When not to take advice seriously

Live it to know it

If you are a start-up entrepreneur, you have faced it frequently. Advisors of all hues and shades - well-meaning and otherwise - telling you what to do and how to do. Even when no advice is sought, there will be many who'll not miss out on the opportunity to advise you; there seems to be some kind of a pleasure in trying to show the path to a start-up entrepreneur.

But beware ye Entrepreneur!

If the advisor is not of the same fraternity, discount his words heavily. Do not take them too seriously. And for sure, do not act on such pieces of wisdom immediately. Think hard before you accept any such wisdom as gospel truth.

There are good reasons for my saying so.

Only those who are in the active role of an entrepreneur - especially the start-up ones - face the following realities:

1. Fear of death : If the business model does not work out, and the revenues do not flow in, it could be sudden death with no second chance in the immediate future. All the dreams, the presentations, the excel-charts vaporise instantly
2. Fear of growing unprofitable : The business may be pulling in revenues, but the profits may just not be happening, thereby making the mid-term prospects of the venture suspect. No one may be interested in funding you anymore
3. Fear of losing everything one has : If the business collapses, then a lot of emotional investment that happens in it goes with it too.. sure you become wiser, but the pain is harrowing. A daily dose of "we told you so..." is likely to follow

Only an entrepreneur who has lived through the daily pain (and pleasure) of facing these brutal realities knows how things get done under such pressures.

Learning entrepreneurship lessons

I recently delivered a talk as part of the get-together of students of FMB programme of SP Jain institute Mumbai. They wanted me to share nuggets of experience I have had as an entrepreneur! I hope I did a good job, and did not scare them too much.

My entrepreneurship experience spans 17 years now, across several enterprises I have tried to build. More information can be seen at http://www.ptuniverse.com/

The key points of the talk were

1. Understanding oneself : It is very important for an entrepreneur (and others too) to understand who they really are. What excites them.. what is it that will drive them for years on end.. what will bring a twinkle in their eyes.. what will create moments of happiness again and again.. Once this is clear in the mind, the efforts can be readily focussed towards creating one's career as an entrepreneur in that particular direction only. There is no point in trying to be everything to everybody - it is not possible. It is far better to be an expert at something, even if it is being a generalist, and then stick to that as long as it is rewarding for yourself. If you do not do this, then there is a lack of sense of purpose in life. You get up in the morning thinking of a long day ahead full of drudgery and tasks, rather than a set of interesting challenges ahead waiting to be tackled head on.
2. Creating a personal brand : Before you contemplate creating a brand of the various product(s) that your company might be making, consider creating your own brand. Your personal brand. What does the market think of YOU? What is YOUR image in the world? Amongst your relatives, friends, family? Chances are, what they think of you is going to deeply affect the prospects of every future material brand you may launch. It is rare that you enjoy a frivolous image, and your created brands enjoy a serious image. Your personal brand is likely to cast a shadow - positive or negative - on everything you do as an entrepreneur. So invest heavily in creating your personal brand. How to do that? Well, that's a long discussion reserved for some other occasion.
3. Getting priorities right : You have only 24 hours to the day, and there is no way you are going to be able to do beyond a certain number of things each day. So as an entrepreneur, you will be daily faced with the Hobson's choice - the need and desire to be involved in virtually everything in your organisation v/s the practical limits of time and energy available to do all that. These small small choices you make on a daily basis add up significantly over a period of time. So learn to say NO to the stupid and senseless tasks, and YES to every task that in some way will have a medium to long term impact.
4. Not taking anybody's nonsense : As the head of your business enterprise, it is your sacred duty towards your balance sheet that you learn to call people's bluff. You will come across many consultants, advisors and wise-men who will charge you for bluffing you. I do not mean any disrespect towards such people but the fact is - Any entrepreneur who is seen as an idiot will be treated like one. So you better learn the basics clearly. Step One : what is it that you want from an external consultant, be clear in your mind. Step Two : Make it clear to the consultant. Twice. In simple language. Step Three : Be demanding in delivery. Step Four : Reject bullshit totally. Even if it looks rude, do not accept bullshit.
5. Readiness to be un-popular : Well, this one is fairly simple. Love your people, but be clear regarding processes and systems. Our first priority is survival and growth of the brand, for if that is dead, everyone else is dead too. In trying to ensure this, you will be faced with several decision situations where really tough calls need to be made. Do not fail yourself on such strategic moments. Make those tough decisions. In the long run, that's the only way a robust brand / enterprise can be built. Remember General Motors' classic folly. They kept on bending backwards to accommodate the United Auto Workers (Union) for many decades. The payouts washed out the net worth of the company itself. So surely, that wasn't wise!
6. An eye on cost, and another on profit : Wherever synergy is possible, extract it from the system. Costs = Money drained out of the system forever. Hence, Costs = Basically a bad thing. Hence Costs = Evil. Hence costs need to be contained wherever possible. Of course, quality promised to the customer should never be compromised with, but intelligent optimisation is always welcome. As for profits, it is the final duty of the entrepreneur to ensure that the enterprise makes profits. Healthy profits. No one else can ensure that, or take charge of that responsibility. Only the entrepreneur is responsible for that.
7. Systems, processes, discipline : To grow beyond a certain stage, you will need to create your replicas. Since cloning is still not a feasible solutions, processes are the clones that will help you replicate yourself or at least your vision across more business units. So if you want to grow, and that is really not a choice (but a necessity), you will need to start developing a process mindset. Find out what all can be made to work without your personal presence. Force yourself to disengage from some parts of the enterprise sometimes. Slowly, a system traction will develop in the enterprise that will help you in the long run.

