If you want to set up an enterprise of your own, you will struggle for the first few years. That’s obvious. No? No. No. Don’t say that. Just shut your eyes to the income that you are losing out on by sticking to a regular 9 – 5 job. We all know that there is only so much that we can learn when we work for or under others. Focus instead on what you are learning along the way. These values that you learn along the way will stand you in good stead all through your life. Believe me when I say that. We all learn the hard way. Always. That’s life. And it’s tough. For all of us.
Most youngsters these days feel so relieved when they just pass out of their college with their double degrees. They don’t even know that they are going to experience the toughest phase of their lives now. I hope you are not pampering your son by saying “Bichara” and going out of the way to please him. I know you won’t do that. Yes, we do need to give them our full support. Have faith in them. And allow them to make mistakes. It is tough to see our children struggle. I know. But it is just a phase.
You know all about how much we too struggled in our initial years. Now three decades later, we have thriving enterprises. Yes, you are right. We haven’t forgotten any of it. None of us has. We remember every little detail clearly even today. No one can forget their struggles. But we have to move on with our lives too. At that time, we didn’t know that 20 years later we would be doing well in our business. We too wondered what we were doing with our lives. The pressure was quite intense – the phase pretty scary for us too.
But you know what? I will vouch for this. More than our family members, our friends- my brother’s friends, in particular, stood by us during that phase. Even today, we think of all our business associates as our friends first. It takes years to forge bonds based on trust, reliability and quality assurance. We don’t make any compromises on any of these aspects. We deliver quality work at all times of the day. These people trust us and know for sure that we will come and help them solve their issue even in the middle of the night.
Most of my customers belong to the government sector actually. And like your son, a lot of people owe me quite a bit of money too. But the plus point of working with the government is that we can be assured that we will be paid for our efforts and work. Right now, due to the lockdown, a lot of payments are blocked. They are saying that I can forget about getting paid for my service for a good four months. But I know that I will be paid – a little late – but I will definitely get my money.
Yes, it is tough. I’m sure he must have toiled day and night to work on a project of that size and then when the whole thing gets shelved he gets nothing for his efforts. But all these things will most definitely happen during the initial phase – is what I am trying to tell you. Be patient. All will be well. Yes, I agree. Our parents worry a lot about them. We too worry a lot about them.
But ultimately, this is the age when they have to explore their potential to the fullest too. They will fall. And they will get knocked down. They will get several blows repeatedly from the same person. All that is a part of setting up an enterprise. It’s a good sign that he is restless. He too will eventually work his way out of it.
An enterprise – any enterprise for that matter – starts taking some kind of a shape only after 1000 days. You get that? A 1000 days is at least 3 years. So we have to think of it like that. For us too it was a Do or Die situation you know. I mean we had nothing to fall back on. The only option that was open for us was to go back to our hometowns and work as school teachers in the only good high school that we have there.
None of us wanted that. Of course, we love our hometown. But we could not have got this kind of growth there. Yes, Surat is a good city to start a business. People hold sincere workers in high esteem here. Currently, we work for several government departments. And most of them print their confidential documents in the night. But they know that if their photocopier runs into technical issues, we are just a call away and will sort out their issue within 30 minutes.
All that is a part of our daily business routine. In fact, we increase our fees by 10% every year. But they will pay us our fee without the slightest hesitation because they know they can rely on us – completely- at any time of the day – and get on with their work in a timely manner. So it’s a question of delivering value and commitment to projects all the time.
Yes, I do know that Rajkot is also picking up in the business sector nowadays. But we are fully occupied with our work which extends to RajPipla and Bharuch too. I will not be able to handle the extra workload if I try to expand my business to other cities even if they are close to Surat.
Yes, you have a valid point there. We have no way of knowing if our children will be interested in the businesses that we set up. So expansion again makes no sense that way. We too are encouraging our children to explore all the avenues that they are interested in and it is only a question of time now till they grow up.
My nephew in Chennai too is biding his time. He too wants to set up his own business. Right now he is getting as much exposure and experience that he can and also trying to find out which business area he is most interested in and will make economic sense. My son too may venture out in a different area once he finishes studying. So yes – its best we limit our business to what we can handle – because our children may not be interested in taking over what we have created. That is something we do have to factor in.
Really? You want to create a blog post about what we discussed yesterday? I’m so glad that it comforted you a lot. There are a lot of people out there who will have similar stories to share. Ours is not unique in any way you know.
You should get in touch with my brother too. He will have several interesting stories to share too. Why yes – of course – you can mention my name – Milind – in your blog post. I have just stated facts. And what I shared with you is the reality. Yes, do write about it if you feel others will benefit from it too. Do call me if you want any information or want to clarify any facts. We are all still locked down currently. So you can call me anytime. No problems. Yes, you can publish it anytime. Not an issue at all. Jai Shree Krishna.
Milind is the proprietor of Mudra Automation. He is a dealer for HCL info system limited which deals with office automation products like Toshiba photocopiers, Hitachi LCD projectors, consumables/spare parts etc.