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Editor:
Today we have the privilege of chatting with Anik Singal, a visionary entrepreneur, and the driving force behind Lurn. Anik’s journey is not just a tale of business acumen and success, it’s a testament to the power of resilience, learning from failures, and the relentless pursuit of dreams. And from challenging the norms of a traditional career path to overcoming staggering obstacles, his story inspires and educates. And today we’re going to dive deep into the mind of the man who’s turned his passion into a thriving business empire and is now a beacon of hope and guidance for entrepreneurs worldwide. Anik, welcome. It’s a pleasure to chat with you.
Anik Singal:
Hey, thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here. And yeah, I appreciate the time.
Editor:
Well, maybe I can start by asking you about the moment you realised that entrepreneurship was your true calling.
Anik Singal:
Oh, man. You know what? It’s funny because I think there were lots of hints along the way since I was a little kid. I think I realised it thoroughly though when I was already in pre-med, I’m in college, I’m on a full scholarship. I mean, I’m on a one-way ticket to Ivy League med schools. I have my life made, and yet there I lay in bed miserable. I couldn’t get out of bed every morning. And when I say I’m made, I mean I’m literally, I am going to undergrad at one of the best programmes in the country that I competed to get into. I have a full scholarship. I’m actually getting paid to go to college.
I’m being recruited to go to top Ivy League med schools my freshman year of pre-med. So I’m like, I have it made, and yet I was miserable.
And so, there was a moment I remember sitting back. I’m a very self-reflective person. I can reflect really well, and I think that’s a skill that everyone should develop.
And so I asked myself one morning when I just did not want to go to class, I said, “When was I the happiest? When have I been the happiest?” And I realized going all the way back to when I was a little kid, I was like, I misguided, I misjudged myself this whole time. I was the happiest when I was doing my own thing. I was the happiest when I was building a business or being creative and out there creating.
Anik Singal:
And so while still in pre-med, I started doing a little tinkering on little entrepreneurial projects and I just loved it. Although none of it was working, I eventually took the massive step of just leaving this made for me life all behind. I went to switch universities. I went to study business. I think it was somewhere freshman year early when I started college that I realized it. But then, I mean, you go back to when I was in third grade. And now that I realized it, there’s clear signs that I was an entrepreneur as far back as I can think.
Editor:
Yeah, hindsight can be a good thing, can’t it, when you look back on those early achievements. What was the initial challenge that you faced though when you started out, when you decided that this was your future?
Anik Singal:
Yeah, I think the initial challenge we all face is just lack of knowledge, lack of association, lack of everything, right? You just don’t know where to go, who to go to. I don’t have entrepreneurs in my family at the time. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
And so here I am trying to build a business. What does that mean? There’s a gazillion options out there. I have no money. I’m not going to ask my parents. I don’t even want to tell anybody that I’m doing this because they’re all going to call me crazy. It’s not like anyone believes what you believe. And so it’s that lonely lack of knowing, yet you’re still inspired and you want to figure it out. And then all of that piles on with the fact that you make mistake after mistake after mistake. You make error after error.
So, you’re failing. You don’t know who to ask for help, you don’t want to tell anybody, yet you still believe. It’s this really strange mixture of feelings. And those who survive through that and thrive through that are usually the ones… Or not usually, are the ones that succeed. Many, I believe, that have tried to become an entrepreneur, get stuck somewhere in those mixture of feelings and can’t get past it, and that’s where they fall apart. So that was my first biggest challenge, was just figuring out how do I carve through this massive.
Here’s the thing, if you want to be a doctor, it’s a pretty set straight path. Lawyer, path. Engineer, path. Plumber, path. I mean, every profession out there has a clear cut path.
You can Google it and it tells you boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Entrepreneurship does not. There is no path. And so that I think is the biggest challenge entrepreneur goes through.
Editor:
And they say that success leaves clues. Did you look up to anybody at this time, Anik? Who were your mentors, if you like?
Anik Singal:
Yeah, absolutely. I’ve had many mentors throughout my entire career. And I feel that mentors, you have some mentors that’ll be with you forever, but you have some mentors that you’ll be with you for a period of time and then you actually surpass them.
I think the person I looked up to the most was my father. Now, he’s not an entrepreneur. He’s a nuclear mechanical engineer. He’s a brilliant man and he’s way smarter than I am, but he’s in a completely different line. However, here’s what’s really inspiring. He grew up in a village at one point that had no electricity. He used to study for his school under lampposts, street lampposts. His house had no electricity. Candles. And here’s the irony, and yet he went on to, at the end of his career, he is retired now, he was the head of two nuclear power plants in the United States.
Editor:
Wow!
Anik Singal:
Literally the government head. So, he could, at any moment notice, shut them down, turn them on, boss them around. I thought that was the most ironic thing. You think about it, as someone who grew up studying with no electricity, now overseeing, and commanding the electricity that millions of people receive. I saw where he took our family single-handedly. My mom was mostly stay at home. She had a daycare at the house, but it was kind of on and off. And so, my dad… and I watched what he did. I saw the opportunities he gave me. And so, I always tell people that even when I do become a billionaire in my life at some point, my success, and feats that I achieve will be nowhere near what my father did. I mean, he crossed far, far bigger chasms of success. So, I used to look at that and just say, “It’s upon me to take our family name to the next level and I need to do that.”
Anik Singal:
And then of course, in business, I had great mentors at different parts. An individual who really made a deep impact in my life in the world of direct marketing and information marketing was Justin Ford, who I don’t know why, saw talent in me and didn’t just take me on. He insisted and fought and convinced me to let him mentor me. He’s the brother of Mark Ford, which many people may not know is Michael Masterson, who’s arguably one of the best copywriters to have ever lived. So, I got the good fortune of being directly mentored and coached by the brother of the best marketer who’s ever lived. So those are two people that I think I always consistently try to remember and give credit to for where I am today.
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