I spent a decade learning how business really works. Not in a classroom. In the field.
Across more than ten years at companies like Paytm, Zomato, ApplyBoard, and Info Edge, I lived inside the engine rooms of business growth. I was the person in the room negotiating partnerships, opening new markets, building client relationships that had to hold under pressure. I worked across fintech, edtech, media, and professional services,generating multi-crore revenue, managing high-value accounts, and spending thousands of hours with founders, consultants, advisors, and industry leaders.
I loved the work. And over time, it taught me something I couldn't unlearn.
In a boardroom, a sales meeting, a partnership conversation,the people who won weren't always the most capable in the room. They were the ones who could communicate their value in a way that landed. Authority, I was learning, is not the same thing as expertise. It has to be built.