After 1 year and 3 months of quitting a cosy-big-MNC-much-loved-dream-job (removed a link from here as it creates confusion.) and just turning 28 I found myself asking the question what is this Entrepreneurship is all about ?
Is it the money ?
No ! I am broke and I can’t buy stuff like a crazy over priced bicycle (my friend has one) or an iPod which I had bought in the past and still using as an hard disk. I still remember paying advance for Onakkazhcha exhibition with the last pennies in my account and coming back with some 110 rupees (2.5 USD) in my wallet.
Is it the comfort and no need to much work ?
Comfort ? I haven’t gone to Bangalore PVR or gone to one of those over priced restaurants on birthday treats or even there was not much time to sleep. I used to shiver under the A/C and last year I was sweating !
Is it all the fun, glamour ?
heck ! no. I had to switch to T-shirts and Jeans because I no longer able to iron the clothes for that matter. Fun, well, I find miss calls in mobile from various people of which few are the most cute girls one encounters in life but I’ve no way but see those calls hours late and do nothing about it.
Is it the freedom and do whatever you want to do ?
no way ! you can’t even fall sick because that is when all the world turns against you. You can’t go on a trip because that is when your client wants an immediate whatever call with you.
oh, since you have so many people working under you can work less, that it ?
well, absolutely wrong. Earlier one had a boss and only person was waiting to hear for answer, a reply or whatever. Now you end up with a lot of people waiting for replies you end up following up, working, researching thinking the whole day.
No its not money, power, glamour, less work, freedom that defines entrepreneurship. When you become an entrepreneur, you get the freedom to choose what you have to work on, you come to office and see the people sitting in there and you realize you are able to reach not just a family but the lifes of all their families, You feel happy when a client who lives on the other side of the planet which is believed to be spherical in shape asks you to take a break, pack your bags, go to the mountains or he trusts you and offers to help in a charity photography exhibition you are involved in, or someone says he had a “blink” moment when he met us and he trusts us with the most important project of his life or you feel proud when a movie director gives you the freedom to decide on how to make the teaser for his most challenging work, or you feel really cared and loved when one of your best friends comes to your office and says you have got a nice setup and I entrust you with my upcoming project.
What is all above means ?
Entrepreneurship is all about blood and sweat one puts to whatever one likes and in turn he becomes trust worthy, ethical, transparent and capable of delivering the most challenging tasks to the people who trusts him. He influences and changes the lifes of the people around him or her. He may have to make personal sacrifices which has long term postive impact on not just him but on the people who trusts him – the ones the world calls clients or employees.
I think now I am able to do only those things I like to do. I remember myself telling my superior when I joined for cosy-big-MNC-much-love-dream-job that I hate GUIs and I am most comfortable with a text terminal, code but then there were times when I looked at GUIs with an already upset mind, I tried to keep the monitor upside down, looked at it, no the GUI still looked like a ugly-alien or something. Now I am no longer tormented by such things, but we get the freedom to choose what we need to work with, its no longer a legacy technology, same old repeating stuff, one get the freedom to implement what you use to read only in slashdot and feel satisfied. Life remains the same, you have same old things which upsets you, same old stuff around you but then there is something new everyday.
If the defintion of an Entrepreneur is one who has stopped making compromises in his life and by so becomes a confident, proactive, trustworthy individual able to change the lifes of the people around him, then yes I am one.
And yea, He has the best friends one can think of. Shijil, Sai, Prince are just three of them in the list in which other names will be a bloody cool Mohan, Smevin, Jithesh, one person whom I call messenger, Alexy, Aswathy, Cibin, Lijo, Adarsh, Vikas, Shyam, Muraliyettan, Krish, Oam, Sunil, Deepa and yes the list goes on … Well yea, Entrepreneurs are not supposed to become emotional etc so I am not writing more names and how they have helped me !
