Entrepreneurship is not about getting rich: Sanjeev Bikhchandani
04 September, 2008
“If you want to be an entrepreneur in order to become wealthy – my suggestion is don’t. There are very few entrepreneurs I know who succeeded without a longish period of financial struggle, belt tightening and personal sacrifice,” Sanjeev Bikhchandani, co-founder and CEO of Info Edge India (Naukri.com), has written in an article published in LiveMint.
“I would like to caution those considering doing a start up that the early days of struggle of successful entrepreneurs seem romantic to observers only in hindsight. When you are actually going through it – there is a lot of pain. And for every poster boy success in entrepreneurship there are a hundred who are still struggling. The failure rate is high.
“More often than not success will take longer in coming than you think. There will be times when at the end of the month there will not be enough money to pay the office rent and employee salaries... There will be years on end when you will be financially the worst off person in your batch from business school... So before making the jump ask yourself a question – will I love doing this for the rest of my life even if I am not financially successful?” Sanjeev Bikhchandani adds.
Read the full article here
Serving others is at the core, but ignore the real reason you are doing it at your own peril. Ignoring your own self interests while helping others can only last so long.
I myself do not get much every month, but i have grown a lot because of what i receive monthly, not necessarily financially but in terms of learning to use money wisely. I have learned that you can truly never be too poor to be able to share with others, or too rich that you cannot receive anything.
I like that and by the way your name is very familiar to that of mine :-)
Anyway, I agree with the comment by EAL - It just is very dumb for all of us not to understand the right perspective on an advice given by someone as eminent as Sanjeev.
All this gyan about self serve etc is just so futile, one does business to ensure it is steered successfully so that it does not get into RED. Infoedge is doing phenomenally well and we should appreciate that rather than defining what should be the way of business and how one comes back to garage etc. All of that is just not worthwhile a discussion. It takes a lot of courage and guts to ensure you do things that are of conviction and when you do it right, you make the money.
Just by being 9yrs in the industry and to comment on companies like Rediff, Indiatimes or an Infoedge wont take any of us anywhere.
Brilliant article Sanjeev :-)
This is so much of rubbish. Why cant you guys get this straight? Sanjeev is just giving a piece of advice after all he has been in the business for so long and has been successful at that!!!!
Take the advice in the right spirit and work towards ensuring you dont do mistakes while keeping the target in mind so that the target post doesnt keep moving further.
I mean, what are we trying to achieve here? Are we saying we all here commenting are the most patronised and successful souls in here? Come of it guys, understand what success is and give due respect to it.
Finally in one line if I have to sum up what Sanjeev was trying to say then, "Dont go after money, do all that you need to do right and money will follow you".
Just get perspectives right guys, he is a legend in the business!!!
Lot is being said here in the comments. Friends, what Sanjeev says is very simple: 'If you want to be an entrepreneur, do what your think can be best done by you and you are passionate about. Once it is done wholeheartedly, monetary gains come automatically.
Entrepreneurship is all about doing something of your choice that brings happiness for yourself. If, for someone, that comes only through money, he must try earning that...
THE BEST COMMENT TILL DATE ON ALOOTECHIE
i don't understand this do you become.......let him try a pure online self serve model ...he will be back in his garage.
i don't understand this do you become an entreprenuer to serve the customer for free then better start an NGO and not a business.You are in business to create wealth and thereby jobs for others...only motivation for an entreprenuer is making money and no other reason.It is also the only measure of success.All those who are so impressed by this guy is only because he is rich today and has suddenly become a poster boy of the struggling internet businesses.Is he really in the internet busineess ? If yes why does he have a such huge field force selling his subscriptions?at best he is a good salesman and not an internet entreprenuer .He definitely has the advantage of being one of the very few successful persons in the business since he could very quickly realise no money in online and get feet on the street to sell like any other salesman on his Pulsar mobike!! let him try a pure online self serve model ...he will be back in his garage.
Well said by Sanjeev.. There are very few entreprenuers who made it big without going thru that grind.
Twenty yrs back when he began all this in a small room he didn't even knew about the world wide web. It was only in 1996 asia meet that he came up with the idea of dotcom and its impact, but his thought process of headhunting was eight years back. Its not about making money from day one and it also doesn't mean that if it took 20 years for Sanjeev to make it a 40 crore business, everyone has to do the same. I guess its just about making wise decisions and making right choices with the limited resources one has.
Today we like his story since we read that he has lived on his wife's salary for sometime, he did not have money to pay wages etc.
