Pull it over

This blog is written and owned by Saurabh Gupta
These three words are scary when you have an idea; just leaving your comfortable position to pull it over. It happens with all of us but seems like you just need to dive when you have the right ammunition. Right? Isn't it a relative term? Of course it is and it prevents us to make the first move. Then whats the key to make an Idea successful? Lets figure out -

1. Getting right people in the team
2. Doing an exhaustive market research
3. Figure out uniqueness of Idea
   
4. Blah Blah

I am sure that we all can find all these theories at million places but I want to know from you a unique feature that can make an idea successful.

My vote is just a spirit to pull it over as I believe that idea contributes to only 10% to a venture's success.

What do you think?

Chasing west with unfair calculations

This blog is written and owned by Saurabh Gupta

What matters more? Earning $5000/month in US or earning 50000 INR/month in India. Same job salaries are these only in US and India respectively. Theoretically speaking, these two salaries are one and the same as Price parity ratio between US Dollar and Indian rupee is 1:10. As long as you are earning in India and spending in Indian products this concept works fine but as you go and buy US companies' products, difference comes into picture. Sounds weird - Consider a simple example -
Levis 32'' jeans cost 2000/- in India and $40 in US. 4% of our monthly salary in India and less than 1% of our salary in US. Products like clothes, Electronic items are cheaper if bought by earning in dollars but does this mean that we should go to US to take advantage of this unfair conversion rates. Most of the people do that and I am not saying they are wrong or right. It is their personal choice and let them go with it.
I would like to make everything in India at 10000/- that US makes for $1000 and then the PPR concept will work fine. There might be products in Indian market that are made locally and are sold for 1/5th the rate as US product.
I would like to say that I am a fool if I am earning in INR and spending in dollars. Either move to US if you are dying to be called 'Made in US' or develop the same product in India at 1/5th rate and let people come to same standards. Solution is simple if we stop chasing west with unfair calculations or make them chase with fair calculations.

Is there a perfect way (time)?

This blog is written and owned by Saurabh Gupta

Ideas, when come to our minds, afresh, carry a lot of potential and enthusiasm but with time, its freshness fades away and so our mind’s interest in it. But does this mean that we should just fly with the idea from day one and jump in the market to explore it or shall we prepare well to dive with a hope to succeed but eventually lose our interest in the idea & see our idea getting outdated.

Welcome to the Psycho beam balance game, where we can’t go to the extreme of either sides for success. If we go extreme left, we are unprepared to execute the idea and on the extreme right, we are over-prepared & miss the opportunity (or lose the interest). It’s a game along time and knowledge dimensions to determine when and with how much knowledge we should enter the market (i.e. deciding the time from day one when idea clicked in human brain and with the knowledge to execute it). Seems like an easy game but people who have missed the chances with brilliant ideas would have understood the complexity of the game. Most of us just keep on figuring out the perfect way (perfect time) to enter the market. We just keep on going to workshops, meeting VCs and other entrepreneurs to know how they did it. It is hard to realize that there is no perfect way for success; we just need to figure out our own way.

Ways are relative i.e. they vary from person to person and so the answer of this question but if we ask any successful entrepreneur, he/she won’t have unique answer to this question. Everyone tries to explain it in his/her way. But, if we think logically, there are two ways to solve this mystery; one is that we just dive in with our idea and deliver our 100% along with learning and gaining experience, to see what we can get from the world. We may succeed, we may fail but we are going to learn a lot through this way. Going through this way requires lots of guts and some people think it unwise (immature) to go this way but as my previous blog mentioned that success speaks, and hence if we succeed through this way then we are role model for millions. There is no exact way of going in the market or executing the idea. We may need to gauge our risk appetite, our strengths and accordingly decide what is best for us. Will going this way solve the purpose for us or not? If not, then look for alternatives.

