There was a very interesting question posed by a gentleman in a mailing list. The question was,
“Should you just start up and figure out your big idea, or should you wait for the big idea before you startup?”
Its such a brilliant question. I asked myself the same so many times. So I thought I’ll put this small piece in my blog too.
To this question I replied,
I couldn’t agree more with xxxxx
My very short entrepreneurial journey so far has revealed exactly the things pointed out by xxxxx.
I noted down ideas that came to my mind for nearly 2 years in an “Idea Book” before I quit my job to finally start up on my own. I had treaded the same path many times when I felt that my idea was the next big thing, only to do some research and find out about many more who are doing the same goddamn thing or something better! I also had a few unique ones, but I gave myself excuse after excuse for not quiting my job to start up on my own. Those were the wannabe entrepreneur days! Then I quit my job and tried 2 of the ideas that I had kept in my idea book! I chose to do something that I would really love doing even if its not big enough to fit into my dream company’s paradigm. Usually your idea doesn’t seem so cool after discussing it with 10 people, right. But the real learning comes after you start executing it. Both the plans failed. I built a simple prototype for the first one, I got booed by the early adopters and I quit. The second one didn’t require anyone outside of me to boo it down and stop!! Of course there were a lot of “logical” reasons to stop as well, but I think the biggest learning for me was to realize how much my own and somebody else’s communication affected my actions. How much significance I attach to “failure”.
I am sharing all this because, in retrospect I feel that there are a lot of things that we need to learn before we become the self that can fulfill our vision.
Right now I am running a software services + training company. Its not exactly in congruence with my vision for my life and the world. But I am giving it my best here. I am also working side by side towards making it a fully functional entity which can run independently of my partner and me by March 2009. I am learning and growing. My partner and I consistently put around 10 hours (often more) every week researching our “probably big” ideas. I am meeting people, my future team mates/ co-founders/ evangelists! And I think I am doing the right thing.
I won’t say that I have grown over my limitations yet, but am definitely learning and learning fast. Starting up on my own, has brought me much closer to being the metaphor “entrepreneur” than my job could ever have.
Conclusion: Don’t wait for the big idea. Start up with your average ones. Get your hands dirty. Taste success/failure. Learn from them. You will be ready for the big one when it comes.
There are so many highs and lows that I have seen this month!
The Lows,
I break my resolution to read 5 books every month.
I break my habit of waking up at 5am every month.
I stopped planning my work
I became careless about my eating habits again. There are few days when I have my breakfast. Often skip a meal.
I quit exercising
I quit yoga
I quit meditation
My house started getting untidy again
I don’t read my goals daily
I didn’t meet my financial targets
I quit painting
The Highs,
I became absolutely unstoppable towards my entrepreneurship centric projects
I made money! Finally!
I got the offer to revamp a dead organization as an entrepreneur with limited liabilities.
Impressed with my proactive attitude, the company’s founder asked me to become a director in the company instead of my previous role as an adviser. Its a big honor and privilege for me to be regarded to highly.
My coachees at Landmark love me and we are contributing to each others’ lives. Its a very enriching experience
I developed alliances with several people and companies.
I am close to building a team that will create a revolutionary book.
Well there are a lot of gaps in life right now. I would like to do everything that I want to do. And do it all together. I gotta grow massively as a human being to make everything happen together.
Today is the 3rd of June.
Today I take on being an absolutely un-stoppable person. I will not succumb to my circumstances, I’ll be their creator instead.
I will restart megaliving from tomorrow onwards and also restart simple.ology. I have to build a lot of habits before I take on my role as an entrepreneur. I have time till July 21st. And I’ll make it happen.
I also take on writing a blog entry every night. I want to document my growth through these times. I would love to read these pages sometime in the future!
Since the age of 14, I have had this dream of starting my own company. I have nourished and nurtured that dream for over 9 years. And now the time has come to turn it into reality.
There is a lot of action happening in life. I will speak about it only when the documents are all in place.
I am feeling so fulfilled. I have always set very ambitious targets for myself. Very ambitious means, targets like
Positively impacting the lives of 100 million people worldwide. I have been so sure of this that I candidly quoted it in all my resumes. I am up to it.
Retiring (financially) by 30, I am 23.5 right now. So 6.5 years to go. The target I have set for myself is 400 Crores by then.
