Focus on Your Customer's Experience


In a competitive world, businesses don't sell products/services, they sell experiences.

Never Be Conservative With What You Can Achieve With Your Business


Andrew Carnegie was the founder of the legendary Carnegie Steel Company, who made a vast fortune only to give it all away, becoming the first great entrepreneur turned philanthropist in history, a tradition that was followed by his contemporary, John D. Rockefeller and much later by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Carnegie always believed in running his business top capacity and not bothering about the margin. He was always clear to his managers that he wanted his steel factories to operate at full steam, regardless of highs and lows of the economy or other factors. His goal was to be the biggest and the most dominant steel producer in the country, regardless of any external challenges.

What can you learn from this? Greatness can never be achieved if you are too moderate with your ambitions or too conservative. To achieve greatness, you must stretch you capacity to the maximum. 

Don’t worry about temporary pitfalls; always focus on a larger goal.


Busy vs Productive

Does being busy imply being productive? I don't think so.

Doing something without a goal is futile. If we run a business without a vision, we cannot be productive. If we start a heath regime without fitness goals, we cannot reach anywhere. If we do not raise a child with a particular mindset, we really cannot do justice.


Our efforts need to channelized in order to get the best productivity for them. Different people put in the same effort levels, getting different returns from them. This happens solely because of the difference in their goals and visions. So be busy, but also be productive at the same time!

Love Every Moment



A startup's journey is a long and exhausting one.

On the way, we come across a lot of situations which tend to pull us down and affect our happiness. While we was running Beveragewala, we faced a lot of these. Be it a complaint mail from a customer, an error in packaging, server issues etc., stress levels used to shoot up virtually everyday. Now when I look back, I realise that these were just minor obstacles in our way which we could and did take care of. Because of these, my health and overall happiness was taking a beating at that time.

I feel that every entrepreneur must realise what I realise now. Stress and anger are unproductive in the short term and harmful in the long term. You will face challenges. Do not let them cow you down. Keep overcoming them and love and enjoy your journey to the fullest.

Never Blame Others

This is a rule we must not only apply to work, but to life in general.


As humans, we have a tendency to find fault in what other people around us have done before looking within. I might be guilty of this also from time to time. We tend to forget that we ourselves have chosen these people to be around us. Be it team members of my startup or my spouse, it was my decision to put them here in the first place and now simply cribbing out what they have done wrong is something a loser would do. Anyone can make a mistake and if I genuinely feel that the person is not deserving, I better do something about it.

Be the Dumbest Person in the Room



Entrepreneurs should have a tendency to be the dumbest guys in the room, For this, they will need to hire the best people to join them in their startup. An entrepreneur should never feel insecure about letting good people in, thinking that the latter might end up becoming more valuable than the former and might end up starting out on their own as well.

A good entrepreneur will always take in the best people, motivate them and keep learning from them on a continuous basis.

The Thrill Will Go, The Passion Shouldn't

The definition of a thrill is temporary excitement, usually experienced for the first time.

It's thrilling to ride a roller coaster. The fifth time you have to ride it, though, it's more than a chore, it's torture.

The definition of the thrill is that it's going to be gone soon.



You might have been thrilled to go to your first job the first day. Or thrilled to see the first comment on your blog or thrilled the first time one of your books was translated into another language.

But after that? How can repeating it be thrilling?
The work of a professional isn't to recreate thrills. It's to show up and do the work. To continue the journey you set out on a while ago. To make the change you seek to make in the universe.

Thrilling is fine. Mattering is more important.


Good Startup Names - Freecharge


‘Recharges Made Free Through Coupons’

Digital payments platform, FreeCharge’s co-founder Kunal Shah conceived the idea of FreeCharge ​during his last employment at PaisaBack. Says Kunal, “I was struck by the fact that recharge(s) experience can be made interesting by turning them ‘Free’ by giving away coupons and vouchers along with the recharges. In August 2010, I co-founded FreeCharge with Sudeep Tandon and focused to build a business that turned the boring and dull payments in to rewarding transaction experience for customers. We named it FreeCharge as while making payments, customers are rewarded with coupons of equal value thus practically making their recharges “Free”!”

Launching a Startup



In the early days of starting up, the ability to scale is overrated. “Scale,” in case you haven’t heard the term, refers to the concept that there are processes in place that are fast, cheap, and repeatable because there will soon be millions of customers who generate billions of dollars of revenue.

For example, if Pierre Omidyar had to test every used printer offered for sale, eBay couldn’t scale. If Marc Benioff had to make every sales call, Salesforce.com couldn’t scale. If James Hong’s parents had to check every picture to see if it was porn, Hot or Not couldn’t scale.

Holding yourself to a mass-scaling test in the early days is a mistake—putting the proverbial horse before the cart. This is akin to wondering if you should start a restaurant because it may be impossible to scale the perfectionism of an executive chef for multiple locations.