Other way is to prepare well, do all the homework and then dive in the market. This means that we have gauged the potential of the idea, estimated the competitor’s strengths and figured out uniqueness of our idea. Going this way seems to be a right way as we have been always taught that if you have done your homework then you will succeed. But, many people, after working along an idea, lose interest in it and start thinking over new ideas.

Some people feel that they should just dive in the market with the idea as they fear that they might lose interest in it with time. But if we have a fear of losing interest in the idea along with time (i.e. while preparing) then we should just wait to lose it because if we lose the interest in midway then we will be trapped in the storms of thousands of unanswered questions. Trust in the idea is required to sustain with the bad times of the business.

We can start with writing down the idea and discuss it with our close friends; survey the market to gauge the potential of the idea and then go ahead, but there is a trap here too. With this approach, we may go into endless discussions about the idea and idea, in itself will lose the enthusiasm required. There are thousands of traps but you need to figure out the right way for you.

So, diving in at the right time with proper knowledge about the idea and competitors is another way of succeeding with the idea, but is there a unique way, perfect way, I don’t know. I will speak when I succeed because success speaks.

Watch this - Rediff article about Inflation in India

Inflation in India? Blame it on America

What is the reason behind inflation in India?

For the answer, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the United Progressive Alliance government may read an advisory released by The Earth Policy Institute.

If prices of food and vegetables in India are soaring to new heights, blame it on the Americans.

According to the EPI statement, the diversion of US grain to produce ethanol to fuel cars has led to an increase in world food prices and the developing countries like India have already started paying for the rise in wheat prices.

Corn prices have doubled over the last year; wheat futures are trading at their highest level in 10 years and prices of rice are rising, EPI, a Washington-based environmental organisation, has said.

In India wheat prices are up 11 per cent and all of this is just the beginning. Higher grain prices mean higher food prices. In Mexico, the price of tortillas has risen by 60 per cent, driving thousands of angry Mexicans into the streets.

Food prices are rising worldwide. The US Department of Agriculture projects the wholesale price of chicken in 2007 will be 10 per cent higher than in 2006, prices of eggs will be up a whopping 21 per cent, and milk will be 14 per cent higher.

In China, pork prices are up 20 per cent above a year earlier and egg rates are up 16 per cent, the EPI said, adding that unlike in the past the food price rise is not going to be a temporary phenomenon.

In the past, food price rises have usually been weather-related and always temporary. This situation is different. As more and more fuel ethanol distilleries are built, world grain prices are moving up toward their oil-equivalent value in what appears to be the beginning of a long- term rise.

By 2008, close to one third of the US grain harvest will be going to ethanol, reducing the amount available both for internal use and for export.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining - Is it true?

This blog is written and owned by Saurabh Gupta

Mind boggling questions surround you before you hit on the road with an idea. Long list of 'What ifs' haunt you - What if I get stuck on the way? What if I don't find a road ahead? What if there is no one to guide me on my way? What if there is no silver lining to the dark clouds that surround me? What if I die fighting at this place? What if I can't make it? What if..........

Many ideas die in the hearts of millions, just because we are yet not convinced that we can spark the light on every street. We are yet not convinced that we can follow our souls. We are yet not convinced that we can rule the world.

Unconvinced by our strengths, we are still following the direction where the sun sets. I don't know whether I am making sense or not but these questions make a unrepairable damage to the instincts of bright Indian future. Provoked by these questions, we demolish the empire we make in our hearts just because we don't know the answers to these intrigue questions.

To solve the mystery, we need to know - Who has the answers? Who can guide us to our destinies? I don't think we know the answers yet and misguided we are just following the sun, heading towards west. Or, you can say, our confused souls are following the developed economies. I truly believe that there is a need for change; change of mindsets and change of ideologies and we need to understand that if we want to rise we need to rise on our own.

Don't you think that there must be an opportunity to unleash that storm that lie within us but who will give us that opportunity; nobody. We will need to grab that opportunity. We just need to make ourselves strong enough to believe that there remains a light after every long dark night, there remains a light after every long tunnel and every dark cloud must have a silver lining.