Narayana Murthy's pro-tip to entrepreneurs on when to give up on an idea

Narayana Murthy was asked how an entrepreneur can decide when to give up and when to continue to fight.

NR Narayana Murthy recently gave a valuable piece of advice to entrepreneurs, stressing on the fact that it is important to recognise symptoms of failure early on and not be too attached to an idea. In a chat with Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl, the Infosys co-founder said if an entrepreneur finds a “structural weakness” in their idea, it’s time to give up on that idea.

Murthy was asked how an entrepreneur can decide when to give up and when to continue to fight. He went down memory lane and recalled the time in 1976 when he founded a company named Softronics. Murthy shared the reasons of his failure in Softronics and why he closed it in nine months.

“I realised that there was really no market for services in India at that time because there were very few computers and most of the computers were in the government or some of the institutions,” he told Kunal Bahl, who is also the co-founder of Titan Capital.

“What are the reasons why an entrepreneur should close down? If you find that there is a structural weakness in your idea as far as the market is concerned, that is the time to give up,” the iconic tech leader said.

A structural weakness, according to Narayana Murthy, is one over which a person has no way of finding a solution.

“It is something over which no matter what sacrifice you do, no matter how hard you work, no matter what team you have, you will not be able to overcome it.”