Antarprerana Part 1: On Becoming an Entrepreneur

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – An ancient Chinese proverb

How do I design a life where I can give equal value to all aspects of life – spiritual, family, professional, social ?

How do I integrate spirituality (practical wisdom) into all dimensions of life?

How do I live my life based on my highest purpose – the redemption of my soul in this life?

How do I design a system which would help me to care for the planet (environment), the people (society and community), and the profit (economy) for our earth family?

My background:

I was seeking these answers. You may wonder why I would do that. To answer that, I want to set the context. It may help you to understand me and why I do the way I do. I am in my early forties. I come from an old-world Bengali family. I was raised in a liberal, spiritual environment. My family gave me the freedom to find my calling. In this time, I spent more than twenty-three years with reality. I spent eleven years in the U.S. for work and studies, traveled extensively in more than ten countries, met people from more than one hundred and twenty countries around the world, self-published a book (also based on an experiential journey), wrote several stories, and articles, and lived through 9/11, 2008 financial crisis. My U.S. undergraduate education based on liberal arts in an orthodox Christian environment, my meditation practices at Thai village and forest monasteries, my time at Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Study Centre were also some of the contributing factors that shaped my perspectives of life. My work experience - working odd jobs and professional jobs - added to my exposure. All these and much more made me uniquely me. I realized I am my own person.

My experiences:

In 2017, I was back in Kolkata to settle down after being away for nearly two decades. I reached out to many established professionals for possible help and guidance. It was actually the young professionals who shared details about various whereabouts.

I decided to design a life that would let me materialize all that I was seeking. Quantum Paradigm was the answer. My late grandfather's work, Raj Rajyeshwari, which was published long before I was born, talked about a system designed on the principles of Quantum. I came across this published work around that time. He named me, Rajyeshwari, which also means the transmutation of masculine and feminine energy to divine energy. After doing the necessary legal paperwork, I continued doing intensive research on various holy books and wisdom literature including the Vedas, Upanishads, Contemplative Christianity, Sufism, Kabbalah, and other classical works of great minds. I decided to announce publicly in August 2019 that I started my practice, Quantum Holistic Advisory Services, based on Quantum Paradigm.

 Quantum Paradigm is based on the study of reality (the relative truth), expanded on the conscious evolution of the subject (the individual), and manifested materially using the universal and timeless principles of life. Hence, it is forever dynamic. Unlike Newtonian Paradigm, it is subject dependent. So, an individual's character is of paramount importance as opposed to the independent, objective, mechanistic world of the Newtonian worldview. The experiential life of the subject creates the projected manifestation of the material object. Another key aspect of Quantum Paradigm is Spiritual Intelligence – the higher purpose that drives us.

The challenges I faced:

I am now back in India for more than ten years. I had worked in various capacities in the corporate world. Some of these challenges I faced may or may not be challenges for someone who grew up and educated here. These experiences also made me question a lot of socially accepted beliefs. These experiences became some of the reasons why I became an entrepreneur also. I have categorized these in two broad areas 1) gender-bias and 2) unprofessional work culture.

1. Gender-bias:

As a professional lady, I could have suffered less had there been less gender-bias in social and professional culture. To clarify what I mean by gender bias is the lack of fair and equal treatment in terms of respect and dignity. I think I suffered more than others because I was raised in a gender-neutral family.

In most parts of the world, patriarchy is the prevalent social structure where men are given an undue advantage over women in almost all areas of life. So, I understand from a socio-psychological view, why a lot of men behave the way they do. In this context, I want to articulate that I am well aware that there are many exceptions - the dignified gentlemen.

 After speaking with several men and women about my work, I found, most of the men still come from the mindset that women’s role is a supportive role. Some of them are also under the impression most women cannot speak up for themselves. Another very disturbing experience is a lack of respect for women's time and contribution. On several occasions, I experienced men in a certain age group gave unsolicited advice on how to live my life.

2. Unprofessional culture:

I aspire to experience a work culture where people are inspired to be their best. The role of each individual is designed to contribute towards actualizing the higher purpose of the organization. For this to happen, the focus needs to be on cultivating a conscious culture based on shared purpose, shared principles and values. Then only, we would be able to restore mutual trust, respect and dignity in workplace. For example, many people approached me for possible collaborations. During the initial days, I was open to collaboration but I soon realized unless there is mutual trust and respect, collaboration is less likely to succeed. In my view, trust is a result of transparent, honest intentions without hidden agendas.

