Hell.
Many days in a month, I feel like this dude:
Why?
Why do Entrepreneurs have to be cursed with being a ONE MAN ARMY?
It’s that moment in which everything falls on you. No one seems to care except you. There are so many things in a business that seem ‘obvious’ – but no one seems to notice. When the shit hits the turbines, they all come running to you…
Also, attention to details and going into the nitty gritty of everything is so so important – but no one cares. It’s too much of a chore.
I open existing reports and see numbers and percentages not making sense; ….On inquiry they tell me, “that’s the way it was from before…”
My belief:
– No one ‘feels’ for a business like the parent – a la the Entrepreneur.
– There is this INTUITIVE sense of being able to get to the issues that go unnoticed and forgotten – call it the Entrepreneur’s sixth sense.
– Also, it’s everything or nothing for the entrepreneur. So if she fails, she is dead. Not so with other team members.
– As I have said in the past, Entrepreneurs inherit pain – Employees inherit jobs.
– Possibly because startups can’t afford really talented people who are better than the entrepreneur or will not join a startup even if bribed?
– Is it even possible that the standards set by the entrepreneur are way to high for anyone but herself to surpass?
I FEEL LIKE A DOG SOMETIMES.
But then, every dog has his day…..
(writing this when it’s one of those terrible days at work)
******
Himanshu Mody
Ditto 🙂
Akshay Shah
Same pinch no returns, waiting for my day Alok, seriously 🙂 Living day & night only on this hope & as said in the bhagwad geeta, ‘Karm karo phal ki iccha mat karo’ we just need to stick around, someday, something has to happen & that will be good, Cheers!!
Pronojit Saha
An aptly captured dilemma of entrepreneurs. A solution could be A-B-C categorization of tasks, the most important/critical being in Category A and so on (much like we do for customers). Once done, then micromanage only Category A tasks, assign Category B to the most reliable employee and delegate category C at random or based on skills.
An entrepreneur’s overall focus should be on growth of its startup. Thus the operational ABC tasks need to be handle efficiently and quickly.
Ronak
One of those posts where there is so much to say and yet unable to encapsulate. But yes, I get this feeling myself so many times (in such a short span).
Harshal N Shroff
There is soo much more in between the lines…But this couldn’t come at a better time.
Akshay Shah
Easily said than done due!
Aditya Babbar
Its been that sort of day too, and here you are thinking to yourself, why me !
I take solace in the fact that there are more in the boat.
Alok, is it because us – Ninjas,
a) the genuine will to see a solution/product from a 360 deg perspective
b) have that nagging feeling or want of being atleast near or close to perfect in the product we are working on
c) our going back to lessons in quality management, where there was only one mantra – Do it Right the First Time
d) its because your name is associated with it, you feel the compelling need, that nothing is missed out (being pedantic)
e) everyone told you, God lies in the details, but when it means delivering to you, you feel no one read that memo
OR
f) are we dealing with a breed which just wants to work and get a salary, and attach no pride in the sort of work they do.
In other matters, is there a emoticon to SCREAM OUT LOUD
Aditya Kuber
I feel you. I really do. And regarding the intuition, it’s a curse!
S Ahmed
@ Alok, Akshay, Aditya 1, Aditya 2, Himanshu, Ronak, Jyoti & Harshal : Seriously motivating, at-least am not the only one who feels disgusted. Makes me like an infant. I have started maintaining a Diary lately so that i don’t forget stuff and guess what my folks call me Ghajni 😉
Nilay Jhaveri
It is absolutely true. It happens for more than half of the times that you feel you are a one man army. It is also true when you are building a product out of your passion.
Entrepreneurship is nothing but being passionate of excelling in what you do and of coruse succeeding. So, the smaller nuances of the life cycle will only be visible to those who truly believe in the product. So, that leaves us with no one but ourselves to look into everything. It is frustrating but also very satisfying. At times you feel that even such small things went unnoticed and sometimes you feel a superman that you could notice the smallest of the things which went unnoticed by all others in the team. So, it is a see saw of emotions.
Anyway, we have ourselves opted for Entrepreneurship. So, why cry over it. For there is no gain without pain.
Nilay
Kanchan Yadav
It’ s good to see so many of my fraternity feeling the same as I do. Yes, Alok, I too feel like a dog, unpaid, unacclaimed yet burdened with the immense & non-shareable responsibility of taking care of the house.
Girish Khera
absolutely bro! it’s never ending because we can’t ever switch our minds off, like our employees do.