How about first ensuring that people within in a twenty-mile radius like the food before working about scaling the restaurant? That is, see if the business will work at all. For example, a company that I advise called Tutor Universe provides tutoring service via smartphones. Think of it as “Uber for tutoring.” The long-term plan was that students could ask questions about any topic and receive help in under fifteen minutes. However, in the beginning, a critical mass of tutors for every subject didn’t yet exist. Many startups face just such a chicken-or-egg challenge: if you had enough tutors, you’d attract enough students. If you had enough students, you’d attract enough tutors.

What do you do when you’re faced with this kind of challenge? The answer is simple: you cheat! You use your own employees to answer questions and hire tutors in the Philippines (highly educated, English speaking, and cheap) until you can reach a critical mass of a marketplace. Skeptics and inexperienced entrepreneurs might object: you can’t scale if you have to use employees or hire tutors because they are too expensive.

This might be true, but it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you establish three key points:
: You can get the word out
: Students are willing to install an app
: They will pay for help.

Your priority, in short, is proving that people will use your product at all. If they won’t, then it won’t matter if you can’t scale. If they will, then you will figure out a way to scale. I’ve never seen a startup die because it couldn’t scale fast enough. I’ve seen hundreds of startups die because people refused to embrace their product.




(This post is a tiny part of Guy Kawasaki’s latest book, The Art of the Start 2.0.)

Sacrifices of Being an Entrepreneur

One of the best pieces I have read (source: http://yourstory.com/2016/02/entrepreneur-sorry) on how startup guys get labelled as insensitive, self-centered by family and friends and how they try that extra bit to make up but at most times are not able to.



'Yes, I am an entrepreneur and I have missed weddings of distant relatives and sometimes close ones as well.

Yes, I am an entrepreneur and I have not attended birthday parties of college buddies and of their children.

Yes, I am an entrepreneur and I have cancelled movie plans and outdoor trips with family and friends.

Yes, I am an entrepreneur and I have not given time for relationships with the girls I was with in the past.

Yes, I am an entrepreneur and I have been wearing the same formal jacket to all the conferences over all these years.

Yes, I am an entrepreneur and I never contributed to discussions on new mobile phones and their features.

Yes, I am an entrepreneur and I have failed, in so many instances, my relatives, friends and family.

Today, I want to apologise for every failure and mistake, but before I do that I want to ask –

As an entrepreneur, did I miss the funeral of any relative, no matter close or distant?

As an entrepreneur, was I not there when my friend had a break-up with his childhood lover?

As an entrepreneur, was I not there to listen to your dreams and discuss the challenges you would face in the race for fulfilling them?

As an entrepreneur, didn’t I hear about your fights with your family and loved ones?

As an entrepreneur, didn’t I answer your calls or reply to your messages when you were feeling lonely?

With most of you I never shared the moments when I had two or three rupees in my pocket. I did not share when I was feeling so lonely that I needed a friend to cry with. I did not share the desire to hug you when you shook hands because you became too formal as I could not join you at your last birthday party or at your wedding.

Yes, some of you labelled me ‘workaholic’ or ‘insensitive,’ but my dear friend, relative and family member, the only way I knew was to go about establishing my startup, so that in future I am there for all those things I was not part of in the past.'

My Allies during My Journey

During my startup journey so far, there have been a number of ups and downs. At times when the business was up and running, I barely got time to sleep. At other times like now :(, I do not know exactly what to do and keep thinking of what I need to do next. This entire time, I have realised that I have always had 3 allies by my side who have not left me and have always had a great effect on me - my wife, my laptop and my cup of coffee.


My Wife: She has been a great influence on my life. She has listened to me, understood me and guided me from time to time. She is not passionate about startups or work in general. However, knowing the passion I have, she has urged me on through thick and thin.

My Laptop: I spend more time with my laptop, more than the time I spend with wife or any other thing in my life. My laptop has been the source of most of my learning and has been a platform where I pen down all my thoughts and ideas. All it needs is battery and it keeps going on and on (fingers crossed).

My Cup of Coffee: Preferably Starbucks :). The effect coffee has on me is something I can't describe. It calms me, makes me think clearly, relaxes me and helps me focus. 

Get a Mentor, Not a Teacher

Mentoring is supposed to be an intensive, individualized and private experience. If you aren’t getting one-on-one attention, you’ve got a teacher -- not a mentor.



Unfortunately, this presents a challenge for both parties. For mentors, it means turning down capable protégés if you’ve already committed to another. And for students, it could mean going to the trouble of identifying the perfect mentor only to be turned down for scheduling reasons -- which may or may not be explained to you.

Don’t push it. The goal of a mentoring relationship is progress, and that’s only possible if the guidance is individualized. There is a mentor or protégé out there for you, but you’ve got to wait for the timing to be right.


