ENTREPRENEUR OF DREAMS

“Your time is limited. So don’t waste it living someone else life. Don’t let the voice of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. Have the courage to follow your heart and intrusion.”   

----  Steve jobs , famous Stanford speech

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intrusion”, this is the prime piece of advice that an aspiring entrepreneur like me follows in life. I still remember those days of my childhood when I always kept a copy of a speech made by a man, an entrepreneur himself, a truly inspiring speech on a convocation ceremony, which ignited souls of thousands of individuals across the globe. The same man, once, lived in the streets of United States, he used to gather coke bottles to find money for his daily bread, he used to travel to Hare Krishna temple bare footed, to have a good meal once a week. But this same man made history by creating a company, Apple, which produces iphone, ipad and other ‘I’ products. Which, the upper class holds with prime respect. Thus, nothing really cares, your background, financial status, colour but what really means is the way you think. What really matters is your ability to turn things.

I find three ‘E’s really important for entrepreneurs, which are” Empower, Enrich & Enlarge”. It’s the profit which is of prime importance. The profit at initial stage of investment should be used to enlarge your business. Enlarging your business and covering various sectors is perhaps a great deal as far as I concern. I am referring to the dotcom boom that happened in the initial state of twenty first century. Infosys’s software industry was seriously damaged, but their call centre business showed significant growth and helped Infy to become stable. Call centre business was a low capital investment for them but it did save them. As I said, it is important to cover different sectors with the initial profit you achieve. Keeping money in a shelf never makes you a great entrepreneur. Risk is what you should take; no one can become successful without taking risk.

Once I saw a boy selling vegetables in a rickshaw, in  the beautiful city of Cochin, he was too little to do so. I asked him about his dream, he said, he wanted to become a businessman, to open a tea stall. I , as  a 21^st century folk was pretty surprised to hear it, how can a boy with less money and perhaps no initial investment even dream about it. He had a reply for all my questions. He said ‘I will work day and night to get money to buy a shop and utensils”. I asked about his education, he said he is in no situation to go to school as his father is ill and he had to do work to get bread for his family. He left me. But I can still see a spark in his eyes. He will reach his dream to open a tee stall in the very much crowded area of Cochin.

That is what a 14 year old boy teaches us, he has a goal to achieve; he works hard to reach it.

In India stories of our villages are more or less pathetic, with no basic amenities, no safe water to drink, with no primary education centres. Thus migration occurs to the cities. This results in increase in slum area. The life in a slum is not at all romantic. There people suffers severe health diseases, ranging from acute fever to malaria. They might be a prey to hunger. Sometimes even criminals find slum as a hideout for themselves. Providing re-habitation for millions living in slum is a real challenge for authorities. Thus, nobody cares for their survival. Keeping them illiterate and illegitimate is what they do. Befooling millions, barring them from unleashing their power, preventing their right to dream, but one day, they will break all barriers. They will rise above limitations, human capital cannot be suppressed for generations as its soul bears the power and potential to overcome all the existing evils, which for them is bubble liked.

I have never been a prey to hunger, thanks to my parents, but the story is somewhat different with 25% of my countrymen. India has been self sufficient in food, (Jai Jawan, jai kisan), thanks to our political leaders, they, indeed, did many things like creating green revolution or introduction of Bt cotton. But still India suffers due to its poor management of resources (produced food materials). We have been lacking basic infrastructure facilities like food storage, cold storage etc, thus while our 25% population remains in hunger, hundreds and thousands of tonnes of food grains are wasted due to the ill management. That is the single place where India’s political class failed; they have been busy post-independence in the very nasty political blame game. Lack of proper canal systems and intereptted electricity supply are some problems that our farmers face. Gujarat model is perhaps the greatest solution to the problems listed above. The canal top solar system is the product of a great thinking, using this method water can be saved and electricity can be generated with limited capital and solar energy is the considerable mode of energy for future generation. Visionary leaders are the only solution for the problems India faces today.

India has witnessed many interim governments, governments even lasting for days, a farmer as its Prime Minister (who perhaps not even knew what twin deficit means) but the same really survives, great, its founding stone is really hard to break. Government sops have increased the fiscal deficit and current account deficit (collectively twin deficit) for over years. Now, the new sop called Food Security bill comes to the stage, which will cost 80,000 crore rupee expenses to the public treasury which is ready to burst at any moment of time. But, where will the money come from? This project can literally back foot the whole India development story. Most important part is that the blue print for this project has not been revealed yet, without basic infrastructure development Food Security bill, is an empty bucket without water.

Thus the larger question arising to the centre is how can an entrepreneur become successful, given the problems faced by SMEs, in this great nation. It was perhaps post 1970 period when political parties found business class as a fodder filled cow. They proceeded in a ‘mutualistic ‘way, where land worth 500 million rupees was offered at throwaway prices. Thus, there is a deep rooted link between (a nexus) Multinationals and the domestic political parties, say it Bofors, Augusta Westland helicopter deal and else. Political parties definitely go against the national interest, in a sense, but perhaps playing a pro-industrialist role, which could help them ease money and a possible ‘dividend’ to them. Keeping common people befooled and industrial India surpluses. Yes , this is what happening in this nation.

“Entrepreneur of dreams” is all about unleashing the power within you. Making you realistic in a sense about the current happenings in the world around you. How can you change the world? You can find it here.  Creating a free space for you to think, or perhaps a vacuum, is most needed in twenty first century. If you think progressively the whole India will progress, politicians will be accountable and India will spread light to the rest of the world, which literally is in darkness.