To be an entrepreneur is great but requires a lot of courage and willpower to take the plunge.
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
As the financial year comes to a close, we all start to check what you have achieved during the last year. You assess your achievements, KPIs, career, and the teams that worked for you. Very soon you will come to the conclusion: IT SUCKS.
At the start of the year it was full of promise, and now at the fag end of it all looks wasted and fatigued. You start to hate your job.
Does this sound very much like you?
As an executive and career coach, I have listened to hundreds of such stories over dozens of times. Passionate, hard-working folks thwarted by their management come to me for help. When they come, I give them the universal solution: “Be your own boss. Become an entrepreneur.”
The moment they hear this advice, the backtracking starts. When I tell them, why not put the money in your idea, work it out for some time, and then test the results? The backtracking excuses start to flow:
- “I don’t have the financial resources to start; I am wealthy enough.”
- “It’s not the money or the effort; it’s my family that I am worried about.”
- “It’s too risky, also hard at times.” …
So what does entrepreneur mean?
It means choosing a solution that you think works; you start to work much harder than when you were an employee. The initial payment is very low. You will have exponential stress levels, unforeseen uncertainties, and very little family time. Trust me, it’s very scary, and if you think not, then you are a dimwit.
The next logical question is: if being an entrepreneur is so scary, why do it?
The main reason is that it earns something that even money can’t buy—freedom. Freedom to have no one to blame, freedom to choose your time. Freedom to plot your own course, freedom to change the world for the better.
But there is something that comes along with FREEDOM as a free package.
Fear due to uncertainities comes along with freedom as a free package. Fear is the body’s way of saying to the mind, “There is something uncertain here; please tread with caution.” Overcoming fear is the body’s way of building confidence. So every time we overcome a fear, there is a rush of euphoria inside of you. That is the entrepreneur’s DNA—to reach the euphoria state.
Enough of theory and these high-flying jargons; let’s get back to practicality. Inform the reader of those simple steps of how to do it. [My wife whispering in my ears, which reaches a minimum of 2 districts without a megaphone easily.]
What is the message for future entrepreneurs?
Being your own boss is not a crazy leap but small baby steps. Don’t make a leap since it will paralyse you with fear that you are not equipped to handle. The entire team of ISRO scientists did not wake up one day to capture Mars. They did not jump into the mission control room and say, “Let’s launch Mangalyaan.” They built it up, brick by brick—being their own boss, controlling their time, effort, and passion.The below are some of the points that I have collected. The collection is from various entrepreneurs with whom I have had chats and discussions. It is somewhat generalisation, but there is one warning: these are not one size fits all solutions. Test it with your own caution.
TIP #1: Test your Risk averseness
Attempting to take risk alone is not healthy. It should always have a partner providing tangential benefits. The most common pitfall a new entrepreneurs makes is to take big risks. Risks that have questionable returns/rewards.
So try to test your risk profile—see where you stand—and take that measured risk alone. My advice would be to start with taking small risks with tiny rewards. With time, build up your risk profile before entering the actual arena.
For example, if you are into manufacturing, then consult with your potential customers. See if you can develop a small, viable solution for them in quick time. If they like it, then increase your solution, and you are in a position to close a potential deal.
Tip #2: Plan your journeys with only baby steps
Don’t quit your current cash cow—I mean, your current paying source.
For any business, the first 2 years are slow where income is a problem (as is income tax). Yet you will have lots of expenditure. No wonder 9 out of 10 business startups lose steam and die off. My solution is to start while you are working in parallel.
Yes, it will be tough on your time—you need to finish your regular job, then use the mornings and nights for your idea. Most of the time, sports and family time will get hit. But it will give you the financial cushion and stop your stress level from shooting up. Also, it gives you the much-wanted nurturing time for the start-up. Agreed, it is slow, but it’s consistent and will last the distance.
Try to build a staged plan—for example, start it as a garage project. Demo it to people every weekend. Once some kind of traction picks up, move to the next stage. Which would mean to put more time on the efforts. Try to find some freelancers who will support you in building the PoC solution. Then start scouting for customers and orders. So build a staged plan.
Tip #3: Find a good mentor
The saying goes—there are no extra credits for learning it all by yourself.
If I had to learn all that I have learnt by myself, I would have been burnt a long time ago. Learning is a journey and needs fun as an input. During my initial management career, I was fortunate to have a very good mentor and advisor to me. His acquaintance made a lot of difference in my working style. It saved a lot of time and effort. Mentors always help you go further; they are never negative in approach. They will only caution you when you tread treacherous paths.
Mentors will give you a lot of failure lessons. Imagine the cost if you had to earn each of those failures. Hence, QED.
Tip #4: Start with a clear WHAT in mind
Most of the western thinkers will ask you to start with a WHY. The why question always tries to stop your thinking and most of the time inhibits your emotions. It sometimes makes you look like you are on a witness stand. Imagine if someone asks you to repeat “why” to all your answers. (I recall this Vadivelu thiramba thirumba pesura nee joke.)
So my idea is to reverse the question and start asking, “WHAT” are you trying to do or solve? Once you understand the what, your mind like it’s second nature will trigger you to look into the HOW part. When you start, the HOW part will be very vague. Leave it there or park it for some time. Work on refining your WHAT statement into a meaningful and achievable proposition. If this gets completed, then half your initial problems get resolved.
Whenever you try to refine your WHAT statement, you will come across a lot of alternatives. This process helps everyone. Even if you have started with a rather weak WHAT, you will refine it into something phenomenal WHAT.
Trust me, refining and looking at alternatives brings you to a different plane. This is not possible when you start with why, but I know a lot of them preach this way. For example, Simon Sinek says to start with a WHY.
No one size solution is there for it, so choose what fits you.
So in summary, I would say being an entrepreneur is tough, risky, scary, and difficult. The difference is in how you manage those challenges. In a corporate job, you have KPIs, targets, bosses, and teams to manage, but the rewards are not much. If you look at an entrepreneur, he too goes through all these, but at the end is where the difference is. The euphoria that an entrepreneur gets at the end of the journey is much sweeter. Not to mention the grand prize—freedom.
So those who want to know more or talk about it, please reach out to me for an initial free coaching session. I will help clear your ambiguities.