Entrepreneurship – The Journey of Togetherness.

Life is a journey!

The success of life does not always depend on your own effort, passion, hard work, dedication etc. Rather it is dependent on others.

Sounds ridiculous? Smells reverse the way is being taught in books, institutes?

But think in depth. How safe are you in the car is not dependent on the fact that how well you drive, rather it depends on the other surrounding drivers in the other cars.

Same is true for an enterprise or a venture as well.

Your dream may touch sky, you may stretch yourself to go the beyond the horizon, you may try to cross your limits. But ultimately a single leaf might not blow in the tree, unless we get supporting hands.

The world is flooded with negative energies. You will be surrounded by the people who will always say no to yours thoughts, process, ambitions, dreams, vision stating the same is impossible because they feel so.

But it is not easy to cross this barrier of negativity and remain positive to reach the goal.

The partners, fellow colleagues, sub ordinates, employees, vendors, contractors, customers, friends all will screw the entrepreneur’s happiness and in effect the chances of failure is more than success.

You might be knowing the good old story of strength of bundle of sticks instead of a single stick which is prone to breakdown.

But in real life, especially entrepreneur life, the chances of assembling sticks together is remote. Getting soldiers to fight in the battlefield together is challenging.

But search continues in life to hunt for a real partner who will fight it together. If your luck favors (not in our hand, controlled by supreme lord), you will win the race.

Hence it is a journey of togetherness.

Let us not give up. Let’s celebrate entrepreneurship and pray in Tagore’s way to explore our fortune:

আমার সকল কাঁটা ধন্য করে ফুটবে ফুলফুটবে।
আমার  সকল ব্যথা রঙিন হয়ে গোলাপ হয়ে উঠবে॥

(We will be able to rise crossing all barriers,

We will shine, eliminating all our agony.)

Racing Behind – Kolkata Race Course

Yesterday I was at Kolkata Race Course in the afternoon. Rather I have been visiting this place for last one year now. Don’t be surprised. I am not becoming addicted to gambling on Horse Riding. My company Prime is handling entire surveillance systems for RCTC (Royal Calcutta Turf Club) for quite some time now.

 

 

But yesterday’s journey was little different as it was little relaxed since just a courtesy meeting. Hence I was more focused on evaluating the surrounding.

The time has stopped here as if I have gone behind time in a time machine. Why?

The zone is not crowded (since no race today), not flooded with concrete, not overloaded with pace of life, not jammed by heavy traffic. Mobile signals jammed due to military area (Fort William).

I was feeling very happy. Was able to feel the eternal peace.

The ambience was awesome. Full of green. Amazing views of Victoria Memorial and Howrah Bridge.

  

  

I was roaming around the places from normal gallery, VIP area, Steward Area, Jockey area, Horses Zone and was in deep thought of sculpture of British Regulated Bengal.

RCTC was founded in 1847 in Kolkata (though it was Calcutta that time). At one time it was the governing body for almost all courses in the sub-continent, defining and applying the rules that governed the sport. During its heyday the races it organized were among the most important social events of the calendar, opened by the Viceroy of India.

With so much of technology advancement (we claim !) after our independence (which we are proud off), where are we standing in comparison to British time. I find all the major building, bridges, drainage system are the inheritance of British Bengal. Though this is applicable for whole India even.

The legacy is still keeping our pride in Kolkata Race Course!

 

Expectation vs Reality – Let’s follow our destiny

This topic and content dedicated to my friend Pritam Bhattacharya. He is a successful entrepreneur from Kolkata, Founder and Chief Wordsmith at Wordsmith Communication. He is a prolific writer and a serious blogger with a different philosophy. The same is evident in his series of blogs on cosmic government (http://wordsmithofbengal.wordpress.com/). He was instrumental in instigating me for years to write contents on my experience. I am earnestly influenced by his philosophical thought process and the same might reveal in my few of next series of contents.

Lets comeback to the topic.

What is expectation? It’s a wish, a desire, a demand, a greed to achieve something predefined in mind.

And reality? Practically what we achieve, which is feasible.

