Chief Executive Officer of Edelweiss Asset Management Limited or Edelweiss MF, Radhika Gupta, told online portal Humans of Bombay, that when she arrived in Nigeria, she was bullied at school and was nicknamed 'Apu' from the US sitcom The Simpsons.
She added children often compared her looks to her mother’s and also made fun of her Indian accent. The constant comparison with her mother’s looks led to low self-confidence in Gupta as a kid. She further said she was suicidal at the age of 22 after she was met with her seventh rejection.
She said, “I learnt to bury my insecurities over the years, but they never left… Years later, at 22, when I got my seventh job rejection, I looked out the window of my dorm room and said, ‘I’m going to jump.’ Alarmed, my friend called for help. I was wheeled into a psychiatric ward, and diagnosed as depressed. The only reason they let me go later was because I said, ‘I have a job interview-it’s my only shot.’”
Gupta told the online portal that the asset management business started by her got acquired by Edelweiss MF within a few years of starting, while adding that her husband encouraged her to take over the reins of Edelweiss MF as its CEO when she was hesitant and said, “You’re the best person for the job!”.
She further said, “So I went up to my boss and said, ‘I’d like to be considered for CEO. What I lack in experience, I make up for in passion.’ And a few months later, at 33, I became one of the youngest CEOs in India! I was over the moon!”
She also elaborated on how people sharing their stories with her motivated her to write her first book Limitless: The Power of Unlocking Your True Potential.
She said, “The next year, I was invited to speak at an event that changed my life. I shared my childhood insecurities about my looks, my struggles with rejection, and my subsequent attempt to commit suicide. I let go of all the baggage I’d held on to. And my talk traveled far and wide—I became known as ‘the girl with the broken neck.’ People shared their own stories with me.”
Gupta further added, “It gave me the confidence to fully embrace all my so-called ‘flaws.’ And over the last 4 years, I’ve felt the urge to share more about my story, and the stories of people who’d confided in me… so I even wrote a book – LIMITLESS.”
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