Cactus Chords

It would not be inaccurate to draw a parallel between an entrepreneur and a hermit. When one sets out to be a hermit, he lets go of everything precious to him as all he has in mind is his eventual goal, Moksha. Isn’t this the same with an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur’s Moksha lies in his idea transforming into a successful business or for some, merely materializing into a business.

Entrepreneurship, as I always say, is not a job but a way of life.

I had mentioned that I was going to start something to two other friends of mine, one in Bangalore, Rahul, and one in Pune, Aayush (get acquainted). Both of them blindly hopped on board. But this time, I made it a point, every issue was addressed to and tackled before moving to the next step. Keep everyone in the loop and ensure greed, insecurity and ego did not come in the way. I warned them about all the unseen realities, I was aware of, in entrepreneurship. One was doing his MBA in Pune and the other a cozy job at an MNC. They were extremely talented, hard working and efficient.

To harness the technical aspect I rang up a friend, Shoban (get acquainted), who had also, at one point of time, invested his time and effort in my previous firm, while he was in an MNC, but ended up being disappointed with the way things turned out. I was apprehensive about asking him as he would think twice this time before associating with any of us. But decided to tell him anyway and explained the idea, how it should work, what separated us, what problems it solved, future scalability and everything a new member would want to know.

He instantly loved the idea and said he would help me out in whichever way possible. One of the things I would always thank god for, is the team I have. None of us keep money as the goal. It’s the idea and the passion. Money is a mere spin off in this journey. It is important, I agree, but one who chases money, always ends up in a hole.

The way I see it, this is exactly what separates a glorified business from a start-up, teach you the value of money. A son/daughter stepping into his/her family business and building it from there is commendable. He/She could kick start various other businesses from there as well, but would he/she have been equally productive, if he/she was to do it all on his/her own like his/her dad or grand dad did? Would he/she manage to even make a mark in the society without the name and fame their ancestors or parents left them? This is what separates you from them. In the case of an existing business, it is only revenues, profits, growth, scalability etc whereby in a start-up its always seeing an idea materialize into a product, watch the first customer use it, hang onto every word he says after he uses your product, the reaction of the market, the appreciation, the pride, the satisfaction. If it did not go as planned, the dejection, the tumble down, the heartbreak, the shame. Money seems to be a factor that is common in neither of the scenarios, whether a success or a failure. It is all about manifestation and the aftermath.

The next few days went into heavy discussions, market survey and ground work. I wanted to keep this project under wraps until I thought it was fine and the team responded beautifully. I do realize, had one entity in the firm faltered, the whole project could come tumbling down. It is imperative to keep work related secrets restricted to their office spaces.

The next aspect was design. We did not have a professional designer until my girlfriend, Nisha (get acquainted), stepped in and offered to help. She spent days on the concept and eventually came up with the perfect concept for our firm. Visiting cards, logos, website concepts, punch lines, theme etc were hers. It is always a touching moment when people offer to help expecting nothing in return. They just help you because they believe in you.

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Office space is the last thing you need if you are not a hardware oriented firm. Being a web based software firm, all could be taken care of through the internet. We all had laptops, internet connections and phones, what more do we need? This followed by roping in one of my previous firm’s employees, Sreenath (get acquainted), to do this. Even him, who had faced the wrath of our previous failed venture, refused to take money for this project and offered to do it as long as he saw this project materialize. I can’t explain this feeling.
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These are the people you should be thankful to all your life, for the ones who did the job for you and believed in you and your idea and decided to stick by you and do their duties without expecting anything in return.

To be continued…………..

image reference: http://www.toastmasters.org/OtherImages/Teamwork.aspx, http://www.indiamart.com/businessanalyst/pcat-gifs/products-small/market-survey-and-data-collection_10693656.jpg, http://www.rimes.org/App_Themes/rimes2/images/growth.png, http://www.vaastuinternational.com/vaastu/vi_vastu_office.jpg

I had lost money in my previous venture, but learnt a lot. It was killing me from inside. I had to distract myself before I tumbled down the hole of aimlessness and cluelessness (read depression). If you find yourself stuck in a job, take my advice and leave it before it destroys you. If you have the courage to quit, then you will have the courage to find another job or start something in no time. Hardships have to be embraced. They should teach you a thing or two about life and how to deal with it.

