Focus on solutions and not on tools

Having a knife is no proof that you can make a curry.  A kitchen knife set, cutting boards, vegetables or meat in the fridge, spices and mixer-grinder may be the tools that we need to make a curry. If you ask me to come for dinner since you have all this in your house, I will think twice. Making a tasty curry is an art in itself. And one who knows how to make one may need some of these tools.

Why am I discussing about  curry now? Because having a Engineering or MBA Degree only means that at the most you have   learned how to use a set of tools. It does not means that you know how to create a profitable business.

I am not saying  that you should not have degrees. But it is important to see the difference between solutions and tools. If you are a startup then you need to train yourself in using the tools, if your education is giving you an opportunity to do that then it is good. Your academic projects are meant for improving your skills in using these tools. Please do that passionately. 

Your academic projects are meant for improving your skills in using these tools and not for finding solutions for the pain points in the society. The solution for the pain point may require that you use some of the lessons that you had learned in your college. It may or may not need those tools.  At the end of your academic years you have to change from somebody proficient in using tools to somebody who focus on solutions. This needs a bit of unlearning and a lot of thinking on out of the box solutions. 

The projects that I did not do, the products that I did not make

Did you see my yesterday's post about polyhouse farming?

"I am planning to do a project in Polyhouse farming. Yesterday I had  met a team who are equally excited about this as I am"

Wait a minute. You were talking about several other projects and products earlier. What happened to all of that?  Why should we trust you now?

The answer is simple. They are not done. Not because I was not excited about it. It is because I did not meet the right team.  Some of them had not even started. Some had started and then got stuck because the team members lost their interest in the project.

Well, you could have done it by yourself. Why are you blaming others?

May be or may be not. But why should I get stuck with one project or product?  There could be entrepreneurs who are determined to do one thing and they may proceed with that what ever may be the obstacles on their way. But my argument is this. If you cannot find few people who can work with you then either the idea is not good or  you are yet to meet the right team. Keep searching.

It is all about Money

When I was planning to resign my job after 12 years as a Scientist in ISRO to become and entrepreneur, I had a dilemma. I have an employee mindset and had no experience in entrepreneurship. Unless I align with some good entrepreneur I will fail. I spend a few months studying the different possibilities and finally decided to talk to a friend of mine, a born entrepreneur. After the first meeting with him I never had to look back on my decision to resign.

It took me a few years to overcome my employee mindset. What lesson did I learn? Quite a lot. Let us discuss one important point in this post, the way both handle  money. For an employe, especially a Govt employee, you almost know your future, It is a well written script from your date of joining until  your death. When you get an increment you know what to buy next. You are going to be short of money always though you get a fat salary. Have you ever heard any salaried employee getting rich?

An entrepreneur knows that his income is not predictable.  He may be making money but he does not know how much he will make next month. He has no control on his income, it could be more or less or even be zero. An entrepreneur can never live like an employee. To survive he has to control  his expenditure. If he can learn the art of financial planning then he can sure become a rich person.

I am not discussing about opportunities in investing in this post because theoretically at least both an employee and an entrepreneur do have equal opportunities to make money by doing this.

How can I become a successful entrepreneur?

During NRK Snagamam 2013, somebody asked this question to Gokulam Gopalan 

"Gopaletta, Can you give us some tips to become a successful entrepreneur? "

 He said he dos not have an answer to this question.

In a private talk just after the meeting he asked me " How can I tell anybody how to become successful?  I selected  my own path"

Stop searching for tips to become a successful entrepreneur. Stop reading books to find ways to become successful.  Stop asking this question.

You need to find your own path in your entrepreneurial journey. There are no shortcuts, there are no tips. You cannot copy it from others because you are you and not him.

The books, or the mentor can only tell you about the opportunities. It is only 1%, the 99% is you. You have to study yourself, see what you can and cannot.

Who is my enemy?

People do ask me this question. "What is my interest in working for the ecosystem for startups?". What am I looking for? What return am I expecting? I know this is a question that is being asked to everybody who promotes the ecosystem.

