Way back in early 2009 when I was at the airport, I did pick up a Magazine which did speak about Entrepreneurship and its unknown challenges. I did go through the complete article and was hooked on to the idea of “being your own boss”.
Yes, it had been an eventful journey for me in the Corporate world right from being in Sales to heading the Operation of a Large ITES set up. I was in my mid 30s and probably more risk averse and had seen the world up close. The seed of my Entrepreneurship was probably sown at the airport lounge when I had a layover of more than couple of hours.
On the hindsight I did think about being an Entrepreneur at that time, however like most of you who are reading this article did not act upon it and it took me another 2 years before I did make the move of moving out of my corporate life. There is no reason as to why it did take me so long except for some major projects I was driving across the country for my last company for which I was working for.
Two years is a long time in an Entrepreneur’s journey and yes, I would have been a lot more experienced and wiser had I began in early 2009. Just like everything I think the time and place must be right for everything to happen. For some like me, it does take about 2 years and for some a lot more than that.
If I do look back as to what I would have advised my younger self now it would be to seize the opportunity and not let it pass. Life does have it’s own way of playing out things when it does come to working towards your passion.
Embrace it with both your hands and make the best out of the situation. Yes, even if you do not have the complete business plan in hand just start with what you do have and believe me things will fall into place as you walk towards your destination.
No one can predict the future, however each one of us can do things which is very much in our control to build the future exactly the way we do want. So never shy away from taking the ownership and working towards yours vision.
For me its been a decade now since being an Entrepreneur and I cannot say how much of a fulfilling journey it has been. Yes, being an Entrepreneur has its own challenges, however with discipline, commitment and passion towards your vision nothing will be impossible to achieve. Some of the things which only being an Entrepreneur has taught me is
- Listen to your Gut and make decisions accordingly
- Develop a bull dog like attitude and nurture it
- Read at least 2-3 hours on your area of business
- Network, Network and Network
- Build a core team which does share your passion and vision
- Be hungry for success but always be humble
- Think big but always be realistic
Over the last one decade working as Executive and CXO Coach for some of the most Sr Executives across the Industry has given me some great ring side view of what each one of them do think when it does come to their profession.
One of the most common question I do come across from these executives is “Satish How did you finally decide to move out of the corporate job” Most like me are scared to leave the safety net of a Salary being credited every month from a corporate job. However, once you overcome this fear then it is just a matter of building on your other areas of business life to become better at what you are doing.
When Sr Executives do reach out to me wrt to taking the jump of being an Entrepreneur the first question I do ask as always is what are they doing it for? If the answer is for money, then often they will fail and not be there for the long haul. However, when someone really wants to make an impact and bring about a shift in how people lead their lives, then he/she will succeed because passion is driving them more than anything.
So, if you are passionate about making an impact in this world, then Yes do take the first step today and move in the direction of your dreams. You do not have to wait like me for the next 20 months to embark on this incredible journey of being an Entrepreneur.
One of the most common of the phases each one of us Entrepreneurs do fall into at some point of time is to scale up the business. Now here there is no one glove fits all solution. You must scale up if you need to grow. However, scaling up without a clear road map on the return on investment is nothing short of kama kazi.
It will be a decision only you as an individual will take and whichever way it goes remember that you must live with it for the rest of your life. Some times we fail and at times we win. As an Entrepreneur you will begin to learn to use the failures as the stepping stone to success if you keep at it and keep going.