For those who actually feel stuck should watch the movie, Visioneers. It has, in a very abstract manner, covered the trauma and hassles the corporate world can induce in a human being up to a point where he literally explodes. A little incentive to watch the movie, the bearded, fat guy in The Hangover is the in the lead role.

Days passed and I found myself taking the situation rather well. The job I thought, if I left would ruin my life, made me feel like a new human being once I left it. That is when I realized that except my job, my life was perfect. I, knowingly, had put myself in a situation where I felt stuck. I stopped blaming others and blamed myself. I practiced what I preached. True, you will feel clueless at first, but then clarity will find its way into that head of yours eventually.

I sat down and decided to lay the foundation for the next step in my studies, MBA. That was the only step I could come up with, at that point in time. Without wasting any time, went to the book store, bought myself a brand new book to practice the GMAT, flipped my biological cycle by 180 degrees. I stayed up all night studying and slept till late afternoon. I found myself gaining momentum and self confidence.

One day as I was on the final chapter of the Math section, one of the many random thoughts racing through my head, most of them useless, caught my attention. Why don’t I just go ahead and do what I have always wanted to do myself? Why wait for a team or time or the opportunity or anything for that matter? If I know what I want, I will find my team. Whether it clicks or not depends on my product and they way I sell it and how useful it is. Simple!!! If not this, something else man. At least you did something on your own.

Opened a new document, wrote down whatever was in my head. Yet again, I had nothing but a ball of questions and answers on the document. Spent all night sorting it out and mix matching. Come morning, I had somewhat an idea of what I wanted. The business process and the how it must function. The next step was technical aspect. Hmmmmmm

To be continued………….

image reference: http://learn-wealth-creation.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/losing-money.jpg, http://legacy.lclark.edu/faculty/jsmiller/objects/idea_bulb.jpg

After a long silence I am back. I was astonished by the number of text messages, mails and calls I received asking why I do not blog anymore. It is really encouraging to realize so many people not only follow but appreciate what you write. I wasn’t invisible because I ran out of topics, but because I was fixated on launching and touring to promote my dream project.

It is not a social networking site, not a way to get famous, not just some product I put together with my team. It is my dream. It is trying to solve a problem which I faced while studying and wanted to solve it ever since. Whether it is a success or a failure is something I will have to wait and see and I frankly don’t give a rat’s ass about. My priority was to launch this product and be happy if it helps in the smallest of ways and creates jobs and in turn help a few. If it bombs, what the hell, at least I won’t die asking myself the question, What would have happened if I had done it when I could?

What I want to share with my next few posts are the different phases I went through while developing this product, the traumas, the hurdles, what kept me going. In all, I was going through a mixture of emotions. So here goes…….

Staring aimlessly at my mail inbox, the stats read 0 unread e-mails out of 9436 e-mails. Every morning I wake up and login to see whether I have received a mail from someone unexpected regarding work. I have mails from family, friends, random groups I joined on a social networking site or the technical team. An average of 8 new e-mails every morning was the traffic in my inbox.

I then asked myself, the questions I was running away from all this while;

- Why would someone mail me?  I am no longer on any website, no one knows where I am, what I do. I am a no body. Even if they do, what service could I be to them?

- How can I make myself useful?

- How can I create a product and not just sell something someone else has created, which can make me useful to the society?

- Should I go ahead with my dream project?

- Can I take a risk at this time of my life?

- Am I up for the challenge?

The above mentioned trauma occurred post my resignation from my previous firm which I was a co-founder of. Not something my readers do not know of. For the ones who have just joined, don’t even get me started. The less said, the better.

