Once an entrepreneur, always an ...
Anand Bhaskar
CEO | Strategic HR Leader & Coach | Empowering CXOs at Fortune 500s (Unilever, GE, Microsoft) | PCC ICF | Angel Investor & Startup Advisor
If some of you are wondering what it takes, to take a leap of faith and become an entrepreneur; let me flip the problem statement for you.
Do you have any idea what it takes for an entrepreneur to go back to being an employee? Interesting, isn’t it?
As an employee I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was hungry, but not foolish enough to take the plunge. That’s on a lighter note. The truth is I was afraid, with the what if’s that confronted me. However, when I took the plunge 6 years ago, it was ecstasy all the way. Entrepreneur and ecstasy - are you serious? Yes & No. Let me address the No first. Being an entrepreneur is hard, challenging and stressful. Yes, because despite all the challenges it is hugely fulfilling in the inside. You are the master of your destiny, the good and the not so good. As an entrepreneur, one fails so often (almost every day) that one loses the fear of failure. Most important, one learns to take failure in his stride and in many ways become fearless. By fearless, I don’t mean absence of fear. An entrepreneur learns to recognise the existence of fear and how to cope with it.
The hardest part is trying to make a shift from being an entrepreneur to trying to play the role of an employee again. When I look around, I see people worried vs thinking (about complexities); complaining vs. finding solutions (to problems); talking around people vs. talking to people; blaming others vs. reflecting on own behaviour; playing petty politics vs. learning to grow up. The list is long and I can go on & on. I have been asking myself, are you serious; you chose to try this again?
When behavioural scientists wrote about entrepreneurial orientation as a behaviour, I think they had no clue on what it meant to be an entrepreneur. They may have never been one themselves. They seemed to have intellectualised and visualised this behaviour in employees or just gone by their research and observations. I am sure there might have been one in 1000's who demonstrated some of these behaviours; that may have made remarkable difference to the company that the individual worked for. In all probability, the word was coined as a fantasy and an aspirational state of being.
Having seen both sides for considerable years, I can both feel & tell the difference. I am acutely aware that I might have some inherent bias for or against; considering the argument I am making. Therefore, I would invite your perspective to broaden my thinking and learn from your life experiences.
Anand Bhaskar
Aviation Manager - South at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited
3 年A very interesting read.
Founder and CEO @ Invictus Search | Identifying Transformational Leaders
3 年Anand Bhaskar, thanks for sharing another insightful post that truly resonates with me ! I spent 22 years in the corporate world and then started my entrepreneurial journey at the end of 2016. A small start up with nobody in my team in the initial days ! Few things that are very different in a start up world : First, the buck stops with you ! There is no one else that can be made a scapegoat and success also belongs only to you. Second, you need to get adjusted to think more at a micro level. In leadership roles, you manage things at a very large scale and have a macro view on things. You need to shed this habit ASAP and work on the minutest details. Thirdly, you need to pivot fast and in a very agile manner if things are not working out . In leadership roles, it is not so easy as you are bogged down by the bureaucracy but in a start up, you are the master of your game so the ability to pivot is very high
Succinctly explained.? Great thought sharing, indeed. Greatly, it is the mindset shift for one. Right or wrong moves are explored along the journey with a chance to course correct.?
An active lifelong learner...
3 年Anand Bhaskar Thanks for your valuable insights. I would probably echo the same in corporate world as well, where a leader is also an employee. Sometime, a leader miss to contribute directly in the midst of many meetings and responsibilities. However, self development or life long learning is also a leadership skill. So is true for a an employee in opposite way. While following directions, fulfilling duties and delivering responsibilities, one miss to experiment new ideas and dare to fail sometime. Your article on entrepreneurship give me a good self reflection. Thank you ????