Awarded the
“Rodinstar” Post
of the week!!
Tom was an Entrepreneur, sitting idle would give him nightmares. You must have seen few episodes of Tom and Jerry, wherein Tom almost had Jerry but let it go. Tom never really wanted to kill Jerry because what would he do if Jerry died. Jerry was the Chase. Tom was running not after Jerry but because of Jerry.
After certain point of time name, money, power, etc cease to be a motivation for an Entrepreneur. Ever thought the great Ambanis, Tatas, Birlas, why are they toiling so hard, they hv already got name, money and power. What makes these people run is The CHASE, all Entrepreneurs chase The CHASE. Tom is more interested in Chasing Jerry than killing it. In our case, we Entrepreneurs are more interested in running a venture than anything else, profit of course is important and a yardstick to measure success, but what will an Entrepreneur do if his biz is not giving him profits, at the most he will change the business but continue The Chase. More than profits, we Entrepreneurs love the thrill in the business.
Just imagine, if one day Jerry does not show up, Tom will become restless, he would not eat, not drink, not sleep but keep waiting for Jerry. Remember, Tom was hired by a Fat lady to get rid of Jerry. In our case, that Fat lady is Society, relative and our parents. If Jerry doesn’t show up, the Fat lady will be happy and praise Tom and give Tom fresh milk to drink, chicken to eat, etc. Similarly, society, parents, relatives, etc want our Chase to end, if our Jerry dies too, society will praise us for being Normal again, parents will thank us for saving them from embarrassment that they felt when people asked ‘What your Son do?’ and our parents would reply ‘dekhiye, kar raha hai kuch or Entrepreneur or Berozgar’. Everyone would be happy around us but we will become restless, we will not eat or drink or sleep like Tom because we will miss The Chase. This is also the reason why it is easier to switch from job to Entrepreneur but not Entrepreneur to job.
What next Tom will do if Jerry does not show up even next day? He will find ways to tempt Jerry to come out of his hole. He will steal the cheese from the Fat lady himself and place it near Jerry’s hole, so that Jerry comes out and Tom can Chase him. Similarly, when a venture dies, fear of end of Chase to Entrepreneur is much painful than the pain of closing down the venture. And then without mourning for the death of the venture for long time, Entrepreneur is out chasing The CHASE. I was running a Pizza Outlet in Badlapur with my business partner Sumeet Gujaran. One fine day, we had to take the harsh decision of closing down the venture. We sat in our balcony thinking about our venture, we were sad and in pain. Then we discussed all the learning, mistakes, achievements, etc. By the end of the conversation there was just one question haunting us ‘What’s next?’ For a week almost we were struggling killing time, wandering here and there, nothing to do. After every few minutes we used to look towards each other and ask ‘What’s next?’ We were restless, we didn’t eat or drink properly, neither could we sleep well. This continued until something clicked to us, we looked towards each other and we had the answer to ‘What’s next?’ Suddenly, we felt so light, all our pain was gone by then, because we got our new Jerry. We realized our real pain was end of the Chase not end of the venture. Chase for Chasing is what makes us Entrepreneur. This is the reason why NASA didn’t stop even after reaching to moon, why Steve Jobs was not satisfied with i Mac and launched iPhone then iPod then iPad etc…. Because they all are after Chasing. Whether you are infant Entrepreneur or seasoned Entrepreneur you have this affinity for chasing in you may be knowingly or unknowingly…..
First Published on: Jun 8, 2013