This was the gist of the talk I presented. I guess it helped them, because the Professor in-charge Madam Latha Nair decided to felicitate me with a really beautiful gift :-). Over dinner, as I interacted with students, parents and the Professor, I realised that the overall experience of this FMB programme was opening up a wide range of possibilities for the participants. Good work!

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The Secret Sauce of Entrepreneurship

I was sitting with a senior friend of mine, who happens to be an entrepreneur and a star academic performer all through his life. Since he has recently turned an entrepreneur (after 10 years of service experience), our discussion veered towards the pressures and pleasures of being an Entrepreneur. "I have been forced to explore every part of my mind, body and soul after I turned an entrepreneur. It was never like this earlier. I think I have known more of myself in the past 2 years than I did in my decade long service experience", he said.

I was startled by his statement! Positively startled. Since I do not have any corporate service experience (the only thing I did was a 2 months summer training with Tata Motors (then TELCO) at their Pimpri Pune plant in May-June 1992) I could not relate fully to what he said, but believed it, and hence my amazement.

Three things make an Entrepreneur's life different

1. Life and Death decisions on a daily basis in the early years
2. Turning absolutely rational and objective
3. Tremendous stress levels, and no one to share

These three defining aspects of an Entrepreneur's life are not be found anywhere else. Let us see them one by one.

First of all, in the early years, almost all the decisions that an Entrepreneur makes are not just tactical, they are strategic. Each of them has the force, the power, the seed to turn into something strategic that affects the enterprise strongly. So, the Entrepreneur has to treat each decision from a 360 degrees perspective. Each decision has to be analysed (in her mind) so thoroughly that the mind may start revolting after a point in time. And remember - there is no time to delay decisions. Opportunities just whiz past before you can nail them down. So, that's the first defining feature of the daily life of an Entrepreneur - Life and Death decisions on a a daily basis, to be made really quickly.

How many people in regular service do that? Even if they knew, would they take the pains to do it? Definitely not. It is too much, it really is. Hence I say this is a "defining" feature of the life of an Entrepreneur.

