Ownership: Key to everything in life

The Corporate Comfort Zone vs. The Startup Crucible

In large enterprises, senior professionals often operate in a world of structure, process, and support systems. There are escalation paths, review committees, and fallback plans. Even big missteps rarely put the entire business at risk. As Andy Grove, Intel’s legendary CEO, put it:“Only the paranoid survive”—but in the enterprise, you can afford to relax a little.

Contrast this with the world of Indian high-tech startups. Whether you’re a co-founder, VP of Engineering, or a product lead, you’re not just a cog in the wheel—you are the wheel. Here, ownership isn’t a catchphrase, it’s survival.

The Mindset Shift: From Manager to Owner

1. Extreme Ownership (Jocko Willink & Leif Babin)

“There are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”

The principle of Extreme Ownership—popularized by former Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babin—demands that leaders own everything in their world: outcomes, failures, and the actions of their teams. For a high-tech startup, this means if there’s a customer outage at 3am, or an AI model hallucinating live in production, you don’t look for blame—you fix it.

Example: Byju’s

When Byju Raveendran launched Byju’s, he was the primary teacher, content creator, and customer support. Even as the company scaled, leaders personally intervened in critical product and customer decisions—especially in the early growth stages. Senior employees at Byju’s were expected to “own” user experience and product quality, not just their silo.

2. Founder’s Mentality (Bain & Co.)

“Act like an owner, not a renter.”

Chris Zook and James Allen, in their book The Founder’s Mentality, argue that the most successful scale-ups preserve the urgency, bias for action, and personal accountability of the founder—even as they grow. Senior startup leaders must resist “big company disease”: waiting for direction, hiding behind org charts, or accepting “it’s not my job”.

Example: Zerodha

Nithin Kamath’s core team at Zerodha—India’s largest stock brokerage—built their systems in-house. Senior engineers and architects did not wait for external consultants or blame “legacy systems.” They obsessed over customer complaints, regulatory changes, and innovation—always acting like owners, not employees.

3. First Principles Thinking (Elon Musk, Aristotle)

“Reason from first principles, not analogy.”

Breakthroughs in high-tech happen when leaders question every assumption, dig to the fundamentals, and invent new solutions. Indian startups that disrupt global markets are led by teams who take personal responsibility for solving root problems, not just symptoms.

Example: Udaan

Udaan, India’s B2B unicorn, built their own logistics, credit, and tech platforms from scratch because “that’s how it’s done” didn’t cut it. Senior leaders regularly challenge existing processes, ask “why not?”, and take accountability for bold experiments.

Ownership Is Relentless—And Ruthless

Failure Case: Housing.com

Despite massive funding and early promise, Housing.com faltered because leadership fractured and the sense of collective ownership disappeared. Decisions became bureaucratic, infighting crept in, and the business lost agility. The market didn’t wait.

Failure Case: Snapdeal

At one point Snapdeal rivaled Flipkart and Amazon in India. But as leadership lost sight of customer obsession and stopped owning end-to-end experience, Snapdeal’s market share plummeted. Excuses replaced accountability, and the brand faded.

What Extreme Ownership Looks Like for Senior Leaders

• You own customer experience: If users tweet about a bug, you don’t forward it—you solve it, even if it means calling the engineering team on Sunday.

• You own the roadmap: Prioritization is your job. If a feature launch is late, you don’t blame dependencies—you rally the team and clear blockers.

• You own learning: Tech moves fast. You upskill yourself and your team, invest in new technologies, and adapt before disruption comes.

• You own results: If targets are missed, you do a root-cause analysis, fix what’s broken, and communicate transparently to the team and founders.

More Real-World Inspiration

• Flipkart:Senior leaders like Binny Bansal would regularly jump into customer service, logistics, and even warehouse management to ensure the company’s famed “customer obsession.”

• Paytm:In the aftermath of demonetization, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s leadership team worked around the clock, sleeping in the office and taking personal charge of uptime, fraud detection, and onboarding millions of new users.

• Ola:Bhavish Aggarwal was known to personally test new features with drivers and customers—sometimes even posing as a cabbie—to experience pain points first-hand.

Theory in Action: Key Principles to Remember

• “Skin in the Game” (Nassim Taleb):If you don’t bear the consequences of your decisions, you’ll never make the right ones. Senior leaders must have their reputation, incentives, and time directly tied to outcomes.

• “Obsess over customers” (Amazon Leadership Principle):Customer trust is won or lost by your actions. There are no small issues; only urgent ones.

• “Move Fast and Break Things” (Facebook mantra):Speed matters. Mistakes are learning opportunities, but inaction kills startups.

Takeaway: Extreme Ownership Isn’t Optional. It’s the Edge.

As a senior leader in a high-tech Indian startup, your personal ownership is the difference between scale and stagnation, disruption and irrelevance.You aren’t just building a business—you’re building a legacy, a new standard, a culture of relentless execution.

If you don’t own it, no one else will.If you do, you’ll be in the company of legends—and maybe become one yourself.

“Responsibility is the price of greatness.” – Winston Churchill

Extreme Ownership: A Principle for Life, Not Just Work

While the urgency of extreme ownership is most obvious in the fast-paced world of high-tech startups, the truth is, these principles are universal. The mindset of personal accountability, obsession with excellence, and proactive problem-solving applies to everything we do—inside and outside the office.

Every relationship, every responsibility, and every commitment is an opportunity to practice ownership. How you manage your health, nurture your family, or pursue personal goals all reflect your willingness to “own the outcome.” If you want a healthy body, own your diet and exercise. If you want a strong family, take responsibility for communication, care, and emotional investment. If you want meaningful friendships, own the effort to stay connected and support others.

In the words of Swami Vivekananda: “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.” This isn’t just a call to action in your startup, but a call to pursue excellence in every sphere of life. Don’t settle for “good enough.” Aim for mastery, whether you’re building an app, running a marathon, or simply being present for your loved ones.

Perfection Is a Habit

Perfection is not a destination but a habit—built by showing up, giving your best, and learning from every failure. When you approach every task, big or small, with attention to detail and a sense of pride, you naturally inspire those around you. Over time, this becomes your brand, your reputation, and your legacy.

Every small act, when done with sincerity and focus, adds up. Whether it’s coding, cooking, or comforting a friend, treat it as the most important thing in the world at that moment. Life is a collection of these moments—make each one count.

From Startups to Life: Build a Culture of Ownership

Organizations and families alike thrive when everyone brings an owner’s mindset. Encourage those around you to step up, take responsibility, and give their best. Celebrate not just achievement, but effort and learning. When you model this, others follow.

The pursuit of perfection is not about never making mistakes, but about never making excuses.

Own your life. Own your work. Own your story.

When you treat every task—at work, at home, in society—with extreme ownership, you’ll find excellence is not just an outcome, but a way of life.