Atanu Sarkar: From Being an Underrated Backbencher to Becoming an Exemplary Entrepreneur Date:   Thursday , February 02, 2017 Bill Gates said he would always \'hire a lazy person to do a difficult job\' at Microsoft because \'a lazy person will find an easy way to do it\'. While this theory worked proactively for Atanu Sarkar (CEO, Webskitters Technology Solutions Private Limited) in his college and early professional life, it failed to get him through his entrepreneurial journey. After facing series of initial hurdles, it took no time for him to realize hard work as the only mantra for entrepreneurial success and lead him to slave away hard long hours to realize what he truly dreamt of. As Paulo Coelho famously said, \"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it,\" and for Atanu hard work really paid off as his company Webskitters (a CMMI Level 3 company), has now grown to serve more than 35 global corporations employing about 150 people in its own office. Facing the Naysayers Atanu had always dreamt of contributing to society. He says, \"I wanted to give back to the community not just monetary benefits but also wanted to enhance the knowledge of other people, and this is the main reason behind starting my own so that everyone can grow along with me. It\'s not about money, it\'s about the moral value\". After working years for corporate giants, he realized that he was creating not much of value with this monotonous job and decided to take up entrepreneurship to fulfil his dream. As entrepreneurial journey always heads with a sea of challenges, Atanu had to battle all the naysayers who doubted his decision. \"I was married and having a month old kid, everyone said I was taking a huge risk,\" recollects Atanu. But great achievements always demand great risks; abiding by the credo, he started the company with one single computer from his home with the support of his brother. Within a couple of months, the duo was joined by few more guys who helped in the course to build the company to pioneer in the field of web development and branding. \"If you work hard, success will definitely follow. If you fail its fine, go ahead and try once again with the same kind of determination, some or the other day you will find success,\" believes Atanu. He attributes his entrepreneurial success to the determination and the hard work put by the team in building strong foundation for the company. Atanu feels very grateful to have such a supporting family which becomes a vital part of any entrepreneur\'s life and expresses his gratitude to his super supportive parents and wife for her sacrifices. Lessons to Fellow Community In a fast based highly competitive startup ecosystem, Atanu advises entrepreneurs to work according to the statistics and focus on product building rather than running blindly behind investors for funding. \"An entrepreneur needs to focus on the ideas, it needs to be unique and it needs to be clear, don\'t run for the money, because if you build a great product money will follow,\" asserts Atanu lighting on the investment craze in the startup ecosystem. Atanu feels that there is a serious need for parents to encourage their children to take up entrepreneurship instead of guiding them to settle for a job in Fortune 500s. \"I would like to say to the parents and family members that the startups are not bad; if the startups perform well, they might land up on the Fortune list themselves,\" says Atanu. He feels greatly confident about Indian startups and suggests them to drop the negative energy and surround themselves with like-minded people who believe in the vision and work hard for the company. Leader at Work, Lover at Home Along with his fearless risk taking skills, Atanu also possesses extraordinary managerial skills and follows the \'open door policy\' where anybody can come to share their problems. Interestingly, out of his more than 150 employees, Atanu calls each one of them with their names and believes that this helps him to build a great relationship with his employees. As a cherry on the cake, Webskitters was recognized as one of the best places to work for maintaining a cordial and excellent relationship with the employees. Some of the awards which Webskitters won under the leadership of Atanu and team are \'Fastest Growing Indian IT Company\', \'Pride of India\', \'Best IT Place to Work\' etc. Besides work, Atanu is an avid cricket fan and used to be a good player in his college days. Atanu is a down to earth person who adores his family and loves to spend most of his time playing with his young son. He considers his son as his source of strength and promises to give him all freedom to make his own decisions. Atanu has special love for Indian soups and chicken recipes and melts his tongue on all the items made by his mom. Though he beavers most of his time in office, Atanu makes all effort to carve out maximum time to spend with his family. When time permits, he loves to escape the hustle-bustle of the city to get lost in the silence of Himalayas with his family. From being one of the most underrated guys in BEC Bagalkot College of Engineering, Atanu\'s entrepreneurial success manifests where a man\'s hard work and self-belief could take him and stands as a fervent example to all the budding entrepreneurs.