When in a start-up, revenue inflow is not the only important aspect. The one and only thing that is important in a start-up is, PRODUCT. That is considering you have the other aspect covered ie: a trustworthy team. If you do not have a product, then stop! Do not jump in yet, because you will fall on your face. It isn’t quite a pretty sight after that.

This was the mental scenario I was in weeks before the launch of my product which I will elaborate on in my future posts. You know how nervous you feel before an exam you have prepared well for. Not that you are scared of flunking, but scared whether it will be worth all the hard work. That feeling just skims the surface of the trauma I was undergoing. It has been two whole months of work, day and night. No night outs, partying, long hours on phone, shopping, watching movies, meeting up with friends. All I did those two months was travel around and meet people, mail every Tom, Dick and Harry, do market research, stay up nights and weigh the pros and cons of my project. Create designs of what I want the website to look like, how I want it to function, process flow, prepare necessary documents for the project, read as much as possible and learn about what I am getting into. I wondered whether it would make a difference to the society. If so, then to what extent, my running costs, my revenues, future scalability.

I do not know if it is just me, but when I really sit down to write, my head gives me nothing but a ball of answers which has to be separated manually and matched with the respective questions which is another ball in a separate corner in my head. I presume I am just too confused a soul.

There are a lot of questions one must subject himself/herself to before they take the plunge into entrepreneurship.  There are two basic traits one must possess to succeed as an entrepreneur.

- HAVE A FOCUS

- BE A RISK TAKER, GO GETTER

When I mean focus, it isn’t necessary that you have a product in your mind. But you need to have a goal. In my case, I always wanted to give something back to the society, to be more specific, the educational society to start with. A lot of services I was working with could have achieved this, but I could not hone in on which one would fit it perfectly and how.

Be a risk taker, does not mean you jump from your cozy job to a start-up that has a sure-to-click idea and funding. I mean you should have the balls to be part of the team that is out there with nothing but an idea and believe in it blindly. Be ready to sacrifice a lot of luxuries in life.

If you lack even one of the above, trust me, you will not succeed unless you are one of those extremely lucky buggers. I envy those fuckers…but good for you.

To be continued………………….

image reference: http://cristinalaird.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/depression.jpg, http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/u107/risky%20sign.jpg

I recently had the opportunity to meet up with a few entrepreneur friends of mine in Bangalore and Cochin to discuss the prospects of my upcoming project.  They all greeted me with the same question everyone was asking me, “Hey, what happened to your old company? How come this new company?”. What can I say? I shake my head and respond, “I just chose the wrong team and wrong place. Simple!!!” That itself is self explanatory.

From the little experience I have gained when I indulged myself in the facade I termed “entrepreneurship”, there are a few points that surpass the rest before you start your company or at least call yourself an entrepreneur. I am going back to basics.

1) Have a product
2) Have a product of your own
3) If you are outsourcing or reselling, you are merely a salesman, not an entrepreneur
4) Release your product
5) Make it profitable

You can have other products initially to keep the revenues trickling in while you work on your dream product. But if you do not have one, it is not entrepreneurship, its reselling.

I was a salesman till I left my old firm because we did not have a product thus we lacked a focus. A bunch of guys who did not want to work for anyone but themselves. We did manage to make money, quite a bit of it too. But what is the use when you don’t have a focus. We did not launch one product, though we had 2 fully developed platforms we could have called our own and still do infact, in our cute little server.

Every time, something bigger always came our way or rather we thought it was big and the focus shifted to that. Why did we shift focus to that, because we did not have a focus in the first place. This was the string of events and emotions we went through;

- Excited that we were doing something
- Happy as money was flowing in
- Thirsty for something new
- Frustrated that we couldn’t come up with something new
- We then found something new, developed it and the stage was set
- Something bigger came our way and the old project was shelved
- Something new came our way again
- This time we developed it and launched it
- I reserve my comments on what happened to it but it couldn’t be made profitable one bit
- We later inquire what the problem was, we just f@#$%d up!!!
- Lost faith in the whole team and business
- The firm still stands and money still trickles in
- How?What do we exactly do? Ummmmmm…………..

