Entrepreneurship and decision making

Part 5 of Four years on - A reflection on my entrepreneurial journey

“Constant decision making - small and big - is the crux of entrepreneurship. So, if you are not comfortable with making decisions and taking full ownership of the decisions made by you, then you might want to reconsider if entrepreneurship is really the route for you.”

I couldn’t find a good enough quote on the importance of decision making for entrepreneurship, so I made this up. Because, from my experience, it is such an integral part of entrepreneurial life. 

At every step when running a business, there are choices to be made. It becomes the responsibility of the business owner(s) to make a choice at the right time. And, of course, to accept the consequences of choices made. 

Parts of this decision making can surely be delegated. But the who, what, how and how much of delegation then become extremely important. 

I am a very analytical and logical person. I mean, I try to apply logic even to emotional situations! While I identify that as my most important strength, I am also conscious that in certain situations, especially personal situations, I could appear as uncaring because of this. 

This weakness notwithstanding, I like the fact that I am logical. And with a lot of practice, I have also gotten over my hesitation to speak my mind and say “no” when I am convinced I have to. 

So, decision making comes pretty naturally to me. Fairness is a firm guide in my decision making. It’s extremely important that every decision that I make, and every decision that someone else makes which impacts me, is fair to both sides. The second one is not always easy to ensure - and there are times when I fight hard and there are times when I choose to let go. And those decisions are also made in a very logical fashion. 

Even though I am the chief decision-maker of the firm, I expect my team to counsel me if they think things can be better or different. You can therefore expect regular chirpy discussions on various matters at Nishe office. 

I also reflect on the impact of my decisions on others directly affected by them and make it a point to explain my rationale whenever I can. I find that, when grounded in fairness, it works most of the time, with the result that we as Nishe have a fantastic relationship based on trust and openness within our team and with our clients. 

Difficult situations can still occasionally arise, and if I find that they are hard to fix, I have to make a choice to continue the relationship or walk away. Having done the most difficult walking away in my life (from PwC), the act doesn’t seem so daunting any more.

For previous posts in this series, please go to:

Part 1 - Four years on 

Part 2 - Why did I walk away?

Part 3 - The idea of Nishe 

Part 4 - Early days of Nishe