Treading the Creative Way

‘An engineering graduate, worked for an MNC, dropped out for higher studies of repute and recognition’. Prefect recipe for a ‘successful’ life, be it personal or professional, ‘prestige’ that gets ingrained here. Then why our neurons still rouse on stories of Nash (A Beautiful Mind), Bansals (Flipkart), Varun (Alma Mater) and so on and so forth. Why the sorts of ‘chef’ Pankaj Bhadouria, ‘photographer’ Aaron Delesie, ‘writer’ Ashwin Sanghi appeal to us more than their usual personae. Was it the choice of an alternate career that exalted them professionally or the pursuit of their innate passion that invigorated their personality in itself?

Entrepreneurship, they say, is all about your dreams, diligence and success… true. But when we start honoring the glitter in our eyes, when we resort to our passion than to pills for the insomnia that, I believe, is what kindles the entrepreneur in us.

‘Entrepreneurship’ sounds more like a jargon, amidst the theories and postulates. But what lies beneath is that single step we take to realize that one flick of mind to go beyond the usual, to recognize what satiates our appetite of soul than filling our belly. It isn’t a trait of prodigy, neither the mark of lost hopes. Unlike the stereotypes, entrepreneurship is not a resort to prove oneself, neither is it an alternative. It goes beyond everything mundane. Irrespective of how materialistic the ambitions be, their motive lies in the craving of the creative self.

What could’ve possibly turned Jack Abraham from a high-pitched life post-Wharton to go for Milo.com? It was no more the money, the recognition, but passion and the willingness to structure that passion, to take risks for it, fight battles for it, to know its triumph and defeat. You don’t always need that ‘big shot’ idea to sell, rather it is the temperament to commence on things where your mind lingers and your heart is stuck. And when we think about battles, triumphs and defeats, its more about the innate than ambient. You need not fight with the universe if the cosmos within is at stead, if you can clear out the fogginess of doubts on your will, on your stride.

Creativity and innovation, they say, are the killer instincts in an entrepreneurial stint. But then is there a living soul devoid of these attributes? How much we incorporate them, though, certainly varies. More, how much we are willing to incorporate them given the apprehensions and dynamics involved. When we talk of apprehensions, the direst one stands within us; how long would we like to create, innovation cannot be a routine, practical bounds of rationale deny that…certainly. Rafting through my pile of books and videos, I see ‘Tum Mile’ – a Bollywood progeny, AIB – the most trending hash-tag of the day and I see myself. For once this might seem irrelevant, but there’s this one similarity I decipher here. The thwarting a painter feels to color exoticism, week on week, canvas after canvas. That one restriction on the comedy enthusiast – to be comic, irrespective of the intellect in their puns and satire on crucial stands, their observation is just of no use if its not stimulating their audience’s diaphragm to contract audibly. The annoyance ‘I’ feel on the expectation of pulling up some power lines or text to feed strategy presentations or campaigning dialogues. That’s an internal battle, I believe. To understand and to imbibe that creativity doesn't stands on a generator factory system. It is surreal, ethereal; it can be overwhelming but can desert you at the same time. Not intending to skip the science-oriented creativity.

Indulgence in passion, to create, to innovate, it comes with its own bouquet of consequences. Some are acclaimed, but never are all welcome. Denial to digress becomes the expectation, and also the bottleneck, the spoiler. That is a factor which kills the fire, the glitter and hence our entrepreneur. Even in terms of strict business, it is an ordeal to start as an entrepreneur and survive the same way. Externally yes, pressures are exorbitant, but the trick lies within. As they've always been saying,

‘Kasturi kundal base, Mrig dhundhe ban maahi’

No philosophy intended, but to opine that if we can muster the strength to combat that pressure of expectations, if we can interpret them as food for thought and not deadlines on the calendar, that will render immortality to the entrepreneur within.

Wrapping up on an objectivist note, it certainly is not the situation we succumb to, it probably is our reflex to the situation that we obligate ourselves to. Hence becoming an entrepreneur, sustaining that way is a success story in itself, a story of smiting passion; and whatever comes hence is just a consequence, an inevitable one, an undeniable one. As it is, “the core cannot be compromised” (-Devendra Chawla) shoots it through.