Passion in low doses is called a hobby. I won’t get my car fixed by somebody who is very passionate about cars, but only does it on weekends from 3-4 pm. Similarly, I will not buy CRM from a guy who only works on it on the weekend. This is again mostly a derivation of the first point, but I wanted to say this out loud.
From Atanu Dey’s Blog
“All people dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the morning to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, for they dream their dreams with open eyes, and make them come true.” - T.E. Lawrence
Guy Kawasaki’s list of the five most important lessons he has learned as an entrepreneur. Please check out the entire posting here.
The five points are
Please check out the entire posting here.
Sramana Mitra, entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley for nearly 25 years, has a very interesting series of essays on future of multiple entrepreneurship in India. It is currently on to its seventeenth running segment and one can do no better than introduce it by quoting from Sramana’s preface to his Vision India 2020 Series:
I invite readers to take a journey with me into the future through the minds of multiple entrepreneurs, who by addressing the opportunities I see today, will perhaps shape the future of India.
But in this series, we will close our eyes, and exist in this future, and BE each entrepreneur.
Sudhanshu Raheha has a thought provoking post on Bootstrapping or Fund Raising
Excerpts: It depends on what does you startup want to do. If it would take you a lot of time before you can start making money, then you need some external money to keep clear the bills, but if you can find a way to start getting paid immediately, you are better off without giving out your equity.
Here’s the basic formula for entrepreneurship: Understand a problem, grasp its full context, connect previously unconnected dots, and have the vision, courage, resourcefulness, and persistence to see the solution through to fruition.
Case in point…( http://feeds.harvardbusiness.org/~r/harvardbusiness/~3/364928472/visionary-entrepreneur.html)
Today, over 400 million people worldwide live in poverty. Most depend on the use of their hands and their eyesight to provide for themselves and their families. As they age, near-sightedness threatens their livelihoods. For more than 40% of these people, a pair of over-the-counter glasses sold in any Western drugstore would substantially increase their productivity and quality of life. But many people don’t have access to these eyeglasses.
During dozens of medical missions to the developing world, Dr. Jordan Kassalow, a practicing optometrist and public health expert, saw the problem firsthand. It was obvious that scores of near-sighted people languishing in poverty needed glasses. But Dr. Kassalow also realized that if a member of a community had the right tools and skills as well as access to inexpensive glasses in a range of standard prescriptions, he or she could become that community’s optometrist.
That’s a classic “win-win”: motivated workers gain access to a promising entrepreneurial opportunity (paying twice the wages of typical local jobs), and their customers get inexpensive, yet potentially life-transforming eyeglasses. Dr. Kassalow saw the problem, understood the context, and connected the dots. He founded the Scojo Foundation, now called VisionSpring; its mission is to “reduce poverty and generate opportunity in the developing world through the sale of affordable eyeglasses.”
Vijay Anand, an Indian entrepreneur, passionate and driven by technologies related to the Mobile, VoIP, and Emerging Internet space, is quite passionate about the startup ecosystem and is involved heavily in the creation of vibrant communities here in India.
He is the Founder of Proto.in, the startup ecosystem body, and has been a driving force in being involved in community events such as Barcamp Chennai, Blogcamp, Wikicamp, Podworks, Open Coffee Club in Chennai and seeding such similar initiatives across the country.
This was one post I really could relate to.
Rajesh Jain post on Digital India
Excerpts:
Pooja lives in with her parents in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a middle-class neighborhood in Mumbai. She is studying in class V. It is early in the evening. Entering the living room, she switches on a light and then pushes a button on a little blue box the size of a shoe-box sitting next to a monitor. The monitor lights up immediately displays what looks like a PC desktop. A little dialog box blinks, “Who is it?” She types her login name “pooja101″. “What is our secret word, Pooja?” She responds.In a flash the desktop changes to resume where she had left off earlier that day when she had accessed “MyComputer” at the school computing center. An ad appears in a little window. It lasts for about 10 seconds informing her of a sale on school supplies going on in her neighborhood supermarket. She clicks on the “ToDo List” and makes a note in there to buy some stationery and dismisses the ad window.
The Knowledge Commission headed by Sam Pitroda has recommended setting up a stock exchange for small and new startup companies.
The startup scene in India is picking up steam. But still around 70-80% of startups are self financed. And capital is a big factor in helping the startups scale up and become a worthwhile business.
But this idea is not a new one. I remember Rajesh Jain’s Blog post on the subject that is dated December, 2006. So is it a workable idea. Or does it need some capital for its own success!?!
Seth Godin has a perspective on Luck
Waiting for the fickle finger of fate to point at you (and cursing the universe until it does) is a lousy strategy. What a shame that so many people rationalize their lives this way. It might be a useful rationalization, but how does it increase the likelihood you’ll get what you want?
Ranjan Varma Personal Finance 2.01