How Mental and Emotional Traps are Dangerous for Entrepreneurship[Article 5]

This article is the fifth in the series of 20 articles by Santosh Sharma.

Any success needs mental and emotional balance and so it is with the start-ups and entrepreneurs. We may be having a wonderful idea and we may be having all the resources to execute the idea but if we are not mentally and emotionally free we will end up messing everything. I, having been following different organizations, business leaders, entrepreneurs, sportsmen etc. would like to share the situation of two entrepreneurs, one from Mumbai and the other from Begusarai in the interiors of Bihar which I found interesting and which has a lot of learning for all of us.

Raghav and Raman (name changed) the two brothers at Mumbai have a very interesting idea in the e- commerce domain but they are somewhat traditional, erratic and unbalanced in their approach. They lose their temper very easily, they are biased in favour of a few of their employees and they respond to situations from their stereotyped (automatic and compulsive) thought patterns not allowing themselves to act to the situation objectively. This has created a lot of complications within the organization. The employees are not motivated, the direction of the organization is not very clear. Labour turnover is very high and they are failing to attract good talent. Employees respond depending upon the mood of their bosses and the list of the negative consequences are pretty long. They react just like Munaf Patel of IPL Season 5 losing temper only to perform worse.

In contrast Raghuvendra of Begusarai is managing his startup like Rahul Dravid performing consistently, fairly and in a balanced manner. He, along with his team are overcoming the obstacles in the neglected agricultural sector to attract good talent and drawing more and more farmers to work with his team overcoming their traditional faith and belief. He has been successful in bringing back the smile on the faces of the farmers in this remote village giving them a reason to dream. He is making good moves tying up with tractor, seed and fertilizer companies, irrigation projects of the government and the warehousing and marketing companies to fetch a good price for their produce.

What makes this difference in their approach?

It is the degree of mental and emotional freedom. More free we are mentally and emotionally, better are our response. Our stereotyped thoughts have reduced us to new age slaves. Mental slavery is more dangerous than any physical limitations. It is because we export our mental traps into everything we do knowingly or unknowingly. Once we are free within we will be in a better position to manage the outside constraints.

Entrepreneurs have to take tricky decisions very often and they have to study the situation in detail before they take a call. Acting to the situation objectively will give them an edge over others who react from their mental and emotional boxes. If we react, the situation starts guiding us and therefore we sink and fail to swim across the situation unlike when we act, when we guide the situation. Reaction forces us to see problems all around as we are not free to design solutions.

If you are an entrepreneur you have to take the ups and the downs in your stride and you will be successful only when you are free from your mental and emotional limitations. So get ready to give yourself a fair chance. Once you are aware of the limitations and its impact it will be more meaningful to Dissolve the Boxes.