I Don’t Want to Be an Entrepreneur. I Want to Be Useful.
- Apr 7
- 2 min read
By Deepak Shukla
When people introduce me as an “entrepreneur,” I wince a little.
I didn’t grow up dreaming of pitching investors or building a personal brand. I grew up in West London, the son of Indian immigrants, watching my parents work relentlessly just to create stability. My early ambition was not glory, it was security.
I’ve had 20+ jobs. I worked at NatWest Bank. I backpacked alone across India. I fought Muay Thai in Brazil. I ran an Ironman. I applied to the SAS. I’ve lived on housing benefits. I’ve lost £4255,000 trading stocks. I’ve written over 65,000 words in 35 days just to see if I could.
None of that was strategy.
It was curiosity mixed with a refusal to stay still.
I started Pearl Lemon in 2016 after quitting corporate life. I didn’t have funding. I didn’t have a grand plan. I just knew I loved marketing, especially SEO and lead generation because it felt like solving a puzzle. If you understand human psychology and search intent, you can build something sustainable.
What began as a small SEO agency has grown into a group of companies across PR, legal, accounting, B2B lead generation, catering, and home services. Not because I planned a “portfolio.” But because I enjoy building.
Podcasting played a massive role in that journey.
Being a guest on podcasts forced me to clarify my thinking. You can’t hide behind jargon when someone asks you a simple question like, “Why do you do what you do?”
One of my biggest breakthroughs came not from a marketing tactic, but from therapy. I realised I had built businesses the way I approached endurance sports: push harder, suffer more, prove yourself. That mindset works, until it doesn’t.
Now, I still wake up between 4:30–5:30am most weekdays. I walk my adorable pups, Ken and Kiki, around Lake Viverone in Italy where my wife Daniela and I now live. Those quiet walks matter more to me than any revenue milestone.
People assume visibility is about ego. It isn’t, not if you do it right.
Visibility is responsibility.
When you share your story publicly, on podcasts, in articles, on stages, you are accountable to it. You can’t preach resilience and then collapse at the first sign of friction. You can’t talk about leadership and avoid hard conversations with your team.
Podcasting, for me, has been less about audience growth and more about identity refinement.
Every interview is a mirror.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: don’t chase titles. Chase capability. Build skills. Stack them. Speak about them.
Refine them. Let your visibility be the byproduct of value, not the objective.
I don’t want to be famous.
I want to be useful at scale.
And if telling my story helps one person build something braver, healthier, or more ambitious than they thought possible, then every uncomfortable step has been worth it.
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