Although I am an aspiring Entrepreneur.. I have never written about Entreprenuership on my blog.. I just went thru the blog ("Entrepreneurship: My Struggle with Myself") of the "Entrepreneurship- Lets Chase our Dreams!" tribe in techtribe (www.techtribe.com). The following is an excellent copy of the blog written by Abhishek Sharma. It exactly depicts the situation I am currently in .. being in the "Comfort Zone".. It talks a lot about Entrepreneuship too.. Really worth a read...
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Entrepreneurship: My Struggle with Myself
Posted by Abhishek on 30 Nov 2006
I still remember when I was young and started to ride a bicycle, after many a tries, I finally got ‘Balance’ and could manage bicycle on my own. I called everyone at home and showed them, I can ride a bicycle and they all appreciated, then I went back to my friends and showed them my achievement. There was a stark glow on my face!
I am sure all of you would also remember your first moment of achievements, be it first grade in class or as simple as creating your first sand castle. That time, left enormous impact on all of us, we still remember that moment and even today a child walks up to us jumping and wanting to share his achievement, we get little nostalgic about how we experienced it.
Since our childhood, all of us wants to achieve something ‘Big’ in life, only thing is definition of Big keeps on changing from time to time. When we were young; riding a bicycle was Big, then standing on the podium receiving first prize, then driving a car, then joining our dream company and list is endless.
For quiet sometime, I got engaged in this question of what exactly is ‘Big’ for me next, after achieving all that I thought was ‘Big’ enough for me. A thought struck me my next ‘Big’ thing would be to do what I always wanted to do. Hang on, what’s that, I asked myself; then I realized I wanted to be an entrepreneur, somebody who is responsible completely for success and failure of the venture. Somebody, who may not earn that big a money in the initial few years what he would be earning at the moment, but will have sense of pride in working towards realizing his dreams. This thought kept on bothering me for some time. I kept on delaying it, not now may be a little later was something I kept on saying to myself and finally realized that I am procrastinating nothing else, but my dream and I wondered as to why I am doing that and finally got the answer whish is; I am relaxing, chilling out and enjoying myself in my ‘Comfort Zone’.
‘Bang On’ and that’s it, this mere realization made me shiver. I thought, I have never been one of those who live in their comfort zone. I always thought I am the one who always try different things in life, get driven by challenges and so on but No, I wasn’t really like that. Trust me friends, this realization was ‘Tough’ for me to absorb. After this I could look at various occasions where I had an opportunity to move out of my comfort zones but sheer thought of failing, did not let me decide and I kept on procrastinating.
After this I looked as to what are the reasons I am giving to myself, which are not letting me move out of my comfort zone, and I could think of following:
a) I have got financial liabilities (basically EMIs) on me, which I need to take care of how will I manage that?
b) Starting venture is too risky what if I don’t make it?
c) Will I be able to get back to corporate world, if things doesn’t go the way I want it to go? What will people say?
d) There will be too much pressure on me to perform; will I be able to handle that?
e) My peers will move to next level by the time I could my venture to a level and I can survive? There is a big opportunity risk in this.
f) What will my friends think of me?
And trust me friends, list was endless. I had so many reasons not to do what I want to do in life; I realized I was cozy in my comfort zone; big money, beautiful office, healthy work environment, respect, authority and responsibility, opportunity to travel abroad and explore the world, Credit card people chasing me, so many corporate offers, excellent gym in office and what not.
I tried to look at both sides of the coins; reasons I had ‘Not’ to be an entrepreneur and reasons I had ‘To Be’ and entrepreneur. Friends, you won’t believe this, I just had one reason to be an entrepreneur; now you must be wondering what was that. Friends, it was “Its my dream to make a world class organization; and people should say here is the man who had what it takes to realize his dreams”. This reason was ‘Big’ enough for me to leave all the reasons I have mentioned above aside and decided to take the plunge.
Friends, all of us are cozy in our comfort zones but trust me what whatever we dream of is just outside our comfort zone. Surely, it takes lot of courage to decide, it takes lot of planning but starting onto your journey of dreams, but it’s really worth you. We don’t have clue how exciting and challenging entrepreneurial ecosystem is, I can guarantee you that ‘stark glow on your face’ which you are trying to find is available. Moment you get your first client, you get recognition, media starts to talk about who you are, you will never be the same person. Friends, lets get our act together and give it a shot, all of us have it what it takes to realize our dreams!
I am sure all of you would also remember your first moment of achievements, be it first grade in class or as simple as creating your first sand castle. That time, left enormous impact on all of us, we still remember that moment and even today a child walks up to us jumping and wanting to share his achievement, we get little nostalgic about how we experienced it.
Since our childhood, all of us wants to achieve something ‘Big’ in life, only thing is definition of Big keeps on changing from time to time. When we were young; riding a bicycle was Big, then standing on the podium receiving first prize, then driving a car, then joining our dream company and list is endless.
