Stakeholders

A successful enterprise requires over a decade of patience. In the journey, we have multiple stakeholders. They can be employees, customers, and investors. The founder will be the captain of the ship. But these other stakeholders play an equal role. It becomes more significant to have an aligned progress path for all.

In the last few years, we have seen all the media and glamours around founders and their houses, cars, and jets. Very few spoke about making employees rich.

Our stakeholders are with us shoulder to shoulder in our journey. What are we doing for them and their progress?

Soul

Every business has it’s soul that makes it tick.
One thing that is it’s unique USP. It can be their unique product offerings or how they put customers above rest.

Your organization’s soul gets emitted outward, and every team member has it embedded in them by default.

We have online ghost kitchens and food delivery apps. For particular dishes, we order from known restaurants. Why? Because over the years, they kept food quality intact.

Why do people go rage over Apple products? It is because, in every new iteration, the product has something new for its customers.

Identifying your organization’s soul should be the top leader’s job, and propagating it too.

I am reading the book “Small Giants”. One of the entrepreneurs has spoken in lenght about importance of soul in thier resturant business.

globalization

With globalization, our world has become one. We have become interconnected. Everything got shared from culture, technology, and teachings. We got rich. Other countries are more prosperous.

In short, the world is becoming better. We are fighting a war with many diseases. We are working towards infrastructure building and making clean water accessible to more.

We have more and more labor class waking up and getting ready for work. In my father’s time, jobs meant government jobs. That worldview has changed now. It is acceptable to be an entrepreneur or work for a private company.

Success

Our success depends a lot on our worldview, taking responsibility, and leading the life.

The mindset of successful people has no place for blaming others. History shows people who succeeded in life have failed multiple times. What kept them going was that they did not give up.

Seeing opportunity in adversity makes the journey less painful. I am not saying you become delusional but living a rational optimist.

Giving up is easy. Blaming others is easy. What is difficult is owning our actions and responsibilities.

History

In the last three years, we witnessed the emergence of wealth thrown at the Venture Capital market.
On the positive side, people could get funded on ideas.
Everyone was raising and splurging.

There were multiple occurrences where potential hires would tell us to our face that we could not compete with other offers.
It was extremely challenging to retain and hire.
We sailed through the valley of death.

We at taghash sell our product to VCs.
Every other sales demo would end up with our potential customers offering us money for growth.
In all instances, we had to deny it.

I have been part of the hype cycle in the cloud computing era.
Some people made enough money in those two years to retire for life.

Our greed and FOMO have always turned a noble cause into a fake show. Many friends who raised or enjoyed the cycle are in pain. Some speak offline about the stress because of THAT lifestyle and the debt. I feel sad seeing all this.

It’s like history repeating itself every decade. We are not learning from the past.

resilience

Our world is people around us. Our thoughts, actions, and many decisions excel because of it. It can be right or wrong. The suffering and benefits fall upon us.

Some of us are driven and resilient enough to lead through ourselves. A few don’t waste time deciding right or wrong or are not scared of the suffering or dreaming of the outcome.

I feel resilience is walking on a path and sticking to it. People give up on social pressure, insecurities, and emotions. As a result, accept life as it is instead of being resilient to its course.

rules

Our life is limited. Our thoughts constitute what we think, our company, and what we read. We can say we are living in a closed world. It has its positives and negatives.

The negative is that we are unaware of most other intricacies of the world. Our world becomes limited.

The positive is that we spend most of our time on ourselves. Our limited circle ensures close-knit bonding and open communication.

In my case, I have both worlds. I am part of closed as well as wide-knit. My simple rule of being available to my loved ones keeps me going. I will be available for people whose virtues do not relate to mine.

We cannot make everyone happy. We cannot please everyone on account of torturing ourselves.

roles

We were living in an entrepreneurship bubble. A low-interest era and cheap money resulted in making everyone rich. At the same time, anyone with an idea could raise it in bulk with connections and pedigree. The side effect of this is that many unwanted job roles crept in.

Fast forward now. Most of those roles are gone. Most companies are conserving cash. Every day mass layoff stories are becoming common.

Companies pay people for growth. The True North raised funding amount. Everyone from the media to politicians was gloating over unicorns.

I see a different world now. Everyone is talking about revenue. I know this is temporary.

tribe

A successful founder creates a tribe and leaves a legacy.
The real wealth benefits everybody, not just founders.
We have numerous books dedicated to building successful startups.

Very few founders talk about treating humans above the stock price.
And even less on values and radical openness.

A company is built by it’s people.

Building a successful enterprise requires a tribe of like-minded people with drive, vision, and independence.

Digital cameras existed in Kodak’s research lab. Also, a team of Blackberry software had a marketplace at work.

Hostel

Thinking about hostel days in early childhood gives me goosebumps. My parents thought this would show me life and make me more human. I think it was class 4 or 5.

I thank my parents for this. When you are thrown early on into unchartered territory, you grow up. There is no one to pamper you. You have to live every single day on your own. All the human mind, psychology, and survival instinct come into play. You have seniors ragging you, big ones bullying you, and others stealing your snacks.

The positive side is you taste freedom early on, take chances to commit more mistakes, and are more audacious to break all the rules. There is no helicopter parents or mobile app to track your path.

The virtue of the daily schedule and rituals of the early days has played a role even now. I am more flexible than my peers, thanks to the 5 a.m. yoga/gymnastics. I feel the team building and socializing also came from there.

I cried going away from my parent’s early days. But later on, I started enjoying this freedom. It has played in making me a globe trotter. I am an extrovert and experimental with life.

My sister went to KFI, Varanasi, and I went to Vikas Vidyalaya, Ranchi, and CSKM, Delhi.