Secondly, an Entrepreneur realises early on his career that he has to be extremely rational and objective in dealings with people. She learns that being emotional about people starts turning negative for the entire enterprise. There is something sinister about being emotional about people in an enterprise. There are many who start taking advantage of you, the moment they realise you have an apparent soft corner for them. Because we should not forget (i.e. the Entrepreneur should not forget) that behind every person working in his enterprise there is a family, a set of relationships who may not entirely be friendly to the enterprise. I have personally encountered people who were positively hostile to my entire existence! To deal with them on a daily basis, to ensure that the enterprise works well profitably despite such people around, to ensure that the tomorrow of the enterprise is brighter than the today, is the sacred duty of the Entrepreneur, and the Entrepreneur alone. So does this mean he should treat people like objects? No, no, no, a million times no. What this means is that he should treat every situation objectively. Every interaction has to be measured from the perspective of whether the entire enterprise will benefit or not, whether the longer term objectives of the customers will be served or not, whether the enterprise will gain more profits or not.. it is as basic as that. And not many people can turn themselves into such "objective thinking machines". I am aware of the risks of saying these things - many will pounce on this opportunity to castigate all Entrepreneurs as mindless and emotional brutes but that's not true. You want proof? Meet those Entrepreneurs who have failed in any of their ventures. They will testify.

So, let me wrap this argument up by saying that "the best emotion about your employees is to ensure that their jobs are protected through the flourishing of the enterprise". I rest my case on this one.

Finally, the third defining feature of an Entrepreneur's life is the insane stress levels she has to endure. It's like a tonne of weight on her head, every moment of her living existence. Since the "final" responsibility of almost everything rests on the Entrepreneur's shoulders, the stress levels can assume gargantuan proporations. In early years, when cashflows are not properly defined, and profit streams are unpredictable, and reserves are negative, these stress levels are defined by the existential dilemma of making it to the next week safe and sound. This stress can totally change an Entrepreneur's perspective on life. It can make her ill, break up her marriage, or change his personality. It can end up doing nothing of this, as well. All depends on how the Entrepreneur plans his work, his attitude, and his life. No matter how you plan it, one thing is for sure - Stress Level is Guaranteed Superhigh always.

So if entreprenurship is truly this difficult, why do people do it?

Three reasons why people turn Entrepreneurs

1. Personal ambition to be different, famous and to achieve a lot
2. The itch to be on their own, and not to serve anyone
3. Tremendous nervous energy dying to break free every moment

First of all, Entrepreneurs are ambitious people. They want to live life to the fullest. And this goes well beyond collecting luxuries and spending classy vacations with family. It is all about personal ambition, and the kick they get out of creating something no one thought they could. All this comes with the tremendously sexy reward of "fame" and "glory" that's almost impossible to resist. And fame feeds bravery consistently. Achievement feeds efforts without fail. Remember Sir Richard Branson, who can go to atrocious lengths to ensure fame (for himself and his companies).

Entrepreneurs are sure of the fact that by serving "under" someone they will simply waste their lives. Not that they have a large ego that's crying out, but they feel that their potential will remain truly underutilised by choosing not be on their own. This is a very strong driving force. It helps Entrepreneurs brave the most strident of all criticisms from everyone around them, in the founding years. When everyone is sarcastic and caustic, they brave the winds because in their hearts they know that glory is imminent. That mad, almost insane, feeling is a force strong enough to drive them through the dark alley of social ostracism. The real tragedy appears when the Entrepreneur realises that he has become totally subservient to the interest of God himself - the Customer! Remember Steve Jobs - the ultimate monomaniac who realised that unless he treats customers as the God, his products will not succeed.

A lot of Entrepreneurs are people who have a lot of physical and emotional energy that's visible in their bodies. They can't sit still for long. They want to keep creating new thing, new objects, new ideas, new stuff that people will appreciate. Remember Shah Rukh Khan.. he cannot remain just an actor. He has to do many more things at the same time.

So, if you are planning to turn an Entrepreneur, here are 3 ways to help you decide!

1. How would you like to see yourself at the end of life? A clean, smooth, unhurt individual - or someone with bruises, scars and gashes earned from adventures and encounters unthinkable? If it's the second you relish, welcome to the world of Entrepreneurship.
2. Does the idea of sacrificing the pleasures of personal life (like long weekends) and those lazy evenings with your family troubles you a lot? Then shoo!
3. Does failure motivate you to do better next time? Did your family teach you that being a good loser is more important than being a good winner? If yes, then welcome!

This blogpost is a quick roundup of some Entrepreneurship essentials. It's a complex topic, and I'll keep writing more.

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