Top 5 pitfalls of being an Entrepreneur !

1) You'll love (read: obsessed) your venture so much that you will have difficulty in finding time & motivation to find the "love" of your life :D

2) You'll find business opportunity cost of even your personal expenditures. E.g. should I buy an iPhone or 3 PCs for my office? Should I buy an i20 or should I invest in a new Business Franchise?

3) You'll get up at midnight and spend hours on the laptop/notepad just because you had a dream, which gave you a very good business idea.

4) You'll never be able to watch any movie with full concentration. You'll feel guilty of having spent 2 hrs. on such an unproductive activity. You may also get into the habit of watching 3 movies back-to-back just to tick on the movie-watching checklist.

5) Business, Venture, Opportunities etc. will be an integral part of any conversation (Lunch/Dinner).

Using your brilliant mind...

I am not talking about scoring high in exams. My point of view on Using your brilliant mind relates to the way you condition your mind to take decisions without any interference from physical pain, mental exhaustion and of course, heart. Some tasks to explore the idea of giving mind the full Control.

Task #1: Get up at 6:00 AM. You will feel sleepy but tell yourself repeatedly that your mind controls your body. You will do what your mind says. There should be NO SPACE for other thoughts to come in. Take a bath with cold water without flinching & while you are at it - remind yourself  that mind controls everything

Task #2: You may get offended / cheated in day-to-day life. DO NOT react immediately. Remind yourself again that the mind has not been harmed - so no need to react.

Task #3: You will look at the temptations around you. Be inert to them. Bombard your mind with thoughts of MIND IS EVERYTHING. Nothing beyond it. No reactive sensation at all.

The above statements may sound dry and heartless, but this is one way of life that multiplies one's ability. Makes him/her do the biggest of challenges.

When a workaholic entrepreneur takes a day off...

• Slow-motion (20-mins) Breakfast buffet. Normally I spend 2-3 mins on B'fast as I gulp down Porridge mixed in Milk in flat 2 mins EVERYDAY.
• Some shopping.
• Lunch @ Rajdhani (25-mins). Avge time spent on other days: 8-10 mins.
• Watched 3-movies back-to-back in 3-D: Cars 2 + Kung-Fu panda 2 + Transformers 3. The ticket checker started recognizing me as it was the same Audi & same seat for all the 3 shows. In response to his surprising smile, I had to say it was my day-off. :D
• Hangout with close friends @ a nice place called Howzzat in GGN. A friend got enagaged, a friend about to be promoted. Reasons good enough for a party on a weekday.
• Quick drive in friend's new car.

Try this exercise

I have a habit of scribbling abstract things in my notebook when I travel in flights. On one such ocassion, I started writing words that were striking my mind at random. During the flight that night, after filling one entire page with words written in capital letters, I could not make why I thought of those words. Now after 1.5 - 2.0 months, whenever I have a look at the same page, I find new meaning and reason why I jotted those words then.

List of the words (not in order as it was scribbled randomly over the entire page). Must say it's a good exercise. Try it sometime, take a look after few weeks and you'll know why.

REGRET | WAIT | NARCISSIST | EXCEL | TIME TRAVEL | BLACK HOLE | SHPONGLE EYES | FOOD | EYES | SUPERSONIC | VENGEANCE | PEACE | ENJOY | BLIND FAITH | CIA | INTUITION | LOVE | BIG BREAK | LEGEND | ENGINE | MONEY | POWER | GLAMOUR | NEXT ORBIT | SURVIVE | STEALTH | FAIR N  JUST | PURE DIL | SPLASH  | HIGH | INTOXICATING | SINCERE | LOYAL | THE ONE | BREAK FREE | ROOTS | HARDCORE | ARMOR | SELF INFLICTING | JUDGEMENT | BOLD | SOLIDA | SECURITY | FORECAST | SAFETY | TRANSPARENT | OPAQUE | SOFT | TOUGH | LUST | IRREVERSIBLE | NOTHING ELSE | BEAUTY | AMBITION | SURPRISE | CREATIVE | MUSIC | ROMANTIC | AGILE | RELAXED | LOVABLE | QUIET | DREAMS | GUILT | CONTROL | IPR | ABSTAIN | INSPIRING | THE RISHABH PUGALIA | SHARP | VIBRATIONS | PREDICT | UNDERSTAND | OBSERVANT | EMOTIONS | PARTY | FRIENDS | HOME | RESPONSIBLE | THRILL | PAYBACK | THINK | COMMITTED | ONCE | GOOD | COMPLEX  | TRUST | KIND |  CARING | RELAXED | FULL | HEALTH | FUTURE | PAST EXISTENCE | UNIQUE | INSANE

Food for thought and the frog

The story is told about a frog that fell into a large pothole in a country road. The frog tried several times to jump out of the pothole, but couldn’ t. In time, a rabbit came along and tried to help the frog, but couldn’ t. Other animals came along, but they too were unable to help the frog. Finally, one of the animals said to the frog, “ We better get you some food. It looks like you’ re going to be in that hole for a while.” So they left the frog to get some food. A short time later the animals heard someone coming up behind them.

They turned around, and to their surprise it was the frog. One of the animals exclaimed, “ We thought you couldn’ t get out of the pothole.” “ I couldn’ t,” replied the frog. “ But you see, there was this big truck heading right for the pothole, and I HAD to get out!”

Source: Internet

Go...Go...Go...Go

Go...Go...Go...Go

This is the catch-phrase used in Counter-Strike (a 1st person shooter game - quite popular in B-Schools, Engg. Instt.).

As an entrepreneur, often, situations do arise where the decision is split in two different directions. You can choose to take Option I or Option II but what you can't do is stand still, wait and watch.

I use this catch-phrase to push me into one direction with utmost conviction (may be wrong decision but better than standing still). My experience:

- Hiking Training fees significantly (still less than the competitors, whoever is left that is)

- Conscious decision to provide extra learning despite the fact it may cost time, effort & resources

- Put down deals that may be quite lucrative in short-term but damaging in the long-run (associating with B-School Mgmt. who I know intends to cheat students)

- Starting a new training domain with NO CONSIDERATION to related earnings for 2 yrs. ( CA Final ISCA iscanotes.com )

- iPhone vs. 3 additional Desktop PCs for classroom

- Voluntarily waiving-off FULL training fees in case training quality isn't upto EN standards (Yes, it happened once when I was awake for 36 hrs. straight just before a full-day training)

- To hit or not to hit on a girl, considering she's from client's side (was a tough one but this time it was Go...Go...Go.. the OTHER way ...lol )

...and numerous such Go-No Go situations.

"Endure, Master Wayne"

Fell in love with the phrase since I watched the movie "The Dark Knight".

There are times when your head says Enough is Enough and that is when the heart says - Endure 

There are times when your heart says Enough is Enough and that is when the head says - Endure

There are times when both your head & heart say Enough is Enough - What then?

Emotional free fall becomes inevitable, everything becomes smoky and hazy before your eyes... Just then, something... something that is beyond the Head & the Heart says - Endure. With blind conviction, you listen to that voice and it seems to be a voice from Self - not of the Present but of the Future as if its existence is dependant on the survival of Present's self.