In Part I of this conversation with IDR, Dream a Dream’s co-founder Vishal Talreja and CEO Suchetha Bhat share the story of the organisation’s implosion, Vishal’s burnout, and how owning up to failure was the first step in figuring out the way to build back up. Vishal Talreja co-founded Dream a Dream with 11 other people. He is an Ashoka Fellow, an Eisenhower Fellow, a Kamalnayan Bajaj (Aspen) Fellow, a Salzburg Global Fellow, and a board member at Goonj. Vishal was also the founder-director of UnLtd India and a board member of PYE Global and India Cares Foundation. He has been recognised as an ‘Architect of the Future’ by the Waldzell Institute in Austria and as ‘Innovator of the Year’ in 2019 by HundrED. Suchetha Bhat is the CEO of Dream a Dream, a nonprofit that empowers children from vulnerable backgrounds to thrive. Since starting her career in 2001, she has worked both in the corporate and social sectors. Under her leadership, Dream a Dream has grown from working with 10,000 young people in Bengaluru to more than one million children across five states. Niti Aayog has listed Suchetha among the 75 Women Entrepreneurs Transforming India in 2021. This episode is part of a special series in partnership with The Wellbeing Project where we look at the intersection of failure and well-being. Read more: Read more failure stories on Failure Files. Dip into Centred Self, a series exploring the important but often-overlooked connection between inner well-being and effective social change. Check out some ideas and tools from Fail Forward to help your organisation take risks, learn, adapt, and fail intelligently. Understand why the social sector must recognise and talk about failure. Learn why talking about failure is crucial for growth. Explore Alliance Magazine’s issue on learning from failure and how it can contribute to better philanthropy. 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