Great Indian Dream

We all have dreams and all our achievements began with dreaming. My dream is to see our country as one of the developed nations where people want to visit because India provides a great and happy life for anybody who comes in. How is this possible? Well, we are already on the move! If you are in doubt, look at us – IT Professionals!

I think only an entrepreneurial culture among individuals could accelerate this change. Shri M K Gandhi once said – “Entrepreneurs are trustees of our nation”. Entrepreneurs, not necessarily capitalists, have the tendency to “make it work”. Of course, I am a great fan of capitalism, but also aware of what took place in France, Russia and what took place in India as recent as last general elections. Entrepreneurial culture need not necessarily mean a business man as well – there are entrepreneurs in politics, in social service and in every path of life. An entrepreneur finally creates a great value. It is daring to dream, will to face challenges and take risks that marks the characteristics of an entrepreneur.

So, how exactly am I proposing to go about in achieving my Great Indian Dream? - by individual contribution – by creating a system which subsequently creates as many entrepreneurs as possible. Creating an eco system where competition demands small businesses. Would you believe that more than 60% of the jobs today in the USA are generated by small businesses? All these small businesses are started by people like us. Some make it to the bigger league, some are happy where they are and some people fail (and start again!). But most of the people are the makers of their own destiny.

To analyze any phenomenon, I believe one need to consider three major influences – History, Current state of society and ambitions. I am talking about the individuals to start with! How do we make a person an entrepreneur?

Every one of us has a great history – a great story. Hardly any one of us reading this article are in the position today just by cruising – everybody worked hard, faced hardships and faced many challenges. Challenges may be different but there were them for sure. Everyone always wished to be one more step ahead.

I believe current state of society offers more challenges and more opportunities. A good political leader knows a messed-up situation is always an opportunity! A good business man knows how to cash out the entire buzz happening around. A good innovator knows what the next step to solve the current problem is. A good entrepreneur will make a way to create value to the country and its people.

To take the current state of affairs to the next step, we need to have ambitions. Higher the ambition, more excitement it is! Dhirubhai Ambani – I think he had an ambition to create a value, which is 4% of GDP of India. Narayana Murthy – I think had an ambition to create 10,000 millionaires in India. Abdul Kalam had an ambition to be a nuclear power. None of these people got there in 1, 2 or 5 years.

We have very less in control of our history – but we have great learning. We need to understand that we have a terrific history and take strength out of it. We need to understand the core values on which our society is built upon. Current state of society opens up opportunities. Ambition is what we can really control, define and work towards. Let’s remember, ambitions can’t be achieved unless they have the foundation of core values. Let’s remember, ambitions of Dawood Ibrahim or Osama are not what we are talking about here. We are discussing about creating, not destroying.

How do we create an eco system where we dare to dream audaciously? Certainly, to start with, by defining it. Yes, by defining the entire eco system of how do we want to live – how do we want to travel, how do we want to buy things, what do we want to own, how do we govern ourselves? I am not talking about this at a national level – that is the constitution. What is your life’s constitution? How do you want to live? Dare to dream individually and try working towards it – you can see an immediate frustration. Navigating through this with a focus and dedication will make everybody an entrepreneur.

A good entrepreneur is a good team player, a loyal follower and never a destroyer of values. He/she is always will stand up with integrity to question what is wrong and at the same time, will contribute with what is right.

Let’s start a culture of entrepreneurship within us. Let’s make it with Iteamic. Little contributions lead to bigger things.

“I am not a great man or an icon, but I don’t mind becoming one” – Girish!

How do you become an entrepreneur? As you read earlier, we need to realize our roots (history), realize contemporary affairs (business, social, technological etc.) and have ambitions.

Our roots, (History) teach us great values. We need to have core values from which we will never deviate – come what may! To become an entrepreneur, you need to define core values. I have analyzed this so much that my strong belief is that there are only three values that one needs to adhere to – truth, love and fear of unknown (compare these three to lies, lust and psychology of power!). My belief comes from analysis, experiments and ongoing experiments!

Truth encompasses character, honesty, integrity and commitment. For those who want to know more about truth, I strongly recommend reading – “My experiments with truth” form M K Gandhi. Yudhishtira, in the great epic of Mahabharata, is a shining example of truth. Jesus is a great example of integrity and commitment (He is much more that). Buddha committed himself in what he believed. Alexander Graham Bell was committed to invent electricity. Ambani believed he could be BIG some day. M K Gandhi never thought he couldn’t get freedom. So did Subhash Chandra Bose. Vajpayee always believed he would become prime minister some day. They all believed in the truth and tread the path of truth, belief, commitment.

Lies will destroy you. We can take examples as recent as American presidents – Nixon, Regan and Clinton – they all went down because they lied! We will need to wait and see what will happen to Bush!

Love encompasses a pure relationship and passion. Examples of love and passion becoming triumphant in the history are so many – I don’t need to quote any examples.

Fear of unknown is what I think will need debate and convincing. We usually name the “unknown” as God, risk etc. Fear of unknown is an inevitable ingredient of an entrepreneur. It makes the person more careful, more calculative, more dignified and peaceful.

Jim Collins, one of the most intelligent and pragmatic management gurus who live with us now, once observed that great business leaders have “Professional will and personal humility” (In his book – ‘Good to Great’). I believe truth gives you the professional will and fear of unknown gives you the personal humility. Love gives you the meaning for life.

Well, apart from core values, an entrepreneur needs to live in the present – contemporary affairs – one need to be timely, modern and charming, of course. One could achieve this without deviating from core values – that’s how great people are made. This takes constant learning, hard work and discipline.

I always love to attend trainings – learning is a constant endeavor. Well, I am not a great man or an icon, but I don’t mind becoming one! Training and learning would never stop. One of the Japanese motivational lectures said during their recovery from 1942 tragedy – “The moment you stop learning, you are dead. Being alive means either working or learning”.

Ambition is the greatest part of entrepreneurs. You can’t move forward unless you are ambitious. One can’t be ambitious unless he/she is dreaming about what his/her life should be!

It would be a great discussion on entrepreneurs and my great Indian dream. I am looking forward to this discussion. Entrepreneurship, NOT capitalism built America – it could build a great India as well. We need to make it folks; and I think we have a great chance to this with Iteamic.