Oftentimes I imagined I would not be able to reach a specific point: 40under40 2024 Shruti Shibulal

Shruti Shibulal, the CEO and Director of Tamara Leisure Experiences, has been featured in this year’s Fortune India 40 under 40 young entrepreneurs list. The 39-year-old— who has recently discovered her love for watching well-written Malayalam movies— says that the period of COVID-19 has been the most stressful and challenging time throughout her entrepreneurial career.

"The way we overcame that challenge was by investing in our people and preparing for the future in a holistic manner. The first thing we did was to make sure that they understood what the situation was. We gave access to free mental health help and we also invested in training them so that we can come back stronger and better than we have been before,” the 39-year-old reflects.

Shibulal, who started her first entrepreneurial venture at the age of 23 years, feel that to thrive, trusting the inner voice is extremely important. “I think I will tell my younger self to be more confident, and more trusting of my inner voice. When I was younger, there were so many voices in my head. And I think if I could go back the only thing that I would tell myself was to take care of myself, like listen to myself. And silence some of those exterior voices,” she says.

As she continues to expand Tamara, Shibulal continues to invest in herself to get better. “Every milestone I have experienced in my journey has been incredible and oftentimes I’ve imagined that I would not be able to reach there. So I don’t know if I have arrived or if I will ever arrive but I will continuously try to improve myself and do better by my people and my business as I move forward,” she observes.