‘Hitting rock bottom’: 7 hungry days gave this startup founder the courage to fail; LinkedIn Responds | Today’s news

At the age of 18, Abhishek Agarwal found out what it really means to be completely broke. He lacked money for education and even basic food.

For seven days, Agarwal survived mainly on bread and water. The hunger was painful, but the helplessness left a deeper mark.

Years later, the founder of The Deliberate Pause looks at this week differently. He now considers these seven days to be his most important experiences.

“I was broke as Fu*k when I was 18. And I think everyone should be completely broke at least once in their life. I know that sounds like a terrible thing to wish on someone,” Agarwal wrote.

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“And I don’t mean the kind of broke where you can’t afford the vacation you wanted or have to wait until next month to buy anything. I mean really broke. Broke for education, broke for food!” the startup founder added.

It was hard to show him what it felt like to live with almost nothing. More importantly, survival revealed an unexpected strength. He realized that even his lowest point couldn’t defeat him completely.

This understanding later shaped his response to uncertainty. Business failures were no longer the absolute end. Lost money, rejection and failed ideas still caused pain. But Agarwal knew he had survived something more fundamental before.

“I found out what it’s like to have next to nothing. And I also found out something I couldn’t have known otherwise: I could survive!!!” he wrote on LinkedIn.

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“This realization has quietly carried me through every risk I’ve taken since then – When something goes horribly wrong in business, when money disappears, when someone rejects me, when something I believed in fails completely,” he added.

Agarwal believes that everyone should experience a personal “most broken” moment. It does not glorify poverty or present suffering as automatically valuable.

Poverty, he says, is not noble. Nor does hardship guarantee courage, wisdom, or future success.

Hitting rock bottom can remove some fear of future failure. Someone who survives a shortage may approach later risks with greater perspective.

Food insecurity can damage health, education, self-esteem and long-term opportunities. These hunger days created a private reference point for every subsequent crisis.

“…there’s a kind of courage that only comes from hitting rock bottom,” he concluded.

LinkedIn is responding

LinkedIn users responded to the post.

“There’s a strange confidence that comes from knowing that I’ve been down and I’ve survived.” After that, failure is not so scary. Sometimes hitting rock bottom teaches you that you are capable of climbing back up,” wrote one user.

“Often people call someone brave, but really when you’re down, what option do you have? You just have to keep going! And somewhere along the way, you realize you can survive a lot more than you ever thought,” another user commented.

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One user wrote: “The most powerful part here isn’t the brokenness. It’s finding out that your situation can get worse without becoming helpless. Such an experience can change your perspective on risk, failure and uncertainty.”

“Sometimes the hardest moments teach us something that success never can: we are capable of surviving much more than we think,” said another.