A Bad Habit We Must Avoid at all Costs



One bad habit which I feel I and a lot of us have is that we want to put our feet in many things at the same time. We feel we do this to hedge our risks, i.e. we feel that atleast one of them will work and give us a return. However, the downside is that we are not able to fully commit to something and hence the chances of succeeding in any become lower.

At a few times in my career till now, I have been found guilty of doing 2 things at the same time. I used to feel that I need to push either upto a certain point and will take a decision once I see either of them moving faster and reaching some scale. This has backfired for me and I now understand where I was going wrong. Once you commit to something, you should fully back it. A lot of 'noise' will be around you which will try to sway your focus. One should channelize all our efforts and energy in one direction, especially at a startup stage, to better our chances of succeeding.

Identify the 'One Metric that Matters'



Collecting data is easy. There are lots of tools out there and ways to gather data about everything that’s happening with your business, from lead generation through to customer satisfaction.
But what are we supposed to do with all that data? How does it help us focus on the key challenges at hand, provide us insights into our next steps, and drive success?

The data you collect may be helpful at some point; but if you can’t cut out the noise, you’ll get buried. That’s why you should think about a single metric that’s most important for the stage of your company’s development, a single number that you want the entire company to focus on and improve upon. I call it the One Metric That Matters.



The One Metric That Matters (or OMTM) is a single number that you care the most about at the current stage of your startup. First, let’s understand a bit more about the OMTM, then talk about what makes a good metric, and finally how to pick the right number to focus on.
Four Reasons You Need the OMTM for Your Startup

As I’ve said, the OMTM is a single metric that you care about at a given point in time, for the stage of your startup. So the first thing to remember is this: the OMTM will change. It’s not a single number that matters throughout your startup’s existence. We’ll discuss how it changes and why later on. For starters, let’s understand why you need the One Metric That Matters in the first place:

1. It answers the most important question you have.
At any given time you’ll be trying to answer a hundred different questions and juggling a million different things. You need to identify the riskiest areas of your business as quickly as possible – that’s where the most important question lies. The OMTM is responsible and necessary for measuring and answering that question.

2. It forces you to draw a line in the sand and have clear goals.
After you’ve identified the key problem you want to focus on, you need to set goals. You need a way of defining success. It’s very hard for most startups to draw a line in the sand. Let’s say conversion on your website to trial accounts is your OMTM, and it’s currently at 0.5%, which you know is too low. So you’re going to put your entire startup’s resources into improving that number. But what should it be? How will you know if conversion is high enough that you’ve been successful?
At this point you need to draw a line in the sand and pick a target. The line you’re drawing is in sand for a reason; you can shift it as you start experimenting with solutions and learning. Just stay honest with yourself about why you’re doing it – don’t set a high bar, miss it, and then lower the bar in order to say you’ve succeeded and move to the next step. The One Metric That Matters is a forcing factor for encouraging you to set targets and analyze your results honestly and transparently.

3. It focuses the entire company.
Focus is good. In fact, it’s better to run the risk of over focusing (and missing some secondary metric) than it is to throw metrics at the wall and hope one sticks (the latter is what Avinash Kaushik calls Data Puking.) Put the OMTM front and center, physically visible to everyone all the time.

4. It inspires a culture of experimentation.
The Lean Startup movement has shown us the importance of experimentation. It’s critical to move through the “Build -> Measure -> Learn” cycle (explained in Eric Ries’ book, The Lean Startup) as quickly as possible to generate enough learning so that you can start executing effectively in the right direction. You want to instill and inspire a culture of experimentation throughout your organization – the One Metric That Matters can help.


The 3 P's of Entrepreneurship



New entrepreneurs need to rely on the three P's... Practice, Patience and Perseverance.

Keep PRACTICING what you know and what you learn -a Mastermind of no more than four other entrepreneurs a little behind and a little ahead of you can help tremendously with this.

PATIENCE is the absolute hardest part of entrepreneurship, and I keep the saying "Rome was not built in a day" on my desktop to remind me to be patient--all good things come to those who work smart, not just hard.

PERSEVERANCE is my most prized skill, and I learned it best while potty training my kids - I WILL NOT GIVE UP! (diapers are a pain)


(The author is Mary Kathryn Johnson, founder and host of the Parent Entrepreneur Power podcast)

Grow Step by Step

Entrepreneur's think in terms of stages or increments. They never commit large resources up-front, working within a single stage. The traditional manager, on the other hand, is given a budget to complete a project and he or she will force an outcome no matter what new facts may emerge during the life cycle of a project. Compare this approach to the entrepreneur who never takes such huge risks. Entrepreneurs manage risk by making decisions incrementally and they move forward very cautiously, moving to the next stage only if a specific event or action has occurred. This approach allows the entrepreneur to better control risk as opposed to the traditional manager who takes on major risk. By not wasting valuable resources, entrepreneurs not only manage risk better, but they preserve and protect value. They also have better control over the final outcome of projects.


