Dreams Fire Startups Engine!!

Startups are often projected as harsh battle fields where real hardships are part of everyday life, savings evaporate to zero and turn into huge debts, where there is no margin of error and decisions are often based purely on gut feelings. Does it frighten you? May be it's true for most of the startups. Well some people get excited by all this uncertainty. Really?? Naah! every one wants stability in life but on different terms, consciously or subconsciously.

Assume being in startup as flying a jet plane. If I start describing how a jet plane works and the scenarios that can come up then we might think that none of us can do it. But, hey! when you are in there, it goes with the flow.

Interestingly, the same is true when you are in a startup. It's a very different experience. There is nothing like describing the real scenario from the periphery. Just take a test drive and you will know the rules of the game. In reality, there is always a bigger goal which keeps the startup team moving. There is always a dream which keeps the flame burning in the hearts.

If God shows up some day and say that you won't ever be successful in startup, then most of the entrepreneurs won't like the hardships of startups. No matter how exciting they sound. Since this is an imaginative scenario hence more than half of the entrepreneurs might refute this conclusion. Anyways, the bottom line is that the purpose of being in a startup is very different; it's like achieving stability in life at your own terms.

Travel the less traveled road for more fun and anxiety. Well, we have just got one lives!!

20% world population yet handful global brands from India

India has been long associated not with the word "outsourcing" - though only few decades, but seems like centuries. No matter how hard we try, we have been associated with a stigma of "cheap labor outsourcing country" in the global market and hence very little attention is given to the brands originating from India. Though we can'r change what happened in the past and is there as our legacy, but what we can surely do is the awareness towards creating a "Brand" - which comes with a promise that brand puts in front of the customer.

Though we have seen some positive swing by the leading Indian brands like Tata, SBI & ICICI towards creating a global brand, yet we are faraway from even grabbing 2% in the list of global brands.

Intuitions are priceless!!

Perfect business idea, Perfect business plan, Perfect management team (skill sets), Perfect execution skills, Perfect market conditions, Perfect financial support - tons of "Perfects" together at one place, yet a failed enterprise. Wondering why? Do you think lot of big companies or big ideas, with tons of business experts at their disposal that fail, are not worthy of being the successful ones - who knows? since they never reached the point of success and speak out and in this world only success speaks and defines the rules. People might try to justify one reason or the other for the failure, and no one would know for sure whether that piece of "Perfect" would have saved the company.

I believe that this list is endless and can add up to lots of Top 10 or Top 100 lists posted by many great leaders - yet when it comes to the falling enterprise at present, we add up one more concept to the current list. May be that is called "evolution of science". But with this concept may be Akbar would have never been a great King to rule the country many centuries ago. What I truly believe is that every entrepreneur is gifted with a power of intuition, very much like Lata Mangeshkar is gifted with a magical voice. 

We just don't realize the power of Intuition. Lot of times, important decisions are taken by thought leaders based on mere intuition, and that differentiates success from failures. This might sound common sense to some and bullshit to others, but at lot of places innovation is curbed, and a lot of emphasis is given to procedures (may be it is correct for the employees to follow it), but if the same is followed at the management level then you are slowly drifting towards failure.

Successful companies are run by true leaders or consultants who are gifted with the power of intuition and they truly believe in their powers. They take a note of their intuitive inner voice while making any decision and destiny leads them to the true path. Ignoring it won't take you anywhere since it is beyond our reach - it is some thing we are gifted with... Intuition

The Inevitable "Change" - Is it really surprising?

A lot of "change" is happening in India these days and trust me it's the best time to be part of this change, atleast we get to see 'how exactly things actually "change" in a country'. And that too in a country like India (with world's 20% population & world's largest democracy), a country which has always been believed to be run in a particular way. A common saying in India has always been, 'Yahaan aise hi chalte aaya hai, aur aise hi chalega'. To all those smart chaps who believed in this saying like the last generations, here comes the "change" - atleast to the law and order situation.

Like we all see in newspapers and television these days, a lot of large scale scams are in limelight, and a lot of finger pointing is happening all over the country. Seems like all the big agencies, news channels, political parties & large corporates of the country are involved in some way or the other. Is it surprising, really? I am not surprised and I know you are not surprised either, since we all have been brought up with the lesson that in India, we will have to pay some "under the table" charges at all the levels. What do you think these all charges add up to - simple 1000 rupees for 100 crore people makes 1 lakh crores.. Huh! I never thought it that way.

