Anu Sridharan is a co-founder of Next Drop. Next Drop helps people have improved access to water for residents in the urban cities of the country by providing access to reliable and timely information about piped water supply and maintaining a feedback loop to inform a better way of managing water for a better water utility. Residents who live in such cities where water comes and goes all the time are always unsure of when the water will come through their taps. So, what Next Drop does is that it provides them information about the same by giving them time when the water will come and so, they do not have to be under the stress of guessing.
Instead of being a regular, she chose to be a social entrepreneur which also got her featured in the Forbes edition where she made it to the list of 30 Social Entrepreneurs Under 30. The project was originally started in her grad school and started it as a pilot project in India. With her dedication and hard work, she was able to pull it off just the right way. She also had a job which she found the courage to quit because that was not where her heart belonged. She took the project and came back to India. This is where her success story began and reached such heights. She listened to her gut no matter what others told her was right for her. She was not the one who listened to people and let them have an opinion about her life and what she should do.
She chose freedom, respect, and responsibility. She chose to be responsible for something she should do in her life which was hers. She followed her own ideas, opinions and gave herself the space that no one would have given her in a job.
From the very beginning, she knew, that what she was doing was nothing she had learned in schools. It was nothing she could be taught. It was in her and that was what brought her success. She was not afraid to make mistakes, because we all know that they are unavoidable. All she did and will do involved figuring it out herself. Her energy and enthusiasm to achieve things in life. One of the things that she had and what every entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur must have in him or her is optimism.
It was her superpower like she says. When you have made up your mind to achieve something, you cannot expect to achieve it without using some things like work, time, money, mind, and so much more. but what awaits at the end of the tunnel is what this journey is all about and that is what we can learn from the woman who chose to a social entrepreneur. However, she also likes to spend her time outside of work with Charlie, her roommate’s dog, learning French and indulging in physical activity because for her that is what life is about, balancing work and yourself.
