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“I really don’t know how to deal with stupid people. Be it Housing board members or these journalists,” said Rahul Yadav, former CEO of Housing

In a Facebook post, Rahul Yadav, who was fired as CEO of SoftBank-backed real estate portal Housing a few months ago, said: “Thinking of giving up on entrepreneurship and do a simple job. Will take decision by this weekend. What’s your advise?”

The post received a lot of comments, most of which have asked him not to give up and take a break instead, while others took potshots asking him to approach Sequoia Capital’s Shailendra Singh for a job (Yadav’s fall from grace started with his disrespectful e-mail to Singh over the poaching of his employees).

It is very clear that Yadav, who was once considered to be the next Steve Jobs, is crestfallen. He has been under media attack ever since his Sequoia episode and has badly managed the Indian media celebrating his fall. But as is typical of the boorish media industry, journalists hounded him, and eventually he was fired from the post of CEO and the company itself.

He got no respite even after the ouster. A few weeks after his unceremonious exit from Housing, he started a new venture called Intelligent Interfaces. It did not take off as expected.

He said on his Facebook wall: Intelligent Interfaces (ii) for Government is not working out.
Should I make ii for enterprises or come back to real estate?”

Adding to his woes, Indian tech blog Inc42 ran a negative article on him. Titled Rahul Yadav – The End Of An Era That Never Began, the article said he burnt the money raised for Intelligent Interface, from the likes of Flipkart Co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, as well as Accel Partners, and claimed he is running two other companies in parallel.

This irked him and Yadav went berserk.

“I have serious problem with the media of our country. I simply don’t like their data/stats nor their intellect,” he said in another post.

“Forget catching up to US or China. Till you have stupid journalists in this country, there’s no hope. No one will come forward or will try to take the responsibility or fix anything. I really don’t know how to deal with stupid people. Be it Housing board members or these journalists. I just don’t,” he posted.

Do these events ‘qualify’ as a reason quit entrepreneurship?

No, not at all.

He should instead take a break and come back with a bang to build a company far greater than Housing.

No doubt, Yadav is extremely talented. It was he who shaped up the now ubiquitous Housing. It was his sweat and effort that helped the company attract investors like SoftBank, DST Global and Qualcomm Ventures. He worked tirelessly and did not take a break during his stint at Housing.

His efforts paid off. Under his leadership, the team developed a host of new features, such as heat maps that made property search easy and smooth. Under his watch, the company scaled from having a presence in only one city to being in almost 60 within just two years. Plus, Housing raised huge capital from the likes of SoftBank.

It was nothing but his brashness and arrogance that did him in and led to his fall.

But, it seems, he is a changed person now. He has learnt his lesson. He is not the same 22-year-old boy who lived in a dark fantasy. His brashness and arrogance has abated a bit. Indeed, had he shown some maturity in dealing with media and investors, this fall could have been averted. But that is life.

Yadav is still young and has a bright future. If he could take a company from zero to one, he can still create wonders. He should never ever quit entrepreneurship. Instead, he should emulate legends like Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs and get inspiration from him.

Yadav does need to learn how deal with media. If he gets both these things right, can create history and the same people who called him arrogant will start admiring him.

It is the mass media which make people famous as well as notorious. Making friends with media doesn’t mean that he should pamper them. Be humble to them. Ignore negative portrayals. Some journalists are looking for controversies to increase their TRPs/page views/readership. Don’t fall prey to them. Avoid them.

There are good journalists out there. Talk to them. Give them interviews. Show reporters that you are also a human being with a good heart. Talk to them on a regular basis. Media is fickle, The same people who tormented you will come back to admire you.

If anything, Jobs is the perfect model as the Apple Co-founder’s legacy will be as a once-in-a-generation genius that came in the package of an arrogant jerk.

Yadav shares a lot of similarities with Jobs, who was also a college drop-out. He co-founded Apple Computer when he was just 21 year old. By the time he turned 23, he was a millionaire. He revolutionised personal computing and created an iconic brand. By the age of 30, he was wildly successful and extremely wealthy. He became a global celebrity.

But then it all came crashing down. Jobs was fired from the very company he had co-founded. He was totally devastated and believed he had become a public failure.

Jobs, however, went on to build another company called NeXT and the rest is history. Apple acquired NeXT and and Jobs was eventually made the CEO of Apple.

Yadav should go ahead with his venture. He has the potential and brilliance to grow it from zero to one. He should speak to a lot of people in the industry and build good relationship with them.

Instead of making decisions on his own, he should discuss ideas with people and get their opinions. He should also create history by getting his new company acquired by Housing, and prove to the world that Housing is zero without him at the helm.

He should also learn to be humble; he should understand that arrogance and brashness will lead him nowhere. Infosys Co-founders NR Narayana Murthy and Kris Gopalakrishnan are excellent examples. Money has never made them arrogant.

Forget the past. Focus. Continue to do what you are doing now.

We wish you all the very best.

The post Deal with it, Rahul. Quitting isn’t an option. Emulate Steve Jobs and also learn media relations appeared first on e27.

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