Monday, 2 July 2018

Yes, I am different...




It is normally believed that by the time a person reaches college they have already found the purpose of their life…..In India the capability of a teenage student is usually perceived by their Degree Program or the University they made up to. But is it actually the fact? Does a Degree or just the Name of the Institution have the right to qualify an individual’s potential? Well if that is true how we can justify the success of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs who managed to revolutionize the world successfully without an Ivy League Degree.
Business leadership has two distinct styles- Casual Thinking and Effectual Thinking. Casual Thinkers’ approach is primarily based on formal business education where everything starts off with a preset goal followed by identification of the means available for reaching the goal and finally executing the process of achieving the already set goal. On the other hand, Effectual Thinkers don’t tend to rely on any preset goals. They evaluate and utilize the resources available at their disposal and finally curve out the goal through this entire process. This renders them the ability to create something out of everything. They don’t waste time in waiting for the right situation rather starts off with whatever is available and can be worked with. Thus the later is much more agile and remains unaffected by external changes. Today’s world is extremely dynamic; and to keep up with the pace, we need minds which can think differently and more effectively. Thus Effectual Thinking is a superior approach as compared to Casual Thinking as it is armed with the tools to battle the constant changes affecting the business environment.
Professor Jeff Dyer of MIT and Hal Gregersen together co-authored a book, ‘The Innovator’s DNA’. They found out that preschool and kindergarten education has played a pivotal role in the lives of some of the successful entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergei Brin and others. They say: “The most innovative entrepreneurs were very lucky to have been raised in an atmosphere where inquisitiveness was encouraged. We were struck by the stories they told about being sustained by people who cared about experimentation and exploration.”
Entrepreneurship is neither a career nor a job. MBAs can guarantee decent jobs but entrepreneurship is all about creating such jobs for others. It is about improving the life others along with your own self.
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Success is mostly ‘out of the box’. Formal training is always generalized and based on theories derived from other’s situation. No one can guarantee that the same tactic will be fruitful in each instance. Every problem is different and so is every solution. Hence innovation and a proactive approach is a must. Learning while Doing as compared to Doing after Learning should be the mantra for the entrepreneur of today.
Apart from imparted training, entrepreneurship is a result of self-learning, conceptualizing, trait development, skill honing and setting the right attitude. Constant Learning is another key to a successful business and it should be present at every point. Failures are inevitable but it is very important to learn from the failures and not wasting any further resources by repeating them.
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers at their core and have a unique approach to every situation. Recently in 2016, when entire India was boggled with Demonetization Vijay Sekhar Sharma was smart enough to introduce PayTM to people which made lives easier. The leading Imaging Company Kodak was worried with the surging prices of silver that was required to manufacture photo films; at the same time Sony introduced Digital Imaging which solved the problem. Similarly when the world was facing oil scarcities, surging fuel prices and battling the ill-effects of pollution, Elon Musk and his group formed Tesla, the leading manufacturer of Electric and Hybrid vehicles which made transportation cheaper, efficient and easily accessible. Zuckerberg literally connected the entire world in one string-Facebook. Success is all about responding to opportunities with the correct combination of traits at the right time.
An aspiring Entrepreneur cannot afford to waste time in analyzing everything every time. ‘Discover your capabilities and identify your potential’. ‘Know the problem you are passionate about and the ones you want to solve’. Zuckerberg had already developed his idea of Facebook before going to college – so it’s about identifying yourself. Don’t listen to your haters because they will start loving you once you are successful.
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It is essential to set goals which are essentially concrete and not soft goals. I want to make others life simple is a soft goal, whereas, I want to create a system that would tackle the fuel problem and reduce pollution and be economical, is an example of a Concrete Goal. There should be clarity in each action.
Strict discipline and total dedication are always required as you are your own boss. If the driving force is absent within you then things are bound to falter thus risking everyone’s interest in the line. Working hard and desire to succeed has to be the fuel. People can’t resist an underdog story; when we hear about someone breaking the norm and succeeding on an unconventional path we tend to amplify the positives. But there is a lot of struggle. For example, Bill Gates worked 16 hours each day for 5 years before he was successful. (Based on Walter Isaaacson’s book, The Innovators.)
You can never be afraid of failing. Unwavering optimism is a must. In 2009, co-founder of Whatsapp, Brian Acton was rejected for a job at Facebook. Later Acton partnered with Jan Koum, a Ukrainian immigrant to form Whatsapp. Later Facebook purchased Whatsapp for a whopping amount of $19bn. Things may not always be perfect but not letting circumstances dictate the goal is important.
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Creativity and innovation defines the success of a business idea. A magnificent thing is always achieved by creating something out of nothing and giving it life. We are mostly limited by our thoughts. We need to perceive situations differently than others in order to stand out in the crowd. Steve Jobs Quoted, ‘Your time is limited. Do not end up living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by Dogma-which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition’.
