This is not a typical article. Instead, I have written about my past five years, highlighting the key moments, achievements, learnings, and that ignite my passion for business. failures Let’s start my journey from the beginning. At 16, after being inspired by Martin Garrix’s , I started teaching myself music production. This led me to begin uploading my beats and songs to platforms like Spotify when I was 17. innovative sounds I signed with my first label, Dualist Music & Film Animation, at 17. I am so happy. But here’s a twist, I got scammed. I learned the hard way that the music label I signed had shady business practices. When they sold my music rights without my permission, this early betrayal was devastating and temporarily put my music career on hold. However, this experience taught me invaluable lessons about protecting your work as an artist. I gave myself six months to heal, hustle and learn every aspect of the music industry and how everything works. At 18, I launched an online community (on Discord) for artists and producers, which grew to over 5,000 members in just a year. We began creating and distributing free presets, sample packs, and tutorials to our community, totaling over four terabytes of music material. By mid-2020, I expanded my services by offering freelance mixing, mastering, and ghost production work (That helps me to make money and helps me to maintain my storage server) Though I had to shut down the community due to issues with people selling copyrighted materials, I continued leveraging the network I had built. At the beginning of 2021, I continued my freelance services because of the large network I created. However, I failed my 4th-semester exam in automobile engineering. I realized that I didn’t have much time to focus on both music and studies, so I stopped making music and also started exploring different business ideas. I co-founded a social media consulting startup, and we helped five early-stage businesses optimize their social presence in 6 months. I passed my Automobile engineering in 2022 and considered entrepreneurship full-time. I launched an online media company with a co-founder, but our interests diverged, and we were unable to make it big. I quickly pivoted to a new SaaS startup to make data analytics more accessible to small businesses through AI. Within nine months, I had over 200 beta users, but I struggled to attract investors. Instead of continuing to bootstrap, I made the tough choice to pause operations for now. These experiences, while difficult, expanded my skills in technology, marketing, and product development. I learned to test ideas quickly, fail fast, and iterate. Many of my ventures did not work out as planned, but each one gave me new connections and knowledge. I have learned so many things during this time. I have made money and lost money. It was a great roller coaster ride for me. Thank you for Reading If you have any questions, thoughts, or comments, please feel free to write below. Also published . here

Too Long; Didn't Read

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The Fire Within: How Early Failures Ignited My Passion for Business

Too Long; Didn't Read

Rishi Shah

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The Fire Within: How Early Failures Ignited My Passion for Business

Too Long; Didn't Read

Rishi Shah

About Author

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN...

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