Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar's glorious 200* is the record in itself in the world of cricket. Sachin, who made a striking entry into cricket as a teenager, is now the highest scorer in International cricket. His passion, commitment, perseverance and the winning streak match that of an entrepreneur who takes risks, tries, and falls and again rises with the strength of sea waves.
India is a blossoming nation with the enterprising spirit growing wings and beginning to attempt mainstream level. It is no uncommon to see young professionals stepping out of their shoes and chasing their dreams and setup their own enterprise. At age as young as 12, Adora Svitak has transformed her writing success into speaking and teaching success. She has spoken at over 400 schools and presented at the annual TED conference. She’s also planning a conference of her own, for kids and by kids, called TEDx Redmond. She has been featured on Good Morning America and on CNN. Adora started writing when she was four years old. She hasn’t stopped since. At six, Adora received a laptop computer from her mother, on which she quickly amassed a collection of hundreds of short stories and hundreds of thousands of words – typing at 70 words per minute. At the age of seven, Adora achieved her dream of becoming a published author with the release of Flying Fingers: Master the Tools of Learning through the Joy of Writing. The book featured several of Adora’s short stories, along with her writing tips, typing tips, and advice from her mother. At age 11, Adora published a second book, Dancing Fingers, with her older sister, Adrianna. King Sidharth, 18 The Outlaw Entrepreneur King is a speaker, author, magazine publisher, dude, and he’s organizing a conference for teenagers called Createens. It will give young people an opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship, blogging, and more from world-wide experts. Mark Bao is a 17-year-old high school senior and he has already launched 11 web-based companies (and sold three of them) along with three non-profit foundations. Some of his projects include TickrTalk, the Ramamia Foundation, Class leaf, and Avecora – a technology network launching sometime in 2013. There is no scarcity of success stories around us. What needs to be done is look out for the opportunities right in-front of us with new dimensions each time.
The journey of miles begins with the first step with certain things to learn. The start-up and an enterprise in its beginning stages could well define the divergence between its thriving and defeat. Patience and endurance would be high on the ladder to learn. The new age has taught us to be demanding and to live in “real-time” mentality; but when entrepreneurial feature is yet burgeoning to support such pressures, what one lives on with are feelings of frustration, angst and eventually giving up. When out of form, sachin handles criticism and failure with poise, only to bounce back, one must learn to face dark nights in his ventures and handle criticism with optimism. Vandana Luthra, Founder of VLCC group voices the same “critics are your best friends, as long as it does not stem from jealousy. Objective criticism helps you to raise the bar on product and service delivery”. I personally believe that for stating up an enterprise you don’t need to know know-how’s of it, or you need not be a guru in that stream. Just start. Every idea is like a child that is born in this world and raised with the grand vision. If you are a first time entrepreneur driven by lot of passion, then the first step is simple; success begets success. Take a problem, even if small, and solve it. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder, Info edge (naukri.com) says, “When you are not working for money but for a cause that gives meaning to your life you find the energy”. There is enough inspiration to catch hold of and get started. Be a job giver and not a job seeker.
To start with, one needs to know that he has picked up a venture he can handle and has a liking towards it. This helps in making the enterprise a going concern from your desires. Be it anything ranging from a manufacturing unit, retailing or as weird as a shoe laundry! You just have to know that you are passionate about what you are pursuing. This is the first step to ensure that your enterprise won’t be a failure. The next step comes in where you have to put your efforts, divert your attention towards the business and make out few plans of action which will give you a clear understanding of where you are going to head. You don’t need to have any assistants or managers to do that. Every body has ability to know what he wants and to an extent how to achieve that. Your family members and your friends can act as your first hand guide and philosopher for you. Grass root interactions and work experience is the best to know what is to be done and what is needed in the society.
I was lucky enough to go to Tata Jagriti Yatra, a Jagriti sewa sansthan’s initiative towards enterprise led development. 18 days on board we used to get delicious food every single day. Tata’s had sponsored catering for us. Once, I got a chance to speak to the head of the catering group which was serving us. Surprised to know that this manager was all of 20 years and heading the group of men as elder to him as 45 years, I couldn’t control my curiosity. I asked him how he got into this and how he became the manager. Apparently, this Alam bhaiyya (we used to call him that) was a street’s person and has a small place behind Kalupur station in Ahmadabad. Now this guy used to work at some hotel and slowly he took over the position at counter as his Seth sometimes was not available. He told me he wishes to set up his own business once he earns enough to get a place. He now works in Mumbai also and gave me his visiting card and has a facebook account too. I mean leaving a job at Tata’s which is as secured as mother’s care; this boy wants to sweat it out himself. I tell you now, that boy is going to run some mean joint one day. Sabirul Islam had once tweeted “I don’t want to look too far ahead. The journey is what’s happening right now, not what’s on the finishing line.”
In a seminar which I attended a few days before, our very own principal Dr. C.N Rawal told that experience matters and not only learning. Credit experiences to your hats, may it be small or big. The anecdote is that one in ten investments is successful. The numbers say that one in ten is big and three in ten are moderate. Another three just return capital and the rest fail. Sandeep Gajakas started his unconventional business of washing, cleaning and repairing shoes on a shoestring budget. He turned his bedroom into a shoe cleaning workshop and now calls it as the shoe laundry. With employees just as less as 15, he earns revenues touching 80 Lakh a year.
That is THE point! For starting and flourishing your enterprise, you don’t need that MBA or sitting in a classroom with 350 others, waiting to be yet another perfect specimen rolling off the degree production line. The Dabbawallahs are the best example of this. With an average academic qualification of 8th grade and an 85% of them being illiterate, they make 4, 00,000 transactions every single day with only one error per 1.6 Million transactions and are six sigma and ISO 9001 certified.
All you need to be a Sachin Tendulkar in your business is to learn a few tricks and treats of it.
1. Before setting up an enterprise, weigh its social viability and the benefit you can derive from it. Have a vision and a mission which help you get going and gives you a definite path to follow and give turns to your business. Align your need by passion and discipline from yourself.
2. Choose your love: Make a conscious choice to do what you love. That is the fuel which will keep you going even if the sky falls.
3. Crucial to the success of an enterprise is solving the whole problems and not only the components of it.
4. Growing your business through optimal and optimum use of resources, may lead to sustainable enterprise.
5. Have a collaborative attitude which will help you build local capacity and your enterprise within.
6. Organize your critical tasks into processes.
7. Government has programmes as well as resources that provide ample opportunity for enterprises.
8. People matter and this is essential crux of all decision-making.
9. There are many venture capitalists, Incubators available for your start-ups if you wish to take help from them in the initial days of your enterprise.
10. Last but not the least, DARE, because entrepreneurs do!
