Startups

In this glorious new age, a key question is this: Just how American is entrepreneurship? The word, of course, is French. But the question is, are you more american that french?

I started feeling good about myself as soon as I realized that I was going to be a part of a startup - nothing gives you a kick more than feeling good about whatever you have achieved at the end of the day - be it a small order raised, or another fellow recruited, or a simple visiting card designed for yourself - one can get that feeling only if you get that feeling. Can't be explained.

I have been a trouble maker - and entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble making individual. But what's good about this trouble making is that the solution is also on the cards - because you know what role you are playing at what time.

I see myself as an entrepreneur, but I define it in a different way. People mix up entrepreneurship with risk-taking - I would rather say that an entrepreneur is a risk-minimizer, an opportunity seeker. I have never felt that I am taking risks - though all my near and dear ones have been of such an opinion. It normally seems so clearly to make sense. One could faintly smell a monster.

And it's also about trust - all those who are together have to have faith - in each other; in their business; most of all, in themselves.

Most entrepreneurs I know do it because they want to, not just to get rich. Money will flow when it should. And anyways, it is never the most sought after thingy.

Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. It brings out the best (maybe the worst). But it definitely brings things out - so there is no harm trying, because you atleast get to know who you are.

And then there is this friend of mine, who has been through various life cycles, each time being in this startup mode, and fighting through the way. Rightly, it is more about preparing yourself for the mindshare and commitment, before anything else.

I admire him for reasons more than one, and I love the way he has explained a startup in the simplest of words here. (http://anupamvarghese.blogspot.com/2008/10/startup-and-family.html). We were both in startups at the same time, and we both have grown in different ways. Stories are different, essence is the same. Ask him. Ask me.