Duryodhana will be proud of me. Now
that I have attracted your attention, don’t worry, I have not succeeded in
disrobing any Draupadi, nor do I intend to. Unfortunately Duryodhana is
remembered only for his one wrong act of ordering Draupadi’s vastraharan or
disrobing. However, I respect Duryodhana for his quick decision making.
During the graduation ceremony of
the Kaurava and the Pandava princes, Arjuna excelled in Archery and was the
favourite to be crowned as the champion. Suddenly an unknown masked warrior
entered, and proceeded to do everything that Arjuna had done and even bettered
them. However he could not be crowned as a champion, as he was Karna, the son
of a charioteer and not a Royal. To cut a long story short, Duryodhana on the spot crowned him as king of the
kingdom of Anga, thus raising his stature. He did not ask for permission from
his seniors, parents or elders.
Just imagine, if he had been
asked to prepare a proposal. Come to think of it, how many of us cringe when we
have to prepare a case and write up to justify a junior’s promotion? And then
it is questioned and half the promotion cases don’t go through. What were the
chances of the masked warrior’s proposal sailing through a discussion in the
‘evaluation committee’, or in this case the learned people in the court? Zilch
– Zero, not a chance in hell. First of all he would be pulled up for not having
come through the ranks… he doesn’t have enough experience to promote him to a
king straightaway. His qualifications, caste etc. would be questioned and he
would be discriminated against. In today’s corporate environment, Duryodhana
would never be able to crown Karna the king. Instead he would be disciplined
for insubordination.
In this case, Duryodhana was
extremely quick on his feet and took a very fast decision, and capitalized on
the opportunity. That is exactly what I did, when I began my entrepreneurship
three months ago. I got into a deal, where my counterparty increased the price
and in a fraction of a second, I said yes, and signed the deal, before my
counterparty could even react. I am sure he was caught completely off guard.
Prudent businessmen would say
that I should have bought time and negotiated etc. But the fact remains that I
saw value in the price I was paying. I followed two principles :
1. You
don’t look at a gift horse in the mouth
2. Opportunity
doesn’t knock twice
I am sure that if he had gone
back to his partners with the decision, they would have done their math and
would have upped the price further. I still tell him that he sold me his
business very cheap. Excel sheets don’t make decisions. Back of the envelope
calculations, gut feel and conviction is what you need to take a decision
Now that I got into a deal
committing a certain price, and was wondering how to get the funding. I spoke
to a few friends, and they agreed, but subjected my proposal to a complete body
scan. I hold no grudges against them; they are completely justified, as they
are putting in their hard earned money. As discussions progressed, they wanted
me to lay down all the risks on the table.
That is when I learnt a huge
lesson, maybe one of my biggest learning over the last six months. Their entire
perspective seemed to be what are the risks and what can we lose. My perspective
was how soon we can fly and I had started building castles. Actually both
perspectives are right as well as wrong. Let me explain.
Raj Kapoor (Kareena Kapoor’s
grandfather for the younger generation) was bankrupt after producing his dream
project “Mera Naam Joker” which bombed at the box office. At that time it was
the costliest movie made. He was blind to the fact that his movie could fail,
and maybe he could lose everything.
When Ratan Tata announced the
‘people’s car’ at a price of one lakh, everybody laughed at him. It was a rare
case, where the product selling price is announced and then the design is made.
A classic case of gut feel and conviction.
Now let me look at the risk
evaluation perspective. Too much risk analysis paralyses you. At that time, you
allow the projected negative of the project to overpower the projected
gains. And then your conviction begins
to falter. A lot of achievements and innovation happen because, people who set
out on the journey never believe that it can’t be done.
Some madness is required for
innovation, at the same time the madness needs to be controlled so that you
don’t lose your shirt as well as underwear.
I have the following takeaways
from my experience over the last few months
1. Projects
should not be evaluated on past performance, but on future potential. No
innovation would have been possible if all projects were evaluated on past
performance
2. For a new project, or innovation to succeed,
you need one mad or passionate person who is blinded by potential success. His
/ Her thought process should not be clouded by fear.. Remember Gabbar Singh
said in Sholay “Jo dar gaya, samjho mar gaya”
3. The
second partner should be risk focused, with a very clear focus on when does one
bail out and exit the project.
4. You
need a third partner, who is a referee between the risk taker and the risk
averse guy.
When I was working, and getting a
fixed income, I used to think ten times before spending. Today, in
entrepreneurship, when I am earning half my earlier salary, I have lost the
fear of money. Is it me, or does it happen to all entrepreneurs? Am I looking
at the bigger picture or am I foolish?
I have no clue. One is wise only in hindsight. Duryodhana never regretted the decision to
make Karna the king of Anga.