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Why am I crazy to start-up?

The Rodinhoods Open House on 8th June was the biggest and the most inspirational open house that I have attended. Particularly, I was both impressed and inspired by the number of enterprising young 20-somethings who attended the event.

Someone in the audience said that he wanted to be an entrepreneur because he preferred working 14 hours for himself rather than someone else. That ensued a short discussion about the reasons one would want to be an entrepreneur. Kanchan Kumar made an interesting point that “being your own boss” is the worst reason to become an entrepreneur. Then Alok talked about the merits of being a successful professional with a corporate job.

That made me introspect. That made me wonder about the “why”. I’m not a genius and there are many people who are much smarter than me but I do have a decent education and can get a very good and stable corporate job. Why am I crazy to start-up? Why am I ready to risk everything? I closed my eyes for 10 minutes and the answers were staring right back at me.

     “A start-up gives birth to an entrepreneur.”

They say that a child gives birth to a mother. Similarly, I think it’s a start-up that gives birth to an entrepreneur. No, I definitely cannot relate to the amount of pain that a woman goes through during child-birth. But I think there is a reason it’s called labor pain. It’s the pain you need to go through to create something beautiful and amazing. Entrepreneurship is not easy. You can feel some kind of pain daily. Yet you can feel immense love and attachment towards your start-up, that turns into passion, and that can eventually be a source of immense joy. The joy of getting that first paying customer can only be matched with the joy of watching your baby walk for the first time. It’s one of the most exhilarating and emotionally rewarding things in the world. You get addicted to the joys of being an entrepreneur and are ready to go through the pain to feel those joys again and again.

“I saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything that I wanted” – Jack Kerouac

A start-up is like an empty page. You can write your own rules of disruption and turn them into a product or a service. I think that, at our core, we humans are inherently creative beings. Creating something useful and amazing can give us immense satisfaction and happiness. It’s not only about creating an awesome product or a service but also about building a great company from scratch. Entrepreneurship gives you a lot of opportunity to be creative because you’re basically starting from zero.

I think it was Steve Jobs who said “We don’t make great products because we want to make money. We make money because we want to make great products.” Money is a commodity that can help you build great products and a great company but money shouldn’t be the reason to start-up because the probability of making money at a start-up is very low.

I read somewhere that entrepreneurship is like heroin addiction. You know that it can kill you but you can still long for that shot again and again. I love being an entrepreneur because I get immense happiness and satisfaction out of creating something. It’ll be awesome if you could share why you love being an entrepreneur in comments.

I also write at https://karmik.me

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19 Comments

  1. Almost 2 hours and no comments.
    Here it goes..

    Wonderful wonderful writing Ankit…
    “. The joy of getting that first paying customer can only be matched with the joy of watching your baby walk for the first time”

    This is a beautiful analogy.

    Overall, it was a nice Sunday read.

    P.S- Didnt like the Heroine addiction example that you gave. Entrepreneurship does not kill me, in fact it is keeping me alive. 🙂

    Keep Writing.

  2. Hey Tejas,

    Thanks for the kind words :-).

  3. I love being an Entrepreneur because I am rebellious by nature, it’s difficult for me to accept anything as an axiom or universal truth unless I research n find it myself. Entrepreneurship is a chase for me, a motive behind my existence itself. Friends hv come n left me, family hv been great opposition, society has been ignorant of me but in last 7yrs my Chase nvr let me alone. Entrepreneurship made me realize my potential.

    Only God and Entrepreneur hv the power to create, and I am one of the creator, ‘The Entrepreneur’

  4. You really sound like Ayn Rand…..

  5. I am finding great writers here. This post made my monday morning 😀

  6. Thanks Aparna :-).

  7. I think crazy minds ensures that your assets are greater than your liabilities..

  8. Oh, big words

  9. Hey Ankit, good piece of writing!! 

  10. Hey Anamika, Thank you so much :-).

  11. Been on both sides of the grass (i.e. corporate job and a start-up), the only thing I can say is that enjoy whatever you do. Some people get a high when they get promoted in their corporate job, some get it when they crack a major deal in their newly found business.

    As Alok had rightly mentioned, don’t think you are doing a favour to the corporate by working there, the paycheck on the 1st of every month is your return for the efforts. You may not see the returns being directly proportional to your efforts in the initial years, but over time with going up the hierarchy your perception will change. Coz if this was not the case, its most likely that nobody will have ever joined a corporate.

    In short, love your work – don’t bother if its for yourself or a corporate.

  12. To each his own.. But I think magic of entrepreneurship begins to cast its web when you see something you created being noticed , used , purchased and being talked about by a 3rd parties, to whom you have had no relation except for your product or service .  But there is a  lot of toil before , and after that moment. That is the true test to keep going on. , that is why Alok Insists so much on  Entrepreneurship being a journey rather than a culmination in one single event.  ( like everything else in life) .  

    For eg  I had no experience whatsoever in web design , and ecomm or selling for  that matter ever. . But when I saw the process of customer getting converted from a Google Ad Click to Customer registration to a Purchase and then a follow comment on facebook  about this being his best buy so far for a laptop skin on  theskinmantra.com . Joy was more than any promotion or salary hike had given .  But needless to say the quality of that Joy is difficult to match even when we say 300 Laptop Skin Deal today and that is where the challenge is. To be able to create the Highs again and again .  No wonder an over heard advise you get when starting up is have a lot of passion for the product or service  ( lot means a lot). .Cuz more often than not , the steam runs out and you are left with montony job like routine . And its your own doing. 

  13. Hey Akash,

    Thanks for sharing your perspective. Yes, you need to have an infinite enthusiasm and passion for the product or the service you’re offering and see real value in it.

    After visiting your website, I think it’ll be awesome if we could partner. You don’t need to waste money on CPM or CPC “spray and pray”. Pay only for a conversion or a sale on your website. https://www.sharemojo.com

    Cheers.

  14. Hey Ankit,

    Thanks for feedback and visit to theskinmantra.com …  although did not comment from business POV,  but if you see anything for both of parties.  Please mail the basic proposal to vishal@theskinmantra.com

    Cheers, 

    Ak

  15. Hey Akash,

    Just sent you an email. Looking forward to your reply.

    Cheers,

    Ankit.

  16. Well written, but all said and done, Entrepreneurship is not easy, requires tremendous risk taking, hard work and persistence till your ideas see the Light at the end of the tunnel. 

    Again, we all read about rags to riches stories and how some people quit school to become business magnets……..all that sounds good on paper. Don’t try to start following them blindly – What works for them need not necessarily work for you – Right? So this is where you need apply your mind and assess your SWOT and take an appropriate decision. Who knows, probably your corporate experience for 12 years will become a good source of experience and credibility to start your entrepreneurial venture. 

    Entrepreneurship and Corporate life need not necessarily be mutually exclusive. Finally its each individual’s decision on whether he wants to become a programmer, sales guy, entrepreneur, teacher, etc – one size fit all approach doesn’t work. 

  17. Thanks Sridhar. Yeah, to each his own. It’s more of a personal decision. Regarding SWOT, it’s very difficult to predict the course of a start-up. Sometimes your biggest weakness might turn out to be an advantage in the long run :-).

  18. By SWOT I meant individual’s SWOT and their own assessment of it 

  19. hey happy b’day ankit!

    hope all’s rocking at your end. would love to hear an update from you soon!

    have an awesome year ahead 🙂

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