There are many people who come to our lives and teach many lessons.Mine was taught by a political party.The worst advice that I have gotten from my parents and I think one of the good decisions I had taken in my early days was to join college politics.During my B.Com days I was involved with SFI(The student wing of CPI(M)).
Frankly speaking I didn’t join politics for some noble cause,the only reason for that was to gain some reputation as a ‘DADA’ or ‘Big Brother’ in college where all the juniors and my fellow classmates would come to me for help and I would roam around the college like a king.Yes we would roam around like that but everything is not as rosy as it looks.
There were lots of challenges which I had faced during my short stint of politics which would help any entrepreneur or any people out there to take on the challenges of life.
1.As a student cadre I was expected to organize a large number of people in a short time,interrupt running classes for giving notice to students that there won’t be any anymore class today and that all of them have to gather together for a political rally due to some american capitalist who came to India and which had no relation with our studies,only to show our political strength.Naturally most of the students were not interested so we had to use Fear,Motivation,Brainwash and whatever technique is available in the book to gather the crowd.
Valuable lesson:-The toughest job in India is to be good in people management.If you are good in this you can do anything.
2.Often we had to put our flags and banners in oppositions area where we were very few in number.If they caught us we are sure to be get beaten, but we did that.Often we were expected to do political campaign in a particular ward where our candidate had not won for a long time say 25 years and we clinched a victory for that guy by doing all the things legally possible and by something illegally also.But the core thing is that we made it possible
Valuable lesson:-Politics make you fearless.The confidence it generates on you,the lessons on public speaking in it are priceless.It can make you believe you can do anything in the world.
3.When you are into a political party you often have to visit the local business houses for donation either it be in the form of some festival or if you want to do some kind of ‘settlement’ between two business parties or for giving some favor to a person.You always remain aware what is going in the local market and the opportunities it can provide.You always know what are the problems the people are facing in the market and what better solution you can provide to them.You get a hands on knowledge of the entire market and this becomes very useful when you start on your entrepreneurial journey.Most of the people fail in business because there always remains a hell&heaven difference between there perception of market and what really it is.
Valuable lesson:-Working with a political party will give you a real world tour of all the businesses present in your city,there challenges,there opportunities etc. in a short span of time.It will also help you to make valuable contacts in your entrepreneurial journey.
4.It develops your shock absorbing quality.Stark realities of our country will turn any boy in to a man.There are always power hungry people out there who are ready to back stab you and all methods of unfair tricks are used to stay in power.People in politics just change like that.
Valuable lesson:-Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster ride with a long time to wait patiently for things to happen.Make sure you have the shock absorbing capabilities ready for it.
5.Judging the moods of your customer i.e. your voters is every difficult.We always blame the politicians for our country but its the voters who are actually to be blamed.Building a temple in a locality will fetch you more votes than building a school.Sad but true.In politics you are always selling.Selling your parties ideologies,Selling your election manifesto,Selling your party candidate to the voters,Selling your speech,Selling your personality etc.
Valuable lessons:-Business is all about sales.If you have got no sales you have got no business.No matter how good your product is.
Finally you get a lot of chance to meet the backward section of people,the small nukkad entrepreneurs, see there amazing strength and bring a smile in the faces of the backward section of people in our society.
Sadly I could not continue my politics after my graduations were over and I was forced by my parents and peer pressure to do MBA.
But the party cadre is still present in me and which gives motivation to my daily journey in Entrepreneurship.
Uddipta
