Pursuits of Entrepreneurship 2.0. From Survival to Rise above the Valley of Death.

Coming from an Oil&Energy Industry background where business as usual is the standard practice and Social Responsibility among the Peer Ecosystem is virtually non existence it was almost non-conceivable to dream about redefining this non-sustainable culture by creating a Responsible Intellectual Ecosystem that would connect Global Goals 2030. But somehow I managed to clear the first milestone of it while toiling over my project for more than 2 years. My Entrepreneurial ambition is not just only driven with the passion to solve one of the toughest challenge around Oil&Energy Industry but also to leverage on the greatest opportunity to work on the biggest idea the world has ever had to make the world a better place to live for future generations.. Here is a Ted Talk by Michael Greens from Deloitte to let you understand the greatness and value of that idea I am currently working on. I suggest you to go through it after reading this article.

During my entrepreneurial journey I got many intellectual enlightenment that I would be sharing with you if you like this post and engage with me here or in personal channel.

I am happy to share the experiences in two parts Surviving and Rising above the Valley of Death. Valley of Death is a term that is used in Start up world that covers the Startup ideation to Bootstrapping till the Startup gains traction or able to manage the much needed resources to create the anticipated value. For mission based Startups like my project the Valley of Death is more wide and deep since there are very few takers for them due to their long term value proposition instead of a short term financial return.

My Story begins here.

Fate gave me two choices.

Get ready to be bleed or give up. I decided not to give up.

There will always be a time in your life when you pass through a bad phase like being under a storm in an open space and you don't know where to go for a safe place. This is something beyond your control. Weather you lost your job or failed in an interview or rejected from a fund raise request this are all the testing times that will decide weather you will get rise or give up.

I passed through those phases of emotions and anguish that thought me the biggest lesson in my life to hold on to the greater purpose of my life being persistence and rise against all fears of failure so that I can feel that sense of achievement being able to positively impact someone else's life. 

Every time Someone put me down and I decided to bring someone else up. Every time I got rejected and humiliated I did not stop believing one thing. "There is still hope" that the storm will pass and I shall rise again. It seems it's going to be true soon.

I am coming up with that storm that I absorbed with in me for last two years from the day I was fired to unleash the power of human energy in the Form of ENHEROES that will create a new beginning , a new hope of positive shared value culture around Oil&Energy Industry.

I am sharing my entrepreneurial journey here with a hope that it may inspire you somehow not to quit your dreams and ambitions

It does not matter how slow you may walk as long as you are walking.

If you like my story kindly endorse me for Entrepreneurship which will be testimonial of peer trust of me as an Entrepreneur in Action.

Lets proceed.

This part of the story is called Surviving the Valley of Death from flash back.

2016

Right at this moment being somewhere in the midway of launching my dream venture Startup , I would like to confess that the Startup Entrepreneurial Journey has not been an easy cake walk or comfortable one. At almost every second moment there would be an urge to stop this craziness about building something from scratch entirely yourself (Putting both Time & Money) and that to not having any prior experience in entrepreneurship at all. Every day I would spend around 16 to 18 hours in my temporary corporate Head office (A small study room converted to office attached to my apartment) and build the framework for my future goals and shaping my Startup aspiration. As I wrote on my LinkedIn profile page "If you can't predict your Future, better Create it" I am working on my own to utilize my learning , my experience and my recently added business innovation skills to realize a dream that shall speak for all my friends & colleagues in Oil & Industry profession in this tough time having limited professional engagement opportunity. The very thought of fulfilling that social responsibility keeps me energized every moment whenever I get a distraction and being pulled down by low moral forces.

Many times my subconscious mind keeps asking me "Do I have a choice?

“Yes I have two choices". I get this reply. “Either leave the dream I pursued in mid-way after so many hours of effort and dedication and just wait & pray for the good times to come and bless upon me or resist the heat for some more time, burn myself and keep fighting on" I preferred to choose the second option.

