How to possibly Start-Up?
While literally the youth of India is so excited about startups and business unicorns, that possibly everyone wants to jump into the wagon. Although there is no harm in trying to taste the startup experience, a lot depends on how you manage your mindset, finances and the team while growing up.
As often, it is rare that someone possess a path-breaking idea that has not been executed in the past. It must be a patented innovation to achieve that level of product effectiveness. How can someone possibly think of starting up without affecting one’s routine/job/education?
Directly thinking of pitching to an angel investor can be dangerous as investors are more interested in their exits and booking their profits. Finding a mentor who can guide you and uplift you during those tough times becomes extremely crucial.
Start-up path can be lonely. You will see many of your friends doing the following:
· Enjoying corporate world
· Taking exotic vacations
· Buying expensive stuff which you can only dream of!
· See them settling down in career and life.
And here you are still trying to figure out your revenue model and how to retain customers to attain revenue stability.
After a certain point of time, your family and friends would start asking awkward questions, and mentally pester you to get back to your job. How long can you stretch yourself? Starting up in India requires extreme mental toughness, as it requires something much more than just an awesome idea.
The real challenge is in execution of that idea. Any dumb idea brilliantly executed and presented can do wonders, and any brilliant idea poorly executed can prove worthless!
So, how to startup despite all the challenges just mentioned? Is it worthless to take risk and try out new things? If you are feeling that you are getting that inner gut feeling to just go for it and execute that idea, how you should go about it?
The challenges mentioned above can easily be overcome by starting something known as ‘Side Hustle’, without quitting your job/ career. Immediately quitting your job to try out that outrageous idea is stupidity for obvious reason: What if it doesn’t work out?
Getting back to the job you just quit would be challenging for following reasons:
· You would have already been replaced by someone.
· You would lose self-respect among your peer workers, who would also probably mock you for startup failure.
· You would be at the mercy of your employer, as they would leverage you and overburden you with work
· You will keep cursing yourself for leaving yourself. It would be overall quite emotional draining experience.
Instead, while working for your 9 to 5 job, planning, and executing something which you dream would be a far better strategy.
You would have that financial cushion to support your daily expenses. Also, the relatives and friends would never know of it!
The best way is to work your way up, generate sustainable income stream for your business and then think of quitting your job.
Finding first 50 customers (other than friends and relatives of course) would be tough. But once you pass that threshold, you will automatically start progressing. The real joy comes when you quit your job for something you are passionate about, know how to attract customers, and have built enough passive income streams that you don’t want to work for money anymore.
Dream this:
· You are vacationing in quite solitude place.
· Don’t care about work emails.
· Can do whatever you want in addition to working on your own terms.
· Never have to ask your boss for leaves.
· Can get permanent exit from office politics and worthless gossips.
Reaching this level will require hell lot of sacrifices, burning the midnight oil, facing tons of rejections, immense mental discipline, and real smart work.
But what if…?? It is best to think of worst-case scenario…
What if it doesn’t work out?
Worst case scenario: You would have to look for another job. Activate your network for job recommendations.
But the experience of starting up will take you through a whole new experience of discovering yourself, you will never regret!
Money is always secondary, its important but not everything. Life is measured in moments we live and experience which shapes us up!!
Again, to get a feel of this, imagine worst case scenario,
You are on your deathbed, and reliving your life in mind, what if you think, Oh I should have experimented that idea! Oh, I should have tried that experiment out! It would have impacted millions if it would have worked out!
No one wants to be in that position of regret. Better to act now 😊
Having said that we should never look down upon people and friends working in corporate space, as it is rightly said in the book, Psychology of Money,
Every job looks easy, unless you are the one doing it!!
Image courtesy: blog.ipleaders.in
