":2163,"date":"2025-07-18T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/?p=2163"},"modified":"2025-07-18T04:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:37:16","slug":"012-hustle-memo-the-room-i-wasnt-supposed-to-be-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/012-hustle-memo-the-room-i-wasnt-supposed-to-be-in\/","title":{"rendered":"#012 HUSTLE MEMO – The Room I Wasn\u2019t Supposed to Be In"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three years ago, I was fixing computers under desks. Those three years weren\u2019t just a timeline\u2014they were everything. They held every doubt, every cable untangled, every risk taken alone. It wasn\u2019t just three years of work. It was three years of becoming. Running $30 ads in classifieds under a name I made up just to sound \u2018trustable\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first two years, I was barely surviving\u2014building one IT contract at a time, taking calls off classified ads, untangling cables under desks. I remember crouching under one office table thinking, \u201cThis is the real MBA no one talks about.\u201d From placing my first ad as Andy Anand, to solving problems no one else wanted to fix, I thought I was just doing what I had to do to stay afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

I never expected recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the unexpected happened \u2014 The President of the Sikh Temple nominated me for the Young Entrepreneurs Award under the SICCI-DBS Singapore Indian Entrepreneur Awards 2006, issued by the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with DBS Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These awards were created to recognise the achievements of outstanding Indian entrepreneurs and to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship. He had watched my early hustle, built trust, showed up for the community. He saw something in me and wanted others to see it too. That nomination alone meant the world to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And just like that, I was sitting across the table from S. Dhanabalan (Chairman of Temasek Trust), a Deloitte partner, and leaders from DBS and other Singapore powerhouses. I walked into that room with one thought: \u201cWhat if I don\u2019t belong here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unexpected Calm I suited up. Walked in. And instead of panic, something else kicked in: I felt calm. Even energized. My heart didn\u2019t pound. My hands didn\u2019t shake. My mind was sharp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

I was\u2026 ready. Ironically, the adrenaline cooled me down. Because for the first time, I wasn\u2019t trying to impress anyone. I just told my truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Steps That Got Me in That Room Let\u2019s break down how a no-name immigrant founder ends up across the table from the Chairman of Temasek:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1:<\/strong> Solve, Don\u2019t Sell Forget the pitch deck. Spend years solving small real problems. People notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 2:<\/strong> Show Up With Consistency Reputation doesn\u2019t need marketing if your service is predictable, honest, and on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 3:<\/strong> Take the Invitation Seriously, Not Yourself You\u2019re not owed the room. But when it opens, walk in with curiosity not performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 4:<\/strong> Speak Like It\u2019s Your Last Chance Don\u2019t overprepare the \u201cright\u201d answer. Say the real one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

The Day They Saw the Hustle After the interview, I didn\u2019t care if I won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because something rare had happened: The panel didn\u2019t applaud my polish. They respected my truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, one of the judges said: \u201cYou didn\u2019t sound like someone trying to win. You sounded like someone who\u2019s been through it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That line stuck with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a finalist not because I sounded like an entrepreneur. I lived like one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awarded Young Entrepreneur of the year 2006<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

What did I learn? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let me see if I can summarize and hopes it helps someone in their journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Biggest investment to indulge in<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cYourself\u201d \u2013 The more you invest in yourself, the better the outcome. Learning Must be Continuous.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Biggest trap to avoid<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cDoing everything yourself\u201d I \u2013 Seen tons of my peers and myself victims of it; easier said than done, but the sooner you can offload, the faster your growth.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Biggest mistake<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cNot expecting failure\u201d \u2013 Great success is built upon failure; that\u2019s why the Most Successful People Fail Most Often.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Biggest hurdle<\/strong> \u2013\u201d Yourself\u201d \u2013 We are the biggest hurdle in our success because we set our limits, and more often than not, it\u2019s the stories we tell ourselves that prevent us from attaining what we could have otherwise achieved. \u201cTrust Yourself.\u201d
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Biggest takeaway <\/strong>\u2013 \u201cEvery adversity has an opportunity\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s the universe\u2019s way of doing a course correction.

    <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      <\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Three years ago, I was fixing computers under desks. Those three years weren\u2019t just a timeline\u2014they were everything. They held every doubt, every cable untangled, every risk taken alone. It wasn\u2019t just three years of work. It was three years of becoming. Running $30 ads in classifieds under a name I made up just to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-hustle-memo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2163"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2175,"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2163\/revisions\/2175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prabjeetsinghanand.com\/thehustlememo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}