The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.
September - 2008 - issue > Guru Talk
Concept to Success: Milestones for startups
Ashish Gupta
Majority of working professionals build their careers working for large companies and are happy there. They might worry about a pay hike of 20 percent and above or may look for a new job in another large company if things don't seem to work out in an organization. Given that this is the majority of the world, clearly it is not necessary to be an entrepreneur. But from my perspective, it is exhilarating to be one. I suggest that one must seriously consider being an entrepreneur at least once. One does not have to start a company to be an entrepreneur. There are many ways to manifest an entrepreneurial spirit and it could be something like deciding "I'm going to home school my child."
Lessons to learn
It is a myth that it is risky being in a startup. I would argue that the opposite is true. All companies want people who work hard and deliver on time. In a startup, there is insufficient fat for non-performers to hide and as a result, performance is all that matters. Today, many large companies have similar work ethics but in a startup there is no choice. Further the learning curve experienced by most people in a startup, is much steeper than in a large company. Often large companies also cause super specialization (for example knowing the intricacies of a particular module of SAP). Startups also force people to become leaders. As a result an individual’s employability quotient rises when working in a startup. While a big company's brand is valuable and they teach a lot of skills, the risk associated with being in large companies keeps getting higher with each passing year as the pace of change increases and leadership skills are valued. The skills that you learn by being an entrepreneur and being forced to deliver or fail, help a person learn how to deal with failure and success better than those who did not take the plunge.
For every entrepreneur, one's company is like a child, and the company too evolves very much like children do. When a kid is born every one is obsessed with looking after the needs of the child and making sure that he is never left alone or hungry. As the child grows, one takes feeding for granted and worry about homework. Soon homework is taken for granted and one worries about preparation for board exams and so on. So as the child grows, one plans for the next big thing and the previous one is assumed to be in place. This is what learning and growing is all about.
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