Shark Tank India's Anupam Mittal reveals '2 superpowers' aspiring entrepreneurs need

Anupam Mittal asserted that these aren't just entrepreneurial skills — they’re life skills. (Image credit: Anupam Mittal/LinkedIn)

In a world where Instagram reels glorify overnight success and college students pitch startups, one question still echoes through classrooms and coffee shops alike: What does it really take to be an entrepreneur?

Anupam Mittal, the founder of Shaadi.com and a judge on popular reality show Shark Tank India, believes the answer is deceptively simple.

In a recent post on LinkedIn, the "Shark" pulled back the curtain on what he calls the two entrepreneurial "superpowers" every student — and, really, every professional — should cultivate. Not a business plan. Not a funding deck. Just two skills: the ability to sell and the ability to build.

The first superpower: selling

Mittal doesn’t mince words. “If you can’t sell, it’s going to be a long and lonely ride,” he wrote. But this isn’t just about pushing a product. Selling, in Mittal’s world, is about belief. It's the art of persuading others to buy into a vision that doesn't yet exist. It’s about convincing team members to join your unproven mission, investors to back your yet-to-be-profitable dream, and customers to take a leap of faith.

And for those who flinch at the word "sales" — often imagined as slick talk and hard pitches — Mittal offers a different outlook: “Sales isn’t sleazy. It’s survival.”

The second superpower: building

Then comes the second pillar — the quiet grind of building. Not necessarily coding but the deeper, often lonelier task of solving a problem so obsessively that the world starts to think you've gone off track.

“To build,” Mittal said, “is to focus on one thing for a long time… while everyone around you thinks you’ve lost it.” It means staying with an idea through the fog of doubt, rejection, and failure, with only your stubborn belief to guide you.

What makes Mittal’s message resonate beyond startups is his assertion that these aren't just entrepreneurial skills — they’re life skills.

“You master these two? You become unbeatable,” he stated.

Mittal added that these pointers would help only future CEOs. It would be of use to students still figuring out what they want, to professionals navigating corporate ladders, to side hustlers working on passion projects after hours.

Stressing that there is no "right time" to start something, Mittal said, "You start learning. You start selling. You start building. The rest will follow."