If you have just read the above list, you might be wondering, “What the hell were you guys doing?”
Frankly, I don’t know, but I would answer that question with, “Probably testing my level of patience”. But now I know what I was doing there. Making mistakes over mistakes over mistakes so I could learn from them once I was out. Now I am surer than ever that, I will not repeat the same mistakes, but probably make new ones.

There comes a time when money flows in to your company but you are not satisfied with it because you know you didn’t set out for this. It was to make a difference in the society, give something back to it. Not just make money. This phase, ladies and gentlemen, is known as REVELATION.

An entrepreneur does not have a debugger where he can just amend his errors. The mistakes you make at your work might cost you your project, promotion or job. Whereas for an entrepreneur, a mistake can turn his life around. For better or for worse.

Entrepreneurship is not a job, its a way of life.

I am not at all proud of the way things have turned out in my life. But this was the time to experiment. It has given me the courage and will to work with a focus. I have found my product, my focus and I am working on it. I will pursue it till its launched. Whether its a success or not is not an issue. Not to prove to anyone, but me. And trust me, it is worth every bit.

But everything in life happens for the good. As long as you are optimistic and take every event in good stride, learn from your mistakes and do not repeat them, you will climb up the ladder of success and that too gracefully, take my word for it. All the best.

Cheers!!!

image reference: www.gettyimages.com/detail/82399221/Lifesize

Sorry guys, I was traveling and just got back to share with you all the last and final chapter of the story.

Max reaches his friend’s place and is surprised at how small an office he has and stops to wonder if he was doing something that wasn’t worthwhile. He scraps all the random thoughts running through his mind and steps in. Walks into his friend’s office and meets him. His friend welcomes him with a hug and asks him to take a seat. Without wasting anytime, his friend introduces Max to one of his subordinates and asks him to commence the process of familiarizing Max with the goings on of the distribution unit. From identfying production companies, negotiating, agreements, logistics, stock checking, distribution, further negotiationm basically from alpha to omega.

As time passed, Max started showing exemplary skills in every field. He also went the extra mile and became sort of the union leader of the employees. He got their concerns to the higher authorities; his friend. Within a short time span of 4 years, he had managed to increase the distribution units from 1 to 4 in 3 different cities. His friend was very proud of him and promised to make him his partner and let him handle 2 sectors all by himself. Max regularly sent money to his uncle’s house and wrote to them as he considered them his family. He had also saved enough money to invest in real estate, and 3 ambassadors. Don’t ask me why he bought 3 of them. Maybe he found some use of it. Within another year, business was going smooth but stagnant. No growth and they badly needed to expand. His friend put forward the idea of him joining his business and both of them investing more money into the business and opening up more distribution units in 2 other cities to increase their revenues. Max readily agreed as, in a way, he was thankful for the life he had and he wanted to grow. After their discussions, his friend agreed to invest quite a bit of money and to get Max to be an equal share holder, his friend asked him to invest the same amount. If Max invested that amount, he would be left with exactly INR 8,000/-.

In a way Max loved the challenge. He thought to himself, “If this is a wrong decision, then I stand to learn from this. So what, I have my friend and team with me. If something goes wrong, we can always work our way up.” He agreed and they started the procedures to open the new units. He handed over the money to his friend and told him to take care of the formalities as that was what was happening all these years. He handed over the money and decided to visit his only family to tell them the good news and go check on them after years. As soon as he said this, I sat back on my chair, widened my eyes and cupped my mouth. Max looked at me and made the loser sign on his forehead. I sat there motionless.  Max was in charge of all the operations whereas his friend was in charge of the management. He stops, looks at me and says, “You guessed right Mithun, he screwed me. I am not ashamed to admit it.” He adviced, “Whenever you get cheated or screwed in business, shout it to whomever you want. Do not keep it within. Only then will you have the drive to prove to those that you can come out of it and you are capable of it. If you are the only one who knows it along with a few others, you will keep a low profile and end up a loser.”

