We often believe United States to be the land of founders, entrepreneurs and global leaders, but our country is not far behind. All we need is to have that urge to find and know, to learn and grow. And that’s why today we have brought you an amazing talent who from the age of 15 cracked many national & international robotics competitions. He has also been awarded by NASA & National Space Society, for two times in a row. Apart from that, he owns a company that develops app & robotics applications. So here we have Rishabh Sinha.

Q. Hi Rishabh! How have you been doing this lockdown? Are those neurones still firing heavy or are they using this time to relive some old hobbies or something?

Ans. The lockdown has honestly been very tiring but I’ve somewhat adopted to this new work culture. But it does have couple of upside like being in proximity with your bed & food all the time, no traffic, & most importantly extra time for developing new skills. I recently bought a guitar to learn couple of chords (not going great so far) and I also started a podcast called “Pointless” where we talk about tech, start-ups, & culture among other things.

Q. We all know that, our upbringing since childhood and the social structure plays a vital role in building that perception with which we look, understand and deal with the world at later stages of life. Our readers will love to know about how you grew up as a child and how it brought that different vision into your mind?

Ans. My childhood story is the usual, strict middle-class household with the focus always set on getting good grades. I had interest in computers from a young age, so when we got a computer, and then couple of years later an internet connection, I was exposed a lot of information. The niche I found the most interesting were building remote cars, through which I learned about things like Arduino & other hardware platforms and eventually turned towards learning to code. Thereafter, I participated in a lot of competitions (won a few) and met a lot of like-minded people. Being able to meet so many incredibly talented people is what shaped my mindset to be an entrepreneur & try to do something worthwhile.

Q. You run two companies, named “Sinha Robotics Pvt Ltd” and “Sinha Ventures OPC Pvt Ltd”. Can you tell us the story behind?

Ans. It was back in 2014 when I wanted to monetise my skills somehow, so what I did was ask people on Facebook if they needed a cheap website, a lot of people rejected because of my age but I ended up finding one client. My first gig paid-off around 10K and that’s how I got a taste for it. From there on, I found more clients to work with via Facebook and made a steady stream of revenue. My goal was always to transition from offering services to products, and that’s what I experimented (& experimenting) with in last couple of years. But app development service remained the biggest revenue source throughout this journey.

Q. What has been a dream come true moment in your life till now and what is that you wish for next?

Ans. I think my “dream come true” moment is yet to come but there have been a lot of things which are worth mentioning like being awarded by NASA, winning college fests, speaking at events (drawing huge crowds), and of course passing both Boards.

Q. How does it feel to be so responsible and to be admired by others for your works from such a young age?

Ans. This feeling always keeps on transforming. Sometimes I feel proud about my work, sometimes afraid of all the responsibilities, meetings, & speaking opportunities, and sometimes just arrogant. But most of time it translates to nothing, and that keeps your arrogance in check.

Q. What do you think about education system? Does it provide any thrust for those minds that can actually ignite and bring some real changes to our society?

Ans. I think the education model in our country is setup to test just one cognitive ability of an individual & that is memory. I started studying for my 12th boards a week before my exams started and I didn’t even knew about the syllabus, but I still managed to score well. If you can remember then you can score well in any subject. So there’s no actual skill-development happening in schools & colleges and after finishing their courses, majority of these students are still not sure about their interests & career paths. I myself have chosen to skip college, which doesn’t mean that the learning stops, but now I can focus my time & money on my interests. My this experiment is to simply find out the real-world benefits of going to vs not going to a college. And I only hope that this experiment works out.

Q. You are too young, yet you hold experiences beyond your age. What are the life lessons do you think you have got from this journey? And what will be your message to the young aspirants of our country who wish to follow a path like yours?

Ans. There’s a long way for me to go before I start sharing motivational lessons, but there are some tips which works for me:

• Always do something you truly enjoy and can never get bored of.

• Always have something to show for whenever you’re pitching something.

• Never talk too much about yourself in meetings & other public speaking opportunities.

• Take advice & criticism but no need to get hurt over it or take it too seriously.

• Take every opportunity you can if you want to pursue your interests, just start somewhere and be consistent, it always eventually work out.

Article By Satakhi Panda