There is always a huge Gap between Expectation and Reality. This in effect created dissatisfaction, frustration, irritation, impatience, arrogance and so on. And yes this is the root cause of our majority problems in life.

Let us try to experience this through the entrepreneur journey to life.

I was conducting series of interviews (office recruitments) last week and met few MBA final year students. I was surprised to see their expectations. Majority of them having no clue why they are doing MBA. Few causes as they defined are follows:

• Commerce background guy trying to do MBA in order to shape up his educational path since his marks got dipped in graduation (38%),
• A Guitarist (who had even organized his band as well) left his passion only because Guitar is an accompany role in comparison to the lead role of vocalist and trying to pursue MBA,
• A lady with an extreme interest in English language trying to study MBA like an exploratory journey.

None of them much interested to roam around to the market (as they did not like their 2months internship on the field with lot of field movement, prefer in-house jobs). All of them invested around 4Lacs of money either by bank loan or by parents funding. Finally their expectation to get a job with min 15-20 K monthly package and they are way beyond from market reality.

Startups face challenges in recruitment since candidates prefer working in big companies where they will get good ambience (good office, centralized AC, big reception with a receptionist, a pantry with plenty of coffee/tea and so on), though work exposure limited since they get opportunities only a small pie of the project life cycle.

In reverse when someone spends some time in larger organizations, they feel unhappy for not getting correct exposure, too much undue pressure, politics, getting shifted to bench and so on.

An entrepreneur feels to rule the world and dream to become a billionaire only because he / she got a brilliant concept. But there is a huge gap in conceiving an idea and rolling out the same with conviction in proper time.

Startup needs funds in order to nurture his concept and convert into reality. But finance organizations like Bank, VC, Angels and so on asks for collaterals, wants to see prototype, past background like balance sheet etc. If those things are there then probably the startup could have converted the idea to reality by themselves.

Hence we do not have any control on what we can get in comparison to what we want.

Let us not force it.

Let’s follow our destiny which is regulated by supreme lord, the biggest technologist of the Cosmic Government.

Let us enjoy every moment of life.

Fool’s Day – The entrepreneur’s day?

April Fools’ Day, sometimes called All Fools’ Day, is one of the most light-hearted days of the year. Its origins are uncertain.

My view it is entrepreneur’s day? why?

Simple. Rest of the world think Entrepreneur is either a “Fool” or keeps on fooling the rest of the world.

Look at the below vertical wise thought process:

Family/Relatives:

This guy is a fool. The job was good with safely and security in life. Unnecessary he puts himself and family into trouble (if left job and started a venture to realize the idea).

This guy is useless. He could have opted for a job was good with safely and security in life. Unnecessary he puts his career into stake.  (If started a venture after completion of study).

Friends:

He has grown big now. But he neither spends money in treating us not help us to grow in his company. He forgot our past friendship. We are only Fools since still thinking on him.

Ex-Office Friends:

Clever guy. Saved lot of money during job. Now enjoying life with independence as he is not answerable to anyone. But he wants to make us Fool keeping himself low in profile.

Business man:

Nonsense person. Keeps on venturing into ideas. No sense of business, ROI and profit. He cannot be successful in life.

Fellow Business Partner:

Always talks big beyond reality. No idea how to make it successful. No control on situations. Always freaks out. Wasting my time spending time with this Fool.

Employees/Subordinates:

Boss always exploits us. Business is in full swing. But he always keeps on crying and deprive us. We are not Fools even though he tries hard to prove us so.

Neighbors:

He is big shot now. Earns lot of money in business. But do not like to spend social causes in the locality. He forgot his past and root. No point fooling us.

Customers:

Now he is a big business man and sucks us by premium. He keeps on talking of competitive prices, but never extended any benefit in terms of discounts or free services. We are not fools. Next time we need to see alternatives beyond him.

** Here he can be she also – Nothing gender specific. All comments are not always true. There are exceptions. But generally these are the inner thoughts against Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur is alone in his journey. Only an entrepreneur can understand him/her.

Lets celebrate Entrepreneurship.