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The Parable of Six Pack Abs
Building six pack abs and creating an entrepreneurial organisation may seem to be poles apart but the principles that apply are no different. Let us run this analogy and analyse how the fundamentals are the same.
Rewind to the release of the Aamir Khan starrer, Ghajini. A young man walks out of cinema, enthralled by Aamir’s six pack abs and wants the same for himself. He is all pumped up, imagining himself with those abs one year later. As he starts to make a mental checklist of things to do to reach his goal, his reverie is interrupted by the aroma and sight of delicious burgers on the food court a floor below. As his stomach suddenly starts to churn, he stops and picks up a fat-laden burger. He bites into it thinking he’ll just workout a little harder when he starts. No sooner does he reach home that he gets invited to, and goes to an all night party. A lot of beers and a bad hangover later, the resolve to go for an early morning run has evaporated like dew on a hot summer morning. The best hangover cure is a butter rich breakfast, muses our six-pack wannabe, and gorges on mummy-made paranthas. A few days of everyday routine and the six pack abs are relegated to some obscure corner of his consciousness. They do resurface every time our protagonist sees Shahid Kapoor or John Abraham on TV, but the passion wanes each time and the emotion evoked is more wistfulness than ambition. The timeline of one year gets replaced with someday. Someday…..
Now imagine a young management student in a B School of the Ivy League. He has stars in his eyes and sees himself as a successful entrepreneur in a few years. Discussions with fellow students revolve around what business he wants to usher in and how big his dreams of entrepreneurship are. As the graduation day approaches, head-hunters from corporate houses enter the campus looking for future managers. Our wannabe entrepreneur joins the queue of interviewees and lands himself a plum package. He starts his job thinking he’s taking up the job for experience and that he will work just a little harder when he turns an entrepreneur. Very soon he gets a car financed and buys a flat on a bank loan. After all, he has a certain status and is expected to live up that image. Platinum credit cards, conferences in five star hotels, luxury vacations and a jet-setting lifestyle combine to purge the dreams of entrepreneurship from the conscious. Every time he sees an entrepreneur of his age, he promises to himself – someday….
So, what do the two stories lead up to? Or more specifically, why does the protagonist get lost in the wilderness of fat morsels and fat packages? The reason is simple – lack of focus; the illusory someday that never comes. Be it a burger or a cushy job, people who are easily swayed fail to focus on the end result and are lost in the maze of distractions. Be it an Aamir Khan getting a six-pack in less than a year; be it a Sachin Tendulkar hitting a quick fire double century in one-dayers; be it an entrepreneur doggedly pursuing his dream, – the focus is never and ought never be lost.
Everyone wants to be an achiever. But very few recognise the hard work and the ruthless self discipline that go into it. Fewer still are prepared to put in what it takes to get there. In this world of instant coffee and fast food, instant gratification is the new mantra. There is, though, no shortcut to success. To get six-pack abs, one has to understand what the mental state of Aamir was before he set out to get a six-pack. What was he thinking when he started? How did he react when results weren’t visible? How did he deal with the pain? How did he train his mind to ignore the pain? What did he give up to get the six pack? How did he deal with ennui, fatigue and distractions?
How hard did he push himself to achieve the results by the desired timeline?
Every time someone achieves something, people are quick to marvel at his luck. Nobody sees the many small and big failures that came before the victory. Someone who won the war in spite of losing battles did not get lucky; he just got mentally stronger.
What is needed, first and foremost, is to be clear in our head as to what we want to do. If our career map is clearly etched in our mind, nothing will distract us. If we want to travel from Delhi to Mumbai, we will not take the Delhi-Jammu road. We have to know where we want to go. We got to have a plan and we got to execute it with single minded devotion.
Entrepreneurship can be likened to a very demanding and hard-to-please mistress. Pleasing her calls for immense personal sacrifices. It may mean working up to 14-16 hours a day; putting family commitments on the back burner; missing anniversaries, birthdays, parties, marriages and dinners – all in an effort to please the hard-to-please diva. It may also mean living the lifestyle of a struggling artist; traveling 2nd class; wearing non-branded clothes; and boot-strapping like hell. And yet the entrepreneur must also build his team; search for and find capable people who’ll be enthused by his vision and will work with a passion matching his own; guide his team members through the disappointments, the hardships and the challenges; stand firm even when everything seems to be falling apart; and yes, have enough self belief to lift not only himself, but also the entire team.
His own catharsis notwithstanding, there is still no guarantee that the goddess of entrepreneurship will be pleased. Even after putting in 100 percent and then some more, chances are that he might fail. Not everyone has the courage to stand back up, dust oneself and keep walking. That’s the kind of grit it requires to be an entrepreneur.
Once a B-school graduate gets used to the luxurious lifestyle that comes with a well paying job, the chances of him being able to break out turn bleak. The lifestyle, the perks and the comfort combine to form a gilded cage. The fixed costs build up and trap him. His financial liabilities, be it a financed home or other loans, conspire to keep him a prisoner of the treadmill. He has to keep running harder just to stay in the same place. Like with a boat caught up in a fast receding tide, the shore of entrepreneurship keeps getting further and further away. Settling in a comfortable job while nursing dreams of entrepreneurship is like wanting to have your cake and eat it too.
Note: As the author of this article, I must say that I haven’t even seen the tip of the ‘entrepreneurship iceberg’; these are just my reflections on the journey so far. A fledgling starter like me is not qualified to comment as an expert. If this message goes out to and helps even a few young readers, the purpose of this post would have been served.
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