I have been an entrepreneur for the last 8 years, trying to create something of my own, through the various ventures that I have started or joined in the past years. My ventures range from starting a software developer company(Desidevelopers), to starting a retail audit company (FloorWalk), and all the way to cofounding a smoking accessory online retail (OutonTrip). In the midst of all this, I have been consulted by multiple startups in the real estate, online retail, Law-tech sectors, and more. Here are a few learnings that I’d like to share, based on my experience, which can be helpful to budding entrepreneurs.
Believe in yourself
From making a lot of money to going bankrupt and being in extreme debts, one thing that kept me going was my belief in myself, and following that constant path to where I wanted to be. There were times when I thought everything was coming to an end (both Relationships & Business) and it did. Just holding on at that time and dealing with the situation at hand was the best I could do — it made me realize that everything was temporary. Every time someone comes and tells you, “you can’t do it”, you prove them wrong. The lyrics from one of my favorite song from Zac Brown Band stuck with me through these moments — ‘You might fall down on your face, roll the dice and have some faith’, and every time I fell, I remembered this.
Take care of your health
Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy, but it wasn’t a miracle either. You have to understand that you only have limited strength, both physically & mentally. Here, I am only talking about mental strength. Everyday you deal with a lot of vendors — your team, friends, family & clients. They all have different expectations from you, and you might not be able to live up to everyone’s expectations. Sometimes you ignore a lot of them and sometimes you cannot. On a high stress day, you don’t really play your A-frame — not because you can’t, but because you won’t be able to. On these days, you understand your limits of mental strength and your decision taking capabilities under pressure. Calm down & take a deep breath: it will make things easier. I have made a habit of practicing Yoga & Meditation for 30 minutes a day irrespective of how crazy a day it is, and it has done wonders for me.
Organize yourself, create notes & to-do lists, and break every tasks into smaller tasks
I think this was one of the most important learnings that I got when I was working with the real estate marketplace - whenever we used to sit down for a meeting and come up with ideas on how to make a particular system, create a marketing event, or get rankings for a particular keyword on Google, we used to list down the ideas and then break those ideas into smaller tasks which lead to our major goal. These smaller tasks were further divided into man hours, and everyone was assigned those tasks and we would track it. It sounds very simple right now, but at that time, it was my biggest learning on how to execute biggest of the ideas that you have. Since then, I have started using task management tools like Google Calendar, Evernote, Slack, Trello & much more. These tools have organized my work and made things easier for me.
Your organization is what your team is
Most skills can be acquired, what you need is a hustler to work with you. I have been a part of Jagriti Yatra (A journey of creating India through enterprise with 500 people from around the world.) as a Yatri & as a part of the management team. From both roles, I have learned one important thing -don’t let those people go who believe in you and want to grow. Be around them and work with them, you will see yourself growing automatically. I work with a lot of people I met on that journey, and they are hustlers. We have gotten things done which we thought, at one point of time, were impossible to do, and we surprised ourselves. More important, everyone will have their low times, just understand that it is temporary and they will bounce back.
Have a life other than work
Have a hobby, not because everyone around you asks you to have a hobby, but because there are times when you should connect with yourself when you are exhausted. Scrolling through Facebook & Instagram is not really a hobby. Though, I usually try to restrain myself from using a lot of infinite scrolling social media apps, I have realized that it has become an important part of our lives. For me, I travel as much as I can. My family does not really get the concept of traveling and spending money on experiences, but it has taught me a great deal. Every new Idea or an efficient way of execution that I’ve had has come from the conversations that I had with people, ones that I met while I was traveling. It was an investment every time. It refreshed me and motivated me to do things that really mattered, things other than just makes money.
‘Stick’ — ‘Not to stick’ to people
This point might be repetitive of an earlier point I made, but it holds a very important role in my journey. Coming from a small town in Madhya Pradesh, I still haven’t lost touch with my friends from my primary school. They were, and are an important ingredient of my life. Today too, I visit them often and learn about their whereabouts. I make sure any important festivals are spent with close friends and family, because they are the people that matters. From having heartbreaking relationships to losing clients, my friends were the ones that made me bounce back every single time. Some people will always hate you, no matter how much you do for them. Introspect and kick all the negative people from your life, they are just making your life miserable.
With this, I know there is no end to learnings in life and it is a continuous process. But yes — ‘You may have lost this battle, live to fight another day’!