Leadership Journeys [177] - Shak Hanjgikar - "As an entrepreneur, you are answerable to yourself"

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.Join us in this insightful conversation with Shak, founder and CEO of VTest, as he shares his journey from being a tester to an entrepreneur. Shak talks about the inspiration behind starting his software testing company and the invaluable lessons he learned from managing his family business. With over 20 years of experience in software testing and an MBA in finance, Shak offers unique perspectives on entrepreneurship and leadership. He discusses the importance of adaptability in today's rapidly evolving business landscape and shares his vision for scaling up while keeping client value and team satisfaction at the forefront. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned leader, Shak's story is sure to inspire and provide valuable insights for your own leadership journey.You can find Shak Hanjgikar at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/shakhanjgikar/https://www.vtestcorp.com/In the interview, Shak shares"The motivation or the first step came from my wife. She used to be working for a recruitment company in New York that recruitment company was trying to build an application. And then we were like, okay, if you're building, they definitely want to test it.""I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but obviously we always have that dilemma that fixed salary.""The practical part, or let's say the understanding and the groundwork part of the MBA, I did it at my father's business, wherein I knew how to manage resources.""If you come from a business family, let's say everything that you do revolves around that business.""Scaling up has been on the anvil; there have been merger acquisitions or requests coming in terms of acquiring and so on, but we always kept them on the back seat because we're like, we try to grow ourselves and we try to work ourselves and then see once we get to that stage.""Nothing in terms of exit but definitely creating more value for the client. It's also an avenue for us to reward our team members.""Hitting the dead end is one of the important things in terms of individual growth. We do not want our senior leaders or any of the leaders to themselves they're dead ends, wherein they will not be able to figure out what they have to do, or whether they are not growing.""We do not want to be in that situation. So aligning what the individual wants with what VTEST wants in terms of the VTEST benchmark and the industry benchmark is something that keeps me more engaged in them.""In terms of pain point, we typically have the evolving landscape, I would say when things change by the day by the week. Adaptability is one of the challenges.""So adaptability is something one of my important, one of my tasks and one of the major of my time goes in finding out or researching or talking to people or talking to senior leaders and connects."