(taken from http://www.exinfm.com)

Working with your Spouse

Should you or should you not? A question which may not have a same answer for everyone, but the reasons in favor and against this decision seem more or less the same in all cases.



My wife and I were working together in Beveragewala, although she was not formally a part of the business. She was involved in the daily operations and looked primarily after the packing/dispatching activities. Some of the experiences I had because of this and would like to share are as under:

POSITIVES

Better Understanding: Since we both understand each other very well and also the business, we were able to work together with a common vision.

Shared Passion: Since we both spend so much of time together, our individual passion and energy used to rub off on each other. Working late hours with no resentment back home is a big positive :).

Better Feedback: This is one positive I felt was very good for the business. Your spouse will not think twice before saying anything to you. My wife, from time to time, pointed out a lot of mistakes we were making and she was quite candid about them. A lot of the time we see team members not being very open and honest to each other because they feel uncomfortable and having a fear of being misjudged.

NEGATIVES

More Conflicts: There used to be more disagreements between us as we started spending literally 24 hours with each other. Space is required to analyse matters individually so that you can have a more unbiased view of things.

No Personal Life: Since both of us were working in Beveragewala and extremely passionate about it, we used to discuss it even when not at work. In some sense, we did not have a personal life while Beveragewala was running. This, though, is a more work-life balance issue.

Casual Attitude: Since the only person you need to answer is your spouse, you may tend to be more laid back and casual in your attitude towards your responsibilities at times.



To conclude, I feel there is no 'one size fits all' solution or suggestion. The best thing is to look at the pros and cons in your case and take your call on this.

The Story of Boris Veldhuijzen Van Zanten, Founder of The Next Web



"As a kid I was dyslexic and had bad eyesight. That meant I often couldn't see the writing on the blackboard and even when I could, I still couldn't read it.

Unfortunately it took a long time before either problem was recognized. Before that I was simply labeled lazy, unwilling or stupid. By the time I was fifteen I was three years behind and very unhappy. Then one day I decided to drop out of school and apply to the circus school. Officially I was too young but I was determined and had talent for juggling so my parents supported my decision.
The teachers at my school weren't so supportive. They took turns trying to persuade me to stay and all said the same thing: "If you drop out now you will never amount to anything."

They tried to persuade me by threatening me but their strategy had the opposite effect: I felt liberated and even more determined to choose my own destiny. I figured if leaving meant starting from zero and being labeled as an outcast, than everything I would accomplish from now would be to my own credit. I felt empowered and excited at the opportunity to design my own life without someone else telling what I could and couldn't do.



For me that was a defining moment. I've always felt like the rules didn't apply to me and I could do what I wanted. After I graduated circus school I applied to an art academy, graduated cum laude, and then started my first Internet business, one I sold three years later.


Although you never start a company alone and I had many partners to thank, I did feel I truly earned my success as a self-made man when we signed those contracts, and I definitely thought back to those teachers who told me I would never amount to anything."  

(taken from http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden)

Failure is the Best Teacher


To learn, it is important you fail a few times. Every failure is because of some mistake one makes. Learning from mistakes is a trait of a successful entrepreneur.

To Dropout or Not?

I loved this post which I read in inc42.com about whether budding entrepreneurs should drop out of college or not.



‘Do or Do Not, There is no Try! – Yoda’

This ongoing debate has been getting a lot more spotlight as we see more and more of the youth starting up early on. Before reaching to any conclusion, though, lets hear out both the sides.

The Pros

Many people find earning a degree arduous because either they find it a waste of time or they think they can do better things than that. Some are of the view that there are bigger problems that need to be handled and earning a degree and going for a 9 to 5 job is not their cup of tea. Thus, dropping out gives them a head start and time to start out early on things they are passionate about.

College teaches one on how to go on a full month on a few thousand bucks while not giving up on one’s ‘lavish’ lifestyle, giving one a before hand experience of a bootstrapped startup. No matter how meagre a startup’s income, it keeps on going and surviving because it believes in itself.

You will not be an ordinary person like the vast majority of graduates, because you will be forced at times to “think outside the box”. You were not told for 3-4 years about what is impossible or what should never be attempted which will give you the edge to get out of the box. Being a dropout will require you to be able to look at every problem from a fresh and investigative perspective that might help in working your way around a problem.

The Cons

Not having a formal degree makes you ineligible for hiring at the outset because people don’t take a dropout seriously unless he or she is somewhat exceptional.

“You miss the college life, the fun, last minute assignment submissions and those bunking hours of college but who cares when you have your startup and it is worth it.” – Ankit Oberoi

College is the time, especially in India, where one finally gets the time to explore one’s capabilities and interests. These are the formative years which could help discover your passion and direction in life, not to mention the network you build. Missing out on this could have a big detrimental impact.

Even though these people are dropouts, they made their path to success but this doesn’t work the other way around. They proved to be an exception because they never lost their passion and kept working towards their goal without any loss of enthusiasm. These were the ones who were so idea-centric about their passion that every time they made a breakthrough they were filled with zeal all over again. This made them overlook their education and follow their idea blindly.