For quiet sometime, I got engaged in this question of what exactly is ‘Big’ for me next, after achieving all that I thought was ‘Big’ enough for me. A thought struck me my next ‘Big’ thing would be to do what I always wanted to do. Hang on, what’s that, I asked myself; then I realized I wanted to be an entrepreneur, somebody who is responsible completely for success and failure of the venture. Somebody, who may not earn that big a money in the initial few years what he would be earning at the moment, but will have sense of pride in working towards realizing his dreams. This thought kept on bothering me for some time. I kept on delaying it, not now may be a little later was something I kept on saying to myself and finally realized that I am procrastinating nothing else, but my dream and I wondered as to why I am doing that and finally got the answer whish is; I am relaxing, chilling out and enjoying myself in my ‘Comfort Zone’.
‘Bang On’ and that’s it, this mere realization made me shiver. I thought, I have never been one of those who live in their comfort zone. I always thought I am the one who always try different things in life, get driven by challenges and so on but No, I wasn’t really like that. Trust me friends, this realization was ‘Tough’ for me to absorb. After this I could look at various occasions where I had an opportunity to move out of my comfort zones but sheer thought of failing, did not let me decide and I kept on procrastinating.
After this I looked as to what are the reasons I am giving to myself, which are not letting me move out of my comfort zone, and I could think of following:
a) I have got financial liabilities (basically EMIs) on me, which I need to take care of how will I manage that?
b) Starting venture is too risky what if I don’t make it?
c) Will I be able to get back to corporate world, if things doesn’t go the way I want it to go? What will people say?
d) There will be too much pressure on me to perform; will I be able to handle that?
e) My peers will move to next level by the time I could my venture to a level and I can survive? There is a big opportunity risk in this.
f) What will my friends think of me?
And trust me friends, list was endless. I had so many reasons not to do what I want to do in life; I realized I was cozy in my comfort zone; big money, beautiful office, healthy work environment, respect, authority and responsibility, opportunity to travel abroad and explore the world, Credit card people chasing me, so many corporate offers, excellent gym in office and what not.
I tried to look at both sides of the coins; reasons I had ‘Not’ to be an entrepreneur and reasons I had ‘To Be’ and entrepreneur. Friends, you won’t believe this, I just had one reason to be an entrepreneur; now you must be wondering what was that. Friends, it was “Its my dream to make a world class organization; and people should say here is the man who had what it takes to realize his dreams”. This reason was ‘Big’ enough for me to leave all the reasons I have mentioned above aside and decided to take the plunge.
Friends, all of us are cozy in our comfort zones but trust me what whatever we dream of is just outside our comfort zone. Surely, it takes lot of courage to decide, it takes lot of planning but starting onto your journey of dreams, but it’s really worth you. We don’t have clue how exciting and challenging entrepreneurial ecosystem is, I can guarantee you that ‘stark glow on your face’ which you are trying to find is available. Moment you get your first client, you get recognition, media starts to talk about who you are, you will never be the same person. Friends, lets get our act together and give it a shot, all of us have it what it takes to realize our dreams!
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There is also a comment by Anup which is also superb and adds on to the above matter...
01 Dec 2006
Hello,
Superb piece. I went through the same emotions that you mentioned when I started out on my own. But today, I live according to my own terms. Even today, there is lot of struggle, especially financial ones. But one thing that I can say is that, I graduated from "Cash Problem", to "Cash Flow" problem :-) and my experienced business friends tell me that in itself is a sign of progress.
I would like to add a few more points to what Abhishek has written on "The rewards of entrepreneurship"
I would like to add a few more points to what Abhishek has written on "The rewards of entrepreneurship"
1 - More self esteem - When you come out of your "secure zone" and the "safety of money in your bank account on the 30th", you realize that you have to trust and back yourself. When you realize that you are on your own and you have to earn your pay on your own, you feel scared and when I say "scared", it is that "nasty, gut knotting, rising from the bottom of your stomach" ugly fear. But once you over come it, start believing in yourself and convince your customers that your product is good enough, at that moment, you grow up. You value yourself more, you start appreciating yourself and the world around you more.
2 - Humility - When you turn entrepreneur and start tasting success, you appreciate other entrepreneurs. When I used to work as an employee, I used to criticize the owners of my company, complaining about lack of facilities and compare them with other successful companies. Today I realize how difficult it is to run an enterprise. Also, being an entrepreneur I appreciate all types of work. For example I used to blame accountants as lazy for delaying reimbursements. But today, I know a fair bit of accounting and I can afford an accountant and I realize how difficult a task they have to perform.
3 - Test your reserves and stamina - We read that InfoSys has 600 clients and the number sounds so simple. Try getting "1", yes, I mean "ONE" client, especially if you are selling your skills (consulting). The process through which you have to "meet the customer first" (undergo the pain of explaining who you are and what you do over the phone to an impatient manager), "slowly convince the customer" and finally get the order. If you can come through this, it shows character and you would have grown as a person. You will notice that you become more patient and more tolerant towards others because you know that only sweat, toil and patience takes you forward
4 Honest Friends - When you turn entrepreneur, and if you are starting with minimal capital, you will be relying on friends for survival. I have had some close friends who lend me money to survive the initial days and they trusted me to make money and repay them back. At this juncture you realize that however great you may be, it is only because of friends and families that you will be able to make it big. Today I make it a point to spend time with my family and friends.
My Best,
Anup.
Anup.
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Really worth a read and inspiring too... Atleast for me !!!
Cheers !!!
Midhun.
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