To the Spirit of Enterprise!
What would it take for you to give up the warmth and security of an assured monthly pay check to embrace the uncertainty and topsy-turviness of the fruits of an idea that you can call your own? As most entrepreneurs would answer it’s the thrill of the ride!
Contrary to the obvious perception, most of the psychological studies done on entrepreneurship describe entrepreneurs as medium risk-takers – their risk-appetite evolving over time – then why is it that some of us still find working for someone more palatable than working for ourselves?
There was a panel discussion of three women entrepreneurs that I was fortunate to attend. In the course of sharing their experiences many inspiring thoughts surfaced like acquiring the mandatory skills in finance, building a team that complements your skills, leveraging your network etc. But if I were to cherry-pick a single thought that makes a difference between making it big and faltering it would be the uniqueness of the value your initiative is adding to the existing circumstances. This could be in terms of a never-before idea that almost creates a new industry, a more efficient processing of an old idea that saves time and money for the customer or a more effective version of an existing idea that adds value in terms of the quality that the customer is receiving – if any of this is the impetus behind the entrepreneurial initiative all that is left is to make sure the hygiene factors are in place and the ball gets rolling toward a more lucrative and satiating destination.
I still remember my father doing his meticulous ground work to start a data-processing initiative in a sleepy little town at a time where computers could easily be perceived to be from outer space – but his idea was unique given the circumstances, this combined with the adrenalin rush of seeing your brain-child grow undoubtedly provided him with big doses of satisfaction. All of us have some friends and near ones who could see the niche others could not and hence decided to replace their boss with themselves.
When I look around, few initiatives catch my fancy so much that it’s almost impossible to resist mentioning them here.
Most of us seek informal opinions of friends in various situations like gardening, buying appliances, issues in raising children, etc. A website called ‘Helium’ invites people to post their opinions on various topics, rate other’s articles and hence builds a knowledge repository that visitors can access while looking for every day answers. Another website that I recently visited connects people looking for others to ‘Car-Pool’ with them. Then there’s this whole revolution in beauty and fitness industry that is hard to miss – there are studios offering exclusive group workout techniques like ‘Pilates’, weight-loss techniques like body-wraps, spas offering strawberry and champagne massages for those willing to indulge, weight loss support groups like ‘weight watchers’ connecting people with similar goals of loosing weight and providing them external support in terms of healthier recipes and exercise ideas, endless gizmos at every price point to help you achieve your fitness goal and the list is endless. There are re-location consultants to help employees who have re-located to cope with the stress of the change; there are sports psychologists mentally training professional sportspersons, and financial advisors dedicated toward orienting and providing suggestions to an average retail investor – the innovation appears to be masquerading as the simplicity of the idea.
My deep belief in individual freedom makes me perceive “freelancing” as the finest example of flexibility without the investment of an initiative. Whether it is as a writer, fitness instructor or a consultant, if one has the appetite for ambiguity, there’s no better way to erase the differences in the adjectives attached to work and non-work part of our lives than freelancing.
I was reading an article on Apple’s iphone and how living up to his reputation Steve Jobs has done it again – by overcoming all the faults of the regular cell-phone like a difficult to use keyboard, compromised quality of video and audio etc. he has taken convergence one step further, and has created a beautiful device that just happens to have the functions of a cell-phone. The mantra seems to be in finding that gap, building a meticulous plan to fill it and then charging a premium for it – in turn discovering our natural selves in the whole experience. As one entrepreneur succinctly said:
The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We're born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies.
What would it take for you to give up the warmth and security of an assured monthly pay check to embrace the uncertainty and topsy-turviness of the fruits of an idea that you can call your own? As most entrepreneurs would answer it’s the thrill of the ride!
Contrary to the obvious perception, most of the psychological studies done on entrepreneurship describe entrepreneurs as medium risk-takers – their risk-appetite evolving over time – then why is it that some of us still find working for someone more palatable than working for ourselves?
There was a panel discussion of three women entrepreneurs that I was fortunate to attend. In the course of sharing their experiences many inspiring thoughts surfaced like acquiring the mandatory skills in finance, building a team that complements your skills, leveraging your network etc. But if I were to cherry-pick a single thought that makes a difference between making it big and faltering it would be the uniqueness of the value your initiative is adding to the existing circumstances. This could be in terms of a never-before idea that almost creates a new industry, a more efficient processing of an old idea that saves time and money for the customer or a more effective version of an existing idea that adds value in terms of the quality that the customer is receiving – if any of this is the impetus behind the entrepreneurial initiative all that is left is to make sure the hygiene factors are in place and the ball gets rolling toward a more lucrative and satiating destination.
I still remember my father doing his meticulous ground work to start a data-processing initiative in a sleepy little town at a time where computers could easily be perceived to be from outer space – but his idea was unique given the circumstances, this combined with the adrenalin rush of seeing your brain-child grow undoubtedly provided him with big doses of satisfaction. All of us have some friends and near ones who could see the niche others could not and hence decided to replace their boss with themselves.
When I look around, few initiatives catch my fancy so much that it’s almost impossible to resist mentioning them here.
Most of us seek informal opinions of friends in various situations like gardening, buying appliances, issues in raising children, etc. A website called ‘Helium’ invites people to post their opinions on various topics, rate other’s articles and hence builds a knowledge repository that visitors can access while looking for every day answers. Another website that I recently visited connects people looking for others to ‘Car-Pool’ with them. Then there’s this whole revolution in beauty and fitness industry that is hard to miss – there are studios offering exclusive group workout techniques like ‘Pilates’, weight-loss techniques like body-wraps, spas offering strawberry and champagne massages for those willing to indulge, weight loss support groups like ‘weight watchers’ connecting people with similar goals of loosing weight and providing them external support in terms of healthier recipes and exercise ideas, endless gizmos at every price point to help you achieve your fitness goal and the list is endless. There are re-location consultants to help employees who have re-located to cope with the stress of the change; there are sports psychologists mentally training professional sportspersons, and financial advisors dedicated toward orienting and providing suggestions to an average retail investor – the innovation appears to be masquerading as the simplicity of the idea.
My deep belief in individual freedom makes me perceive “freelancing” as the finest example of flexibility without the investment of an initiative. Whether it is as a writer, fitness instructor or a consultant, if one has the appetite for ambiguity, there’s no better way to erase the differences in the adjectives attached to work and non-work part of our lives than freelancing.
I was reading an article on Apple’s iphone and how living up to his reputation Steve Jobs has done it again – by overcoming all the faults of the regular cell-phone like a difficult to use keyboard, compromised quality of video and audio etc. he has taken convergence one step further, and has created a beautiful device that just happens to have the functions of a cell-phone. The mantra seems to be in finding that gap, building a meticulous plan to fill it and then charging a premium for it – in turn discovering our natural selves in the whole experience. As one entrepreneur succinctly said:
The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We're born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies.
posted by Garima at 3:10 PM
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