An ecosystem is an open system unlike a company where you can reap the benefits directly. Working for an ecosystem do not offer any returns directly. The benefits are indirect. That is why you do not have to consider anybody as a competitor here. All who work in one way or other way are supporting the ecosystem. You have an opportunity to meet many people. You may meet people with same or complementing goals. It gives a good chance to meet your future team mates with whom you may associate to form a company.

There are no "us" or " others" here. The only "others" are people who are trying to destroy the ecosystem. It is a simple rule, if you " do" something to promote it then you are friends of the ecosystem. If you do not "do" anything and then try to block people who are trying to do something then you are the "others". For me it does not matter who you are or how much you hate me, as I would like to work with you and build the ecosystem.

Who are the enemies of the system? Let us have an analogy with our natural forests and hills. It does not matter who are trying help the forest ecosystem. But if you are going there to destroy it, litter the place with plastics and other things, or you do not want others to enjoy it as the way you had, then you are the number one enemy of any nature lovers. Let us try to love the nature and let us feel happy that others come there and enjoy it too. It is the same philosophy that we need follow when we are building startup ecosystem.

We have to spend money to build It. Why should I spend my money unless I have some direct benefits? I want to bring another analogy here. To buy a quality product or service one has to spend a little bit more money.  Are you a loser in this case? By spending the extra money you are making sure that the business that provides you the quality product or service can survive. You are making sure that you will get a chance to enjoy it in future. Yes, others who had not promoted it also may enjoy it, but let us feel happy that it was our effort that made it survive at the first place. e.

So why are you here? Are you happy that your enemy is also here? Are you happy that you may not get any benefit at all? 

Creating a startup eco system inside the College campus - Part 2

How can we create entrepreneurs in colleges who can solve real world problems and create value. 

Is it by creating an incubation center inside the campus? Let us drill down more into this question. 

What is an incubation center?

An incubation center is a physical location that provides a defined set of services to teams or small companies. This may include specific types of office space, flexible lease terms, access to technology, financing, and technical assistance (such as marketing, legal, finance, HR, and other business development services). By locating similar or complementary entities in proximity to each other, the incubator may also play a critical role in promoting knowledge transfer, both formally and informally.


But this needs a lot of investment. Again an ideal incubation center is not only about physical space, it is also about networking, mentoring etc. this cannot be done in a day or two. Is there step by step approach?

First step: Establish an entrepreneurship cell. Select a mentor who is ready to have interactive sessions with the students. Somebody with atleast 5 years of industry experience  is preferred. Use the existing lab as an incubator. Let students do a lot of idea pitching. In case a few are ready to move ahead introduce them to  an existing incubator.

Second step: Identify a physical space and see whether you can bring-in some matured companies to the space. If you can get them then try to jointly develop the incubation space. 

Creating a startup eco system inside the College campus

Our colleges are designed to create employees. There are several questions that will come to our mind when we start exploring this further. I have selected two of the most important questions from them and I will discuss those in detail.

1.) Are they producing enough employable students?
2.) How can they produce more employers? 

On the employability aspect there were several surveys that were done in the past. These surveys had found that 50% to 90% are not employable. My own personal experience is that  almost 99% are not directly employable.  Look at the training campuses set by companies like TCS , Infosys , etc.  Why do they require such huge campuses if the college-recruited students were employable? The problem is that our education system focus more on theories than practical knowledge. Skill development is almost zero. Industry exposure is absolutely zero.  We have deigned our degrees that stretches to 2 to 4 years with a static syllabus and this can noway cope up with the fast changing world. And imagine that these students are to be trained for future world while they are not even get exposed to the present industrial reality. 

Does the system produce entrepreneurs? Entrepreneurship cannot be taught, if somebody wants to learn it then they have to try  it out by themselves. It is a journey one has to take, a journey to discover oneself as well as seek opportunities in the world one lives.   Many are born entrepreneurs and some are self made.The only way to develop this skill is to allow and encourage students to become entrepreneurs.  Entrepreneurship is all about creating value. Entrepreneurship is also about solving real world problems.