Throughout this journey so far there has been few changes in my Social & Professional life that I may term the Side Effects of Entrepreneurship but wait!!! Do not judge too fast. It is not like the side effects of Painkillers. Rather these are some of the Positive Side Effects of Pursuing Entrepreneurship which has transformed me from a Specialist Subject Matter Expert with limited thinking ability to a person who can now understand how to think & speak the language of Innovation and link it to Social Responsibility and betterment of our lives. But those transforming Side effects have come up with some unique never had before Social & Peer Circle experiences. I would like to share some of those with all those of you have shown patience to read this confusing article up to this level. 

Side Effect #1: You will learn how to work alone, Start talking less and Work Smart 

If you have worked for a number of years in corporate then you too probably know like many other genius minds who gradually fall into the trendy trap where the most talkative person and less productive person is generally successful. In many cases those who can show off more generally gets rewarded. Majority of these guys who practice it they don’t do it of their own choice. They just adopt it or get familiarize it. At some part of their mind there would always be a war “Should I Start something of my own and get out of this fallacy vrs forget it, Life is much more comfortable here”. Those who overcome this mind war and pursue their own entrepreneurship suddenly realize how they were under utilizing their abilities. They take the challenge as an Opportunity and concentrate on their goals having now time to give advice to subordinates. Since there would be no Co-worker initially most of the cases no time for wise advisory sessions there. Eventually it’s you who have to do all the odds. Starting from Business Strategy, Marketing Plan, PR Strategy , Product/Service Design,Legal ,Finance , Fund raising to cold calling etc. Where is time to give lectures and bore others!!! Most of the times it would be a lonely painful journey but Pursuing Entrepreneurship shall ultimately make you a one man Army: Rambo!!!

Side Effect #2: You start to understand your Peer Circle

A great change in your peer circle shall be noticed when you will announce about quitting your high paying corporate job and dream of starting something your own. You will notice that the frequent phone calls,SMSs & emails of your professional friends shall be going down. These are the people who were mostly interested in your past position and its influencing capabilities. You shall be surprised to find few of your best buddies too included in that list whom you thought will be prospective partner or client in your future business. They may avoid you in social events or try to keep less contact with you now. On the other side there would be some people, though very few in number would contact you from their side, wish you luck and offer you help. These are the people you earned in your peer group due to your good Karma. They shall stand beside you and genuinely be happy to see you being successful. Gradually you will re-discover your new post Entrepreneurship Peer Circle. 

Side Effect #3: You shall pass through a bitter Social Status Phase and but gradually become a tougher person

There would be one interesting category of people who will start gossiping about you specially if you are in a society that does not value entrepreneurship. The mind set of majority of People in this part of the world is that “if you are trying to start of your own then you are nothing but an ill-fated jobless guy.” But the wrath of this ugly social affair is unfortunately taken by your spouse mostly if she is a home maker. Many times she won’t understand what you are pursuing and why you are away from that social status quo, why you left your high paying corporate job etc. Also if you were an aspiring Women Entrepreneur chances are that your spouse might think this as a careless career move since you still might have some incomplete financial burdens to take care of. Whatever is the case this shall ultimately start affecting your family relationship. This is the soft point where most of your entrepreneurship shall die. If you can survive this phase then you will be one step closer of reaching your dream.

Side Effect #4: You will get to know the Value of your Family and start appreciating it

If you pass through these above stages you shall now start enjoying the toughest part of entrepreneurship since you will have your family and few well-wishers left with you who genuinely admire your passion with in your circle. There shall be times when you won’t see your children for many days in final days of launching or fund raising for your startup since you will leave to your work before they wake up and come back home when there would be sleeping. Sometimes you don’t come back home at night. But at times you will be complemented with smile and a late night coffee, sometimes by your spouse or your parents or by your children when you are a home though you cannot find time for still them.But no complaint. You will realize how important their role is in your life and who is making bigger sacrifices in pursuing entrepreneurship.

