Sameer Babbar

View Original

Entrepreneurs: be kind to yourself. Your older self will thank you one day.

My entrepreneurial journey which still continues is littered with mistakes and blunders. The best measure of success in any venture is still paying clients. I took the liberty of writing down some of the challenges (and dilemma’s) with hope (and prayers) that they will be understood by others, and when there is a choice others can be kind to themselves. Show yourself empathy as there is more to success than what meets the eye. 

  1. Product focus: Entrepreneurs focus usually is to provide the best product loaded with features, whilst it pays in the long run to focus on solving a problem and do it the best and as narrowly as possible. No one is stopping you to create a new product and add to the portfolio later.

  2. Zero errors: Well no matter how hard you try, your product will have some flaws even if you have technically perfected it. It will fail the customer expectations at the first contact no matter how good it is. Question is will you be prepared to fix it. How quickly can you meet customer expectation. 

  3. Advisors and conmen: You will come across them in herds. They will try to help you or appear to be helping. Their key purpose will be to take a stake with minimal effort now or in future. Be wary of them. They come in all sorts including the good ones. Just to keep you anchored in the concept remember that sage Vatsayana ( author of Kamasutra ) lived a life of celibacy. Advice can come from all places choose what you want to hear and what feels relevant. 

  4. Serendipity: Do not undermine it. Look around; most successful ventures around the globe were dictated by chance meeting, chance discovery or sheer luck. Do not undermine it, that said should you persist you may give serendipity a choice.

  5. BackStory: Never underestimate them, it could be the network, people, finances, the challenges one faced in the childhood and overcame them. It is the cumulative impact of what got you till this point.  It is unique in every case and has a transformational impact on one’s mind. You can emulate a successful product but not a successful mind. Some astronomical valuations are achieved based on who is helping whom. Don’t beat yourself if your results are not same as your backstory is different too.

  6. Synergy: Akin to two or more people coming together. If you think of yourself as energy (Joe Dispenza  has done lot of work on this topic) then partnering with someone you resonate with is likely to bring success (or climbing the shoulders of giants-a game theoretic explanation I will provide later). Investors find it better strategy as it manages their investment risk. You will need someone to wipe your blood sweat and tears and put balm on it. Don’t expect this from family and friends they are unsuspecting bystanders. They may think that you have gone insane, which may be true as you may continue, but form their perspective as you continue  to live at the edge. You can’t change your lineage however  you can chose who you hang out with (within limits), places you visit, movies you watch, books you read, it will define who you can be. Perhaps if you can, try to be the best version of yourself. 

  7. Setback and dealing with it: You will have setbacks not everything is going to be perfect always ( and if you find that then either you are lucky or full of gratitude either ways you are in a great place already and I salute you) you need to be able to deal with it with patience and persistence. 

  8. Effort: the effort required to make a venture successful is immense. If you have a choice aim to solve a bigger problem that can help more people on the planet. Don’t be a pretendpreneur you can only succeed if you chose to do the work. If it is handed down to you it won’t be your success and deep down you will know that you are fake. 

  9. Market Timing and sensitivity to time: Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Oracle, Uber, Canva - their offering at launch was suited to their time which is now shifted so does market. Find your own timing.  Build your own mousetrap, find your own better, cheaper faster solution. The minimal expectation of the market has moved, you could wait 6 seconds for a page to load a decade ago but if it is not instant, the site may not work for you.  Don’t be too hung up on the concept of minimum viable product as the context for these three is fluid. Angry bird founders had to fail so many times to get it right, nor was Instagram was an instant success. Market timing still continues to be one of the key drivers of success.

  10. Don’t treat other people’s opinions as gospel whilst undermining your own. They had different journeys and yours is different.  So copying them will not help. Emulating their best virtues will certain be helpful. That said you will end up having your own scars which will be different from what others have. Persistence and patience will certain pay in the long run. Be at it and enjoy while you are there. 

Success be yours, always.