In his blog post even Bill Gates states, “Although I dropped out of college and got lucky pursuing a career in software, getting a degree is a much surer path to success”. He further adds that college graduates are more likely to find a rewarding job and earn higher income than if they didn’t have degrees. The problem is not that enough people are going to college, it is that not enough people are finishing it. Even though enrollments rates are soaring but so are dropping rates. Even though above mentioned dropouts have struck gold but not everyone can do so because they don’t know ‘where ‘ to look. That perspective, that imparting of skills is provided by formal education.

On a lighter note, college leads to overall development of an individual. It not only provides with education skill but also important life skills which go a long way. Earlier, people used to stick to their passion and were not easily demoralised but the scenario is different now, with ever-shortening attention spans and lack of patience thereof, the road to success has become a treacherous path for many.

In Kunal Shah’s words, “They say people with high IQ have a good chance to be an atheist, but it doesn’t mean one will become high IQ by stopping to believe in God.”

‘Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. ~ John Dewey’

As with most debates, there are merits to both sides of the story. We’ll leave it up to you to choose your side!

Good Clothing - Better Performance

A recent study conducted by researchers at Notre Dame, the University of Kentucky, and Penn State found that using brand-name gear can provide a noticeable placebo effect that could boost performance. In other words: If you’ve ever felt like you give better presentation when wearing an expensive designer suit, it might not be your imagination.

In the study, researchers found that simply being told you were using a Nike golf putter over a no-name club improved participants’ performance by about 20 percent. And this effect isn’t limited to the physical: The researchers also found that subjects who wore earplugs while taking a math quiz did better when they were told they were using high-performance 3M earplugs. The performance bump for this part of the study was also about 20 percent.



“Some people have a power suit that they put on for important presentations, or they have some special cufflink that they put on to bring them luck,” said Frank Germann, Ph.D., an assistant professor of marketing at Notre Dame University’s Mendoza College of Business who worked on the study. “I think our research would suggest that engaging in that kind of behavior might actually work.”

Germann and his collaborators — Aaron Garvey of the University of Kentucky and Lisa Bolton of Penn State University — say that brands have the ability to boost users’ confidence and lower performance anxiety. “When you think that you have this performance brand, you have higher-state self- esteem,” Germann says. “As a result, you feel better and your self-confidence is elevated at a certain task. In turn, you're less anxious, and because of that, you're performing better.”

(taken from businessoffashion.com) 

Identify Where You Want to Reach

This may sound very easy but I feel this is the most important and unsolved questions in our lives and work. Once we figure out where we eventually want to reach, the path to reach it can only then be worked out.



In life, we often reach points where we have multiple choices. Selecting one becomes very difficult and gives us sleepless nights. We feel scared that we may make a wrong choice and we may end up wasting time and resources.

When Beveragewala closed down, I went through along and mentally exasperating period of life. I did not what to do. I thought I can study more, startup again, get a job, freelance and so on. Everyday I used to think positively about one option in the morning and by the end of the day, I used to turn quite negative about it not because the options were not suitable for me, but because I was unsure whether it would turn out to be the best for me. This went on for a quite long.

One day I decided to make a word document about where I wish to reach in the long term. Once I was able to identify that, the path seemed much more clear for me. From the eventual goal I Had in mind, I started working backward and was able to identify what I needed to do in the shorter term to reach my long term.



This is a strategy which works in your work, family life and also in life in general. Always start with the longer term goal (vision) and the path to it becomes much easier to identify.

You Need to Start Somewhere

'In 1995, a computer programmer Pierre Omidyar started auctioning off stuff on his personal website. AuctionWeb, as it was then known, was really just a personal project, but, when the amount of web traffic made it necessary to upgrade to a business Internet account, Omidyar had to start charging people fees. He actually hired his first employee to handle all the payment checks. The site is now known as eBay.' (taken from entrepreneur.com)



Ideas do not materialize out of thin air. We need to start somewhere and once we keep moving, opportunities present themselves which we can then capitalize on!


Reasons for Startup Failure (Infographic)


Circulate Viral Content

Your first option is circulating viral content: Here, you’ll be responsible for creating content that’s unique, informative, entertaining, surprising or otherwise original and valuable to your audience. This is definitely the hard part -- the Internet is oversaturated with content, so standing out is harder than ever.




But, assuming you’re able to produce something that people want to share, you can let your audience handle its syndication rather than forcing it down their throats. Start by coming up with a catchy headline, sharing the piece on your own social channels and asking your friends, family and coworkers to also share the piece. If your content is good enough and your timing is right, you may attract hundreds of shares, resulting in more visibility, traffic and even more domain authority through backlinks.

(taken from entrepreneur.com)

What will you choose?


