When one talks with young graduates, they feel that one becomes an entrepreneur for money. However in my research on careers of over 7 years, i have found this to be untrue. What do you feel about it?
Starting a venture
Money, as Peter Drucker says, is not the purpose of doing business. Money is necessary to do business, and is also a byproduct of doing good business. But money is not the reason why entrepreneurs do business. In my career research, i have met many entrepreneurs. None of them, i observed, ventured for money, although they wanted money to gain the necessary freedom.
If you read the interviews of founders of Apple, hotmail or any other idea, ( Do not read biographies, because they tend to be coloured by the interpretation of the author), you will realise that these entrepreneurs developed a particular business idea because they enjoyed the difficult challenge; or they wanted to achieve something of significance. It is rarely about money. One of the good compilation of such interviews is 'Founders at Work" by Livingstone.
Also read this Sanjiv Bhikchandani's old blog ( Founder of Naukri.com) who talked about the same aspect. This is the link below
Exception to above
However, if you are uneducated and migrant ( leaving your home state or country to reside in new place), then you are an ideal person to become an entpreneur for money. Entrepreneurship demands large amount of 'change' in a person. A person with options, more than often, finds an easier exit to avoid 'change'. However, when a person is a uneducated migrant, an ideal combination, he does not have any option. He therefore 'changes'. If you observe the success of entrepreneurs in USA, you will observe this pattern. You will observe the same pattern in entrepreneurs who come to a large city like Mumbai from far-off places!
Entrepreneurs may also fall in Money trap
I have also observed a curious phenomenon of these entrepreneurs in my research. Once the entrepreneurs achieve their first success, many fall in, what i call, as money trap ! Money, instead of becoming means, becomes an end. Money, instead of enabling experimentation and exploration, ties them to tested and obsolete ways of doing business.
Many examples of this trap can be seen in the field of film industry, for instance. Many actors work hard to get their first break, but very few actors manage to avoid the lure of money later to continue to experiment and explore. One of the notable exception is Aamir Khan who despite the huge benefits works for one movie at a time. I have also observed few notable exceptions to this pattern amongst entrepreneurs. When i met these exceptional entrepreneurs, i discovered the challenges one faces to avoid this trap which i shall share later in this blog!
Today i observed a systemic pattern in the careers of entrepreneurs that makes it difficult to avoid this money trap. Today, I read an article in Times of India ( dated 22 June ) about Sahil Parikh, Founder of Deskaway. When he moved from web service development to his e-enabled project management product, he said that service business was lucrative. Moving away to a product was risky as it meant diverting attention from something lucrative. And it took 3 years to make profit on a new product!
Giving something steady and moving away to unknown territory naturally provokes lot of uncertainty & anxiety. I have observed that freelancers, such as trainers, chartered accounting consultants, and even doctors , find it more difficult to surmount this challenge than an established entrepreneur with a business unit. Currently, i am observing a trainer who is facing uphill task of moving away from his established business of training to SME consulting. Would you advise anyone to do it?
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