After three years of starting up, I have reached a phase of being sure of my actions. While the fragility of the framework that we’ve built still gives me the chills, I’ve realized that a bridge is flimsy only if I believe it to be.
Spurts of Red
I’ve always been a writer and a poet, perhaps finding it to be the best way of expression. I remember the poems & articles written throughout my engineering years- they revolved around freedom, evolving mindsets and shifting paradigms. While I was clueless of where it’s going to lead, looking back, it’s clear that my mind was struggling to be free from what it seemed to be trapped in then. While the scope of the decision seems magnanimous now, it simply is about what we were going through then.
We probably miss out on the feasibility of the ideas running through our heads then. As Andy Dunn puts it, we’re so distracted by our reality that we start living in our imagination. We mistake our tightrope for a highway, and fortunately take the right steps. The initiation is nothing but a passionate step towards what we want in the short term which, in turn, paints a flowery picture of the long term to trick our mind. Thankfully, since our thought processes determine what our reality will result in, it all works out to be fine.
The trick of the doable projects
Unwittingly, we simply fall from one trap to another, this one disguised as freedom. However, we’re happier now since this is a situation we desired. The struggle which was a part of the earlier trap was dismissed as something that was forced upon us. The struggle which is a part of this desirable trap is justified as the necessary effort required to achieving abundance. A trapped mind plays games, and you set to work with the most doable project at hand.
While the world might question the choice of the project at hand with a background of ‘logic’ and ‘social norms’, a simple response of ‘why not?’ and ‘it is doable than most of the other options’ from our end seems to elicit an unsure smile. We do not dig deep into the reasons which got us here, for we have started living in a new imagination, distracted from the ‘free’ reality. Thus a company is born.
Creating a world of our own
We are in a state of flux till we achieve homeostasis, a level of comfortable equilibrium with our surroundings. We end up building situations and teams to complement our skill sets, thus paving a way for us to focus on our key strengths. Here lies a trap of the comfort zone. Stronger individuals redefine boundaries, not hesitating to step out and tackle challenges but stepping back in once the battle has been won. It is recommended that we focus on what we do best, and learn new skills which add value to what we easily accomplish- thus leading to development of the self. As a result, though we have ventured out into the unknown keen to do something that has never been done before, we end up creating a world that’s most comfortable for us and keep doing things that we do best and love.
An Emotional Expression
Entrepreneurship is an emotional expression more than anything else, because material results are constructed on our belief systems and relationships. We make choices we understand and meet people whom we feel comfortable with, thus designing our enterprise as a greater image of the way we think. If an equal level of control is handed over to team members, they add a dash of personality and the enterprise adds additional dimensions. More the complementary skill sets, more complete an enterprise seems. This is, however, highly subjective.
These principles essentially apply to all individuals and their lives- entrepreneurs or not. We end up shaping our career paths and relationships to suit our personality, often not recognizing it. We forget that we’ve shaped the situations around us, not the other way round. The realization is powerful, since we then understand what beauty we can add to a conversation or a commercial transaction.
As Brian Wong puts it- “You are the most powerful force in your life.”
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