Entrepreneurship in India #5 : Can you break the rule?

This is a guest post by Alban Leveau-Vallier of Socialter.The aim of Socialter is to spread the good ideas using social media. As they travel, they spot interesting social entrepreneurs and then they write about them on the blog, make video about them, and spread their word and their good ideas through facebook and twitter. They also offer to advise them on the use of social media.Orlando Rincon, a successful Colombian entrepreneur, once explained to me that his country is packed with entrepreneurs because Colombians "have a great capacity to break the rules".

Which rules? He did not mean that we shall not abide by the law. He was talking about norms. An entrepreneur should free himself from the norms to find the path to differentiation. A successful entrepreneur is the one who finds something new : a new product, a new distribution channel, a new way of production, a new style of management... You have to come up with something different to distinguish yourself from your competitors. You have to act different, to be a marginal. "Innovation emerges on the margins. An inventor must be able to deviate." Said Professor Anil K. Gupta.

Look at Badmaash Company : the hero is a kind of genius born entrepreneur. He starts by breaking the law and soon realizes that he was wrong. Then he finds an amazing new product and sells it within the boundaries of the law. He makes tremendous money, buys nice cars and a huge house in America for all his family. Happy ending.

So the question now is: do Indians have a great capacity to break the rules?

Or, put in another way : is there more room for marginals in India? One could definitely say yes.

Margins of the society are wide. Look at the number of sadhus, ascets and crazy innovators...

Innovation and entrepreneurship emerge if you can put yourself on the margins to create, in a society where difference is accepted, in other words in a society which abides by a very fragile value : tolerance.