Mr.Sanjeev was and is determined towards his entrepreneurship and he is successful. As someone said Owner Vs Tenant, A Vs B, Husband Vs Wife, these are all least bothered teas for an idea to begin. My father is Ambani's relative that doesn't mean he can run the business of Ambani. I truly feel Mr.Sanjeev is and will be a role model for all Service Industries and people will try to learn from him.
A simple logic which he followed is: " Trust and Invest on People and Rest they will Take Care"
It is a lot of nonsense. Sanjeev didn't start his company to do social service. No point trying to sound like a saint to whom money has no value. If he struggled for 10 years, it is entirely his problem and it is the money at the end of it that kept him going.
This is in reply to mit....
I dont want to be pessimistic but again you r following MR.Sanjeev because he is rich and successful,that means you dont believe in dotcom business as such...
I bet you will run away when the chips r down..
I m sure you wont agree to me right now but the chance of this happening is quite high...
I m also in dotcom business but never started it becuase someone was rich and famous in this field...
I just thought that the thing i m going to start has very few parallels around.
And thats why I have lasted in this industry for last 9 years exact.
Colgate Vs. Peposdent , Indiatimes mail vs rediff, icicibank vs hdfc bank.
All these examples r not related to the topic above as these had all differnt backgrounds.
eg.
Indiatimes and rediffmail are struggling as per my deffination....Both havent made much profits in last three four years( And this is the same period when dotcommers balancesheet have gone big as fat lady ass.)
Well that's the beauty of game.
The cold war is on, people who has been earlier got success, they have a kin d of fear from the new start up, those are targeting the space in there client. but i do not think that make any seance for these kind of comments has to be come from the CEO, because I believe that they has to motivate the youngistan to come with new idea and make the indian online space top in the world
Bang on !!!
Even in the normal life one never know what will happen next. but I do agree that there are more chances of financial struggles, belt tightening and personal sacrifices on the way to become a successful entrepreneur and I think there will not be even a single entrepreneur who didn't want to be an entrepreneur in order to become wealthy !
Satendra
http://www.satendra.com
Right entrepreneur is one who learns from others mistakes. Mr. Sanjeev took all pain of first mover, but there are many instances where with actual idea someone got successful but following thier foot steps followers are ahead . Colgate Vs. Peposdent, Goodknight VS All out, Indiatimes mail vs rediff, icicibank vs hdfc bank. To be successful you need to be consistent not really need to suffer as you need to forsee this all in advance. You are not able to forsee all this in advance you really cannot be entrepreneur, person can be stated as Day Dreamer. Most essetential part of entrepreneur again is to Dream and should have all ingredients to make this Dream a success. You need to follow foodsteps keeping someone as your mentor but doesnot mean you blindly follow them. Mr. Sanjeev Bhikchandani is mentor for all dot coms in future to come and we are one of them.
I disagree with Sanjeev.....
Entrepreneuship is not living like a pauper.....
Its all abt your vision....
Whereas ppl give credit to hard work and luck where as I think its contribution is only 20%
Sanjeev is succesful becuase he could think something differnt when no one had an idea abt the same...
In 1998 everyone wanted to be a software ceo and not dotcomer....
They all tried in 2000 when there were in millions...
Same is with Infoys ppl ,they became software guys in 1980s when everyone wanted to be a garment exporter...
The thumb rule is if u r starting a business becuase u know someone doing the same is a filthy rich guy, the chances r that u will struggle for a long long time...
You should start something which u believe in and u hardly know someone doing the same...
The chances of you coming up as a winner is more than 70%....
Rest 30% is how focus r u on the same....
I'm sure the failure rate would definitely go down if people like sanjeev lead by exemplar. He is the best live example who transformed a startup into one of the finest brands the Industry has produced. “If you want to be an entrepreneur in order to become wealthy – my suggestion is look upto Sanjeev Bikhchandani. Even if u don’t get financially successful, You’ll love doing it. ”
He also said this -
"You should become an entrepreneur only if you believe that that is how you will find fulfilment.
Entrepreneurship is about freedom, creating, a chance to build a brand, an institution, showing the world a new way of doing something, being your own boss, creating a legacy that will outlive you, identity, making a difference, obsession, ego, having a shot at something big, doing what you love, innovating, doing things your way…"
India need more entrepreneurs to build companies like Tata, Infosys, Wipro, Info age and more like these. Is their any other way to create companies like these without start ups?
I request Mr. Sanjeev Bikhchandani to share his experience and learnings about how he managed to work around all these odds he has mentioned for a start up.
A good piece of advise, but why?
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