By Sanjiv Goyal with Sandeep Shrivastava
In this article, you will learn about:
- Which skills you need to develop to succeed as an entrepreneur in 2020.
- The two most important entrepreneurial skills that people never talk about.
- How to scale your business to create exponential impact.
- The three things successful entrepreneurs start the day with.
- Why collaborative learning is essential for innovation.
- What it really takes to be an entrepreneur.
- Why sustainability is the best formula for wealth creation.
Now more than ever the human race is being called to innovate or perish. The post-pandemic way of life has taken root. We are being forced to adapt and create on the fly. This much upheaval means opportunity. New companies will be born and giants may fall. I sat down with Sandeep Shrivastava, IIT Alum, entrepreneur, investor, and Value Com co-founder to find out about the future of entrepreneurship.
What Makes an Entrepreneur?
First, let’s review what an entrepreneur is not. He/She isn’t some charmer who raises a pile of capital to chase a dream in hopes of becoming rich and famous. It isn’t someone who has raised millions from investors and is ready to launch the next big thing. The only thing you need to become an entrepreneur is a problem you are willing to solve.
Entrepreneurship is a mindset. Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. They hold themselves to account. They see a problem and choose to do something about it instead of sitting idly by or hoping someone else fixes it. It may not seem like a humble role given the Mark Zuckerbergs and Jeff Bazoses of our time, but even they started out simply trying to fill a need for people.
The byproduct of entrepreneurship is sometimes wealth creation, but the motivating factor is usually resolving an issue for ourselves and our fellow man. The desire to become an entrepreneur comes from a natural curiosity and a desire to improve circumstances. No matter where it ends up, at its inception an entrepreneurial venture has a certain altruism and gleeful excitement born of the possibility of progress.
Independent thinking, resilience in the face of failure, and the gall to dream bigger than everyone else are the foundational attributes of an entrepreneur. Despite getting a bad rap as selfish, greedy, immature tech tyrants, the majority of them, good or bad, belong to the part of the population that thinks about the future. And that is why we desperately need them.
Why Entrepreneurs Are So Important Right Now
While the rest of us live life going through the motions in the haze of the status quo, entrepreneurs are imagining a different dimension and moving us toward it. They are the ones paving the way for the human race to creatively solve large-scale problems.
Imagine if more people had this mindset, or if it were part of the core curriculum in schools. After all, these aren’t unique talents, but a set of skills that can be developed. Just as some schools teach mindfulness and compassion, independent thinking, visioning, resilience, and boldness can be taught.
If these lessons were built into the foundations of our education system our society would have more brainpower and a greater chance of coming up with innovative remedies for the problems of our time.
The Entrepreneurial Skillset Anyone Can Develop
Core Entrepreneurial Skills:
- Independent thinking
- Visioning
- Tenacity
- Boldness
- Influence
These are the foundations of entrepreneurial success and skills that help to enrich our economy and move us forward as a society. If you possess these in high doses, congratulations, you are ready to take a leap into action.
The Two Most Important Entrepreneurial Skills No One Talks About
There are two other factors that are almost never talked about when it comes to entrepreneurial success stories: A high risk-tolerance and a high tolerance for going it alone.
Often the stakes are high, and there is no guarantee things will work out. Before going into any situation, an entrepreneur has to ask themselves: If I lose everything am I going to be okay? The answer better be yes.
It’s all warm smiles and fist bumps when your big idea works out, but who will be there if it doesn’t? An entrepreneur also has to be able to stand alone and face the possibility that their own family may not support them.
People are naturally resistant to change and to anything that disrupts their sense of predictability. We like to believe we are in control so that we can feel safe. Though we like to think we are open-minded when actually confronted with something new or revolutionary our natural fear response is doubt and dismissal.
Entrepreneurs have to believe in themselves even when no one else will and possess a high tolerance for loneliness as well as resilience in the face of failure. In essence, they need a near unshakeable level of faith.
What Makes an Idea Successful?
Why are companies like Apple and Google so influential? They provide exponential value for their consumer base. For example, a cereal company provides minimal value for the seller and the consumer, but an iPhone impacts billions of lives and adds massive value.
Not everyone will be able to innovate on the level of Steve Jobs, but the people who are thinking in terms of those large scale problems and can clearly identify future needs will be the ones who make it. And this is a great time to look out for those opportunities.
Why Everyone Should Think About the Future
The more the general population can stay open-minded and be receptive to the skills listed above, the faster groundbreaking developments and inventions will be able to be integrated into our daily lives.
There’s a reason there aren’t more forward-thinking innovators. Our school system asks us to regurgitate information for standardized tests rather than think for ourselves, and for most people, thinking of the unknown and the future creates anxiety. Most people don’t feel excited about the future because they feel powerless to shape it in any way. Entrepreneurs are banking on the chance that they can.
If we prime ourselves to think about the future in a way that minimizes anxiety and resistance, our society will be able to move forward faster. There will be fewer pockets of people stuck in the past, using outmoded technologies and going through feelings of confusion and frustration.
We create the future with our actions each day. As a society we should be asking: Are we thinking about the future enough? Are we participating in the future consciously or unconsciously? Are we creating value for future generations?
Three Keys to A Successful Day from the Co-Founder Of Viacom
Big picture thinking is effective and exciting, but we all know it’s the micro-decisions and the daily habits that create our future reality. I asked Sandeep what he does each morning to maintain his health and sustain his resolve during these trying times.
- Focus on Your Health
As soon as you get up, focus on your physical health. Get a workout in. Get your blood and lymph systems pumping. Think about how you can nourish your body and support your physiology.
When you nourish your body, you provide the optimal environment for your mind. Exercising and eating healthy will provide you with more energy for problem-solving and making contributions to others throughout the day.
2. Connect with Your Loved Ones
The second key is connecting with your tribe. This usually means your family, but in a broader sense, it’s the people you love whose lives you directly affect and whose well-being correlates to yours. So find a way, find a medium, find the time.
This level of connection is very important for our mental and emotional health, especially right now as our collective stress levels are being tested by these uncertain circumstances. Make time for the people that matter most.
3. Plan Your Day
The third key is planning your day at a high level. Stay flexible, but have a plan because if you don’t know where North is, there is no way you can navigate to success.
The question that sparked Sandeep’s incredible journey and took him from engineer to entrepreneur to businessman was: Why not try something different? All of his friends were going to IIT Delhi in his hometown, but he took a different road. As his career and life unfolded, he kept asking that question and following his curiosity and it led him to a life of wonder.
What if you tried something new? Now might be just the right moment to explore.
The PanIIT Conference 2020: A Place For Innovators
The PanIIT Conference is right around the corner, starting this December 4th. IIT alums and innovators will come together for our live virtual event. Calling all engineers of the future! This conference is an opportunity to join us to coinvent and codefine paradigms for the new world.
Conclusion
Entrepreneurialism is a mindset and a skillset. Anyone can develop these skills. All you need to do is: question the status quo, identify a problem you are willing to solve, envision a new world, be persistent, be bold, and be resilient. We need entrepreneurial minds because they are the innovators of the future. We have to ask if we are participating in the future consciously or unconsciously. Are we creating value for future generations? These are the types of discussions we will be having at the PanIIT Conference 2020 on December 4th.
You can find out more at IIT 2020: The Future Is Now.
