An Entrepreneur’s Life

 1. A Sense of Possibility

For an entrepreneur, optimism abounds. Ideas dance like Wordsworth’s daffodils. It is an Open World. It is a world brimming with opportunities. There is a feeling that so much needs to be changed, and he is the person destined to bring about that revolution. Nothing seems impossible. Entrepreneurs have that unique ability to make the incredible so believable and achievable.

No mountain is too high to climb – because it is not a mountain the first place. It becomes a series of small peaks. Where others may seem daunted by the height of the mountain, the entrepreneur keeps the top in sight, and, setting a continuing series of incrementally challenging goals, works to conquer small peaks.

This sense of possibility – that there’s so much to do and change about what exists today, that a different world needs to be created – makes entrepreneurs come alive even in the toughest of times. It may be a Mission Impossible for others, but for the entrepreneur it is an Escape To Victory.

 

2. Tryst with Destiny

Entrepreneurs want their destiny under their control. They believe that they are solely responsible for how the future unfolds, and that their actions can indeed make a difference. They refuse to believe that things are pre-ordained, and yet, feel that the world can be made to conspire to help them.

When I read “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho a few months ago, what struck me about his fable of a shepherd is how closely it mirrored the journey of an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur views the world through his (somewhat blinkered) lens and sees things that others don’t – and at times, misses the obvious things that others point out. The driving factor, like in Coelho’s book, is about listening to the heart and living one’s dream. It is about challenging and conquering destiny. It is about authoring the story of the future.

 

3. Certain Uncertainty

It is perhaps hard to imagine who would like unpredictability, but entrepreneurs seem to thrive on it. For them, each day is unique, with its own joys and delights. Yes, each day has its ups and downs, and entrepreneurs as a rule tend to have more “down days” than “up days”. But they somehow revel in this environment – it tends to bring out the best in them. Surprises – pleasant or otherwise – are to them an integral part of the landscape.

It is this ability to adapt to the changing situations which helps entrepreneurs tackle even the toughest of challenges. They take Today’s Unknowns in their stride. Progress happens only when problems are solved.

An entrepreneur accepts that while the vision and dream is definitely there, the script for the day needs to be crafted out dynamically and innovatively, based on what the situations demand. It is this desire for uncertainty that stifles entrepreneurs when they work in some of the larger enterprises, where each segment of the day is not only defined but needs to be adhered to.

 

4. Freedom To Be

Like a bird navigating the open skies or the fish floating through the infinite oceans, the entrepreneur seeks the freedom to set his own course. He does not like to be told what to do. This is not to say that entrepreneurs don’t listen – in fact, they are perhaps the best synthesizers of opinions. But they like to drive out on their own. Theirs is a mindset which seeks independence.

Part of the reason for this freedom comes because entrepreneurs find themselves at odds with much of the world. This orthogonalilty comes because they are out to change the status quo. This pits them against most of the world which doesn’t like its cheese to be moved. Entrepreneurs, therefore, want freedom – not just from the world of today, but also from the thinking that inhibits innovation and encourages conformance.

 

5. Life = Work, Work = Life

I was reading the introduction to a new book by Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas entitled “Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values and Defining Moments Shape Leaders”. Says Thomas about the men and women who practised leading every moment of the day: “They recognized no distinction between work and life. They were the same people on the job and off. They used every situation they encountered as a practice field and they mined every experience for insight about themselves and the people and the world around them. Leading is not only what they did, it was who they were.”

Replace they by entrepreneurs, and read it again. That is what entrepreneurs are: there is no boundary between any of their lives, there is a single unified life. Work is a continuum. Learning never stops. Thinking is concomitant with breathing. Others may try and tell them how work needs to be left at the office when one comes home. Entrepreneurs may listen, but are incapable of acting upon it. What they do envelops their life and by consequence, those around them. This is the only life they know to live.

 

6. Passion for People

Entrepreneurs may think of themselves as God’s Gift to the World, but very soon they understand that if they want to realise their vision, then they better start loving people. Whether it is at work or in conferences, entrepreneurs tend to have a special way with people. It comes from inner infectious enthusiasm which is evident in all that they do. Not for them the cool confines of a closed cabin. They want to be with their troops, leading from the front, fighting from the trenches. Being with people – within the company or outside – brings out the best in them.

For entrepreneurs, people are also a natural sounding board for their ideas. Just the process of talking to others helps entrepreneurs fine-tune their thinking and ideas. By bringing their passion to bear in their talk and work, entrepreneurs elicit feedback and comments from others, which helps embellish their view of the world.

