I did not start out with a business plan or investors. I started in Aau, a village in the Thar Desert, with a family farm, a few ideas and a clear sense of what my community was missing. My first venture was an online directory for Rajasthan in 2001. A goat farm followed in 2007, and Dunes Academy in 2014, along with ventures in travel and retail. Some have succeeded. Others taught me costly lessons.
This article brings those lessons together. It is not a list of motivational hacks. It is what I would tell anyone who wants to build something useful from a village, a small town or anywhere far from the usual centres of money and attention.
1. Start with a problem you can see from your doorstep
The best ventures begin with a problem you can see every day. Dunes Academy grew from a simple need in Aau: a complete, disciplined education for children close to home, without sending them away to a city.
Goat farming was the same. I started a goat farm in 2007 because livestock is part of life here, and goat farming supports many families in Rajasthan. Those farmers need practical, reliable information in one place, so Goat India now sets out to provide it, with breed profiles, farming guides and free planning calculators.
If you are looking for an idea, do not start with what is fashionable. Start with what people around you already struggle with, and ask whether you are in a good position to fix it.
2. Turn big goals into small, measurable steps
“Build a school” or “start a business” is a direction, not a plan. A goal only becomes useful when it is specific, measurable and has a date attached. Break each big goal into tasks small enough to finish this week, then this month, then this year.
Small steps also make progress visible. When you can tick off the first admissions, the first shed or the first hundred readers, you have proof that the larger goal is possible.
Dunes Academy is my own example. We opened in 2014 with classes from Class 2 upward. We did not try to be everything on day one. We added classes, then boarding, so that today it is both a day and a residential school. Recognition came step by step as well: the Rajasthan Board (RBSE) in 2025-26, and CBSE from the 2026-27 batch. Each step took years, and each one rested on the one before it.
3. Protect your mornings and your attention
Running several ventures means the day fills up with calls, messages and other people’s priorities. The only reliable way I know to stay on top of the important work is to protect a part of the day for it, before the phone takes over.
A steady morning routine helps: a fixed time to wake, some movement, and an hour of focused work on the one thing that matters most that day. Set aside regular time away from screens, too: a walk, the fields, a book. Clear thinking rarely happens in a crowded inbox.
My own day has a simple order. Mornings are at the farm. Then I go to the school. The rest of the day goes to IT and online work. Keeping that order means each venture gets my attention at a fixed time, and none of them is left to chance.
4. Track your progress honestly
It is easy to feel busy and still go nowhere. Keep a simple record of what you planned, what you did and what the result was: a notebook, a spreadsheet or an app, whatever you will actually use. Review it every week.
Honest tracking shows you which efforts pay off and which only feel productive. It also gives you the facts you need when you talk to partners, staff or parents, instead of relying on impressions.
5. Celebrate small wins with your team
Building anything takes years, and years are hard to sustain on willpower alone. Notice the small wins and share them: a student who finds their confidence, a farmer who uses a guide to plan a better shed, a month where the numbers improve.
Celebrating together builds a team that cares about the outcome, not just the salary. In a village like Aau, where everyone knows everyone, that trust is worth more than any marketing.
6. Treat failure as tuition
Not every venture works. Some of mine did not go the way I planned, and they taught me costly lessons. Failure is not the opposite of success. It is the price of learning what works in your market.
The useful question after a setback is not “who is to blame?” but “what did this teach me, and what will I do differently next time?” Write the answer down. Then try again, a little wiser.
My first venture is the clearest example. In 2001 I started RajasthanMart.com, an online directory for Rajasthan. At that time very few people here understood what it meant to be online, so they did not understand the idea, and it did not take off. Today almost everyone uses platforms built on that same idea. The idea was not wrong. It was early, and I had not yet learnt how to explain it to the people it was meant for.
The lesson I took from it: a good idea is not enough. The people you are building for have to be ready for it, or you have to help them get ready. Timing, and teaching your market, matter as much as the idea itself.
7. Keep learning, especially what you are not good at
The skills that got you started are rarely the skills that will help you grow. A founder in a rural area has to learn finance, hiring, marketing, technology and the law, often all at once.
Stay curious. Learn from books, courses, other founders and your own staff. New tools such as artificial intelligence are already changing classrooms in Rajasthan, and I have written about how AI is changing the game for students in our schools. Whatever your field, the people who keep learning are the ones who keep their ventures relevant.
8. Choose the people around you carefully
The people you spend time with shape how you think. Look for people who are honest with you, who support you when things are hard and who have done what you are trying to do.
I have never had a single mentor. My inspiration comes from ordinary people who struggle, keep going and succeed in the end. You do not need a famous name to learn from. Watch the people around you who refuse to give up, and learn from how they work.
Family matters here too. Much of what I do started with my family and our farm. I have written more about what joint family life teaches us.
9. Build for the place you come from
The Thar teaches you to work with very little: little water, few resources and long distances. That discipline runs through everything I build. My work started in Aau, and the school and the farm serve people here first.
Building where you come from is slower than chasing a bigger city or market. But it creates something that lasts: trust, jobs and opportunities for people who would otherwise have to leave. That, for me, is the real measure of a venture.
Where to start
You do not need perfect conditions to begin. Pick one problem you understand well, set one clear goal, and take the first small step this week. Track it, learn from it and keep going.
If you want to see what these lessons look like in practice, explore my ventures. And if you are building something of your own in rural India and would like to talk, get in touch.
