Entrepreneurship
is a lonely journey. Unknown paths. Unknown dangers. Unknown enemies. Only
thing that guides you is your own vision and dreams. And at times, that too
gets blurred and u feel totally lost. Right in the middle of the jungle.
How do
entrepreneurs cope up such scenarios in their lives? In one of my previous
article, I have mentioned about resilience, the capability of human beings to
overcome any tough scenarios. But in reality, we are all human beings with
emotions, our vulnerability, frustrations and angers, right? And entrepreneurs
are no different.
One fine
morning, I felt very down looking at the hurdles and challenges that I am
facing in my entrepreneurship. I then thought of asking a few entrepreneurs how
they feel when they face failures /hurdles in their journey. So, I posted the
following question in one of my whatsapp group of entrepreneurs and opened up a
small discussion. I made the question into a little specific scenario so that
they can relate to the emotions more.
I asked,
“How do you feel when you see a competitor in business who is better than you? If u have put in lot of effort over something
and one fine morning u see a competitor with big pockets and better resources,
how do u feel?”
The
first one to answer was Ms. Jeemol, who runs a food and baking business. She
said, “Dhaane dhaane pey likha hain, khaano waalon kaa naam.. There is enough for all of us and we just
need to put in sincere efforts and the result will follow. Also, I feel this is
the right way to approach competition because it keeps you at a peaceful and
happy mind set which is more important than monetary returns.”
Ms. Geophy
Mathews, an Image Consultant commented that,” As a normal human being, one
would definitely feel a bit worried in such a scenario. It’s your mental
maturity level that would help you to control that jealousy and prevent you
from acting stupid. Placing myself in that position, honestly speaking, I would
feel a bit frustrated and unenthusiastic. I would definitely need someone to console
and motivate me in such a situation. Some good guidance would definitely help
rise again and win.”
So, as
the women looked at the question emotional, Mr. Jayan Vennikkal who is a
Branding consultant and runs Bigg Brand Thought, came with a more logical view
point. “Spending time to study competitors is good but following competitors is
not good for better business. Instead we should focus on how we can serve our
customers better.”
Mr.
Lemuel John (Owner, Celestial Havens) added to it saying that, “Will go for some
self analysis to find where I went wrong. Since I am confident about my product
and service, will try to find out in which area I failed. It can be right and
safe packaging, marketing, follow up and follow through etc. When I realise that
I am succumbing to analysis paralysis will throw my ego and turn the mode to
Teachability - watch & listen to available experts advises.”
After
this came, Ms. Sajitha Rasheed, who runs a Training and Coaching business,
MindMojo (where the above scenario is
quite relevant!). She said, “I firmly believe that there are certain things
only I can give. With my intelligence, passion, creativity, experience,
education, personality. That cannot be replicated. If replicated, it will carry
that particular person's signature which will be very different from my mine,
in essence. And the world does need what I have to offer. And also it will need
what another person has to offer. Which I won't be able to replicate in their
essence. So like Jeemol said, every grain has a name written on it. How do I
feel if someone went ahead with my idea? I'll frown for 5 min and then remember
that only I can offer what I have. And then get on with my life.”
Ms.
Sreedevi (CEO of Processhub) added to Sajitha by stating that she will focus on
re-skilling herself and her team. She said, “First thought that comes to me
is...Ah!, there is one more person...hmm...then I’ll be like so the market is
definitely there.. and as Jayan said it’s good to see how competitors approach
clients but I never tried to do that..i focus on what me and my team provides, skill
enhancement for me and my team, quality improvements for sure and focus on the
bigger picture and opportunities. What’s meant to be ours will be there. No one
can claim that. If at all someone does, then it was not ours. Will not let
competition affect mine or my team’s performance negatively.”
Well,
the above statements reflect the entrepreneurial tenacity in our entrepreneurs.
A successful entrepreneur is someone who takes responsibility of their actions
and look at what can be done at their end than blaming their surroundings. But
still, I wanted to know if our entrepreneurs actually feel blues when they face
failures. So, I shared my viewpoint in a candid manner. I said, “Practically, I
really feel pissed off, frustrated, jealous, irritated, feel like a failure and
all kinds of negative emotions consumes me. It takes some time to get over it.