They always looked like ‘worth working for’ to me. And they often looked like ‘dreamer huh ‘ to others.
I have always looked at myself from the top of the ladder.
And all these 9+ years, I have only seen failure. When a normal man sees failure, he brings his goals down. But I never did that. I kept my goals the same and chose to grow up to them. This one thing in my attitude, sets me apart from the crowd. I am happy to be who I am. And I wanna take this rare opportunity to acknowledge myself!
I am pretty close to starting up on my own. Feels so great. Feels like Columbus seeing the land after several storms and coups on his Ship.
Feels like it should.
Feels Great!
Man, I Rock! (Its good to acknowledge yourself at times)
Ya so I come out of National Market (read the post below), and discover that my Bajaj Discover is not where I parked it! I ask the parking fellow and he said that It was parked on the road and has been towed away! I think “Wow, what next”. Now I had recently given my bike for servicing and had forgotten my papers home. I couldn’t go and get my bike without the Registration Certificate!
Now under normal circumstances I would have said “WTF man, why did this have to happen now???”. But something is happening to me these days and I was surprised to realize that I said this to my self – “Awesome man, I get to go home in a bus from Majestic in after 3 years!” I was genuinely excited at the possibility!!! They talk about “Glass half full or half empty” right, I was realizing this.
Good things happen to happy people and I get a Volvo standing just for me.
I reach home and remember that I had not been able to find my home key in the morning so I had slammed the door tightly putting a sock in the chaukhat to keep the door from opening. I give a clearing* to find my home key and woosh I find it. I had spent an hour to find it in the morning. Next I realize that I have lost my bike’s papers. I search my home for 5 mins but no avail. But some how I am still not panicking. So I give a clearing of finding them. I search for another 2 mins and an impossible thought comes to my mind. I go downstairs and ask my landlady if she has seen my bike’s papers. OMG, she says yes! I had dropped them somewhere sometime?!? But it was a profound manifestation of the distinction called clearing.
I ask my best friend Braj to take me to the Bus-stop and we discuss Numerology, Moh Maya, Life’s purpose, Clearing, Friends and IPL en-route.
Then I get my bike and we both come back separately.
It was a great day! I had a breakthrough in seeing the bright side of things in tough circumstances. You know, as Spencer Johnson puts it in “The Present” – “Seeing what is Right right now”.
* What is clearing?
Clearing is a pure thought in which we imagine something and look for it to happen and it happens. These kind of things are tough to understand for some people. But thats ok. Clearing is basically a distinction I got as a LandmarkSELP coach.
I completed my Megaliving 30 day program yesterday! Life has really transformed. I have grown by leaps and bounds. This is the happiest I have been in the last 3 years! . I can feel myself growing above my moods and circumstances.
It was a tough journey. I stuck to it with discipline. And I have got the fruits.
I would like to write a lot about my journey in the coming posts, but here is a quick list of a few things that I have achieved :-
I eat 3 times every day. Feel very energized and upbeat!
I exercise 5 days a week, have built a decent endurance and can feel my abs hardening
I meditate regularly and my focus levels have gone up several times.
Its pretty easy for me to persevere these days as I don’t get distracted easily.
I have built amazing discipline. And I enjoy it
My pimples have disappeared and my dandruff has reduced
I get very very few negative thoughts every day and I am quick to challenge and dispel them.
My will power has increased significantly
My memory has improved.
I have started remembering routes to various places and names of people.
I am literally upset-free. (this credit I’ll give to Landmark Education though)
I keep my room neat and tidy.
I feel so good that I never feel like being in disheveled clothes. I am almost always clean-shaved. And I do so not for the people looking at me, I do so because I feel like it.
I have started waking up early morning. Thanks to Soniya for this.
I have become very good at practicing commitment over attachment.
I have really started living a life of no pretense! It used to be very confronting, but now I must say, I have overcome the tough phase and am enjoying the fruits.
I managed to read 6 books in January. Overshooting my target by 1 book.
I eat fruits regularly and am noticing their effect in my skin and body.
I have built this habit of “kaizen”. Pushing myself without taking stress .
There are a few things that I could not achieve, the prominent one being my 1000$ target. But the kind of guy I am now, I just wanna learn from it and move on. My targets for April and July stay as stated earlier. I also did not complete my handwriting analysis website. Primarily because I was focusing on other strategies to meet my targets. And something tells me, I’ll meet them this time.
