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As workers grapple with layoffs, AI disruption, and the constant pressure to prove their worth, self-doubt can feel like an unavoidable part of building a career. But Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of AI giant Perplexity, says that operating under the fear of failure only holds back success. He carved out his place in the trillion-dollar tech race by focusing on the thrill of winning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have nothing to lose,\u201d Srinivas recently said on the 20CV with Harry Stebbings<\/em> podcast. \u201cI came from nothing. I never even imagined myself to be doing all this. So my life has already been extraordinary beyond any level of imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2022, he cofounded the 30-year-old founded Perplexity, which has since reportedly raised at least $1.5 billion in total funding, its market cap estimated to be around $18 billion, or even potentially $20 billion, as of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n But growing up in Chennai, India, in a financially lower-middle-class family, he said that simply having a job was the bar for success.\u00a0<\/p>\n And the AI prodigy outshined in every measurable way, receiving a bachelor\u2019s degree with a specialty in electrical engineering at the esteemed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). The year after he graduated, Srinivas landed a research internship at OpenAI, then at Google DeepMind\u2014the job most coveted by his family. So now, anything more is just the cherry on top of an already extraordinary career.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll we wanted to do was get a job in [sic] Google. Being an engineer at Google was considered a win,\u201d the CEO continued. \u201cI\u2019m already doing remarkably well compared to that ambition we had as a family, so there\u2019s really nothing for me to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why anytime I try to act like I\u2019m trying to avoid failure, I\u2019m being on the defense, I remind myself that like that\u2019s the stupidest thing to do,\u201d Srinivas said. \u201cIt\u2019s better to go all in and try your best. Be on the offense all the time. Attack, attack, attack.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan Smith, the former CEO and founder of cloud-based software platform Qualtrics, agrees that it\u2019s critical to push boundaries in order to succeed. In fact, he winces at past memories of not following his own advice. If every company\u2019s new hire, products, and acquisitions are all \u201csafe,\u201d then it\u2019s clear nothing revolutionary is on the horizon. Smith says taking smart risks to stay on the cutting edge is essential.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy biggest fear as a CEO is that people will stop pushing the boundaries,\u201d Smith wrote for Fortune<\/em> in 2016. \u201cSome of my biggest regrets are when I had a big idea and didn\u2019t hop on it fast enough or go all the way because I was afraid of failing.\u201d<\/p>\n Even being put in uncomfortable and fierce work environments can be a huge growth opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amit Walia, the CEO of software company Informatica, said being \u201cpushed around\u201d earlier in his career set him for success as the boss of a $7.6 billion business. Walia spent nearly five years at consulting giant McKinsey as a senior engagement manager, and looks back on his stint as \u201cintense\u201d and daunting. However, Walia says it was immensely rewarding in advancing his skills as a tech leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou really get pushed into difficult situations [at McKinsey]\u2026You have to always have a clear bent of mind to be very analytical, to really distill out the problem to its core,\u201d Walia told Fortune<\/em> earlier this year. \u201cYou become a better person by being pushed around by the environment of a lot of other smart people.\u201d<\/p>\n Joanna Griffiths, the CEO of $400 million intimates company Knix, has even worked with a hypnotherapist to help \u201crewire\u201d her brain\u2014particularly, on her fear of failure. Through their hour-long biweekly sessions, Griffiths has been learning how to make smarter decisions \u201cout of a place of optimism, instead of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe put so much emphasis on the fear of failure,\u201d Griffiths told Fortune<\/em> earlier this year. \u201cWe often don\u2019t allow ourselves to think it the whole way through and be like, \u2018Okay, if this actually did fail, what\u2019s the thing that\u2019s going to happen? Do I still have my family? Do I still have my health? Do I still have my internal knowledge?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #lose #Perplexity #CEO #fear #failure #stupidest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As workers grapple with layoffs, AI disruption, and the constant pressure to prove their worth, self-doubt can feel like an unavoidable part of building a career. But Aravind Srinivas, the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[361,283,2413,424,426,369,1908,1285,3058,2377,2378,800,6296,6403,4967,2379,744,5609,172,2399,430,4802,224,735,9469,10004,10005],"class_list":["post-7760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-ai-agents","tag-business","tag-career-advancement","tag-career-advice","tag-careers","tag-ceo","tag-chatbots","tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","tag-deepmind","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-executives","tag-failure","tag-family","tag-fear","tag-founders","tag-google","tag-google-deepmind","tag-india","tag-internships","tag-jobs","tag-lose","tag-millennials","tag-openai","tag-perplexity","tag-qualtrics","tag-stupidest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Leaders find success by taking risks and getting comfortable with the uncomfortable<\/h2>\n