In a way, it is true. It does help in many ways. I openely accept my first failure but at the same time working ten times harder to prove myself and find myself at peace. I find a lot who agree with me in the wrong decisions I made, advice me, correct me, say the I-told-you-so phrase but most of all support me and offer me all kinds of help. And one thing I appreciate and realize is that, all those weren’t just words. Every single person who promised to help me has come to my aid, with absolutely no expectations. It is indeed a good feeling. Just for the sake of those people, I want to excel in life. I will ensure I do not make the same mistakes that I made and I saw others make. But I might make new ones. Take life as it comes and learn as you go.

Max then returns from his home to find out that his childhood mate and his work buddy for so many years has, no points for guessing, invested his money and moved on. All within a matter of 2 weeks. Apprently, the procedures had started well before the handing over of the money. Basically he was broke with just INR 4000/-, 3 ambassadors and a piece of land. What he did after that, I can not say, f@#k!!! He quit his job, spent a few months brooding over his mistake and without wasting anymore time went on to build a whole new business that flourished to not that state alone but 3 different states and lives a happy life with his family. Due course of this new venture he went through a lot of hardships as well which I am not allowed to speak about. Pretty much the same thing, backstabbing, cheating, lying, but by other people in new ways. This time, he had a back up plan for everything that happened. He ends by saying, “Once bitten, twice shy. I just followed my instincts and learnt to observe, read and decipher people.”

Recently, his old friend got in touch with him, apologized and asked him if he was interested in a new business venture and told him this time he would work for him. “What goes around, comes around.” He told me, “Mithun, you just do your part. The universe has a way of its own. It will reward you with everything you want if you want it with all your heart and work towards it.”

If you guys haven’t heard of or watched it, please get your hands on this documentary called “The Secret”. It is a life changing documentary. NOT THE MOVIE, THE DOCUMENTARY. At least for me. I hope you enjoyed this post. I just wish Max lets me write about his work someday. I would love to share the rest of his story. It is action pact.

Cheers!!!

Right out of college, he hadn’t the slightest clue what he wanted to do in life. As soon as he told this to me, I cut him short and asked him, “Then what did you do next?”. I asked him this because, I was pretty much in the same position when I passed out of college. I just did not want to work in a company. Not that I would have gotten placed with the marks I had Even if I had done the usual stunt of getting one of my relatives or even my dad to get me a job, I did not want it. Was I being stupidly stubborn? Was I being hard headed for no reason? Probably, but as I always believed, everything happens for the good. And that decision of mine made me embark on a journey that I, till date, do not regret. Anyway, getting back to his story, he replied, “At first, pretty much nothing. I tried looking for a job and got a few calls. You see Mithun, it wasn’t that hard for an engineer to get a job those days. But I did not want to work in a company, wake up in the morning, get back home and join the rat race.”

Reader, if you are an entrepreneur or an aspiring one, you will realize that the above emotion is a common one. The above sentence is like a perpetual chant in your head. It is a sentence you might have used and heard being used a million times. The not-wanting-to-work-for-anyone-but-yourself, is an innate emotion in all entrepreneurs. For the very same reason, I reacted with an ear to ear grin and told him, “I felt the very same way.” The moment those words left my lips, I realized I was gonna get slapped down. I wished I hadn’t said those words.  He looked at me, smirked and said, “Every aspiring entrepreneur thinks the same. It is nothing new.” I didn’t say anything else but, “That’s true”. What else could I say? Somehow getting slapped down by this man did not pinch my ego.

