There are Good Visionaries and there are Dubious Visionaries and there are Mistaken Visionaries.
Entrepreneurs exist in every country on earth – Indian, American, Chinese, German, Japanese, Czech, Swedish or Malay.
The difference is the System.
Some Systems have a perfect market for Entrepreneurs giving them time to flourish and if they dont – the market finishes them off.
Some Systems have no market for Entrepreneurs believing in Total and utter control by a handful of powerful businesses who believe in controlling everything in their power.
The Indian System is Unique. In the Indian System – The most mediocre of Entrepreneurs is made to believe he or she is a ‘Good Visionary’. The most mediocre of Entrepreneurs is touted by the Local Media and the People as a ‘Gates’ or a ‘Jobs’. The most mediocre of Entrepreneurs is made to utterly ignore the real competition out these in the world and to hide like an Ostrich and keep gloating because the system creates this False Image and Myth.
#1 The Excuse Brigade
No country except India have the excuse brigade.
This is the classic example of an Excuse Brigade.
Is your product inferior compared to similar products available in other countries?
The Answer is Yes. Nobody cares why or how. As long as you want to sell your products, you have to have the best products otherwise the customer will simply choose the other products.
Yet the Excuse Brigade often clouds an Indian Entrepreneurs Vision with these ridiculous excuses.
Tomorrow if I decide to sell a program which can add four numbers and claim to be a great programmer – the Excuse Brigade will say – (a) Bala is 63 years old. Look at how much he has done at the age of 63 (b) Wow!!! He is creating a program after just 2 months (c) He doesnt even have a Computer Background.
The truth is Adding Four Numbers????? School Kids can do this in their sleep.
Instead the excuse brigade starts with the hard work of an entrepreneur or the efforts.
Sadly its a cruel world. NOBODY CARES!!!!
Moral – Stop believing in these excuses. Today the world is one single unit and you have to compete with the best. Whether you are OYOs or Ola or Byjus or Jumbo King. The rest – doesnt matter.
# 2 The Level of Aspiration of Mediocrity
Aspiration is a crucial thing.
You have to aspire to something if you want to be an Entrepreneur.
Any Entrepreneur who says My Product is already there is either lying or is dangerously deluded.
There will always be room for improvement even if you are Elon Musk.
Yes the word Entrepreneur became a trend only in the 2010s but Dhirubhai was an Entrepreneur.
He aspired to the top. He compared his products with the Global ones. He acknowledged weaknesses. He often berated his managers as to why his factories did not have the requisite quality and refused to allow Government exploitation to affect the quality of his product.
He never Settled for Mediocrity even though it was the 1980s and India was closed off from the world and he could have easily done so for 15 – 20 years. Yet he maintained his quality and when India opened its markets – Ambani competed and survived and flourished.
Meanwhile some Entrepreneurs simply refuse to look at the Competition and believe they need something unique. They believe in funding and hype. These guys raised a whopping $ 100 Million in funding and had all the hype they could generate – but Failed.
Entrepreneurs however refuse to look at any better competition thanks to the Excuse Brigade.
# 3 The Accelaration from Zero to Hero to Zero
India is one country where an Entrepreneur becomes a Hero with one single interview. Suddenly the Entrepreneur says “I am going to do this or that” and boom – you have a handful of print media articles and online articles – and he becomes a superstar and a hero.
Raising capital is a highly dubious thing (As i just said the above entrepreneurs raised $ 100 Million to no avail) but suddenly you have new investors and capital raised.
Yet when the Entrepreneur fails – he is utterly and totally abandoned.
No time is given for him to build his company and then proclaim him a hero so that he can sustain the title.
This is also Only in India
# 4 The Focus Point of All Entrepreneurs
The Entrepreneur has to make a Competitive product. He has to ensure that his product is the best or near the best or that his service is Excellent.
Instead most of his focus is to Hype and Hype and Hype just to keep marketing to give the illusion of a Huge market even with very little substance.
They blow money on Film Stars and Cricketers and Celebrities and Endorsements – all of which could be used to enhance the quality of their product.
Thomas Alva Edison once said a Genius is 99% Perspiration and 1% Inspiration
An Entrepreneur working in the Indian system is 99% Hype and 1% Actual Product Competence.
Within 3 years – the Entrepreneur in the INdian Systems Product or Service is mediocre and nothing compared to global standards and the entrepreneur focusses on the usual Hype and Marketing to somehow promote his product as worthy.
He will eventually lose
So what should someone who has a genuine vision for an Idea which could become a big success do?
(a) Contact a man who runs Malpani Ventures – they allow a longer time to allow the investment to flourish and allow the Entrepreneur to slowly sink his roots and build a customer base without SRK or Deepika Padukone or The BJP. I am by no means endorsing Malpani Ventures, I just heard this guy who runs it is a Straight Shooter who has a handful of entrepreneurs taking their earliest steps.
(b) Ignore the excuse brigade and look at the competiton openly. If you want to distribute groceries through apps – look at Jiomart, Amazon and Bigbasket and try to do something that they dont have. If you want to build a robot – see if you have a market for it and see all the Robots doing the same function in foreign countries and try to make a better one.
(c) Invest all your money into Research and Development. If your product is mediocre – close the business. Flogging a Mediocre product is like Flogging a Dead Horse. It will never work. Only Kohli or Deepika Padukone will get rich.
OR
(d) Simply demonstrate your product to Singapore or US VCs and take a flight to Singapore and register your company there. This would be the best option if you want long term success without any of the Hype.
