Aawaara

Why Entrepreneurship isn’t a bad idea…!!!

In spite of the fact that India is a difficult place to be for entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurship is highly under-rated here,  I still think that Entrepreneurship isn’t a bad idea! I am completely aware of the fact that we are a part of a risk averse society which translates into:

• Fear of failure, whereas our American counterparts wear failure as a badge
• Lack of social recognition and acceptance for entrepreneurs
• Less (read negligible) angel and seed investment
• Serious lack of early adopters

But those are just facts, figures and ground realities, and interestingly entrepreneurship isn’t about facts and figures. It’s exactly opposite and is about being disruptive. It’s about swimming against the tide, because therein lies the fun. If everyone could do it, then everyone would do it, and it wouldn’t be so much fun. The rewards wouldn’t be so satisfying, if they were achieved so easily.

The entry barrier for entrepreneurs, and especially for web start-ups has been eliminated. Open source technologies have reduced the cost of entry for entrepreneurs so much that we don’t even need to think twice before venturing out. Thanks to the community for being so wonderful. It re-establishes our faith in humanity! World class infrastructure  and hosting is now available to us at dirt cheap prices. Gone are the days when only enterprise audience deserved that, and everyone else was served junk, and that too would cost an arm and a leg. We live in the age of cloud, and a ton of thanks to a bunch of start-ups that changed the game completely, and made it a level playing field. Forget about money that you need to start up, because you don’t need any. All that you need is commitment and hard work. Shut up, and go build something.

The best part about entrepreneurship is that you learn a zillion things along the way. Things which you wouldn’t have learnt otherwise. Even if I leave aside the technical aspects, everything else that I have come across, and the inherent value in it has been fabulous. If anyone else would have ever told me all that, I wouldn’t have paid attention, believed or understood. So I don’t want to be that ‘anyone else’! Go and learn it for yourself.

For people who have been waiting since long for the right time to get started, there isn’t any such thing as the “right time”. Jump in now, as you have nothing to lose here. It is a sure win situation - either you get it, or you get the lessons. And even if you get the latter, those lessons make you a far better person than you were, and make you better prepared for the next time when you start again…!
Even if you fail, at least you tried to create some real value, which maybe other people didn’t understand… ;)  
People may want to differ with that, but I like to think it that way…and that’s what entrepreneurship is all about - there are no set rules. Hadn’t there been so many unknowns, it would have been just another day job.

And in the worst case scenario you will fail, and that worst case scenario occurs for 99 out of 100 start-ups. You will fall flat on the ground with your face down. Failure is the default for every start up, but even if you fail, you now know how to handle failure, which is an incredible virtue in itself,  and still have those zillion things with you that you learnt along the way. See, there is so much value even in failing, that I don’t even need to talk about what you get if you are heading North, towards the success highway!

Because when you look back,  you will be more disappointed by things that you didn’t do,  than what you did, and there will always be that voice at the back of your head - ‘If I had done it that way, then maybe…’ Therefore take that leap of faith now…!!!