Seth Godin: 'The Person Who Fails the Most Wins'


Seth Godin wears many hats: serial entrepreneur, prolific author, beloved blogger and inspirational speaker.

He’s also a master at failure, mostly because he’s done it so many times. “I think it’s fair to say that I have failed more than most people,” Godin said today from his onstage perch at New York City’s Advertising Week. “And I’m super proud of that. Part of the rules of this game is, the person who fails the most wins.”

While liberating, this presentation of failure as a trophy isn’t new. Silicon Valley has long fetishized failure, to the point where “fail fast” has become an informal industry mantra; it’s not uncommon for business leaders and entrepreneurs to publicly present their failures like so many badges.
But as Godin goes on to clarify, failure is a skill. You can do it successfully, or you can fail at failure. “If you fail too big, you don’t get to fail anymore. If you never fail, then you haven’t done anything,” he said. The key is to find and consistently hit the sweet spot between those two poles. “If you’re failing consistently in a way where you get to keep playing, that’s pretty cool.”

On one hand, Godin encouraged the 200-plus audience to pursue their “art,” no matter the lack of corresponding monetary gain or critical praise:
You have to get to the point where you say, this is what I’m going to make. And if [the audience] doesn’t get it, that’s ok…sooner or later they may get it. In Van Gogh’s case, they didn’t get it until he was dead. But that’s part of the deal.

At the same time, Godin gave a big nod to practicality. While the ability to risk failure is the essential in the pursuit of greatness, it doesn’t hurt to stack the deck in your favor and be strategic about your approach. If you feel your true artistic calling is to make toothpick sculptures, maybe take the process out of the woods and onto Kickstarter, where far-out projects often find an audience. Does it mean it will definitely gain traction? Of course not. But at the very least you’ve put yourself in a position where it’s a possibility.

This balance – between failing too softly and failing too hard – is nicely encapsulated by Godin’s description of skate skiing, a sport he only recently discovered “The entire sport is, the person who leans forward the most wins,” he said. During his first lesson, he asked the instructor “what happens if you lean forward too much?”
To which the instructor, not unsurprisingly, replied: “You land on your face.”

For Godin, that tension – leaning forward as far as possible without landing face first on the ice – is skate skiing’s main draw. “It’s what makes people get hooked on skate skiing,” he said. “It’s the feeling I look for in every project I decide to do.”

In other words, don’t hold yourself back. But don’t aim to fall on your face, either. Instead, search for that magical spot where you push against your own limitations in pursuit of real victory.

In skate skiing and in life “you feel this moment where there might not be a net, where it might not work,” said Godin. And then you continue on anyway.

(taken from entrepreneur.com)

Leadership Tips from the US Marine Corps



The Marines in the US have defined some principles for creating great leaders which hold in business as well. Adopting these principles will guide your actions and provide direction throughout your career. The principles are also an important tool for self-evaluation. As you progress, you can use them to identify your own strengths and weaknesses, and seek self-improvement.

BE TECHNICALLY AND TACTICALLY PROFICIENT
Maintain a high level of competence in your Military Occupational Specialty. Your proficiency will earn the respect of your Marines.

KNOW YOURSELF AND SEEK SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Use the leadership traits to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. An accurate and clear understanding of yourself and a comprehension of group behavior will help you determine the best way to deal with any given situation.

KNOW YOUR MARINES AND LOOK OUT FOR THEIR WELFARE
You should know your Marines and how they react to different situations. This knowledge can save lives. Knowledge of your Marines' personalities will enable you, as the leader, to decide how best to employ each Marine.

KEEP YOUR MARINES INFORMED
Informed Marines perform better and, if knowledgeable of the situation, can carry on without your personal supervision. Providing information can inspire initiative.

SET THE EXAMPLE
Set the standards for your Marines by personal example. The Marines in your unit all watch your appearance, attitude, physical fitness and personal example. If your personal standards are high, then you can rightfully demand the same of your Marines.

ENSURE THE TASK IS UNDERSTOOD, SUPERVISED AND ACCOMPLISHED
Before you can expect your Marines to perform, they need to know what is expected from them. Communicate your instructions in a clear, concise manner, and allow your Marines a chance to ask questions. Check progress periodically to confirm the assigned task is properly accomplished.

TRAIN YOUR MARINES AS A TEAM
Train your Marines with a purpose and emphasize the essential elements of teamwork and realism. Teach your unit to train, play and operate as a team. Be sure that all Marines know their positions and responsibilities within the team framework.

MAKE SOUND AND TIMELY DECISIONS
Rapidly estimate a situation and make a sound decision based on that estimation. There's no room for reluctance to make a decision, revise it. Marines respect the leader who corrects mistakes immediately.

DEVELOP A SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY IN YOUR SUBORDINATES
Show your Marines you are interested in their welfare by giving them the opportunity for professional development. Assigning tasks and delegating authority promotes mutual confidence and respect between the leader and the team.

