HYDERABAD: To be able to empower oneself and those around, especially through a business, is a big goal to achieve. But Sminu Jindal, the managing director of Jindal SAW Ltd and the founder chairperson of Svayam, shows you how to do that. Motivating herself and others to be the best of what one can be, she wishes to inspire people with her life. She was in Hyderabad for a session when The New Indian Express caught up with her, noting down her inspirational journey and how she lives and breathes empowerment.
She begins by narrating her journey. “After joining my family business as a young trainee, I worked my way up the corporate ladder. I was the first successful woman in the predominantly male society of steel, oil and gas industry. I have multiple interests beyond the world of business which include fine arts and
music," Sminu tells City Express.
Talking about an inspiration that she counts on, always, she shares, “Different situations inspire me in different ways. But it's qualities such as bravery and kindness, that are rare and tough to find -- these inspire me the most.”
Sharing what keeps her going, Sminu says, “I have lifetime goals to achieve, and one of them is making the world accessible. Getting to do new things, learning to explore innovative ways of production, motivate me. Personally, having a goal and achieving it is the biggest motivation that makes me look
forward to the day every morning and get out to pursue both my professional and personal dreams. On the work front, I want my companies to do better, on the home front I want my children and husband to do better.”
Sminu says helping people become powerful and enabling them to stand on their own two feet is the true essence of empowerment. "Empowerment is self-generated. Others can egg you on but ultimately it is up to the individual. I do like people who take risks because if I have more empowered people around me,
I will feel empowered too."
As to how she handles failure, the Svayam chairperson says," Failure is a word that I have been afraid of most of my life but that is the only way to succeed. Failures goad us not to be lazy anymore, they make us better and stronger, they increase our hunger for success. Sometimes they can be embarrassing but can
even motivate us to overcome them. They teach you a lot in life. I have faced failures multiple times in life. Failures put us in an uncomfortable spot but picking yourself up and dusting off the indignity to work harder is important. A lot of people can tell you why things won’t work, I wish they could tell us
how they would. There’s nothing in the world that you can’t achieve if you put your mind to it though there might be different ways of doing it."
If we are not afraid of failure, we will get there," she emphasises.
On her success mantra, Sminu says there are no shortcuts. Her advice to others is this: "Life is beautiful, change your glasses to look at it."