An added perspective of an experienced entrepreneur always helps

We are a startup based out of Chennai and provide expert advice to entrepreneurs by connecting them with domain experts. We curate the experts and the problem statement as well that reaches the experts. 

As we proceed in our mission to assist startups, I saw on Facebook that +Amit Misra, from Dazeinfo, had generously agreed to lend his time and knowledge to budding entrepreneurs. I leveraged the opportunity to get in touch with him and find out whether he would have the bandwidth to help startups through our platform. Quite willingly, we got on a call next morning and spent half an hour discussing about how we can improve our services instead of the main agenda - that was to have him onboard as an advisor. He has solid experience in Digital Content and Marketing and helped us realize how to use the existing platforms and tools to reach out to target users. He likes to stick to the basics and threw interesting perspectives about how small tweaks to the existing content can help a startup grow organically. I think, the added perspective that an experienced entrepreneur brings to your product, can make a huge difference. I have started up new and can take few years to develop that perspective, but I could gain that extra dimension of thought from my conversation with Amit. 

Amit agreed to be an expert on Pracly and as the conversation ended, I realized an important problem, which successful entrepreneurs and experts face. Many of them are willing to share their wisdom with growing entrepreneurs, but there is so much noise in between that its difficult to understand whether someone will actually derive any value from their time. Many individuals struggle to comprehend their problem statement or want to just chit chat with these people to get some motivation. But that is not something for which, we can ask a really busy entrepreneur to take out time. I think its important to curate the problems that reach the experts, because they have limited time and people who could really use their help should be pushed up the funnel. That is where we hope to add value.

What could be a good thing to do when you dont know what to do

'I dont really like what I am doing, but I also dont know what I want to do' is basically the problem plaguing people, I think. Someone said that you could possibly count the number of people on your finger tips, who are doing what they want to do.

In our quest to find out what we 'really' want to do, we often end up doing nothing in our current professional role. This not only makes us lazy, inefficient but also depressed at the end of each day. I spent the entire day doing nothing, except figuring things out - definitely not a very happy feeling. In my first job at Bajaj Auto, my boss was too busy to give me much work and inspite of constant nagging, he just wouldnt bother. This free time distracted my attention to other things and gradually I stopped pestering him. In the end, when I could not take it anymore, I just put in my papers. Though I told the GM, that I wish my boss would have taken some effort to give me more work than he did. I am sure he also couldnt care less about how the fresh graduates were trained as long as the KPI's were met. That was two years wasted right out of college. Not much work done, no real skills picked up except some knowledge about manufacturing. The constant search, though, helped me realize that I was okay with taking up challenges and big risks, instead of settling down for a secured life. These traits, I realized fall under the profession called Entrepreneurship. I took the plunge after a small sabbatical in the mountains, and set up a manufacturing unit with my family. Even though my experience helped me somewhat, but would have made a world of difference had I done some serious work at Bajaj Auto.

Its important to figure out where our true calling lies and said the big man as well

“If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”

But not at the cost of being unproductive in our current 9-5 job. When we take up a job or a responsibility, its important to persevere and make good use of it. We not only end up gaining important skills from the hands on work, but who knows it might be an important piece of the puzzle we want to solve in the future.

In hindsight, all this made sense to me when I has talking to +Aurovrata Venet  ,  He said  "Ritesh, during my previous job I knew it is not what I want to do eventually in life, but I took up every challenge that came my way. The learning, skills and networking helped me to do what I am doing today, better."