ENTREPRENEURSHIP – the relevance this word has got over the last couple of years is much more than what all have been scribbled on the word for several centuries by many known and enormous unknown authors. Countless people have contributed to bring in the sea change a mindset have to undergo to live to the true meaning of this word and jump into an ocean full of tantrums testing each and every skill a human can have with endless skill-traps laid down the path.

More so that we have reached a stage wherein entrepreneur development cells are functional in premier and almost all higher education institutes, wherein its attempted to lay the foundation of thinking towards entrepreneurial journey in the fresh minds coming to the business world so that their inclination towards it can be initiated. Its important also for the growth of the economy and the basic survival as well. Because unless we have fresh minds entering the business world we may tend to miss on the innovations, out of the box approach and most important the risk-taking appetite of the businesses.

Having said that very few actually wrote about the probable pitfalls on this so-called rewarding journey (or I may have come across and read very few of what have been written on this). Is it not important that we also talk about what it takes to come out successful of this road to success? Unlike many journey’s wherein most of the preparation is done beforehand the travel towards self-sustenance through entrepreneurship is something wherein you need to prepare continuously and for ever for every next stop or part of the travel. It can be even more tasking if you are not equipped with the right mind-set for doing so.

One may debate about the basic reason why only handful of the “n” number of start-ups succeed but in my view the most important ones are which tests the character & conduct of the entrepreneur more than the outside factors which are talked about (ex…  competition, funding, support etc…). Let’s look at these in some more details.

Its true that every startup is the most loved baby of its founders. But then as the baby grow you alone cannot take care of all the needs like schooling, friends etc… Similarly, every business has many functions involved and mostly driven by the cost pressures what many entrepreneurs land themselves in, is that they tend to manage all the functions themselves (atleast get involved to the absolute nitty gritty of it) thereby getting sucked to the day-to-day activities, leaving absolutely no room for the much-desired strategic approach required to grow the organization. This is a vicious cycle tempting many to enter and leaving very few with a chance to come out off.

Next biggest pitfall with all the potential to ruin the journey is when people unconsciously make decisions which can easily be framed as Penny wise Pound Foolish. One can understand the cost pressures and lack of funds, but actually this completely depends on the preparedness of a startup wherein they have to engage into delivering the best services / products for which at times if you try to cut costs beyond a limit it starts appearing on the quality of delivery which actually is the first step towards losing on the market. So, one must be prepared to engage experts of the domain territories they have not travelled.

Next in the line is lack of supporting the surroundings. We have seen lines outside the Apple stores when they launch their new handset. However, when it comes to one of our friends launching a new product in his / her startup, many of us actually don’t go ahead and support them. Rather it is the near and dear ones who first have doubts on the success of the startup. Us buying that one product will not affect us but will surely contribute a brick in the runway of success for that startup. Are we considerate enough for this? And since most of us are with this mind-set so it is returned back to us when we are in the role.

Last here would be my thoughts on collaboration. Absolutely 99% of the start-ups behave so secretly as if they have the recipe of the life on mars mission. Believe me there is nothing secret in today’s world of technology and moreover unless your startup is for closely guarded clients, you are anyway going to get exposed with your products / services to the entire world immediately upon launch. But what this mindset does to us is that it restricts us to even embrace the collaborative help coming our way and look at travelling the long path quickly.

Having said that it’s a journey which if travelled well is absolutely rewarding not in commercial but also satisfaction, containment and self-improvement parameters.