Not to mention, I will continue to MegaLive each day from now on. In fact today was better than any of the previous 30 days. Today was way above them all.
Robin Sharma is a leadership guru and the author of “The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari”. While I could not complete TMWSHF, I sure have picked up Megaliving pretty well.
I came across the following 2 podcasts from Robin Sharma on YouTube,
Robin Sharma – 5 forms of wealth
Robin says, that Financial Wealth is only 1 metric of measuring wealthiness. However to be really wealthy, there are 4 other metrics. A deficiency in any one of these has a major impact on your well being. And I agree.
After listening to the podcast I found significant gaps in my life (in which I honestly don’t feel wealthy enough). So lemme share the 5 forms of wealth and the gaps that I see I gotta cover in each of them.
Financial Wealth: Well I am broke right now, but I don’t feel powerless in this area. I am confident that I am above money.
Relationships: Hmmm, I have amazing friends, but have a long way to go towards enriching my relationships with a few family members. A significant gap. But still, I feel I am moderately wealthy in this segment.
Health: Nops, I don’t have a good health. Even though my body is doing pretty fine, I can see that I can’t run 2 km at a stretch. I want to be fit enough to run a marathon someday (with training of course). Until recently there was no exercise in my life. And I didn’t even care to eat my food 3 times daily. I am 10 kgs under weight and my Yoga training has got me present to a few areas of my body that are weak. But the good thing is that I am already taking solid and consistent action towards this domain.
Adventure: Though I call myself an adventure freak, I am really not doing much to have fun in a regular basis. Robin’s concept of Micro Adventures is cool. I can take on trying out something new everyday. And I can decide that while brushing my teeth!
Contribution: I think I keep contributing in my own small ways. I feel reasonably good in this area.
Robin Sharma – 8 Things successful people do
Focus: I suck at it. But I am steadily improving.
Positivity and Passion: Yes, this is there 80% of the time.
Hard Work: Yes, I am capable of doing it when I am motivated. Since the time I have quit my job, my motivation levels have soared. So has the potential for hard work.
Never Stop Innovating: Wow, I really do this. All the time. I am so full of ideas. In fact I have started keeping an Idea book as well . I never accept the ordinary.
Time Management: I suck at it again. I will read something on Time Management tomorrow.
Add Outrageous Value: I doubt if I have it.
Strong Relationships: Yes. I really take time out to build strong relationships.
Devoted to Excellence: I guess I am, . Ok, yes I actually am.
Not bad, I rate his opinion on success highly. And as per my self analysis, I am pretty much on track. Gotta work on Focus (already doing so) and Time Management. And of course to add outrageous value. Now I am sure I’ll be doing so with my clients in my business. I didn’t do it at my job.
This is a good piece of self analysis done for the day!
I am very happy today. For no good reason. I didn’t do anything towards my targets today but still.
I noticed that I keep my backbone straight and that my standing posture (that people often complain about) is improving as well. This is definitely out of my Yoga practice which in turn is a gift from Megaliving.
Today’s or rather yesterday’s mind building exercises included auto-suggestions which I obediently followed (though with some initial resistance). The body thing included using a moisturizer, doing weight training + aerobics and walking everyday. I chose to follow the 1st and the third. I don’t want to take on aerobics just yet and I am happy with my sit-ups, crunches and pull-ups for exercise. Wow, I am exercising regularly these days as well.
But there are 2 or rather 3 important habits that I am really not building.
Waking up early everyday
Eating my food as per the elimination theory suggests
Chewing my food well
Meditating at a fixed place, fixed time everyday
Doing some good reading everyday
So I take on following these habits from today. I declare waking up every morning at 5.30 sharp.
Ill then follow the following routine:-
Wake up at 5.30 and review my goals
Read the day’s Megaliving goals [5.35]
Brush my teeth and answer the important questions like “How do I make today a living masterpiece?” and “What do I do today to have fun?” [5.50]
Meditate for 20 mins [6.15]
Do my daily exercise [6.30]
Clean my house, Soak clothes for washing [6.45]
Do my Yoga [7.45]
Put water for boiling and Read something inspirational [8.15]
Have a shower and wash clothes [8.45]
Write a blog entry that I have done the above, and what I have learned using them [9.15]
Plan for the day [9.30]
Make breakfast and eat (chewing my food properly) [10.00]
Practice Simpleology daily lessons [10.30]
Work the plan the rest of the day.
