Category: Entrepreneurialism

• How much Income (net profit) would you like your new venture to bring in annually after: 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years or more? If you are simply buying yourself a job but have so many more headaches, longer hours and greater risks (95% of businesses fail in their 1st 5 years) is that worth it to you?
• Along with creating income now will be your ability to sell and retire or retire and continue to earn residual income. As a former Real Estate Agent I saw many Agents build their business on their name alone and when it came time to retire it was very difficult to sell their business entity when it was so based on their personal name. What “exit strategy” or planning for retirement can you build towards? Would you be able to have early retirement?
• Closely related to income is how large you intend to grow. Is this a business that will be dependent upon your efforts alone or can you hire and expand – locally, nationally, internationally?
• A huge consideration will be amount of time that is needed to run your business and not just the operation of the business

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Imposter syndrome has its roots in insecurity that one is not smart enough or capable to do anything worthwhile. It is a deep dark well of despair where one has this constant fear of being discovered to be a fraud and an impostor. Every achievement is seen as an opportunity where others can unearth the “fraudulent” you lurking somewhere under the guise of “achiever” you. It becomes a vicious circle of self-loathing to over come these feelings one works twice as hard and then again falls prey to the destructive feeling of being discovered as a phony. It is an emotional itch that slowly gnaws at your triumphs and turns them into sorrows of the deepest kind. Since most of this happens inside a person’s head, they don’t speak about it.

Imposter syndrome is often characterized by the fear of not being able to live up to the expectations of people. It is the dread of being evaluated and the refusal to accept praise and compliments for one’s accomplishments. It could also be referred to as the curse of the super achievers as they refuse to believe in their own competence and attribute their success to luck, timing or more … Read the rest

• Time. No nine to five for you, my friend. You’ll probably work more hours than that, but if you need to go to school sports day or to the park because it’s a sunny afternoon, well, you can do – because you’re in charge. You can catch up with the work when the sun’s gone down.
• Place. Technology freed us from the need to ‘be’ somewhere years ago. It was corporations that required us to drive up and down motorways for self-serving internal meetings when we might have video-conferenced them. As your own boss you can become a ninja expense manager and eliminate all of that wasted time. Work wherever it suits you. In a coffee shop. On a beach. Whilst baby-sitting. In front of the TV. Effectively, work where you please.
• Dress code. Dress down every day, if you want to. Stay in your PJs all day, if it suits you, and you’re comfortable with the risk that a client might Skype you at any moment – but be certain to have your work head on at all times.
• No politics. Every office has politics. It’s unavoidable. It’s less obvious than it used to be, but in medium or

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Some travelers came to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers were unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travelers.

In realizing no one was going to help feed them, the travelers went to the nearest stream, filled a pot with water and dropped a large stone into it. They then placed it over a fire.

One of the villagers became curious and asked what they were doing. The travelers answered that they were making “stone soup,” which tastes wonderful.

Before taking his first taste of the soup, the traveler stated that it needed a little bit of garnish to improve the flavor, which they are missing.

The villager, not minding to part with a few carrots to help them out, added them to the soup. Another villager walked by inquiring about the pot and the travelers again mentioned their stone soup, which had not yet reached its full potential.

Another villager walked by inquiring about the pot and the travelers again mentioned their stone soup, which had not yet reached its full potential.

The villager handed them a little bit of seasoning to help them out.

Soon, … Read the rest

Over twenty five years back, as a young engineering aspirant, some of us have debated on this dichotomy of nomenclature, a civil-mechanical-electrical engineering as against a chemical-production technology. Nevertheless, ‘a professional course’ as we call it moulds and directs the student to make a profession of his/her stream of study. Apart from the opportunities in the mainstream functional areas like Project management, Design, Research & Development, or Pedagogy, the quintessential commonality in all streams of study also helps ‘the engineer’ adapt to swings of the market and make smart shifts in career. Year 2000, for instance witnessed a phenomenal shift of career of engineers from all streams of study into IT, a sector which then exhibited a tectonic boom.

Till a decade ago, our country continued to run short of the number of engineers produced annually as against the intake in both the private and public sectors as per a survey. The statistics shows that engineering colleges sprung up in number from a fair 1500 colleges in 2007 to a mind-boggling 3300 in 2015 in India, with a small state of Kerala alone shouldering over 150 engineering colleges. Has this lowered the bar or shrunk the demand for the profession, … Read the rest

Welcome detours and failures with open arms

It is a common perception when things get bad that this is “worst thing to ever happen to you” and more often than not when your no longer in the moment it actually turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to you.

