The word Entrepreneur is derived from a French word “Entreprendre” which means a person who undertakes a work and perform till its achieved. Entrepreneurship can never be contained within the limitations of thought, perception and understanding rather it’s an experience that can be felt and grows into manifolds eventually becoming the purpose of Life!
Entrepreneurship can never be contained within the limitations of thought, perception and understanding rather it’s an experience that can be felt and grows into manifolds eventually becoming the purpose of Life!
Western Idea of Entrepreneurship
The western Idea of Entrepreneurship is mainly contributed with the progress and rise of Silicon Valley. It is still considered to be the hub of all the innovation since last 5 decades. In the process of raising companies the founders and the Startups didn’t much care of the resources invested so more so that even ROI’s (Return on Investments) were supposed to be of no concern. And eventually some of the so called great Ideas seldom qualified to reach the stage of being cash positive.
This was supported consciously because the Technology wave seems to be disrupting the way human behaves, consumes or for that matter lives! Hence a slight upsurge of the idea could open new venues of market which otherwise never existed. And Venture Capitalists were bringing-in all forces of nature to ensure that they are the initial ones to ride on such wave, which they did with some of the leading Tech conglomerates.
The Western Idea of Entrepreneurship is driven by profitable exits and innovation being at the core. They focussed less on the socio-economic impact of their idea.
Indian Idea of Entrepreneurship
Well Indians and the Idea of the east for pursuing Entrepreneurship is as old as the country existence. India has been a land of Entrepreneurs which existed when India use to hold 30% of the world economy and silk route trade of indigenous home-grown items into existence.
Such facts are less known as our Idea of Startup is majorly influenced by the Western Idea of Entrepreneurship. If we were to understand Entrepreneurship better, we would have to understand that Entrepreneurship is a phenomenon which is deep rooted in the Indian culture. Right from the ages we know the art of product building and selling so much that a layman would give you inputs over an idea if being engrossed into it for sometime which stands relevant to your product.
Some of the salient features of Indian Entrepreneurship are
- Entrepreneurship is not taken as an Idea which would bring in sources of wealth leading to a wealthy exit either at the time of raising an IPO or bigger investments. Founders have known to own the companies through decades and thereafter they have enthroned their successors to keep building the organisation to its acme. So Entrepreneurship is a just not a commitment of Life but its rather a commitment beyond your life too!
- Apart from the Intellect, a company needs emotional and spiritual intelligence too. You can build your dreams for 10-20 years however if you have to engage yourself for a lifetime then the reason of doing so shall be to help society and people.
Beware of the Stage of Error Blindness!
As an entrepreneur, we have to build a set of pillars for us to rely during tough times or at times when we don’t have a clear understanding of things. One pillar is about pragmatism and the other is the principle pillar. Pragmatism is ruled through our mind and sense organs while the Principle Pillar is ruled by our understanding of Truth and its self-interpretation. This area is really a crucial one as if not experienced appropriately it could lead to both perseverance as well as stubbornness.
Let’s understand this basis a small example. Maximum entrepreneurs continue to put all they could for their Startup because they have read and heard successful entrepreneurs betting their lives on their Startups. Their idea of sacrifice is governed by the level of sacrifice they are making along with the pinch of courage factor involved. Now their whole idea of pursuing Entrepreneurship revolves around what sacrifices they are making and not around the reality (Product).
Also if you ask them they sound satisfied too because they are making efforts and getting to a stage which makes them satisfied as they satiate their Entrepreneurial Consciousness with their idea of sacrifices and labour. In the Startup Language we call this Error Blindness – A stage where you actually don’t know that you are doing wrong!
How this is to be dealt?
The Dharma (Law) of seeking Entrepreneurship lies with the idea of undertaking an idea and making it Happen! So instead of putting your own chemistry and philosophy an Entrepreneur should align himself with the process of how efficiently he could successfully execute the idea. So, instead of focussing on the amount of labour, valour and hardships if the idea of Entrepreneurship can be the product and its success. Most of the hardships that an Entrepreneur undergoes during the Entrepreneurial journey should not be looked as Hardships, it should be rather considered as steps that S/he takes to reach to that goal barring which can lead to failure.
Differentiate between Stubbornness and Perseverance
Stubbornness is the natural outcome of the Influence of success stories you have read or heard and it could be extremely dangerous if you have adopted it! The correct way to approach is to bring in the experiential belief in place and continue to execute the phases of Entrepreneurship along with the experiential learning. This should not be misunderstood as “failure leads to success” or you have to fail once to lead a successful startup. Rather you have to keep doing the dip-test with limited resource and time to make an assumption deciding the success or failure of your Startup. Your agility, decision making and pragmatism further increases the chances of your Successful Startup!
On the other hand, Perseverance is the outcome of your consistent checks and reattempts that you make and you are open to get mindful support which can lead to the success of your idea. It is more like you are bringing in all possible forces to make your idea a success rather than clogging the space with more of belief systems.
The Trio always works better Focus, Agility and Pragmatism
Needless to say Focus is the mother of all learning! Initially the focus could be unconscious however with the advent of sincerity and seriousness it would turn into conscious focus! The overall idea is to give required attention and align all forces to ensure nothing is left out while out for the journey to make your idea into success.
Agility brings in the pace while the focus is on! Being agile is to consciously drive your Entrepreneurial journey with lesser waste of time and energy thus increasing on the chances of making your Startup a success.
Pragmatism is different from being practical! Sometimes a pragmatic approach may have unusual set ups which may sound impractical. For instance, a pragmatic Entrepreneur may have to sleep 4 hrs a day for the next 10 days to ensure he is able to cope with the current work load and take the help of yoga to be able to manoeuvre his sleeping patterns.
This Trio of Focus Agility and Pragmatism helps you to better align yourself to relevant market forces leading to a better probability of your success.
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