In Duryodhana's footsteps

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.