Entrepreneurship and the Marathon
Loading ...Entrepreneurship and the Marathon
I know many people in their talks, essays and articles keep comparing entrepreneurship to running long distances or what we say marathons. Many a times I used to wonder why, I myself is a avid long distance runner – used to run 20kms and not I have sort of scaled down to 10, nevertheless long distance and I had an opportunity to do the same today too and this thought occurred to me again and I started drawing similarities.
I do three different kinds of runs depending on where I do or when I do. I do sometimes treadmill running, sometimes in a big ground where I run few rounds or sometimes I just run across the town. Even though all three are tough in their own ways I think there is a huge difference between them. Running long distances like any rigorous work, is as much physical as mental. One needs to be very strong physically as well as mentally. I have seen that in treadmill running there is always an option to stop when either your body or the mind says enough for now, excuses can be many and you are exactly where you started and hence generally exit option as I call, is right there and you stop many a times at the slightest of the fatigue or a hint to quit. Where as in circle running these tendencies are there but at an average of ½ the circle is what you need to run to get back to where you started whenever you feel like stopping. Again exit option is there to take whenever you want. Whereas across the town running does not throw this option and when you are doing this you don’t even get distracted nor you even look into the watch or anything, only thing you know is that you need to reach the destination and you don’t have an exit option waiting like in the other two options and still better, you don’t even have that exit option in your mind, all you think and know is the destination, period. I guess this is what I call the high performance entrepreneurship, you are so deep into it, you don’t have and don’t even consider any exit options and you just see the destination and run for it. While doing ofcourse you hit many occasions of downs and fatigues where you would have taken the exit option if you were tread milling but not in across the town run, that’s the beauty of it. You have just have to jump deep, deep enough so that you don’t have exit options other than reaching the destination and that way you don’t keep any exit options but the desired goal in the mind. A story comes to my mind wherein the attackers used to burn their boats after they cross the river and the only option is to win the war and return – killing all exit options other than the desired one. I guess this attribute is what makes an entrepreneur, the real high performance entrepreneur. It is very tough but that’s how the game is played. This recession will be a litmus test for the entrepreneurs especially of the emerging community I believe.
Andy Grover’s “Only the paranoid will survive” talks mainly about how deeply you are involved and is the final and the only measure of success or better word he uses is the survival. Even Bagchi in his book “The High performance Entrepreneur” talks about not to even think about the exit options. If you have a backup plan or an exit option, your mind tunes to it and it always takes the easy option.
Talking about Entrepreneurship remind me about the lecture I gave recently on “Entrepreneurship” in my Alma Mater, UVCE (University Visvesvariah College of engineering) which is part of Bangalore University, where I did my BE in Computer Science, way back in 1991 (Aug 1987 to Aug 1991). I was amazed by seeing that hunger, the energy and the enthusiasm in their eyes. The kind of exposure they have is unlimited. Our days entrepreneurs are well known for the IT services industry and I am sure the next gen entrepreneurs will answer the question of “Will there ever be an Apple or a Microsoft or a Google from India?” This question keeps popping to me always. I was recently giving a speech in California mainly about India and the opportunities we have over here and one of the questions that came up from the audience was that will we remain the IT Services guys or will there ever be an Apple or a Microsoft or a Google from India? Not sure whether I gave a convincing reply but that kept on lingering in my mind and I am sure the day is not too far and you never know, the recession might be a blessing in disguise in a way for us to huddle together and start working on revolutionary ideas, but after seeing those students I am sure the days are not too far.
Digressing again, I feel there are lot of opportunities in India itself in a way which is making the west look in our direction. We at S7 Software, were considering on how to capitalize the growing Indian market and I picked up a book about Indian amrket in a US airport (always good to see the market in someone else’s perspective and then you add your own and the result should be something very close to what it is). The book title is “Riding the Indian Tiger” – seems a reasonable good book and I am sure that those in the west you are planning to foray into India will find this book very resourceful and some of the facts he has put about India is really amazing and let me share the same with you all here:
· 30 to 40% of all India’s produce is lost in the supply chain (great opportunity here)
· India has a total arable land area of 162 million hectares – 25% more than China
· India is the second largest producer of Sugar case in the world and from sugarcane you get Ethanol – a vital element of the struggle against global warming
· India is the largest producer of motorcycles in the world
· India is the largest producer of milk in the world
· Only five nations has population higher than UP
· India is the fourth largest producer of soybeans in the world
· High tech manufacturing, distribution and logistics, pharmaceutical and medical devices, financial services, education, renewable energy, agribusiness, fashion apparel, media and entertainment, hospitality and leisure, private health care etc are supposed to be the *hot areas* as far as verticals where there are lot of opportunities.
· BTW, talking about hospitality and leisure industry, NYC is supposed to have more hotel rooms than currently exist in the entire country of India
Anyone getting any entrepreneur ideas to jump into these opportunities? J
Anyway, coming back to my across the town running, I did a 10km and clocked it within 50 minutes and for me that was very good rate and I thoroughly enjoyed it. You are exhausted but you feel so good at the end as if you scaled Mount Everest. Hopefully I will climb the Everest in my entrepreneurship climbing – irrespective of how tiring it is, I am sure the journey will be worthwhile and will be lot of fun and satisfying.
Manjunath M Gowda, S7 Software
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Wonderful post and good insights. Not only the areas which you have mentioned, but there are many more areas which we can look at.
Simple things make a huge impact. Its clost to 5 years now, since I made my first trip to the US and found lots of small small innovations which touched my heart. My all time favorite is the book reading lamp. The small light which hooks to your books and gives you enough light for you to read in the dark without your partner getting disturbed. Till date, have not found one here.
Another thing is a digital book. I am very confident that India can produce the best and most economical models than the one’s available today…So, what is the the delay? We are so obsessed with latest technologies or doing foreign work which brings money in a currency higher than the Rupee.
The moment entrepreneurs start thinking out-of-the-box, I am sure we will have the best of utilities coming from India.