 

7. Idea to Epiphany

Contrary to the popular myth of ideas coming in the “Eureka” mould, for most entrepreneurs, it is actually a long process of incremental thinking followed by the occasional epiphany which takes thinking to the next level. It is the small steps which set up the platform the big leap; without these baby steps, there would be no “lightbulbs” going off.

It is this process which entrepreneurs thrive in. They have a unique knack of being able to take ideas and concepts from very different and unrelated processes or arenas, and apply them to the context of what they are doing. This ability to make connections and associations is a unique talent which stands them in good stead. Entrepreneurs live for these “Aha” moments. But behind that one big moment is a lot of “Hmmm” type of thinking.

 

8. Envisioning the Future

Entrepreneurs, by default, live in the future. The present and its problems are almost irrelevant to them. They work to craft a Future Fantastic, and then work towards building it out. Entrepreneurs want to compete in this future not with resources but with a blend of passion, vision and strategy. For them, business is an intellectual game of Chess, one where others need to be out-thought, because they cannot be out-spent.

It is also not that entrepreneurs become fixated on a single vision of tomorrow. In their mind’s eye, the future is not a static picture, but an evolving one. They use life’s experiences and their RTW (reading-thinking-writing) to continuously enhance and enrich their view of the world, using their intuitive gyroscopes for regular course correction.

 

9. Traveller’s Tales

Entrepreneurs are natural explorers. They like to travel, see different places, put themselves in different situations. What this does is that it takes them away from the daily buzz of work and makes them see a more holistic view of what they are doing. They come back from trips with a renewed sense of energy which very quickly percolates through their enterprise. Of course, they return with more ideas than are implementable but that’s part of the “occupational hazard”.

Travelling does a lot more. It forces entrepreneurs to start delegating – by default! In general, even though entrepreneurs recognize that they need others to get things done, they have a tendency to believe that they are indispensable. As a result, they become the decision-making hub for everything, and thus a potential bottleneck. By getting out of the office every once in a while, entrepreneurs foster the next level of organisational command (which in most cases happens without the entrepreneurs realising it). When they back, they figure that things actually worked quite well in their absence!

 

10. Friendship with Failure

Entrepreneurs are not afraid to fail. In fact, they believe that only out of failures will come success. Of course, they do not set out to fail. What they do is to set up controlled experiments to try out many of the ideas they have. It is like they are in the middle of a jungle without any maps or navigation instruments. They have a general idea of where they want to go. But to figure out the right sequence of steps, they will make multiple forays into different directions – to get a better perspective of the flora and fauna around. This helps them build a mental map of the landscape – one that is bottom-up and grounded in reality, and move forward.

In the real world, this translates to creating prototypes quickly which can be taken to customers for feedback so they can be iterated upon. It is like making a television soap opera wherein regular course correction can be easily done, rather than the big bang approach of a film which becomes an all-or-none affair and takes years to complete. Some of what they do will fail – because they are trying out multiple approaches. But entrepreneurs are normally quick to recognise what works and what doesn’t, and jettison the things that don’t. Entrepreneurs are not afraid of failure. It they are afraid of something, it is perhaps that they haven’t experimented enough.

 

11. Get It Done

Entrepreneurs are action-oriented. Making projections, org-charts, business plans are just not their cup of tea, even though these are needed as interfaces to the outside world. Entrepreneurs just want to work on getting things done.

The challenge for them lies in how to sequence their activities to get the maximum result from the perennially limited resources that they have. Their business is the Ultimate Reality Show – one in which there is no “Rewind” or “Pause” button, only “Play”.

 

12. Enjoy the Journey

For entrepreneurs, the goal and joy lies not just in reaching the destination. While it is very important to be successful, entrepreneurs recognise that their chance of success is quite small in the big, wide world, and more importantly, the odds are always stacked against them. But what matters to them is the journey, the daily battles, the mindgames, the rock-jumping. This is where entrepreneurs are a different breed of people. If they succeed, they will go on to the Next New Thing. If they fail, they will go on to the Next New Thing. The Game of Enterprise goes on.

 

Last Word

As we live through today’s challenging times, it may be a good idea to look inside and discover the Entrepreneur in each one of us. If we close one door, many others open. Too often, we are snugly ensconced in our own private worlds and cocoons that we build – not wanting to think differently, not wanting to take any risk, not wanting to make the jump. As an entrepreneur would put it, Think: What would you do if you were not afraid?

 

~ By an Anonymous Entrepreneur.

(Special Thanks to Utsow Pradhan from Learn Next for sharing this piece with me. I’m sharing it because it really appealed to me and seemed to be spoken directly from an Entrepreneur’s Heart. Hope it helps you understand a fellow entrepreneur and the one hidden within you!)

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