My father force fed me the habit of reading and writing. I hated it in the childhood, because it was his routine to make me write the review of novels and other books he used to buy for me. Only once in my entire life with him, I was able to not do what he wanted me to do, read classic ‘War and Peace’ written by Leo Tolstoy and write a review. I have not been able to finish the reading of first page in last twenty years, so, writing a review is out of question. But what I used to hate in the childhood, has become a very strong pillar of support for me in earning my livelihood and I have become like my father; voracious reader, who have no specific choice but reads anything and everything comes his way.
I was an entrepreneur once, I work with entrepreneurs now and I may become entrepreneur again. I draw inspiration from many places; from my own experience, my experience of meeting people, from reading books, attending seminars etc. and sometime I draw the inspiration for entrepreneurship from usual(business meetings, meeting with successful people, attending seminars etc.) and unusual(my Karate classes, reading books on religion and spirituality, science etc.) places and action. I am listing out few of the lessons below, which I learnt from unusual places and action:
1) Nobody has won universe ever, start something within your capacity: Around three year back, I planned to write a novel. Before proceeding, I want to make a confession that I am a huge ‘Dan Brown’ fan and have read his all six novels. I am very much in awe of the way he mixes history, symbolism, science, contemporary life etc and whips out a magnum opus. So, it was obvious for me to adapt his writing style. At the place of Robert Langdon, an Indian character was designed to unravel the mystery of economic meltdown of 2007-08 and explain the essence of Hindu philosophy. A name was given to the character and huge of amount of information was collected on US, European and Indian economic scenario. Only hitch in entire plot was my knowledge of my own faith, which I thought was more than many people know. But being a Dan Brown fan, I had to make my novel as engrossing as his, make the world accept my theory of economic meltdown and Hindu philosophy. I decided to know more what other great philosophers and teachers have to say about these things. Now the scenario is; I am using all my free time in taking classes on Economics to explain the state of economics in the world in better way and reading Neuroscience, different theories on evolution of universe, Ayurveda, Yoga, Geometry, theory of relativity, space, time and what not to understand what I was planning to make others understand about Hindu philosophy. Now the questions in front me are: 1) Do I know more than what I knew earlier; and 2) Will I be able to write a better novel than I could have earlier? Answer of the first question is, ‘Yes’, I know much more than what I knew earlier, and the answer of second question is, ‘No’, I won’t be able to write a novel at this point of time, or may be ever, because I don’t how to combine all these topics in one book.
This was precisely the time, when I was in the last leg of playing with the fire by fiddling with three huge ideas of business; online retain, digital media marketing and web analytics. I lost money on all the front without making even a smallest impact on anything. Had I stuck with one idea, I would have definitely moved much ahead in the positive direction. Let us recall the theory Mr. C. K. Prahlad had given in his last book, ‘The New Age of Innovation’, N=1 and R=G, which says, no company in the world will be able to satisfy all the need of one customer and resources are global and the companies can’t own it the way it as being used in the past. A seven billion plus population can definitely have billion plus good ideas, but only those ideas will be called good which can be effectively executed. An idea can be executed with actual capacity and assumed capacity, which maybe the result personal entrepreneurial traits. So, don’t try to win the world, identify your niche, your capacity to penetrate that niche with your product and services, competitive features you can offer to your niche etc. and then start up.
2) Get convinced with your idea first, then only you can convince others: Even a simple question can have more than one answer; you should be ready with your answer of entrepreneurial journey before going to convince others.
Let’s try to find out the value of 2/3. I am sure everyone will come out with 0.67 or 0.667 or 0.6667 or 0.66667 as result, depending upon number digits they have been asked to calculate after decimal. Sixteen digits after decimal, your computer will start showing 0 after 7 because value becomes very small and meaningless to even think about that. But we all know that just after 0.66, everything in this result is mathematical fiction and even most powerful of computer can’t give the exact value. If someone wants to dismiss the mathematical fiction part as meaningless argument, then ask them to multiply their number of daily actions with deviation they allow in every action and see the result. So, none of argument in this simple question is wrong, it is just that one has chose a side and get going. I remember when I first met my ex-boss around four year back with my idea of online retail; he trashed it with his questions. None of us were wrong, he was right with his questions on challenges I might face and I was right with my idea of online retail becoming the future of retailing in India. Grey area of entire conversation was that none of us were able to convince each other and verdict is clear in front of us; online retail is very big in India now and I failed as an online retailer.
3) Test your idea critically and hold on to your essence: I am Brown Belt in Shito Ryu Karate Do and a reasonable fighter. I want to become a good fighter. Yesterday I was practicing Kumite with my Sempai, who is 2nd Dan Black Belt and much younger, energetic and agile than me. I lost my focus in first five minutes of Kumite drill, because rather than holding on to my own skills, speed and energy level and improvise upon that I was more awed by the skills, speed and energy of Sempai. After finishing the bout, when we three came to the conclusion that I should have focused on my skills and improvised on that.
It is very much possible for startup to get overwhelmed by what competition is doing, need to generate cash as quickly as possible, sales, marketing, operations, customer feedback and grievances etc. It is also possible to get overawed by what competition is doing even before starting up the business. But it is always advisable to test the idea before entering the market, even that be so in the friendly environment. In my yesterday’s Kumite drill, I knew that Sempai will hold back his punches and kicks before it lands dangerously on me, but it was imperative for me test whether I am capable of fighting a good fight or not.
4) Plan yourself for the big day: I am actually planning to participate in International Karate Competition and to do so, I will have actually work on something like Business Model Canvas, though representations may be bit different, like key partners will be my Sensei, Sempai and Shihan, key activities will be daily drill on footwork, balance, speed, stamina, kumite skills, cost structure will include my training and competition participation cost etc. Without planning all these things in advance, I can’t face the D-Day.
These four points are crucial for starting up and if we mess up in any of these, then we should be ready for reverses.