I would also keep away from people for some time until I get over these
negative emotions. I also talk to my
close friends and vent out. After all, we are all human beings right? “
On this
note, I got Mr.Rajiv Ambat, who runs a health and fitness start up named Nuvo
Vivo open up his heart. He said, “I literally sit and crib about it for a few
days. I have felt very jealous, angry and disappointed. In 2018, for nearly 9
months, I stopped praying to God or going to temples. Because I was like, in spite
of my hard work and effort, God seem to favour some other random moron who does
not understand even the basics of health and fitness! I have sulked in it for
long and long. But after sometime, I
realise that it is affecting me and is not helping me progress. So I leave it
aside and I start reading again... and
learning again. And go to gym and vent out my anger there!”
Mr.Santhosh
chipped in and added that,” Business Ideas are
always stolen. Many a times, the pioneer
will become stronger. Apple Vs Windows.
iPhone Vs Samsung etc are examples.
Some other times, the thief would become bigger and better. Orkut vs
Facebook etc. It depends on how you
manage your ideas !! Once it is out in
the market, others can steals it, improvise it or alter it to suite their
business.” He further gave the optimism that despite whatever competition we
may face, we can alter the consumer behaviour if we offer value.
The
Founder of YesMeal, Mr.Muhamed Nizam then shared his long story which was quite
inspiring!
He said,
“I have felt this issue. We were doing restaurant deliveries when we started
our company. When we started around 5 years ago, Swiggy had barely started,
Zomato was a reviewing app, Uber (no, not UberEats) wasn't launched in India.
We were sitting pretty. The only problem was in convincing restaurateurs to
outsource their home delivery portion to a third party. But, we were succeeding
quite well. We started new verticals, like frozen meat, grocery, laundry and
even documents delivery. But, Alas! Zomato added online ordering (which helped
us in the beginning because they wanted the restaurants to deliver the orders
which was mostly difficult for them),
Uber started its Eats section, Swiggy launched in Kochi. The launch of
Swiggy was followed with Zomato starting their own delivery fleet. We went down
and Hard! We lost 95% orders in the restaurant vertical. Our orders came down
50% in the other segments. This was a very difficult time and we came up with
ideas like working with our competitors. We started outsourcing our staff for
them, both officially and unofficially. We strengthened our other verticals,
launched in other cities and came back to the earlier levels. We are currently
facing competition from them again in the grocery and vegetable verticals. And
I am thinking, there you go! I will have to come up with fresh ideas and this
will keep us thinking. Challenges are sure to awaken the real entrepreneur in
us. Note Ban, GST, Floods didn't exact help. But, Corona has kind of boosted
our business!”
Rahul
Balachandran, Founder & CEO of Inker Robotics concluded the discussion by
sharing his life journey as an Entrepreneur for over 15years where he has
failed in few start-ups where he had put lot of efforts. He was also teased by
people around. He shared honestly that he has felt frustrated and dejected to
see that someone else stole his idea or a competitor comes up with a better
version. During his early period of entrepreneurship, he used to feel anger and
would even want a punching bag at his gym but later he started looking at these
situations differently. When he saw that someone else is implementing the ideas
he once failed, he felt happy that he was right once.
I also
spoke with Lt.Col. Prem Vas, who is currently a specialist in Human Capital
Management, on the same topic. He with his innate wits, told that, it’s ok to
feel lousy in the beginning. “Then after a hot cuppa or cold beer - depending
on the time & mood of the day - push all thoughts out of my mind - even for a few moments - it's hard yes
- but not impossible. Then take stock of my strengths - however humble - don't
compare with the competitor yet. You will feel slightly well if not a lot
better - depending on how your positive affinity quotient is! Plan a strategy
to take in those areas your competitor has lesser presence! Borrow immense
amount of faith from your belief system - could be a religion, your role model,
your rationalism or simply a strong belief in yourself! Have a last sip of
cuppa and bottoms up - pull up socks, fold your sleeves and kick your butt to
move on!! “
Boxer Mike Tyson once said, “Everybody has a plan until you
get punched in the face!” Well, this holds true in the case of entrepreneurs.
The success of an entrepreneur lies in their ability to face the punch in their
face.
And when you get punched. You punch back harder!
I thank
all my fellow entrepreneurs for their comments and opinions on the topic. Though
I started the conversation when I was feeling blues due to issues in my entrepreneurial
journey, the conversation helped me realise that the “entrepreneurial blues”
are a common thing and it is in these times that we need a support group to
discuss, share ideas, get suggestions and sometimes, just to tell you that,
“you are awesome and you should go forward”!
Cheers to all in the wonderful and fulfilling life journey of
Entrepreneurship!
#CeeVee
June 2020
#CeeVee is the brand name of Ms.Chandra Vadhana, Founder
and Chief Mentor, Prayaana Labs. Email: connectceevee@gmail.com