EMPLOY YOUR UNIT IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS CAPABILITIES
Successful completion of a task depends upon how well you know your unit's capabilities. Seek out challenging tasks for your unit, but be sure your unit is prepared for and has the ability to successfully complete the mission.

SEEK RESPONSIBILITY AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS

Actively seek out challenging assignments for your professional development. Seeking responsibilities also means that you take the responsibility for your actions. You are responsible for all your unit does or fails to do. Stick by your convictions and be willing to accept justified and constructive criticism.

(taken from marines.com)

Not Correcting a Mistake is Fatal

Entrepreneurs will make mistakes. This is a given. The more you try, the more mistakes you will keep making. And this is totally fine as a mistake teaches you what went wrong and what you should have done.



The crucial part here is realising that you have made a mistake as soon as possible. And once you realise it, correcting it ASAP. If our assessment cycle is too long, the damage which the mistake can cause your business will be more. We need to keep assessing quickly, reasonably and continuously.

Once we realise the mistake, if I do not correct it, that is equivalent to a death wish. So why would an entrepreneur not want to correct a mistake? Believe it or not, this is quite common. At times, my ego may not let me. 'This is my project and it will work and I will make it work anyhow'. This can also be due to my irrational belief in the project in its current state. As entrepreneurs, we need to keep implementing new things, learn from them and keep pivoting the business if required. We need to have an open mind about the fact that the business may need a change in course and all actions should be based purely on learning and practicality.

Determination is More Important than Education



There are many different types of people in business with different educational backgrounds, so don’t feel excluded. Some successful people are quiet, some are loud, some are good salespeople or good at finance. All can make it if they have a good team to help carry forward their plan.


A degree of formal education is helpful for anybody and I encourage it. But having a degree is not an essential part of being successful as an entrepreneur. The qualities you do need are a lot of stamina and determination.

(taken from entrepreneur.com)

'Neerja' - Inspirational & Awesome



NEERJA BHANOT: Sep 7, 1963 - Sep 5, 1986 




I saw the movie Neerja yesterday. It about the life of Neerja Bhanot. Neerja Bhanot AC was a purser for Pan Am, based in Mumbai, India, who was shot while saving passengers from terrorists on board the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 on 5 September 1986.

The film brings to light a lot of the exceptional qualities this young girl possessed at the time, which we all can learn from.



Commitment: Neerja was extremely committed to her job and duty and was willing to give up her life for it. This is the kind of passion we should possess for all our endeavors in our daily life. To save the lives of as many passengers as she could, she decided to leave the aircraft last and ended up getting shot because of this.

Learning from Experience: Neerja had gone through a traumatic marriage and as shown in the film, had learnt and applied a lot of the learnings from it as her life went on. This included never giving up, mustering up courage in times of hardship, not doing bad to others nor accepting the same and so on.



Courage: She was bold in her actions despite having armed terrorists on board and consistently tried to make well thought out moves to take control of the situation.

Human Kindness & Understanding: A quality I feel is important for a good leader to have. She not only overcame her own emotions, but also helped all other passengers stay calm and guided them during that distress situation.

I really enjoyed the movie and would advise all to go and watch the story of this brave and courageous girl who was committed to her duty till the very end and who reinstils the value of human kindness in mankind.

Track your Employee Turnover

Do you have the same team you originally started with? Saying "no" to that question isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if your lineup has changed. In addition, startups are notoriously volatile, and young workers are especially prone to making frequent career jumps.



However, if you find that your employees are consistently leaving after only a limited time on the job, that's a bad sign for the future of your company. It could be that these jobs are too confusing or demanding, that there aren’t any areas for development, that the inner workings of the company don’t meet expectations -- or that those departing employees foresee the pending death of the company. None of these signs bodes well for your future.


(Written by Jayson Demers, AudienceBloom on entrepreneur.com)

Tip to Succeed from the Great Rocky Balboa



“Nobody is going to hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” 

Learn to Embrace Rejection



If you’re planning to be an entrepreneur, be ready for things not to always work out. Be ready to realize you cannot control everything. Be ready to realize you can be the greatest at some things, and the worst at others. That is okay. At the end of the day, persistence and consistency is all that matters. When you put in the work, rejection and failure will end up as one of your largest sources of motivation, keeping things in perspective for you, making you want to taste success, and accomplish your goals, that much more. Learn to embrace rejection, and when you do, nothing in this world will hold you back.

(The author is Joshua Davidson, Founder of ChopDawg.com)

Invest in Yourself!



When we think of investing, the first things which come to our minds are property, shares, bonds etc. We tend to forget the most important asset we possess, OURSELVES.

I am my biggest and most productive asset. I believe that we must first think of investing in ourselves, be it by doing a course to add a skill set, going for that $300 spa to calm me down, visiting new places to learn from them and also relax myself and so on. Investing in myself has several advantages

- It's Permanent: What I do for myself stays with me forever.