At some part of the world the situation is bit worse than imagination. There are professions in Oil & Energy where people have been fired from jobs in mass and have no choice of returning to their workplace which they have been attached for years and even decades and have been too specific to their jobs. No body wants to offer them a Job. Its hurts a lot to face this situation with family but Sometimes a mutual family support among each other and getting involved in a value added professional engagement can be a better choice than cursing the ill-fate and doing nothing. Better things will definitely come and you need to be prepared to grab the first hand opportunity.

Those who have kept their professional or entrepreneurial skills afloat shall rise first once the bad phase in your career is over. Be Positive.Better Things are Coming!

This is what I compiled in 2016. A lot of things happened in between apart from Surviving the valley of death.

2018:In Pursuit of Entrepreneurship : Rising above the Valley of Death.

My story of winning family confidence on Startup Venture

“My wife was a bit upset when I didn't accept a well-paying stable job and rather decided to pursue my mission of connecting the Energy industry with Global Goals 2030. Later when she understood my passion towards helping university students & professionals globally to avail them flexible learning & earning opportunities, leveraging on the 4th Industrial Revolution, she stood by me.

she supported my idea but asked me a question. " Would there be people around you who would help you in this community investment project?"

 “I said I am hopeful to find such people in my network.” Today hundreds of my peers are supporting me on an open platform generating confidence on my Startup mission.

Good news is that we achieved the first milestone of his mission by formally incorporating a Startup Venture called ENHEROES GLOBAL ENERGY in Malaysia so we are officially ready for building partnership network to realize their mission of making the Oil&Energy a better workplace for everyone. Our story also has a Linkedin page https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6473154778473033728/

My Startup has a strategic vision to achieve Collective Intellectual Sustainability around Energy Industry by becoming the first official Global Goals partner of Oil&Energy Industry by 2020. At present we are reaching out to Strategic partners to collaborate with us in a first of a kind mission based Social innovation project. we have now people from diverse backgrounds in his network who are collaborating in us in this project.

My team has already initiated a first ever Talent Discovery Program around Oil&Energy Industry and tentatively scheduling its launch in early 2019.  If this pilot project becomes successful it will become a first of a kind of sustainable business model creating a Responsible Peer Social culture to address the acute Intellectual Sustainability issues around Oil&Energy Industry which are linked to Global Goals 2030. We are hopeful that our strategic solutions shall open gateway to new opportunities around Oil&Energy for all kinds of intellectual aspirants.

For any suggestions or reviews I can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]

Thanks for reading my startup story

Your likes, comments & sharing of this article can help me to reach like minded people who value entrepreneurship and believe in doing something better for the society. Our Startup story needs a shutout so that we could reach to more potential audience having interest in the Socio-Intellectual issue. I believe word of mouth and Social Media has a great capability to help social innovation projects reach a greater audience who might be willing to contribute. I wish if you could consider helping us in building a responsible Intellectual community around Oil&Energy.  If you find our Startup mission worthy and you share a similar vision of a Sustainable Energy World Kindly reach out to me to know further details of Mission Planning and scope of possible collaborations. I shall be really grateful to you in this regard.

*This article is an extension of my previous article Side Effects of Entrepreneurship that discussed about social aspects of budding entrepreneurs from my personal story that passes through Surviving to Rising above the Valley of Death.

About the Author:

Shubhabrata is a Geoscientist turned Entrepreneur and Value Investor with more than 1.5 decades experience in Oil & Energy domain and founder of OIL&ENERGYHEROES a Social Innovation & Community Investment project around Oil&Energy Industry. He has an MBA from Cardiff School of Management UK . He is in the process of building a Responsible Intellectual Community for a Sustainable Energy Future. He is passionate about coaching , mentoring and fostering entrepreneurship among Peers & Students. Shubhabrata is a Design Thinking Graduate from MIT Sloan School of Management & a holder of Masters Degree in Applied Geophysics from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad now called IIT Dhanbad. He is also an executive MDP graduate from Indian Institute Management , Rohtak (IIM-Rohtak) with specialization in Entrepreneurship.