Aha, I have given a healthy amount of buffers this time around. This plan looks more achievable!
Todays spiritual exercise was to be the most enthusiastic person I am every day from now on. Enthusiasm is one of my strongest personality traits, and I am glad that I got an easy one. I will buy a wrist band tomorrow and wear it. Every time I look at that wristband, it will remind me to be enthusiastic and chirpy.
I have no words to express how big a fan I am of his. He is one remarkable dude. He goes through probably 10 times the stress I go through and does pretty well to deal with it. After talking to him I realized that I actually get very tensed when I don’t achieve my targets. What I got from talking to him is “Don’t take the load, its OK if you don’t achieve it. Be after it. Don’t quit. But don’t get upset if it doesn’t happen by the time you have alloted for it“. So I am gonna take life lightly.
I am gonna practice being committed to my goals without being attached to them. Every time I get tensed, I will practice it. Every time I write, I am gonna keep looking for signs of stress in my handwriting and take action then and there to understand, what I am I stressed about.
Whats missing in my life, as Viki says is “ENJOYMENT”. So here I go, enjoying my life just the way it is and just the way it is not .
Ever since I have taken on working on myself, there have been a lot of bad days. Today has been the worst among them.
Why? Because, YET ANOTHER TIME, I panicked at a critical juncture. I had declared that I will build my website, Earlier I had also promised my buddy ‘Kiran’ that I will make a draft of my 5 year plan and share it with him by 8 PM tonight. And I really wanted to attend this conference thats happening today.
3 important things at stake and what did I end up doing? I said, “ITS TOO MUCH FOR ME TO HANDLE” and went off to bed. Of course I didn’t get sleep. And it was well past noon that I actually got out of my bed.
Boss, this is where I need to grow up. Later on when I’ll be having my own company and I would be leading people, I am sure my super star colleagues won’t be inspired to work under a boss like the current me. To have a star studded team, I gotta be a star. And to be a star I gotta work on myself. We all carve our own sculptures.
The choice of making a “Michelangelo” or “Some Random Plaster Of Paris Shit” is ours. And I chose the former.
Ok, enough of philosophy. This blog is about action remember. To me building a habit of keeping my promises is more important then meeting my friends in the conference or learning about entrepreneurship. I have got the following things to do:-
Write down my 5 year plan and share it with Kiran [3+ hours]
Looks like I do not have sufficient time to do em all. But I am taking them all on. Anyone other than me might wonder, “Why do I always make my life so difficult?” (Mamta says this often). The simple answer is: “Because I am like this”. I have always encountered situations where I had to choose between ‘bringing my goals down and winning‘ and ‘keeping my goals the same and growing up to it‘. I have always chosen the latter. Thats who I am. Thats what I stand for.
Here is an opportunity for me to really grow up to a big challenge. To work like a genius and make things happen.
Well we’ll all come to know the outcome by 11.30 tonight.
This journal really helps me be on track, I am indebted to it and this blogging habit
Building habits is probably the toughest, and the most rewarding of practices.
I woke up again at 11 even though I had forced myself to sleep at 1 AM the previous night. I did not do my Yoga, didn’t even have a shower or wash my clothes. Didn’t do any work, but did read a Robert Kiyosaki book about which I will write a couple of posts later.
The day was not entirely unproductive because I sat down with my Coach Mamta. (She was my coach at Landmark’s SELP program and is like a mother to me. She literally takes care of me like her own son ) and found out what are the missing ingredients in my routine. I realized that I had not set any buffers. So I updated my “Daily Routine” post and put timings against the same.
I however also took on not perpetually postponing my targets. Earlier this month I had decided that my site will be up by the 11th then postponed to 15th and then to 19th and the fact is that I have still not started any work on it. So I took on “NO MORE POSTPONING”. Mamta wont allow me to work 24 hours without time for fun and proper food and proper rest. So I still have 14 hours a day. In 28 hours I have to ready 5 Handwriting Analysis books, 1 software guide and build a website. Learn how to host it and host it. Also to post 20 articles in my site’s blog.
Ok, thats not practical. I will read 1 book instead of 5 Handwriting Analysis books.
Rest, Ill do the bare minimum of the Megaliving and Simple.ology courses.
I am up to it.
‘ to others.
. Ok, yes I actually am.