I heard a phone ring in the yonder, it stopped half way through. A little later his wife, a very sweet lady, appears on the first floor and taps on a wind chime that hung off the edge of the roof. Max swirled his head around the moment he heard the melodious chime. They exchanged glances, not one word spoken. He turned to me and excused himself and hopped to his house over the moist lawn. I sat there and took in the beauty of the place and wondered what I had done to meet such a person. Why would he sit and talk to me at such length and narrate his life story to me? My imaginative time piece started ticking. With every passing second I was thinking of a new scenario. Does he want to help me out with my business? Does he want to start something with me? Yeah right he will. Does he want to warn me of the hurdles that lie ahead? Is he telling me not to lose focus? Why is he free today? Doesn’t he have work? Is he shitting me or playing a prank on me? Why am I thinking all this? After we speak everything, is there anyway this person will be helpful in business to me? How can I use this contact? In other words, I was being plain desperate. Once you venture into business, you wonder how every second person you meet can help you out. It isn’t because you have become an opportunist but purely because you are desperate or looking for greener pastures. Once you have achieved what you want, this internal war of queries cease to occur. But I guess, that is normal. If you meet some big shot in your field tomorrow, by chance and he starts chatting with you about his life and asks you about your work and gives you tips, wouldn’t you also think somewhere on the same lines? Maybe not this desperate, but I am a little hyper as it is and also have balls to admit to all of this

He returned from the phone call and pardoned for being away. I just smiled to such statements. What could I possible say when he says sorry? “It’s okay Max, dont worry.” As if he gives a flying f#$k about what I feel? But he is a person who has such values and principles. He somehow seemed gleeful about narrating his own story. Maybe he knows its an award winning rags-to-riches story. He continued narrating, “As I was saying, once I passed out, I didn’t know what to do. Got a few job offers but turned them down that very moment.” I listened intently for the next part of the story as that was the part I was interested in. What a bum I am. He leaned back on the cane chair and stretched his arms and let out a sigh. I was still listening intently with the empty coffee cup in my hand. He asked me, “Care for some more Mithun?” and pointed to my cup. I looked down at my cup, the left over coffee had dried up and formed an ink devil sort of artwork that spanned from one end of the cup to the other. I placed the cup on the table, denied the offer cordially and went back to the “intently listening” position, you know the one when you sitting on a chair, with your elbows perched on your thighs and your chin resting on your palm or merely clamping your hands together. He got the hint and went on with his narration, “I then bumped into a friend of mine who I knew from my school days, by chance, on the road after almost a decade. It was really nice to catch up with him after a long break.” Apparently, that friend of Max’s was into pharmacy. He had a large distribution network and was quite successful. When Max expressed his interest in starting something of his own, his friend asked him what field he was interested in. Max hadn’t the slightest clue. Mind you he was 24 years old then. He told him that he wanted to join him in his business. Being a good friend, he did not say anything and told him to meet him the following week with whatever certificates he had on him. Max admits, “To be a successful entrepreneur, hard work alone will take you ages. You need an impressive combination of luck, timing, hard work, contacts and most importantly, how to utilize them.”

So Max set out the following week with all the documents he possessed from his school and college. He also gathered as much information about pharmacy and distribution. That day was his first interview for a job that he wanted with all his heart.

to be continued……..

Yeterday, I had the opportunity to meet one of the greatest personalities in my life by chance. We got talking and I felt dwarfed (an understatement) to his simplicity, knowledge, wealth and genorosity. Though he hasn’t been covered in the media as much, he is a human being who has been through the worst times in life and crawled his way back to success.

When I asked him if I could write about him in my blog, he replied “Mithun, you met me today morning and we have conversed for close to half a day and I have only let you in on a fraction of my life. Go ahead and write, but please keep my name and work anonymous. I believe you wouldn’t take undue advantage and divulge my credentials.” I, thus, apologise for not revealing his name as I am bound by a humble promise which I wish to abide by. I wish to cover this in chapters so I do not bore my few readers.

