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It’s
Not Enough to Set a Goal. You’ve Got to Live it, Breathe it, and Never Give
Up on it...
A
serial entrepreneur must become the backbone of his team. He has to play to
win, not just participate
You know, the famous “Saari kayenaat” dialogue from Om Shanti Om does work.
But of course it’s not enough to set a goal. You’ve got to live it, breathe
it, never give up on it, and yet be smart about it. Only then does the
universe work for you. I started my current venture MobiVite in 2009. It
was a mix of foresight into the potential of mobile Internet, faith in my
vision and pure daring that made me leap into the unknown, risking my
earlier full-time business to start it. Before this I had established a company
that dealt in export of fragrances — an entirely different space
altogether. Having founded and run two companies without any venture
funding, I stand at a place where I am not insanely successful in terms of
wealth, but a happy man. To become the backbone of your team you have to be
the most curious, innovative, fearless, honest, committed, flexible and
focussed. An entrepreneur has to play to win, not just participate. Here
are some lessons I have learnt:
Passion creates skills
Having little technical knowledge did not deter me. I believed in
myself. If one is deep-diving daily into the unknown and bringing out
something of value, whether one has a fancy degree or not, taking the world
by its horns comes naturally. With childlike curiosity and passion you can
develop best of skills.You have only one guiding force — be better than the
best and nothing less.
Look at the big picture
You have to see it bigger than anybody else, to become grandest of all.
No space for mediocrity! Tirelessly, you have to find your own lessons,
join the dots, and paint the big picture and cross-tally your vision with
global experts. I feel it’s alright to validate your product with
consumers’ feedback sometimes, but do not base your entire road map on it,
as they only see what you show; they are naïve. Give them something of use
and they are happy for the time being. It is your duty to give them
something enthralling, which is only possible if driven by the big picture
envisioned by you.
Do what is most important
Creation gives me a high and product evangelism is above all else. I
make it a point to always participate in product and business road map
meetings, no matter what other meetings I miss. Product is ultimately our
insurance against all odds. It has saved me twice. Its quality is sacred!
Quality is when you do the best even when nobody is watching. Eventually
aim to build such great acumen within that you can foresee the impact of a
slight code-change on the bottom line.
Everything can be asset
There is a thin line between expense and investment; every expense can
be converted into an asset immediately. For instance, meeting minutes
wellrecorded; documentation around coding; method used in bugs and issues
resolution; simple sales tracker sheet and contacts repository — are all
assets. Having all the assets handy worked to my advantage, when the VCs
came calling for due diligence. The biggest of all assets is team culture.
Choose people who do not watch the watch, commit to you in spirit and
testify it in writing, are multi-tasking, flexible and able to learn new
tasks. Closeness and transparency work wonders. Eat with the team, always
maintain high standards of integrity, share every good and bad news with
them. If people leave you on hearing the bad news — and mind you, many will
leave — that’s the time to rejuvenate for they are like toxins going out,
making space for positive oxidants inside company. Rewarding committed
people by way of ownership share into the business is a good idea.
A typical day
Details are the ocean in which entrepreneurs deep-dive daily: create
selfopinion, cross-check with expert views, redo the road map and generate
work for self and the team. This is the self-propelling mantra to grow
business. Much depends on the entrepreneur. Everybody within the company is
looking up to you and outside. It makes perfect sense to keep your mental
and phsical health and fitness going. Do yoga, keep godly faith in people
around. Make it work!
Sanjay Goel
CURRENT DESIGNATION
CEO, MobiVite
COMPANIES FOUNDED
Ethnic India and Srishti Technet (MobiVite)
ONE THING I’D DO DIFFERENTLY
More research on new business against more defined validating
criterion, one of them being if it can be scaled globally
THE MOST EXCITING SPACE TO BE IN
Create something that touches at least one of the human senses
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