Life and Entrepreneurship are very similar full of unknowns and the unexpected. This is what one must be prepared to expect as part of the normal, standard operating procedure. Each step that one will make will educate. Even though one may be the master of the field in which one wants to start a business, as an entrepreneur, one will start as a baby.
Baby
There comes a moment in the life of a person when a decision has to be made does one go ahead with the entrepreneurial venture or not. If the decision is a Yes, then a new baby is born. However good the entrepreneur is in his field, in the area of running his own business, he is a baby.
A world without the support system of a corporation is very different. In fact, the first day as an entrepreneur can be quite unnerving. No secretary, no support staff (initially), no safety net, no answers, only questions and things to do. One has to set ones own agenda driven not by the goals of the corporation, but by ones own gut and instinct. This extreme freedom too needs to be managed well.
The early days in the world of entrepreneurship are one of discovery. There will be plenty of moments of self-doubt: should one have done this. Life was so much nicer earlier. This is what the entrepreneur must battle through.
The life of an entrepreneur is not one of fixed hours just like a baby. Many a night will be a sleepless one either because of a deadline, or because of things which need to be considered, or problems which need to be pondered upon.
The entrepreneur brings to bear his experiences in the world of the past that once was his and the new world that he intends to make his very own. There are memories of what once was and there are dreams of what will be. It is these dreams that keep the entrepreneur charged up. When the dreams and hopes die, so does the entrepreneur. Life may go on, but as a living dead. That is why it is so important to have a deep passion about what one wants to do during the self-doubt and loneliness of the early days, it is this passion and those dreams that keep the fire going and give the entrepreneur the courage to face any odds. This is the crucible.
For me, the early days of being an entrepreneur in India were full of opportunity, excitement and failure. Whatever was tried did not work. That was the time when ones resolve was severely tested. Either one can give up then or deepen the resolve to make things happen. Being a baby, I did a lot of things wrong. There was a lot of stumbling and falling. At that time, it was hard to see what was the good that would come out of all this. But, that is how we learn. The second stint at being an entrepreneur was where all this learning came in useful.
Tomorrow: An Entrepreneurs Early Days (continued)
TECH TALK An Entrepreneurs Early Days+T