Chapter 1

Which human being would deny free media coverage? I laid this question in front of him with all due respect, to which his reply was “Mithun, first of all please call me (his name) and do not be so formal with me. Now coming to your question, media hype can work both ways. It works for someone who is low and needs to soar or for one who is up and needs to be brought down. I fall in neither. Then why would I need it? I know I have tackled my share of hurdles to success, so the former is out. Are you trying to bring me down?” I chuckled and appreciated the thought and we exchanged innocent smiles. Did he mean my blog is shit and I would make him look bad? Damn…

For my reader’s sake, let us name him Max, as he suggested. Max was born in a village in one of the western most states of India. His parents passed away at a very young age and he was raised by his aunt. Once he completed his 12th standard, they asked him to fend for himself. Before letting him go, his uncle found him a job at a very wealthy NRI’s mansion as a caretaker. Max does not blame his uncle for letting him go. He reminisces, “I was the 6th member in his family and they weren’t well off at all. His uncle had a small tailoring store and his aunt was a housewife. They had to raise 3 other children and I know and have seen what they went through. Post my 12th, I was old enough to differentiate right from wrong, had a basic qualification. How much more should he provide? In fact, if it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be where I am now.” I looked around his house. There was class written all over the freaking place. But his sheer humbleness and thoughtful nature drove you to respect him subconsciously. 

When the owner returned a year later, he was impressed by the boy’s work. He had maintained accounts for all the maintenance over the past one year, filed all the necessary documents immaculately, maintained the mansion in top notch shape and even managed to get the house touched up before the owner returned with the money that was left over from the expenses. The owner was astounded by this, 12th standard pass boy’s knowledge, responsibility  and maturity. The owner confessed to Max that ” Honestly beta (SON in Hindi), I thought you would have either taken off with the money or made a mess of the house. I gave you this job because your uncle is a very good friend of mine. Now I trust you blindly.” He looked straight into my eyes and said with a firm head bob, “That was my very first achievement. Earning someone’s trust with my hardwork.”  The owner promised to admit him to college and the honourable man kept his promise indeed.

He was narrating his college escapades to me. He was ragged heavily in college and almost drowned in a pool due course of one of the ragging sessions. Hospitalized for a short while for suffering from mental trauma and thus performed miserably in his exams. He was like, “I have seen my batch mates and class mates crying when they flunked in 2 or 3 papers. When I finished 4 years, I had 32 papers to clear. I cleared them within a year’s time”, in other words, in two sittings. He continued, “It wasn’t because I couldn’t clear them earlier, I just didn’t want to. I hated everything about my college, but loved everything about my life. I was somewhere I did not belong or at least felt so. But I knew if I had to get rid of that burden and to achieve that, I had to clear them.” I nearly choked on my saliva listening to all this. I would have taken all my life to clear those papers or even quit half way through. Max managed to scrape through his course in 5 years. He then moved on to sit idle for almost a year wondering what to do with his life. I feel really handicapped as I can not talk about his work. If I do, you all are sure to find out who he is, as he is one of the pioneers in his field. I am not here to talk about his work but the hardships in life he has been subjected to and how he crawled his way up. Truly inspiring.

We moved to his garden from the study for a cup of coffee. He takes his coffee strong, with one teaspoon of sugar. He took well spaced, short sips with tightly held lips, preventing his tongue from being burnt, he continued his story. “Mithun, I hope I am not boring you.” To which I gave him a look like, “Do I even remotely look bored and shook my head.” There was nothing I could get myself to say. Was a bit too intrigued by his story. Now you might wonder, a guy flunks in college, clears his papers in a year and he’s narrating it, what’s the big deal? The big deal, my friend, is that, that very same man is the owner one of the the biggest businesses in his field and has assets worth over 50 crores in a matter of 5 years since he started working.

to be continued…….

Cheers!!!

Industry surveys have revealed that 9/10 start-ups fail within the first 3-5 years of operations. Why does this happen? Is there a common thread of failure mantras that people subconsciously follow?

Here are some of the reasons why, I feel, a start-up can tumble down the ladder to the pits. I often wonder what made my first venture a failure. Was I at fault or was it my partners? We had everything a start-up required, an office, a set off brilliant minds, each of us had our field of expertise, finance, marketing, international operations, sales. An esteemed clientele, promising ideas and products. Then what went wrong? We just couldn’t work together, just couldn’t.

