OoWomaniya.com in conversation with Devita Saraf, Founder and CEO of Vu Televisions – a high-end electronics company founded in 2006, one of the leading TV manufacturers with sales turnover of over 1000 crores.

1. How did you start your journey as an entrepreneur?

I started my journey while I was quite young. I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My father and grandfather both were entrepreneurs. And my father has been a pioneer of technology in this country. Having said that, I am the first businesswoman in the family. I started training myself for the business world when I was 16 and moved to business school in California when I was 18. My first television appearance was when I was 24 years old.

I am running my business – Vu Televisions for past 15 years. And it is a silicon business which I completely own by myself. And of course, it has been a long but fulfilling journey so far as an entrepreneur.

2. We have examples and articles, photos stating how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs keep themselves fit – why don’t we have more Indian entrepreneurs and Industry leaders emphasising or speaking openly on health or personal wellness?

I think personally I find an apparent reason in India that fitness and health is associated more with vanity than with performance. For example, it may be very necessary for an actor or a sportsperson to focus on their fitness, for their performance or looks – things on which their career depends on.

I believe that fitness is important not just for physical health but also for mental performance. And that is what CEOs need and that’s why in countries abroad whenever they select CEOs they also see the physical capacity of the person to work, how mentally stable he is; considering the gruelling hours and pressure his body will be expected to keep up. It is almost a requirement for fortune 500 CEOs to fill in and to have a certain level of fitness.

In India, certain CEOs; especially there are sort of new age ones who are lot more fitness conscious. The previous generation founders and CEOs probably a lot less fitness conscious and was just limited to a morning or evening walk. It is today where people are running in marathons and doing regular trainings to make sure that they remain fit. And I think it is very important for CEOs to understand that so much of their business performance is quite directly related to their fitness. And if they want to run successful companies then they must remain fit.

3. What is your basic fitness regime?

I prefer to work out in morning before I go to work. So, on Monday to Friday, it is usually a mix of strength and cardio. Where I do a mix of upper, lower, and whole-body workout, mixed with cardio which can either be a run or just cycling on a stationary bike or even going to the gym. Over the weekend, I like to do exercises that are more relaxing and fun.

I love swimming and absolutely love lying in water. I love dancing and do a little bit of yoga. I just sometimes mix things – sometimes cycling down the Marine Drive and I try and make sure that my weekend workout is more about just chilling and relaxing and disconnecting from the world and making myself ready for the coming week.

The second aspect of my fitness I would like to share is my diet. I have been running on a no-sugar, milk, dairy, rice, wheat diet and it has worked pretty well. I have been doing a lot of cooking and making lot of plant-based foods. So, most of my meals are plant based, almost vegan and I feel overall my system is so much more fresher, leaner and overall I definitely look way younger than my age.

And lot of people ask me oh my God you are 39!! And you do not look 39! I think there is no trick, it is really a lot of hard work that goes into it. As someone said that beautiful and young people outdo nature, but beautiful older people are works of art. And I have realised at this age that If I have to look good and be fit going older; I have to put in a lot of effort in to what I eat and discipline in working out and everything around it which may be my water intake, my sleep, my beauty regime, everything that adds to it. Ya, there is lot of effort that I put into my fitness regime.

4. Women juggle multiple roles and responsibilities and hence time is a constraint for them. How do you manage to dedicate a time regularly for your own self?  

How to bring about that motivation for self-care?

I think it is more of a question of discipline than motivation. And for most women I understand – you have family, work, travel / commute, there are so many commitments. Women in India have almost been trained by society to put others before them. But I think you cannot fill from an empty cup. But unless you take care of yourself, you cannot take care of others. So, women probably would need to chart out the time that works out for them.

For me it is probably like in the morning – may be one or half an hour after I wake up when I can jump out for a workout. For someone it can be in the afternoon when may be kids are in the school or if you are a working person, then may be in evening. For example for me Sunday afternoons are the day that I like to pamper myself or do my beauty regime, or even went to salon or spa or even trying all kind of tricks and tips at the home. Sunday is more like a beauty day and Monday to Friday and even Saturday mornings is usually when I do my workouts. Put it in a calendar, find time and follow it. Do not just look for scraps of time in between, commitments or work.

5. As an entrepreneur, you surely would have gone through your share of ups and downs – what is your go-to advice for anyone who’s dealing with or wants to emerge from a crisis? 

There are three areas here –

Number One – When you exercise; your system is lot less anxious. Your blood pressure, your pulse rate, your blood sugar all these levels are generally well controlled. So you don’t have a very physical and an immediate reaction towards anything too good or too bad. Because your body is use to dealing with pressure on itself. So physical fitness definitely does not make you somebody who is very moody. If you are a fit person, you generally can handle ups and down. Your system can handle it much better.

The second thing that is important for people who are facing you. So whether it’s your team, its your customers when they see a very confident positive person – they see it in your body language, they feel the vibe or energy from you; they also feel charged and motivated. So when I go to office well dressed, with good energy, positive and smiling, in a good frame of mind. I know that people around me see me outside my glass cabins, very often my team asks me that how give us a lot of positive energy. I can tell that a lot of its cause is because I make that effort to take care of myself.

The third thing I think also happens for those people who don’t focus on so much on their own fitness or their own self-care. Sometimes they tend to have low self-esteem and they can be jealous very often from others and they can be very overly competitive. And I think that’s bad for any business. So, if you are secure and happy in yourself, you will not make decision on the basis of trying to put someone else down just to make yourself better.

Lastly I will say that for someone who wants emerge in the crisis, I don’t think you have to make quick decisions and as one of my Harvard classmates says, “Don’t make harsh decisions when you are in a fragile framework of mind. Unless something requires really an urgent answer it is better to make a plan to plant.”

What I mean to say that there is something I know is a problem area in my business and I will carve out time for it.

And lastly, I don’t call it revenge body. If someone is going through a tough situation. It does make a sense to pick up may be a dance or sport or class even if you don’t feel like it. Just because when you are in that zone, I do classical odissi dance along with 50 other forms; and when I am focusing on that dance especially of that classical dance. I can think of nothing else but that dance, and it gives your brain a break from that stress full situation. One of the best places to go to is to gym, or swim or sport. You may not always feel it but baby steps get up from up sofa, get up from that office chair.

Lastly, I must say this is my belief that there is no point of building wealth, if you don’t build your health and true success comes when you are successful in your career and also very happy with yourself, proud of yourself.

Thank-you. !