I am not a writer, but still wanted to share my experience first-hand with you all. This is all about my own understanding or experiences of becoming a first time entrepreneur in early twenties.
Let me tell you my story, I am 22, born and brought up in Ratlam, a small town of around 10 square kilometer in M.P. Graduated from Symbiosis International University and having worked with Great Place to Work for Five Months I quit my job in September 2017, to go back home and join my mom in her Tea trading business back home.
I started learning back the dos and don’ts of business bridging the gap that occurred during the graduation in Pune and job in Mumbai. In January 2018, I started my journey in metro cities to choose a city to expand the horizon of our business and open up a new establishment all together but with the modern touch and based on my own skills, beliefs and understanding of the business world. I have always been the Jugaadu person amongst my friends, family and peers. The one with the curiosity level of a new born baby.
I settled in Mumbai, in April’18. Started my journey of launching this business. The brand is to be unveiled in April’19. Everything so far is on track, looks good with a few challenges here and there and a few ups and downs as it’s supposed to be. We know, where we are. Yes! This business has already become ‘We’ from ‘I’. All we can do right now is start spreading the word around and wait for the market to respond, when we open the gates for public ideally in September’19. Let me share in pointers covering in broad, exactly according to my own experience what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in your early twenties specially in a year like 2019! 1) It’s the best time to be an Entrepreneur. YES! There is no better time than now. You want to know why? Because our World at this moment is the most open, innovative and changing. At the same time more than ever accepting to new age entrepreneurs. There is scope of experimentation. IT IS OKAY TO FAIL IN THIS TIME. At least you know you can try and people, friends, family and even government will support you on this journey.
2) Only one in every thousand or even more is truly an Entrepreneur. If you are an entrepreneur, or a want to be entrepreneur and if you feel there are too many start-ups, don’t worry. You still have the best chances of surviving and making it big. Not decent but genuinely big. Let me explain why? So here it goes, first of all, you are unique individual with your own unique upbringing in a particular place, starting or wanting to start a business with your own unique set of skills, people and resources all in all collaborating with your own set of companies, friends and learning and evolving at your own pace. Yes there is room for all of us. The next Google is yet to be born, may be the founder is yet to be conceived, you never know.
3) Yes, you will feel pressure. Obviously, there is no boss, which is kind of scary because you have got to do everything like literally everything from cleaning your office to meeting the business owners in the well-dressed manner you could be. You need to understand over thinking or rethinking the same things is not going to help. Fold your sleeves and get to work, that is the only way it will happen.
4) No it’s not cool. It’s not cool at all. Oh GOD, let me spell it out for you, and I am speaking on the behalf of the entire community when I say this- ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ITS TRUE SENSE IS NOT A COOL THING AT ALL!. It’s a nice feeling to finally do something that you love, to do something that you always wanted to do, but if you know what I mean you will understand that it means a lot of sacrifices, compromises and long hours with proper deep root planning for all you know is some god damn challenge that might come tomorrow. Again , it’s a lot of fun and excitement, but no it’s not cool, if you are truly committed to it, it is way more serious than you think.
5) Yes, everyone is a mentor and yes 90% of them are fake. I don’t know how to put it across but everyone, like literally everyone will have an advice for you suggesting how you could have done this or that, or why your life is a total waste, or why this will not work out if you don’t listen to their advice. Truth is, they might be right in some cases but the important thing is you listen to the people you value and respect and then take a calculated risk and decision based on your own thoughts and feelings. Your gut knows better than anyone else. At least whatever the outcome you won’t blame not trying it out or resting it on others.
6) No you should not be busy all the time, but well aware and planned. You don’t have to be busy all the time, it’s very easy to get caught up in 100 different things that all look important and urgent, which actually is never the case. I learned it with time, that you start the most time taking and lousy tasks the first and then the one which if not taken care off, might put your business on hold. Rest everything you do it in your pastime.
7) Yes you will be judged, criticized and doubted upon, chill nothing should bother you. Ya exactly. Don’t worry. No one here at present has it all figured out, and the people who have made it big will tell you, they didn’t know where they were going or what was next or whether their actions were always right or as per society standards. If you think about all this, you will probably give up real soon or stay a want to be entrepreneur till you figure this out.
8) How to keep your calm? Don’t worry the big guys are equally lost in this journey. It can be difficult to keep calm at a lot of times, all you can do is realize that freaking about your to dos and what ifs is not going to be of any help if not anxiety. Don’t worry the big guys are also as clueless as you at times, yes they have experience and have faced certain situations but again you CANNOT fast forward certain experiences, you just have to live them in order to learn from them. So as cliché as it may sound, Keep calm and do your ‘job’.
9) It’s the best to be Entrepreneur in your early twenties, want to know why? Because you are free, you are wild, you are on the peak of your energy level, you could fail and get back up, you will learn sooner, you will have option to exercise plan B, you will never be as younger as today, it will take time to build your dream into reality and I can keep on going on and on and on but I guess, you got my point.
10) It’s a game of patience! YES PATIENCE MY FRIEND- That’s the secret mantra (just in case there should be any).
Well if you have stuck around for this long, I think it’s safe to assume you can practice patience at least at the basic level. You know execution is not that difficult after all, but to wait for things to happen which you can’t fully control is where the major challenges lies. You know if it was for one man to save the environment, it would have been done long back, but in order to keep the environment safe and clean all of us have to keep our surrounding clean and tidy. ALL OF US! You will have a lot of times when all you can do is wait. You feel like just sowing the field in one night, but that just can’t happen.
You need to practice patience, you need to understand things like this I mean living your dreams and building your actual dreams to real life is a long term process and doesn’t happen overnight. It is all those tiny little moments, ups and downs, the motivational phase and the dull phase combined the smooth highways and the rocky patches that build up to your dream. And yes buddy, it will require you to have patience and hold on tight in the most difficult of the times. But trust me, trust god or trust your gut, it will be worth the wait, worth the fun, worth the experience and it will make you better as a person whole and whole.
What am I doing?
I have played all my cards (at least for the day before the next big ideas troubles me in sleep), I passed the test of first 9 phases and I am on my final one, that is THE GAME OF PATIENCE. It is time for me to get the first hand feedback for my product, be open to criticism and rejections. Be open to newer challenges and newer opportunities with every passing second.
I am right now passing each day like it was a year, and yes, this journey as you must have guessed it till now, has been a truly mesmerizing, amazing and breathe taking one. I have experienced my own self on many different levels and have tested abilities of my own at various peaks in different hours of the day and at different emotional level. It’s true, as they say-
He’s was an overnight success, he just got lucky.
Well the only catch is for that night which brings success to come, you have to have many sleepless nights, uncounted days of hard-smart work and trust in your gut feeling that it will all turn out to be just right, if it doesn’t then tighten up your shoe laces because you are about to go and make it right!!!
Aapka Ayush