Thoughts of an entrepreneur

Pranab Singh is an entrepreneur by profession and heart. He is currently the CEO of ThoughtMill Communications, which is a digital advertising and marketing agency. Speaking about his beginnings, Pranab was born in a very modern family, where his parents encouraged him to learn the skills necessary for life and not just bookish and theoretical knowledge. As a result, he ended up starting his first venture at the age of 12 and he has never looked back ever since.

He has started 2-3 startups in his journey until now, including his current venture. He admits to having started his love-story with sales, marketing and events because of the never-ending opportunities for that profile. Every company will require Sales & Marketing personnel and the fact that every new customer who you talk to will present you with a new challenge was what enthralled him.

Pranab is a person who always looks for different experiences and that is what led him to be an entrepreneur. In his words, “It is like nurturing a baby when you are a kid”. His current company, ThoughtMill, which was started around 6 years back, focuses more on branding, they come up with a lot of creative content.

ThoughtMill Communication is one of the very successful ventures in the area and that is the reason why Pranab has been able to partner a couple of other businesses as well.

Pranab is also a very active Toastmaster. He feels Toastmasters has helped him in a very positive way because of the niche skills it teaches us.

He has really benefitted from Toastmasters being from a branding business. He really cherishes the mentoring in Toastmasters because he feels people look up to you in Toastmasters because of the person who you are, and not because of your position.

Pranab is also very active with kids from college. When asked what he shares with them, he says, “I don’t share knowledge with them. I share life skills and mindset.” He enjoys talking to people and giving them a different perspective about a topic. He focuses more on interpersonal skills, time management and help them show what they’re truly capable of.

Pranab is also a TedX speaker. He explains his relationship with TedX as a love-hate relationship. He recently spoke in TedX RVCE Bangalore. When asked about the process, he said he had to give around 4-5 interviews, then undergo an ideation phase with the specified mentors, understands the theme etc. He said it was an amazing experience right from the beginning the delivering the actual content.

He believes in the mantra of “Traction over Perfection”. He focuses on the concept of trying repeatedly. He believes in constant persistence that gets you moving. Quoting Pranab, “Any kind of progress is better than no progress. We’re so focused on gaining perfection that we don’t even try.” He also wants us to pay attention to time management. “Time will consume us all, but what is more important is how we consume our time. What are you doing today to gain the thing you want? And doing that bit every day is what will gain us success.”