Bhavesh Radadiya
Co-founder comes handy in such case. Someone who shares the passion, problems and vision.
Another big question is, where do I find this co-founder?
Kanchan Yadav
Agreed Bhavesh. Two is company!
Girish Khera
exactly!! how do i find a team that is going to care as much
Sugumaran Uppili
I had been in the other side Alok. And now I can very well understand what you mean. Many a times I still used think, how better I could have done things at 2win when I am now in the receiving end.
Bhavesh Radadiya
Q: Why am I the ‘One Man Army?
A: Because you want to eat the entire cake and not willing to share.
Was thinking about this yesterday and concluded this bitter fact. Yep, its hard to find a co-founder but mostly, we are not ready to share. And that’s why this agonizing question of one man army arrives.
Aditya Babbar
Bhavesh
I think that view is a bit obtuse.
The intent of the discussion, was not aimed at a co-founder / finding a co-founder / the want to eating the entire cake (so to speak) … it was headed towards the employees and the so-called subject matter experts, who work for you and get paid, end up NOT concentrating on the simple details like alignment, typos, bad formating, no love for the customer in terms of a flow, etc etc
If you as an entrepreneur are obsessed with detail and all you can think of is making a fantastic product, and you realise that despite the incentivisations, you can still point out issues in the deliverables, you are the army.
Since they get paid a salary or have a stake, you would expect a productivity level and a feeling of ownership and pride in their deliverable. If you do not see this in pure tangibles, there really is no reason for you to share this cake.
Bhavesh Radadiya
Agreed. My intention is not to side track the discussion but rather point out some certain points that ends up leading into such position.
This dilemma is kind of a growing pain.
In a company, as you grow big, its becomes impossible to look into everything that is going on.. in and around company. Those tiny little details matter but no matter how hard you work, you will not be able to reach everywhere. And that’s when we feel like Why am I the ‘One Man Army?
Let’s say you have some loyal people who care about those details and look into this. You can then distribute departments among them such as marketing, operations, QA etc. and you are set. Once a particular department is assigned to a person, you won’t have to look into that.
Ok, but how long? Main question here is, why should they care? Salary does its bit but only upto a certain level. Then on, person thinks.. if I can do this all by myself, why should I work for him? And they’d leave.
This is where I thought sharing an equity would come handy. Person would feel ownership and do their bit like you’d do yourself.
Just my two cents.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Absolutely incorrect. No one is that silly. Also, what does ‘share’ mean?
equity?
How many people care?
Pay the highest sums of money and you still don’t see ownership.
its a DNA – its missing.
See the number of entrepreneurs here who have shared the same thing – its not as if everyone became greedy!
Bhavesh Radadiya
I analyze myself and ask myself – Why do I care about every little of those details? Why do I not even a minor goof up let by and correct it immediately? Why do I care that each of our legitimate customer should be happy?
Not only because I founded this company but also because the result of this goof up will directly impact on what this company (eventually I) earn in the long run.
Ofcourse it would be silly to share equity to everyone. My point is that whenever we come across someone eligible enough who cares like you do for the company, they needs to be compensated well – be it salary, equity or anything that actually makes sense as per the growth and not as per ‘the industry standards’ because those standards can find them the job elsewhere as well.
Yep, another solution to this could be accurate measurement of the performance where the person is compensated accordingly. Setting the measurement standards may not be possible in every situation though.
One relevant example
When our kid does something silly, it’s “cute little kid”. When neighbor’s kid does something similar, they are “dumb little kid”. Why this difference? 🙂
Aditya Babbar
Its not about equity OR standards of measurement to measure performance or the lack of it. Its more banal than that.
If I were to put it mildly, if everyone came to work with their brains (in most cases) and with their brains ON (in other cases), we would launching error-free products at breakneck speeds and certainly have no problems being the best, and I do not just mean your firm and my firm, but an overall corporate India.
The breed and the DNA Alok refers to and what we have been pouring ours heart out upto now essentially is about the souls who when asked to do a job will do it, but will not spend that extra 5 mins making it perfect and error free. The DNA Alok refers to is not-really-concerned and just ensuring they can add 1(their input/work) to the 1(idea) to make 2. The DNA and construct is not allowing them to think what if I take the 1(the idea), add 1(my input and what is required of me) and spend a few mins to create an error free product(1) and then see if I can add value to it(1). If you notice that extra 5-10 mins, adds 1.5 – 2 times the value.