By Himanshu Khona,
Director, Done Solutions Pvt. Ltd
Growing and succeeding are part of an entrepreneur’s life, requiring motivation, a strong self-belief and, sometimes, a slap right across your face in order to re-analyse your flaws and climb the ladder again. Sometimes, when you don’t have a plan at your disposal, it can get quite scary.
I have always seen life as a challenge, taking every opportunity coming my way and adapting accordingly. When you go with that attitude, taking risks is in your daily to-do list. When I left my high-paying job at Netmagic, I had absolutely no plan whatsoever. I just wanted to do something on my own, and that was my only motivation. I got the usual pep talk – saying that it was foolish and illogical - from my well-wishers, but I had already made up my mind. However, I had my misgivings too.
To clear my mind, I suddenly hit upon the idea of a trip to Lonavala with a couple of my best friends, and it indeed turned out to be a life-changing trip for me. While driving towards the Tiger Point, our car tyre got punctured, and as usual, we didn’t have a spare one to replace it. I had to call my driver, whom I had given the day off, to arrange for a tyre or mechanic, whichever was possible.
In the meantime, we spotted a small bridge over a pond-like structure nearby and traversed down to it. Our shoes weren’t equipped to stay firm on the slippery rocks, and by the time we reached the slow stream of water, my hands were lacerated by the sharp rocks. Our jeans too turned a new brown colour courtesy the mud and slush, but we were enjoying every moment of it. We folded up our jeans, placed our shoes and socks in a relatively dry place, and jumped into the pond. For the first time in many years, I felt that my childhood had returned. The freedom to do anything you please does that to you.
After spending time in the pool, we devoured some snacks at a corner shop, and it was overall an amazing experience. I know I would never have done something like that if our car hadn’t got punctured at that place. But I was glad that it had happened.
Soon, my driver arrived with a spare tyre, and we travelled on to Tiger Point. As we sat on the cliff’s edge, I just closed my eyes to savour the nature around me. My friends were tired, so I could give time to myself at that moment. And it was heaven.
I found some similarities between this trip and an entrepreneur’s journey, where you are on your own and have to adapt according to what’s going around. The sense of freedom to explore it gives, and the joy it involves, gave my self-belief the required boost, and my misgivings were replaced by a faith that everything would work out eventually.
On our return, I started exploring the market with full zeal and positivity. The emergence of mobile, working over Cloud, meetings with Vikram Raichura, my first Cloud customer, and many such things followed in succession. And I, who had no plan when I started on that trip, carved my own way out. The pivots and pain points – or, as I put it earlier, the slaps - did come once or twice, but they only helped me get better and be more patient.
Feedback: himanshu@done.to
