This is not a success story nor is a step by step guide on how to start a company. This post is just about the thought process I had while starting a company and why I decided to ignore everything and still startup.
We live in a country where our parents teach us and keep reminding us again and again that If we don’t study we will not get a good job, we ll miss the chance to be a doctor or an engineer and worse will not get married If we don’t have a job. This fear is what drives most of the kids of this generation and they are sub consciously aiming at landing into a good pay job from the day someone first asks them – “What is your ambition in life.? What do you want to be when you grow up?”. I am sure it happened to everyone reading this article and If this never happened, you can stop here.
I was a part of that poor dad game too because every time some one asked me what my ambition is, I would proudly say that I want to be a software engineer even before I knew there is something on earth called Java or C++ when I believed that computers were only used for playing road rash and midtown madness.:-) I wanted to write games better than the ones I used to play. That was my dream and my ambition that even my parents agreed with.
After my engineering with the best scores possible I landed a job I dreamed of in one of the top companies in the world and It was a proud moment for my parents. I finally became a Software Engineer after 21 years of studies, felt great! I was not making games but was writing a lot of Java and other bizarre coding languages and I was still loving it with all my heart but WHAT NEXT!! I am just 21 and that’s all!! Ambition is done!
Three years passed and I was still clueless what I was doing with my life? I was still writing the code and was happy spending the money I used to earn. Soon I started asking myself if this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and my subconscious lazy comfortable stupid brain would say YES.! This is what everyone is doing in this company, if you don’t like it in here then find another company with a pay hike.! Life was so regular and monotonous. I would probably never reach the top of this or any other company’s management ladder until I don’t have white hairs on my head. After many days of day dreaming I finally decided I need to startup and after many months had the guts to actually startup.!!
I started researching and found that 90% of the startups fail! Are you kidding me! I somehow convinced myself like everyone else that I will be a part of that 10% and took the next step and started Webzeest. Below I have mentioned some of my favorite FEW reasons that makes me happy I took this step.
1. I am the BOSS! I don’t lead a team, I lead a company. To be honest, this is not a great job but for outsiders it looks awesome and they look at me with respect and thats what makes it even more harder.
2. I don’t need to wait till my hairs grey to be a part of the top shots.
3. I might fail but I will not die without trying to be successful.
4. Many wannabe entrepreneurs ask me for suggestions and guidance and it makes me feel like I am GOD.
5. When I resigned I told my manager that I was going to start my own technology company and trust me, It was a proud moment watching his jaws drop.
6. Almost everyone, some or the other day wants to startup but only a few achieve that and the rest just forget about it with age. When I meet those people who forgot about their dreams they see me with a shock running into their nervous system.
7. The feeling of being a CEO of a company no matter how small it be, it is still a great achievement you could stamp on your facebook timeline and show people you would meet in your future.:-)
“If you don’t build your dream then someone would hire you to build theirs”
“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”
You would fail many times, you would have sleepless nights, you would forget to eat many days, you would have days when you would curse yourself you started this, you would have nights you would wake up in the middle and start working on one of the ideas you just saw in your dream. Its not easy, its not that great either but startup anyway. Never give up, keep trying better, fail quickly and learn fast. You never know how close you were to success before you gave up.
If you are still reading this from some one else’s office then I would advice you to start thinking about an idea, startup and succeed. I have only tried to show the bests about starting a company but there are some extremely frightening realities that would stop you from even thinking about enterpreneurship but that’s not the point of this article. I you have a plan then don’t keep thinking, just go ahead, execute it and learn from it.
Do join me at www.webzeest.com, the baby I created to give up my 9 hours comfortable chair.
Muthukrishnan
CEO (Love to use this designation)
Webzeest Technologies
Sanchita Dutta
loved ur reasons for starting your own company :), esp 2,4,7
a truly from heart article and loved reading every word of it. wish your “no matter how small” company all the success and hope it becomes very big n successful
warm regds
Anil Soni
Thanks for sharing inspirational story……...You have inspired me today.
Muthu Krishnan
Hi Sanchita, I am glad you like it and thanks for your wishes.:)
Muthu Krishnan
You are most welcome.:)
Aman Jha
Hi Muthu Krishnan,
I can’t agree more on this, and the reasons parents give to ratofy syllabus and good job. The quotes you used are one of favourite quotes I use to counter the arguments of relatives…hahaha
The reasons you said makes you happy are true but still let people of thinking to startup know the whole truth…
1) We are our own boss, but we are peon as well
2) To become a CEO we don’t hv to wait for long, but to become a CEO of a successful company we will have to go through struggle of many years
3)We don’t fear failure, we are determined just to make one more attempt than failure
4) It feels like god when someone ask suggestions, but we feel naked when some big shot takes shot on us…
I agree with each an every word of yours
Muthu Krishnan
The points you fixed cannot be made more prefect than that. We are a peon, tech support, mechanic, postman, tea maker, driver, sales guy, marketing guy and everything else you can think of for which you don’t have someone in your team for.:)
Completely agreed on the CEO part, We have to live up to that designation everyday and its much harder than said. A CEO is not just a person who heads everyone but also the only person who can drive a company and make everyone believe in his vision (Not just his team but the whole world) and can sometimes be the most frightening responsibility. Would write a post about being a CEO another day because its a brain blowing hard subject.:)
Entrepreneurship should be marked as the hardest job on planet earth that its not for kids (no matter how old they are). But whether you fail or succeed, starting a company is totally worth it!
Dr. Mujib Khan
Very Inspiring Muthu !!! Thanks for sharing ur experience 🙂
Muthu Krishnan
Pleasure is all mine:)
Umakant Maurya
An Entrepreneur never say I, Me, My he always says WE, OUR. I, My and Me has always destroyed Everything.
Praths
Congratulations but what exactly does your company do?? Considering it is a knowledge portal how do you plan to make revenues?
Muthu Krishnan
Hi Umakant,
If this article was about my company then I would have used WE,OUR and US but this is about “ME” not the company. Please read the article again and try to understand the context. The article was supposed to be written with I, Me and My otherwise it wont be called as “My Story” 🙂 If you try to experiment this article with WE,OUR, US then ENGLISH language will have to REST IN PEACE!
Muthu Krishnan
Thanks Praths,
Have you heard the famous saying – “CONTENT IS KING”. If I can provide high quality, simplified content to people all over the world then revenue model is not at all a challenge. Just imagine how powerful Wikipedia could have been if it was commercial and was social considering it has a user database of some of the most brilliant minds known to earth. I have a PPT of 10 pages where each slide is a revenue model. Its is highly confidential which I rather not talk about here but I have given you hints 😉
Aparna
congrats on your journey till now and the journey ahead!
Muthu Krishnan
Thank you Aparna 🙂