And then somebody said it | #DailyBlink39
I must say I have learned a lot from nivi. Venture Hacks is definitely a nugget mine for aspiring entrepreneurs.
I’ll be sharing some of the points from a super insightful article that I have read recently.
- Too many of our smartest minds are working on trivial tasks and spending their time in corporations where they feel invisible. The vast majority of my friends who work for big companies say they’re bored, unchallenged, and under-employed. They don’t see the tangible benefits of their hard work.
- Looking like you’re being productive is often a better strategy for career advancement than actually being productive. That’s why extroverts without conviction, many of whom spend more time networking than executing, rise to the top of the corporate hierarchy.
- New ideas are fragile. Since they originate in the messy madness of intuition and the fringes of society, they don’t carry the crisp edges that rational critics look for. Forgetting this, we beat precious but unconventional ideas out of people before they have time to blossom.
- Risk-averse parents and educators push children down conventional paths. Parents enroll their kids in the same schools and the same extracurriculars to help them get into the same colleges, so they can work for the same corporations. In 2007, more than half of Harvard graduates went to work in investment banking or management consulting.
- Too many of our top people aren’t putting their differentiated skill-sets to work. They graduate from the best schools in the world only to burn their attention on standardized checklists and the high school cafeteria game theory of corporate politics. Of course, this doesn’t apply to every person I know at big companies. But there are too many talented people who sleepwalk through their workday.
- Entrepreneurship is one solution. Employment and independent research are two others.
- Right now, in order to do something truly innovative, you need to drop out of the system entirely or be so independent-minded that people call you a lunatic. In a time when it’s easier than ever to start a company, we should encourage people to identify the important problems society ignores and find scalable solutions to them — all while making a truck-load of profit.
- Paradoxically, ambitious and differentiated goals are sometimes easier to achieve than mundane ones. Ambitious people attract other ambitious people. In positive-sum areas, they find ways to work together and help each other. That’s why inspiring goals make it easier to hire, raise money, and meet the kinds of people who can move the world with a single phone call.
I almost quoted the whole article since it was very compelling and I wanted to share with you all and was looking for validation from an experienced personnel.
A while ago, I was learning about various leaders from ancient Indian history. Mostly about their ferocious and bold nature to build and expand their empire. Sad but true you wouldn’t find them on any curriculum in Indian Schools. But the Internet has made it possible. If there’s a will, there's a way.
Tenacity, courage must for startup founders to execute vision. There must be a fire in belly to find a way to do things better, and have the courage and tenacity to execute it.
— Ratan Tata
Building a startup requires passion, insights and more than it requires tenacity and courage especially when you a building in India. Because at times it feels like you are irrationally betting on that one chance out of hundred chances for that moonshot.
Reading about inception stories about the various startups, you will eventually find those people to be crazy for thinking something like that.
Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world usually do.
— Steve Jobs
Being an entrepreneur is not easy. You have to work harder than anyone else, especially in the first few years. You have to be mentally tough and endure criticism and negativity from others. And you have to be misunderstood for a long long time fighting for the battle without knowing how long it might go.
“Entrepreneurs must be willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time,”
— Jeff Bezos
What you have to do instead: FOCUS ON YOUR CUSTOMERS. There will be getting so many advices all around you but above all, never forget the above. Prioritize it. Keep your skin in the game intact. Ending up with a quotation by Jack Ma:
When doing Sales, the first people who will trust you will be Strangers, Friends will be shielding against you, fair-weather friends will distance from you. Family will look down upon you.’
The day you finally succeed, paying the bill for every get-together dinner, entertainment, you will realised: Everyone else is present except the Strangers.
Treat those STRANGERS who buy from you in your initial days. They are your BEST customers!
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you find it helpful. Say Hi 👋 Twitter Instagram. I’d love to connect.
Your Friend,
Riten
