Last week, we hosted the Startups Club meetup at Chennai. We were fortunate to be joined by Mr. J Krishnan for the meeting who shared some of the wisdom that had been shared with him by the likes of Kanwal Rekhi. I just made a note of them and put them together in this post.
You are alone in this journey. During some the hardest times faced by an entrepreneur, there is invariably nobody around to fall back upon. In fact many problems are such, that even if others wished to help you, there would not be much that they would be able to do. An entrepreneur should be able to cope with the emotional needs by himself.
The only thing certain is uncertainty. One of the entrepreneurs said “Morning I am up and upbeat and evening down in the dumps”. Your promotion will not be pulled back next evening unless you do something rather questionable. Client can refuse to sign up for no apparent reason whatsoever. You should have a heart that is strong in order to be a entrepreneur.
Failure is not bad. Failure is to your credit. Just as any job experience contributes to the experience that you have gained in the period, a failed venture or a failed pitch is just contributing to your experience. Don’t make decisions with the fear of failure in mind. It is important to leave the fear aside at all times.
Execution is more important than all else. You might have the greatest idea at hand, but unless you realise what you are dreaming up, it will remain just that, an idea. It is important to make sure that you execute and do that to perfection. Getting too bogged down with vision setting and activities of the sort at the initial stages, is not going to take you far. Your product may flip 7 times before it hits the market. Have a goal in mind and execute tirelessly to reach that.
You get early insight on customer needs if you start meeting customers before your product is even finished. Customers are the best people who can help guide your product or service into a shape that they want. Gets your validation. In the process you may find your first customer.
Entrepreneur is at all points of time a salesman. You have a story which you have to be constantly telling at all times. You have to live the business that you are looking to build each moment. You are the biggest asset that your company has got and the work that you put in initially is what is going to reflect in terms of value when you go in to raise money.
Belief is needed in order to get converts. Three beliefs that are essential for an entrepreneur. Belief in yourself, belief in your company and belief in the product or service which you are building.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
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My column in the June issue of the Entrepreneur magazine:
Being ‘Entrepreneur’ – Fact or Fiction?
I’ve asked many people between the ages of 25-45 what they wanted to be when they were very young (around the time they were in school). Most of the replies were the ones that you’ve heard before. Fifty per cent of boys wanted to be ‘Pilots’. Another twenty five per cent wanted to be ‘Astronauts’. The remaining wanted to be firemen, doctors, etc. Most girls wanted to be teachers, doctors, or air hostesses when they grew up. Freaks like me wanted to be a Rock Star (singer)…!
If you take a minute to ask “why”, the answer is simple! Pilots fly planes (every boy’s favorite toy)! Astronauts operate rockets and travel to space (the ultimate dream, blown up by Star Wars and Star Trek) while Rock Stars perform on stage, make people swoon and sway and kiss their feet (the epitome of being popular).
No one I met wanted to be an “Entrepreneur” when he or she was young!
Today, almost every adult I meet – be in an aspiring final year student at an IIT or IIM, or a bored salesman in an auto parts company, or even doctors and lawyers – they all want to be Entrepreneurs!!
Heck, I am even writing this column for a magazine called ‘Entrepreneur’, as an Entrepreneur!
So, what happened to everyone? Was there an invisible neutron bomb, filled with genetically modified ‘entrepreneur particles’ that dropped on the planet and invaded our bodies and minds? Did a mass hypnotist appear and convince us all to become entrepreneurs? Was God sighted on the planet asking mankind to follow entrepreneurship?
Or is becoming an “Entrepreneur” today, a young adult fantasy just like being a Pilot or Astronaut was when I was 10 years old?
I want to use this column to differentiate the ‘fact and fiction’ of being an Entrepreneur, to highlight what it really means to be one vs. dreaming of being one.
Fiction # 1 – Being an Entrepreneur will make me rich. Very rich.
Fact # 1 – Most entrepreneurs barely manage to put food on their table and usually go bankrupt. The failure rate in startups exceeds 90% .Entrepreneurs beg, borrow, even steal (borrow from relatives is stealing) and almost never manage to repay their loans. Entrepreneurs are always so low on money, that they rarely pay themselves even a basic survival salary (leave alone what they were getting when they had a good job) and usually deplete all their bank and life savings before giving up.