We personally have no qualms, but professionally, it was 100% effort and very little output. It never matters how long you have known each other, even the presence of one entity that has a wrong intention can lead to an intermittent firing of the team. And when it is a team, one person is never accountable for the failure. It is the whole team. And despite several tries, if the matter can not be resolved, it has to culminate in failure. Individually, all will excel in life off these experiences. One of the greatest traits of a true entrepreneur is to rise from the ashes of failure like a phoenix. Some of the reasons that can lead to failure:

- Lack of focus
- Weak business model or no business model
- Individual goals that vary greatly from the rest of the team
- No or wrong mentors/advisers
- Wrong team
- Lack of trust
- Variation in character
- Immaturity
- No prior industry experience
- Lack of punctuality
- Over confidence
- Black sheep
- Loss of faith in business
- Mentality to quit

The points mentioned above could be in various combinations. If the combination involves all the above, you have close to a week before you wind up and my condolences in advance. If you haven’t kicked off yet, then take sometime off to work on these problems and then kick off. Also a few questions you should find answers to before you jump into a start-up;
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1) Where do you see yourself in 2 years whether this is a success or a failure?
2) What are you planning to take away from this venture?
3) What is your monetary share in the firm?
4) Is this specific business your cup of tea?
5) Are your partners trustworthy?
6) What is your role in the firm?

If you have justified answers to the above questions, you are well on the right path to success.

I have moved on and turned a new leaf and so far, a pretty successful one too. This time, keeping in mind the mistakes I made and avoiding the probable potholes when I sense one.

Cheers!!!

image reference: www.swsalestalk.com, www.press.princeton.edu, www.twitip.com, www.tolmol.com

Recently, I was surfing through a few write ups and stumbled upon the comment/question above? It was targeted towards entrepreneurs majorly. The reason why I decided to write about this is because;

1) I have my own blog
2) I, myself, am an entrepreneur
3) I have asked myself, this question a lot of times on facing certain challenges (will elaborate later in another post)
4) Its something, I feel, all should know about and comment on, if any

But the most important of all the reasons is because

5) It made me think
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My comments are strictly restricted to my personal experiences and from others, I have perceived.

Every event has majorities, minorities and exceptions. The very same way, this event also has a majority, a minority and an exception. The answer to the title question is YES. There is a direct co-relation between age and number of years of work experience. After a lot of thought, it occurred to me that, it is pretty simple.

On an average, a person decides to venture into entrepreneurship post 4-5 years of industry experience and a minority while in college or university. The success rate of those with industry experience, is around 80% as when compared to those right out of college. This is because as you work in the industry, you learn to wrap your head around the dos and donts of business. For instance, I have met a lot of youngsters who start a company and aspire to be successful. You know, media coverage, successful business plan, investors, fame yada yada. Of the whole lot of youngsters that have tried to be enterprising, 9 out of 10 start-ups, go to the dogs.

There are various reasons to the above, predominantly it is due to immaturity and lack of professional experience. When I say professional, I am referring to all the qualities one gains from an organization from, punctuality, character, capacity to filter projects, delegation, project de-risking, leadership and many more. Prove me wrong otherwise, which if you do, I would be more than glad for the knowledge and amend this post of mine. Please note that, I am not talking about the age, but referring to the years of work experience.

There are youngsters who have been into family business since they were young and by the time they pass out of high school, they have mastered and witnessed most of the scenarios in the business world.

It is imperative that, unless you are exceptional, you have at least a couple of years of professional experience before you set out to set-up a start-up. If you founded a start-up and failed, then either learn from your mistakes and work your way up again or get some professional experience and re-try. Either way it will help you.

I would be glad if this post helps you…

Cheers!!!

image reference : www.youngentrepreneur.com, www.sekpress.net, customersrock.files.wordpress.com