Practical entrepreneurship

With the advent of internet, opportunities to be your own boss sitting at home have increased multifold. Information is available just a click away and resources to build a company are easily accessible at your doorsteps by way of ordering at your fingertips. The craze of owning something has forgone a long way more than just mere desire to form a kind of psychological lock. One who doesn't have to take others orders is considered to be great. As a result of all such factors, today's youth is jumping into entrepreneurship without having any practical insight into it just out of excitement. MBA books have introduced so many complicated terms just by knowing which people believe that they can become entrepreneurs.

Today, the word 'entrepreneur' has taken up various forms for people in different fields. For working people, entrepreneurship turns into something called intrapreneurship. For people in fields other than business there's a wide variety to choose from such as social entrepreneurship, political entrepreneurship, knowledge entrepreneurship and a lot more. In any form of entrepreneurship the most important thing to be taken care of is practicality. Any work can be printed on paper and conceptualized to the best idealistic extent. The true roots of success or failure can only be witnessed when we jump into the practical field of implementation of the intended idea. I have heard so many MBA students who come to the conclusion by the time they start working that they just need to take all their textbooks, tear them apart and throw away once they are in the real world. Books were written based on the real world scenario of the past.

Having graphs of thousands of dollars scaling their way up with every passing year or charting out tables and pie-charts indicating the expected investments or the profit/loss statements do not alone suffice to build a practical B-plan. One has to get a first hand experience on field about business, about working with people, about understanding the relationship between demand and supply and many more practical aspects related to business. Without basic understanding for at least a couple of years one will only be devastated to see his/her paper plans crushing down into ashes if the practicality of implementation is sidelined. Let's get realistic friends!

26 between 62 and 71

Good morning all! It was one of the most memorable days today in my life. For the first time ever in my life, I was invited as a chief guest for an event for MBA students though I, myself am not a MBA post-graduate. The event was COMMUNION-2013 at Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Technology, an engineering college in Bangalore, India. It was an honour to share the dais with prominent dignitaries who presided over the event. I was invited to deliver an inspirational speech regarding the most pressing topic 'Career opportunities for Management Professionals'. I have been into  my career only about 3.5 years back and here I was to address people about career opportunities. I should thank the hosts for believing that I could pass on some useful information which I graciously accomplished.

 The event started around 9:30 am in the morning with the conventional inauguration speech followed by an invocation song by the students of MBA. Dr. B.R.Dwaraki from RIMS (Ramaiah Institute of Management Sciences) who is a Registrar (evaluations), was the chief guest for the function along with me. Both of us were introduced to the audience. Then it was Sri Dwaraki sir's turn to address the audience of close to 100 MBA students. He was a man with a huge warehouse of knowledge, wisdom and experience. He brought out some of the best excerpts from his past and advised the students as to how they need to be prepared for their future. His speech was highly informative and humourous as well. All the students enjoyed the sense of humour that sir possessed. He addressed about women empowerment and the importance of the role of women in our society which won the hearts of all the girls in the auditorium. He shared some of the most important lessons that he had assimilated from over 4 decades of his experience in his profession.

 

At 11 am, it was time to strike the chord of inspiration and energy and that is when the IU speaker, Mr. Mohan.B.N (not-being-so-modest) was invited on the stage. It was once again a pleasure to address the MBA students after addressing the same stream of students in Krupanidhi School of Management, Adarsh Institute of Management Studies and Sheshadripuram School of Management Studies. I started off with how just 1 or 2 degrees of education can't fetch us our dreams. It requires us to be 360 degrees aware in life in order to materialize every dream of ours into reality. It's not compulsory for students to pick one out of the many career opportunities available in the market. It's up to them to decide what kind of career they want to follow and create an opportunity in that field of passion. It's not compulsory to pursue just one career in life; one can pursue multiple careers at the same time. I shared my own example about how I became a trainer, public speaker, blogger, upcoming author, mentor, counselor etc in last few years of my life just by following my passion and dreams. This session served as the ignition to the weapons of talents that students possessed in them and the purpose of my speech was served. 

 

I would like to deeply thank the management of Dr.AIT, Smt. Pankajakshi mam, HOD of MBA department and Arundati Pai mam for making this event happen and for their utmost hospitality. I also would want to thank all the staff and student coordinators for their amazing contribution and participation. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my entire IU team and my mentor for the amazing support and guidance that they have bestowed on me. As we are towards the end of this post, I want to reveal the secret behind the title of this post. On the stage, to my left was Mr. Dwaraki sir who was 71 years of age and to my right was Mr. Devaraj sir, Chief in-charge of PDP sessions at Dr. AIT who was 62 years of age and I was the young chap seated between these two amazing gentleman, sharing the stage with them as a chief guest at a tender age of 26. I just want to thank the Almighty and my parents for all the blessings that are being showered on me. Thank you God once again!