Me: Knock knock
You: Whose there…
Me: Hey I am an entrepreneur, Lazy Entrepreneur.
You : Lazy Entrepreneur???
Yes you heard it right. I am an Entrepreneur but, a lazy one. As lazy as can be and have worked with many of them all along my professional career.
To understand how an entrepreneur can be lazy ,let’s first understand who an entrepreneur is?
There are many definitions which define an entrepreneur. But to sum it all up, an entrepreneur is someone who jumps off the cliff and makes his/her own parachute.
The story of the young Tilak Mehta assures us that entrepreneurship does not have an age bar.
The list of entrepreneurs who have been successful is endless… and then there are people like me who made the parachute but could not open it at the correct time…
Crazy kiya re… Lazy kiya re…
So who is a lazy Entrepreneur..
As Walter Chrysler said :
“Whenever there is a hard job to be done I assign it to a lazy man; he is sure to find an easy way of doing it.”
Remember that famous Akbar – Birbal fable where the Akbar gives Birbal the task of finding the laziest man in his kingdom…
That man is a lazy Entrepreneur…
Laziness and I go a long way, right from me being in the womb. It was more than 9 months that I stayed there and the doctors literally had to (forced cept) me out.
Bhai ab bahar aa ja… Time ho gaya… 🙂
That also made me strong headed…
So I was Lazy Dholakia before being Vibhav Dholakia.
The entrepreneurial virus was there in me since the inception of my brain; but dormant like a malware residing in the software, doing nothing. My subconscious mind always wanted to open a restaurant called Vibs /Vibes/ Vibz… as my elder sister used to call me… but I did nothing to achieve it.
The malware was activated in the year 2001/2002. I had taken a leap of faith and learnt advertising under the entrepreneurship of Nitai Bhai. He had the best presentation skills and I learnt a lot working with him, all those sleepless nights in the office. Things were crazy as it is in advertising… I was servicing advertising accounts of NID, IIM -A. The two top notch educational institutes of the country very early in my career… Did events with Gujarat Maritime Board at Alang in the midst of the 2002 Godhra and Gujarat riots.
My boss had recognised my potential and my thinking abilities which I also did not know for the very reason that
I was a Lazy entrepreneur…
So when things were settling down, there was a twist and a turn. For reasons unknown, my boss and his family decided to migrate… Leaving behind uncertainty in my mind… I panicked and resigned… I was also day dreaming to work in the City of Dreams…
Many takeaways from my 2 year stint, some of them were
1. Be Professional.
2. Have a high self esteem.
3. Work passionately.
4. Don’t underestimate the power of the balance sheet.
For a business to be successful an entrepreneur has to take care of all the departments. Never neglect any department or show bias to any one of them.
Love all your wives equally . And if u have more than 3, Delegate…
You cannot do everything by yourself even if you are a Superman or a Superwoman. You can surely start with doing everything yourself but at some point in the business, you need to start delegating , you need to start trusting your coworkers / staff.
Build trust. Build confidence and not fear.
The year 2003 I was in my city of dreams. Just the sight of the sea brought goosebumps.
I worked with Ujjwal sir. A cool and calm boss to work with. Had to go through so many adjustments in my daily routine. From a ten minute scooter drive, now my office was a 2 hour journey in a local train.
Pressure was to perform on a new pitch. I was chasing my dreams in this city. I had a challenge to rub of my personality of being stamped as a lazy boy… But now I realise it’s okay whatever the world thinks about you. It is important what you think about yourself. I had to prove it to myself…
My boss recognised my potential when my senior had left and I handled everything very swiftly. He sounded his appreciation to me. And I was elated. A small win but for someone who is a lazy Entrepreneur it was feeling that he is Usain Bolt.
Somebody else also recognised me during that time to be worthy of living her life with me. (I am not asking this question to her now) .
My first stint in Mumbai lasted 3 years and I decided to move on…
My takeaways from there
1. Be flexible and adaptable.
2. Be ready for new situations/ new challenges.
3. Whatever the situation “Work is worship”.
4. Work hard and party harder.
New situations will crop up virtually every day. Deal with them professionally. Team work is important. Gel with your team.
As Richard Branson has said
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
When I was finally settling down in my life with my wife… I did not anticipate that the best and the worst was yet to come…
So Wait for the best in the next part of…
The Lazy Entrepreneur – Part 2 (The Silent Killer)
Till then just laze around…
(if u even liked and not liked a bit about this, don’t be lazy and leave comments in the section)..
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