Know THE SECRET Behind Entrepreneurship

Sanjay Anand, a founding Partner of JumpStartUp Venture Fund, one of the earliest early stage US-India cross border VC funds set up in 2000 took the onus of disclosing THE SECRET behind entrepreneurship at Eximius 2009.

A unique idea of Creative Destruction was explained by Sanjay while giving some unique examples. Creative destruction can be explained as destroying the existing monopolies in the market in order to create a space for ourselves. Sanjay identified great names like Christopher Columbus, Albert Einstein who thought constructively and destroyed the prevalent thoughts and beliefs around them. Lalit modi and Kerry Packer also fall in the same category as these people have written history by their creatively destructive thinking. They did not see only the cricket, they thought about the business of cricket. He says “One thing which is common in all these people is their “Passion”. You need to have passion for what you are doing. You do it because you want to and not that you have to. There is a big difference between the two of them. You need to understand that. There should be an uncontrollable urge and a heart repeatedly saying “I gotta do this!!!” This passion gives you the ability to handle difficulties, take risks and yearn for something larger than life. And if you follow your passion, you learn to be humble, you learn to be confident and you learn to be wise. Entrepreneurship requires different way of thinking. You don’t seek approval from your peers. You just listen to your heart and follow your desires.”

Another important aspect of being an entrepreneur is to be a Good Leader.

He says “I have asked many start-ups with two three founders. Who is your CEO? And they stare at each other. The fact is that there is only one leader and many followers. You need to be the right leader in order to get your followers follow you. You should be able to create a culture of trust and integrity and a sense of purpose in your organization.”

Sanjay believes most of the entrepreneurs today think it’s a very “cool” thing to do. Getting a CEO and a founder title gives a different kind of kick to them. But reality is strikingly different from all the Jazz, tells Sanjay. “It’s a damn tough thing to do. It requires enormous mental strength. You have to slog. People generally get to know the real things when they come face to face with SKS- Sachai ka Saamna. You find hundreds and thousands like you doing the same thing, and then come the point of self realization. Entrepreneurs should first answer a very basic question to themselves, “Who Am I?”,” What am I here for?” “What am I doing?” A little introspection can take you a long way.” 

Concluding his speech Sanjay shared a light moment with all saying “Don’t be afraid of failure at all. In Silicon Valley, we have BADGE AWARDS for people who make mistakes and fail. It at least guarantees that they will never make the same mistakes again but some new mistakesJ.”

Sanjay ended his speech by asking everyone to take a pledge to create at least 100 jobs in 30-40 years of their professional life. “It’s not tough and it’s the best thing you can do for your society” were his ending words.

We hope a lot of budding entrepreneurs learn what it takes to be an entrepreneur and set out on their dream journey with all the important lessons in their kitty.

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