DREAM WITH YOUR EYES OPEN: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNEY by RONNIE SCREWVALA

Author:RONNIE SCREWVALA
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9788129135889
Publisher: Rupa Publications
Published: 2015-04-01T14:00:00+00:00

8

Stay the Course

If failure is the most difficult obstacle for aspiring entrepreneurs, your greatest attribute is your ability and willingness to stay the course; this is the Holy Grail of business.

Grit and determination are the keys to success. Mangalyaan didn’t make it to Mars without a dedicated team that took on and overcame every obstacle in the path. Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi has saved more than 80,000 children from child labour and faced roadblocks at every turn. So why do remarkable people do what they do? To challenge themselves every day, reach their limits, push against them and transcend every impediment in the hope of realizing a dream.

And they get where they do by staying the course.

Everybody feels fear and uncertainty when things aren’t going well. Ups and downs are part of life and business. If you’re like most people, you focus more on the downs, the unexpected problems that confront you.

But staying the course is about preparation, planning and agility in difficult times. It’s about overcoming that crisis of confidence and ploughing on to reach your goals. This doesn’t mean you can’t pivot or cut your losses if you see something is really not working. In fact, that’s a part of your strategy of staying the course for the long haul.

If failure is the most difficult obstacle for aspiring entrepreneurs, your greatest attribute is your ability and willingness to stay the course. In business, things won’t always go your way. People will question your every decision and insist that the direction you’ve chosen won’t allow you to reach your goals. Your competitors will strike mercilessly when they sense a weakness. Staying the course isn’t the most complicated business philosophy you’ll come across, but it is the Holy Grail of business.

♦

Once I experienced the intense adrenaline rush of entrepreneurship, I knew I’d never do anything else. The more I strove to make things happen, the more resilient I became when things didn’t quite pan out. I slowly learnt what it took to bounce back.

As I mentioned, one of UTV’s first investors was New York’s Warburg Pincus. I’ve stayed in touch with the team that was on our board for many years. On a flight to Singapore about the time I was moving out of Disney UTV and media and entertainment, I had a chance encounter with Dalip Pathak, one of the firm’s partners. We sat just across the aisle from each other, settling down for a four-hour nap on the short flight.

‘Good to know you’re starting off on your second innings, but I’ve got to tell you something,’ Dalip said with a smile. ‘When we dealt with you, we always knew you would do just what you told us you’d do. That was crucial. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. Hell, I remember five, six times when things could have gone south and the end was near. I’m sure there were many more occasions I don’t even know about. But here you are.’ He shook his head.

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