Please close the door…

I have met a lot of people who have great business ideas and want to plunge into the start-up ecosystem. And many of them have asked me this question “how can we make this venture a success?”.

I never had an answer. May be, I too was finding the secret sauce till I recently had an interesting conversation with my great grand-uncle, who is my mentor.

The conversation was about the next big thing for Singh Styled — plans, products, marketing, investments, etc.

While we spoke about these in detail, he happened to ask me a question “How do you feel being a parent to your business?”

Like Shankar Mahadevan’s breathless song I ranted “Most days, it is great. But some days it gets on to you. Being on social media you read so much about do’s and don’ts. About some start-ups, which makes no logic to me, getting funded. Start-up failures, etc.”

He burst out laughing. “I call it the Start-up syndrome.” “You keep analysing other start-ups, you run behind people who advertise on social media ‘I know it all’, you want to read what the pundits have prescribed, and then panic.”

“Every business is different. Even businesses within a given sector are different — because each business is governed by a different set of people and ideology.” “There is no formula for success. You just have to concentrate on what you do. And give it your best shot.” “Each day is new. Each event is new. Each customer experience is new.” “So if you want to survive, please close the door to this 400,000 watt of social speaker. And start reading your check-list, especially your P&L. That is all that matters.” “This is how we have built and scaled our business. And this is how any company, athlete, or a leader succeeds.”