Why Did Jet Airways Fail?
The Founder Who Couldn't Let Go
📜 What Happened
Naresh Goyal built India's best full-service airline — then ran it as a personal fiefdom for 25 years: micromanaged decisions, revolving-door CEOs with no real authority, opaque related-party dealings, and refusal to dilute control even as debt mounted past ₹8,000 crore. Etihad wanted to invest more — with governance conditions. Goyal wouldn't cede control. The airline stopped flying in April 2019 with employees unpaid for months.
☠️ The Fatal Mistake
Choosing control over survival at every fork — a smaller piece of a flying airline beat 51% of a grounded one, and he chose grounded.
🧠 The Lesson (Free for You)
Founder's grip becomes founder's noose. If your company can't function — or be saved — without your signature on everything, you haven't built a business; you've built a hostage.
📕 The Antidote Book
The Entrepreneurial Myth: that businesses are started by entrepreneurs. Reality: they're started by TECHNICIANS having an 'entrepreneurial seizure' — the baker who assumes baking skill means bakery-running skill, the…
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