Truth – Being an Entrepreneur is probably the fastest way of becoming poor – not rich!
Fiction # 2 – As an Entrepreneur, I am my own boss!
Fact # 2 – As an Entrepreneur you report to yourself, and that can be the toughest boss ever! Also, if you are funded, you will report to VCs (venture capitalists and investors), who can be the meanest bosses you ever had.
Most professionals are used to being told what to do, and then ‘do it’ to the best of their ability and skills. As assignments get bigger, more complicated and sensitive, the professional rises in her company ranks. It’s at the very top of the ladder and typically at a mid-life stage when a person becomes the CEO of a large business, becoming the boss of all bosses. But by then there is a lot of maturity on how to handle people, boards and yourself.
Most professionals get a ‘mental shock’ when they start up! There is no one to tell them what to do, how to do it and what not to do. That itself can be unnerving. Later, when investors arrive, who come with their own agendas (not necessarily in sync with your careers); reporting and pleasing them can turn out to be a nightmare!!
Truth – Being an Entrepreneur can make you an instant boss, but a boss who will break the Guinness world record of being confused!
Fiction # 3 – Let me try this venture for a while and then switch to a job if it doesn’t work.
Fact # 3 – Once bitten, forever paralyzed. In my 15 years of being a digital entrepreneur, I have seen very few people blend back to professional careers after having tasted entrepreneurship. The freedom, thrill, ability to be creative, articulate, aggressive and impactful is a ‘work high’ that rarely comes easily in stuffy corporate jobs. But when mid-age entrepreneurs fail (and have lots of monthly cash flows to take care of), and are forced to go back to work for their previous company (typically), the transition is not easy.
Truth – Switching from being an employee to an entrepreneur can be easy but switching back is very difficult.
Fiction # 4 – I will sell my venture, then start another one and another one… Voila! I will become a ‘serial entrepreneur’.
Fact # 4 – Probably working in ‘television serials’ or worse, being a ‘serial purse snatcher’ is far easier than being a ‘Serial Entrepreneur’!!
Selling a startup company is like selling pizza bread to a vada pav (local street food of Mumbai that is nothing but a fried potato patty stuffed in a bun with spices sprinkled on top) stall owner. He will be intrigued and inquisitive; will even sample your bread, but not buy your wares. Only years later, when you come across an ambitious, futuristic vada pav stall owner, who has made crores of rupees and has the foresight to see that the next wave of street food will be pizzas not vada pavs, that he may offer to buy you out – but with the condition that you operate and sell pizzas from his stall!!
Most startups take years to get acquired by traditional companies who want to venture into a new space (think Disney acquiring Angry Birds); or by existing new-age companies who want fresh entrepreneurial talent and digital IP in their ventures [think Electronic Arts (EA) buying Angry Birds] but usually, all these companies insist that the entrepreneurs stay back for 3-5 years and ‘earn out’ their moneys, while easing-in the startup in the big mother ship!
Truth – Being an Entrepreneur is the best way of being locked up, behind the bars of a jail called ‘The Startup’; not being free as a bird.
Fiction # 5 – Starting up and being an Entrepreneur is cake walk!
Fact # 5 – Probably riding a bicycle to Pluto is an easier job. Almost 99% of people I know who have either switched to being an entrepreneur or are considering to, do not know the hardships and the pains involved in being one. They just don’t consider facts like – people will not want to work for you; only 2 out of 100 pitches will succeed; your 2 clients will torment you; getting moneys from them will need employing the Mafia, etc!
Being an entrepreneur and starting up is like volunteering to go to Siberia and finding polar bears to perform dental surgery on. Just close your eyes and imagine the situation!
To end, I would like to refer to Tintin – the famous explorer, adventurer and just the perfect ‘boy’ hero I wanted to be when I was 10 years old. I re-examined his exploits, and it turns out that he went to the moon, traveled to the Pyramids, deep sea dived for treasures, navigated the Congo, was even involved in hunting for Emeralds, but never, ever became an Entrepreneur!
Now, I know the reason why!