Is there a secret ingredient to co-leading?

The mother of all questions — co-leading and how?

We have been in this journey together for 30 months now. Right from the first moment with my co-founder who was then my ex-colleague declaring his idea out loud and with an infectious liveliness while we both were still at our previous workplace. To when I insisted on the name of the start-up to be Varitra simply because I loved how it fit. It took us several unending conversations to come to a consensus on what Varitra shall stand for given our strongly opposite identities. From the deciding of the “why” of Varitra to shaping the body of work around it. From choosing our homeground Haryana as our work ground going forward to taking the final leap of faith and quitting our jobs one after the other.

Our friends often ask — How do you do it? How difficult is it for co-founders to co-exist as “leaders” in the same organisation? Who takes the final call? Is it a 50–50? The answer is it is mind-blowingly difficult. It’s like a roller-coaster ride, no kidding. You feel like you are losing control and other times, even your mind. Neither of us come with a degree in management or business nor have we worked in fast-paced & chasing environments to draw up any fancy model to run the organisation — not that we believe in them anyway.

So what made us take the plunge in the first place? Something clicks in us, I guess, to take the risk and experience the thrill for ourselves and see if we have what it takes to survive it all. In our case, we did it all in a quest to find our calling and in stubbornness to probably make the world just a bit more kinder. We hoped to experiment with ideas and fight over strategies and pursue our passion to work with new people — anyone really, who might be looking for that “one” opportunity to try. And most importantly, we were determined to carry this opportunity to the very grassroots of our country and work towards finding the answers to things together.

Our work often makes us feel like a couple of excited 6 year-olds who are playing with clay for the very first time; sometimes like a 30-something individual racing against time; and other times, we end up feeling like old souls, reflecting long enough that it takes us into a time travel zone.

Maybe the key does not lie in who leads whom. Maybe its okay to not have the key at all. What you need to have is abundant faith in your work, trust in the process and an absolute crazy and passionate bunch of people who’d turn you from a pair into a dream team. More importantly, remember that partnership lies on trust, purpose and tons of humour — yes, seriously.

If given a chance, most of us would probably take this chance all over again. Won’t we?

-A