When we look just 300 years back, India accounted for 35 percent of the global GDP which is now just two percent as it lost out the industrial revolution because of colonization. India is into the socialist orientation also known as license permit quota raj where innocence does not pay to be entrepreneurial. Is this the reason why the country lags behind in “Innovation and Entrepreneurship?” How difficult it is to have an idea that does not seem compatible? Is it too out of the box to reach out of the box and see what the others don’t see? After all, what is the main responsibility of a leader?

Money is the sole requirement as it helps to buy a license to get a foreign collaboration and sell at a cost plus. In the words of Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman of CA India, since the GDP share of India had gone down from 2 percent to 0.2 percent, the government was convinced that the Industry would crash but even during the worst showdown, the country managed to come alive. “This was made possible by the individuals who took a step ahead and decided to lead. But the only domains where they lacked were successful innovation and entrepreneurship. U.S leads the world because it owns a huge domestic market. Afterall, a large domestic market gives rise to critical mass around which entrepreneurs and innovators create products and services. How the country will look after 10-15 tears totally depends upon innovation and entrepreneurship. The country just needs leaders with better governance to bring out ideas of global importance so as to move at a faster pace,” he says.

But could a similar fate have been possible if the leaders would have been connoted with an egoistic behavior? Naresh Gupta, the Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of Adobe India emphasizes on this saying great leaders are extremely humble and explained his belief by giving the example of Mahatma Gandhi who became a leader by creating his own path of non-violence. “A leader needs to be innovative and insightful to transform well. What counts the most is an individual’s wish to succeed for his organization and not just for himself.”

Sometimes, how easily people let go of a thought as though it’s merely a dream instead of planning and putting it into practice to emerge as successful leaders. “Thinking outcomes as a thought, when you believe in something, it makes your thinking become your belief, you start living with it in your attitude and that becomes your perception. Just follow it then to become a leader,” says Sudhir Agarwal, the President of Aegis. True leaders are those who have an ability to think ahead of the regulated life and have a belief to bet and set the curve. But before being a leader, be an innovative entrepreneur to reach out and see what others don’t and have a belief and believe in it thoroughly.