Once Rejections Were Part Of His Life, Now This First Blind IT Entrepreneur Employs Others

In this fast-paced world when everyone is running to make it big, one runs life like a race where the horse with blinders sees and follows only the path that has been assigned to it. Very often, we look beyond our comfort zones because everything seems just fine. But it is very important to keep on polishing the skills and work on yourself, whatever be your situation.

Here is a person who teaches us a very important lesson to step out of the path and do something that people thought is impossible. We introduce you to Prateek Agarwal, the first visually-challenged IT entrepreneur in the nation.

Discovering the passion

When Prateek was six-month-old, his parents felt that something was wrong with his vision. When they took him to the doctor, Prateek was diagnosed with complete loss of vision. However, this young lad from Jaipur did not restrict himself from doing anything while growing up.

During the time of admission in school, his family faced a lot of problems. When Prateek began schooling at St Michael’s School, Jaipur, the principal and staff helped in developing facilities for his education. His mother, a homemaker, learnt braille script to help him with his homework.

When Prateek was in STD 7, he developed an interest in computers and even learnt a few things on his own using the screen reading software called Job Access With Speech (JAWS). He aspired to become a software engineer. Prateek worked hard and graduated in computer science from NIIT University, Neemrana.

Unending challenges

The hardships had not ended yet and Prateek was stuck hunting for jobs. Although he was a high ranker and would score well in his aptitude tests, reasoning, and discussion rounds, the interviewers rejected him because he was visually impaired. The fact that he had done all he could and was still not getting through was breaking down his confidence.

“This happened so many times, over and again and then I started to feel devastated. I used to cry and ask myself what more can I do to get a job and what is more there in my hand to do,” Prateek said.

Prateek had the option of choosing music or performing arts but he had different plans lined up. Dusting off all that happened from his shoulder, he registered his company, Daedal Technovations in 2010, in his final year of engineering. Initially, it was troublesome for him to find clients and he would go to local businesses himself, to know their software requirements.

Businesses were blooming towards the digital sector in areas of HR management, stocks, and invoicing. But converting clients was a task. “When I would meet them, they would feel flummoxed. Are you the same guy who was talking over phone? They would ask me. Eventually, they would say they cannot give the project to a blind man,” recalls Prateek.

The result of hard work

Soon enough, after a lot of hard work and continuous struggle, Prateek managed to procure some clients. Although, this progress was not good enough for him to make the cut, he decided to go global. With his experience of handling clients, he has expanded the business and now has 95 percent of his clients from all across the globe.

Their range of services cover software application with expertise in B2B segment, digital marketing, social media, search engine marketing, and project and security consultancy. They also provide online training for some complex technologies.

“Currently, we are working on technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics and cryptocurrency,” Prateek tells. Today, he stands tall having over 40 employees in his firm, which is flourishing in all its sectors. Prateek also offers personality and life skills training to corporate firms and individuals. He teaches computers to visually-challenged people and is also involved in several social causes.

Prateek is a true inspirational figure to everyone especially those who think that their challenges poses a limitation. He has managed to turn tables around and transform his impairment into an opportunity. The mainframe credits for this goes to his never give up attitude wherein he sets an example of how if life shuts down one door we should not stop looking.

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