From early morning gratitude rituals to timeless classes from the Bhagavad Gita, Agarwal shares how these practices form his readability, resilience, and management model, serving to him scale with each intent and objective. Edited excerpts –
Q) Your mornings look like a sacred area. How has your gratitude follow formed your mindset as a founder and chief?
A) I’ve at all times believed within the saying, “The early chicken catches the worm,” each actually and figuratively. My mornings begin early, usually by 4:30 or 5 AM, and that quiet time is sacred. It’s the one a part of my day that’s fully mine.
I start with gratitude for round 10 to fifteen minutes, sitting nonetheless and saying thanks. It’s a easy behavior, however deeply grounding.
As a founder, you’re always on the transfer, fixing issues, chasing outcomes. Gratitude slows you down, in a great way. It helps me step into the day with readability and empathy, and acts as a quiet reminder that irrespective of how briskly we’re rising or how intense issues get, there’s at all times one thing to be pleased about.
It actually units the tone not only for my day, however for a way I lead—with readability, perspective, and an anchor to what actually issues.
Q) You point out the Bhagavad Gita has helped you thru darkish durations. Are you able to share a verse or instructing that notably resonates with you?
A) One line that deeply resonates with me is: “Karmanye vadhikaraste, ma phaleshou kadachana, ma karma phala he tur bhuh, ma te sangvasta karmani.” For me, this primarily means: you will have the best to work, however to not the fruits of your actions.
As a founder, this verse is each liberating and grounding. It jogs my memory to deal with doing the best factor with full intent and energy, whereas letting go of what’s past my management, particularly throughout moments of loss or setbacks.
Q) How do your yoga and health club classes affect your efficiency and decision-making as a CEO?
A) Yoga and train are two non-negotiable anchors of my day, for which I consciously make time. Morning yoga helps me mentally reset—it clears the noise, facilities my ideas, and permits me to breathe earlier than the day begins. Within the evenings, irrespective of how lengthy or intense the day has been, I make it some extent to hit the health club. I take advantage of this time to decompress, recharge, and refocus earlier than diving into late-night conferences.
For me, these aren’t simply health routines, they’re efficiency instruments. They straight affect how I believe, lead, and make choices.
If you’re constructing at scale, psychological readability and resilience are aggressive benefits. The vitality and focus I acquire from these practices translate into higher choices, deeper presence, and a extra balanced mindset—at work and out of doors of it.
Q) You usually discuss constructing with intent. What does ‘intent’ appear to be when scaling a enterprise like InsuranceDekho?
A) To me, intent means fixing actual issues, not chasing vainness metrics. It’s simple to get caught up in large bulletins, flashy campaigns, or progress hacks and get distracted. However whenever you plan to problem the established order of an trade, intent turns into a core driver.
Whether or not it’s increasing entry for companions past metros or constructing an omnichannel expertise that blends AI with a human contact, our focus is on addressing actual gaps.
We’re not simply creating options; we’re creating affect. We’re constructing options that add actual worth to folks’s on a regular basis lives—whether or not which means securing their well being, defending their livelihood, or enabling monetary stability in moments that matter.
Intent, to me, is about staying true to the issue you got down to clear up and constructing options that genuinely enhance lives at scale and with objective.
Q) What’s in your exercise playlist proper now? Any go-to pump-up track for early mornings?
A) My exercise playlist is high-energy—simply the correct of jive to kick off the day or energy by means of a exercise.
Q) You’ve constructed a enterprise grounded in humility and objective. How do you instill that tradition throughout groups and new hires?
A) Tradition begins with the way you lead each single day—it’s rooted in motion. For me, I attempt to be accessible, trustworthy, and constant, particularly throughout powerful phases. I believe folks respect transparency greater than anything.
From Day 1, our groups are made conscious of our objective. Throughout onboarding, we don’t simply discuss objectives, we discuss in regards to the “whys”: why insurance coverage issues, why belief is our foreign money, and why we should deal with each consumer—whether or not in a metro or a small city—with empathy and respect.
We’re not simply constructing an organization; we’re attempting to construct belief in a class that’s traditionally been misunderstood. If our folks consider in that objective, the whole lot else follows.
(Disclaimer: Suggestions, recommendations, views and opinions given by the specialists are their very own. These don’t symbolize the views of the Financial Instances)