# Courage, Identity, and Rise of a Wedding Trailblazer | Reetu Jain | TEDxDTSS College of Law

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofSateucOgs
Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/ofSateucOgs
Generated: 2025-12-04T17:35:05.704+00:00

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## Quick Overview

Wedding trailblazer Reetu Jain defines courage through the acronym C.O.U.R.A.G.E., emphasizing seeing things differently, observing successful people, believing in oneself, reality checks, adapting, giving back, and self-entertainment, ultimately recounting how she secured her first wedding client by comparing her opportunity to Sachin Tendulkar receiving a chance at age 17, proving that courage is overcoming fear and throwing back the stones people throw at you.

**Key Points:**
- Reetu Jain, founder of 'The Wedding Wale', has been in the wedding industry for about 10 years, having successfully executed around 300 weddings, including many celebrity weddings.
- Jain defines courage using the acrostic C.O.U.R.A.G.E.: C is to 'See things differently', O is 'Observing the people in that industry who are successful', U is 'Believing in yourself', R is 'Have a reality check', A is 'Adapting', G is 'Giving back to the society', and E is 'Entertainment'.
- Jain faced skepticism from her middle-class Marwari family who expected her to pursue traditional careers like engineering or medicine, requiring courage to pursue wedding planning.
- She received her company name, 'The Wedding Wale', serendipitously when a maid shouted 'wedding wale aa gaye hain' (The wedding people have arrived) at a potential client's house.
- Jain secured her first major wedding by drawing a parallel between her situation and Sachin Tendulkar's career start: she told the skeptical uncle, "if BCCI gave him the bat at 17, you can give a chance to a Sachin Tendulkar."
- She notes that fear often comes from external sources, like family questioning a woman entering a male-dominated industry, or friends pursuing safer careers, but courage means standing your ground.
- Jain emphasizes that courage comes from believing in oneself and 'throwing the stones right back at those people who put fear in you'.

**Context:** TEDx speaker Reetu Jain shares her journey as a wedding planner and the founder of 'The Wedding Wale' and 'Wed Venture', detailing the courage required to establish herself in an industry where she was initially underestimated, especially coming from a conservative, middle-class background where wedding planning was not considered a viable profession. She uses her personal narrative, including facing ageism and gender bias from clients, to illustrate her philosophy on overcoming fear and achieving professional success.

## Detailed Analysis

Reetu Jain, a speaker and mentor with a decade of experience planning approximately 300 weddings, lays out her definition of courage through an interactive acronym, C.O.U.R.A.G.E. She explains that courage began for her at age five when she dreamed of not being average, a dream resisted by her family's expectations rooted in traditional Marwari business fields like pharma, engineering, or medicine. Jain details the necessity of observing successful peers, maintaining a reality check, adapting constantly (citing Nokia as a cautionary tale), and giving back to society, even learning from employees and clients daily. A pivotal moment involved securing her first wedding from a skeptical client by likening herself to a young Sachin Tendulkar who was given a chance by the BCCI at 17, persuading the uncle to give her a chance as well; this event led to the naming of her company, 'The Wedding Wale'. Jain concludes by stressing that courage is about overcoming external fears imposed by society and internal self-doubt, urging the audience to believe in themselves and confront those who instill fear.

### Speaker Background and Experience

- Reetu Jain is the founder of The Wedding Wale and Wed Venture, boasting 10 years in the industry and about 300 weddings executed, including celebrity events
- She also runs Wed Venture to teach others what she does.

### The C.O.U.R.A.G.E. Framework for Courage

- C is Seeing differently
- O is Observing successful people
- U is Believing in yourself
- R is Reality Check (doing research/stats)
- A is Adapting to changes
- G is Giving back to society
- E is Entertainment (keeping yourself engaged).

### Overcoming Initial Obstacles

- Jain faced family pressure to pursue conventional careers; clients often mistook her for an assistant due to her young age and small stature, asking for her 'boss' or 'father' when she first started at 21.

### The Naming of 'The Wedding Wale'

- The company name originated when a maid at a potential client's house shouted 'wedding wale aa gaye hain' (The wedding people have arrived) as Jain entered, which she decided to adopt on the spot.

### The Sachin Tendulkar Analogy

- Jain convinced a hesitant client to hire her by comparing the risk to letting a 17-year-old Sachin Tendulkar play cricket, arguing that if the BCCI gave him a chance, the client should give her a chance, which resulted in securing that wedding and nine subsequent family weddings.

### Final Definition of Courage

- Courage means overcoming fear, which often originates externally from family or friends, and standing your ground by saying, 'I will be able to do it'
- Courage comes from within, believing in yourself, and throwing the stones back at those who create fear.