Then why is there such a big fuss about all these scams, and why are they confusing us? May be because we all as a nation have always been part of them, but never really accepted them as existent, and now every one is playing the "innocent game". Or, may be because some of us were so busy in our own lives that we never really bothered about these scams, and now are surprised how is it possible when so many legal agencies exist. Or, may be because we were brought up with the philosophy that everyone is doing some thing wrong, ignore that and focus on your own development, and now we are all confused when so called "accepted norms" are being punished. 

If with these scams, 90% people want to say - "what a shame to them and the country?" May be we should check our own records and see how many times we or our parents have paid 'extra' bucks or used 'extra' powers to influence some decisions for our advantage. It's fed deep in our roots, where we pay 100 rupees at the traffic signal to the Pan shop, or 500 rupees for the driving license to the license broker or 1000 rupees for other day to day documents. This entire system is existing right here, and we all as a nation have always been part of it. 

But there is a subtle difference happening fundamentally. We never accepted these facts as a nation and I think it's part of the "change" that this all is happening, since I believe that the first part of any change is the acceptance of facts in the real world, and that's what all these scams are really doing. These scams are looking at us directly in our faces, and saying it's the right time to bring everything to transparency, and contribute to the change. May be we all are corrupt, may be we all have been corrupt, but let's not take that ideology to the next generations. May be this finger pointing by the highest court of our country to the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, CBI, Media houses is a right step forward. May be this is really called "democracy". May be there is a message that not every one is corrupt yet. May be there is a message that a "change" is knocking at our doors. Lets welcome the first step in the "change", and see the new legislations/rules or the steps of development that will follow. The one who orients in the direction would lead the nation.

7 Habits of effective Entrepreneurs

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey

Highly successful people have exactly seven habits according to Stephen R. Covey. 

Get involved - Standing on the sidelines does not befit an entrepreneur. Involvement in not just your own business but also the segment you are in will be beneficial. Sitting in your own office and hoping people will seek you out is just wrong. Go to conferences, meet people socialize, and who knows you might just find inspiration or the next best thing a mentor… 

Prioritize - Learn to attack your work from a priority point of view. Some things are more necessary than others. Often the curse of success is that you have no idea where to focus because you have so many projects going at the same time. Sit down with your team, find out what needs immediate attention, and get cracking. First priorities first will get you though a mountain of work in a jiffy…

Delegate - For an entrepreneur to handing out responsibilities may seem a very natural thing to do but most of our ilk refuses to give up the reins. The other extreme of no involvement is the perfectionist who tries to do everything… Learn to place trust in people, choose a team that inspires trust and is worthy of it. Delegate responsibilities and free up time for yourself to focus on the matters you are good at. You cannot possible be an expert at everything so DELEGATE…

Inspire - An entrepreneur is the ring master of the circus that is their start up. You have to be the one who gets everyone fired up when the going gets tough. Remember everyone looks to you for leadership so learn to be inspiring. Get to work before others, be the change that you want to see in your employees, set examples and push people to be the best they can be.

Read between the lines - Learning to understand what is not being said is an important quality for an entrepreneur to have. Imagine of you could tell which employee is disgruntled just by reading their body language or tone. Would it not be great if you could gauge the reactions of investors just by glancing at their expressions?  Deciphering Body language may not be for everyone but if you stay approachable then people will open up to you be they employees or prospective investors.

Hiring talent - Someone once told me that great idea with a mediocre team will fail but a mediocre idea with a great team will inevitably succeed. The reasons are simple your idea is not a stagnant entity but grows with the inputs that are made to it. The better the caliber of the people who are making the inputs the better the end product will become…Hire smart responsible people, run background checks keep a close eye on your hires and that should do the trick.

Share success - An entrepreneur is only as good as the team that backs them up. Share the limelight with them whenever possible, make your team feel wanted and not as if they are slaving away for you for just a paycheck in a 9 to5. If they believe in your vision give them assurances that they are a part of it. Sharing profits is great but sharing the limelight too is even better.