Bootstrap in Bangalore

Continuing from the previous post, another clear advantage of starting early is simply that you get to take many stabs at the problem. You won’t learn how to start a company in school and chances are your parents won’t be able to teach you either. The early start can be a business venture but not necessarily so. Do recognize that many of the skills of starting up work are needed when starting a new initiative within an existing organization also – like mustering support for your idea, leadership, managing budget, planning and delivering on dates. So you can sell computers or newspapers like Michael Dell but don’t underestimate organizing college fests, running the local IEEE chapter, conducting a workshop in college or pushing for a new module in your product, leading your local cricket team. The important thing is to learn from each success and failure that you meet and gear up to use that in your next step. As long as new mistakes are happening, you are on the right path. I had my brush with enterpreneurship in school when I tried to convince my principal that I can publish a school magazine. Before that I had done it on a smaller scale doing magazines for a children’s club. I think it helps to start small and gradually rise up the chain. Risk taking apetite is a matter of habit, once you get used to a certain level of risk – you are ready for the next. Mind you usually entrepreneurs don’t feel they are taking a risk, they are fully confident that their venture is risk-free.

There is a useful technique to learning without starting a real venture also. Similar to thought experiments in physics, I call it a thought start up. The parallel in stocks is to build a dummy portfolio where you notionally buy stocks and track worth of the dummy portfolio, buying and selling based on real events. As you learn key lessons, making the first step with real money becomes easier. Taking a thought start up through real events is difficult, so my intention is just to take it to a detailed business plan level with execution plans included. As soon as you see an opportunity that excites you, don’t just leave it after a coffee table discussion. Expand upon it, build a execution strategy and a revenue plan. In case you have stumbled upon a truly unique opportunity this may just convince you to go all out after it. More likely, initially you will find that someone else has already identified it and is pursuing it. This discovery is a good thing. At least you are thinking of viable ideas. If no one is doing something you have thought of do give it a serious thought if the idea is not worth pursuing. If you are keeping up with the domain of your interest you may come up with a sound business idea which no one is already doing but you find that in a few months someone else does it and you rue the missed opportunity! This again is a good sign. It means that you are able to ahead of the market and should now realize that its not idea but speed of execution that matters. We are all exposed to similar opportunities and will come to similar conclusions regarding businesses around them. The difference usually is in who executes faster and better. The longer the gap between your thinking of an opportunity and someone else launching it in market, the better your instincts are developing in the area of your interest. This should give you tremendous confidence in your instinct and as soon as a fit is found between execution resources required for a business idea and your skills – just go for the kill.