#humansofleap — pooja jauhari is the founder of seat at the table, group ceo of the vmly&r network, angel investor, mother to leia and veda and life partner to varun duggirala. this is her story. “i was raised by a single mum after losing my father when i was 2 years old. life was a challenge growing up, but my superstar mum bravely managed to build a good life, despite all the financial & societal constraints we faced. even as a 5-year-old, i was taking care of myself after school while my mum worked 2 jobs simultaneously to bring me up! my mum worked hard and made sure to send me to a big school, with other kids from very wealthy families. i was surrounded by kids with abundance, and i’d often felt the lack of what i didn’t have. i then went to yet another big boarding school which i hated at the time – i felt abandoned & alone, like most kids in boarding school. but in all of this was an opportunity; a choice to build the kind of life i truly wanted to live. when i was 15, i told my mum i didn’t want to go to university. we couldn’t afford a really big school, and i didn’t want to waste time; i wanted to start working immediately. i finally landed a job in a small advertising agency. i was excited about what the ad-world offered, but i’d be lying if i said it was a cakewalk. i was a young woman in a boys club, and often the only woman in the room full of men. i never felt like “i made it”, but rather, “why aren’t there more like me here?” – that greatly influenced me to start building for women. if i could say 3 things to the younger me, they’d be this: - stop and take a breath - comparison is the killer of joy. - your life is for you, and not for the rest of the world; when you realise that you don’t have to prove yourself constantly, you’ll feel liberated! - people aren’t thinking about you as much as you’re thinking about yourself, so relax and just do your thing!”