What happens when your performance at work becomes the only definition of your self-worth? In today’s episode of Failure Files, we’ll hear from Shruthi Iyer about her year as the executive director of a nonprofit working with children from low-income communities. She tells us about how her achievements came at the cost of her mental health, and how she failed not only as a leader and colleague, but as a daughter, friend, and partner.

Shruthi Iyer is a development sector professional currently serving as the CEO at Foundation for Mother and Child Health (FMCH) India. FMCH works on issues of maternal health and malnutrition in urban low-income communities in Mumbai. Shruthi has formerly worked in full-time and consulting roles across sectors focusing on strategy, fundraising, technology roll-outs, and programme development.

Read more:

1. Read Shruthi’s story on Failure Files.


2. Read more failure stories on Failure Files.


3. Check out some ideas and tools from Fail Forward to help your organisation take risks, learn, adapt, and fail intelligently.


4. Understand why the social sector must recognise and talk about failure.


5. Learn why talking about failure is crucial for growth.

Want to share your failure story? Learn more about what we’re looking for here, and share your pitch/story on writetous@idronline.org

The Failure Files podcast is produced by India Development Review (IDR), an online journal focused on the development sector. IDR publishes cutting-edge ideas, lessons, and insights, written by and for the people working on some of India’s toughest problems. To learn more, visit www.idronline.org