OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal's BIG revelation about his hotels: 'I personally clean...'

Ritesh Agarwal – the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of OYO Rooms – has said that he continues to clean washrooms in his company's hotels as part of a role-modeling strategy for his team.

“I still, sometimes, clean washrooms as a role modeling exercise, “ 31-year-old Agarwal said at the second edition of the Mumbai Tech Week on Saturday, March 1.

“I think as an entrepreneur, on day one, you have to leave fear, embarrassment, pride, arrogance, everything outside the room and enter, because these are the biggest enemies of entrepreneurial success,” Agarwal, a college dropout who started OYO in 2013, shared.

He added it is quite hard for people to accept this because our upbringing unfortunately does not teach this to us.

“You have to leave ‘sharam’ (embarrassment) and 'ye kaam mera hai ye kaam dusre ka hai' (this is my work and that is someone else’s)…Are you looking to be pride seeking or are you looking to be wealth seeking? I am very clear that I want to create a big impact,” the entrepreneur-investor further said when asked about his advice to budding entrepreneurs.

Agarwal, one of the youngest billionaires in India, started OYO Rooms in May 2013. Launched as a budget hotel chain, the company is today a multinational hospitality chain. It has more than 1 million (10 lakh) rooms across 800 cities in 80 countries.