What i did wrong..

What took me so long to figure out a few dead ends.. i mean really !!

Also why make it the first few things that I'm blogging about.. they say to set it down in writing is to set it free..

So here i am:

Dead wrong no. 1: Idea is powerful, creative, world changing etc ..

Lesson 1: Boring Execution not the sexy Idea is whats powerful .. the many idea dilemma of earlier avatar was essentially a defense mechanism of someone who couldn't execute. (Not that i couldn't, i just never thought it was the key)

Lesson 2: Act without conviction:

Don't invest heavy hours of intellectualization and consensus.. what one really needs is days filled with sweaty stuff.. the action bias and while driving back or taking shower a lot of dots will connect on their own

Also since there never was crazy amount of intellectualizing, killing the idea if the dots don't connect will be far easier.

Actually the game is about speed, time and energy .. that's the new law Einstein didn't crack

What we need is happy failing.. to know what works & what doesn't.. we developed muscles much the same way when we push em beyond their capacity day after day.. that 51st rep for a guy who can do 50 push ups is what makes him strong.. that limit +1

Same way to explore the possibilities of  business we try out the limit of what can work given an environment, customer need etc. and as we do our daily action push ups we get a fair idea of whats possible and more importantly get better at it daily.

So the faster we learn what works and what doesn't  the better placed we are to take it forward or pick up the next thing and run with it and once the funda is clear we don't brood too much over the dead end idea ; infact we're happy that we realized it earlier on that it was dead end .. saving us time, money and energy that can deployed elsewhere more productively.

Mera wala Stupid..

Stupid is good.

Really its the key stuff that separates Entrepreneur from Manager.

Stupid is to think different.. any new pattern, product or service is essentially stupid as you are really jumping off the edge of a multi storied building trying to land on the adjacent terrace and theres a good chance that you may just go down with it.

Why?

Well how would someone really know if there's a sizable market for some new product or service unless of course it's a leap of faith and leap of faith isn't very different from leap off the terraces.

Even when you aren't going for a really innovative, fresh off the "Eureka bath" idea, you are still betting on your skills to make it work and unless you are doing pretty much the same thing, same way as you've done at your job, you are in for a new pattern and it's a jump all the same.

Stupid is also the guy who heads for an adventure holiday where a relaxing one would have done just fine and would be much easier on the tired bones.
Stupid is the guy who rides the bike in the elements on the road trip when a cool drive with friends, music and beer would have been more "fun".
Stupid is also guy who listens for answers within in this connected world when there are so many available on google and yahoo answers.

Why stupid do what it does?

Smart world view is that we have what we have in terms of resources, we've got a certain number  of  hours and such sills etc. We have some strengths, like our skills and talents, which we need to maximize to the extent possible, we need to replenish what's being depleted and manage the overall resources in terms of strengths, time and relationships to achieve something. Since the smart thing is to verify and confirm and only things which have been tried before can be verified for sure hence the smart objectives of success are the popular ones - money, success, power.

Nothing wrong .. ofcouse.. we are talking smart stuff afterall

Now for the stupid?

Part of being stupid is boredom.. you have done stuff a certain way and if you stick to you're knittings and max out your resources like the smart guy and if you focus on what's desirable goal again like the smart guy .. you'd get what you want may be there will be minor adjucements and time delay thats all right but you broadly heading up the smart alley where things go more right than they go wrong.

But well since you're stupid, you would get stuck in on of the above essentials of smart living: either you'll get bored of the stuff youve been doing (in spite of being good at it) or you will get inspired to go a new way ( and not up the smart alley) where the terrain is rocky and though there are better scenery there are  new ways of getting lost real fast .. but being stupid you like that and you like the scenery so much that the rough terrain doest really matter.. actually you kinda like terrain too.

The inner game..

Its great to get some clarity on your purpose.. its great to question a few assumptions that you've held for long and then set them free.

Well that's what happened when I started off on my own recently, on 1st april quite an appropriate day for starting up a new venture after running the rat race for 12 years in a completely new domain without any partner just because I love to do it.

After attending a lot of startup weekends and conferences and listening to a great no. of entrepreneurs, investors and things in between got some basic common starting point. It is not about the idea ( though everyone needs an idea to start with) but a lot of implementation and applying yourself.

Now applying oneself in corporate scenario is one thing as you broadly know the metrics, the processes and you have some clarity. But Entrepreneurship is another game and you have a deep hunch which often gets a response which is pretty bland.

 So how do you apply yourself here?

Well to share my own learnings its sort of this book that i read about improving your tennis .. The inner game of tennis. The guy talks about this inner game thats played all the time where you don't bother much about the tennis per se but how you play within when you are at the court. It sort of puts the focus on your attention on how you connect with the game without anxiety or judgement and really play for the love of it.

In the Phoney Times

Recently I read a report about what business leaders can learn from history of capitalism and governance. From Taj Mahal to Time Warner and went on to suggest how when Ego became important and it led to the fall of empires.

The Ego of creating monument of taj led to down fall of Shah Jahan , that Pope 2 commisioned St. Peter Cathedral as his tomb leading to his fall from grace, few more interesting examples and finally concluding with our own Mr. Mallya.. the kinfisher towers on his ancestral land and his larger than ligfe image , parties, yatches and bankrupt airlines etc.

Well.. very well indeed!! It was a great read and the point was driven home quite smartly that let the good business sence or at leat common sence be the drivers of your deciosns/ actions and let not your Ego be your driver. But it got me thinking.. with so much of data points out there you can just go out and prove anything.I mean you’ll get many examples of how a particular way of being / thinking/ acting leads to a particular response. Why? Coz youre looking only for say a dozen examples from a billion stories that can prove the point and given the powerful Google search its not that hard really!!!

Frankly this was a good article with a more common sense approach but the point remains that you can always get multiple examples to prove any point you have to write an article and a book.. I mean the world is flat, the economics is freaky, the poker is silly and beyond.

So what am I after.. well almost every other piece of work, read books, that comments that we started with a hypothesis did a detailed survey of the market and confirmed the hypothesis… Why don’t we have enough books where authors say well I started with a hypothesis , got no where with it, tried another hypothesis which in fact failed miserably but along the way by meeting and connecting ppl and ideas I got this insight.. that life is simple and beautiful and you enjoy more when you judge less, you are happy when you follow your passion, you succeed more often when you’re having fun in what you do, you get more when you share more and when you love things around you, they seem to love you back !!!