Successful people, especially people with an entrepreneurial streak, welcome detours and failures as a natural part of the journey. So first and foremost never question your passion and your ability to get things done. If you have the confidence in yourself, in where you are going, and what you are trying to build, this is what will get you through tough times. And that is all it’ll be – tough times.
Just don’t stare at the closed door too long.

“No” is just one step closer to “yes”

If you aren’t being told “no” on a daily basis, you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough or taking enough risks. Develop a thick skin and smile all over because the “no” is one step closer to “yes”.

Success is not the natural state of things

One of the most important lessons is that without failure, you do not truly understand … Read the rest

Write Your Heart Out

So you may ask, how does one even begin on the journey to finding one’s niche? The answer is to open your heart and mind and start writing. What is it you know that you want to share with others? The answer to this question may take a bit of soul searching, but it is well worth the effort and time. Once you figure out what you want to shout from the rooftops, the rest will start flowing naturally. You can then begin to lead the pack down an untraveled road.

Create Something New

Have you ever thought of something brilliant, only to find out somebody else has already cashed in on your idea? It happens. But there is something deep inside you that no one else has accessed before. If you search far enough and open yourself completely to the process of discovery, you will find it. That will be your niche.

Love What You Do

Discovering your niche is a privilege all on its own. You will love everything about it and it will show. Embracing it is not only about knowing something, it’s about knowing something that belongs only to you. It is … Read the rest

Manage by DATA

Thinking artsy? think again. Define what Data you need to know if you are getting closer or further from your goals, or if you need to modify them. That means: Create KPI (key performance indicators) that are aligned with the goal of your organization, and establish key milestones that help you focus and feel accomplished. Stay away from unsubstantiated information that might as well be a paradigm waiting to be broken.If you are a woman entrepreneur seeking funds: DO NOT MANAGE BY INTUITION

Work on Design and Strategy

Boy (I mean girl) that is a hard one. Work ON the business, not IN the business. That means: make your job redundant continuously, learn the basics enough to supervise early on, but quickly hire talent and move to think strategically. Every minute used on doing the work is a minute wasted to think strategically. Stay away from repetitive tasks, use technology or outsource it. If you are a woman entrepreneur seeking funds: GO BEYOND GETTING THE WORK DONE.

Become Known

Shake out the boy’s club or the men’s club. Nurture relationships, everything is right about professional and personal connections. That means: be (or become) a reputable expert in … Read the rest

An entrepreneur does not run a business with his or her acute business acumen alone: it comes with leadership skills.

1. Be a good example. Startup leadership entrepreneurs must be able to lead his or her business by example. Coming to work early and leaving the workplace late could send a message to the employees that their employer works, too. His or her work ethic must encourage others to follow his or her lead.
2. Exude confidence and optimism. A startup deals with what can be called a “baptism of fire.” There are challenges that a startup hurdles as it goes through the crucial first year of operation. In these trying months, an entrepreneur must exhibit confidence and optimism to encourage his or her staff to also believe in the company and the product or service. It is bad marketing for the company if an employee is himself or herself a non-believer.
3. Be a doer. An entrepreneur does not only deal with paperwork and financing of the business; he or she is also ready to roll up his or her sleeves and ready to do the work.
4. People are your asset. A successful entrepreneur knows that his or her greatest

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It is important that entrepreneurs learn to see the benefits of failure and learn to identify the lessons that can be learnt from it.

Further, it is important that we learn to be resilient: it is easy to be disheartened by a defeat and to become convinced that the idea is not worth pursuing. But no experience should be disregarded, no matter how unsuccessful the outcome.

Failure, in one form or another, is inevitable for everyone, but particularly entrepreneurs. The first thing to do when facing disappointment is to take account of the facts – don’t ignore what’s happened or try to put a too-positive spin on it. Be honest about what’s gone wrong so that you can you accurately identify the lessons and take action.

For entrepreneurs, not knowing whether or not something would have worked can be worse than failure. Thomas Edison is claimed to have said of inventing the lightbulb,
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Whether or not Edison actually said this doesn’t really matter. The point is that someone did and they were right: when an attempt fails, we do not have the result we were looking for but … Read the rest