Great leaders are born not made. It is never possible to do everything alone, we need a team. The team will be as good as you are. Hence growth is dependent on the ability of leading a team.
An entrepreneur has to have a strong sense of integrity, be ethical and responsible towards others. Author J.K. Rowling wrote: “Be nice to everyone on your way up, because you’ll meet them again on your way down. And even if the Wheel of Fortune doesn’t bring you down again, it’s just good business to earn and maintain a reputation for honesty and dependability.” We all know about the recent happenings at Facebook which risked user data and compromised the trust it once had amongst its users. And it’s not just the revenue figures anymore; Corporate Social Responsibility is also the cool thing today. An industrialist cannot afford to derive profit out of his business by dumping waste products in the river and risking the entire ecosystem.
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There is always a risk factor associated with everything but that cannot stop us from moving forward. We can’t expect a bed of roses to be laid for us before kicking-in. Timothy Sykes a famous investment banker says, “There comes a time when every start-up business has to jump out the window and build wings on the way down.” That’s about the same as ‘no guts, no glory.’
Ask yourself whether you have what it takes? Luck is just being at the right place at the right time which can be accomplished by anticipation and planning. Start-ups have a shockingly low success rates. But that does not mean that you will not succeed. If failure is inevitable why can’t success be? It all can be gained through persistence. Thomas Edison tried and failed one-thousand times before hitting on the right filament for the electric light bulb. If it wasn’t for him, we would still be sitting in the dark. Even after decades of experience Ratan Tata did not find the desired success in creating India’s most economical car, Nano. Thus failures can never be the determining factor of a person’s ability to succeed.
If you do not have the guts, the strength, the patience, entrepreneurship is certainly not your cup of tea. President Calvin Coolidge once wrote: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” In short Giving-up is never an option.
Studies revealed that people either possess a strong employee mindset or an entrepreneurial one. Entrepreneurial spirited people perceive colleges as a mode of amassing knowledge whereas an employee mindset is fixated at equipping themselves in winning their daily bread. Entrepreneurs are gutsy enough to embrace failures more sportingly as they are considered to be avid risk-takers. On the other hand, their counter parts often spend most of the time trying to take rational decision and keep procrastinating on the idea of starting a business.
Jobs and Gates, the two eccentric tech mavericks who possessed the power of transforming the world of computing by igniting a wave of entrepreneurship, are considered role models for many aspiring entrepreneurs. Struggle and presence is essential; every entrepreneur has to deal with the plethora of long winded stories of opposition which comes along their way. It certainly isn’t meant for the light hearted.
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The value of a degree is eroding. There is nothing that a b-school will teach which will not be learnt while setting up an own business. So why waste the valuable time in waiting to start a business after finishing school. According to Forbes, only 69% of America’s business owners attended colleges and 68 percent of that group claimed that the degree actually helped them. Choosing a right mentor is always more important and beneficial than a degree program. It’s all about getting hold of the right direction.
Let’s see what some of the most successful entrepreneurs who earned their fortune without a b-school degree, thinks:
Dustin Moskovitz – I tell my managers that they should not assume that they can learn new skills by the same way they have acquired technical skills by reading or training…it takes experience.
Micheal Dell – Don’t do something because someone has told you to, do what you love doing
Paul Allen – Each failure contains the seeds to the next success—in case someone is willing to learn from.
Larry Wilson – Academic advantage is an advantage but in no way it ensures success.
Mark Zuckerberg – People first decide that they want to start a company before deciding what they want to do.
Bill Gates – Optimism is often dismissed as false hope. But there is also false hopelessness.
Jack Dorsey – If you have an idea get it out of your head and start working on it.
Oprah Winfrey – Knowing what you do not want is the best possible place to be because knowing what you do not want leads you to figure out the things you really want.
Ralph Lauren – I try to find people who love and believe in what I do; and people I can respect because they do what I do.
Steve Jobs- If you really look at the successful ones and the ones which weren’t – oftentimes the once who were successful loved what they did so they could preserver when things got really tough.
Entrepreneurs often walk in the unfortunate roads of failure. Hence you have to be very sure about your vision and your accomplishment. Don’t lie to yourself and be brutally honest with yourself.
Although college education can pay-off big time, it can’t be termed as an absolute essential. The primary reason being, that colleges mostly teach one to follow and not lead. The chances of innovation are less when we tend to follow others’ footsteps. College Drop-outs often try paving a new path which is mostly untraditional and lonely at times; but with the required courage and dedication everything falls into place perfectly. Entrepreneurial success can never be evaluated by formal education.
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There are oppositions that are bound to come along the way. But cruising along against the tide gives us the courage to face deep waters. So stop thinking and start believing in yourself. Where there is a will there is always a way and we should never forget the golden saying, ‘Failures are the pillars of success’.

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