Whether he’s treating life like a video game where every player starts a new level, offering angel investment on reality TV, or appearing as the perpetually optimistic face on your YouTube feed, Ankur Warikoo is a constant presence in the digital age.

In this exclusive interview with Abhinandan Sekhri, the popular entrepreneur and content creator discusses his latest book, Winning People Without Losing Yourself. Beyond the book, however, Warikoo explores the complexities of privilege and personal philosophy, the heavy emotional toll of building a business, and the moments when his signature positivity hits its limit – revealing what actually gets under his skin.

He begins by explaining that the target audience for his self-help book is 20-year-olds, who often lack the attention span for traditional, dense books and feel guilty about not finishing them. Warikoo caters to them because he believes that this is the generation that will “shape this country up in some meaningful fashion”. 

The core of his current book focuses on “people,” whom he describes as the most difficult to deal with because of their emotional biases and conditioning. 

Warikoo also reflects on social privilege with unusual candour: “We come from social privilege… the fact that I was born a male Brahman… grew up in Delhi, I’m fair-skinned. These five things set up 99 percent of my life outcome. I’ve done s**t in life.” 

Abhinandan remarks that the notion that everyone must be a founder is “overrated,” noting that “managers are rarer than founders.” 

Responding to this, Ankur recalls, “I remember I got trolled when I put it on LinkedIn that it's okay to have a 9-to-5 job. They [trolls] said, ‘How can you say that? Our country is a country of startup founders, etc.’ You have to recognise that in this universe, not more than 5 percent will be founders, the rest will be employees.”

Meanwhile, Abhinandan challenges the narrative Ankur has built around himself – the story of hitting ‘rock bottom’ and ‘reinventing’ himself at 40. 

But as someone who radiates ‘positivity’, Abhinandan asks what makes him “lose his s**t”. Warikoo explains, “I do not like people who are disrespectful,” especially those who believe they are of a “higher order, economically, socially”. 

He admits that the rare moments he loses his temper are when he sees his own children being entitled or failing to acknowledge someone's presence. For Warikoo, the goal is to “feel it within”, noting, “It's not about saying thanks. It's about being thankful.”

Watch the full interview for more.