The solutions:

During the initial days, I was open to speak about my business with anyone. I will elaborate more in Part II about my findings when I was doing research and consultative selling. Based on my experiences and the challenges I faced, I realized I need to focus on like-minded individuals with similar character traits. It is important to find people those who have a similar worldview and are willing to co-create the shared future. The right people would together create the right culture because it is the culture where the foundation is made.

Just like any other entrepreneur, I went through a multitude of emotional states – happiness, joy, fulfillment, disappointment, stress and exhaustion. I have applied these two solutions to maintain both emotional and mental stability. In case of individuals, it is about doing the inner work in a disciplined way. In case of collectives (social and organizational), it is about following a set of guiding principles. Following the shared principles brings security, stability and trust in the long run. These could also be seen as strategy (choices) to bring inside-out cultural transformation for successful work, collaboration and relationship building in professional and social settings.

1. The inner work for individuals:

The first step of inner work for individuals is to do an honest self-assessment of where we stand in various dimensions of life – spiritual, professional, social, financial, physical, emotional, and intellectual. Then, we can slowly start cultivating awareness building to shift living life from reactive state to responsive state. In other words, we would cultivate higher Spiritual Intelligence, higher Emotional Intelligence and higher Social Intelligence. In this way, we can be guided by our Higher Self than the Lower Self. More self-aware we are, more harmonious will be our relations with both our inner and outer worlds. This will result in equanimity, balance and fulfillment. Meditation and Meditative Writing are some of the ways to do the inner work.

2. The guiding principles for collectives:

While we continue to do the inner work, the guiding principles would help us to build an inspiring culture where we know irrespective of our social, economic, religious differences, we would be treated with dignity and respect and that each individual’s role and contribution is of paramount importance towards achieving the collective, higher purpose.

Principle 1: We treat everyone with dignity and respect. We expect the same from others.

Principle 2: We earn respect and trust based on our actions. We expect the same from others.

Principle 3: We create wealth based on a shared vision, shared purpose, and values.

Principle 4: We are committed to our self-evolution. We would live a life based on the highest principles which are good for our soul, mind, heart, and body.

Principle 5: We care for our family, society, community, profession, and world at large. We are global citizens with local sensitivity.

Principle 6: We collaborate with those individuals and organizations those who see a similar organic, green shared future and are willing to work towards that based on universal and timeless principles of life.

Conclusion:

The Sanskrit word for entrepreneurship is 'antarprerana.' This means being inspired by what we are called to do. In summary, on becoming an entrepreneur, first, the individual has to find out which idea deeply inspires him or her. Second, the individual will have to do the competence building and necessary legal work. Third, the individual will have to be prepared to face and overcome certain socio-economic and cultural challenges. Depth of character of the individual and his/her leadership capabilities would help him/her to navigate this phase. And finally, the individual have to find solutions and implement those solutions to work through those challenges. 

In the second part, I will discuss how I laid the groundwork and created an ecosystem for my work to take off. I started a number of initiatives such as informational interviews, awareness-building writing and speaking engagements, initiatives to give back to society. Financial planning, mindful spending, staying healthy, and being part of a supportive network are other important factors which we need to keep in mind.

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Key points from part I :

1.     Identify what you are truly passionate about. The idea could be for a service or a product.

2.     Experiment socially with the idea, if you can. If not, go to step 3.

3.     Do the necessary legal paperwork.

4.     Continue to do the competency building to implement the idea.  

5.     Start reaching out to people. You may experience roadblocks and challenges. Identify those.

6.     Find solutions how to work around those challenges.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rajyeshwari Ghosh is the Founder of Quantum Holistic Advisory Services. It is a Quantum paradigm-based multidisciplinary leadership and management consultancy practice. She is a Certified Blockchain Practitioner and a Member of Lorange Network. A former Wall Street and Big Four professional, she is a Trusted Advisor and a Management Consultant. She advocates holistic thinking, practices an interdisciplinary approach to organizational problem solving, and believes in the meaningful use of technology for good of humanity. She studied and worked in the U.S. and currently lives in Kolkata, India.

Photo Credits: All picture are downloaded from Unsplash.com

Picture 1 by Chris Lawton

Picture 2 by Greg Rakozy

Picture 3 by Michael Payne