Monday, September 17, 2012

You won’t start a startup


If you feel that you’ll earn enough in 2 years and then you’ll start a startup, that’s not gonna happen. You’ll never earn enough (it’s human psyche; ask Warren Buffet if he has earned enough). For you to start working on your dream project - passion, food and shelter is all you need.

If you feel that you’ll settle down first and then you’ll start a startup, that’s not gonna happen. Life doesn’t give you time to settle down, there is always more life. You settle down when you are dead. Startup is a roller coaster experience so better start a startup when you are not settled.

If you feel that you want to give yourself some time so that you can learn enough and read enough for a startup then keep learning and reading, startup not gonna happen[1]. You can never learn enough for a startup unless you are working on your startup. Reading books/ blogs/articles/essays for 1 year is equivalent to working in your startup for 1 day

If you think you will think of an Awesome Idea first then you'll startup, that's not gonna happen. There are no awesome ideas. All ideas for startup look small, niche, not-great at first. They shape up to be a great idea on the way. So if you’re not already on the way, then it's not gonna happen.

If you're working for some giant company that pays you enough but you dream that you'll get out one day then that's not gonna happen. Decent pay in Giant organization will make you comfortable, lazy and coward. Forget that startup; keep pleasing people for your next promotion/salary-hike. Or be courageous and give shape to your idea.

When you start making how-to-climb-the-ladder plans in your current organization but you feel that you'll think about, or focus on, startup in parallel, that's not gonna happen. You don't do startup in parallel. Either you do startup or you don’t but never ‘in parallel’. It’s full time job. It's 24*7. May be not 24*7 work but 24*7 focus and dedication for sure.

When time flies you'll not see it fleeting. When it’ll be 2 years and then 5 and then 10 years you'll not even realise. Time flies. It’s going on now. It’s now or never.

If startup is your want and not your need, you won’t start one.

[1] Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. – Albert Einstein

20 comments:

  1. Its definately good but i was expecting some sort of solution or you can say an Approach to overcome this habbit :p ....Can you suggest some!!!

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    1. There is not straight solution but if we avoid all the traps mentioned in Blog then probability of starting a Startup will increase, i believe. Just take the plunge. All the very Best.

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  2. nice read... so true... get up n work on ur dream... so much like what Paulo Coelho talks about...

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  3. Nice one Saurabh, very well compiled...

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  4. Really nice thoughts..

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  5. Very nice...and so true

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  6. Not completely agree what is written in this blog!

    Very first statement is wrong about Warrant Buffet. He always said he earned a lot and now wants to spend his money on philanthropy. In-fact, he is the only billionaire in the world who donated his more than 90% fortune and became billionaire third time (check facts, use Google)

    Second, you don’t need good money backup to start your venture. You can start with small corpus and get angel investors once you start showing signs of growth. You don’t need to productive or into ‘positive’ in your balance sheet. You can be in loss and still get funded. Best example is FlipKart. It will another 2 years to breakeven it’s losses. For further readings I would suggest you to read ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’ it will help you a lot to know more about startups and ventures.

    Hitesh

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    1. Thanks for your inputs Hitesh.
      I totally agree with you on your second point -- You don't need big amount to start working on your project. That's why i wrote, "For you to start working on your dream project - passion, food and shelter is all you need."
      Whats I was referring by Buffett example was that You keep on earning money even when you are well off. So money is not a bottleneck in starting a startup. Don't wait for some more money.

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  7. Saurabh, its great to see that there are people who thing on the same wavelength as i do :)

    as for Mr. Anonymous or anybody who is looking out to do something of their own, well I am working on an e-commerce based venture and for that i am looking for a very selective few like minded partners to work with. You can contact me at: +919968018446 and i will see what can be worked out

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  8. Good one, and quite true. Jo hoga dekha jayega attitude generally helps you overcoming the challenges.
    -Vip

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  9. Cruel but true..
    Thanks saurabh.

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  10. really true. ur thoughts reflect ur mindset n ur pesonality. i cn feel d positivity n confidence in ur attitude. well said dude. keep it up. people around u r lucky to have u with them.

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