Giving In. Not Giving Up!

Dear Fellow Entrepreneurs and Leader Friends,

Biased as I maybe through my experience, and hopefully richer as well, I believe that there are possibly two key phases in an entrepreneur’s journey. First, when one wants to get started. Not just a ‘leap of faith’ but the actual ‘leap’. The other is when one has started and wants to make it happen. Make it happening.

And through it, perhaps THE defining quality (we need lots of it in quantity as well) is in staying the course. Staying with it. The idea. The venture.

Giving In. Not Giving Up.

Soaking in all that the experience has to offer.

Developing a certain expertise-entrepreneurial expertise- through the journey. Throughout the journey.

Giving In. But not Giving Into. Not Giving Up!

In this journey, perhaps there are valuable lessons from life that one can draw upon?

The life of an entrepreneur, after all is an entrepreneurial life!

As a first set of manifestations through this series, I propose to draw upon some nuggets (Life Lessons) from my book I AM LOSING SIGNAL  (http://www.amazon.com/Am-Losing-Signal-Connecting-Real/dp/1481743325) that was released out of the US globally, sometime back.

Happy reading and internalizing! And yes, wait to hear your experiences as well.

Ever wondered what a teacher would do in an empty classroom? While there is a tendency amongst ourselves as a ‘clan’ (if I may) to often jump to solutions and execution, without fully understanding the challenges and given compelling pressures of time to market, perhaps at times, it may be worthwhile to take a second look at this first impression.

Are we offering ourselves to being taught? Do we appreciate that it is a mix of both aim and fire (which we know only too well, thanks to our Business Plans), as well as fire and aim (we learn on the way, and one which we know nothing about)?

Every venture is unique. Every entrepreneur is unique. And so is the experience that comes with it.

“I may not know the goalposts and the paths that we are to take…but am I able to describe vividly what we aspire to do?“. And in doing so, how are we able to co-create and execute to a ‘Shared Vision’ (that is defined and pursued by all), than merely a ‘Vision Shared’ (one that I define and is shared with all to follow)?

One of the traps of entrepreneurship is to believe that if we have been through this before, it will exactly pose ourselves to the same set of challenges, and we can do it again.

While the confidence is more than appreciated, perhaps the approach needs to be calibrated and attuned keeping in mind changing market conditions, customer preferences, one’s transforming organizational values and if nothing else, because it is a brand new year? (Kidding on the last one!)

Some of my most important decisions in Life and Business have been based on answering the question, “What would my son do, if he were to be faced with this”? There is a ‘Little Professor’ and childlike simplicity within us. Is it with us? Is it a part of our entrepreneurial arsenal? Time to discover that self of ours? No wonder that Aristotle once said, “The child is the father (and mother as well) of man (and woman)”.

Letting people in is perhaps tougher and also perhaps way easier than places and things. After all, intrinsically humans are designed to respond and in such a response lay life and business’s pleasures.

Positive emotions, come hell or high water, is key to being entrepreneurial. And that starts with letting positive people into one’s inner ecosystem, thinking and action. Degrees, experience, pedigree matter. But nothing counts without an iota of positivity.

Many a time, we seemingly fail in something we wanted to achieve. Maybe a milestone, that was integral to our success and growth? …but that’s OK. The spiritual side in us guides that it is best not to ‘label’ an experience as good or bad. The experience is what it is. That’s all! And through that ‘seeming failure’, how do we understand the value of, and paths we take not to fail, and succeed?

On a related note, a near death car crash got me out, not just from the crash, but more importantly from accidents that were not worth sweating for in Life? As regards business, it’s just business!

I find real joy and bliss on my son’s face, when he is floating. And as I dwell, or perhaps float, I realize that some of the most joyous experiences as an entrepreneur did not take tons of energy and budgets to fight it for, but ones that were simple enough for us to achieve, relish and cherish. Just because we floated and ‘lived the moment’.

We are a product of what we do. Period! And all that comes with it, including the responsibility of making it or not making it.

After all, software is nothing but a programmable extension of the human mind. I wish we could also be like software, programming and programmed for all the nice and good things in life.

Need I say more?

That’s all we need. That’s all we got. Woops, the moment just passed by…and here comes another! Till then.

Ritendra is currently involved in game-changing entrepreneurial activities, including being CEO and cofounder of a global testing finishing school (SALT), till recently Asia president of a leading strategy firm (Scientrix), and holding advisory positions with boards and corporations in Asia and worldwide.

Ritendra is an advisory panel member for leading business, quality, technology, and assurance standards, events, and forums. Coauthor of two globally bestselling books on knowledge management, he is a life enthusiast who is always learning lessons from his son, Ahaan.

He truly believes in ‘Who and what we seek, seeks us’.

More at  www.ritendrabanerjee.com