One of our gurus (guru Nanak) always emphasized on traveling, as per him it helps a man discover his true self. During college i was lucky to travel to 7 countries … Now after a long time and as a part of my work at druvaa, i was traveling for almost 8 weeks now …
This time (may be because of my state of mind), i happened to notice entrepreneurship at different levels …
1. My cousin who did masters in sciences (chemistry) for Ludhiyana, spent 5 years and Rs. 25 lakhs to start a company which manufactures plastic/rubber spare parts for spinning industry. He now can reverse engineer any German plastic and rubber spare-part for its composition and qualities and recreate it (even better) and sells for 1/3rd the price. He buys 2nd hand preferably-non working cheap German machines and repairs them himself. Company has 3 employees and generates Re. 1 Cr. in revenues now. They don’t want to grow beyond that. 🙂
2. At M.G road, Pune, some smart chap gives of parking tickets at a discount with an advertisement printed at the back 🙂
3. I always find this old guy, selling poly-bags to visitors at pune gurudwara who are not able to manage their prashad 🙂
4. A close friend at cobaan is working on a online business, mathematics of which i could never understand. This time i was thrilled to see how he (as sole founder) with a two member team could manage a $100 first payment within 6 months of inception and zero marketing effort. He also gets 25K visitors every month now … This is one of the very few online businesses (atleast i know of) in India, which have a commonsense based revenue model in place, and not depending on google adwords or a potential buyout.
conclusion:
So, i believe, terms like – “crowded market” , “product difficult to sell”, “involved sales cycle”, “tough competition” are all terms coined by losers for losers. No market has ever been uncrowded if it has been lucrative enough, and it has never been easy to sell. There is nothing you can’t recreate better and there is no competition you can’t break.
The “restrictive” conventional wisdom has no place in startups, and thats precisely the point you start-up all over again.
You have to be an entrepreneur, think positive and stay alive.
- India’s Hottest Startups - September 7, 2008
- The case of SonimTech – And lessons we can learn - August 23, 2008
- The Druvaa Story – III - July 14, 2008
Very very inspiring.Thanks Jaspeet.
yup rehan,
well said. I try to follow up with all those who put down the business plan or a sales deal, just to know what went wrong. Introspecting failures is important. very important.
Its easiest to say “no”, and easier to ignore it.
But analyzing that “no” and what it means for your business holds a key to success (IMO).
But, once you trust a business, every “no” should be challenged, giving it fair chance of survival.
– J
Nice one Jaspreet.
One must respect Nay Sayers as well, there is often wisdom in what they point out. It should not discourage you. Just listen, understand what they mean, and dispassionately look at your business model and fine tune it if required. A good entrepreneur always respects feedback given.
I personally learnt this the hard way and in my early years I made the mistake of not listening carefully to what people said just because it challenged what I believed. I infact consciously avoided such people. I lost some ground due to this. Now I am more confident of myself and I listen very carefully and try and understand why they are saying this, what are they seeing that I am not. Its helping me a lot. Its all part of learning and growing process.
I like this man Jaspreet.
Good one. Grass roots entreprenuers are great to observe and their success stories should encourange others. Not everything has to be a mega Crore VC funded startup from day one.
The trick is to never listen to the nay-sayers. Never. Ever. Never ever.
Of course, having that type of die hard conviction, is what being an entrepreneur is all about, BUT – one should be aware of the associated risks and accept that even despite all the conviction and attitude in the world, somethings just don’t work out.