- It's Value Additive: All things I do for myself keep getting added to things I have previously done, thereby creating greater value through a compounding effect.

- It's Protected from External Factors: All investments have external factors and risks associated with them.

- It's the Asset you Know the Best About: Since you need to invest in an asset which you know the best about, investment in yourself makes sense.


So I think it's time we realise that our best investment option is to invest in ourselves first, and then look outside.

Cricket & Entrepreneurship

If you are a cricket fan, you would have watched the T20 International final of India vs Australia, and would have enjoyed every moment of it. I mean, what a match it was! Captivating and thrilling till the last ball! And once India won the match, and also the series, the media exploded with all kinds of praises for the Indian cricket team.



Yes, the boys played well. But aren’t they the same boys who were at the receiving end of criticism since they lost abominably in the World Cup 2015. Just goes to show, how fickle is media and the fans. One moment they will make you Gods, and the next treat you as dirt.

Somehow, I can draw a parallel between cricket and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs work - hard and are true to their passion of building a unique or useful product for the society. Customers, if they like the product or services, are all praises, and the moment they are unhappy about the company or the product, they start criticizing it, without once taking into account the previous impeccable record. But, the flipflop attitude of customers shouldn’t affect a true entrepreneur. They should stay true to their passion and make efforts to improve their offerings to make their customers happy. The brickbats and accolades are all part of the game, so better to take them in their stride!

(taken from eazyhire.in)

Steve Jobs on Hardwork


"I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance."

The Story Of My Life



Everyone has a life story that they tell themselves and other people. What's yours? Like the college student, many people play a certain story in their heads. Every time we tell our life story, whether it's past or present, we believe it more and more. Don't relish in poverty, unless you want more of it. Too many people celebrate their broke story in order to seek acceptance from other broke people. 

To change your life story, focus on whom you're becoming. You might not know exactly whom you'll end up as (who does?), but you can focus on telling yourself and others about who you want to become. Sometimes, I'll ask the universe to reveal the truth about my path and what I can do to materialize those objectives. Once you create your life story, become obsessed with it and keep feeding into it.

(advice by Daniel Ally on www.entrepreneur.com)

"Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.” -- Tony Hsieh, Zappos Founder & CEO


Zappos is a great example of a company having very clearly defined vision and culture. The founder Tony Hsieh has been very clear and explicate about defining either from day 1.

“Zappos is a customer service company that just happens to sell shoes.”


If you hear anything about Zappos from a Zappos customer, chances are it will be positive. There are dozens of stories about their outstanding customer service, including delivering flowers to a customer whose mom passed away and talking to a customer for over 8 hours (a record that now has been broken).

It should come as no surprise that 75% of Zappos orders are from repeat customers. Hsieh hopes that, down the road, people won’t even realize that Zappos started by selling shoes. They want to be known and remembered as the best customer service and customer experience company.  Hsieh envisions Zappos being something like Virgin (dozens of companies), but instead of being “hip and cool [like Virgin]… we just want to be about the very best customer service.”


Hsieh says that he may expand to disrupt other industries, like the airline business, which traditionally has had poor customer service. Zappos doesn’t compete on price. Instead, they focus on providing the best customer service. So if Zappos does expand into other industries, don’t expect them to be the cheapest. Expect them to have the best customer service. Zappos has been quite successful in providing the best customer service and consistently being one of the best places to work.

Hsieh always believes that a company's culture is very crucial and should be established early.

In the early days of Zappos, Hsieh interviewed every job applicant. This was their way of protecting the culture and ensuring the right people were hired. Hsieh warns that this won’t scale well. He says that, when he got to about 40 or 50 people, he began to run into time issues.

In the interviews, a candidate would have to pass a normal interview (that is, their skills, experience, competency for the job, etc.), and they also would need to be a person that Hsieh would like to know personally. Hsieh says he would ask himself:
“Is this someone I would choose to hang out with or grab a drink with….if we weren’t in business together? If the answer is no, then we wouldn’t hire them.”

When asked about keeping work and personal life separate, Hsieh says:
“There are companies that focus on work-life separation or work-life balance and at Zappos we really focus on work-life integration and at the end of the day it’s just life…..and especially if you spend so much time at work you better enjoy the time that you’re spending there and people that you’re with….”

He expands on this in his talk at Stanford:
“We want the person to be the same person at home or in the office because what we’ve found is that’s when the great ideas come out, that’s when their creativity shines and that’s when true friendships are formed – not just coworker relationships. When people are in that environment, that’s when the passion comes out and that’s really what’s driven a lot of our growth over the years.”



It’s key that the people who are involved in establishing the culture (typically, the CEO) participate and vet each candidate that comes through, especially for those first few hires. The goal is that, once the company grows, it can build without needing the CEO involved in each hire. This can happen if the CEO hires people who are competent and a culture fit. The theory is that those people that were hired by the CEO will hire people who share the CEO’s vision.

(parts taken from blog.kissmetrics.com)