When Odds Become
Opportunities
Even the greatest of adversities can be transformed into
opportunities. Anagh Pal turns the spotlight on four women to find
out how they met overwhelming challenges and came up tops
F
inancial planners never tire of asking us to
buy protection, as life is hard to predict. But
there’s no insurance against certain insidious
challenges that only the human will can battle
and overcome. Planning one’s finances diligently may
help tide over the financial impact, but that’s only half the
story. While clichés are not the best way to underscore
the point, in this case it wouldn’t be wrong to
say “when the going gets tough, the tough
get going.”
While it is easy to buckle under
pressure, some people have the rare
courage and resourcefulness to turn
odds into opportunities. Outlook
Money delves into the lives of
four such women who chose to
transform their lives against
daunting odds.
Women
uninterrupted
It is not exactly easy to
rebuild life after cancer,
but Kanika Tekriwal
went a step further
and wrote one of the
finest success stories
in the Indian private
aviation industry after
she was afflicted with
cancer eight years ago,
at the age of 21. Today as
the CEO and founder of
JetSetGo Aviation, Kanika
helms a company that has
the country’s largest fleet of
private jets at its disposal.
For Sandhya Cherian,
on the other hand, it was
the sudden death of her
husband from a massive
36
Outlook Money March 2018 www.outlookmoney.com
heart attack that threatened to have a domino effect
on her life. Instead of succumbing, Sandhya moved
back from the US to her parents’ home in Chennai,
and today navigates her way through a hectic life
as mom and dad to her two children, and steering
administrative challenges as Vice President, Frontier
Mediville, a bio-science park, and Director, Frontier
Lifeline Hospital.
While being at sea can test your nerves, 48-year-
old master mariner Radhika Menon hit the more
turbulent spots in her career simply because of
her gender. As one of the rare Indian women
seafarers she has spent a large part of her
career being thwarted by male prejudice.
Despite the bias, Radhika remained unfazed
and assertive, and gradually earned the
respect of her crew as well as the entire
industry
In a similar test of endurance,
Srividya Kannan, Founder-
Director, Avaali Solutions, a niche
consulting and technology
services company in the
information management space,
decided to rely purely on her
determination and her ideas to
earn the trust of large enterprises.
The lessons these women
learned from their
challenges are time-tested
and hard-earned. Much
like them.
Never lose sight
of your goals
Adversity has the
power to derail
our most cherished
aspirations. But how we
persevere through it all can spell the
difference between great success and