Sincerity is worth $3.7B

I have known Jyoti Bansal since 1995. We were in the same batch at IIT Delhi and shared the same major. It has been fascinating to see how he evolved into a successful entrepreneur. He founded AppDynamics in 2008, and the company was acquired for $3.7B by Cisco earlier this year. What was behind Jyoti’s evolution? What was his journey? More importantly, what was his inner journey? As part of our ‘Plain Talk’  series, we hosted a fireside chat with Jyoti a few days ago and delved into these areas.

If I have to come up with one quality to describe him, it is sincerity. Sincerity sounds so basic. It hardly sounds like a skill or an achievement. How can it explain such success? Dictionary defines sincerity as “the quality of being free from pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy”. It may be very simple and basic, but true sincerity is rare. Sincerity is about being able to look at yourself in the mirror and see that you know very little about this existence. And the moment you see this, it creates the desire, willingness and receptivity to know more. To become a leader and to establish trust, you need to be straight with people. But to be straight with people, first you need to be straight with yourself. I have met very few entrepreneurs who embody this quality like Jyoti does.You can watch him share his unique perspective in this video of our Plain Talk: