Design Driving Entrepreneurship

Though for the longest time I have been working on many self-initiated projects I recently cultivated the trait of taking #initiative to identify and learn new skills. Earlier I mostly honed my existing skills but was unaware of the potential that comes along with one’s desire to take initiative for dexterity.

Surely there have been many external and internal forces that mutated my ability to be open to new experiences and not just grab but also create new opportunities for #growth, both personally and professionally. This evolution has established some major #milestones over the past two and a half years teaching me to expand my horizons.

One underlying insight that came through across the spectrum of experiences is… Just because something has not been done yet doesn’t mean it isn’t possible, perhaps nobody tried the right combination of things to make it happen or simply the time wasn’t right for the outcome to have an appropriate purpose. Actually, there is one more. I have realized all of us can do anything, we just have to attempt doing it with sincerity, and maybe attempt it multiple times to get it right. If others can do it we can do it too. Everything we see around us is made or effectuated by humans. Nobody is alien around here with some superpowers, if other humans beings can do it so can we. Let’s just attempt it (even if multiple times). This is what #entrepreneurship is for me.

Now, as we are nearing the commencement of operations for Earth Tatva - Recycled Ceramics I realized I will have to travel on my two-wheeler 25 Kms one side to reach our studio – do some exciting impactful work – and return the same distance… Everyday! Quite a challenge.

You may say why do I not shift to a place nearer to the studio? Well… I do not know anyone who is willing to share an apartment at that location and I put my foot down on not staying alone – mental health is of utmost importance, especially when one is starting something from scratch. My friend (flatmate) and I have good synergy which makes one thing less to be concerned about.

Coming back to the point. This challenge of riding 50 Kms a day was taken as an opportunity to learn a new skill - Driving. All these years I neither had the need, resources or mindset to learn how to drive but this was my opportunity to do it. Here are some of my experiences of learning how to drive that helped me to understand entrepreneurship better.

Before the first day, I had no clue even about the ABC of driving, I was completely blank. To my surprise, on the first day of theory we literally started with ABC – Accelerator, Brake, Clutch. That day I understood two things – Sometimes the answers are in front of us but we tend to complicate things & blur our vision and it is good to understand the working of something before jumping right into doing it and then learning through trial and error.

I had practice sessions for 30mins every day. That’s it. On the sixth day I could drive fairly well midst traffic. And if you have ever been on the streets of Ahmedabad, India you’ll know how it is. Technically this means I could learn this distant skill of driving for years in just 3 hours. Wow! Things are not as difficult as they seem to be. I realized if we break our learning schedule into smaller chunks with clear agendas we can hone a new skill before even we realize it. Instead of working ourselves up with difficult goals for hours together, we could break them up into layers of tasks that we keep adding to regularly we can possibly get anything done.

After riding a gearless two-wheeler for more than a decade learning to drive a geared car was completely different for me. Clutching things up is very important, there cannot be any sudden changes else we come to a jerky uncomfortable halt (adding to the risk of undesirable accidents). The changes, movement or any progress is gradual, nothing happens in a snap. This is by far was my most direct and profound insight about entrepreneurship from the experience of learning how to drive. Whether it is starting up, scaling or even pivoting – everything has to be clutched with integrity, patience and determination. Whatever entrepreneurs choose to do at any stage of their venture it is important to clutch to their values and gradually move forward in the journey.

Sometimes through an organic course of our routine, there isn’t any happening event that might motivate us to give our best or elevate our confidence. That is when we need to come up with such small but important successes to keep ourselves motivated. Finding new ways to succeed, however small is important to fuel an entrepreneur’s testing journey. Learning to drive did just that for me.

 The last insight has been on my mind for quite some time but this experience of learning something off-the-wall from my daily routine helped me to articulate it better. We as a society need to be better at explaining things to others, especially to novices. I couldn’t possibly have learned this new skill with such ease and swiftness if not for my instructor helping me with the right information, at the right time, in the right way. I have attributed the positive trajectory of my growth to my mentors over the years. Since most of them have been academic mentors I thought they are good at their job. But now after going through the driving course I realized I could have learned this much earlier without spending if only someone around me who knows driving could explain things to me in a simplified manner. It might be much easier and affordable to learn new skills from peers instead of formal coaching. This will also make us a better communicator and forge positive social interactions.

Well, now let’s talk about design. Over the years during my education at design institutes and interactions with professionals from the domain I heard this many times that design needs to be intuitive for the users. We should not be needing a user manual for the customers to understand how a particular product works.

If that is the case, why are cars so complicated? Why do people need weeks and months of training to just start understanding how that moving cabin works? Why has there been no simplification about it over the years? If someone sits at the driver seat for the first time there isn’t any indication of which paddle is accelerator, brake or clutch.

For me, there are two ways to think about this. One, we cannot have every product that is intuitively understood by the average resident of this planet. We will need some instructions and that is all right. Even different foods have a specific way of consuming them which is hardly intuitive. We have to understand the culture and other nuances to know how something is to be eaten. So how can we expect a technical machine to be completely intuitive?

Two, there is a difference between simplifying things for the users’ convenience and granting access to more number of people and dumbing products down so everyone can use them. I see so many products, especially softwares, being dumbed down so that even a layperson could use it. Thus, increasing the profits for the company. What we don’t realize is that if people start using every available tool without understanding its purpose the output might be sub-standard and it will dilute the efforts of serious professionals who are adding value to society after putting in hours of dedication to hone their skills.

There is a considerable difference between apps and softwares. I believe we should elevate people and their skills to make them competent enough to understand nuances about various domains instead of stripping the products of their core offering.

Key takeaways:

1.     Initiative is the key to entrepreneurship.

2.     If others can do it we can do it too.

3.     Sometimes answers are in front of us, let’s not complicate things & blur our vision.

4.     Adding layers of efforts over time can get better results instead of slogging for continuous hours.

5.     Entrepreneurs must clutch to their values and gradually move ahead in their journey.

6.     Find new ways to succeed to keep yourself motivated.

7.     We should get better at explaining things to novices.

8.     Raising awareness and educating users is important than diluting a product’s offering to match the users’ understanding.