Anyone in the organisaton can be an inspiration: Sumit Jain, Commonfloor.com

The brief and what I did in the first 100 days

As part of my campus placement at IIT Roorkee, I got an opportunity to work with Oracle. I was briefed about various teams and given a choice to work with any team I wished to, based on my interest. I chose to join the enterprise management team as a software developer. I had to build a full-stack application using open source technologies such as tapestry, struts, hibernate, etc and run it over the Oracle server. The idea was to build a proof of concept for the sales team to be able to demonstrate to clients.

The best leadership lesson I learnt

No work is big or small; it is the way you do it that makes a difference. You don’t need to be in a top position to inspire people. Anybody at any level in an organisation can do so. It’s not the stature of work that matters, but what you learn from working that counts.

The worst mistake I made

I don’t recall making mistakes. However, I believe, no mistake is bad if you learn from it and don’t repeat it. What doesn’t break you only makes you stronger.

The best friend I made on the job

My co-founder Lalit Mangal — who resigned at around the same time as I did. I used to get inspired by him and vice versa.

How I had fun at work

I used to play billiards at the Oracle cafeteria, if I ever got stuck with a complex problem. I found some amazing solutions while playing billiards and made some great friends.

How I managed my work-life balance

I did not bother about work-life balance. When you join fresh from college, you are full of energy and want to change the world. Work is life for you. When you start worrying about work-life balance, please understand, the iron inside has started getting rusted. It’s time to quit.