A 22-year-old trying out the “see-saw” that is entrepreneurship, talks on conditions of anonymity: “It is still very early for me to talk about anything. It has been a good ride so far but it does get maddening at times when I am not able to do the things I want to do. My internship months in two organisations brought home the fact that I wish to be my own master; as an entrepreneur who has just started out, work is crazy and challenging – the sense of achievement when I am able to put something right is immense, but the real challenge comes during people management and keeping the finances going, plus one too many hydras pop up so often. But this is a choice I have made and I have to stick to it”.

The operative words here are “stick to it”. How often do entrepreneurs in the start-up ecosystem wish to get off the lion they have mounted!?

Impression management is what social psychiatrists call this – fake it till you make it, all the while wondering, “will I be able to make it or will this lion devour me?”

Says the fashion designer Samant Chauhan who started out with 2 tailors and today works with 200 of them (including weavers) in Bihar’s Bhagalpur where he hails from. “When I started out, I had not worked with any designer. I did not know how the business of fashion works. So, it was very difficult for me. I was absolutely blank, and the fear for me was that I don’t know anything (laughing deprecatingly)! Each time the fear was of losing out everything! The first two-three years were tough. I was doing only menswear then. I started with my award money and whatever I would earn I would keep investing into my business. I did not borrow any money from relatives or friends and neither did I go for a bank loan. But yes, I created a support set-up around me. So, if I had to get some digital printing done or make a hang tag, I built a good working relationship with my vendors and they allowed me a long credit time. That was the key. It took almost 6-7 years to build my niche. And yes, there was a stage when I felt I was losing more and earning not enough.

“One day I sat down and calculated that even if I sell a hundred or 200 shirts, I will make only INR2-2.5 lakh which is not enough to grow or reinvest the money. I realised that I am doing something wrong. That’s when I changed tack. I decided to broad base and balance my collection with creative styles and some lines that could earn me the money I need.

“Money is critical. The fashion business is labour-oriented with a lot of hidden and fixed expenses. For me, the end of the month was very scary paying the rent and the team. I learnt gradually how to deal with it. It was only in 2011 that I launched a commercial collection and I saw a queue of buyers once I was done with my show. Some buyers bought a lot of my ready stuff, some samples too and it was then that I knew that I would be able to make it. We have since grown as a brand. One needs to be patient and slowly find your way.

“I had nothing actually. No one to fall back on if I lost out on my investment. And it was very early into my work that I decided I have to grow organically – plough back the money earned into the business so that even if I lose, it is entirely mine. First four-five years I used to sleep every alternate day! And at this point of time, I don’t think I can go back and do all that now. When you are young you want to do everything which is not possible, but that is how you learn not just how to run the business but also deal with the uncertainty. Now I am building my team. All of this is a process which is critical to one’s growth. We have to learn from our mistakes.

“One should believe in their ideas. My journey has always been in what I believe in. When I started no one used to sell whites and off-whites, and everyone wanted me to make in colour. But we kept doing whites season after season after season. Now we have built a clientele that does not want any colour from us!”

What has been his mantra to ease the always-on-simmer tension? “Find your whistle! For me the way to release pressure is to take a quick lunch break, go out for a day, divert my attention, call my team and take suggestions from them so that any decision is not entirely mine! The minute I share, the tension is also shared.”

But even as you dream remember to ask questions. He tells how as a kid he would “question things… It would infuriate my parents… That I wouldn’t just believe them when they said something because I’d ask them why. And then I’d consider whether that response made sense given everything else I knew.”  Cross-question yourself, look for the quintessential devil’s advocate to warn you of the pits and falls. He stresses on the “feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better… constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.” 

Build on your knowledge. But before that it is “important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree – make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e., the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there’s nothing for them to hang on to… The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.” The serial entrepreneur counsels and exhorts: Make books your best friend. “Imagine – if you read 25 pages every day, it is 750 pages /month (2-4 books), it’s 9000 /year (30-40 books) … And it makes a difference.” Don’t sell yourself short, says he who graduated from the Wharton School with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in economics and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physics, and dropped out of his PhD course at Stanford University in only two days to chase his entrepreneurial dreams. He was all of 24 years and the Internet had just about begun to explode, and Silicon Valley was roaring ahead. 

Establish Boundaries to Maintain Work and Personal Life Balance

Protima Tiwary, the 30+ new age creative entrepreneur and founder of The Mill, a remote worker collective, reiterates the need to balance and even establish boundaries – when to say no to work, being available from 10-7, taking weekends off. “I have the opportunity to creatively challenge myself, to choose projects that I like and to stay happy and maintain work-life balance while doing something that I enjoy. Obviously, I know I can earn much more but if it comes at the cost of my mental peace, I choose sanity over anything else. I will take things as they come because I have made choices that have given me the privilege to enjoy this life, and that for me is success. People working with me have realised that boundaries and wellness is what will help them grow in the long run. Many times, even when the to-do list is overwhelming you need to take out time for yourself. Learning that balance takes a lot of hard work. I think this is where I have found my success.”

Time Management

Well-being of the mind and body is indeed critical to success, and that pivots entirely on time management. Managing time can often be overwhelming. And it is not just about the to-do list. Many people reach home on time but are still working. In this age of the pandemic, working from home invariably means work spills over. Give yourself time. Dexterous management of time is a skill acquired gradually over a period of time. “Any game that one plays is marked with timelines. In the game of cricket, particularly one-day or T-20s, one gets limited overs. The game ceases beyond that. Similarly, one should have set times where you are unavailable for work and that needs to be respected. What you do with your time is ultimately up to you. Even if you have multiple distractions surrounding you, it’s up to you how you handle it,” posits Chopra.

Supportive Emo-system

As we can see, a critical cog in this entire business of success as an entrepreneur is the emotional bulwark that one builds around oneself of family and friends. A supportive emo-system goes that extra mile in keeping one grounded and on the right pitch. Somesh Singh, co-founder of India Craft Week along with wife Iti Tyagi, says there is no conflict at work or at home. “Since I have been working from home it did not make much of a difference during the pandemic. Besides, it helps to be with family. My wife is an equal partner. We build on our strengths by supporting each other, and thankfully we are in the same trade and therefore no conflict of interest. Plus, we do not interfere in each other’s work. And when we do hit a rough spot, we agree to disagree. This helps to build perspective.”

Tiwary harks back to a quote she had read early on in her career — “‘Think of the people in your circle and see who inspires you and if you are not inspired by them then you’re in a cage’. This hit me hard. The people who you surround yourself with are the people who will inspire you. This is very important for success. If you surround yourself with people who are constantly bringing you down or making you doubt yourself then you will never grow personally and every step that you take professionally you will question yourself if you’re doing the right thing. I felt this personally when I left my job and a fixed salary to freelance. I strongly feel the right environment will always depend on the people you surround yourself with. Create your own environment: surround yourself with people who respect your hustle.”

Invest in Long Term ‘Networking’

And if it is partnership one is talking about, then networking is a natural corollary, and yet another arm that deals with relationships. Invest deeply in fostering long term relationships who build you up as you continuously strive to move up the chain.

Startup specialist K R Harish, snowed under a project for a popular OTT content platform, surfaced to put it succinctly: “I consider myself successful though the benchmark for me is life that has the joy of working with the opportunity for deep rest that follows. Material gain is an incidental event.”

According to Gupta, success both at work and on the personal front requires passion, integrity, leadership, ownership and trust. And one has to stay focused and be patient; believe in self and your idea. “Remember, disruptive ideas take longer to succeed.”