K C R. Pretty good advise, my 2 cents, when realty knocks on the door(cash flow, no marketing competency, not enough capital etc), a entrepreneurs who is built for it will evolve and adapt to the situation, those who don't will fade away.
Don't get into it because of the glamorized anecdotes you read like "Bill Gate, Steve Jobs are drop outs" that's for sure. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of K.C. Ramakrishna Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 1:35 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Ilugc] More on freshers planning a startup Hi all, One word of caution. I would recommend people sticking to facts rather than anecdotes. The golden image of college dropouts starting successful companies if the exception and not the rule. For every successful college dropout, there will be 200 failures. Do not compare yourselves to Bill Gates, Steve jobs, Dell etc. Bill Gates was from a VERY wealthy family with a LOT of connections. Steve Jobs had a team of experienced people from Xerox and stuff, Dell was running the business for some time as a student before he quit. Also US has way more opportunities in terms of funding and entrepreneur support. I would like to remind Karthik that these are really young and impressionable people and I would advise caution. I have built a sustainable business based on FOSS consulting. Been through a lot of ups and downs. Starting up sounds sexy but there is a lot of risk - it takes talent, a lot of hard work, adaptability, a very strong heart and most importantly dollops of luck. Yes. Luck plays a pretty important part. Also the potential entrepreneurs should understand the there will be a lot of advise on this forum but if your business fails, at the end of the day, you have to feed yourself and pay your own bills. If you try to go back to a job, it will be tougher both for you and potential employers. You will not have any hard skills and for the other skills, prospective employers will be under the impression that you will quit as soon as you have the next great idea. The thrill of entrepreneurship is that bottom-line responsibility rests with you and that exactly is the risk too. Be aware that you are risking your life. Better do it with more preparation. >> And maturity counts in biz more than anything else. >> >> Also working for companies will tell you what it takes to do biz. > This is a myth. The history of startups shows us that the best > entrepreneurs were neither mature nor experienced when they started out > If anything, the history of college-dropout entrepreneurs shows us that > understanding a specific customer need and build a kickass product to > address it is the best way to build a startup. K. C. Ramakrishna www.rknowsys.com _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
