By Saswata Das
Co-owner & MD, WOW Design
Many times, people ask me whether it was a wise decision to start up a business on my own. Well, I don’t have any regrets whatsoever. Who doesn’t want to be his own boss? But what’s important is that you should be doing what really interests you. For me, the last few years have been awesome in terms of challenges, excitement and passion at work.
Often, there is an underlying query from people as to when is the right time to take the plunge. Some ask me if it would have been better if I had gathered some more experience. Had Dhirubhai Ambani waited to acquire some more experience before starting his own business, would the Reliance empire have grown so huge by now?
There’s no perfect or optimum time to start. It’s completely a gut feeling. You should just generate enough confidence in yourself that you can pull it off, come what may. And believe me, no matter how many years of experience your CV displays, when you finally venture out, entrepreneurship is bound to throw up newer challenges. And it’s facing those challenges that makes the entire journey exciting.
I was in an engineering college at the same time as Mark Zuckerberg, though in an entirely different part of the world. So while he became a billionaire at 23, I started off only at 28. I am already running late!
When I was in Bangalore, working as a Senior Software Engineer at Wipro Technologies, I had won an online contest and a signed book from Subroto Bagchi, the co-founder of Mindtree. The book was titled The High Performance Entrepreneur. Little did I know that I would become an entrepreneur soon, but yes, I admit the streak was always there. The dream of creating my own enterprise had crept in, though I don’t know exactly when.
A lot has been said and written about whether entrepreneurship can be taught. I believe while you need to have certain basic characteristics from within, the others can be inculcated. So while my PG degree had an entrepreneurship aspect to it, what it certainly did was to instill confidence in me that even I could take the plunge and that it was worth taking the risk.
So to all those sitting on the fence, this is what I have to say: Do not dilly-dally or develop cold feet at the prospect of the unknown. Don’t let the opportunity slip away. You can spend innumerable hours learning the tricks of the trade, empower yourself with knowledge and experience, keepa back-up plan ready, equip yourself for all the unforeseen eventualities, but whip up confidence in your own abilities. You are the best judge to firm up when you are actually ready.
Dive in and drown yourself, but also remember to gain confidence to swim first!
Feedback: saswata@wowdesign.in
