“Even if I stammer now, people will hear me”: Deepinder Goyal on losing investors, feeling invisible, and finally finding his voice at 42

Amidst gig worker discussions and an outage, Eternal Founder, Deepinder Goyal, sat down for a discussion with Raj Shamani on his podcast, Figuring Out.

Growing up, Deepinder Goyal recalled, he often felt invisible.

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How he felt invisible in school

He was short, struggled academically, and scored 42 per cent in Class 11, a percentage that is looked down upon in India.

But the marks, he has reflected, were not what stayed with him. What lingered was the feeling of being dismissed, of being underestimated before he had even finished a sentence.

For those who do not know, Deepinder suffers from a stammering condition.

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Effect of his stammer

His stammer made everyday conversations exhausting, because people rarely paused long enough to hear them.

“Mid-sentence, people would lose patience,”he recalled. “They’d start talking to someone else or just look away.”

Deepinder says, over time, these repeated experiences reshape one's sense of self.

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Support of family 

At home, his family stood firmly by him.

But bullying and constant dismissal have a way of overpowering even the strongest reassurance. When the outside world keeps repeating the same judgment, it begins to feel more truthful than encouragement.

“You feel like your parents are just being kind,”Goyal said. “And that the world outside is telling the truth.”

Those early years left a deep imprint.

School was not just academically difficult; it was emotionally bruising.

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Finding his voice

Today, at 42, Deepinder Goyal no longer rushes his words or feels embarrassed when he gets stuck.

“The word will come out,”he said.

That acceptance, he believes, came with time and with proving himself.

Success, as he admits, has brought changes in the manner in which people treat him.

Reaction of people now

Now, if he pauses in the middle of a sentence, people will wait. They listen, not to the extent that he speaks flawlessly, but because he has earned their attention.

“Even if I stammer now,” he said, “people will hear me.”

But he is also transparent about the cost. He recalls how his stammering closed some doors along the way. Some investors may have left the table. Some rooms may have deemed him to be a bit hasty in their opinion.

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